At Scientific American, a trio calls on community leaders, scientists, and others to prevent increased racial and economic disparities in science due to pandemic-related school closures.
In PLOS this week: sequencing-based way to uncover drug resistance in tuberculosis bacteria, genetic population structure of mosquito vectors, and more.
Replacing nasopharyngeal swabs with saliva samples or nasal swabs could increase throughput and convenience, as well as relieve reagent and equipment shortages.
Several labs and at least one company have been working on assays that add samples directly to the PCR reaction and don't require RNA extraction, a time-consuming step.
Originally developed by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the test is modified for use on additional specimen types, including saliva, as well as with alternative nucleic acid extraction and amplification systems.
Russia says its candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccine has a very high efficacy rate in an initial analysis of clinical trial data, according to the Financial Times.
