Demand for NGO services usually increases in times of crisis. However, a new study led by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) in Lithuania has found that the COVID-19 pandemic had a mixed impact on NGOs working in Lithuania, Croatia, Poland and the UK. Some achieved financial success, but this often meant simplifying their programmes and compromising non-financial results.

A recent review in MedComm – Future Medicine examines long COVID across SARS-CoV-2 variants, focusing on variant-specific clinical features, pathogenesis, and implications for treatment. The study highlights that recent variants like Omicron are associated with lower incidence and milder symptoms, with vaccinations playing a substantial role in reducing long COVID's prevalence and severity. The research underscores the need for standardized diagnostic criteria and calls for more controlled studies, especially in unique populations, to uncover actionable insights into long COVID mechanisms and treatment options.

Researchers at The Jackson Laboratory and Trudeau Institute have identified the first mouse strain that is susceptible to severe COVID-19 without the need for genetic modification. This development, reported in Scientific Reports, marks a pivotal step forward in infectious disease research, providing an essential tool to develop vaccines and therapeutics for future coronavirus variants and potential pandemics. 

Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy resulted in significant reductions in depression among clinicians who provided front-line COVID-19 care in 2020 and 2021. These reductions were measurably greater than those experienced by the cohort of clinicians who received a placebo instead. Findings from this double-blind, randomized clinical trial are to be published in JAMA Network Open at 8 a.m. PST Thursday, Dec. 5.

“For doctors and nurses who feel burned out or disillusioned or disconnected from the patient care they want to provide, this study shows that psilocybin therapy is safe and can help these clinicians work through those feelings and get better,” said Dr. Anthony Back, the lead investigator.