Making Sense of Medical Science (MSMS)

A medical scientist explains medical news for lay people

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Steve Clark, PhD is a retired university professor with a PhD in immunology and a past Special Fellow of the Leukemia Society of America. Clark has published dozens of papers based on his research and holds two drug patents. He taught medical and graduate students about cancer biology and genetics, and about research ethics. He also directed an NIH-funded PhD Graduate Program and chaired several executive-level faculty committees. Clark served on the University Chancellor’s Speaker’s Bureau. While retired, Clark has been blogging on the COVID pandemic, which is the subject of his next book.

Category: SARS

Tracking The Origin Of Coronaviruses Via Viral Genome Sequence Analysis

May 21, 2025

While this recent evidence is consistent with an animal origin of the CoV-2 virus, it still is not definitive proof. But, this research adds to the growing circumstantial argument that the virus migrated from a bat into wildlife that was sold at the Wuhan market.
Over 400 Studies Show Face Masks Protect Against Respiratory Infection

December 14, 2024

Now a new meta-analysis by University of Oxford researchers, or an analysis of some 400 published studies on facemasks, further confirms that if they are correctly and consistently worn they effectively protect against respiratory infections, including COVID.
COVID On The Heart

October 22, 2024

Other studies showed that people who are vaccinated are roughly 40 to 60 percent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke following a COVID infection than those who are unvaccinated.
Politics: A Risk Factor For Death From COVID?

October 11, 2023

The bottom line was that after the vaccines rolled out, Trump voting counties saw 40% higher fatality rates per million residents. Before the vaccines, the COVID death rates were the same for all counties.
Part 3: Gain-Of-Function Research At The Wuhan Lab—Are The Chinese Hiding Something About The Lab?

August 22, 2023

Thus, this lack of cooperation regarding access to the Wuhan labs is happening as cooperation is seriously deteriorating across the scientific spectrum, not just at the Wuhan labs.
Part 2: Gain-Of-Function Research At The Wuhan Lab—What Exactly Was The Wuhan Lab Doing With Coronaviruses?

August 19, 2023

In other words, this test simply expressed the spike protein of each novel coronaviruses on the backbone of the safe lab virus genome in order to see if it could infect human cells. This completely negated the need to grow and handle the potentially much more dangerous wild-type virus.
While SARS-CoV-2 And Our Immune Systems Do A Dance, We Get Re-Infected

July 7, 2023

The natural immune response, like the vaccine immune response, is robust and effective, yet both are only directed against a very small portion of a big pathogen, and both are very leaky in that one can still get infected again! What gives?
The Virus Came From Wuhan Lab DOE Now Says…..Sort Of

March 12, 2023

…the world has been abuzz with reports that the Department of Energy recently reported that it decided, albeit with low confidence, that the SARS-CoV-2 virus might have leaked by accident from the virology lab in Wuhan.
Why Don’t The COVID Vaccines Last Longer?

April 6, 2022

Are the vaccines not very good? After all, we get small pox or measles shots that last a lifetime. Others like the vax for tetanus lasts for ~10 years. Why can’t we get a more durable coronavirus vaccine?
Lions And Tigers And…Deer? Oh My!

December 26, 2021

Scientists now have evidence that CoV-2 also readily propagates in white-tailed deer. In fact, the virus is already widespread in cervids across the US, which likely has significant implications for the long-term course of this pandemic.

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Category: SARS