As COVID-19 sweeps the world, related viruses quietly circulate among wild animals. A new study shows how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, are related to each other. The work, published recently in the journal Virus Evolution, helps scientists better understand the evolution of these viruses, how they acquired the ability to infect humans and which other viruses may be poised for human spillover.

There is bad news and good news about the COVID-19 variants emerging around the world and in California. 

The bad news: Studies show three major variants, the ones first found in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, are more infectious, cause more serious cases of COVID-19 and increase the risk of dying. 

There is bad news and good news about the COVID-19 variants emerging around the world and in California. 

The bad news: Studies show three major variants, the ones first found in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, are more infectious, cause more serious cases of COVID-19 and increase the risk of dying. 

Through its free community COVID-19 test operations, Healthy Davis Together and the UC Davis Genome Center identified the first known case of the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus SARS-CoV-2 in the Sacramento region.

News reports indicate COVID-19 vaccines are not getting out soon enough nor in adequate supplies to most regions, but there may be a larger underlying problem than shortages. A University of California, Davis, study found that more than a third of people nationwide are either unlikely or at least hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them.

One year after the first patient with COVID-19 was diagnosed in the U.S., the world is still searching for safe and effective drugs to treat the coronavirus. UC Davis School of Medicine researchers have partnered with many drug developers to test potential therapies and vaccines. Currently, they are recruiting for more than 12 clinical trials to find potent COVID-19 treatments.

California’s 800,000 farmworkers have been hit hard by COVID-19, the disease that has infected more than 25 million people and killed more than 420,000 in the United States. Farmworkers are especially vulnerable to the airborne virus that causes COVID-19 because they often live, work and carpool in close quarters with other people. As essential employees, farmworkers have stayed on the job during the pandemic to plant, process and harvest the nation’s food.

In a promising result for the success of vaccines against COVID-19, rhesus macaque monkeys infected with the human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 developed protective immune responses that might be reproduced with a vaccine. The work was carried out at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, and is published Jan. 22 in the journal Nature Communications.

The University of California, Davis and InVixa Inc., a biopharmaceutical startup, have executed a licensing agreement for a novel method using inhaled statins to treat the severe respiratory disease known as COVID-19.

The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech that is being administered worldwide is 95% effective in preventing COVID-19, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that includes clinical trial data from UC Davis School of Medicine. 

Two fast-spreading COVID-19 variants discovered in recent months have health officials concerned worldwide, especially as the pandemic rages worse than ever in many places, including California. 

UC Davis is “passing the COVID test with flying colors,” MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle said, using a play on words as she concluded a recent interview with Professor Brad Pollock, associate dean for public health sciences, about the university’s COVID-19 testing program.

More than half of Latina mothers surveyed in Yolo and Sacramento counties reported making economic cutbacks in response to the pandemic shutdown last spring — saying they bought less food and missed rent payments. Even for mothers who reported receiving the federal stimulus payment during this time, these hardships were not reduced, University of California, Davis, researchers found in a recent study.

What impact is COVID-19 having on cancer prevention, control and survival? The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center is collaborating with 17 other cancer centers to study and try to answer that question, thanks to funding from the National Cancer Institute.

The UC Davis cancer center’s grant is focused on diverse communities.

UC Davis Health has expanded its ability to test for both COVID-19 and flu viruses at the same time, rolling out a high-volume combined test that can run hundreds of tests daily — with “gold-standard” results returned often in 24 hours or less.