Category: Feature Stories

WHO has decided to name the different coronavirus variants after Greek letters in the future. Naming the variants after the country where they were discovered was “stigmatizing and discriminatory,” it said. The different variants of coronavirus should in the future be named after the letters of the Greek alphabet to avoid stigmatizing the countries where they first appeared. As the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in Geneva on Monday, this applies to variants that have been classified as “of concern” or “of interest.” The Greek letters are not intended to…

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More than 3 million Austrians have already received the first dose of a Covid 19 vaccine. But does the one dose already protect? A British scientist has compiled data from various studies and makes a clear statement for all four vaccines approved in the EU. According to his data, even the first dose of vaccine provides a high level of protection against the coronavirus. Countries such as the United Kingdom are therefore extending the period between the two shots to guarantee initial protection for as many people as possible. For…

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Corona patients with a mild course could have lifelong immunity, according to a study. Convalescents who had only mild symptoms still have antibodies in their blood almost a year after their illness, the researchers write in the journal “Nature”. The number of antibodies would drop again quickly after an infection, as known from previous studies. However, the antibodies would never completely disappear, which could lead to lifelong immunity. The researchers note, however, that people who had a severe course after infection might be less protected because of a variety of…

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When vaccinated byBioNTech/Pfizer or AstraZeneca, 96 percent already form antibodies. Full protection for severely pre-diseased people after second sting. A British analysis again argues that the Corona vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer and AstraZeneca are highly effective. The results, based on a study of 8,517 people in England and Wales, prove this. A total of 13,232 antibody samples from the study participants were examined. The average age of the subjects was 65. More than 90 percent of Britons developed antibodies to the coronavirus after receiving a dose of either the AstraZeneca or…

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More than four million vaccine doses have already been administered in Austria. Some people remain skeptical and keep pointing out supposed dangers associated with the vaccination. Most recently, the number of 80 cases who had contracted corona despite full immunization was also circulating through social media, according to a report by the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG). 80 ill among 960,000 vaccinated peopleAlthough the figure is correct, it must be assessed in relation to the fully immunized population. Among these, the report counts all persons from 7…

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Millions of refugees in Pakistan could miss Corona vaccination, infections despite vaccination in U.S., Hong Kong considers donation of unused vaccine doses.More than 167.6 million people have tested positive for the virus worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 3.4 million infected people have died. More than 1.7 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. In Pakistan, millions of Afghan refugees could miss out on the Corona vaccine. Some 2.8 million Afghans live in the South Asian country, some without any documents, others with a special refugee card. There…

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The first advanced corona vaccines could be approved this year if successful, according to the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (vfa). “A number of manufacturers and institutes are working on vaccines and vaccination regimens that should also be effective against such new variants of Sars-CoV-2, for which the first-generation vaccines have so far offered only weaker protection,” a vfa spokesman said. Three main strategies are being pursued: The first involves stronger immunization by activating the immune defenses even more, for example through antibodies. In the second case, work is…

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At the opening of the World Health Organization’s annual meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the international community to confront the global corona crisis with the same strategy as in a war. “We are at war with a virus,” Guterres said Monday. He said the world needs “the logic and urgency of a war economy” to ensure that all countries have equal access to the “weapons” to fight the pandemic. The pandemic has unleashed a “tsunami of suffering,” Guterres lamented. More than 3.4 million people have died since it…

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The unloved Corona rapid tests by swabbing the nose or throat may soon be a thing of the past: Health authorities in Singapore have given preliminary approval to a novel breath test that is said to detect the virus “accurately within one minute,” the National University of Singapore (NUS) said Monday. The test was developed by the company Breathonix. The company, founded by NUS graduates, is working closely with the Southeast Asian city-state’s Ministry of Health during the trial phase. The “BreFence Go Covid-19 Breath Test System” will reportedly now…

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