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U.S. House Committee Says China Delayed Releasing COVID Information for Weeks and Lied About Sharing It Immediately
China likely obtained COVID-19‘s first known gene sequence weeks before publicly releasing it, contrary to Beijing’s claim that it immediately shared the information, the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee said on Wednesday.
The committee said a Chinese virologist, Lili Ren, submitted the pathogen’s gene sequence to the U.S. database GenBank on December 28, 2019, the committee said. The database belongs to the National Institutes of Health, of which Ren is a subgrantee under the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance.
Ren’s submission, however, was missing some technical information, and the database staff asked her three days later to submit the additional details. If she didn’t offer these details, the sequence would be deleted, the staff said, per the committee. The U.S. lawmakers added that Ren did not upload the rest of the necessary information to the database.
On January 10, 2020, about two weeks later, China released a gene sequence of COVID-19 that was “nearly identical” to Ren’s submission, the committee said, citing the Department of Health and Human Services. The committee said this contradicted China’s repeated claims that it released the gene sequence as soon as it obtained the information.
COVID Market Origins Hypothesis Challenged by Statisticians
A seminal study on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic has been brought into question after drawing criticism from statisticians. Study authors and experts told Newseek what they think of the matter.
In 2022, evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey, together with a global team of immunologists, virologists, biologists and statisticians, published a paper in the journal Science on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. By plotting the locations of the earliest known COVID-19 cases, along with the geographical locations of the earliest viral lineages, environmental samples, and circumstantial evidence, the team concluded that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the most likely epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, in a recent paper, published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Dietrich Stoyan, a professor in mathematics and statistics at the Technical University of Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany, and Sung Nok Chiu, a professor of mathematics at Hong Kong Baptist University, described this original analysis as “fundamentally flawed.”
“The paper authored by Worobey et al. (2022) faced criticism from several individuals, primarily centered around the poor quality of the data utilized,” Stoyan and Chiu told Newsweek. “The main points of critique revolved around the data being incomplete in terms of numbers, imprecise in terms of addresses of infected individuals containing errors, and notably, lacking information on the times of infection.”
One of their primary concerns was that the clustering of data around the Wuhan market was used as confirmation that the market was indeed the epicenter of the pandemic. “It is important to note that centrality does not imply causality,” Stoyan and Chiu said.
State of California Relaxes COVID Guidelines
COVID-19 guidelines have changed for the state of California. These guidelines are not coming from the CDC directly, but rather from the California Department of Public Health. Statewide COVID guidelines are now the most relaxed they’ve been since the start of the pandemic.
When a person tests positive, instead of isolating for at least 5 days, they can go to school or work as soon as they haven’t had a fever for 24 hours.
“The new guidelines allow children to return sooner for asymptomatic children who are infected; they can return without restrictions,” says Dr. Dean Blumberg of UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
Kids who test positive for COVID and who aren’t showing symptoms are able to head off to school; it’s just recommended they wear a mask for 10 days indoors. The same goes for adults in the workplace.
Adverse Events More Likely With Some COVID Vaccine Batches: Data
Some lots of COVID-19 vaccines caused significantly more adverse events than others, according to newly published information. Some batches were linked to as many as 1,650 serious problems, while some produced zero reported issues, according to the data, which was obtained by the Informed Consent Action Network and presented on
The network received the data through Freedom of Information Act requests from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Certain lots had an unusually high number of adverse reactions,” the network said in a statement.
The data undercut a 2022 statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). The department said at the time that an analysis by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed “no unusual concentration of reports with a single lot or small group of lots.”
Mr. Johnson told Dr. Mandy Cohen, the CDC’s director, and Dr. Robert Califf, the FDA’s commissioner, in a new letter that the newly disclosed data “paint a very concerning picture.”
After Row With Hungary and Poland, Pfizer Sues Romania Over Missed COVID Vaccine Payments
Following public spats with Hungary and Poland, Pfizer and its German mRNA partner BioNTech have kicked off legal proceedings against Romania. The lawsuit marks the latest move in Pfizer’s campaign to press countries to honor COVID-19 vaccine contracts inked by the European Commission in May 2021.
Citing a “prolonged contractual breach,” plus continued discussions in “good faith” between the companies and the country, Pfizer confirmed Friday that it’s made the “difficult decision” to sue Romania.
Pfizer and BioNTech want to hold Romania to its commitments for COVID-19 vaccine orders placed by the country’s government, a Pfizer spokesperson confirmed via email. Specifically, Romania has backed out of orders for some 28 million Comirnaty doses worth around €550 million, local news outlet Romania-Insider reports.
Romania’s health minister, meanwhile, has argued there’s no legal ground for penalties claimed in the case since the country refused to sign an amendment to its original deal with Pfizer-BioNTech, according to Romania-Insider.
What to Know About the U.S. Winter COVID Wave
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The U.S. is in the midst of a winter wave of COVID-19. Wastewater viral activity for COVID-19 is “very high” nationally, surpassing last winter’s levels, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wastewater data can indicate how much disease is spreading in a community and has become widely used as agencies no longer document the number of national COVID-19 cases.
“All regions show high and increasing levels, with the highest regional levels in the South and Midwest,” the CDC reported last week. It added that there are early indications that activity is starting to slow in the Midwest and Northeast.
Ultimately, no one knows exactly how much COVID-19 is circulating in the U.S. “Even if we count test positives, we don’t know about the people who were positive but didn’t test,” says Shishi Luo of Helix, a gene sequencing company. “I think the best thing to look at is: Are things going up and how quickly are they going up?”
The majority of new coronavirus infections are stemming from the Omicron subvariant JN.1. The strain quickly rose to dominance after being documented in the U.S. in September. It’s the fastest growing variant in the U.S., increasing from 20% of cases in December to more than 60% in January.
Disease X: What to Know About the Hypothetical Pandemic World Leaders Hope to Prevent
A hypothetical virus dubbed Disease X has world leaders convening at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this week to discuss how to prevent the threat of another cataclysmic pandemic.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, planned to host a seminar Wednesday alongside other health officials in Davos to prepare to confront the potentially deadly virus.
The news ignited a heated debate on social media in the days leading up to the seminar, where conspiracy theories proliferated, with some warning that potential measures could parallel the shutdown orders put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But despite the resurging interest in Disease X, the theoretical pathogen is not a new topic for the WHO. Even before the COVID-10 pandemic swept the globe, the United Nations agency has spent years researching and preparing for the next wave of deadly diseases. Disease X does not exist — at least, not yet.
Blood Protein Changes May Unravel Long COVID Mysteries — Links Between Complement and Coagulation Systems Could Lead to Long COVID Therapies
Long COVID was identified in blood proteins, an analysis of longitudinal data suggested.
Blood samples from long COVID patients showed changes to blood serum proteins at 6 months that indicated activation of the immune system’s complement cascade, altered coagulation, and tissue injury, reported Onur Boyman, MD, of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and co-authors in Science.
Factors underpinning long COVID are not well understood, the researchers observed. Current hypotheses include tissue damage, viral reservoirs, autoimmunity, or persistent inflammation.
“This study is very important in illustrating the role of the complement in the pathogenesis of long COVID,” said Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, of Yale School of Medicine, who wasn’t involved with the research.
This evidence implicating complement activation and thromboinflammation ties in with other research that showed an increased propensity for clotting in people with long COVID, added Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of the VA St. Louis Health Care System, who also wasn’t part of the study.
Nicola Sturgeon Deleted All Pandemic WhatsApps, COVID Inquiry Hears
Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of “a shocking betrayal of the people of Scotland” as it emerged that the former first minister, along with other senior ministers and health officials, deleted all their WhatsApp messages related to the COVID pandemic.
The U.K. COVID Inquiry, taking evidence in Scotland, heard on Friday that Sturgeon “retained no messages whatsoever” while the national clinical director, Jason Leith, joked in a group chat that WhatsApp deletion was his “pre-bed ritual.”
Sturgeon had previously refused to confirm or deny allegations that she deleted the messages but insisted she was committed to “full transparency” about her conduct during the pandemic, adding: “I have nothing to hide.”
