Covid News Watch
Overall Risk Low of Pediatric ICU Stay, Death in COVID, MIS-C, Study Shows + More
Overall Risk of Pediatric ICU Stay, Death in COVID, MIS-C Low, Study Shows
A University College London–led team finds a very low risk of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission and death from COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) during the first 2 years of the pandemic, with the highest risk among children with complex medical problems and neuro disabilities.
The researchers conducted a population-level analysis of hospitalizations after COVID-19 infection in England among youth 0 to 17 years old from February 1, 2020, to January 31, 2022. They linked national hospital data with data on COVID-19 testing, vaccination, PICU admissions, and death.
House COVID Panel Requests Briefing on Fall Vaccine Plans From New CDC Head
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has requested that Mandy Cohen, the recently appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), answer questions on the federal government’s plans for a COVID-19 vaccine campaign this fall.
In a letter to Cohen, subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) indicated that his request for information was made in response to a recent interview the director gave to Spectrum News.
In the interview, Cohen said, “I don’t want to get ahead of where our scientists are here and doing that evaluation work, but yes, we anticipate that COVID will become similar to flu shots, where it is going to be you get your annual flu shot and you get your annual COVID shot.”
Wenstrup wrote that it was “unclear if the science supports such a recommendation.”
“If this anticipated CDC recommendation occurs, it will mark a significant change in federal policy and guidance regarding COVID-19 vaccines and the way in which they are utilized,” he said. The Ohio congressman requested that Cohen provide the select subcommittee with documents and communications having to do with vaccine recommendations as well as a briefing from the CDC next week.
Moderna Sees up to $8 Billion in 2023 COVID Vaccine Sales on Private Market Hopes
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) on Thursday raised its annual forecast for COVID-19 vaccine revenue to up to $8 billion in anticipation of a boost in the fall season, as sales move to the private market in the United States from government contracts.
COVID vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer are expecting private market sales and strong demand for their new updated shots targeting XBB.1.5 variant to turn around a slump in demand after a surge during the peak of the pandemic.
Moderna expects $6 billion to $8 billion in sales from its COVID shots this year, up from its previous forecast of $5 billion.
It forecast U.S. demand at 50 to 100 million doses in the fall season, adding a low-end and range to its previous expectation of 100 million doses.
COVID Pandemic Might Have Pushed More Girls Into Early Puberty
U.S. News & World Report reported:
More girls started puberty before age 8 during the COVID-19 pandemic, a phenomenon called precocious puberty, researchers say.
The reasons include potential risk factors such as increased screen time and less exercise, according to a new study, published online on Aug. 3 in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
The number of girls referred to pediatric endocrinologists for precocious puberty rose substantially over the past two years, researchers found. COVID-19 has also been linked to endocrine diseases, including obesity, which can contribute to early puberty in girls.
“The role of stress, social isolation, increased conflicts between parents, economic status and the increased use of hand and surface sanitizers represent potentially further interesting hypotheses as to why early puberty is increasing in youth,” said study author Dr. Mohamad Maghnie, of the University of Genoa and the Giannina Gaslini Institute in Italy. “Although, the consequence of biological adaptation cannot be entirely ruled out.”
Pfizer: FDA Authorization for Updated COVID Vaccine Expected in August
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Originally, federal officials had proposed September for the rollout of the fall COVID-19 shots, which have been updated to combat the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. But the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told NPR this week that the shots will be available “probably in the early October time frame.”
Experts hope that a fall booster campaign will increase protection against the coronavirus ahead of a potential fall and winter wave. Moderna and Novavax are also working on updated COVID-19 shots for this timeline. Insurance will cover the costs of the shots for most Americans, while the Biden administration plans to launch a program in the fall that will provide free COVID-19 shots and treatments to uninsured and underinsured Americans.
It’s unclear which populations federal officials will target with the updated shot, but they could face an uptake issue, considering only 17% of Americans rolled up their sleeves for the latest shots as of May.
Additionally, COVID-19 hospitalizations increased last week for the second week in a row after months of declines. Should the trend continue, more Americans may become aware of a potential coronavirus wave, likely increasing willingness to roll up their sleeves for another shot.
Risk of Smell Loss From COVID Has Plummeted Since 2020
When the pandemic began, losing your sense of smell was considered a key indicator of COVID-19, and the condition affected about half of those who tested positive for the coronavirus. However, a new study reveals that the chance of smell loss from the latest Omicron variants is as low as 6% to 7% of what it was in the early days of the pandemic.
The findings, published in the journal Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, mean that losing smell and, by association, your sense of taste is no longer a reliable sign that someone has a COVID infection, study leader Evan Reiter, the medical director of Virginia Commonwealth University Health’s Smell and Taste Disorders Center, said.
Doctors have had difficulty explaining the cause of smell loss, but some research suggests it is due to COVID triggering a prolonged immune assault on olfactory nerve cells. These cells sit at the top of the nasal cavity and help send smell signals from the nose to the brain.
Despite the dramatic decline, Reiter said he still sees patients who have either completely lost or have a distorted sense of smell, which takes a significant toll on their quality of life.
New Breath Test Shows Promise for Rapid COVID Detection
A new device created by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can detect SARS-CoV-2 in just one or two breaths and provide results in less than 1 minute. Study results are published in ACS Sensors.
The test could be more accurate than at-home tests and faster than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or swab-based tests, which can take at least 15 minutes to produce results. The device, created by 3D printers, was tested using eight participants (two negative for COVID-19, six positive as indicated by PCR testing), who breathed two, four, and eight times into a flexible tube.
The breath test provided no false results, with accurate results obtained after two breaths for each participant. The technology grew out of tests built to detect amyloid beta and other Alzheimer’s disease–related proteins in the brains of mice.
Using SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from llamas, researchers were able to adapt the test for COVID-19, and they said the test could be easily changed to test for influenza, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), or even an emerging respiratory pathogen.
Coronavirus Hospitalizations Tick Up, Prompting Questions About the Next COVID Wave
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Many in the U.S. have moved on from COVID-19, but a recent increase in hospitalizations is a reminder that the coronavirus is sticking around for the long term.
It’s the fourth summer with COVID-19 and it’s one marked by periods of record travel — likely an indicator that after spending years in a pandemic, a significant number of Americans are ready and willing to get back to normal.
But the past few weeks saw an increase in coronavirus metrics that can provide an early warning of COVID-19 spread like emergency department visits, wastewater surveillance and test positivity. And now, coronavirus hospitalizations are on the rise, too.
Dozens of Omicron subvariants are circulating in the U.S., including the so-called “Arcturus” variant. But several of the strains are on the rise, giving Arcturus a run for its money.
Rare Links Between COVID Vaccines and Adverse Events Studied + More
Rare Links Between COVID Vaccines and Adverse Events Studied — Researchers Discuss What We Can Learn From ‘Long Vax’ Symptoms
Two Yale University researchers want to understand why symptoms that emerge rarely after COVID-19 vaccines occur.
Persistent symptoms after vaccination — sometimes called “long vax” — are similar to those reported with long COVID, including small-fiber neuropathy and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). But studies have largely shown that the risk of post-vaccine events do not exceed background rates, or that the odds of a new diagnosis like POTS are greater after SARS-CoV-2 infection than after vaccination.
Akiko Iwasaki, Ph.D., and Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM, both of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, recently expanded their ongoing LISTEN study of long COVID to include people with adverse events after COVID shots, hoping to match abnormal post-vaccine symptoms with corresponding immune responses.
“Around that time, we also became aware that there were people who were reporting a chronic syndrome, with many similar symptoms after receiving vaccination,” Krumholz said. “These people were not political and not anti-vaccination — they had all been vaccinated — but seemed to have symptoms that were persistent and debilitating.”
In Neurology, Avindra Nath, MD, of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, pointed out that vaccine side effects, including those that affect the nervous system, are difficult to identify.
‘Fairly Shocking’: Secret Medical Lab in California Stored Bioengineered Mice Laden With COVID
A months-long investigation into a rural California warehouse uncovered an illegal laboratory that was filled with infectious agents, medical waste and hundreds of mice bioengineered “to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus,” according to Fresno County authorities.
Health and licensing said Monday that Prestige Biotech, a Chinese medical company registered in Nevada, was operating the unlicensed facility in Reedley, California — a small city about 24 miles southeast of Fresno. The company, according to Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba, had a goal of being a diagnostics lab.
Hundreds of mice were also found at the warehouse, where they were “kept in inadequate conditions in overcrowded cages” with no food or water, according to court documents. An associate with Prestige Biotech told investigators that the mice were “genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID virus,” the documents added.
Zieba said officials called in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after about 30 freezers and refrigerators were found, with some set to negative 80 degrees. The CDC detected at least 20 potentially infectious agents, according to court documents.
“Ultimately, what we did find is some viruses, such as HIV, COVID, chlamydia, rubella, malaria, things of that nature,” Zieba said.
Pfizer 2Q Numbers Tumble and COVID Vaccine, Treatment Sales Dry Up
Crumbling COVID-19 vaccine and treatment sales chopped Pfizer’s second-quarter earnings, but both the drugmaker and Wall Street expect a rebound in the back half of 2023.
Pfizer recorded no U.S. sales of its treatment, Paxlovid, in the recently completed quarter, as the company shifts to selling the pills on the commercial market after contracting with the government.
Paxlovid brought in only $143 million in total sales during the quarter after recording $8 billion in last year’s quarter. Sales of the vaccine Comirnaty also slid 83% to $1.49 billion in the quarter, as both products fell short of Wall Street expectations.
Both Pfizer’s leaders and analysts who follow the company had expected a sales drop in the quarter as inventories already on the market were used up. But they also expect a rebound later this year, as commercial sales take hold, COVID-19 cases climb and fall vaccination pushes begin.
Updated COVID Boosters Could Be Authorized by End of Month, Pfizer Says
The Food and Drug Administration could authorize Pfizer‘s updated COVID boosters by the end of August, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during an investor call Tuesday.
The drugmaker asked the FDA in June to authorize an updated version of its COVID booster that is designed to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant, a coronavirus strain that began circulating widely last winter. Moderna made a similar request that same month.
The requests came days after the FDA advised the drugmakers to update the shots to target XBB.1.5 ahead of a fall COVID booster campaign.
XBB.1.5 is no longer the predominant strain, only making up 12.3% of all new COVID cases through the week ending July 22, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s been edged out by XBB.1.16, which accounts for about 15% of all new cases.
“We expect a new COVID wave to start in the U.S. this fall,” Bourla said.
New COVID Vaccines Are Coming to the U.S. This Fall, but Uptake May Be Low — Here’s Why
A new round of COVID vaccines is coming to the U.S. this fall — but many Americans may not roll up their sleeves and take one. That’s largely because pandemic fatigue, the belief that COVID is “over” and confusion over personal risk levels could deter some people from getting an additional shot, experts in public health and health policy told CNBC.
In September, vaccine manufacturers Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are slated to deliver new single-strain COVID shots targeting the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the most immune-evasive strain of the virus to date.
It will be a “very uphill battle” to get people to take those jabs, especially given the sluggish uptake of the most recent shots that rolled out, said Jen Kates, senior vice president of the health policy research organization KFF.
Only about 17% of the U.S. population — around 56 million people — have received Pfizer and Moderna’s bivalent COVID vaccines since they were approved last September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bivalent means they target two strains of the virus.
Biden Administration Launches Office for Long COVID Research
U.S. News & World Report reported:
As Americans continue to grapple with the effects of long COVID, the Biden administration on Monday announced the creation of a new office focused on research about the condition that will be part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Office of Long COVID Research and Practice will lead the U.S. response to long COVID, which includes trials that have already been launched, the HHS said in an agency news release. The $1.15 billion RECOVER research program is meant to better understand, treat and prevent long COVID; as many as 23 million Americans have developed the condition, according to HHS estimates.
Brain Fog and Other Long COVID Symptoms Affect Millions. New Treatment Studies Bring Hope
The National Institutes of Health is beginning a handful of studies to test possible treatments for long COVID, an anxiously awaited step in U.S. efforts against the mysterious condition that afflicts millions.
Monday’s announcement from the NIH’s $1.15 billion RECOVER project comes amid frustration from patients who’ve struggled for months or even years with sometimes-disabling health problems — with no proven treatments and only a smattering of rigorous studies to test potential ones.
“This is a year or two late and smaller in scope than one would hope but nevertheless it’s a step in the right direction,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University in St. Louis, who isn’t involved with NIH’s project but whose own research highlighted long COVID’s toll. Getting answers is critical, he added, because “there’s a lot of people out there exploiting patients’ vulnerability” with unproven therapies.
Scientists don’t yet know what causes long COVID, the catchall term for about 200 widely varying symptoms. Between 10% and 30% of people are estimated to have experienced some form of long COVID after recovering from a coronavirus infection, a risk that has dropped somewhat since early in the pandemic.
Bronny James Cardiac Arrest Sparks COVID Vaccine Theory + More
Bronny James Cardiac Arrest Sparks COVID Vaccine Theory
LeBron “Bronny” James Jr., the son of NBA superstar LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest on Monday while practicing at the University of Southern California (USC) sparking some on social media to speculate that it was caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Tuesday morning, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Bronny James “collapsed on the court Monday and had a cardiac arrest.”
Charania also shared a statement from a spokesperson for the James family which said:
“Medical staff was able to treat Bronny and take him to the hospital. He is now in stable condition and no longer in ICU. We ask for respect and privacy for the James family and we will update media when there is more information.
“LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes.”
The report on Tuesday sparked a wave of social media users to speculate that the COVID-19 vaccine was the cause of the cardiac arrest. Shortly after the COVID-19 vaccine was first rolled out in the U.S. some cases of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, were reported among certain recipients.
“Cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have occurred most frequently in adolescent and young adult males within 7 days after receiving the second dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine; however, cases have also been observed after dose 1 and booster doses,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dick ‘Fully Vaccinated’ Durbin Gets COVID Third Time in One Calendar Year
It would appear Sen. Dick “Fully Vaccinated” Durbin (D-IL) is suffering from his third bout of COVID-19 in one calendar year.
Before reading this story, please remember that if you claim that the COVID jabs don’t quite work as advertised, then you will be considered a promoter of misinformation and a threat to democracy by your own government.
On Monday, Durbin tweeted, “Unfortunately, I tested positive for COVID-19 today. I’m disappointed to have to miss critical work on the Senate’s NDAA this week in Washington. Consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, I’ll quarantine at home and follow the advice of my doctor while I work remotely.”
He also got the virus in March 2023. At that time, he said, “Thankfully, I am fully vaccinated and boosted and only experiencing minor symptoms. I will quarantine consistent with CDC guidelines and follow advice from my doctor while I continue to work remotely.”
Readers will note that back then, he was still saying he was “thankful to be fully vaccinated.” His tweet was nearly identical to the statement he issued when he had COVID-19 in July 2022.
“This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19,” he tweeted back then. “Thankfully, I am fully vaccinated and double boosted and only experiencing minor symptoms. Consistent with CDC guidelines, I will quarantine and follow advice from my doctor while I continue to work remotely.”
So, perhaps his appreciation for the vaccine has run out on account of getting COVID-19 again and again.
He’d have good reason to be a little miffed at his peers who encouraged him to get it. Folks like President Joe Biden told Durbin that if he received the vaccine, then he wouldn’t get COVID-19.
Watch: Rand Paul Slams Virologists Who Warned Of ‘Shit Show’ if COVID Lab-Leak Theory Wasn’t Shut Down
In an interview Monday, Sen. Rand Paul took aim at several virologists who apparently agreed that pursuing evidence concerning a Coronavirus lab leak in Wuhan would cause a “shit show” of problems with China, and that it was better to dismiss the notion out of hand.
“This was never about science. This was about the business of science. It was about the money,” Paul urged.
The Senator added, “Follow the money trail, and you see millions of dollars exchanging hands in the first few months of 2020 to the people who came out and said ‘nothing to see here couldn’t have happened in the lab.’”
Last week during a House Oversight Committee hearing, a report was shared containing messages from 2020 between British virologist Dr. Andrew Rambaut and Drs. Kristian Andersen, Edward Holmes and Robert Garry.
Rambaut wrote, “Given the shit show that would happen if anyone serious accused the Chinese of even accidental release, my feeling is we should say that given there is no evidence of a specifically engineered virus, we cannot possibly distinguish between natural evolution and escape so we are content with ascribing it to natural process.”
Referring to Dr. Andersen, Paul noted, “The one lead virologist who’s saying it’s all kooky and conspiracy theory to say it came to the lab — He’s saying in private, this is no conspiracy theory. This is not a fringe theory. In all likelihood, it could have come from the lab — But they’re in public, they print an article that Anthony Fauci commissions.”
Indeed, as we have highlighted, Andersen did a compete 180 after Fauci contacted him.
The Ongoing Mystery of Covid’s Origin
Where did it come from? More than three years into the pandemic and untold millions of people dead, that question about the COVID-19 coronavirus remains controversial and fraught, with facts sparkling amid a tangle of analyses and hypotheticals like Christmas lights strung on a dark, thorny tree.
One school of thought holds that the virus, known to science as SARS-CoV-2, spilled into humans from a nonhuman animal, probably in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, a messy emporium in Wuhan, China, brimming with fish, meats and wildlife on sale as food. Another school argues that the virus was laboratory-engineered to infect humans and cause them harm — a bioweapon — and was possibly devised in a “shadow project” sponsored by the People’s Liberation Army of China.
A third school, more moderate than the second but also implicating laboratory work, suggests that the virus got into its first human victim by way of an accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research complex on the eastern side of the city, maybe after well-meaning but reckless genetic manipulation that made it more dangerous to people.
Most COVID Deaths in Florida Happened After Vaccines Were Readily Available: NYT
Gov. Ron DeSantis is building his fledgling 2024 presidential campaign on the supposed merits of his COVID-19 response in Florida, often touting the state’s prioritization of protecting personal freedoms over mask mandates and vaccine requirements.
But a New York Times report published Saturday suggests the Florida governor’s shifting public attitude toward vaccines throughout the pandemic may correlate with an unnecessary spike in deaths throughout the state during the brutal Delta wave in the summer of 2021.
The Times found that the majority of Florida’s COVID-19 deaths took place after vaccines were readily available to all adults — not before, as was the case in many Democratic-led states, as well as nationwide.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
In-Depth: True Impact of Pandemic Policies Masked by Families Caring for Loved Ones
The number of families taking care of disabled and elderly relatives surged by millions following the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially masking the impact of lockdowns and vaccination policies on caregiving responsibilities.
Decades of underfunding and lack of investment in residential and nursing care, combined with the post-pandemic staffing and a vaccine mandate have led to a chronic lack of capacity within the sector.
Around 9.1 million people provided care support to family and friends in 2019, but this figure grew by an estimated 4.5 million during COVID-19.
According to the charity Carers U.K., an estimated 13.6 million people could be propping up the health and social care system, saving the taxpayer over £162 billion a year, according to 2021 estimates. This is just short of the entire annual 2021 NHS budget of £164 billion.
Though the number of families providing “unpaid care” could be bigger, there isn’t a register that collates all the numbers.
The government defines “unpaid care” as “a private arrangement whereby someone cares for a family member, friend, or neighbor because of long-term physical or mental ill health or disability, or care needs relating to old age.”
“Four point five million joined many, many of those are still caring for loved ones, the reasons being there isn’t enough capacity due to staffing shortages in both care homes and in domiciliary care,” Chair of the Social Care Working Group at the Together Declaration Amanda Hunter told The Epoch Times.
She said that there was “no doubt the imposition of draconian visiting restrictions during the pandemic also led many to give up work to avoid placing loved ones in residential care.”
Excessive Drinking During the Pandemic Increased Alcoholic Liver Disease Death Rates + More
Excessive Drinking During the Pandemic Increased Alcoholic Liver Disease Death Rates
Excessive drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic increased alcoholic liver disease deaths so much that the condition killed more Californians than car accidents or breast cancer, a KFF Health News analysis has found.
Lockdowns made people feel isolated, depressed, and anxious, leading some to increase their alcohol intake. Alcohol sales rose during the pandemic, with especially large jumps in the consumption of spirits.
While this led to a rise in all sorts of alcohol-related deaths, the number of Californians dying from alcoholic liver disease spiked dramatically, with 14,209 deaths between 2020 and 2022, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alcoholic liver disease is the most common cause of alcohol-induced deaths nationally. In California, the death rate from the disease during the last three years was 25% higher than in the three years before the pandemic. The rate peaked at 13.2 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2021, nearly double the rate from two decades ago.
The U.S. Scientist at the Heart of COVID Lab Leak Conspiracies Is Still Trying to Save the World From the Next Pandemic
Ralph Baric, who signed onto an open letter published in Science in 2021 demanding a thorough investigation of the origins of SARS-CoV-2, is still frustrated by its slow pace. While he remains unsure on the question, Baric finds particular fault with a joint investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Chinese government that was done in 2021, which dismissed the chance of a lab leak as “extremely unlikely.”
That conclusion, Baric says, is premature, given the lack of conclusive data and China’s more relaxed laboratory standards; he points out that while the U.S. restricts gain-of-function work with dangerous pathogens to labs rated at a minimum of BSL-3 (like Baric’s), “the regulations in China are such that you can work with SARS-like bat coronaviruses in BSL-2 [Biosafety level 2] labs,” which require fewer safety features.
In an open letter to the director of the World Health Organization released on Aug. 25, 2021, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations demanded that Baric’s lab be subject to a “transparent investigation with full access” to trace the origins of COVID-19. That placed Baric in rarefied air: a scapegoat for politicians in both the U.S. and China.
The public debate around gain-of-function research has become polarized into two opposing camps, with scientists cast in leading roles as either pandemic-averting heroes or lab-leaking villains. Baric rejects that easy binary. Instead, he points out that gain-of-function experiments, even the most controversial ones, such as the experiment done in 2011 that transformed an avian flu strain into a deadly airborne pathogen (which precipitated a broad shutdown of gain-of-function research by the NIH) are funded by governments.
That, Baric says, makes governments, rather than scientists, primarily responsible for choosing which experiments to run and how closely to monitor them. A draft report from January 2023 by the U.S. National Scientific Advisory Board for Biosecurity, a federally-appointed committee advising the U.S. government on gain-of-function research, backs up that view: among their recommendations are that government be more open about why certain gain-of-function experiments that might be risky to humans are funded.
Politicians, Scientists Spar Over Alleged NIH Cover-Up Using COVID Origin Paper
Two scientists who are coauthors of a 3-year-old article on the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic faced down Republican lawmakers today in what might be the most in-depth discussion ever of a scientific paper in the halls of the U.S. Congress. At a House subcommittee hearing, the Republicans asserted that top officials at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) prompted the researchers to write the paper to try and “kill” the theory that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Evolutionary biologist Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research and virologist Robert Garry of Tulane University School of Medicine, two of the article’s five co-authors, flatly rejected the allegation.
Both Garry and Andersen strongly objected to assertions that either Anthony Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or Francis Collins, the NIH’s director, influenced their writing of the paper or its editing, and they described the change in their thinking as nothing more than the standard scientific process. “You need to look at all the evidence in concert and that’s exactly what we’re doing in Proximal Origin and that is also one of the reasons why our thinking on this particular question evolved over time from early hypotheses to later conclusions published in the paper,” said Andersen.
The hearing touched on a greatest hits of lab-leak possibilities, including potential biosecurity shortcomings at the WIV, miners in China who developed a mysterious respiratory illness in 2012, the role of the Chinese military at WIV, research with pangolins that took place there, and the failure to find an animal infected with SARS-CoV-2 prior to the outbreak surfacing. Democrats and Republicans also wrangled over the conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community. It has stated that five of its branches support the natural zoonotic transmission theory while two others do not, but none have high levels of confidence for either theory.
Moderna Mounts 2 New Patent Lawsuits Against mRNA Rivals Pfizer, BioNTech: Report
Caught in a litigation crossfire, Moderna has reportedly opened two new fronts in its COVID-19 vaccine patent war with Pfizer and BioNTech. Seeking damages from Pfizer and BioNTech for alleged infringement, Moderna has lodged new lawsuits at the High Court in Dublin, Ireland, and the Brussels Commercial Court in Belgium, European intellectual property outlet Juve Patent reported Tuesday.
The Irish court, where Moderna is claiming infringement by Pfizer-BioNTech on a pair of Spikevax patents, is set to hear the case in early 2024, according to the publication. Less is known about the status of Moderna’s Belgian lawsuit, Juve points out.
The new lawsuits add to a complex web of ongoing mRNA patent litigation. The legal melee began last August when Moderna filed patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. and Germany. Separately, Moderna has also sued Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in the Netherlands, plus the U.K.
Moderna’s goal isn’t to remove Pfizer’s shot Comirnaty from the market, nor is it trying to target Pfizer’s sales in low- and middle-income countries covered by the COVAX initiative, the company insists. Instead, Moderna is pursuing compensation and damages to make up for Pfizer-BioNTech’s alleged trampling of patents detailing lipid nanoparticle delivery, spike protein-encoding and more.
Study: COVID Spread From Deer to Humans Multiple Times
The coronavirus spread from deer to humans at least a few times based on an analysis of samples taken from the animal, according to a new study. The analysis published Monday in the scientific journal Nature revealed that researchers found three possible cases of mutated variants of the virus from deer spreading to humans. Those cases appear to have originally stemmed from the virus spreading from humans to the deer and then mutating and spreading back to humans.
The researchers, several of whom work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Agriculture, collected 8,830 respiratory samples from free-ranging white-tailed deer from 26 states and Washington, DC, between November 2021 and April 2022.
They identified 282 deer infected with COVID-19 and 34 different lineages of the virus in the samples collected, including those belonging to the Alpha, Gamma and Delta variants that were more common earlier in the pandemic and the Omicron variant that has dominated cases more recently.
An analysis showed that at least 109 individual spillover events happened in which humans spread the virus to deer. That subsequently led to at least 39 incidences of deer-to-deer transmission and three cases of deer-to-human transmission.
Nasal COVID Vaccines: The Latest Tool to Fend Off COVID
A new nasally administered COVID-19 vaccine shows greater promise in protecting patients from both Omicron infection and disease progression than traditional vaccines used throughout the pandemic. A defining feature of the COVID pandemic is the ongoing mutation of the virus to avoid our medical interventions. We may develop a drug or vaccine that neutralizes X version of the virus, but then it mutates to the Y version and escapes neutralization.
One method of vaccine that was before never explored, however, was nasally administered mucosal respiratory vaccines. Omicron, especially later variants such as BA.4 and BA.5, is known to have higher concentrations of the virus in the lungs, meaning that a nasal vaccine could yield stronger protection.
The Chinese Ad5-nCoV nasal vaccine acts as a booster dose similar to the bivalent mRNA booster in the United States. In China, a majority of citizens received two doses of inactivated virus vaccine, a common method of vaccination for other pathogens, though not as effective for COVID-19 as the mRNA vaccines.
Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program Has Paid Out Nearly $7 Million in Claims Since December 2020
Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) has paid out nearly $7 million in claims since it first launched, according to updated bi-annual records.
According to the VISP, a total of 1,859 claims have been received thus far from Canadians who suffered death or injury as a result of vaccines administered in Canada on or after Dec. 8, 2020. A total of 103 claims have been approved to date, with payments totaling $6,695,716.
The VISP was created in December 2020 to ensure that all people in Canada who have experienced “a serious and permanent injury” as a result of receiving a Health Canada-authorized vaccine administered in Canada on or after Dec. 8, 2020, will receive timely and fair financial support. The VISP serves all people vaccinated in Canada, except for those vaccinated in Quebec, who will receive coverage from the province’s longstanding program.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), a total of 98.2 million vaccine doses were administered as of May this year, which resulted in 55,145 “adverse events.” The agency has reported 332 blood clots, 289 strokes, 198 cases of facial paralysis, 149 heart attacks, 88 spontaneous abortions, 79 kidney injuries, and 37 cases of liver damage.
