Last year, herd immunity seemed like a comforting promise as researchers worked on dozens of COVID-19 vaccine candidates and a silver-lining to the rampant spread of the virus — the more people who got infected, the more natural immunity that would develop over time. There are now dissenting opinions about how the term relates to […]
COVID-19 variants
FDA issues guidelines to address COVID-19 variants
The FDA today issued guidance for medical product developers to address the emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Variants of the virus have been detected in multiple countries across the globe, including the U.S., and they pose a major threat to potentially ending the COVID-19 pandemic as protocols such as mask-wearing and hand-washing […]
Feds to spend $1.6B to expand COVID testing, domestic manufacturing
The Biden administration announced plans today to expand COVID-19 testing across the country, boost domestic manufacturing of tests and testing supplies and increase virus genome sequencing to detect virus variants. The departments of Health and Human Services and Defense will jointly invest $650 million to expand testing for K-8 schools and underserved congregate settings, such […]
4 ways COVID-19 variants could change the battle against the pandemic
Highly-transmissible COVID-19 variants have likely been circulating undetected for months in places like the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. They then seemed to burst onto the scene, fueling large outbreaks that dwarfed preceding ones. While the variants aren’t well understood, they suggest that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating in ways that confer an evolutionary advantage. They thus […]
