COVID-19
COVID-19 is a highly contagious respiratory disease that swept the world and has resulted in an ongoing global pandemic and public health crisis. The disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
While the mechanism of its emergence in humans remains unknown, it is known to have evolved from a coronavirus that naturally infects bats and pangolins. Disease control and prevention measures, such as mask wearing, social distancing and ventilating indoor spaces, have been utilized to manage the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many scientific terms and techniques becoming part of everyday life. RT-qPCR steals the show by being the gold standard technique for SARS-CoV-2 testing, with other diagnostic tools such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification and rapid antigen tests (often called lateral flow tests) also being commonly used. Sequencing has made some major contributions by enabling variant surveillance, and environmental sequencing has allowed the infection rates of whole populations to be monitored. And last but by no means least, sequencing and novel mRNA technologies facilitated the rapid development of a number of COVID-19 vaccines. Discover the full complement of our COVID-19 content below and find the latest papers published in the BioTechniques journal here.