COVID-19 Archives - Keith Shields

SARS-CoV-2 and Elite Responders

I have limited time to blog this week and so I will only write a few words about the latest developments in SARS-CoV-2 research. This week’s NIH Director’s Blog offers hope for COVID-19 treatments using monoclonal antibodies. A team led by Michel Nussenzweig, Paul Bieniasz, and Charles Rice at The Rockefeller University, New York, and Pamela…

Life is Fragile

Perhaps now is the time to remind ourselves that life is fragile. We have all experienced a greater measure of our own bodily fragility ever since our world declared a world-wide pandemic. We realized that there are viruses that not only make us sick but can even kill us. And the virus has killed young, old, and in…

Yeast, Patience, and a Shutdown World

Patience is not my strong suit. I know that it is hard for many of us and particularly in a time of instant messaging, instant media, instant news, instant meals, instant coffee – well, maybe strike that last one – compared to previous eras, none of us can stand to be patient. Then, I read…

More Good News from the NIH

I am now in the habit of regularly reading Dr. Francis Collins’ blog at https://directorsblog.nih.gov/. Most of the latest information about potential vaccines, clinical trials, and COVID-19 therapies can be found here before they reach mainstream media. Dr. Collins (author of The Language of God) is a brilliant scientific mind, the director of the National Institute of…

How Does One Say Welcome Through a Mask?

Most of us are getting used to smiling really hard to enhance the mirth or joy in our eyes. Without this, will anyone out in the public know that we are smiling behind our mask? You know the feeling: you have just stepped into the wrong aisle, from the wrong lane, heading in the wrong…

Collins and Keller: Where is God in a Pandemic?

I am happy to have this blog where I can direct our attention to some of the valuable resources available to us at this time. One such resource is a recent conversation between Dr. Timothy Keller and Dr. Francis Collins moderated by Jim Stump from the BioLogos organization. I can give you a couple of…

Understanding Testing

The world of COVID-19 testing and our understanding of the virus has caused many of us to read science and health articles laden with new terminology that may be challenging to understand. One of the areas of knowledge that is difficult to understand is COVID-19 testing. Let’s take a closer look at some of the…

Science and Faith in Pandemic Times

Dr. Francis Collins has been a hero of mine since my days in the Molecular Diagnostic Lab at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. In those days he was the lead investigator on the Human Genome Project as everyone raced to be the first to map the approximately three billion base-pairs of the human…

Transitions in a Dangerous Time

“But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight Got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight When you’re lovers in a dangerous time.” – Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers In A Dangerous Time.” These words of Bruce Cockburn acknowledge that there is darkness. This present darkness in which we walk can be characterized…

What to do in Isolation

Okay, since March 13, 2020, Canada has changed and most of us find ourselves with much more time in our homes. How do we survive mentally, physically, and spiritually in this present state of affairs? I do not claim to be an expert, but here are some things I have found helpful. 1. Now is…