COVID and SARS News

August 5, 2025

Top Headlines

Researchers Discover Key Social Factors That Triple Long COVID Risk

Aug. 4, 2025 — New research led by Mass General Brigham reveals that people facing social challenges—like food insecurity, financial strain, and limited healthcare access—are two to three times more likely to develop long ...

This Vaccine Uses Dental Floss Instead of Needles

Aug. 3, 2025 — Scientists have discovered that flossing between your teeth could one day help vaccinate you. By targeting a uniquely permeable gum tissue called the junctional epithelium, this new method stimulates immunity right where many infections enter: the ...

COVID Vaccines Saved 2. 5M Lives Globally—a Death Averted Per 5,400 Shots

July 27, 2025 — Between 2020 and 2024, COVID-19 vaccines saved 2.5 million lives globally, preventing one death for every 5,400 doses. A groundbreaking worldwide study led by researchers from Università Cattolica and Stanford University reveals that most lives ...

Even Without Catching COVID, the Pandemic May Have Quietly Aged Your Brain

July 24, 2025 — Even people who never caught Covid-19 may have aged mentally faster during the pandemic, according to new brain scan research. This large UK study shows how the stress, isolation, and upheaval of lockdowns may have aged our brains, especially in ...

Scientists Just Resurrected the 1918 “Spanish Flu” Virus—here’s What They Found

July 24, 2025 — Scientists in Switzerland have cracked open a century-old viral mystery by decoding the genome of the 1918 influenza virus from a preserved Zurich patient. This ancient RNA revealed that the virus ...

Teen Bats Are Spawning New Viruses—here’s Why Scientists Are Paying Close Attention

July 22, 2025 — New research from the University of Sydney sheds light on how coronaviruses emerge in bat populations, focusing on young bats as hotspots for infections and co-infections that may drive viral ...

One Pregnancy Shot Slashes Baby RSV Hospitalizations by 72% — and Shields for Months

July 21, 2025 — A new UK study shows that vaccinating pregnant women against RSV has led to a staggering 72% drop in hospitalizations of newborns with severe lung infections. By passing virus-fighting antibodies to ...

A Tiny Chemistry Hack Just Made mRNA Vaccines Safer, Stronger, and Smarter

July 21, 2025 — What if mRNA vaccines could be made more powerful and less irritating? Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to do just that—by tweaking a key molecule in the vaccine’s delivery system. Using a century-old chemical trick ...

Breakthrough Microchip Reveals How Your Body Fights Viruses—in Just 90 Minutes

July 12, 2025 — A team at Scripps Research has created a microchip that can rapidly reveal how a person's antibodies respond to viruses using only a drop of blood. This game-changing technology, called mEM, ...

Scientists Just Found a Major Flaw in a Key COVID Drug Study

July 4, 2025 — A promising path to fighting COVID and other coronaviruses may have been based on a serious mistake. Scientists had zeroed in on a part of the virus called the NiRAN domain, believed to be a powerful target for new antiviral drugs. But when a ...

COVID-19 Protein Triggers Immune Attacks on Healthy Cells — but a Common Drug Can Stop It

June 24, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered a stealthy tactic used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus: one of its proteins can leap from infected cells to healthy ones, effectively tricking the immune system into attacking the ...

One Shot to Stop HIV: MIT's Bold Vaccine Breakthrough

June 20, 2025 — Researchers from MIT and Scripps have unveiled a promising new HIV vaccine approach that generates a powerful immune response with just one dose. By combining two immune-boosting adjuvants alum and SMNP the vaccine lingers in lymph nodes for nearly ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:26am EDT

Scientists Warn of Bat Virus Just One Mutation from Infecting Humans

June 25, 2025 — Viruses closely related to the deadly MERS coronavirus are lurking in bats and one group, known as HKU5, may be just one mutation away from making the jump to humans. A new study reveals how these ...

Scientists Discover Llama Antibodies That Shut Down COVID — and Its Future Variants

June 16, 2025 — Powerful llama-derived antibodies could be the key to stopping not just current SARS viruses, but future ones too. Scientists have discovered a ...

New mRNA Vaccine Is More Effective and Less Costly to Develop

June 3, 2025 — A new type of mRNA vaccine is more scalable and adaptable to continuously evolving viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and H5N1, according to a new ...

Evolution of a Single Gene Allowed the Plague to Adapt, Survive and Kill Much of Humanity Over Many Centuries

May 29, 2025 — Scientists have documented the way a single gene in the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, allowed it to survive hundreds of ...

Tiny Genetic Switch Found to Control Brain Balance and Behavior

May 26, 2025 — Researchers have identified a remarkably small but critical piece of genetic code that helps determine how brain cells connect, communicate, and function. The discovery not only deepens our ...

Engineered Bacteria Can Deliver Antiviral Therapies, Vaccines

May 21, 2025 — New research demonstrates how specially engineered bacteria taken orally can operate as a delivery system for vaccines and antiviral ...

Two HIV Vaccine Trials Show Proof of Concept for Pathway to Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies

May 16, 2025 — A decades-long scientific challenge in HIV vaccine development has been finding a way to train the immune system to produce antibodies that can ...

Particles Carrying Multiple Vaccine Doses Could Reduce the Need for Follow-Up Shots

May 16, 2025 — New polymer microparticles can be used to deliver vaccines at different times. The work could lead to childhood vaccines given just once, eliminating ...

New Study Offers Insights Into Designing Safe, Effective Nasal Vaccines

May 15, 2025 — Most vaccines -- and boosters -- are injected directly into muscle tissue, usually in the upper arm, to kickstart the body's immune system in the fight against disease. But for respiratory diseases ...

World's Largest Bat Organoid Platform Paves the Way for Pandemic Preparedness

May 15, 2025 — Until now, most research has used either generalized cell samples or organoids made from just one type of tropical fruit bat, and only from a single ...

Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of a Smallpox Vaccine for Preventing Mpox

May 8, 2025 — The recent global monkeypox (mpox) outbreak, with a new and aggressive variant, has underscored the dire need for safe, broadly effective, and accessible vaccines. The LC16m8 vaccine, an attenuated ...

Building Vaccines for Future Versions of a Virus

May 8, 2025 — AI model EVE-Vax provides clues about how a virus may evolve and the immune response it could ...

Vaccines of the Future: Harnessing the Immune System for Long-Lasting Protection

May 7, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered a promising new way to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines by tapping into the potential of a specific type of immune cell, opening the door to long-lasting vaccines for ...

Shingles Vaccine Lowers the Risk of Heart Disease for Up to Eight Years

May 5, 2025 — People who are given a vaccine for shingles have a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease, according to a recent study of more than a ...

Left or Right Arm? New Research Reveals Why Vaccination Site Matters for Immune Response

Apr. 28, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered why vaccines can elicit a stronger immune response if they are administered in the same ...

Data Collection Changes Key to Understanding Maternal Mortality Trends in the US, New Study Shows

Apr. 28, 2025 — A new study offers fresh insight into trends in maternal mortality in the United States. For the first time, the study disentangles genuine changes in health outcomes from shifts caused by how deaths ...

Experimental Bird Flu Vaccine Excels in Animal Models

Apr. 17, 2025 — A vaccine under development has demonstrated complete protection in mice against a deadly variant of the virus that causes bird flu. The work focuses on the H5N1 variant known as 2.3.4.4b, which has ...

Certain Nasal Bacteria May Boost the Risk for COVID-19 Infection, Study Finds

Apr. 9, 2025 — A new study has found that certain bacteria living in the nose may influence how likely someone is to get a COVID-19 infection. The research reveals that certain types of nasal bacteria can affect ...

Researchers Identify Safer Pathway for Pain Relief

Apr. 8, 2025 — Scientists have helped identify a novel drug compound that selectively activates pain-altering receptors in the body, offering a potentially safer alternative to conventional pain ...

Nasal Spray H5N1 Avian Influenza Vaccine Developed

Apr. 8, 2025 — Scientists have pioneered an influenza virus vector-based nasal spray vaccine platform and developed a nasal spray H5N1 avian influenza vaccine. During the early COVID-19 pandemic, this platform ...

Viral 'Backbone' Underlies Variation in Rotavirus Vaccine Effectiveness

Apr. 8, 2025 — Researchers have shown that differences in the entire rotavirus genome -- not just its two surface proteins -- affect how well vaccines work, helping to explain why some strains are more likely to ...

New Research Boosts Future Whooping Cough Vaccines

Apr. 4, 2025 — New research could aid in improving whooping cough vaccines to once again push this disease toward eradication by targeting two key weaknesses in the ...

An Antiviral Chewing Gum to Reduce Influenza and Herpes Simplex Virus Transmission

Apr. 4, 2025 — Low vaccination rates for influenza viruses and the lack of an HSV vaccine underscore the need for a new approach to reduce viral transmission. Researchers have now used a clinical-grade antiviral ...

Cellular Regulator of mRNA Vaccine Revealed... Offering New Therapeutic Options

Apr. 3, 2025 — A team of researchers has uncovered a key cellular mechanism that affects the function of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. Their study provides the first comprehensive understanding of how mRNA ...

Study Strengthens Link Between Shingles Vaccine and Lower Dementia Risk

Apr. 2, 2025 — A new analysis of a vaccination program in Wales found that the shingles vaccine appeared to lower new dementia diagnoses by 20% -- more than any other known ...

Research Finds Potential 'Molecular Mimics' Behind COVID-Induced Autoimmune Disease

Mar. 26, 2025 — Scientists used advanced data analysis and machine learning to identify the viral proteins that may trigger autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid ...

mRNA-Based COVID-19 Vaccines Train the 'Long-Term Memory' of the Immune System

Mar. 26, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines have a persistent effect on the innate immune system. These mechanisms may help the human body to better protect itself against potential ...

'Low-Sugar' Vaccine Can Provide Broad Immunity Against Coronavirus Variants

Mar. 25, 2025 — Early animal studies show that a single vaccine could protect the recipient from different variants of the coronaviruses that cause COVID-19, the flu and the common cold. In addition to creating ...

Cellular Mechanisms That May Lead to Onset of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Mar. 21, 2025 — New study shows that dysfunction of protective immune cells in GI tract may contribute to onset of inflammation in Crohn's ...

New Data on Mpox Vaccine Effectiveness

Mar. 19, 2025 — A study has found that a single dose of the Imvanex vaccine provides protection against Mpox with 84% effectiveness. For people with HIV, however, a single dose of the vaccine fails to offer ...