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COVID-19 patients who had received the flu vaccine 6 months to 2 weeks prior to diagnosis were less likely to have sepsis, stroke, and—with some time constraints—deep vein thrombosis (DVTs) and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) or emergency department (ED), according to a study yesterday in PLOS One. The researchers used an electronic medical record network to match 37,377 COVID-19 patients who had received the flu vaccine with 37,377 of those who hadn't in January 2021, drawing from 56 healthcare organizations predominantly in the United States. (8/4)

For every one million Americans immunized with a coronavirus vaccine, about 60 develop temporary heart problems, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network. The complications were all short-lived, the researchers found. And these heart problems are far more common among patients who develop Covid-19, outside experts noted. (Mandavilli, 8/4)

Scientists are scratching their heads over the precipitous decline in daily COVID-19 infections in the United Kingdom following their rapid rise earlier in the year. Officially recorded new cases more than halved in just 2 weeks: from a high of 54,674 on 17 July to 22,287 on 2 August. “Nobody really knows what’s going on,” says epidemiologist John Edmunds at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). In particular, it’s not clear whether this sudden trend indicates that the peak of the third wave has passed, or whether it is a blip caused by complex social factors. (Ball, 8/3)

What happened when an economics researcher, a bioengineer and a tech entrepreneur joined forces in a pandemic? They envisaged a research-grant system with an application form that can be completed in less than 30 minutes, a decision-making process that takes just 48 hours, and funding that arrives within a week — and then set up the system in 10 days, using donations from philanthropists. The scheme, known as Fast Grants, launched in April 2020 and received 4,000 applications in its first week. It was created by Tyler Cowen, an economics researcher at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia; Patrick Collison, co-founder of online payment processing platform Stripe; and Patrick Hsu, a bioengineer at the University of California, Berkeley. (Else, 8/3)

The sight of a needle piercing skin is enough to chill a quarter of adult Britons and trigger up to 4% into fainting. But hope is on the horizon for needle-phobics as researchers are working on a range of non-injectable Covid vaccine formulations, including nasal sprays and tablets. Almost every vaccine in use today comes with a needle, and the approved Covid-19 vaccines are no exception. Once jabbed, the body’s immune system usually mounts a response, but scientists in the UK and beyond are hoping to harness the immune arsenal of the mucous membranes that line the nose, mouth, lungs and digestive tract, regions typically colonised by respiratory viruses including Covid-19, in part to allay the fears of needle-phobics. (Grover, 8/2)