®) put out new information today to provide guidance for COVID-19 vaccinations in people with cancer. The nonprofit alliance of leading cancer centers created an NCCN COVID-19 Vaccine Committee that includes top hematology and oncology experts with particular expertise in infectious diseases, vaccine development and delivery, medical ethics, and health information technology. These recommendations can help cancer care providers make informed decisions on how to protect their patients from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, based on available evidence plus expert consensus. The committee s recommendations state that all people currently in active cancer treatment should get the vaccine, with some advice to consider regarding immunosuppression and timing. The full document can be found at NCCN.org/covid-19, along with other vital information about the impact of COVID-19 on cancer care.
Jan 22, 2021 8:52am Using CRISPR gene-editing technology, scientists were able to map out phylogenetic trees that track the lineage of individual cancer cells as they proliferate and metastasize. (Jeffrey Quinn/Whitehead Institute)
Metastasis is responsible for most cancer-related deaths, but it’s hard to trace. Now, a group of researchers has developed a CRISPR-based method that helped track tumor spreading patterns.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Francisco used the CRISPR gene editing tool to map out a detailed family tree that revealed the dynamics behind the development and progression of cancer metastases.
So far, none of the new variants appears to make people sicker or cause more death.
Generally, it doesn t make sense for a virus to become deadlier because viruses that kill their hosts too quickly can t continue reproducing.
Middle East Respiratory Virus, for instance, which is similar to SARS-CoV-2, kills about one-third of its victims. But after a few scares when it first appeared in 2012-2013, it hasn t spread much beyond Saudi Arabia, where it was first seen.
Virologists were relieved COVID-19 wasn t as deadly but from the start its rapid rate of spread made it dangerous. And the new
Washington experts on the hard-won lessons of COVID’s first year
From treating patients to tracking the virus to vaccinations, health workers reflect on what they’ve learned and the challenges ahead.
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Swedish Medical Center health care workers battling the coronavirus outbreak look on from inside the hospital as first responders gathered outside in support of them in Seattle, April 16, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic was Washington state s top story for 2020. (Elaine Thompson/AP)
There’s a lot Dr. Jeff Duchin didn’t expect a year ago. “If I had seen what was coming, I might have considered retiring,” says the health officer with Public Health Seattle & King County, who hasn’t taken a day off since the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was confirmed a year and a day ago in nearby Snohomish.
New strains of COVID swiftly moving through the US need careful watch, scientists say Karen Weintraub and Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
How viruses like COVID-19 mutate, and how they impact vaccine development
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Viruses live – if you can call it that – to replicate themselves. They hijack cells, including our own, and use them to make copies of themselves.
But every time a virus like the one that causes COVID-19 copies itself, as it does millions of times inside each infected person, mistakes can happen. Instead of perfectly copying its 29,811 bases, the four-letter alphabet used to describe its genetic code, a wrong letter sneaks in.