This essay provides a critical observation of the South Korean government's distinctive management of COVID-19 with particular reference to the state of emergency. It reveals that the success of South Korea's handling of the pandemic is largely attributed by a majority of Western media to the efficient deployment of both information and communication technologies and Confucian collectivism, two components that seem contradictory yet not incompatible under the rubric of techno-Orientalism. Analyzing the intensification of surveillance and the rapid datafication of society, this essay argues that the current state of emergency is not a breakdown of normality but a continuation of the state of crisis and disaster that rules a developing country like South Korea. In doing so, the essay seeks to facilitate a critical discussion about a new mode of democracy in the era of pandemic that increasingly grapples with tensions between individual freedom and public health.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021911820002302 | DOI Listing |
Front Biosci (Landmark Ed)
January 2025
Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, 200444 Shanghai, China.
Background: Dexamethasone has proven life-saving in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and COVID-19 cases. However, its systemic administration is accompanied by serious side effects. Inhalation delivery of dexamethasone (Dex) faces challenges such as low lung deposition, brief residence in the respiratory tract, and the pulmonary mucus barrier, limiting its clinical use.
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January 2025
Center for Virus-Host-Innate-Immunity, Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
The type I interferon (IFN-I) response is a critical component of the immune defense against various viral pathogens, triggering the expression of hundreds of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). These ISGs encode proteins with diverse antiviral functions, targeting various stages of viral replication and restricting infection spread. Beyond their antiviral functions, ISGs and associated immune metabolites have emerged as promising broad-spectrum biomarkers that can differentiate viral infections from other conditions.
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January 2025
Global Health Program, Washington State University Global Health-Kenya, Nairobi 00200, Kenya.
Human outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are more common in Middle Eastern and Asian human populations, associated with clades A and B. In Africa, where clade C is dominant in camels, human cases are minimal. We reviewed 16 studies (n = 6198) published across seven African countries between 2012 and 2024 to assess human MERS-CoV cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViruses
January 2025
Center for Retrovirus Research, Department of Veterinary Biosciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Since the discovery of RNA in the early 1900s, scientific understanding of RNA form and function has evolved beyond protein coding. Viruses, particularly retroviruses like human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), rely heavily on RNA and RNA post-transcriptional modifications to regulate the viral lifecycle, pathogenesis, and evasion of host immune responses. With the emergence of new sequencing technologies in the last decade, our ability to dissect the intricacies of RNA has flourished.
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January 2025
Department of Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
The betacoronavirus genus contains five of the seven human coronaviruses, making it a particularly critical area of research to prepare for future viral emergence. We utilized three human betacoronaviruses, one from each subgenus-HCoV-OC43 (embecovirus), SARS-CoV-2 (sarbecovirus), and MERS-CoV (merbecovirus)-, to study betacoronavirus interactions with the PKR-like ER kinase (PERK) pathway of the integrated stress response (ISR)/unfolded protein response (UPR). The PERK pathway becomes activated by an abundance of unfolded proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), leading to phosphorylation of eIF2α and translational attenuation.
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