Study of coronavirus variants predicts virus evolving to escape current vaccines
Reading Time: 3 minutesA NEW STUDY of the U.K. and South Africa variants of SARS-CoV-2 predicts that current vaccines and certain monoclonal antibodies may be less effective at neutralizing these variants and that the new variants raise the specter that reinfections could be more likely. The study was published in Nature on March 8, 2021. A preprint of the study was […]
COVID waste: Archaeologists have a role to play in informing environmental policy
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is creating a viral archive, an archaeological record of history in the making. One aspect of this archive is increased environmental pollution, not least through discarded face-masks and gloves, collectively known as PPE, that characterise the pandemic. These items of plastic waste have become symbolic of the pandemic and have now entered […]
Cloth face masks that can be disinfected by the sun
Reading Time: 2 minutesDURING the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have become accustomed to wearing cotton face masks in public places. However, viruses and bacteria that stick to the mask could be transferred elsewhere when the wearer removes or touches it. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed a special type of cotton face mask that kills […]