• 🕷️ Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are resilient to extreme temperatures, including both cold and heat.
• 🌡️ Larval ticks are more impacted by heat and dry conditions, while nymph and adult ticks can survive hot and cold weather with little impact.
• 🌍 A large field study conducted by Washington State University (WSU) and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies collected valuable data on ticks' response to climatic conditions.
• 🌡️ Extreme weather conditions don't have as much of an effect on tick mortality as previously thought, but they can shorten the window of time for ticks to find a host.
• 🦠 Tick larvae have shorter median survival times when exposed to frequent periods of hot and dry weather.
• 🌱 Environmental factors such as arthropods or fungi may contribute to variations in tick survival on a small scale.
• 🦠 Targeting interventions during the larvae stage could be an effective strategy to reduce tick populations and mitigate the risk of disease transmission.
• 🧪 The study aims to develop a comprehensive framework to predict and manage tick populations for improved public health outcomes.
• 📚 The research team plans to further investigate the factors leading to localized tick mortality and the role of host species in tick survival.

Researchers at Washington State University have developed a carbon-negative concrete that is almost as strong as traditional concrete.

The team infused cement with biochar, a type of charcoal made from organic waste, that had been treated with concrete wastewater.

The biochar could absorb up to 23% of its weight in carbon dioxide from the air while retaining a strength comparable to regular cement.

Cement production is responsible for around 8% of global carbon emissions, and the development could significantly reduce emissions. The research was published in Materials Letters.

German lab's frightening results. Found evidence of covid vaccine causing strange,new pathology. More work needs to be done, but unlikely that will happen in U.S. or U.K. where questioning the safety of vaccine is not allowed.

Really good info on the India variant of covid.

Community and close contact exposures continue to drive the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. CDC and other public health authorities recommend community mitigation strategies ...

Adults with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in North, Central, and South America has become the epicenter of the current pandemic. We have suggested previously that the infection rate of this virus might be lower in people living at high altitude (over 2,500 m) compared to that in the lowlands. Based on data from official sources, we performed a new epidemiological analysis of the development of the pandemic in 23 countries on the American continent as of May 23, 2020. Our results confirm our previous finding, further showing that the incidence of COVID-19 on the American continent decreases significantly starting at 1,000 m above sea level (masl). Moreover, epidemiological modeling indicates that the virus transmission rate capacity is lower in the highlands (>1,000 masl) than in the lowlands (<1,000 masl). Finally, evaluating the differences in the recovery percentage of patients, the death-to-case ratio, and the theoretical fraction of undiagnosed cases, we found that the severity of COVID-19 is also decreased above 1,000 m. We conclude that the impact of the COVID-19 decreases significantly with altitude.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

No external funds have been received for this work.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

No experiments were performed

All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.

Yes

Raw, normalized, and adjusted data of COVID-19 cases are available and registered at figshare. Raw epidemiological daily data of COVID-19 of Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru are available and registered at figshare.

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12685523

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12685478

A review of 172 studies on coronavirus transmission from 16 countries confirmed that wearing a face mask and maintaining physical distance significantly reduced the risk of spreading COVID-19. The first-of-its-kind study, funded by the World Health Organization and published Monday in the journal The Lancet, also attempted to quantify how much each measure cut transmission risks by itself.
The risk of transmitting the new coronavirus without a mask or respirator is 17.4 percent, but with a mask that falls to 3.1 percent, the study found, though the researchers noted there's a higher amount of uncertainty on mask wearing than physical distancing. Keeping a distance of less than 1 meter (3.3 feet) and no other protective measure carried a transmission risk of 12.8 percent, cut to 2.6 percent when the distance was more than 1 meter and even lower at 2 meters (6.6. feet). There was also a sharp cut in risk with eye protection.

'In all three questions, the evidence appears to support the measures,' Oxford University's Trish Greenhalgh, who wasn't involved in the study, tells CNN. 'For example, on average, staying 1 meter away from other people appears to reduce your chance of catching COVID-19 by 80 percent. Wearing a mask or face covering appears to reduce your risk by up to 85 percent. And wearing goggles or a face shield seems to reduce it by up to 78 percent.'
Still, the main takeaway is that 'no single intervention on its own made an individual completely impervious to transmission,' Dr. Derek Chu at Canada's McMaster University, who co-authored the study, told NBC Today. All three together seriously cuts the odds, and 'we can't neglect basic measures such as hand hygiene.' Peter Weber

A study led by clinician scientists at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences has found that Irish patients admitted to hospital with severe COVID-19 infection are experiencing abnormal blood clotting that contributes to death in some patients.

Background: COVID-19 is a major pandemic that has killed more than 196,000 people. The COVID-19 disease course is strikingly divergent. Approximately 80-85% of patients experience mild or no symptoms, while the remainder develop severe disease. The mechanisms underlying these divergent outcomes are unclear. Emerging health disparities data regarding African American and homeless populations suggest that vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) may be an underlying driver of COVID-19 severity. To better define the VDI-COVID-19 link, we determined the prevalence of VDI among our COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Methods: In an Institutional Review Board approved study performed at a single, tertiary care academic medical center, the medical records of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively reviewed. Subjects were included for whom serum 25-hydroxycholecalcifoerol (25OHD) levels were determined. COVID-19-relevant data were compiled and analyzed. We determined the frequency of VDI among COVID-19 patients to evaluate the likelihood of a VDI-COVID-19 relationship. Results: Twenty COVID-19 patients with serum 25OHD levels were identified; 65.0% required ICU admission.The VDI prevalence in ICU patients was 84.6%, vs. 57.1% in floor patients. Strikingly, 100% of ICU patients less than 75 years old had VDI. Coagulopathy was present in 62.5% of ICU COVID-19 patients, and 92.3% were lymphocytopenic. Conclusions: VDI is highly prevalent in severe COVID-19 patients. VDI and severe COVID-19 share numerous associations including hypertension, obesity, male sex, advanced age, concentration in northern climates, coagulopathy, and immune dysfunction. Thus, we suggest that prospective, randomized controlled studies of VDI in COVID-19 patients are warranted.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

This work was supported by the following sources: 1) Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center; 2) 1R01HL118557-01A1, NIHLBI, NIH; 3) ASH Bridge Funding; 4) Texas A&M University System; 5) National Institutes of Health grant AI40165.

Author Declarations

All relevant ethical guidelines have been followed; any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained and details of the IRB/oversight body are included in the manuscript.

Yes

All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.

Yes

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.