ABSTRACT We compared the abilities of Enterococcus faecium strains (three vancomycin-resistant enterococci [VRE] and five vancomycin-susceptible enterococci [VSE]) and Enterococcus faecalis strains (one VRE and 10 VSE) to survive under dry conditions. Bacterial suspensions of the strains were inoculated onto polyvinyl chloride and stored under defined conditions for up to 16 weeks. All strains survived for at least [...]

Terrorists are likely to have been inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic to launch biological attacks, a top British chemical and biological warfare expert has warned. Rogue states and terrorist cells have undoubtedly scrutinised the “devastating global impact” of coronavirus across the globe, according to Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former head of the UK’s chemical, biological, [...]

Drug maker Moderna announced today that it will request an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and the company’s CEO hinted that distribution of the vaccine could begin by Christmas. In a press release, company officials said that the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee [...]

COVID-19–related shortages of personal protective equipment and drugs continue to plague the US healthcare system, but now in the third US pandemic wave, nursing and other staffing shortages are sweeping the country. An Associated Press report found that at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, the nurse-to-patient ratio went from its recommended 1:1 to 1:4, and Andrew Pavia, [...]

A study of 223 patients younger than 20 years hospitalized with the rare but serious COVID-19–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) in New York City found that black children were disproportionately affected. The population-based cohort study, published as a research letter today in JAMA Network Open, involved analysis of the medical records and lab data of all pediatric [...]

Despite case-reporting lulls over the long holiday weekend, the number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 continues a record-breaking rise, with no let-up in the pace of deaths. At the international level, the pandemic total today topped 63 million with weekly cases declining for the first time since September, mainly led by declines in European countries that [...]

Abstract The newly identified severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19, a pandemic respiratory disease. Moreover, thromboembolic events throughout the body, including in the CNS, have been described. Given the neurological symptoms observed in a large majority of individuals with COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 penetrance of the CNS is likely. By various means, we demonstrate [...]

Michael Russell and his co-authors believe that more attention should be paid to the mucosal immunity system in COVID-19 studies on potential treatments and vaccines. Courtesy of Douglas Levere/University at Buffalo Anyone who has undergone a nasal swab or saliva test for COVID-19 knows that the virus is most easily detected in the nose and mouth. [...]

Having risen to fame on its superhuman performance at playing games, the artificial intelligence group DeepMind has cracked a serious scientific problem that has stumped researchers for half a century. With its latest AI program, AlphaFold, the company and research laboratory showed it can predict how proteins fold into 3D shapes, a fiendishly complex process that is [...]

Proteins are essential to life, supporting practically all its functions. They are large complex molecules, made up of chains of amino acids, and what a protein does largely depends on its unique 3D structure. Figuring out what shapes proteins fold into is known as the “protein folding problem”, and has stood as a grand challenge in biology [...]