Covid News Watch
COVID Vaccination Technology May Be Used as First Heart Attack ‘Cure’ + More
COVID Vaccination Technology May Be Used as First Heart Attack ‘Cure’
COVID vaccine technology is now being used to repair damaged organs of heart attack victims.
A team of scientists at King’s College London has identified mRNA’s — key genetic code — which produce proteins that can generate healthy heart cells.
The same technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna jabs delivers the mRNA to the heart muscle directly following a heart attack, where up to one billion heart cells die when blood supply to the central organ is stopped.
Lawsuit: Hospital Director Fired After Virus Patient Concern
A former director at a West Virginia hospital has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was fired after he raised concerns about the safety of patients who were on ventilators and receiving other respiratory care services during a surge of COVID-19 cases.
Mustard, then 63, alleges he was terminated after he reported concerns about the quality of medical care being provided as the number of patients requiring respiratory care increased during the pandemic. Mustard was “highly outspoken” about the need for more staff in the respiratory services department “in order to provide an adequate level of care to its patients and the community,” the lawsuit reads.
The suit states he was not warned that his job was in jeopardy or given a reason for the termination, which came less than one month after he received an “exceptional” performance review that included an incentive bonus of more than $6,000.
Novavax Says Vaccine Targeting COVID and Flu Shows Promising Results in Early Data
Novavax on Wednesday said its vaccine targeting both COVID-19 and the flu triggered an immune response similar to its stand-alone shots against each virus, in an early indication that a combination vaccine targeting both viruses could prove effective though further study is necessary.
Chief Medical Officer Filip Dubovsky, during a call with reporters, said the company’s early phase clinical trial found that up to 25 micrograms of the COVID formulation combined with up to 35 micrograms of the flu formulation triggered a promising level of protective antibodies.
Participants in the phase one trial had a median age of 59 and all of them had previously received COVID vaccines. Novavax is presenting the data at the World Vaccine Congress in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.
A New Version of Omicron Is Gaining a Foothold in the U.S., CDC Finds
Another Omicron subvariant is gaining traction in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.
The subvariant, called BA.2.12.1, is an offshoot of the BA.2 version of Omicron. While BA.2 remains the dominant variant in the U.S., BA.2.12.1 now accounts for roughly 1 in 5 new cases nationwide.
The majority of cases in the U.S. — around 75% — are still caused by BA.2., which has been the country’s dominant variant since late March.
New York Gov. Hochul Warns of ‘Rising Tide’ of COVID Cases as Omicron Subvariants Drive Spike in Infections
Two mutated strains of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 are the main culprits behind a “rising tide” of infections in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
“We did identify two subvariants of Omicron, which is driving the current spike in cases,” Hochul said during a press event in Syracuse. “We’re taking this very seriously,” the Democratic governor said. “You don’t know, every single variant that comes, is it going to be worse than the last one?”
But Hochul stressed that state health experts have seen no evidence that the new strains are more severe than others, and so far they are not expecting a repeat of the massive, Omicron-fueled surge in cases during the winter months.
Better Ventilation Can Prevent COVID Spread. But Are Companies Paying Attention?
Americans are abandoning their masks. They’re done with physical distancing. And, let’s face it, some people are just never going to get vaccinated. Yet a lot can still be done to prevent COVID infections and curb the pandemic.
A growing coalition of epidemiologists and aerosol scientists say that improved ventilation could be a powerful tool against the coronavirus — if businesses are willing to invest the money.
“The science is airtight,” said Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The evidence is overwhelming.”
It’s Getting Even Harder to Tell How Many Americans Have the Coronavirus
Coronavirus case counts have never been a perfect tally, but the numbers are becoming even less reliable.
The culprits? The proliferation of at-home tests (which often aren’t reported to the government); the halting of surveillance testing, including at some colleges; and the unwinding of some community testing sites in several states and cities are all playing a role.
The undercount of infections comes as health officials across the country are grappling with understanding the impact of the BA.2 subvariant — and preparing to track even more transmissible forms of Omicron. While infection rates can be useful indicators, some federal officials and public health experts say they’re increasingly focused on other metrics, such as hospitalizations and tracking the virus in sewer water.
The Official Count of COVID Shots in Older Adults Is Distorted. What’s Going On?
In many states, everyone over the age of 65 — and then some — has gotten at least one shot to vaccinate against COVID-19, according to counts by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Analysis by researchers at Northeastern and partner institutions indicates that the CDC counts, when compared with census data, show that 117% of older adults in Massachusetts, and 140% of older adults in New Hampshire, have gotten a shot. Indeed, data for 26 states, including all of New England, would indicate that more than 100% of people above age 65 have gotten at least one shot.
How is that possible? The short answer is, that it’s not.
Older People Who Get COVID Are at Increased Risk of Getting Shingles
People 50 and older who have had a mild case of COVID-19 are 15% more likely to develop shingles (herpes zoster) within six months than are those who have not been infected by the coronavirus, according to research published in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases. The risk, however, was found to be even greater for older people who were hospitalized because of a more severe COVID case, making them 21% more likely to develop shingles than those who did not have COVID.
The findings stem from data on roughly 2 million people — nearly 400,000 diagnosed with COVID-19 and 1.6 million who had no coronavirus infection.
Shingles is an outbreak of a painful rash or blisters on the skin, most often occurring on one side of the torso. It is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox. After someone has chickenpox, usually as a child, the varicella-zoster virus remains in their body and can become active again years or decades later, this time causing shingles. Most often, this happens after age 50.
Putting Hospitalized COVID Patients on Their Belly May Not Be a Good Idea After All
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Placing hospitalized COVID-19 patients on their stomachs is helpful if they’re on a mechanical ventilator, but a new study suggests it’s not a good idea for patients who are not intubated.
“Awake” COVID patients — as opposed to ventilated patients who are kept sedated — did not benefit from lying on their stomachs while struggling for breath, according to clinical trial results published online on April 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
In fact, awake COVID-19 patients asked to prone did somewhat worse short-term than those left on their backs, said lead researcher Dr. Todd Rice, an associate professor of allergy, pulmonology and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Their blood oxygen levels were lower, and they tended to remain sicker, Rice said.
Confused About the Second COVID Booster? So Are Some of the Experts + More
Confused About the Second COVID Booster? So Are Some of the Experts
Vaccine resisters have accused the federal government of pushing COVID-19 shots without ensuring that the benefits outweigh the risks. But what about when one of the people raising questions about the latest round of jabs is Paul A. Offit, arguably the most prominent supporter of vaccines in the nation, a vocal force against people who spread silly myths about vaccination and himself the developer of a vaccine against rotavirus.
Well, then you listen more closely.
Offit has concerns about additional boosters. Other prominent vaccine experts have been raising questions too, including Phil Krause, a former deputy director of the FDA Office of Vaccines Research and Review, and Luciana Borio, formerly the agency’s acting chief scientist, who co-wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “You Likely Don’t Need a Fourth COVID Shot.” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said waning immunity makes repeated boosting unsustainable.
CDC Launches Forecasting Center to Be Like a ‘National Weather Service for Infectious Diseases’
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched its Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics on Tuesday. The center aims to be like the “National Weather Service for infectious diseases,” helping to guide decision-making at all levels.
The CDC’s new disease forecasting center aims to guide decisions about broad public health needs like developing vaccines or deploying antivirals, and helping individuals decide whether it’s safe for them to go to the movie theater, Dylan George, epidemiologist and director of operations for the new center, said during a call with reporters.
George and a small team of colleagues are faced with tackling a “critical need” to improve the government’s “ability to forecast and model emerging health threats.” Planning for the center began in August, backed by $200 million in initial funding from the 2021 COVID-19 stimulus package, the American Rescue Plan.
COVID: Is the U.S. Compensation Scheme for Vaccine Injuries Fit for Purpose?
Patients and lawyers say that America’s system for COVID vaccine injury claims is costly, opaque and yet to issue a single payout.
“My toes move constantly, 24 hours a day, uncontrollably back and forth,” says Chris Dreisbach, a 44-year-old attorney who was admitted to hospital with debilitating neurological symptoms after a second dose of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine in March 2021. “I often spend at least four hours a day in my bathtub, because a hot bath is the only way I can turn down this electrical sensation that pulses through me. The cognitive issues are worse. I used to pride myself on being able to get up in a courtroom and think on my feet. Now, I have this brain fog. It’s embarrassing.”
From his hospital bed Dreisbach began researching compensation schemes, only to discover that the U.S.’s national Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was not available to people injured by COVID-19 vaccines. Instead he was forced to lodge a claim with a more costly, opaque and less generous system that has yet to pay out on a single claim for COVID vaccines. Senators, lawyers, doctors and others such as Dreisbach are questioning why patients injured by vaccines are being routed into a scheme they view as inferior.
J&J Pulls COVID Vaccine Sales Forecast Due to Low Demand, Supply Glut
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) on Tuesday cut its full-year profit expectation and said it could no longer provide a forecast for sales of its COVID-19 vaccine because of demand uncertainty as well as surplus supply of other shots.
The company had earlier predicted as much as $3.5 billion in sales from the single-dose vaccine, which has fared poorly compared to rivals due to low demand in the United States and safety concerns.
The vaccine, which is sold at a “not-for-profit” price, brought in $457 million in the first quarter. Its sales last year had underperformed rival mRNA shots also due to manufacturing bottlenecks and weak global demand.
Moderna Announces Step Toward Updating COVID Shots for Fall
Moderna hopes to offer updated COVID-19 boosters in the fall that combine its original vaccine with protection against the Omicron variant. On Tuesday, it reported a preliminary hint that such an approach might work.
Today’s COVID-19 vaccines all are based on the original version of the coronavirus. But the virus continues to mutate, with the super-contagious Omicron variant — and its siblings — the latest threat.
Before Omicron came along, Moderna was studying a combination shot that added protection against an earlier variant named Beta. Tuesday, the company said people given that beta-original vaccine combination produced more antibodies capable of fighting several variants — including Omicron — than today’s regular booster triggers.
White House Announces Global COVID Summit in May
The White House on Monday announced it would co-host a global COVID-19 summit in May, in a bid to boost efforts to vaccinate the world.
The announcement comes as efforts to fight the virus globally have hit roadblocks, including $5 billion for global COVID-19 aid being stripped out of a relief package in Congress amid a dispute over how to pay for it.
The summit, scheduled to be held virtually on May 12, will be co-hosted by the United States; Belize, chair of the Caribbean Community; Germany, the G-7 president; Indonesia, the G-20 president; and Senegal, chair of the African Union.
CDC Overhauls Travel Warning List; Much of Europe Now at ‘High’ Risk
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled its new system for travel risk assessments on Monday.
Many European nations are now considered at “high” risk for COVID-19, along with other marquee destinations around the world.
The big change comes at Level 4, which was regularly used for places considered “very high” risk for travelers. Level 4 will no longer be routinely used for that purpose. Instead, a Level 4 notice is reserved, in the new system, for only special circumstances. The CDC did not assign any destinations to Level 4 — “Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel” — on its Travel Recommendations website page on Monday.
Analysis: Demand for Pfizer’s COVID Pills Lags Around the World
Worldwide demand for Pfizer Inc’s (PFE.N) oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid has been unexpectedly light due to complicated eligibility requirements, reduced testing, and potential for drug interactions, a Reuters review of data and interviews with experts has found.
Demand also has been hampered by the perception that Omicron infections are not that severe.
Paxlovid was expected to be a major tool in the fight against COVID after it reduced hospitalizations or deaths in high-risk patients by around 90% in a clinical trial.
Why Cheap, Older Drugs That Might Treat COVID Never Get out of the Lab
In March 2020, Dr. Joseph Vinetz left the contemplative world of his Yale University infectious-disease laboratory and plunged into the COVID ward at Yale New Haven Hospital, joining an army of healthcare workers who struggled to treat the deadly viral disease.
“We were in the hospital. We had nothing,” Vinetz said. “I was one of tens of thousands of doctors around the world who said, ‘We gotta figure out what to do.’”
On April 16, 2020, Vinetz saw an article in the journal Cell about a drug called camostat, licensed in Japan in 1985 to treat inflammation of the pancreas. Research during the first SARS epidemic, in 2004, had shown the drug had a plausible biochemical mechanism for slowing coronavirus infections, so Vinetz and his colleagues quickly organized a small clinical trial on outpatients with mild to moderate symptoms.
A few old drugs still show promise, but they’ve had trouble getting traction. The ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine fiascoes soured doctors on repurposed medications, and the pharmaceutical industry has shown little interest in testing them, especially when it can earn billions from even mediocre new ones, scientists tracking the field say.
4 Michiganders With COVID Strain Unique to Mink Were Likely 1st U.S. Spillover Cases
Four Michiganders — a taxidermist, his wife and two mink farm employees — were infected with a unique coronavirus strain connected to minks, leading Michigan health officials and the CDC to conclude they likely contracted the first known U.S. cases of so-called animal-to-human virus “spillover.”
The Detroit Free Press and the Documenting COVID-19 project first reported on the mink cases in April 2021, after discovering details about them in Freedom of Information Act requests, and National Geographic confirmed last month that four cases with the same genetic mutations had been linked together.
All four people fully recovered.
There have been other animal-to-human COVID-19 cases documented in Canada with white-tailed deer and a hamster in Japan. While Michigan’s cases are the only known animal-connected COVID-19 cases in the U.S., there could be other cases that have gone unreported, as the country is not actively testing for such outbreaks.
Japan Approves Novavax COVID Vaccine
Japan’s health ministry on Tuesday formally approved Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, a fourth foreign-developed tool to combat the infections as the country sees signs of a resurgence led by a subvariant of fast-spreading Omicron.
The ministry approval comes the day after its experts panel endorsed use of Novavax’s protein vaccine, which is designed with similar technology used to fight diseases such as the flu and hepatitis B, for the first two shots and a booster.
Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters that Novavax product adds variety to the choices available and could appeal to those who are hesitant to use COVID-19 vaccines such as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s, which are designed with newer technologies.
Poland Declines to Take or Pay for More COVID Vaccines for Now
Poland will not take or pay for more doses of COVID-19 vaccine under the European Union’s supply contract, its health minister said on Tuesday, setting the stage for a legal battle with manufacturers.
Poland, along with other EU members, has been receiving COVID-19 vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic under supply contracts agreed between the European Commission and vaccine makers such as BioNTech SE and Pfizer or Moderna.
Poland’s biggest supplier is Pfizer. However, the country has seen lower vaccine uptake than most of the European Union and has surplus vaccine stock, part of which it has sold or donated to other countries.
7 Countries Where Kids Under 5 Years Old Are Eligible for COVID Vaccines + More
7 Countries Where Kids Under 5 Years Old Are Eligible for COVID Vaccines, and How the Roll-Outs Are Shaping up
It’s been nearly six months since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized Pfizer‘s COVID-19 vaccine for everyone as young as 5 years old.
But officials are still holding off on vaccinating younger kids until Pfizer and Moderna conclude their trials testing baby doses for kids aged six months to 4 years old. Europe, meanwhile, is squarely focused on vaccinating kids over 5 years old — with the exception of Sweden, which decided against recommending shots for kids under 11 years old.
In fact, there are just seven countries in the world where younger kids are being vaccinated against COVID-19. Here’s what we know about them:
COVID Vaccine Concerns Are Starting to Spill Over Into Routine Immunizations
Kids aren’t getting caught up on routine shots they missed during the pandemic, and many vaccination proponents are pointing to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy as a big reason why.
Public health experts, pediatricians, school nurses, immunization advocates and state officials in 10 states told POLITICO they are worried that an increasing number of families are projecting their attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine onto shots for measles, chickenpox, meningitis and other diseases.
That spillover of vaccine hesitancy may also be fueling an uptick in religious exemption requests from parents of school-aged children and is making it more difficult for states to catch up with children who missed immunizations during the pandemic’s early days when families skipped doctor’s appointments, they say.
Hugo Scornik, a pediatrician and president of the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, was alarmed by the introduction of several bills in the state legislature in the last year to limit vaccinations, including one that would have ended immunization requirements in schools. Several states considered similar pieces of legislation that would have either removed or whittled away at school vaccination requirements, though none moved forward.
For mRNA, COVID Vaccines Are Just the Beginning
Dozens of clinical trials are now underway for new forms of the mRNA vaccine — targeting everything from malaria to Zika, herpes, and cytomegalovirus. Last month, Moderna — which was founded in 2014 to explore the potential of mRNA — announced it had started Phase I clinical trials for two mRNA-based HIV vaccines. “The timeline for what can be achieved using the mRNA platform is so much better,” says Carl Dieffenbach, director of the Division of AIDS at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, who is overseeing those trials.
There was some work on mRNA happening before the pandemic — Moderna had spent years on the lipid envelope that encases the strand of mRNA in the vaccine, for instance. “Like all overnight successes, mRNA has been in development for a long time,” says Richard Hatchett of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. CEPI had invested in an mRNA vaccine for Zika in 2016 but had found that “the urgency sort of trailed off” as the outbreak subsided.
There had also been tentative attempts to develop mRNA platforms for other coronaviruses, such as MERS, work that proved crucial when COVID broke out. Moderna was able to tweak its MERS vaccine for the new disease, meaning its COVID vaccine entered clinical trials just 66 days after SARS-CoV-2’s genetic sequence was published.
COVID Vaccines Are Not Meant to Prevent All Infections, Experts Say. Americans Need to Reset Their Expectations.
Denny Mitchell couldn’t believe he tested positive for the coronavirus in January. The 45-year-old from Houston never left the house without his mask, he avoided indoor dining at all costs, and most important, he was fully vaccinated. But he still got sick. “I was surprised because I was taking so many precautions,” he said.
It’s no longer unusual to hear of someone getting COVID-19 even though they’re fully vaccinated and boosted. Yet, many Americans are still shocked when it happens to them.
By April 2021, the number of infections in vaccinated people was so common that the CDC stopped tracking them. But some studies suggest these so-called breakthrough infections already were on the rise.
Experts Recommend Anxiety Screening For Young Kids
Recent data proves what many people have suspected: Rates of anxiety and depression in children and teens rose during the pandemic. This has prompted first-time guidance calling for anxiety screening in children as young as eight years old.
The new guidance comes from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which is a group of volunteer experts from various health fields, and is the same group that makes recommendations for things such as cancer and diabetes screenings. The guidance suggests that all kids, eight years old and up, get screened for anxiety.
They also said that kids between the ages of 12 and 18 should be screened for major depressive disorder, but they have issued that guidance in the past.
White House COVID Response Coordinator Says Adults Over 60 Should Get Second Booster
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Americans who are over 60 should get a second COVID-19 booster shot, the White House’s new COVID-19 response coordinator recommended Sunday.
Dr. Ashish Jha, who joined the White House last month, also appeared on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” where he said that the second booster for Americans aged 50 to 59 “is a much closer call,” suggesting people in that age range consult with their doctors before getting that fourth shot.
The COVID Wave America Doesn’t Care About: ‘Everybody Is Sick of COVID’
The U.S. is in a stealth wave of stealth Omicron — probably.
It can’t be known for certain because the country doesn’t have the data it should have. That’s not for lack of technology or supply, but for lack of willpower. Americans largely don’t want to get tested for COVID right now.
But it sure seems like another COVID wave, and Americans want to ignore it. There’s no doubt U.S. COVID cases are rising, said Dr. Stuart Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Medicine — but by how much, it’s hard to say.
Previous eras of the pandemic “aspired to a monolithic data collection strategy” in which tests were centrally reported to authorities. But results of at-home tests in the U.S., now widely available, aren’t tracked. Some with COVID don’t test because they don’t want to, or don’t have access to testing. And others with COVID don’t test because they don’t know they have it.
Medical Regulator Faces Questions Over Board Members’ Links to Drug Firms
The UK medicines watchdog has been urged to strengthen its conflict of interest policy after it emerged that six of its board members are receiving payments from the pharmaceutical industry.
Board members involved in overseeing the regulator’s “strategic direction” also have financial interests in companies including U.S. and Saudi drug giants and firms with ambitions to break into the UK’s healthcare market. Some offer consultancy services while others help run or own shares in drug and medical device firms, according to official transparency records.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing, but the findings have led to concerns about perceived conflicts of interest among senior figures at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care responsible for regulating drugs and medical devices and ensuring they are safe.
Does the Moderna Vaccine Best the Pfizer Shot?
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Moderna‘s COVID-19 vaccine may have some slight advantages over the Pfizer shot, new research suggests. For the study, researchers tracked antibody levels in 234 people for 10 months after they received either the two-dose Pfizer (114 people) or Moderna (114 people) mRNA vaccines, or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson (6 people) shot, which uses a different mechanism to protect against infection.
A week to 20 days after their second dose, antibody levels in those who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were about 50 times higher than those in the J&J recipients. Antibodies in both the Pfizer and Moderna groups then began to drop, but the decline was greater in Pfizer recipients, the study found.
Patients with severe COVID-19 are believed to generate more antibodies than people who recover from mild cases, the authors of the study pointed out. The report was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.
The investigators also found that older recipients of the Pfizer vaccine generated fewer antibodies than younger recipients. This wasn’t the case for the Moderna vaccine; age didn’t appear to make much difference.
Here Are the COVID Subvariants Behind the Latest Rise in Cases — Including the Most Contagious Strain Dominating the Country
COVID cases are steadily increasing in many parts of the U.S., just weeks after most cities and states ended mask mandates and vaccine requirements.
The seven-day moving average for cases across the country increased 19.1% this week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rise in cases has been most severe in East Coast cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.
And while case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths remain at their lowest levels since the summer of 2021, the rise in cases is noteworthy because it is driven by several new coronavirus variants and subvariants, according to the New York Times’ COVID database.
The Case for Testing Pfizer’s Paxlovid for Treating Long COVID
Reports of two patients who found relief from long COVID after taking Pfizer Inc’s (PFE.N) antiviral Paxlovid, including a researcher who tested it on herself, provide intriguing evidence for clinical trials to help those suffering from the debilitating condition, experts and advocates say.
Long COVID is a looming health crisis, estimated to affect up to 30% of people infected with the coronavirus. It can last for months, leaving many unable to work. More than 200 symptoms have been associated with the condition, including pain, fatigue, brain fog, breathing difficulty and exhaustion after minimal amounts of physical activity.
Dr. Steven Deeks, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (USSF), and an expert in HIV cure research, said drug companies tend to discount single-patient case studies. But such instances have helped drive HIV cure research, and Deeks thinks these Paxlovid cases could do the same for long COVID.
Study Shows 99% on Indonesia’s Most Populous Island Have COVID Antibodies
Almost all residents of Indonesia’s most populous island of Java have antibodies against COVID-19, owing to a combination of prior infection and vaccination against the virus, a government-commissioned survey showed.
The March study of 2,100 people, conducted on Java, home to 150 million people, and Bali, Indonesia’s top tourism destination, revealed 99.2% of people had COVID antibodies, a 6 percentage point increase from a December survey.
The world’s largest Muslim-majority nation has recently loosened many of its pandemic restrictions, including waiving quarantine for foreign tourists and lifting a two-year ban on the mass exodus tradition during the Muslim holiday season of Eid al-Fitr.
Omicron-Specific Sinopharm, Sinovac COVID Vaccine Candidates Cleared for Clinical Trial
COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by a Sinopharm subsidiary and Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O) to target the Omicron variant were approved for clinical trials in Hong Kong, the companies said on Saturday.
Scientists worldwide are racing to study upgraded injections against Omicron, as data indicated that antibodies elicited by vaccines based on older strains show weaker activity to neutralize the highly transmissible variant.
Unvaccinated & Vaccinated COVID Case Rates Nearly Equal, DHS Says + More
DHS: Unvaccinated & Vaccinated COVID Case Rates Nearly Equal
On the day Wisconsin was set to cross a new milestone for the number of new cases recorded in the state, the Dept. of Health Services removed that figure from its COVID-19 dashboard. The graph showing the total number of deaths from COVID-19 or complications related to the virus has also been eliminated.
Although these figures, and others listed below, no longer appear on the main pages for COVID-19 statistics, they are still available on the DHS website in the form of downloadable spreadsheets that include all metrics recorded by the agency, listed by date.
One metric that did reemerge in this latest report juxtaposes COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Wisconsin. The newly released numbers find those differences declined significantly in the three months since the agency last published these numbers.
In fact, the difference between the two groups for the number of new cases per capita has been all but eliminated. Whereas, as COVID-19 cases began to spike in December, an unvaccinated person was three times more likely to contract the virus than someone who completed their initial series, now the difference has fallen to just five percent.
India’s Drug Regulator Has Ignored Red Alerts on Covaxin, Imperiling Millions of Lives
In a shocking turn of events, the World Health Organization warned United Nations agencies against procuring Covaxin, India’s indigenously developed and manufactured COVID-19 vaccine, just five months after granting approval to the made-in-India vaccine. The warning came after a WHO inspection of a manufacturing facility owned by Bharat Biotech International Ltd. revealed “deficiencies in good manufacturing practices.”
The WHO has not revealed the extent or nature of the deficiencies at Bharat Biotech’s facility; but given its recent instructions to U.N. agencies, the deficiency must have been significant from a public health perspective.
Violations of current good manufacturing processes are nothing new to the Indian pharmaceutical industry. There is a sordid history of warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration documenting systematic compliance issues over the last decade. Foreign inspections all but ceased during the pandemic.
This is not the first time that a foreign regulator has found problems with the manufacturing facility at Bharat Biotech which produces Covaxin. Exactly one year ago, the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA), Brazil’s drug regulator, pointed out serious lapses at Bharat Biotech’s manufacturing facility in India that makes this vaccine. ANVISA inspectors discovered issues with quality control at the facility that are meant to confirm that the live virus at the core of this vaccine has been inactivated.
Rural Treatment Options Lag as Eating Disorders Spike During Pandemic
Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, are some of the most fatal mental illnesses — second only to opioid addiction. Yet treatment options remain sparse, particularly in rural states such as Montana.
Emergency department visits for teenage girls dealing with eating disorders doubled nationwide during the pandemic, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same report notes that the uptick could have been due in part to reduced access to mental health services, a reality even more acute in rural states.
Pfizer May Have COVID Booster That Addresses Omicron, Other Variants by Fall
By this fall, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech could potentially have a COVID-19 booster that specifically addresses the Omicron variant as well as its subvariants and other known strains of the virus, CEO Albert Bourla said during a panel Wednesday.
“It is a possibility that we have it by then; it’s not a certainty,” Bourla said. “We are collecting data right now, and as far as I know, Moderna, as well as us, we are working on Omicron or different enhanced vaccines.”
It would be simple to create a vaccine specifically targeting Omicron, he explained, but it is scientifically and technically more difficult to create a vaccine that addresses all known variants.
Two New Highly Infectious Omicron Subvariants Are Driving up COVID Cases in New York
Two new Omicron subvariants that appear even more transmissible than the highly-contagious BA.2 are driving an uptick in COVID cases in New York, the state’s health department said Wednesday.
While there’s no evidence that either causes more severe disease, the department estimates they have a 23% to 27% growth advantage over the BA.2 variant that was itself more infectious than the original Omicron. It’s the first reported instance of significant community spread due to the two subvariants in the U.S.
“We are alerting the public to two Omicron subvariants, newly emerged and rapidly spreading in upstate New York, so New Yorkers can act swiftly,” State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement. “While these subvariants are new, the tools to combat them are not.”
To Find out Where the COVID Pandemic Is Headed, Look Here: The Sewer
The first clues appear in sewer water. And those clues are piling up.
As the United States enters year three of the coronavirus pandemic, disease trackers are trying to stay one step ahead of the constantly evolving virus — by hunting for it in feces.
The secrets of the virus can be found in wastewater because most infected people shed tiny pieces of virus when they use the toilet. So regularly analyzing wastewater from sewage treatment plants allows scientists to measure when those levels are rising or falling — and what variants are present — about four to six days before people start testing positive.
Stuck in the Great COVID in-Between
Life in a COVID world is getting awkward again as Americans rush headlong back to their old ways of life even as case counts rise and new variants threaten to dash their hopes.
We can’t say we’re in a post-pandemic period yet. But large segments of the public are embracing pre-COVID norms, a fact that’s maddening for those who are — or must — continue taking precautions.
“It’s definitely weird,” said Bob Wachter, chairman of the University of California, San Francisco Department of Medicine. “We’re going back to work, which is a little odd. We’re not sure whether to do handshakes or fistbumps,” he said. “Every encounter is this little negotiation with the people ‘Do you want to? Do I want to?’ It’s all very odd.”
Case rates and hospitalizations have plummeted after the Omicron surge.
Is Herd Immunity for COVID Still Possible?
With herd immunity, if someone does get infected by a virus, they are surrounded by enough people who are shielded against infection that the virus has nowhere to go. It fails to spread.
As a country, we had reached this point against some formidable viruses, such as rubella and measles. We thought we could get there with COVID-19. We were probably wrong.
“The concept of classical herd immunity may not apply to COVID-19,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with CNN.
And that “means we’re not going to be without SARS-CoV-2 in the population for a considerable period of time,” said Fauci, who recently co-authored a paper on herd immunity for the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
FDA Authorizes Breath Test That Can Detect COVID in Three Minutes
The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to a new COVID-19 test that can detect infections with only a sample of a patient’s breath, using a device that can yield results in less than three minutes.
The agency says the InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer will only be available for tests “by a qualified, trained operator under the supervision of a healthcare provider.” The test, designed for use in hospitals, doctors’ offices or mobile testing sites, requires a piece of equipment around the size of a piece of carry-on luggage. The FDA says the company will be able to produce around 100 instruments per week. Each test can evaluate around 160 samples every day.
InspectIR’s test works by analyzing a person’s breath using “gas chromatography gas mass-spectrometry” to detect five compounds typically exhaled when people are infected by SARS-CoV-2.
‘Last Few Tweaks’ Being Made to COVID IP Waiver Deal — WTO Chief
The head of the World Trade Organization told Reuters on Thursday that negotiations on an intellectual property deal for COVID-19 vaccines were ongoing between the four parties, saying they were seeking to agree on the proposal’s final terms.
Since the draft compromise emerged in the media a month ago, pressure from civil society groups has been rising for the parties — the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa — to walk away from the deal. Other public figures have also criticized it such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying it is too narrowly focused on vaccines.
India and South Africa, backed by dozens of other WTO members, had proposed a broad waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 drugs and vaccines but failed to overcome opposition from members like Britain and Switzerland who argued that pharmaceutical research required such protections.
