COVID-19 symptoms- are all over the map, with manifestations that can range from disruptive to downright deadly. The lost sense of smell some sufferers are experiencing is particularly bizarre but it's proven to be so common—with up to two-thirds of COVID-19 sufferers losing their sense of smell to some degree—that physicians frequently use it as a screening symptom for possible testing. Until recently,...
Many of us have been waiting anxiously for updates on the COVID-19 battlefront, but the news has been uncertain at best. We’re still only slightly closer to finding herd immunity than we were months ago, and though treatment has improved, slowing the death rate, the infection rate has not likewise dropped off. And recently, scientists have confirmed that reinfection may be possible under some circumstances,...
The COVID-19 battle rages on, and with no end in sight. Numbers continue rising and many people are looking toward herd immunity as our last hope. Could the masses of infections actually benefit us in the long run? Some researchers are warning us not to hold our collective breath. Studies seem to indicate that a long-term immune response against COVID-19 might not exist, which means reinfection may...
You may have heard reports recently about the effects of respirator masks on people who wear them all day. They paint a scary picture, one that creates an impossible choice: Leave everyone open to exposure or put everyone at risk of passing out from low oxygen levels. But it’s important to get all the facts before throwing away those masks. Some people have been promoting claims that lengthy mask use...
More and more people are learning firsthand how devastating COVID-19 can be, and infection rates are showing no signs of letting up. Many of us are doing what we can to protect ourselves and our close family members, but friends are important, and even if we can't exactly protect them, we love them, too. So when this illness hits someone close, but outside our household, it’s only natural to want to...
COVID-19 seems to bring new surprises at every turn. The devastation has hit all over the world, the effects already having ravaged and killed hundreds of thousands of people. And it never seems to let up with me challenges coming to light all the time. This is science in real-time as we learn about this virus on the fly. Researchers are now reporting a subset of patients developing diabetes in response...
No one can say yet what the future of this pandemic is going to look like, but researchers have their predictions. Of course, it's hard to say while we're still in the throes of the worst pandemic we're likely to see in our lifetimes and the details are still being hammered out. But one of the predictions we're hearing is that COVID-19 is going to become a seasonal illness — eventually. What We Know...
Early on in the pandemic, some sources seemed intent on sowing confusion over best practices. What their motivation was, one can only guess, but the result is that some people are still confused and feeling as though there's been a "back and forth" approach when the reality is that the experts have been aligned from the beginning and one thing is clear: mask use will help control the spread of the...
COVID-19 has left many of us feeling worried and uncertain about the future. We’ve watched the -statistics-, holding our breaths collectively as the numbers change. We’ve crossed our fingers while protests surge and reopenings abound. And now, we can only wait and see whether we’ve set ourselves up for a an even more devastating wave of disease. A look around the world has shown us how dangerous it...
Would you be able to tell a COVID-19 infection from a cold or the flu? The coronavirus has shown itself to be a formidable foe, creating a vast spectrum of disease that can affect people in some surprising ways. Often, COVID-19 is a -lot- more than a bad cough and fever but the news has been so overwhelming that many of us are still unaware of the myriad symptoms, making it difficult to know. It’s...