A highly mutated version of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the Omicron variant has been shown to cause breakthrough infections among the vaccinated thanks to its ability to evade the virus-killing neutralizing antibodies that the body makes in response to getting vaccinated.

The Clalit Research Institute, in collaboration with researchers from Harvard University and Tel-Aviv University, analyzed one of the world’s largest integrated health record databases to examine the indirect protection provided to unvaccinated children through parental vaccination with the BNT162b2 (Pfizer) vaccine.

A new study by Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) researchers suggests that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was more than 91% effective at reducing transmission of coronavirus in Israeli households before the emergence of the delta variant. However, the combined effect of the new variant and waning vaccine-induced immunity considerably reduced the vaccine's effectiveness against transmission over time.

New laboratory research from Oregon Health & Science University reveals more than one path toward robust immunity from COVID-19.

A new study finds that two forms of immunity - breakthrough infections following vaccination or natural infection followed by vaccination - provide roughly equal levels of enhanced immune protection.

Iowa State University scientists may have uncovered an important clue that sheds light on why pigs don’t get sick when exposed to the coronavirus.

Studies since the start of the pandemic have noted that pigs can be infected by the virus if exposed to high doses, but the infection is self-limited and pigs don’t show clinical signs of disease nor do they transmit the virus to other animals.

More than 1.2 million people - and potentially millions more - died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, according to the most comprehensive estimate to date of the global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The analysis of 204 countries and territories, published in The Lancet, reveals that AMR is now a leading cause of death worldwide, higher than HIV/AIDS or malaria.

The placebo effect is the well-known phenomenon of a person's physical or mental health improving after taking a treatment with no pharmacological therapeutic benefit - a sugar pill, or a syringe full of saline, for example. While the exact biological, psychological and genetic underpinnings of the placebo effect are not well understood, some theories point to expectations as the primary cause and others argue that non-conscious factors embedded in the patient-physician relationship automatically turn down the volume of symptoms.