In mid-XIXth century Vienna, Ignaz Semmelweis found that washing hands in obstetrical clinics drastically reduced mortality, and lost his life in the struggle to make doctors wash their hands. His contemporaries ignored his findings, and only decades later, when the germ theory of disease was accepted, doctors began washing their hands regularly. How many people … Continued
The COVID-19 pandemic has starkly illuminated an existent, yet often overlooked, chasm in our public health systems and governmental response: the shortfall of tangible operational capabilities, including delayed response times, lack of coordinated action, and failure to execute preparedness plans effectively. The rampant spread of the virus, followed by its significant societal fallout, wasn’t primarily … Continued
It’s been said that a smile is worth a thousand words. But in today’s world, the smiles of healthcare workers abandoning their masks on social media are chilling to those whose access to safe healthcare is thus denied. The removal of mask requirements in many healthcare institutions is causing infections with immediate and long term … Continued
The World Health Network (WHN) is urging governments not to let their guard down and to continue to protect everyone, especially vulnerable populations, with COVID mitigation strategies. The recent announcement made by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the emergency phase of the pandemic is over has been interpreted by many governments as the time … Continued
Highlights 1- COVID-19 causes turnover and aging of the immune cells responsible for responding to other pathogens. These cells have limitations in their proliferative capacity (ability to reproduce) and this gets used up when it is employed to generate cells for combating disease. 2- COVID-19 broadly activates these cells, so they have turnover – reproduce. … Continued
Many studies have now provided strong evidence that the SARS2 virus can enter the brain during infection and cause damage to its function, including loss of both gray and white matter – impacting both the nerve cells and the support cells. In a sense, COVID literally ‘eats’ parts of your brain. It might enter via … Continued
As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries are lifting protections against SARS-CoV-2 even while infections remain high and are in some instances increasing. This situation is not sustainable. Lifting the protections without proper mitigations facilitates transmission with dire consequences: more deaths, long COVID and social, economic and political disruptions.
Alors que nous entrons dans la troisième année de la pandémie, nombre de pays ont allégé voire supprimé les mesures visant à se protéger de SARS-CoV-2, en dépit d’un nombre de contaminations très élevé et en augmentation dans certains d’entre eux. Alléger les mesures, sans avoir mis en place des moyens efficaces de contrôler le … Continued
Mientras entramos al tercer año de la pandemia por Covid-19, muchos países están levantando las protecciones contra SARS-CoV-2, aun mientras las infecciones permanecen altas y en algunos casos hasta aumentan. Esta situación no es sostenible. Levantar las protecciones sin mitigaciones apropiadas facilita la transmisión con consecuencias terribles: más muertes, Covid persistente y disrupciones sociales, económicas … Continued
Omicron is a much more rapidly spreading variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is causing a tsunami of cases in several countries, threatening health care systems and livelihoods. This variant has more mutations than any previous variant of concern and shows significant immune escape from both prior infection and vaccination, including in people who have received three … Continued