Science

The New York Times reports: The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech provides strong protection against Covid-19 within about 10 days of the first dose, according to documents published on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration before a meeting of its vaccine advisory group. The finding is one of several significant new results featured in the briefing materials, …

The Daily Beast reports: The virus that would go on to ruin the vast majority of 2020 was already spreading in the United States before Christmas last year, a government study has found. The finding was made by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it suggests that the coronavirus was infecting people around the world …

The Associated Press reports: A company has started selling the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, a leap for the field that could make it much easier for people to learn whether they have dementia. It also raises concern about the accuracy and impact of such life-altering news. Independent experts are leery because key test results have not …

The New York Times reports: The drugmaker Moderna announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, based on an early look at the results from its large, continuing study. Researchers said the results were better than they had dared to imagine. But the vaccine will not be widely available for months, probably not until spring. Moderna is …

Business Insider reports: Every American could have access to a COVID-19 vaccine before the end of April, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Tuesday night. On Monday, Pfizer announced that the vaccine it had developed had succeeded in the final stage of clinical trials, marking a major milestone in the global race for a vaccine. The drugmaker said the vaccine …

STAT News reports: Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic. The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said …

The Guardian reports: New diagnoses of HIV among gay and bisexual men have dropped to their lowest level in 20 years, according to Public Health England. A PHE report reveals that overall, across all genders and sexualities, the number of people with a new HIV diagnosis dropped by 10% from 4,580 cases in 2018 to 4,139 in 2019. There was …

Reuters reports: U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Sunday it would be clear whether a COVID-19 vaccine was safe and effective by early December, but that more widespread vaccination would not be likely until later in 2021. “We will know whether a vaccine is safe and effective by the end of November, the beginning of December,” Fauci told …

CBS News reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, told “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell that the United States needs to redouble its efforts to contain the coronavirus as we enter the fall and winter months. The surge could be made worse as families across the country travel and gather for the holiday …

The New York Times reports: The Chinese city of Qingdao is testing all of its 9.5 million residents after it recorded the country’s first locally transmitted cases of the virus in almost two months. The authorities said that a dozen people in Qingdao, a seaside city in Shandong Province, had tested positive for the virus as of Sunday. Officials said …

CBS News reports: Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology on Monday for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus. The head of the Nobel Committee, Thomas Perlmann, announced the winners in Stockholm. The medicine prize carried particular significance this year due to the coronavirus …

The Associated Press reports: Timothy Ray Brown, who made history as “the Berlin patient,” the first person known to be cured of HIV infection, has died. He was 54. Brown died Tuesday at his home in Palm Springs, California, according to a social media post by his partner, Tim Hoeffgen. The cause was a return of the cancer that originally …

CNBC reports: A majority of the U.S. remains susceptible to a coronavirus infection, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told lawmakers Wednesday. Covid-19 has spread across America at varying rates, infecting as much as 15% to 20% of the population in some states and less than 1% in others, he said. He said the …

“Decisions to authorize and approve any such vaccine or therapeutic will be made by the dedicated career staff at FDA through our thorough review processes and science will guide our decisions. “FDA will not permit any pressure from anyone to change that. I will fight for science, Mr. Chairman. I will fight for the integrity of the agency, and I …

CBS News reports: If there is life on Venus, it might want to start learning Russian. The boss of Russia’s government space agency has claimed it as a “Russian planet.” The bold territorial claim comes on the heels of scientific research suggesting life could exist on Earth’s celestial neighbor, the second planet from the sun. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin, who’s …

From the editors of Scientific American: Scientific American has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly. The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his …

Reuters reports: Scientists said on Monday they have detected in the harshly acidic clouds of Venus a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may inhabit Earth’s inhospitable neighbor, a tantalizing sign of potential life beyond Earth. The researchers did not discover actual life forms, but noted that on Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments. The international …

CNBC reports: Phase three trials for AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine have resumed in the U.K. after they were halted earlier this week over safety concerns, the company announced Saturday. AstraZeneca said it received confirmation from the United Kingdom’s Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to resume clinical trials. The company declined to disclose medical information about the pause of …

STAT News reports: A large, Phase 3 study testing a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford at dozens of sites across the U.S. has been put on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a participant in the United Kingdom. A spokesperson for AstraZeneca, a frontrunner in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, …

Courthouse News reports: Researchers in Sweden have identified a small neutralizing antibody that has the capacity to block the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, from entering human cells. In a paper published Friday in Nature Communications, the researchers propose that the nanobody has the potential to be developed as an antiviral treatment. Single-domain antibodies, also known as nanobodies, are fragments …