Routine screening to detect risk factors for heart disease dropped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, and some key measurements, such as blood pressure readings, may still lag behind pre-pandemic levels. These findings are reported in a new study by Frederick Ho and Naveed Sattar of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and colleagues published November 26^th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.

The study strikes a blow against medical misinformation by providing an expert guide to credible podcast sources – an especially valuable tool in infectious disease, where a host of conflicting and unreliable information circulates about COVID-19, vaccines and other topics.

Efforts to address the health-related social needs (HRSN) of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, such as housing and food, during the COVID-19 pandemic were insufficient. This research examined HRSN data from the Accountable Health Communities (AHC) study collected in Oregon to understand changes in HRSN for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries at the onset and during the first two years of the pandemic.

Researchers showed online reviews of health facilities took a negative turn after COVID and remain that way

A wearable electrical nerve stimulation device can provide relief to people experiencing the persistent pain and fatigue linked to long COVID

Penn Engineers have cooked up a new way to improve mRNA delivery, developing an optimal “recipe” for ionizable lipids — key ingredients in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the molecules behind the COVID-19 vaccines and other innovative therapies. The method, described in Nature Biomedical Engineering, mirrors the iterative process of developing a culinary dish and may lead to safer, more effective mRNA vaccines and therapeutics.

Scientific investigations before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in Berlin in 2020 show that urban red squirrels are extremely flexible in adjusting their diurnal activities to the presence of humans, domestic dogs, domestic cats, and predators such as beech martens. With the help of wildlife cameras, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and citizen scientists recorded red squirrel activities in private gardens and properties over longer periods of time and compared them between the different times of day and seasons. In a paper in the scientific journal “Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution” the team describes the spatial and temporal niches occupied by the red squirrels, found that they were more active during the lockdown than before and conclude that red squirrels fear domestic cats in particular.

A breakthrough in vaccine development: Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro's lab at TAU's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences collaborated with Professor Helena Florindo’s lab at the University of Lisbon to produce a novel nano-vaccine for COVID-19. The nano-vaccine, a 200-nanometer particle, trains the immune system against all common COVID-19 variants, just as effectively as existing vaccines. Moreover, unlike other vaccines it is conveniently administered as a nasal spray and does not require a cold supply chain or ultra-cold storage. These unique features pave the way to vaccinating 3^rd-world populations, as well as the development of simpler, more effective, and less expensive vaccines in the future.

Researchers have found that coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 contain genes that appear important for viral survival even though they don’t produce a working protein. Their work investigating how these mystery genes evolve could help forecast which variants might be more dangerous.