3 rays of light piercing the COVID darkness
There’s good news and bad news from the COVID-19 beat. For the bad news, look anywhere news is disseminated. For the good, start with this compact but formidable roundup.
Item 1. Researchers found no patterns of negative effects on babies born to 673 mothers of color who were infected with COVID during pregnancy. The research was conducted at Columbia University, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology and publicized by the university’s news division.
Item 2. Despite the intensifying geopolitical friction between the U.S. and China, scientists from both are working closely together to fight COVID. “Not only are China and the United States at the center of the global network of coronavirus research, but they strengthen their bilateral research relationship during COVID-19, producing more than 4.9% of all global articles together, in contrast to 3.6% before the pandemic,” according to researchers whose full findings are running in PLOS One.
Item 3. Promising COVID vaccine news is coming fast and furious, not least from the likes of Pfizer and BioNTech. And as Harvard’s Joseph Allen, DSc, MPH, notes in the Washington Post:
“Remember, it was not a given that vaccines would work, so the fact that the early-stage clinical trials are showing positive signs is encouraging. Also a reminder that this is lightning-fast; if we get a vaccine within 12 months, that will be the quickest vaccine ever developed—by several years.”
In fact, that’s just one of six positive COVID developments over which Allen enthuses measuredly (as only an exposure assessment scientist can). Click here to read the rest.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.