Tag: vaccine

  • Rabies – A TrueScience Public Service Announcement

    Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a stark reminder about the dangers of rabies in their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). After two consecutive years with no rabies deaths in the United States, there were five deaths in 2021, including a 7-year old child. Four of the recent…

  • Multiple Sclerosis – The Search Narrows

    Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a serious autoimmune disease that affects about 3 million people worldwide and over 900,000 in the United States. The disease symptoms are quite varied but typically begin between the ages of 20-40. Symptoms can include vision problems, impaired hearing, decreased taste and smell, headaches, weakness and fatigue, muscle tremors or pain,…

  • Eliminating Cervical Cancer

    In 1976, Harald zur Hausen, a German physician and researcher, first proposed that human papillomaviruses (HPVs) were the cause of cervical cancer. This hypothesis was controversial as the few known HPVs all caused benign skin warts. Additionally, many scientists believed that herpesviruses were implicated in cervical cancer and that the poorly studied HPVs were unlikely…

  • Move Over COVID, Influenza Is Coming to Town

    Seasonal influenza sweeps around the world year after year infecting millions of people across the Northern and Southern hemispheres. In a typical year, influenza causes 30-40 million cases in the United States with an average of 37,000 deaths per year from 2010-2019. However, because of the COVID-19 precautions (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, and cancellation of…

  • Polio – The End of an Era?

    What do polio and smallpox have in common? These are both dreaded viral diseases that science has (smallpox) or soon will (polio) completely eliminate from the planet through vaccination. Unlike many viruses that lurk in animal reservoirs, only humans are the natural hosts for both of these viruses. Smallpox virus and poliovirus persist by spreading…

  • COVID Vaccine Hesitancy

    According to national polls, a significant fraction of Americans currently remains hesitant to take any of the three approved SARS-CoV-2 vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson). I’ve seen several different reasons given, but one common reason is a safety concern. It is the fear that the rapid development and deployment of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines…

  • COVID-19 Update – Variations on a Theme

    The news is filled with alarming stories about new variants of SARS-CoV-2 that were isolated in recent weeks. These variants are versions of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus that have acquired mutations. Mutations are a natural and regular occurrence that happens when the parental viral genome replicates during the process of making progeny viruses. In an…

  • COVID-19 – Are We Nearing the Endgame?

    I suspect that everyone has heard the highly encouraging news this week from two vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Both companies released the first phase 3 trial preliminary results this week and based on these early data each of their vaccines is highly effective after 2 doses. In the case of Pfizer’s vaccine, the initial…

  • COVID-19 Update – The Kinase Connection

    Vaccines are a critical factor for stopping the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as vaccines will help protect uninfected individuals, contribute to herd immunity, and restrict the spread of the virus. However, even after successful vaccines are developed it could take years to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses, to distribute them throughout the world, and to vaccinate…

  • Can You Catch Type 1 Diabetes?

    There are two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2. Type 2, known as adult onset diabetes, usually occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin, though in some cases it results from low production of insulin. In contrast, type 1 diabetes exclusively results from insufficient insulin production by the pancreas and is sometimes…