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Showing posts from April, 2020

What Is Herd Immunity and Could It Help Prevent COVID-19?

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Written by Noreen Iftikhar, MD Source healthline.com Some leaders — for example, Boris Johnson, the prime minister of the United Kingdom — suggested it might be a good way to stop or control the spread of the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. Herd immunity is also called community immunity and herd or group protection. Herd immunity happens when so many people in a community become  immune  to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading. This can happen in two ways: Many people contract the disease and in time build up an immune response to it (natural immunity). Many people are  vaccinated  against the disease to achieve immunity. Herd immunity can work against the spread of some diseases. There are several reasons why it often works. There are also many reasons why herd immunity won’t yet work to stop or slow the spread of  SARS-CoV-2  or COVID-19, the disease caused by an infection of the new  coronavir...

scientists believe they have a potential coronavirus vaccine

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Researchers from the  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine  said they believe they have found a vaccine for the coronavirus after studying a similar viru What we have learned ? Scientists from  University of Pittsburgh  announced in a new study Thursday that they believe they could roll out a new vaccine quickly to “significantly impact the spread of disease.” You would get the vaccine through a patch about the size of your finger. The vaccine was tested on mice. It offered enough antibodies to defeat the virus. However, the  mice  were not tested for the long-term yet. There’s no clue what the side effects of the vaccine would be. These scientists said they have previously done research on coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, which led to the discovery. Dr.  Andrea Gambotto , associate professor of surgery at the Pitt School of Medicine,  said in a statement : “These two viruses, which are closely related to SARS-CoV-2, teach us th...