/oss/taxonomy/term/4305/all en /oss/article/covid-19/does-covid-19-mess-immune-system <p>Have you heard that, apparently, COVID-19 is “airborne AIDS?”</p> <p>“I think that that epithet is horrifying and beyond offensive,” Edward Nirenberg tells me. He is a science communicator with a degree in biochemistry who focuses his communication efforts on vaccines and COVID-19. “It categorically isn’t. It’s not what the data show.”</p> Fri, 10 Feb 2023 13:59:23 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9386 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical-critical-thinking/eric-feigl-ding-epidemiologist-who-moves-fast-and-breaks-things <p>The tweet that catapulted him to stardom began with the all-caps exclamation, “HOLY MOTHER OF GOD.” This is not language we expect from scientists on Twitter, and certainly not something we would see in an academic paper. But this is the tone Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding used at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to sound the alarm.</p> Fri, 09 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9222 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-general-science/could-climbing-chalk-protect-you-more-rips <p>If you have ever written anything on a chalkboard, you know the powdery feeling left on your hands after holding a piece of chalk. While that residue may feel annoying when you try to go on with your day, it's exactly why chalk is used so widely in sport. Gymnasts, lifters, and rock climbers all agree that chalk is something that they always keep on hand — literally.</p> Fri, 17 Jun 2022 14:00:00 +0000 Cat Wang 9138 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/future-proof-coronavirus-vaccine <p>You may remember learning about Newton’s third law in school. It states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A classic example would be a rocket being propelled forward by expelling gases backward. In a tongue-in-cheek way, we could apply this law to the COVID-19 pandemic: the virus makes a move, we make a countermove. As important mutations arise in the virus that create a new variant that outcompetes the others, scientists start to work on a new vaccine that could be a better countermove to this new variant.</p> Thu, 28 Apr 2022 18:07:58 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9099 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/natural-immunity-covid-has-its-limits <hr /> <p>This article was originally posted in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-natural-immunity-to-covid-has-its-limits">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 25 Feb 2022 18:21:27 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9036 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/do-bad-viruses-always-become-good-guys-end <p>In our social media age, talk of virulence has gone viral, with most of us atwitter about the course the new coronavirus is taking. As novel variants move up the ladder of concern, we are left asking the same questions: is this one more transmissible? is it more dangerous to us? will our vaccines stop it?</p> Sat, 18 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8951 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/ivermectin-train-cannot-stop <p>It started with<a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0166354220302011"> </a><a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0166354220302011">a laboratory study</a> on African green monkey kidney cells. While the dose used was much higher than what doctors would prescribe, the results were promising. Ivermectin could stop the new coronavirus from making copies of itself.</p> Sat, 30 Oct 2021 08:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8911 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/fear-myocarditis-no-reason-skip-covid-vaccine <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-fear-of-myocarditis-no-reason-to-skip-covid-vaccine">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 11 Jun 2021 21:16:02 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8761 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-pseudoscience/upside-down-doctor <p>Dr. Joe Mercola, an osteopathic physician who has made an impressive fortune selling supplements through his online store, has a new book out about the COVID-19 pandemic, a book which he co-authored with Ronnie Cummins, an organic food crusader. This book, as well as Mercola’s decades of peddling health misinformation on the Internet, exemplifies the dangerous blind spot of the wellness movement.</p> Fri, 04 Jun 2021 20:40:54 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8757 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/what-expect-covid-19-vaccine-when-youre-expecting-or-breastfeeding <p>What should public health bodies do in the absence of data? And, even more importantly, what should the people left to make an important health decision do when no data is available?</p> <p>I have seen a lot of anxiety over the question of whether or not people who are pregnant or breastfeeding should get the COVID-19 vaccine. These very same people were prevented from participating in the large clinical trials in which these vaccines were put to the test. Therefore, we don’t have trial data on these groups of people, but they must now make a decision based on seemingly no data at all.</p> Fri, 28 May 2021 20:21:06 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8750 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/lack-fda-covid-vaccine-approval-doesnt-matter <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-lack-of-fda-covid-vaccine-approval-doesnt-matter">Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 28 May 2021 19:38:15 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8747 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/how-much-benefit-there-first-dose-covid-vaccine <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-how-much-benefit-from-first-dose-of-covid-vaccine">Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 14 May 2021 23:52:58 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8735 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/ginkgo-has-not-been-shown-treat-covid-19 <p>There is a word more and more popular in science communication circles: pre-bunking. There is so much bunk out there—misinformation, lies and unwarranted hype—that it always feels like we are playing catch-up. The idea of pre-bunking is to get in front of the bunk and warn people in advance so they can recognize the signs of rubbish when they see them. A sort of vaccine for the mind, if you will.</p> Wed, 05 May 2021 17:21:33 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8721 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/loss-smell-and-covid-19-80-those-infected-sars-cov-2-virus-report-losing-their-sense-smell <hr /> <p class="note"><strong>Take-home message:</strong><br /> -30 to 80% of people with COVID-19 report loss of smell, known as anosmia.<br /> -The likely targets of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are supporting cells in the nose that support growth of the nerve cells that allow us to smell<br /> -Anosmia treatments being studied include: Retraining the brain to smell, calming nasal inflammation and finding ways to regrow damaged nasal cells</p> Wed, 14 Apr 2021 21:44:10 +0000 Gaia Remerowski, MS, Science Journalism 8700 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-general-science/lets-hear-it-voices-reason <p>The COVID-19 pandemic has been a golden opportunity for schemers, contrarians and conspiracy theorists to use public distress and thirst for knowledge to widen their reach. It is easy to get lost in those weeds and forget that there are good people whose intellectual rigour and clarity have provided us all with metaphorical flashlights during these dark times. They have looked at an expanding (and sometimes contracting) body of evidence on COVID-19, delineated the border between what we knew and didn’t know, and explained to us the maddening uncertainties of science in real-time.</p> Thu, 08 Apr 2021 16:45:11 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8692 at /oss