Social media misinformation can negatively influence people’s attitudes about vaccine safety and effectiveness, but credible organizations — such as research universities and health institutions — can play a pivotal role in debunking myths with simple tags that link to factual information, University of California, Davis, researchers, suggest in a new study.

Researchers found that fact-check tags located immediately below or near a post can generate more positive attitudes toward vaccines than misinformation alone, and perceived source expertise makes a difference.

Research into additional coronavirus vaccines continues across the country, including at UC Davis Health in Sacramento.

The health system launched a Phase 3 clinical trial with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Novavax this week to test another experimental vaccine to help address the global pandemic.

UC Davis Health scientists have joined a landmark multicenter clinical trial to test whether a type of stem cell may help reduce inflammation in the lungs of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a life-threatening lung injury. They will study the potential role these cells play in reducing the severity of ARDS in patients with and without COVID-19.

As COVID-19 continues to disrupt educational experiences of students across the nation, newly analyzed survey research by the California Education Lab at the University of California, Davis, details the high level of uncertainty and financial stress experienced by California high school seniors as they weighed their college plans amid an unfolding pandemic.

Despite the encouraging news of potentially successful COVID-19 vaccine trials, there is not yet an FDA-approved vaccine available. Research into other effective coronavirus vaccines continues, including at UC Davis Health.

In February, when the world barely knew the name COVID-19, Marina Oshana had what she thought was the flu or some other bug.

“I’m an avid Jazzerciser. I love to dance. I was working out five or six days a week,” the UC Davis professor emerita of philosophy said on the Dec. 3 edition of UC Davis LIVE. “I noticed during the cardio portion of the class, I would get fatigued. It was very strange. It seemed to come on suddenly.”

A new cloth-based face mask has been developed by researchers that can kill up to 99.99 per cent of bacteria and viruses within 60 minutes of daylight exposure.

Reserachers have developed a reusable cotton face mask that can kill 99.9999 per cent of bacteria and viruses within an hour of exposure to sunlight, according to the study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, news agency PTI reported. However, live bacteria and viruses on the surface of the mask could still be contagious.

UC Davis Health has rolled out a groundbreaking, highly accurate test that can check for both COVID-19 and flu viruses at the same time, returning “gold-standard” results in 20 minutes.

UC Davis Health is among the first in the nation to roll out a groundbreaking, highly accurate test that can check for both COVID-19 and flu viruses at the same time. It returns results in 20 minutes and the method of testing is considered the gold standard for coronavirus.

The region’s top experts in patient-focused pulmonary health will lead those multidisciplinary teams. A majority of long-haul COVID patients will experience a variety of respiratory symptoms but some may have more subtle symptoms that may require additional input from experts in cardiovascular, immunologic and neurologic medicine.