A Resource on COVID19

An FAQ on the types of tests available for COVID-19 and the main differences between each of them.

Author: Meena Kharatmal

Published on CovidGyan Website

Meena Kharatmal is a scientific officer and Ph.D. student at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (TIFR) in Mumbai

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the coordination with IISc team member, guidance of TIFR team members, support from HBCSE in this effort.

Its been a good opportunity and learning experience.

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Moved from content to article

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Yes. thanks @vvcstemplay for pointing and thanks @jtd for pointing the change.

here is the link… I will also edit in the main page above.

now I have to also do the same thing on - twitter, blog, webpage, etc. :grimacing:

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I think it would be a lot easier to create a dummy page that redirects to the functioning one.

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Selective Naked-Eye Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Mediated by N Gene Targeted Antisense Oligonucleotide Capped Plasmonic Method
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c03822

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Superb new method. Certainly faster, and, since it is visual, possibly cheaper — that remains to be seen.

But it is not, yet, contactless.

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Its interesting to see the naked eye detection. I was just wondering, about its cost-effectiveness of developing this as a mass testing methods. Considering the equipment required are quite high-end and sophisticated.

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Currently they are using gold nano particles. But probably many other common elements nano particles with appropriate metasurfaces would serve the purpose of colour change.

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This article generated quite a lot of interest. I also have suggested this work to the Covid Gyan team. They want me to share to their team probably for blurb writing. :grinning:

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Conclusions The results of this case series suggest that high-dose oral famotidine is well tolerated and associated with improved patient-reported outcomes in non-hospitalised patients with COVID-19.

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Ok thanks @jtd I shall look at this paper …

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I love marketing hype. No need for data.

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100% mask wearing can drop infection rate dramatically.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2020.0376

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https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2020.0376

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High humidity increases chances of infection

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Thanks @jtd. Its really an interesting study.

It seems relevant also. There are studies highlighting how far/long the droplet can travel, and this study about how long the virus inside the droplet can survive seems new. Needless to say, it is also a good example of intersection of biology with physics and chemistry. Somehow their data of survival or growth rate of respiratory droplet in humidity and dry conditions, probably indicates in dry conditions or if I may extrapolate in higher temperatures, the droplet gets dry and hence the virus within the droplet gets neutralized as well.

With a ‘droplet of virus’ there can be so many conceptual connections to teach at school level, such as: diffusion, evaporation, droplet volume, contact angle, ambient temperature, humidity, temperature, weather, correlations, variables…

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Salt impregnated masks - soaking a mask in salt solution - offers upto 85% better protection. This paper was published in 2017 and studies the effects of salt laden filters on corona family of viri.

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39956

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Upto 43% of Covid infected might be asymptomatic and spreaders.
Symptomatic tests being used across India are particularly problematic.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3012

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