COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 new research, vaccine and drug development news

News covering COVID-19 is still to slow down, with this week’s big hitter being the announcement that US President Donald Trump has put funding for the WHO on hold pending a review. Accusing the WHO of “severely mismanaging and covering up” the threat, critics have been quick to respond, with the UN Secretary General António Guterres declaring now is “not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the WHO…”. With the US contributing over $400m out of its $6bn for 2018-2019, this is a large chunk. In lighter news, researchers are attempting to develop ultraviolet LEDs capable of surface decontamination, and potentially also air and water. “One major application is in medical situations – the disinfection of personal protective equipment, surfaces, floors, within the HVAC systems, et cetera,” explained Christian Zollner (University of California Santa Barbara, USA), one of the researchers involved in the work.