Trump administration wrote controversial US agency guidelines on testing: report

President Donald Trump's administration posted controversial recommendations on coronavirus testing to the US health agency's website against its objections, the New York Times reported Thursday.

As deadline looms, scramble on TikTok deal structure

Amid a looming deadline set by President Donald Trump, negotiators scrambled to find a new ownership structure for the popular video app TikTok that would pass muster in both the United States and China.

Seven dead, dozens infected after 'superspreader' wedding in rural US

A wedding in rural Maine became a coronavirus "superspreader" event that left seven people dead and 177 infected, renewing fear of the disease in the northeastern US state that had hoped the worst of the pandemic was behind it.

Australia pays $3.7 M to help news agency though pandemic

The Australian government on Friday announced a 5 million Australian dollars ($3.7 million) grant to the national news agency as part of pandemic-related assistance to regional journalism.

Israel returns to virus lockdown as cases mount

Israel is set to go back into a full lockdown later Friday to try to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has steadily worsened for months as its government has been plagued by indecision and infighting.

Virus risk looming at overcrowded French universities

Can mandatory masks offer enough protection in lecture halls so packed that late arrivals have to sit on the floor?

APT41, the China-based hacking operation spanning the world

A global hacking collective known as APT41 has been accused by US authorities of targeting company servers for ransom, compromising government networks and spying on Hong Kong activists.

Czech daily virus cases hit new record

The Czech Republic registered a record high of 3,130 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, reaching in 24 hours a figure comparable with the entire month of March, health ministry data showed Friday.

Apple to open its first India online store

Apple will launch its first online store in India next week, the Silicon Valley giant said Friday, hoping to cash in on the country's festive season and grow its tiny share of the booming market.

Poop knives, arachnophobic entomologists win 2020 Ig Nobels

Maybe this year's Ig Nobels, the spoof prizes for dubious but humorous scientific achievement, should have been renamed the Ick Nobels.

German hospital hacked, patient taken to another city dies

German authorities said Thursday that an apparently misdirected ransomware attack caused the failure of IT systems at a major hospital in Duesseldorf, and a woman who needed urgent admission died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment.

Private health insurers paid hospitals 247% of what Medicare would

Prices paid to hospitals nationally during 2018 by privately insured patients averaged 247% of what Medicare would have paid, with wide variation in prices among states, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Study shows high prevalence of fatigue following SARS-CoV-2 infection independent of COVID-19 disease severity

Research being presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) shows that persistent fatigue occurs in more than half of patients recovered from COVID-19, regardless of the seriousness of their infection. The study is by Dr. Liam Townsend, St James's Hospital and Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and colleagues.

Access to cancer medicines and clinical trials show stark variations across Europe

Access to cancer medicines is highly unequal across Europe both for new drugs in development because of uneven access to clinical trials and for currently approved drugs due to huge disparities in healthcare spending by different countries, according to results from studies presented at ESMO 2020.

Immunotherapy improves survival in advanced bladder cancer patients

An immunotherapy drug called 'avelumab' has been shown to significantly improve survival in patients with the most common type of bladder cancer, according to results from a phase III clinical trial led by Queen Mary University of London and Barts Cancer Centre, UK.

Interim data from early US COVID-19 hotspot show mortality of disease were not associated with race/ethnicity

A study of interim data from two hospitals in an early US COVID-19 hotspot, to be presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online 23-25 September), shows that race and ethnicity were not significantly associated with higher in-hospital COVID-19 mortality, and that rates of moderate, severe, and critical forms of COVID-19 were similar between racial and ethnic groups.

Study shows one quarter of hospitalized young patients aged 18-39 years with COVID-19 developed pneumonia

New research to be presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) shows that one quarter of hospitalised younger patients with COVID-19 aged 18-39 years developed pneumonia, underlining the danger the disease respresents to young people. The study is by Assistant Professor Hyun ah Kim, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, Daegu, and Dr. Hyo-Lim Hong, Daegu Catholic University Medical Center, Daegu, South Korea, and colleagues.

Study shows SARS-CoV-2 jumped between people and mink, providing strong evidence of zoonotic transmission

A study investigating SARS-CoV-2 infections across 16 mink farms in the Netherlands, being presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) shows that the virus likely jumped between people and mink and back, providing strong evidence that animal to human (zoonotic) transmission is possible.

Study suggests substantial proportion of pet cats and dogs are infected with SARS-CoV-2 by their owners

A small study by Canadian veterinary science experts being presented at this ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) suggests that a substantial proportion of pet cats and dogs can be infected by SARS-CoV-2 by their owners. Furthermore, in several cases pets found to be infected had COVID-19-like respiratory symptoms at the time their owner had COVID-19.