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Results of a World Health Organization coordinated study show that remdesivir has “little or no effect on mortality” for patients hospitalized with coronavirus, and that it doesn’t seem to help patients recover any faster. Till date, this antiviral drug was the only drug that the US FDA had granted COVID-19 …

After government approval of Sputnik V, Russia’s first COVID-19 vaccine, on August 11, 2020, health authorities have, on October 14, 2020, approved its second vaccine, EpiVacCorona, developed by Novosibirsk’s Vektor [State Virology and Biotechnology Center], as it starts large-scale trials. According to President Putin, his deputy prime minister and the …

In May 2020, the US Environmental Agency approved production of the genetically engineered, male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, known as OX5034, by British-based, US-operated company Oxitec. This species of mosquitoes are known to spread deadly diseases like dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever. On August 18, 2020, Florida Keys Mosquito Control …

On June 11, 2020, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals initiated the first of its randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials of REGN-COV2, its experimental dual antibody cocktail for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Th e trials were conducted at multiple sites and consisted of four study populations—hospitalized COVID-19 patients, non- hospitalized symptomatic COVID-19 patients, …

Early on October 2, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump, 74, revealed that he had tested positive for the novel corona virus. A day earlier, he had tested positive on a rapid test used for screening White House staff , which was later confirmed by a more accurate lab test. He …

Neuralink Corporation is a neuro technology company founded by Elon Musk and others in 2016 with its headquarters in San Francisco. Its team of extraordinarily talented scientists is working to develop a fully integrated brain machine interface (BMI) system—sometimes called a brain computer interface (BCI)—that enables a computer (or other …

In the United States, Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is a collaboration of several US government departments, including Health and Human Services, and the private sector. Through it, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has entered into collaboration with 18 bio pharmaceutical companies to accelerate development of drugs and vaccines to …

Director General Balram Bhargava of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has announced that Phase 2 clinical trials of two indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccines have been almost completed. India has two indigenous vaccine candidates—ZyCOV-D by Zydus Cadila and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. He said that while final trials normally …

The United Kingdom’s Royal College of Pathologists has called for more stringent rules on kits sold directly to consumers, warning that they can “mislead the public and put individuals at risk”. They say that the tests should be used with professional back-up and should give the right results that are …