November 2020

Decennial 2020 research sets the agenda for advancing safe healthcare

NEW YORK (November 2, 2020) — More than 700 studies, including 250 international abstracts, highlighting worldwide progress in preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections and addressing antibiotic resistance were published today as part of the proceedings from the Sixth Decennial International Conference on Healthcare-Associated Infections. The Sixth Decennial, a conference co-hosted by the Centers for Disease…

A.I. tool provides more accurate flu forecasts

Predicting influenza outbreaks just got a little easier, thanks to a new A.I.-powered forecasting tool developed by researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology. By incorporating location data, the A.I. system is able to outperform other state-of-the-art forecasting methods, delivering up to an 11% increase in accuracy and predicting influenza outbreaks up to 15 weeks in…

Covid-19 “super-spreading” events play outsized role in overall disease transmission

CAMBRIDGE, MA — There have been many documented cases of Covid-19 “super-spreading” events, in which one person infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects many other people. But how much of a role do these events play in the overall spread of the disease? A new study from MIT suggests that they have a much larger…

Rapid method finds potent COVID-19 monoclonal antibody among a trillion possibilities

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 2, 2020 – University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have discovered the fastest way to identify potent, neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The method–as well as a trio of successful animal studies on an antibody called “Ab1”–are described today in the Proceedings of the National Academy…

Tests Show Genetic Signature of Coronavirus That Likely Infected Trump

President Trump’s illness from a coronavirus infection last month was the most significant health crisis for a sitting president in nearly 40 years. Yet little remains known about how the virus arrived at the White House and how it spread. The administration did not take basic steps to track the outbreak, limiting contact tracing, keeping…