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Study Puts Understanding of Long COVID and Vaccination Into Question
A new study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic suggests that being vaccinated against COVID-19 does little to prevent long COVID.
The findings contradict what has become conventional wisdom in the last three years — that vaccines offer a chance to significantly reduce the risk of long COVID, or new or persistent symptoms three months or more after infection, most likely by reducing the severity of infection.
Melanie Swift, MD, MPH, was the lead author of the study, which was published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
She said despite the current thinking that vaccines reduce the risk of developing long COVID, she wasn’t surprised she found no association.
Newly Discovered Antibody Protects Against All COVID-19 Variants
Researchers have discovered an antibody able to neutralize all known variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as distantly related SARS-like coronaviruses that infect other animals.
As part of a new study on hybrid immunity to the virus, the large, multi-institution research team led by The University of Texas at Austin discovered and isolated a broadly neutralizing plasma antibody, called SC27, from a single patient.
Using technology developed over several years of research into antibody response, the team led by UT engineers and scientists obtained the exact molecular sequence of the antibody, opening the possibility of manufacturing it on a larger scale for future treatments.
“The discovery of SC27, and other antibodies like it in the future, will help us better protect the population against current and future COVID variants,” said Jason Lavinder, a research assistant professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and one of the leaders of the new research, which was recently published in Cell Reports Medicine.
Wearable Activity Trackers Could Offer Early Clues on COVID-19
A new study from researchers at the University of South Australia reveals that wearable activity trackers, such as Apple Watches and Fitbits, show promise in detecting early signals of disease — particularly atrial fibrillation associated with stroke and COVID-19.
The study is published in the journal JMIR mHealth and uHealth.
Wearable devices can track steps, hours slept, and blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels, and skin temperature, as well as falls, the authors explain.
In a review of 28 studies on these devices, 16 studies (57%) used wearables for diagnosis of COVID-19, five studies (18%) for atrial fibrillation, three studies (11%) for arrhythmia or abnormal pulse, three studies (11%) for falls, and one study (4%) for viral symptoms.
For COVID-19 diagnosis, wearables were accurate 87.5% of the time (95% confidence interval [CI], 81.6% to 93.5%), with a sensitivity of 79.5% (95% CI, 67.7% to 91.3%), and a specificity of 76.8% (95% CI, 69.4% to 84.1%).
The authors said the wearables were as accurate as rapid antigen tests, or lateral flow devices.
Spike Mutations That Help SARS-CoV-2 Infect the Brain Discovered
Scientists have discovered a mutation in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that plays a key role in its ability to infect the central nervous system.
The findings may help scientists understand its neurological symptoms and the mystery of “long COVID,” and they could one day even lead to specific treatments to protect and clear the virus from the brain.
The new collaborative study between scientists at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois-Chicago uncovered a series of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (the outer part of the virus that helps it penetrate cells) that enhanced the virus’s ability to infect the brains of mice.
“Looking at the genomes of viruses found in the brain compared to the lung, we found that viruses with a specific deletion in spike were much better at infecting the brains of these animals,” said co-corresponding author Judd Hultquist, assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases) and microbiology-immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
“This was completely unexpected, but very exciting.”
The study is published in Nature Microbiology.
‘A Ton of Covid out There’: US Summer Wave Not Taken Seriously Enough – Experts
Infectious disease experts say many people are not taking the latest COVID-19 wave in the U.S. seriously enough and are not getting vaccinated or using antiviral drugs when sick, despite a summer wave that was larger and came earlier than anticipated.
Epidemiologists are saying that while symptoms of this wave are more mild than earlier strains, the virus remains a threat — particularly for older adults and people with underlying health conditions.
Notably, the COVID-19 viral activity in wastewater in August in the U.S. was almost twice as high as the same time last year and about the same as the peak of summer 2023, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Still, hospitalizations and deaths are a fraction of what they were in 2022.
See Covid’s Toll on California’s Life Expectancy in New CDC Longevity Report
It was the year COVID-19 vaccines became widely available, and the pandemic’s startling death toll in California and elsewhere appeared close to being reined in.
Instead, life expectancy in California fell by more than eight months in 2021, dropping the Golden State to 10th place in the nation, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
An analysis of all 50 states and the District of Columbia found that babies born in California in 2021 could expect to live 78.3 years — down from 79 years in 2020, when California ranked fourth in the nation.
The decrease, which was reported Wednesday by the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, revealed that the promise of COVID-19 vaccines — along with other public health measures — was not enjoyed uniformly across the nation.
Expected life spans in the Golden State shrank by another 0.7 years in 2021, according to the new report.
EU Was Not Fully Ready to Respond to Covid-19, Says Auditor
Europe’s disease and medicines agencies initially fell short in the pandemic, the European Court of Auditors said.
The European Union’s (EU’s) medical agencies were not fully prepared to address the COVID-19 pandemic — and would still fall short now — according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors.
The EU’s first defenses against the COVID-19 pandemic — the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency — both missed the mark on what was needed in the initial stages.
While they eventually responded well to the public health emergency, according to the report published on Wednesday, it is yet unclear whether the EU would be fully prepared now if another pandemic hit.
