Results for:

Biology/Immunity

< Back to all posts

Are there neurological issues, other than strokes, that I should worry about?

Biology/Immunity Clinical Symptoms

A: Yes and no. Most of the other neurological complications seen to date have occurred later in disease progression (some time after active COVID-19 symptoms). There is some concern that COVID-19 can have effects on neural cells in the brain through the same mechanism that the virus enters other cells (ACE-2 receptor). There is also Read more…

I have been hearing about young, healthy people who didn’t have overt symptoms of COVID-19 having strokes. What does this mean?

Biology/Immunity Clinical Symptoms

A: We are still learning a great deal about the virus. Early reports from Italy and China have demonstrated that patients positive for COVID-19 are at an increased risk of developing blood clots, which can increase the risk of stroke due to occlusion of the blood vessels (1). Increasing cases of young, otherwise healthy people Read more…

Could over 20% of individuals living in New York City really already have been exposed to COVID-19?

Biology/Immunity Infection and Spread

A: Possibly, but there are a few things to consider about the sample of individuals included in the study (and all sero-surveys assessing past exposure to the infection via detection of antibodies targeted against SARS-CoV-2). In this study, ~3000 individuals (~1300 in NYC specifically) were recruited to be tested for presence of antibodies targeted against Read more…

What is an “infectious dose?” What is the “viral load”? Does high viral load increase ability to pass the virus to others?

Biology/Immunity Infection and Spread

A: Full explainer in the link below from two microbiology Profs. “In general, the more virus you have in your airways, the more you will release when you exhale or cough, although there is a lot of person-to-person variation. Multiple studies have reported that patients have the highest viral load of the coronavirus at the Read more…