All COVID-19 News
Europe’s Unvaccinated Are Dropping Out of Society
2022 18 Jan
After little over two years, governments worldwide are still dealing with the challenge of ending the COVID-19 pandemic. For many, vaccines have been available for a year, but a loud minority has refused them and the vaccination certificates that accompany them. Many nations have imposed stricter rules and restrictions on the unvaccinated to... Read more
Pfizer CEO Says Omicron-Targeted Vaccine is Most Likely Outcome
2022 11 Jan
Pfizer Inc Chief Executive Albert Bourla said a redesigned COVID-19 vaccine that specifically targets the Omicron coronavirus variant is likely needed and his company could have one ready to launch by March. Bourla said Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE are working on both an Omicron-targeted vaccine version as well as a shot that would include both... Read more
Omicron Disruptions Around the World
2022 05 Jan
On Monday in the U.S where 62% of the entire population is vaccinated, 1,080,211 new COVID-19 cases were reported, a figure double of that four days prior and a new global record for a single country. On Tuesday, the U.K., France, and Australia also reached record levels, each reaching 200,000, 270,000 and 65,000 daily cases for the first time. In... Read more
Money Talks, Djokovic Walks?
2022 05 Jan
STORY UPDATE: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application. It seems his team requested a sub-class of visa that does not apply to those with a medical exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine. This news comes in the midst of a furious backlash from tennis fans around the world who are angry... Read more
COVID-19 Pandemic Alters Paediatric Radiology
2021 29 Dec
According to a report published in Academic Radiology , the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the demographics and clinical composition of exams in paediatric radiology practice. Massachusetts General Hospital researchers quantified changes between pre-pandemic (15 September 2019 to 15 March 2020) and pandemic (15 March 2020 to 1 May 2020) periods... Read more
World Governments React to Omicron
2021 28 Dec
Around the world, government leaders and advisors are planning strategies for mitigating Omicron impact, which infects previously vaccinated individuals. Although Onicrom produces less severe disease than earlier COVID-19 strains, the variant’s substantially greater transmissibility creates other problems. Massive staffing shortages resulting from... Read more
Supreme Court Fight Looms for U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
2021 23 Dec
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments challenging the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates for businesses with at least 100 workers and health care workers on 7 January. This follows a recent ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which lifted an injunction that blocked the Occupational Safety and Health... Read more
Pfizer Receives U.S. FDA Emergency Use Authorization for Novel COVID-19 Oral Antiviral Treatment
2021 22 Dec
PAXLOVID™ (nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets) is authorized for emergency use in both high-risk adults and high-risk pediatric patients 12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kg EUA based on clinical data from EPIC-HR study, showing PAXLOVID reduced risk of hospitalization or death by 89% (within three days of symptom... Read more
EU Approves 5th COVID-19 Vaccine, by Novavax
2021 22 Dec
The European Commission granted conditional marketing authorisation for Novavax’s COVID-19 Vaccine for individuals 18 years or older. The U.S. biotech, Novavax , currently holds emergency use authorisations for its two-dose vaccine in the Philippines and Indonesia and has received emergency use listing from the World Health Organization. Unlike... Read more
#EA21: COVID-19 - AKI vs Pre-Existing Kidney Disease
2021 18 Dec
According to findings presented at Euroanaesthesia 2021, among patients with COVID-19 admitted to the ICU, those with an abrupt decline in kidney function are more likely to die during hospitalisation than those with pre-existing kidney disease. In addition, findings show that renal replacement therapy does not improve their chances of survival. ... Read more
COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Long-Term Strategy
2021 15 Dec
The World Health Organization labelled the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 a ‘variant of concern’ because of its potential to evade immunity conferred by prior infection and the current COVID-19 vaccines. These vaccines are directed against previous versions of the spike protein, which the virus uses to enter human cells. The possibility... Read more
RECOVERY Trial: Use of Aspirin in Patients With COVID-19
2021 14 Dec
The use of aspirin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 because of its anti-thrombotic properties. Thrombosis is a key feature of COVID-19, with 5-30% of hospitalised patients having a major venous thromboembolic event and up to 3% having an arterial thromboembolic event. The Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial is... Read more
What Does ARDS Mean During COVID-19?
2021 14 Dec
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) was described as a syndrome in 1967. At that time, it was defined as a condition characterised by severe hypoxaemia and diffuse bilateral opacities. Diagnosis of ARDS has always been context-dependent, but overall, achievements in traumatic and medical resuscitation and the use of invasive mechanical ventilation... Read more
ESR Postpones Onsite 2022 Meeting to July
2021 11 Dec
Given the ongoing challenges brought about by the global pandemic, the European Society of Radiology (ESR) President Prof Dr Regina Beets-Tan announced on Friday that ESR will postpone the annual ESR 2022 meeting in Vienna to 13-17 July. She explains: ‘we are currently confronted with significant legal uncertainty regarding the organisation of... Read more
Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Patients With COVID-19
2021 07 Dec
A major challenge in ICUs even before the COVID-19 pandemic was ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). However, now that the ICUs are even more overwhelmed with the complex and prolonged acute care of patients with COVID-19, VAP has become an even bigger issue. It has an overall incidence of 40 to 60%, but the problem is that the variation on VAP definitions... Read more