News

An aggressive COVID-19 surveillance and testing effort at Duke University was highly effective in minimizing the spread of the disease among students on campus, according to a case study appearing Monday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

When the novel coronavirus began to spread across China, researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) sprang into action and they haven’t slowed down since. They are collaborating with each other and with other institutions to unlock the secrets of the virus that causes COVID-19 and to develop tests, vaccines, and treatments.

The pandemic has left many with habits they’d like to change. With help from Duke experts, here are strategies that may help fix pitfalls.

If this seems like a vignette from a more innocent time, well, it is. With Oct. 31 fast approaching – and with Thanksgiving and Christmas not far behind – three Duke doctors spoke to media Wednesday about ways to navigate the trickiest of holiday seasons with COVID-19 lurking around the darkened corner. 

Dr. Carl Heneghan, director of the University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, told The Spectator magazine in London, that the black-and-white nature of the test is leading to an inflated number of cases.

This year, she is thinking: wait till next year. She’ll stay home in Durham, N.C., with her husband, teenage son and 96-year-old mother, Marble Dudley. As a physician and the president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Alexander is fully aware of the risks of holiday gatherings in the middle of a pandemic and the vulnerability of her nonagenarian mother.

Almost half of Americans say they would not get a COVID-19 vaccine if it were available today, according to a September poll by the Pew Research Center.

Watch as three Duke scholars, including DHVI Chief Operating Officer, Thomas Denny, MSc, MPhil, discuss the intersection of COVID-19 and the upcoming flu season.

Manufacturers have ramped up production of the 2020-21 flu vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the two viruses expected to overlap this winter, and it still may not be enough to meet demand, experts told UPI.

Watch as Dr. Barton Haynes, Director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, and Dr. Mark McClellan, Director of the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy, join Dean Mary Klotman to talk about COVID-19 vaccine development and policy.