On this day a year ago, the UK started its piloting of mass testing in the city of Liverpool using lateral flow tests. The latest graphic in the #ChemVsCOVID series with the Royal Society of Chemistry looks at how these tests work, and how accurate are they compared to the standard PCR tests that are usually used for testing.
How does COVID spread? Of all the questions about the pandemic, this seems like it would be a fairly simple one to answer. But, even several months into the pandemic, the guidance from public health organisations did not recognise the potential for COVID to be transmitted through the air. The latest edition of the Chem vs. COVID series with the Royal Society of Chemistry highlights the point at which scientists called for this mode of transmission to be more widely recognised.
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, air purification technologies have been receiving renewed attention as workplaces look for solutions that will lower their workers’ risk of exposure. In the latest edition of Periodic Graphics in Chemical and Engineering News, we take a look at the different types of air purification and how each of them works. View the full graphic on the C&EN site.
On this day (16 June) a year ago, the first effective treatment for COVID-19 was announced. The corticosteroid drug dexamethasone, already used to treat several inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, was found to be effective for patients in a serious condition in hospital with COVID. This discovery was the product of the RECOVERY trial, a programme started in March 2020 to find COVID treatments.
The second part of the #ChemVsCOVID series, produced with the Royal Society of Chemistry, looks at how the structure of the spike protein was determined and how it helped our efforts against the virus.
A year and a day ago, the genetic sequence of the virus that has since spread across the world was shared. Though we were yet to appreciate the effect that the virus would come to have on our lives, this was already the moment at which science started to fight back. In this new series of graphics, made with the Royal Society of Chemistry, we’ll be highlighting the key scientific milestones that have brought us treatments, vaccines, and more.
