All articles tagged with #immunity
COVID-19 cases are rising across the United States in a recurring summer wave, with 47 states showing growth and wastewater data indicating higher virus levels; experts say seasonality, indoor behavior, and waning immunity drive the pattern, while severe illness remains relatively low and vaccination, testing, ventilation, and precautions for vulnerable people are advised.
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee will force a vote on blocking the Trump administration's plan to shield the president from IRS audits, with Sen. Ron Wyden proposing an amendment that would kill the immunity deal and alter statute-of-limitations rules; Sen. John Cornyn is pressing to narrow the agreement and wants a written pledge that it applies only retroactively, a move tied to his support for Todd Blanche's confirmation as attorney general.
A Florida federal judge ruled that Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS was brought in bad faith to manipulate the judicial process, sanctioning several involved and signaling that the proposed immunity deal and related anti-weaponization fund were not approved by the court and should not be cited as a settlement in any proceeding.
News of disease outbreaks can trigger the brain's behavioural immune system, making people more conformist, less trusting of outsiders, and harsher in moral judgments; while individual responses vary and depend on many factors, the underlying mechanism helps explain how outbreak coverage can subtly shape attitudes during epidemics.
A leaked four-page draft of the UN‑sanctioned Gaza Board of Peace proposes total legal immunity for all members and authority to occupy Gaza public property without compensation, with Trump as chair able to waive immunities. Legal experts warn this could create a lawless, self‑policing regime with little external oversight, while the BoP disputes the report and pledges to uphold applicable law.
A Guardian article reveals a draft UN-backed resolution for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to govern Gaza that would grant broad immunities to its members, affiliates, and contractors, allow the board to seize public Palestinian property for free, and empower the chair to waive immunity with majority support. The draft, titled RESOLUTION NO 2026/3, lacks clear external oversight and raises concerns among legal experts about accountability and potential self-contained legal regimes in Gaza, prompting questions about how such protections would interact with international and local law. Officials deny that an immunity framework exists and emphasize oversight, while critics warn it could replicate occupation-era legal cover.
Tax experts and former IRS officials told a Miami judge that the DOJ’s immunity deal shielding Donald Trump, his family, and his businesses from audits or federal probes tied to past filings violates the Constitution’s ban on non-salary compensation, a finding that could save Trump roughly $100 million and raises questions about DOJ’s handling of the tax-leak case.
Several Republican senators say they have questions about the DOJ’s deal shielding Donald Trump, his family, and his businesses from IRS audits of past tax filings, a move that could affect Todd Blanche’s confirmation; some want amendments or more details, including whether the immunity is retroactive or could cover future audits, while the White House defends the arrangement and Senate Republicans weigh how to proceed.
The Boston Globe collects stories from over 500 readers who say they never contracted COVID and investigates whether shared traits or behaviors might explain why some people dodged infection, offering an early look at the mystery surrounding the so-called 'superdodgers'.
The Boston Globe investigates a small group of people who say they’ve never contracted COVID, explaining that true genetic resistance is extraordinarily rare. Researchers with the COVID Human Genetic Effort are scouring for genetic variants that might confer protection, while early findings link interferon-pathway mutations and autoantibodies to severe disease; for now, NOVID statuses remain unproven and likely rare, with many responders attributing their experience to vaccines, caution, or luck.
Trump moves to drop the $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate victims of what allies call government weaponization, while the deal still preserves immunity from tax-related probes into his past filings; a DOJ official said the fund won’t move forward, even as the broader agreement remains under litigation and has faced a court pause.
A Kyoto University study suggests modern blood and immune cells arose about 700 million years ago alongside the first multicellular animals, showing that macrophage-like cells and key immune pathways trace to unicellular ancestors; the gene FOS and other developmental pathways appear inherited from those ancient microbes, offering a shared biological legacy across vertebrates and potential insights into disease origins.
New analysis pushes LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all life, to about 4.2 billion years ago—roughly 400 million years after Earth formed—suggesting life began very early on our planet. The study reconstructs LUCA as a simple prokaryote that already had an immune system, implying primordial viruses were at play and that early microbes formed a recycling ecosystem with organisms like methanogens, offering new insight into how life evolved from its origins.
During infection by Toxoplasma gondii, mitochondria shed their outer membranes to form SPOTs—a new type of organelle that engulfs lysosomes—suggesting mitochondria can generate specialized organelles and supporting theories about how ancient mitochondria contributed to modern cell compartments and immunity.
Covid-19 has largely become a seasonal, milder respiratory threat for most people due to widespread immunity and the Omicron lineage, but it remains a risk for older adults, young children, and the immunocompromised. Boosters still offer protection for high‑risk groups, while uptake has fallen and vaccination policies are moving away from universal annual shots toward targeted protection for those most at risk.