Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and many have yet to learn that the way out of the global emergency is not through individualism and nationalism, but through solidarity.
More than 3 billion people around the world remain unvaccinated, in part because of vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations like the U.S. Beyond the coronavirus’ biology, the main reason COVID-19 continues to rage is such failures of solidarity – in government, public policy, messaging, and civic society.
Last Monday, the Pfizer - BioNTech vaccine received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is important to clarify that this approval does not mean that the vaccine was experimental until last Sunday. The experimental phase of this vaccine culminated with clinical trials in November 2020. During this experimental phase the company, in this case Pfizer, gathered the necessary evidence to determine that the vaccine is safe and over 90% effective in protecting against COVID-19 . Although its effectiveness has decreased somewhat with the appearance of the delta variant, the vaccine is still the best weapon to protect us from serious illness, hospitalization, or death from COVID-19.
The arrival of the Delta variant has changed the landscape of the pandemic. Before we get into the details, the good news: vaccines work and protect us from serious consequences, hospitalization and death if we get the Delta variant (and the other variants) and it gives us COVID-19. The prevention measures that we already know also work to protect us from Delta and the other variants.
You can read the full story in the Spanish version of this post.
Durante las últimas semanas el mundo ha observado con cautela al menos tres nuevas variantes del virus que causa COVID-19. Estas variantes surgen como parte de un proceso natural por el que pasan todos los virus, y es el de cambiar o mutar.
La variante que ha causado más preocupación se conoce como B.1.1.7 y fue identificada por primera vez en el Reino Unido. Aunque no se ha encontrado que cause una enfermedad más severa, la B.1.1.7 sí es altamente contagiosa o transmisible.
El remdesivir, un medicamento originalmente desarrollado para combatir el contagio de Ébola, fue autorizado para administrarse únicamente como tratamiento de emergencia en pacientes graves hospitalizados con COVID-19, en tanto continúa la investigación sobre su eficacia en general contra el virus SARS-CoV-2.
Our friends from The Explorers Guide to Biology and iBiology have created this illustrated guide that explains how soap and water destroy the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. You can download the PDF for free HERE.
Es normal tener miedo ante algo desconocido. Y no es para menos, el nuevo coronavirus ha cruzado fronteras sin pedir permiso y casi sin darnos cuenta. Hemos sentido su impacto a nivel mundial tanto en la salud pública como en la economía. La palabra pandemia nos hace recordar tiempos difíciles, como lo fue el virus de influenza H1N1 en el 2009, el cual se expandió a 214 países y cobró cerca de 18,000 vidas confirmadas (aunque se estimaron alrededor de 200,000). El gobierno de Puerto Rico no ha sido eficiente en su respuesta, pero eso era esperado. Sin embargo, a nivel individual y comunitario, es primordial convertir el miedo en acción. Y que seamos el refuerzo que necesita el sistema de salud pública.
Viruses have been protagonists of many diseases and epidemics throughout the history of humanity. The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus causing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is no exception to these scientific and public health challenges. COVID-19 has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic due to the number of cases reported worldwide. In such a scenario, the general community has become interested in learning more about what this virus is, what we know so far, and how it compares to other viruses.
