Humans have infected wild deer with Covid-19 in a handful of states, and there’s evidence that the coronavirus has been spreading among deer, according to recent studies that outline findings that could complicate the path out of the pandemic.
About one-third of the deer sampled had active or recent infections, the study says. Similar research in Iowa of tissue from roadkill and hunted deer found widespread evidence of the virus.
A new study of hundreds of white-tailed deer infected with the coronavirus in Iowa has found that the animals probably are contracting the virus from humans, and then rapidly spreading it among one another, according to researchers.
Up to 80 percent of deer sampled from April 2020 through January 2021 in the state were infected, the study indicated.
An avalanche of misinformation about the antiparasitic drug ivermectin’s ability to treat COVID-19 has caused a series of national problems, from increased calls to poisoning centers to a shortage of the medicine itself.
Scientists have found three viruses in bats in Laos that are more similar to SARS-CoV-2 than any known viruses. Researchers say that parts of their genetic code bolster claims that the virus behind COVID-19 has a natural origin — but their discovery also raises fears that there are numerous coronaviruses with the potential to infect people. ...
Renewed interest in a lab-leak hypothesis prompted a few questions about the coronavirus’s origins at a House Appropriations subcommittee meeting Tuesday, amid discussion of the National Institutes of Health budget.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) held up a copy of the Wall Street Journal, referring to its recent story about workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China who became sick in November 2019. Harris asked Francis S. Collins, who directs NIH, whether it was correct that $600,000 of $3.7 million in NIH funding, given to the research group EcoHealth Alliance, was directed to the Wuhan facility. That was accurate, Collins said.
