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A raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)

Covid-19 may have started in raccoon dogs, new DNA evidence shows

17 March 2023

Swabs taken from various surfaces at a seafood and live animal market in Wuhan, China, that were positive for the coronavirus also have evidence of DNA from raccoon dogs

Big cats, such as lions and tigers, have tested positive for the coronavirus before, but this is the first known case of a lion probably transmitting the infection to zoo workers

Lion infected with covid-19 probably passed it on to two zoo workers

4 March 2023

A lion at Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana, tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus after it started coughing and became breathless. Zoo workers who had cared for the lion later caught the infection

In severe cases, Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria can cause pneumonia and serious blood infections

Covid-19 pandemic tied to antibiotic resistance in pneumonia bacterium

16 February 2023

A modelling study suggests that the proportion of cases involving pneumonia-causing bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics has increased amid the covid-19 pandemic

SARS-CoV-2 could evolve into new variants that may evade existing vaccines

Inhaled powder that coats airways can block coronavirus infection

9 February 2023

A gel that lines the respiratory tract prevented coronavirus infections in mice and monkeys, and may also work against any future new variants

Researchers have suggested that monitoring audio clips on social media could be a relatively quick, inexpensive way of tracking coronavirus cases in the community

AI detects if YouTubers are infected with omicron coronavirus variant

19 January 2023

An artificial intelligence picked up on audio samples where the speaker was probably infected with omicron with 80 per cent accuracy, potentially offering an inexpensive way of tracking cases

People queue up to receive the Medigen and Moderna vaccines for the Covid-19 coronavirus at Taipei's main train station on April 29, 2022. (Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP) (Photo by SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)

Why we probably won't get new covid-19 vaccines in 2023

28 December 2022

Any new covid-19 vaccine must be better than the ones we already have, setting a high bar for approval that is not expected to be met in 2023

TOPSHOT - Staff members from the Hoshinoya Tokyo hotel demonstrate the

The covid-19 pandemic’s third year saw countries adopt new approaches

14 December 2022

As the world faced the third year of the coronavirus pandemic, Iceland began 2022 by shifting towards "herd immunity" while China ended the year easing its zero covid approach

A person has their temperature checked before entering a market in Coata, Peru, in July 2020

Nearly 15 million excess deaths occurred globally in 2020 and 2021

14 December 2022

World Health Organization research suggests that during just the first two years of the pandemic, 14.83 million more deaths occurred worldwide than would otherwise have been expected

The omicron coronavirus variant binding to a cell's ACE2 receptor

Drug that targets ACE2 receptors may work against new covid variants

5 December 2022

A drug that is approved for treating gallstones and liver conditions inhibits cells' ACE2 receptors, which the coronavirus' spike protein binds to

Children may be more susceptible to seasonal infections like the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) this winter compared with in pre-pandemic years

Do we have 'immunity debt' and how could it affect our infection risk?

29 November 2022

The covid-19 lockdowns undoubtedly saved many lives, but the prolonged restrictions also reduced our exposure and immunity to other infections, which could be set to spike in the UK this winter