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Early ‘Lab-Grown’ COVID Virus Found in Sample Lends Weight to Wuhan Theory
An early version of COVID-19 that appears to have been grown in a laboratory has been discovered in samples from a Chinese biotechnology firm. The finding lends weight to claims that the virus may have started life as a lab experiment that accidentally leaked out.
Bioinformatics experts from the University of Veterinary Medicine and Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, made the discovery by accident while examining genetic data from soil samples collected from Antarctica in late 2018 and early 2019.
The samples were sent to Sangon Biotech in Shanghai for sequencing in Dec 2019, where they became contaminated with a previously unknown variant of COVID-19.
Viscount Ridley, author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, said: “The unique mutations hint at it being an ancestral variant. So if it was sequenced in say mid-December, before anybody had identified the virus in people and started trying to grow it in labs, then it points to secret samples in labs in 2019.”
Mexico City Gave Ivermectin to Thousands of COVID Patients. Officials Face an Ethics Backlash.
As the coronavirus coursed through Mexico City early last year, ravaging neighborhoods and overwhelming hospitals, local officials made an unusual decision. They gave out tens of thousands of medical kits to COVID-19 patients containing ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication.
Mexico City officials eventually declared their effort a success. They issued an academic paper last spring saying the medical kits had significantly reduced hospitalization rates. That finding, they said, “supports ivermectin-based interventions” to ease the coronavirus pandemic’s burden on health systems.
Now city authorities are facing a backlash. A U.S.-based academic site that had posted their paper, SocArXiv, withdrew it last Friday, charging it was “promoting an unproved medical treatment in the midst of a global pandemic.” The site accused city officials of bad science and unethical behavior — in effect, of using citizens like rats in a giant laboratory experiment, without their consent.
‘Natural Immunity’ Holds up Against Severe Omicron Cases in Qatar Study — ‘Robust’ Protection From Previous Infection Against Hospitalization, Death by Reinfection
Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection was estimated to be less effective at preventing reinfection with the Omicron variant compared to prior variants, though it did appear to hold up against severe disease, researchers in Qatar found.
The effectiveness of previous infection in preventing reinfection was estimated at 56.0% (95% CI 50.6-60.9) against the Omicron variant, as compared to 90.2% (95% CI 60.2-97.6) against the Alpha variant, 85.7% (95% CI 75.8-91.7) against the Beta variant, and 92.0% (95% CI 87.9-94.7) against the Delta variant, reported Laith Abu-Raddad, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar in Doha, and colleagues.
However, no reinfections resulted in death, and effectiveness of natural infection against “severe, critical or fatal” COVID from the Omicron variant was 87.8% (95% CI 47.5-97.1), they wrote in a correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicine.
More College Students Are Dropping out During COVID. It Could Get Worse.
After Omicron forced classes back online late in the semester, Izzy, 18, who was living with her parents, felt overwhelmed by loneliness; she struggled to focus on her schoolwork and enjoy life.
As she seriously considered suicide, Izzy sought help and moved into her grandparents’ home in Wyoming to be closer to her extended family. And she stopped attending school.
Thousands of other students around the country are leaving college — some because of mental health issues, others for financial or family reasons. Educators worry that many have left for good.
New York City Might Have Rat COVID, but It’s Probably Fine
Over the past year, scientists keep seeing a COVID-19 oddity showing up in New York City’s sewer system: bits and pieces of virus in the wastewater that suggest there’s a mysterious new variant in the city. Thankfully, there’s no evidence that it’s particularly infectious or deadly.
But scientists aren’t sure where the “cryptic lineages,” as researchers call the fragments, are coming from. One theory is that the virus is coming from people whose strains have yet to be sequenced. But another is totally and utterly alarming: that this variant could be courtesy of the city’s rats.
Last Responders: Mental Health Damage From COVID Could Last a Generation, Professionals Say
Aside from the obvious physical impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals have told CNBC that many people are struggling with the immense emotional and societal changes it has brought. What’s more, they’re finding it hard to adapt to a “new normal” now that lockdowns are starting to ease.
Many psychologists and psychiatrists have reported an influx of people seeking mental health support during the pandemic, with the unprecedented global health crisis causing an increase in anxiety and depression as well as exacerbating existing mental health conditions.
Numerous studies on the impact of COVID on mental health have been carried out. One study, published in The Lancet medical journal in October, looked at the global prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
Lander Held on to Vaccine Maker Stock Months Into Tenure
Serving as Biden’s top science adviser, Eric Lander, the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, publicly promoted COVID-19 vaccination efforts while having a significant financial investment in one of the vaccine makers, according to financial disclosures.
Under the White House’s ethics agreement Lander signed, he had 90 days to divest his stocks after he was confirmed by the Senate on May 28. While Lander shed the bulk of that stock in June — including shares of BioNTech SE, the German biotechnology company and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine partner — he waited until Aug. 5 to sell the remaining $500,000 to $1 million worth of stock he held in that company.
Lander, the richest man in Biden’s cabinet with over $45 million in assets when he was nominated, did not disclose his stock holdings in a Boston Globe article or in The Washington Post op-ed.
Frustrated Democrats Amp up Pressure on Biden Over Global Vaccinations
Congressional Democrats are increasing pressure on the Biden administration to step up its efforts to vaccinate the world, arguing more needs to be done to prevent a new COVID-19 variant from emerging to threaten the United States after Omicron.
A group of more than 80 Democratic lawmakers is pushing for $17 billion to support global vaccinations in a coming government funding package, but there is no certainty yet on what will be provided.
The Biden administration has touted its pledge of 1.2 billion doses for other countries, of which 400 million have been delivered so far, more than any other country in the world has provided.
AstraZeneca Sees $4 Billion in COVID Vaccine Sales as Revenue Soars
AstraZeneca recorded a big jump in revenue on Thursday as it begins to take a profit from its coronavirus vaccine for the first time.
The company recorded full-year revenues of $37.4 billion, an increase of 38% from the year before at constant exchange rates. Part of the boost came from $4 billion in sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said in November it would begin to take a “modest” profit from the COVID-19 shot, which it had been providing “at cost” — around $2 to $3 — following an agreement with Oxford. Other COVID-19 vaccine producers, such as Pfizer and Moderna, have been booking hefty profits on their shots all along.
Australians Will Require Three COVID Vaccine Doses to Be Considered Fully Vaccinated
Australians will now need three COVID vaccine doses to be considered “up to date” with their shots, but it will be left to individual states to set their own rules on booster mandates.
On Thursday, the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, announced the government’s immunization advisory body had updated its guidance.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization’s new guidance states a third dose is required for someone to be considered “up to date” with their vaccinations.
