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Covid News Watch

Oct 11, 2023

Rand Paul Promises ‘Bombshell Revelation’ That Will Take Down Fauci + More

Rand Paul Promises ‘Bombshell Revelation’ That Will Take Down Fauci

Newsweek reported:

Senator Rand Paul promised “bombshell revelations” against Dr. Anthony Fauci, vowing to take down the former chief medical adviser to the White House.

“We now have emails that show [Fauci] saying that he knows it was gain-of-function, that the virus looked manipulated, and that he was worried that this came from the Wuhan lab,” the Kentucky Republican said during an interview with Fox Business. “February 1, 2020, then he spent the last three years saying ‘nothing to see here.’ We also know that there was a safety committee that should have reviewed this and we know that Anthony Fauci went around the safety committee.”

“This is a bombshell revelation, and this will eventually bring down Anthony Fauci,” Paul said. The comments by Paul this week come as he has continued to criticize Fauci over concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. In February, The Wall Street Journal published a report from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) which determined with a “low confidence” rating that COVID-19 originated from a lab in China.

In 2021, the FBI made a similar determination of where the novel coronavirus came from with a “moderate confidence” rating.

‘Amplified Pain Syndrome’: Eleven-Year-Old Boy’s Horror Diagnosis After COVID Vaccine

News.com.au reported:

The mother of an 11-year-old boy who suffered such a severe reaction to his COVID vaccine that he was sent home from hospital with highly addictive painkillers including oxycodone has slammed the “disgusting” treatment of her family by the government.

Alex, who asked not to use her real name to protect her son’s identity, says she was left “alone and isolated” caring for him for 18 months after he developed excruciating pain all over his body — which grew so intense he could barely walk or sleep and sometimes had to be carried to bed “screaming” — following his Pfizer vaccination in January last year.

Alex, who was ineligible for compensation under the federal government’s COVID Vaccine Claims Scheme, conceded, “I haven’t got a letter that says this was caused by the vaccine.”

But she has no doubt it was linked. “He had the injection at 2.30 p.m.,” she said. “I’ve got two other kids, they were both fine. By 5.30 p.m. he had chest pain, headache, said he was dizzy and felt kind of sick. We’d been told that was kind of normal, to give him some Panadol and Nurofen.

By the time he woke up the next day, he was in a lot more pain, his joints were hurting, he was struggling to be physically upright because he felt so dizzy and nauseated, and his chest pain was unbearable.”

COVID Vaccine ‘Black Hole’ for Injury Claims Is Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Says

Reuters reported:

Kangaroo court. Star chamber. Potemkin village. That’s how plaintiffs lawyers in a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday describe the obscure U.S. government tribunal charged with adjudicating claims for compensation by thousands of people who say they suffered serious injuries from COVID-19 vaccines.

The lawsuit, filed in Louisiana federal court, alleges that the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) violates the 5th and 7th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution by failing to provide “basic due process protections, transparency, and judicial oversight.”

The forum “is the equivalent of a black hole,” plaintiffs lawyer Aaron Siri, a name partner at New York-founded Siri & Glimstad, told me.

The plaintiffs — eight people who say they experienced debilitating side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as React 19, a nonprofit organization for people who claim vaccine-related injuries, want to stop the government from forcing their claims into the CICP until due process safeguards are added. Those include the right to review evidence, obtain discovery, present expert witnesses and appeal adverse decisions.

The plaintiffs blame the COVID vaccine for causing a wide range of ailments including Bell’s palsy, blood clots in the brain, vertigo, vascular inflammation, chronic fatigue syndrome, small fiber neuropathy, heart palpitations and more.

Aaron Rodgers Challenges Travis Kelce to Debate Vaccine Safety With RFK Jr. and Fauci

Forbes reported:

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers challenged Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to a debate Tuesday on the topic of vaccine safety, with Rodgers saying presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former top infectious disease official Anthony Fauci should also be involved after the two football stars spent the past week exchanging jabs over their positions on COVID vaccines.

While appearing on the ESPN-broadcasted podcast, The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers said the debate would bring “big ratings” and could mirror the film John Wick: Chapter 4 where both opponents have a second person on their side, with Rodgers suggesting Kelce choose Fauci or some other “pharmacrat” and selecting Kennedy, an outspoken COVID vaccine skeptic, for himself.

The back-and-forth began last week when Rodgers was asked about the Chief’s win over the Jets — Rodgers did not play in the game as he is recovering from a season-ending Achilles tear — and Rodgers responded by calling Kelce “Mr. Pfizer,” a reference to Kelce appearing in Pfizer’s commercials advertising the company’s COVID vaccine.

Kelce previously said Rodgers’ “Mr. Pfizer” comment was “pretty good” and added that he didn’t think he’d be in a vaccine war with Rodgers, and Rodgers countered those comments Tuesday saying it wasn’t a war, just a conversation.

Nasal Spray COVID Vaccine Shows Promise in Early Trial

U.S. News & World Report reported:

New research points to the potential of a COVID-19 vaccine delivered through the nose. The phase 1 clinical trial showed that the product, administered nasally in two doses, delivered a significant immune response to multiple COVID variants.

Called CoviLiv, the vaccine was tested as a primary vaccination series on healthy adults before the development of the mRNA vaccines that are now approved to treat COVID.

Instead, CoviLiv is a live-attenuated vaccine, meaning it is made from weakened virus. The genetic material of the virus was reordered to convert it from a disease-causing pathogen into a stable and safe vaccine, according to its developer, Codagenix Inc.

House COVID Panel Threatens Cuomo Subpoena for Nursing Home Scandal Records

New York Post reported:

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is weighing a subpoena of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo if he snubs their final request for records about his decision to place COVID-infected patients in nursing homes and long-term care facilities at the onset of the outbreak.

Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) threatened in a Tuesday letter to “evaluate” compulsory measures if Cuomo failed to produce documents about his administration’s COVID policies by Oct. 17, according to a copy of the missive exclusively obtained by The Post.

“To date, we have not received a single document from you. The Select Subcommittee is comprised of physicians from both sides of the aisle and members who take our responsibilities seriously,” Wenstrup wrote to the former governor.

Florida Health Officials Must Release 3 Years of COVID Data, Settlement Says

WFLA reported:

The Florida Department of Health must release three years of detailed COVID-19 data as part of a settlement, a government watchdog group announced Monday.

The Florida Center for Government Accountability (FLCGA) and former Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith agreed to a settlement that requires the Florida Department of Health to publish COVID data on its website for the next three years.

The state must also pay $152,250 to cover legal fees, FLCGA wrote in a news release.

Lower Microbiome Diversity May Indicate Severe COVID Infection — Patients Admitted to the ICU Had Significant Increases in Certain Bacteria, Study Shows

MedPage Today reported:

Patients with severe COVID-19 infection had lower microbiome diversity, indicating a potential biomarker of disease progression and severity, researchers said here.

Stool samples taken from patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with severe COVID showed significant increases in Parasutterella, Odoribacter, Staphylococcus, and Sellimonas bacteria, reported Irina Timofte, MD, of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, during the CHEST annual meeting hosted by the American College of Chest Physicians.

These bacteria have been implicated in gastrointestinal dysbiotic conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, Timofte noted. In addition, patients with COVID pneumonia who required supplemental oxygen had significantly lower community biodiversity in both the GI tract and oral cavity.

“This is not new. Manipulating the gut-lung axis was previously proposed as a treatment for lung diseases,” she said. “And previous studies have demonstrated changes in the composition of gut microbiota in COVID-19 patients. Therefore, our study is trying to find the relationship that could be responsible for varying severity of COVID-19.”

DEA Again Extends Telemedicine Flexibilities

CNN Health reported:

With a November cutoff looming, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has for a second time extended temporary rules allowing the prescription of controlled medications via telehealth.

These rules, established during the COVID-19 pandemic, are an exception to the conditions of a law known as the Ryan Haight Act, which requires at least one in-person medical examination before a doctor can prescribe a controlled medicine, including stimulant medications for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, benzodiazepines for anxiety, and drugs for opioid use disorder, sleep or pain, said Dr. Shabana Khan, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Telepsychiatry, in a previous interview with CNN.

Now, after holding two days of public listening sessions on the rules in September, the DEA and HHS have further extended the flexibilities through December 31, 2024.

Oct 10, 2023

Gates Foundation Investing $40 Million to Help African Manufacturers Produce mRNA Vaccines + More

Gates Foundation Investing $40 Million to Help African Manufacturers Produce mRNA Vaccines

The Hill reported:

The Gates Foundation announced Monday it will invest $40 million in several African manufacturers to produce and provide access to mRNA vaccines on the continent.

The $40 million investment will advance a research platform from Quantoom Biosciences that was developed with an early-research Grand Challenges grant made to its parent company, Univercells.

African-based vaccine manufacturers Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) and Biovac will receive $5 million each in funding from the foundation, while $10 million will be distributed to other manufacturing companies yet to be identified, according to the release.

Quantoom Biosciences will receive $20 million from the foundation to ensure low- and middle-income countries “can benefit from the next-generation mRNA health tools.”

Rand Paul Says ‘Without Question’ Fauci Belongs in Jail

The Hill reported:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he thinks former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci deserves jail time. Paul has a fiery history with Fauci, brimming from disagreements around the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to vaccinations. He has also argued that the former infectious diseases doctor lied to Congress by flip-flopping on where the COVID virus began in public and in private.

“We now have proof in Anthony Fauci’s own words, we have his emails,” Paul said in his interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“In public, he’s saying, ‘Oh, if you say it came from the lab, you’re a conspiracy theorist, you’re crazy, it’s a fringe theory,’” he continued. “But in private, he’s saying … ‘We’re very concerned because the virus appears to be manipulated. And we’re also very concerned because we know they’re doing gain-of-function research in Wuhan.’”

Paul outlines his beliefs in his upcoming book: “Deception: The Great COVID Cover-Up,” which is expected to be released next week. When talking to Hannity, the senator teased that more action could come against Fauci. “I think the book will go a long way to convincing the rest of America that this man was a traitor to his country,” Paul later added about Fauci.

People Who’ve Had COVID at Least 5 Times Describe How the Illness Changed With Each Reinfection

NBC News reported:

Nearly four years after COVID’s emergence, plenty of people have tested positive at least twice. But an unlucky group has been hit with reinfection after reinfection.

“I’ve seen a few patients with five infections,” said Dr. Grace McComsey, vice dean for clinical and translational research at Case Western University. “Sadly, they were immunized and they still got COVID five times.”

Three people said their later infections were all less severe than the first — though there wasn’t necessarily a clear pattern of milder symptoms with each new illness. Even so, having COVID was still mentally and emotionally exhausting each time, they said, since it disrupted their work and time with loved ones.

Long COVID Rare Among Children: CDC

The Hill reported:

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shed light on the rate at which long COVID affects children, indicating the condition occurs among only a small minority of them.

In a new survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the CDC found that 1.3% of children had long COVID in 2022 and 0.5% now have it.

The NCHS survey involved a sample size of 7,464, with interviews being conducted continuously throughout the year.

Excessive Drinking During the Pandemic Increased Rates of Liver Disease, Transplants

ABC News reported:

Excessive drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to skyrocketing rates of alcohol-associated liver disease to the point of needing transplants, according to doctors.

Transplant centers across the United States are reporting more patients in need of a new liver than ever before, sometimes seeing double the number of patients needing transplants compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In fact, alcohol-related liver disease has surpassed other conditions such as hepatitis C and fatty liver disease as the number one reason for liver transplants.

“It’s a nationwide phenomenon where, since the pandemic, there has been a notable increase in alcohol use, including harmful alcohol use where there is associated liver disease, and it has led to increased hospitalization of patients with liver injury due to alcohol,” Dr. Maarouf Hoteit, medical director of liver transplants at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said.

Updated Novavax COVID Vaccine Shipped to Distributors, to Be Available This Week

Reuters reported:

Vaccine maker Novavax Inc. (NVAX.O) on Monday said it has shipped millions of doses of its updated COVID-19 shots to distributors after receiving the go-ahead from U.S. regulators.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the updated vaccine last week for emergency use in individuals aged 12 years and older, but batches of the shots needed additional clearance from the FDA before they could be released.

Novavax said it expects the shots to be available at U.S. pharmacies this week.

Novavax, whose protein-based shot uses a technology employed for decades to combat diseases, missed out on the pandemic vaccine windfall enjoyed by mRNA rivals due to manufacturing issues that delayed filing for approval when COVID was raging.

COVID Metrics Trend Down Across U.S.

CIDRAP reported:

Today in its weekly update on COVID-19 activity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said several markers of the virus were trending downward, including emergency department visits and test positivity.

Test positivity from September 24 to September 30 was 10.9%, down 1.2% from the previous week, and emergency department visits dropped to 1.6%, down 14.5% from the previous week. Deaths, however, while still at low levels, were up 3.8%.

In total 18,139 people were admitted to the hospital in the last week of September for COVID-19, down 6% from the previous week. Hospitalization hot spots include communities in Montana, Idaho, Missouri, and Kansas. Those are the only states with a high rate of hospitalizations in some counties.

Overall, the summer spike in activity seen in August and early September has seemed to wane. As seen last week, data from wastewater analytics Biobot show a decline in SARS-CoV-2 levels.

COVID Might Raise Odds for Immune Disorders Like Crohn’s, Alopecia

U.S. News & World Report reported:

In rare cases, some patients may develop an autoimmune disease following a bout of COVID, Korean researchers report.

Conditions such as alopecia (hair loss), psoriasis, vitiligo (white skin patches), vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, adult-onset Still’s disease (painful skin rash), Sjogren’s syndrome (autoimmune disease), ankylosing spondylitis (spinal arthritis) and sarcoidosis (enlarged lymph nodes) can all be triggered by COVID-19 infection, according to the new report.

“Our findings highlight a significant association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of autoimmune and auto-inflammatory disorders. This emphasizes the need for a comprehensive medical approach that encompasses both the acute manifestations and potential long-term complications of COVID-19,” said lead researcher Dr. Sung Ha Lim, from the Department of Dermatology at Yonsei University’s Wonju College of Medicine in South Korea.

This study underlines previous findings, said Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

U.S. Data Show Many COVID Patients Received Antibiotics on Admission

CIDRAP reported:

A new study by researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that despite a decrease in overall antibiotic use, most U.S. adults hospitalized with COVID-19 continued to receive antibiotics beyond the first year of the pandemic.

The findings, published late last week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, show that antibiotic use in non-critically ill patients with COVID-19 was highest in 2020 and declined thereafter. However, even in 2022, nearly two-thirds of non-critically ill patients were treated with antibiotics, and most of them received an antibiotic as soon as they were admitted to the hospital.

Ceftriaxone was the most commonly used antibiotic, frequently in combination with azithromycin, which was thought in the early months of the pandemic to potentially lessen COVID-19 severity. Use of both antibiotics declined significantly over the study period, particularly azithromycin, after several studies found it had no effect.

But the study authors also note that while National Institutes of Health COVID-19 treatment guidelines say that empiric antibiotics can be administered if bacterial pneumonia is suspected, they observed increases in other antibiotics not recommended as first-line therapy for bacterial pneumonia. Vancomycin, cefepime, and piperacillin-tazobactam were among the antibiotics that saw increases.

‘Long Colds’ Are a Thing, Like Long COVID Say Experts

BBC News reported:

“Long colds” can be a thing in the same way that “long COVID” is, with some people experiencing prolonged symptoms after an initial infection, according to a U.K. study. Common long cold symptoms included a cough, stomach pain and diarrhea.

The findings come from 10,171 adults who completed questionnaires. The idea that a respiratory virus — or indeed other viral infections — can cause longer-lasting illness is not new, but the recent COVID pandemic has brought fresh attention to the phenomenon.

The study, published in The Lancet’s eClinical Medicine journal, asked people to report any respiratory illness and other symptoms they had in the first two months of 2021 — when the COVID pandemic was entering its second year and vaccines were starting to be rolled out. All of the participants were yet to have their COVID jab.

People who recently had COVID were more likely to report problems with smell and taste, brain fog, dizziness and sweating than people who had prolonged symptoms after a cold or flu.

Oct 05, 2023

Say Goodbye to the COVID Vaccination Card. The CDC Has Stopped Printing Them + More

Say Goodbye to the COVID Vaccination Card. The CDC Has Stopped Printing Them

Associated Press reported:

It’s the end of an era for a once-critical pandemic document: The ubiquitous white COVID-19 vaccination cards are being phased out.

Now that COVID-19 vaccines are not being distributed by the federal government, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped printing new cards.

The federal government shipped more than 980 million cards between late 2020, when the first vaccines came out, through May 10, according to the latest available data from the CDC.

Federal and local health officials don’t expect the discontinuation of the cards to be a particularly big change, since the days of keeping them tucked in purses and wallets to ensure entry into festivals, bars and restaurants are largely over. If you’ve held on to your card, it’s still valid as proof of vaccination. Otherwise, people who need their COVID-19 immunization records will need to request them just like any other vaccine.

COVID Booster Uptake Hindered by Prior Infections, Fear of Side Effects

CIDRAP reported:

Only 20% of Americans eligible for COVID-19 boosters get them, and today in Vaccine, researchers published the results of a new survey of 2,000 US adults to understand why uptake is so low.

Participants were part of the Arizona CoVHORT, a prospective trial that began in May 2020. All 2,196 participants had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and were asked if they had received a bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 booster. If respondents said they had not, they were asked why.

Among the 559 respondents who said they did not get a booster, 39.5% said they did not need one as they had already been infected by SARS-CoV-2 at least once, and 31.5% said they worried about side effects.

The third most common reason cited for not getting a booster, by 28.6% of participants, was respondents’ disbelief that a booster would add more protection over the vaccines they already had.

COVID Vaccine, Infection May Affect Migraine Course Slightly — Researchers Compared Headache Diary Data Before and After Vaccination or Infection

MedPage Today reported:

COVID vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection may play a small role in migraine worsening, preliminary data suggested.

While some patients reported migraine worsening after either vaccination or infection, headache diaries did not reflect significant differences in migraine frequency, reported Patricia Pozo-Rosich, MD, PhD, of Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, and co-authors.

About half of people with SARS-CoV-2 infection present with headache, and headaches can occur during acute or post-acute phases of infection. Studies also have linked COVID vaccines with mild to moderate head pain which can resolve in a few days.

“Migraine worsening is frequently reported by patients and it has been postulated that COVID-19 or its vaccines may represent risk factors for a transient or prolonged increase in frequency and chronification of migraine, however, data in this area are lacking,” Pozo-Rosich and co-authors added.

CDC Journal and Five Others Rejected Key Paper on COVID Vaccines and Heart Inflammation

The Epoch Times reported:

Six medical journals rejected a key paper on COVID-19 vaccines and heart inflammation, a condition the vaccines cause, according to documents reviewed by The Epoch Times. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), was one of them.

CDC officials falsely told the paper’s authors that the paper did not add anything to a previously published CDC report, which estimated more COVID-19 hospitalizations would be prevented than cases of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, caused.

The new paper clarified the risk-benefit calculus by separating children without serious underlying conditions such as obesity from children with one or more of the problems. It broke down the age group into two parts, 12- to 15 and 16- to 17. It subtracted incidental hospitalizations or hospitalizations where people test positive for COVID-19 but are actually being treated for other conditions.

The researchers estimated, using similar methods as the CDC, that one million doses would cause more cardiac adverse events in healthy boys than COVID-19 hospitalizations prevented. Among boys aged 12 to 15 without comorbidities, they calculated up to 6.1 times more adverse events among the vaccinated.

Pfizer Resolves Promosome Patent Lawsuit Over COVID Vaccine

Reuters reported:

Pfizer (PFE.N), BioNTech (22UAy.DE) and biotech firm Promosome told a federal judge in San Diego, California that they have agreed to end Promosome’s lawsuit accusing the COVID-19 vaccine makers of infringing a patent related to messenger RNA technology.

The companies said in a court filing on Wednesday that Promosome would dismiss its case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled, and that Promosome had agreed not to bring future claims over the patent against Pfizer and its partner BioNTech. No financial terms were disclosed.

The agreement comes weeks after Promosome abandoned a related lawsuit against COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna (MRNA.O).

Congress Extends Some Pandemic Preparedness Programs, but Not All

STAT News reported:

Congress temporarily extended a few pandemic-preparedness programs when it forestalled a government shutdown at the last minute Saturday evening. But a program that encourages the development of countermeasures for big public health problems like pandemics expired without reauthorization.

With hours left before a funding lapse, Congress passed a measure to keep the government running for another 45 days. That temporary funding measure also extended a few programs that are part of the Pandemic All-Hazards Preparedness Act.

The Pandemic All-Hazards Preparedness Act was a Bush Administration priority that Congress passed in 2006 to help the government respond to nuclear and biological attacks and naturally occurring threats, such as pandemics. The law created the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which runs the country’s stockpile of medical supplies, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which funds the development of biodefense products.

Sep 26, 2023

COVID Vaccines Linked to Unexpected Vaginal Bleeding + More

COVID Vaccines Linked to Unexpected Vaginal Bleeding

Nature reported:

Women who don’t menstruate — including postmenopausal women and those on contraceptives — were several times more likely to experience unexpected vaginal bleeding after COVID-19 vaccination than before the vaccines were offered, a study finds.

When COVID-19 jabs were rolled out globally, many women reported heavier-than-usual menstrual bleeding soon after vaccination. Study author Kristine Blix, at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, wanted to look at the trend systematically, particularly in women who don’t normally have periods, such as those taking contraceptives or who have been through menopause. The work is published in Science Advances.

The results were surprising, says Blix. They found that 252 postmenopausal women, 1,008 perimenopausal women and 924 premenopausal women reported experiencing unexpected vaginal bleeding.

Of these, roughly half of each group said that the bleeding came in the four weeks after the first or second vaccine dose or both. Premenopausal and perimenopausal women were most likely to report unexpected bleeding in the month after the vaccine, with their risk being three to five times as high as before the vaccinations existed. The risk for postmenopausal women increased by two- to threefold.

Merck COVID Drug Linked to Virus Mutations That Can Spread Between People, New Study Says

CNBC reported:

A new study released Monday said Merck’s widely used antiviral COVID pill can cause mutations in the virus that occasionally spread to other people, raising questions about whether the drug has the potential to accelerate COVID’s evolution.

The findings may increase scrutiny about the usefulness of the treatment, molnupiravir, which was one of the first COVID drugs available to doctors worldwide during the pandemic.

Molnupiravir works by causing mutations in COVID’s genetic information, which weakens or destroys the virus and reduces the amount of COVID in the body. However, the study published Monday in the scientific journal Nature found that COVID can sometimes survive treatment with molnupiravir, leading to mutated versions of the virus that have been found to spread to other patients.

Researchers in the U.S. and U.K. specifically analyzed 15 million COVID genomes to see which mutations had occurred and when. They found that mutations increased in 2022 after molnupiravir was introduced in many countries.

Vaccine Doubts Grow Beyond COVID Shots

Politico reported:

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, vaccine skepticism has endured among Republicans — and it stretches beyond just the COVID shot. Before the pandemic, there wasn’t much of a partisan divide in vaccine skepticism, including over whether students should have to get vaccinated against measles to go to public school, POLITICO’s Steve Shepard reports.

But the pandemic changed that, leaving GOP voters less likely than Democrats or independents to say vaccines are safe for kids, according to a new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll conducted as part of POLITICO’s series about the rising anti-vax movement.

COVID vaccines have been the foot in the door for the more general anti-vaccine movement. And unfortunately, that door is open pretty wide now,” said Dr. Dave Gorski, a Michigan-based oncologist tracking anti-vaccine efforts for two decades.

For example, earlier this year, a lawsuit funded by the Informed Consent Action Network forced Mississippi to allow religious exemptions for mandatory childhood vaccinations for the first time in more than four decades.

EU in Talks With Moderna Over New Deal for COVID Vaccines — FT

Reuters reported:

The European Union is in talks with Moderna (MRNA.O) over a new procurement deal for the company’s COVID-19 vaccines amid concerns over a rise in infections in the region, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The company supplied its COVID vaccines to the EU during the pandemic, but the contract for its Omicron-adjusted vaccines ended in August last year and was not renewed.

At least eight countries in the union are interested in a new supply deal, the report said, citing one of the people.

“Moderna manufactured its updated COVID-19 vaccine at risk to ensure we could support member states with their upcoming vaccination campaigns,” a spokesperson for the company said, adding the updated vaccine is approved for use in Europe and ready to be supplied.

Scientists Take ‘Decisive Step’ in Blood Testing for Long COVID

Axios reported:

Patients suffering from long COVID have distinct immune and hormone imbalances compared to those without, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature. Why it matters: More than three years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the breakthrough offers concrete scientific evidence of a complex condition that scientists have struggled to understand.

Between the lines: While no blood tests for diagnosing long COVID currently exist, the study’s results suggest it may be possible to develop one in the future, NBC News reported.

The big picture: Researchers compared the blood samples of people with long COVID symptoms at least four months after their infection, those who had fully recovered from a case of COVID, and those who’d never been infected with the virus.

They found that people with long COVID had irregular levels of different types of immune cells and that dormant viruses — like Epstein-Barr virus — had reactivated in long COVID patients.

Long COVID Rare in U.S. Kids, Has Affected 7% of Adults — More Common Among Girls and Women

MedPage Today reported:

Long COVID in the U.S. is rare among children and has affected roughly one in 14 adults, according to a pair of data briefs from the CDC‘s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Overall, in 2022, an estimated 1.3% of children in the U.S. ever had long COVID, and 0.5% currently had long COVID, reported Anjel Vahratian, Ph.D., MPH, of the NCHS, and colleagues.

As for adults, an estimated 6.9% ever had long COVID and 3.4% currently had long COVID that year, said Dzifa Adjaye-Gbewonyo, Ph.D., MPH, of the NCHS, and colleagues.

“While more than 90% of children ages 0-17 have been exposed to COVID-19, long COVID remains rare, especially in children younger than 12 years,” Vahratian and colleagues wrote. They noted that data from the Nationwide Commercial Laboratory Seroprevalence Survey show that as of December 2022, nearly 92% of children had antibodies indicating a previous COVID infection.

Europe Drawing Up Years-Long mRNA COVID Vaccines Tender

Politico reported:

The European Commission is drawing up plans for a tender for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, according to people close to the discussions — but it’s unclear if doses will be secured in time for this winter.

Several countries have confirmed to POLITICO that a tender for the joint procurement of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines is being discussed. This contract would run from 2023 through 2026 and would be the first joint procurement of COVID-19 vaccines outside of the pandemic.

While previous COVID-19 vaccine joint procurement agreements were awarded on a company-by-company basis, POLITICO understands that this tender would allow multiple companies to secure the same contract.

Currently, Pfizer/BioNTech is the only mRNA vaccine maker still to hold a valid contract. But the Commission’s controversial decision to lock in 1.1 billion doses of their jab effectively excluded other players from the market, a situation made worse after the deal was renegotiated to spread deliveries into 2027.