COVID-19 January 2021

WITS COVID-19 Update January 2021

January 2021

• Enjoy this vaccine sea shanty! From Tim @acapellascience on Twitter.
• Meet Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett who developed the Moderna #COVID19 vaccine. A great role model for women in STEM,
• Is the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine effective against COVID-19 mutations. Read what the scientists say. From The World Economic Forum.
• How do vaccines work? From the EU Commission.
• We can leave no one behind when tackling a pandemic. Find out why sex matters in immune responses & how the gender perspective improves #EpidemicPreparedness. From EU Science and Innovation.
• Dr Anna Wessesl Williams, a fascinating woman in STEM from the influenza pandemic of 1918. From Dr Michelle Oyen via Twitter.
• Great image about vaccines from Steve Silberman via Twitter.

December 2020

This month it's mostly about vaccines!

• Great thread on how vaccines work by WheatNOil. From Abeba Birhane via Twitter.
• COVID-19 vaccine development, great example of gender equality at work in science. From BBC.
• Remarkable efficacy with the Moderna vaccine- red line. 2 highly efficacious vaccines should be in Ireland soon. Tweet from Luke O’Neill.
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• How vaccines work from Dr Ronan Glynn – great video on Twitter from the Department of Health.
• How vaccines work, an interesting video from Rob Swanda an RNA biologist via Twitter.
• Great thread on vaccines from Cornelius Trass on Twitter.

Other COVID-19 news.

• Teen Turn continues to support girls across Ireland gaining experience in STEM despite COVID-19. From Tech Central.
• COVID-19 and gender-based violence from European Institute for Gender Equality. Grim reading.
• Working and managing COVID-19 images for use.

November 2020

Here's WITS current survey of COVID-19 articles and images.

• Megan O'Driscoll is a @UCC graduate in her 20s who has just published a first author paper in Nature. The paper is: Age-specific mortality and immunity patterns of SARS-CoV-2. Congratulations Megan. From Anthony O'Connor via Twitter.
• NWCI supports for women & COVID-19, this is a very useful list. Link.
• How is COVID-19 affecting our day-to-day behaviour? From The World Economic Forum.
• Aerosol transmission of Covid-19: A room, a bar and a classroom: how the coronavirus is spread through the air. Scroll down to see the changes over time. From El Pais English.
• Pfizer and Moderna are out front in the vaccine race. Both have RNA vaccines. This excellent video explains how RNA vaccines work. From Luke O'Neill via Twitter.
• Covid-19 and carbs: How coronavirus hides and attaches to cells. via The Irish Times.

Two great images: the relative size of particles from Luke O'Neill via Twitter and the difference of speaking with and without a mask the SFI Research Image of the Year 2020 from Dr Niall Smith of CIT.

September 2020

Research

• Keep up to date with COVID-19 research and policy with Brief19 a daily review of your daily roundup of SARS-CoV-2. It’s on Twitter @Brief_19.
• Understanding fluid mechanics is crucial to stopping the spread of the virus. From World Economic Forum.
• Fantastic work being done by scientists globally in so many areas to understand this virus. Great piece with a focus too on how technology is significantly speeding up the process and enabling capability. From Susan Treacy via Twitter.
• #ThinkBeforeSharing - Stop the spread of conspiracy theories. This is a new campaign from UNESCO to help us learn how to identify, debunk, react to and report on conspiracy theories to prevent their spread. Great set of infographics.

COVID-19 and Women in STEM

• Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists. A survey of >4500 scientists/PIs revealed that females, especially those with young children, experienced a substantial decline in time devoted to research during #COVID19. From Patricia Maguire via Twitter.
• What does COVID-19 mean for women across the world? From loss of reproductive & maternal health services, an increase in unpaid care work, fewer jobs, & a steep rise in domestic violence, the pandemic is rolling women’s rights back decades. From UN Development Programme.
• Dr Mary Murphy of @MU_Sociology explores gendered inequalities surrounding #COVID19 and how we can best "gender and equality-proof policy" in a post-pandemic Ireland. From TASC.

Staying safe

• Hand washing, social distancing and masks can stop most all of the Covid-19 pandemic, even without a vaccine or additional treatments. Essential we keep doing these. From Luke O’Neill via Twitter.
• How to protect yourself from coronavirus lingering in the air. From Luke O’Neill via Twitter.

• COVID risk chart with practical advice. From Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) via Twitter.
• What's the risk of COVID19 in classroom, office and bus ride? Ventilation is very important. Measure the risk of airborne COVID-19 in your office, classroom, or bus ride. From Luke O’Neill via Twitter.
• Key messages from @ACTually_Alyson's paper every public health official should know. From @Fi_Contextual.

Thanks to Laura K Finnegan for this coronavirus poster. Laura is a WITS member and won the 2019 Mary Mulvihill Award for her illustrated children's book of Irish scientists.