For the last two decades, I’ve sat in the middle of the clarinet section of orchestras, oblivious to the possibility of microbes swirling around me amidst the melodies and harmonies that fill the air. I didn’t once think about the potential spread of pathogens from another player’s instrument. That is, not until the COVID-19 pandemic…
A dog’s nose knows, and it might just know when you’re emitting the scent of infectious disease. With its 300 million scent receptors, the dog’s most recent detective work involves COVID-19. Dogs are identifying COVID-19 cases in airports You might have seen the many news stories about dogs sniffing out COVID-19 at the Helsinki airport…
Convalescent plasma. It’s an old term that’s recently resurfaced as we face a virus with no vaccine. Just this week, a study of 20,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received convalescent plasma was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. While convalescent plasma therapy might be promising for treating COVID-19 patients, it actually has a long history of…
As COVID-19 spreads around the world, more and more things such as conferences, schools, and large events such as SXSW are being canceled – an effort to halt the spread of the virus and reduce the strain on our healthcare system. Meanwhile, dangerous notions circulate: the idea that nearly everyone will get COVID-19 so distancing…
It’s 1854 in London. The third major cholera pandemic was racing through the city. Spreading from the Ganges delta of India since 1837, it’s claimed over a million lives mostly among Asia, Europe, and North America. Within the Soho district of Westminster, London, things weren’t looking good. The London sewer system had not reached Soho,…