Tag: virus

The P Word: Pandemic

~ cafebedouin

“We want – and need – to hear advice like this: 

* Try to get a few extra months’ worth of prescription meds, if possible. 

* Think through now how we will take care of sick family members while trying not to get infected. 

* Cross-train key staff at work so one person’s absence won’t derail our organization’s ability to function.

* Practice touching our faces less. So how about a face-counter app like the step-counters so many of us use? 

* Replace handshakes with elbow-bumps (the “Ebola handshake”). 

* Start building harm-reduction habits like pushing elevator buttons with a knuckle instead of a fingertip. 

There is so much for people to do, and to practice doing in advance.”

-Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman, “Past Time to Tell the Public: ‘It Will Probably Go Pandemic, and We Should All Prepare Now’.” Virology Down Under. February 23, 2020.

CRISPR Enzyme Programmed to Kill Viruses in Human Cells

~ cafebedouin

“Many of the world’s most common or deadly human pathogens are RNA-based viruses—Ebola, Zika and flu, for example—and most have no FDA-approved treatments. A team led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has now turned a CRISPR RNA-cutting enzyme into an antiviral that can be programmed to detect and destroy RNA-based viruses in human cells.”

—Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, “CRISPR enzyme programmed to kill viruses in human cells.” Phys.org. October 10, 2019