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Disease

If approved, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could become available as soon as March.

Johnson & Johnson Applies for FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization for Covid-19 Vaccine—Here’s Why That Takes Time

Independent experts will review data from over 40,000 trial participants and meet on February 26 to make a recommendation

ENGS peaks in March during the dry season and researcher’s suspect that something within the chimps’ biology or in their environment is prompting the disease

The Mysterious Cause of a Deadly Illness in Sanctuary Chimps Revealed

Researchers identified the 100 percent fatal pathogen as epizootic neurologic and gastroenteric syndrome or ENGS

A patient holds a sample test tube for Chlamydia testing.

Covid-19

How Covid-19 Has Hurt the Effort to Track STDs

As gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia have hit their highest marks in decades, many STD contact tracers have shifted to work on the pandemic

Passengers need to eat and drink on a long-haul flight, which means they remove their masks and risk spreading or catching Covid-19.

New Research

What One Covid-19 Cluster on an Airplane Tells Experts About Risk Factors While Flying

When one person with Covid-19 took an 18-hour flight from Dubai to New Zealand, several people got sick

Currently accessible Covid-19 vaccines seem to protect people against the emerging variants so far.

What Experts Know About the Current Coronavirus Variants

The appearance of highly transmissible versions of the pandemic coronavirus has the world’s medical community on high alert

An 1802 engraving, The Cow Pock—or—the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation plays on the fears of a crowd of vaccinees.

History Shows Americans Have Always Been Wary of Vaccines

Even so, many diseases have been tamed. Will Covid-19 be next?

A volunteer donates blood during an event at the Field Museum in Chicago in May, 2020.

What Scientists Are Learning About Covid-19 Using the Nation’s Blood Supply

Labs and blood banks collect millions of blood samples each month, offering a distinctive source of data on the disease

Mask wearing and other behaviors developed during the Covid-19 pandemic are largely keeping flu cases low this year.

How Covid-19 Precautions Have Kept Flu Cases Low

By this time last year, the U.S. had recorded over 65,000 cases of influenza

Toxoplasma gondii grows in tissue cysts which can stick around in the body after illness has passed

New Research

Parasite Found in Undercooked Meat and Cat Poop May Be Linked to Rare Brain Cancer

The U.S. sees about 24,000 brain cancer cases annually, compared to 30 million cases of Toxoplasma gondii, so an individual’s cancer risk is low

Three of eight gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park show mild symptoms of a coronavirus infection

Gorillas at California Zoo Test Positive for Covid-19

Three iconic primates at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park show mild symptoms, including lethargy and runny noses

Health workers in protective suits cull ducks in Karuvatta after the H5N8 bird flu strain was detected.

Avian Flu Outbreak in India Results in Mass Poultry Culls

No cases of avian flu have been detected in humans during the current outbreak

A COVID testing site at Echo Park Stadium on December 30, 2020 in Parker, Colorado. This site is nearby Ebert County, where the first case of a COVID-19 variant that is thought to be more contagious was detected in the United States.

Colorado and California Report First U.S. Cases of Highly Contagious Covid-19 Variant

First discovered in England, the variant appears to be more transmissible but does not cause a more severe case of the disease

Dolphins can tolerate freshwater for short periods of time, but they developed painful lesions after the storms as a result of prolonged exposure.

Fatal Skin Disease Outbreak in Dolphins Linked to Climate Change–Fueled Storm Surges

When the porpoises are exposed to freshwater after extreme weather, they develop grisly lesions that can lead to their deaths

“He is setting a fine example for the youth of the country,” said a public health official after the King of Rock 'n' Roll received a vaccine on the set of “The Ed Sullivan Show” in October 1956.

Covid-19

How Elvis Helped America Eliminate Polio

The rock star’s much-publicized vaccination inspired reluctant U.S. teens to get inoculated

The survey did not conclude how the wild mink became infected with the virus, but it’s not unusual for captive minks to escape fur farms. (Infected mink not pictured.)

First Case of Covid-19 in a Wild Animal Found in a Utah Mink

The U.S. Department of Agriculture detected the infection while testing wild animals around a mink farm with a Covid-19 outbreak

A nurse administers the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a patient in London on December 8. Some experts say the fastest way to test second-generation COVID-19 vaccines is through human challenge trials.

A Brief History of Human Challenge Trials

For more than two centuries, scientists have been intentionally infecting patients with dangerous diseases in order to learn more

The vaccination effort underway is the biggest in United States history.

Distribution Begins for First Covid-19 Vaccine Authorized in the United States

Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine received emergency use authorization from the FDA last week

Tasmanian devils nip at each other's faces while eating carcasses and during mating season, providing opportunities for infectious face cancer to spread.

New Research

Study Offers Hope for Tasmanian Devils, Once Thought Doomed by Infectious Cancer

In the late 1990s, one affected devil infected an average of 3.5 others, but now each only infects about one

Marine mammals could contract the virus through their mucus membranes, like their blowholes, eyes and mouths.

Can Marine Mammals Catch Covid-19 via Wastewater? The Evidence Is Murky

Whales, and other species, may have the same cellular vulnerability to Covid-19 as humans, but experts say the risk of infection is incredibly low

Chimps relax at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Humans can transmit many diseases to chimps, orangutans and their kin.

How Researchers Are Protecting Great Apes From Covid-19

Humans who study and care for the primates are taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and its unknown effects

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