NEIDL in the News
BU Scientists Awarded $1.9 Million to Accelerate Coronavirus Research
Original article from The Brink by Kat J. McAlpine. May 13, 2020 Since the novel and fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus first upended life in the United States and around the world, scientists at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) have dropped nearly every other research project to focus on understanding... More
Decoding COVID-19 (Video)
Original video from NOVA by PBS. May 13, 2020 Scientists race to understand and defeat the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has upended life as we know it in a matter of mere months. But at the same time, an unprecedented global effort to understand and contain the virus—and... More
Mass. Hit A Plateau In New Virus Cases Last Week, But Numbers Still Raise Concern (Interview with Dr. Hamer)
Original article from WBUR by Jack Lepiarz. May 11, 2020 Last week, Massachusetts hit a plateau in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19. But the numbers are still concerning: In the past seven days, new daily infections have averaged well over 1,000, and nearly 5,000 people in the state have died... More
Finding coronavirus’ patient zero; and a guilty bat
Original article from CBS News by Margaret Brennan & Camilla Schick. May 07, 2020 Tracking down COVID-19's patient zero and how that person first contracted the coronavirus may take years, especially as U.S.-China relations tumble to a new low. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the details of patient zero... More
Coronavirus immunity studies ‘encouraging’ for short-term protection from reinfection, says BU immunologist
Original article from Boston Herald by Erin Tiernan. May 06, 2020 New studies provide “encouraging” proof that people who recover from the coronavirus gain protection from reinfection in the short term, but Boston University immunologist John Connor says it remains to be seen whether any will gain long-lasting immunity. “What’s encouraging is... More
Efforts to beat back the coronavirus are critical. They’re also making clinical trials harder
Original article from STAT by Andrew Joseph. May 05, 2020 In March, a team of Chinese scientists studying whether the antiviral remdesivir was effective against Covid-19 ran into a problem. “Stringent public health measures used in Wuhan led to marked reductions in new patient presentations,” the researchers wrote. Without enough patients... More
When Will Mass. Start To See The Infection Curve Go Down?
Original article from WBUR by Bob Oates & Wilder Fleming. May 04, 2020 More than 4,000 people have now died from COVID-19 in Massachusetts, which means the commonwealth has the fourth highest official death toll related to the coronavirus in the country. And the rate of newly confirmed cases and deaths remains... More
NIH’s axing of bat coronavirus grant a ‘horrible precedent’ and might break rules, critics say
Original article from Science Magazine by Meredith Wadman & Jon Cohen. April 30, 2020 The research community is reacting with alarm and anger to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) abrupt and unusual termination of a grant supporting research in China on how coronaviruses—such as the one causing the current pandemic—move from bats... More
Making Sense of the Coronavirus Headlines: Remdesivir, Vaccine Odds, and NYC Herd Immunity
Original article from New York Magazine by James D. Walsh. April 27, 2020 Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reportedly considering fast-tracking antiviral remdesivir for use on COVID-19, despite the treatment’s failure to show that it works in clinical trials. Should Abe go through with it, Japan would become the first... More
Why the number of asymptomatic coronavirus cases matters
Original article from The Boston Globe by Dasia Moore. April 22, 2020 Coronavirus testing efforts in Boston and Chelsea led researchers to a startling discovery: A large number of people have been walking around with COVID-19 and don’t even know it. In fact, they may run the entire course of the... More
Why these scientists still doubt the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab
Original article from VOX by Eliza Barclay. April 23, 2020 One of the great mysteries of the Covid-19 pandemic is how, exactly, the SARS-CoV-2 virus made the leap from wildlife into humans. Scientists who’ve analyzed the virus’s genome believe it came from a bat, likely in China. But Chinese epidemiologists have... More
Will antibody testing help get people back to work?
Original article from PBS News Hour by Simon Ostrovsky. April 18, 2020 As the battle between the federal government and states heats up over reopening the economy, antibody testing is being touted as one way to get people back to work. But some researchers at the forefront of developing an accurate... More
Needles In A Haystack: Could Existing Drugs Treat COVID-19?
Original article from WGBH by Liz Neisloss. April 15, 2020 Getting a new drug on the market can sometimes take more than a decade. And that’s why already existing drugs are being used in hundreds of clinical trials around the world, and in Boston, seeking a treatment for COVID-19. Several Boston area... More
Getting to Know the Enemy: Interview with Robert Davey
Original article from WGBH In It Together by Arun Rath, Amanda Beland and Matt Baskin. March 26, 2020 In tonight's "In It Together," we hear from Dr. Eric Dickson from UMass Memorial Health Care about his concerns with the growing coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Dickson said while the hospital has enough ventilators... More
Mass. Hospitals To Launch Trial Of Japanese Drug Aimed At Fighting COVID-19
Original article from WBUR by Barbara Moran. April 9, 2020 Three Massachusetts hospitals will soon launch the first U.S. clinical trials of a Japanese antiviral drug, to see if it works in treating COVID-19. The drug, Avigan (favipiravir), has been approved in China for treating influenza, but has not been approved in... More
BU NEIDL Scientists Can “See the Enemy,” Making Headway on COVID-19 Research
Original article from The Brink by Kat J. McAlpine. April 6, 2020 First things first: in order to take out an enemy, you’ve got to be able to see the enemy. But how do you “see” a seemingly invisible invader like SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for more than a million... More
Your Coronavirus Questions, Answered: Interview with Dr. Keusch
Original article from WKU by Sydney Boles. April 6, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has already infected thousands in the Ohio Valley and upended life and work for nearly all of us. In such a fast-moving pandemic, it can be hard to keep all the information straight. The Ohio Valley ReSource and... More
Coronavirus: Failure To Test: Interview with Nahid Bhadelia
Original article from WAMU 1A by Haili Blassingame. March 30, 2020 Scientists predicted that the United States would be hit hardest by the spread of COVID-19 because of a slow response to the pandemic. Last week, that prediction came true. Now, at least 81,321 people have a confirmed coronavirus infection in the... More
Antibodies found in blood of recovered coronavirus patients could offer a path to treatment
Original article from Boston Herald by Alexi Cohan. March 31, 2020 Labs around the world are seeking blood samples from recovered coronavirus patients in hopes that their antibodies could unlock a path to treatment for current patients struggling with the contagious disease. “People that have been exposed to COVID-19 and have recovered... More
The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to Covid-19
Original article from The New York Times by Michael D. Shear, Abby Goodnough, Sheila Kaplan, Sheri Fink, Katie Thomas and Noah Weiland. March 28, 2020 WASHINGTON — Early on, the dozen federal officials charged with defending America against the coronavirus gathered day after day in the White House Situation Room, consumed... More