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How Childhood Infections Could Shape Pandemics
A child’s first influenza infection shapes their immunity to future airborne flu viruses including emerging pandemic strains. But not all flu strains spur the same initial immune defense, according to new findings published today by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine virologists in the journal PLOS Pathogens.
“These results are relevant right now to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said senior author Seema Lakdawala, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Pitt. “They may explain age-based distributions of SARS-CoV-2 disease severity and susceptibility.
“Having flu once does not make you immune to all future influenza viruses,” she said. “Nor does having had the original SARS virus in 2003 or any of the ‘common cold’ coronaviruses in circulation necessarily mean you can’t get infected with SARS-CoV-2. But your susceptibility to infection might be different than someone who ha
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Credit: UPMC
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 18, 2021 - A child s first influenza infection shapes their immunity to future airborne flu viruses including emerging pandemic strains. But not all flu strains spur the same initial immune defense, according to new findings published today by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine virologists in the journal
PLOS Pathogens. These results are relevant right now to the COVID-19 pandemic, said senior author Seema Lakdawala, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Pitt. They may explain age-based distributions of SARS-CoV-2 disease severity and susceptibility. Having flu once does not make you immune to all future influenza viruses, she said. Nor does having had the original SARS virus in 2003 or any of the common cold coronaviruses in circulation necessarily mean you can t get infected with SARS-CoV-2. But your susceptibility to infection might be different than someone who has never encountered a co
The Pandemic Broke the Flu Katherine J. Wu
Editor’s Note:
The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here.
In November, as fall was fading, Matt Binnicker began to hunker down for a hard winter. The coronavirus had already infected an estimated 13 million people nationwide, and his team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was now peering over the precipice of flu season, when every coughing, feverish patient would need not one diagnostic test, but two.
Determined to stay one step ahead, Binnicker’s lab had worked furiously to develop its own influenza test in order to amp up capacity. On December 1, the team began screening all patients with respiratory symptoms for both viruses.
VIDEO: SNL Used A Pool Noodle To Enforce Physical Distancing. We ve Got More Tips
Xueying Chang/NPR and Kaz Fantone for NPR
On Saturday Night Live, guest host Dan Levy got nudged with a pool noodle to make sure he kept 6 feet away from others.
Well, that s one way to enforce physical distancing. And we ll get to the pool noodle method but there are other strategies to keep your distance during a pandemic and reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
For example, I picture myself lying on the ground.
That s how I make sure I m practicing physical distancing one of the key ways to prevent coronavirus transmission along with masking up and hand washing.