… The government plans to roll out a combined 175 million doses of the new boosters developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, with Moderna’s shot available to all adults and Pfizer’s offered to those 12 and older, according to a federal planning guide published earlier this month.
The boosters, which officials hope will offer greater protection against the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants in addition to guarding against the coronavirus’ original strain, come as the administration tries to get ahead of a fast-changing virus that continues to infect tens of thousands of Americans a day. The actual number is unknown since so many people self-test at home and don’t report their cases to the government.
An FDA spokesperson declined to comment, and people with knowledge of the matter, who were granted anonymity to speak about matters they are not authorized to speak about publicly, cautioned the exact timing could change as the agency races to finalize its work…
Though regulators won’t have human data on these bivalent boosters available to consider, Califf noted that they will be evaluating real-world evidence from similar mRNA shots, human data from other bivalent shots and data from studies on mice. The flu vaccine, which is also updated annually, is also only tested in animals before distribution due to the short turnaround time for manufacturers. However, it is not based on the comparatively new mRNA technology.
Pfizer anticipates that it will begin a human trial on the safety and effectiveness of its booster later this month; Moderna already has one such study underway.
The CDC also said that it expects Omicron-specific boosters for children younger than 12 will be ready shortly after boosters for adults become available.
Who's dying in the US?
All ages, last 3 months, weekly, per 100,000 people https://t.co/kQ5k33u3Kx pic.twitter.com/k4y8bLtBpP— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 29, 2022
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A Chinese think tank issued a rare public disagreement Monday with the ruling Communist Party's severe "zero COVID" policy, saying curbs that shut down cities and disrupt trade, travel and industry must change to prevent an "economic stall." https://t.co/A6nnoz9NH2
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 29, 2022
Hong Kong’s iconic Tai Hang fire dragon dance performance, featuring a 67-metre long dragon adorned with burning incense, has been cancelled for a third consecutive year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Organisers of the three-night annual event said on Commercial Radio on Tuesday that the government refused to grant them an exemption to hold the performance amid rising Covid-19 infections in the city. The century-old custom traditionally involves around 300 current or former residents of Tai Hang, a neighbourhood near Hong Kong’s commercial district of Causeway Bay.
It marked the third time that the event was called off owing to the pandemic. Chan Tak-fai, the commander of the fire dragon dance, said the event was originally scheduled from September 9 to 11 over the Mid-Autumn Festival. Organisers had proposed dividing Tai Hang into seven zones, with Wun Sha Street as the centre, and capping the total number of participants and spectators at 3,000.
All participants would have had to scan the Covid-19 contact-tracing LeaveHomeSafe app, Chan said, and they would need to have received at least three doses of Covid-19 vaccines to take part in or watch the tradition, which villagers believed helped dispel a plague that hit Tai Hang in the 19th century…
“A lot of people called us and asked how come the fire dragon dance – supposedly for warding off an epidemic and killing the germs – did not get approved. We don’t know either, it is out of our control,” Chan said on the radio programme.
On Monday, Hong Kong logged 8,488 new Covid-19 cases and added four new related deaths. The city saw its highest number of daily infections in five months last Sunday, when health authorities reported 9,708 cases…
Hong Kong reported 8,848 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, of which 237 cases were imported. The city also added 13 new deaths.
Full, trusted Covid-19 coverage on HKFP: https://t.co/w8LTgNxKZy#hongkong #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/AD1VhxBbON
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) August 30, 2022
#India added 5,439 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of #COVID19 cases to 4,44,21,162, while the active cases declined to 65,732, according to the updated Union Health Ministry data.https://t.co/MvbX3X7uma
— The Hindu (@the_hindu) August 30, 2022
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The total number of infected has reached 19,311,973. As many as 3912 people were hospitalized just in the past 24 hours with 81 fatalities. These data was revealed by the Anti-coronavirus Crisis center.
— BNN Russia (@BNNRussia) August 26, 2022
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New generation of #Covid vaccine shows promising results https://t.co/MZ0TnoSA2M
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) August 25, 2022
“The virus is not getting more benign,” said @angie_rasmussen. “If the whole population were as immunologically naïve as we were in early 2020, we’d be seeing absolutely staggering deaths tolls from BA.5.” https://t.co/TS2P5elGMu via @khnews
— Liz Szabo (@LizSzabo) August 29, 2022
This is your brain on #COVID19 —
"Its 1,000 trillion synapses are constantly being modified every second of every day. It is too early to know if this neuroplasticity can be harnessed for long-covid patients."https://t.co/ZU3pt9Zk0z— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 29, 2022
Scientists uncover how SARSCoV2 blocks antiviral defenses. Team at Francis Crick Institute says the virus manipulates the environment w/in human cells to prevent them from mounting a full-scale assault. Crick team reports the virus has a wily bag of tricks https://t.co/v7HMpqDcxe
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 26, 2022
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While the #GOP continues to block full funding of federal #COVID19 programs, the #Biden Admin effort to brace America for the Fall is unraveling, for lack of $$ — especially for low income folks. The last batch of free home test kits shipped, & now this: https://t.co/3xQRd3Syo2
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 29, 2022
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Aug. 29-30Post + Comments (23)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Aug. 25-26
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
The United States plans to roll out an updated COVID-19 booster vaccine to include Omicron subvariants of the coronavirus. Regulators are reviewing the shots and could give the go-ahead as soon as next week. https://t.co/A9l0nlSo6r
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) August 25, 2022
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… In its latest weekly assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were 5.3 million new cases and more than 14,000 deaths reported last week. WHO said the number of new infections declined in every world region except the Western Pacific.
Deaths jumped by more than 183% in Africa but fell by nearly a third in Europe and by 15% in the Americas. Still, WHO warned that COVID-19 numbers are likely severely underestimated as many countries have dropped their testing and surveillance protocols to monitor the virus, meaning that there are far fewer cases being detected.
WHO said the predominant COVID-19 variant worldwide is omicron subvariant BA.5, which accounts for more than 70% of virus sequences shared with the world’s biggest public viral database. Omicron variants account for 99% of all sequences reported in the last month…
Still a few bugs in the system…
Videos of employees at Tencent's Shenzhen office running away are making the rounds online.
A full building lockdown is said to have been announced after a person tested positive for Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/7M718vlGpm
— Christian Petersen-Clausen (@chris__pc) August 25, 2022
When u arrive at a hotel in Shanghai these days ur given a document with every high and medium risk area in China on it. You are told to check the list and confirm with signature that you have not been to one of these places recently pic.twitter.com/fMN4jYUzTT
— Don Weinland (@donweinland) August 22, 2022
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Just published @NEJM
A marked reduction of death (~80%) and hospitalization (~70%) for Paxlovid in people age 65+ during the Omicron wave in Israel, not seen in the 40-64 year age grouphttps://t.co/1fmfcbI6ux pic.twitter.com/ghEatkxtFc— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 24, 2022
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Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take a test at home to find out how well protected — or not — you are against Covid? People are working on it, @EdwrdChen reports. https://t.co/UQQqhq6F6L
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) August 23, 2022
With schools re-opening, it's important for parents—and school nurses—to recognize signs of #Covid, flu, RSV & the common cold ⬇️ https://t.co/RD0fFgb2NI
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 25, 2022
New SARSCoV2 variants may be emerging from people who are immune compromised & unable to clear the virus. Emory Univ study. Instead of evolving from acute infections in millions of people, new data suggest variants arising from rarer chronic infections https://t.co/S6ix9ntng3
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 24, 2022
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Some scientists are debating hypothesis that tiny clots that constrict blood flow to vital organs could result in the broad range of symptoms in #LongCovid
But other #COVID19 researchers worry that enthusiasm for the clot hypothesis has outpaced the datahttps://t.co/uEST67ideY
— MicrobesInfect (@MicrobesInfect) August 24, 2022
Doctors at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles describe a mechanism that may cause post-Covid syndromes. Team studied multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children—MIS-C—& #LongCovid to zero in on a theory explaining why some people's immune systems to go haywire https://t.co/jz7muEmJev
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) August 22, 2022
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Are we approaching 'herd safety' w/ #Covid? Massachusetts may be an example of a possible new milestone. Despite a slew of #Omicron variants—BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4 & BA.5—the state didn't observe excess #Covid mortality even w/ ~227k new cases over 18 weeks https://t.co/0oZp12uy32 pic.twitter.com/9842bNxIMX
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 24, 2022
Went to the bank. The lineup was 15 people deep so I braced myself being the only masked person and knowing it would take a while. Man behind me began to share about his struggle with cancer and how he has been waiting since January for surgery..🧵
— Tammy (@tamalama67) August 23, 2022
.. I asked him if he wanted to go ahead of me as it was visible how ill he was, but he declined. I then quietly asked if he wanted one of my extra masks because covid is still in the air and dangerous. He smiled, pulled out a mask from his pocket..
..and put it on. He said he didn’t want to be the only person with a mask on, so he was happy to see me with one. The lady in front of me, who had been listening the whole time, reached into her purse and pulled one out and put it on as well..
I know it’s easy to assume everyone who doesn’t wear masks are people who are ignorant and/or cruel, but there are definitely some who are as scared of being different, or ridiculed, as they are of losing their health. Wise choices have been stigmatized.
Since those in power, who are supposed to set a standard and expectation of caring about each other, have opted out, it’s really up to each of us to support, educate, and protect each other. Even if it’s just one mask, and one person, at a time. 🙏
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Aug. 25-26Post + Comments (21)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Aug. 22-23
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech said on Monday they had sought U.S. authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine booster retooled to target the Omicron variant, and would have doses available to ship immediately after regulatory clearance. https://t.co/I7JZUfHjWs
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) August 22, 2022
From a longer thread:
The new boosters are bivalent vaccines. Ancestral strain plus Omicron. The idea is broad protection from a virus that is strayed quite a lot. (2)
Pfizer’s vaccine will be ready first— the first week to 10 days of September is the best estimate.
Moderna will follow the first week in October. (3)
Should you wait to get them?
Unless you are high risk and unboosted this year, it makes sense to wait the few weeks until they are available. Special circumstances like travel might cause you not to. (4)…
How effective can we expect these vaccines to be? All we have is lab work not real world evidence. The FDA tells me that will be a big focus this time around which will serve us well in the future.
Against BA.5 (90% of cases), the expectation is a strong antibody response.(10)…
The bad news I alluded to?
These are the last vaccines that will be free unless Congress changes.
And it will be the drug companies that will set the price & insurance companies that decide how much we pay. (13)…
Read the whole thread here.
Building the ship while sailing it: Pfizer has asked @US_FDA to authorize its updated Covid boosters. The Biden administration wants to start using said boosters next month. The human trials of said boosters haven't yet started. @matthewherper explains. https://t.co/ZLuIlz3PDz
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) August 22, 2022
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, announced he is stepping down in December https://t.co/BshC1mdyrm pic.twitter.com/6RdRInGhs7
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 23, 2022
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When Alice Hughes downloaded a preprint from the server Research Square in September 2021, she could hardly believe her eyes. The study described a massive effort to survey bat viruses in China, in search of clues to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. A team of 21 researchers from the country’s leading academic institutions had trapped more than 17,000 bats, from the subtropical south to the frigid northeast, and tested them for relatives of SARS-CoV-2.
The number they found: zero…
“I don’t believe it for a second,” says Hughes, a conservation biologist who’s now at Hong Kong University. Between May 2019 and November 2020, she had done her own survey of 342 bats in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, a branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Yunnan province where she worked at the time. As her team reported in Cell in June 2021, it found four viruses related to SARS-CoV-2 in the garden, which is about three times the size of New York City’s Central Park…
But the paper meshed with a growing political reality in China. From the start of the pandemic, the Chinese government—like many foreign researchers—has vigorously rejected the idea that SARS-CoV-2 somehow originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and escaped. But over the past 2 years, it has also started to push back against what many regard as the only plausible alternative scenario: The pandemic started in China with a virus that naturally jumped from bats to an “intermediate” species and then to humans—most likely at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.
Beijing was open to the idea at first. But today it points to myriad ways SARS-CoV-2 could have arrived in Wuhan from abroad, borne by contaminated frozen food or infected foreigners—perhaps at the Military World Games in Wuhan, in October 2019—or released accidentally by a U.S. military lab located more than 12,000 kilometers from Wuhan. Its goal is to avoid being blamed for the pandemic in any way, says Filippa Lentzos, a sociologist at King’s College London who studies biological threats and health security. “China just doesn’t want to look bad,” she says. “They need to maintain an image of control and competence. And that is what goes through everything they do.”
The idea of a pandemic origin outside China is preposterous to many scientists, regardless of their position on whether the virus started with a lab leak or a natural jump from animals. There’s simply no way SARS-CoV-2 could have come from some foreign place to Wuhan and triggered an explosive outbreak there without first racing through humans at the site of its origin. “The idea that the pandemic didn’t originate in China is inconsistent with so many other things,” says Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has argued for more intensive studies of the WIV lab accident scenario. “When you eliminate the absurd, it’s Wuhan,” says virologist Gregory Towers of University College London, who leans toward a natural origin.
Yet Chinese researchers have published a flurry of papers supporting their government’s “anywhere-but-here” position. Multiple studies report finding no signs of SARS-CoV-2–related viruses or antibodies in bats and other wild and captive animals in China. Others offer clues that the virus hitched a ride to China on imported food or its packaging. On the flip side, Chinese researchers are not pursuing—or at least not publishing—obvious efforts to trace the sources of the mammals sold at the Huanan market, which could yield clues to the virus’ origins…
This is a good description of how science works: by hard work, systematic analysis, following the data and peer-reviewed publication. The COVID lab leak theory is dead. Here's how we know the virus came from a Wuhan market https://t.co/NTw6IXnJZw via @ConversationEDU
— Prof. Peter Doherty (@ProfPCDoherty) August 19, 2022
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked Pfizer Inc to test the effects of an additional course of its antiviral Paxlovid among people who experience a rebound in COVID-19 after treatment, the regulator said on Friday. https://t.co/aXlLBLjpTb
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) August 20, 2022
Retrospective analysis (just out in @CIDJournal) of Paxlovid Rx in vaccinated high-risk outpatients shows a strong association between treatment and improved outcomes. Thanks to @SarjuGanatraMD & @SaurabhSDani for leading this interesting study.https://t.co/SKEszJIWlK pic.twitter.com/nuTjQMfGLJ
— Paul Sax (@PaulSaxMD) August 20, 2022
The Lancet study seems to be generating a lot of anxiety on twitter, but keep in mind: The ‘increased risks’ are large jumps in relatively small actual numbers:
… The study group, which included 185,000 children and 242,000 older adults, revealed that risks differed according to age, with people 65 and older at greatest risk of lasting neuropsychiatric effects.
For people between the ages of 18 and 64, a particularly significant increased risk was of persistent brain fog, affecting 6.4 percent of people who had had covid compared with 5.5 percent in the control group.
The study found that 4.5 percent of older people developed dementia in the two years after infection, compared with 3.3 percent of the control group. That 1.2-point increase in a diagnosis as damaging as dementia is particularly worrisome, the researchers said.
The study’s reliance on a trove of de-identified electronic health data raised some cautions, particularly considering the tumultuous time of the pandemic. Tracking long-term outcomes may be hard when patients may have sought care through many different health systems, including some outside the TriNetX network…
There are >118 million Americans age 50+ in the US, a very high proportion left vulnerable
45% haven't had a 1st booster
With current ~500 deaths per day, the CDC should be providing a breakdown by vax/booster status pic.twitter.com/5m5i4fRljU— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 20, 2022
.@US_FDA extends the emergency use authorization for Novavax's Covid vaccine. It can now be be given to tweens & teens 12-17.
It's the first non-mRNA vaccine authorized for use in people under the age of 18 in the US. pic.twitter.com/73wpNAMeFJ— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) August 19, 2022
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1) if trump were still president, liberals would have a lot of other more pressing concerns
2) there is no political will — and there is now *significant* political cost — to try to enforce more stringent covid protocols, anywhere in the country. https://t.co/egmMPQMegd
— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) August 20, 2022
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Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, remains a sociopath:
Carlson is talking about the number of murders in Philadelphia, and suggesting the death toll from Covid was far less.
More ppl died of Covid in Philadelphia in two months in spring 2020 than have been murdered over the past 2 yrs. https://t.co/WqZsCXj8u5
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) August 22, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Aug. 22-23Post + Comments (14)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Aug. 18-19
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
Two huge immunization efforts are going to roll out in coming weeks. Figuring out how to optimize delivery of updated Covid booster AND flu shots is no small task. @DrewQJoseph explains. https://t.co/hjUVWfVkNX
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) August 16, 2022
.@CDCDirector tells @CDCgov staff the agency's culture needs to change. https://t.co/RX0sGMMObm
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) August 17, 2022
… As SARS-CoV-2 raged in the summer of 2020, the Trump administration was busy sabotaging the once-premier public health agency. The administration’s meddling included stripping the CDC of its power to collect critical data on COVID-19 patients and pandemic resources in hospitals around the country.
According to multiple investigative reports at the time, then-White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx was frustrated by the CDC’s slow and somewhat messy process of collecting and tidying the data submitted by thousands of hospitals. The data included stats on admissions, patient demographics, bed availability, ventilator use, discharges, and personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies.
In July 2020, the Trump administration abruptly directed hospitals to stop reporting all that data to the CDC and instead submit it to a new database run by the Pittsburgh-based software company TeleTracking Technologies. The little-known company had won a $10.2 million, six-month contract with the federal government, despite having no previous experience with setting up such a data-collection system. Before the award, the company had won only small contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs for software that tracked the status of patients. The $10.2 million pandemic-era grant was over twenty times larger than all of the company’s previous government grants combined…
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for TeleTracking co-CEO Michael Zamagias told NPR that the company won the contract after the HHS reached out to it directly over the phone. NPR also noted that Zamagias was a long-time Republican donor who was previously in the real-estate business. Notably, he had personal ties to a Manhattan-based real estate financing company, Cooper-Horowitz, which worked extensively with the Trump Organization. Neal Cooper, whose father was a partner in the company, was closely mentored by Zamagias. Cooper told NPR that “we did tons of business with [Trump], billions of dollars of business.”
When officials for the Trump administration delivered the news to the CDC that TeleTracking was taking over, staffers immediately knew that the transfer would be a disaster, according to an investigative report by Science. One CDC staff member left the announcement meeting to sob. Others were outraged. “Birx has been on a monthslong rampage against our data,” one CDC employee texted to a colleague shortly after the meeting. “Good fucking luck getting the hospitals to clean up their data and update daily.”
The CDC staffers were right to be pessimistic. The transition to the new system was chaotic due to technical and administrative problems. Hospitals complained that they didn’t have enough time to prepare and that they faced frustrating technical problems requiring intensive resources at a time when they were overwhelmed with patients. The result was unreliable data amid a public health crisis…
Nevertheless, TeleTracking’s contract has been continually renewed since then, and the company has earned more than $50 million. Now, that’s coming to an end. The latest contract expires on December 31 and will not be renewed. Hospitals will once again submit their data to the CDC starting in mid-December, according to a leaked email seen by Bloomberg News…
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New coronavirus cases reported globally dropped nearly a quarter in the last week while deaths fell 6% but were still higher in parts of Asia, according to a report on the pandemic by the World Health Organization. https://t.co/KK81r02ErP
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 18, 2022
Fish tested for Covid in Chinese city of Xiamen after outbreak https://t.co/EMnfO3byOX
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 18, 2022
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— Prof. Shane Crotty (@profshanecrotty) August 16, 2022
New study on long COVID suggests some conditions last 2+ years but others resolve. https://t.co/AQ0oqQWdgO
— Alice Burns (@alicelevyburns) August 18, 2022
But, cognitive risks persist 2 yrs out. Long-term cognitive limitations could pose major challenges for people and may affect employment and health coverage. For more, see https://t.co/ELQygsBDBC.
— Alice Burns (@alicelevyburns) August 18, 2022
From a thread, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine:
Shelly Miller tells @theNASEM that combination central air filtration + UV exposure can bring #SARSCoV2 spread down to R=0 even if people in the buildings decline to wear masks. pic.twitter.com/LJDk4zVxGd
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 18, 2022
In the lab: Thinking outside the box in the development of a #Covid vaccine. A vax that's currently a work-in-progress is designed to prompt mucosal immunity. It uses bacteriophages and is needle-free?? https://t.co/oieim6CrNk
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) August 14, 2022
‘Left to rot:' The lonely plight of #LongCovid sufferers. People worldwide with post-Covid illnesses say they aren't getting the help they need. Some studies suggest long Covid could affect as much as 30% of people who were once infected https://t.co/XhfZ4D8IgX
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) August 15, 2022
More good news, *if* it pans out:
A century-old vaccine offers hope against a range of pathogens. BCG—Bacillus Calmette-Guerin—tuberculosis vax may guard against #Covid & other infections by broadly bolstering the immune system. Also, multiple BCG shots shield Type 1 diabetics from #Covid https://t.co/f4T9P1o0zF pic.twitter.com/ZfBwWvNGJ6
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 17, 2022
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Aug. 18-19Post + Comments (27)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Aug. 15-16
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
"The CDC position that we need to “live with Covid”, as espoused with its guidance, should be countered by exploiting the science and our clear capabilities of fully containing the virus, once and for all."
From @EricTopol https://t.co/XsPp8Azaja— Kit Yates (@Kit_Yates_Maths) August 15, 2022
Long Covid looks to be *the* pandemic-related topic, at least until the next variant emerges…
Hola, here is your unroll: https://t.co/swzbMJ7vwg Have a good day. 🤖
— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) August 15, 2022
Last evening, we discussed the new @CDCgov guidelines, purportedly a shift to "protect the vulnerable," but fail to do so on many counts https://t.co/lJeFXASFjs
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 13, 2022
Glass half full…
Good news…with cases now headed down, it looks like there was no big wave of deaths from the BA.5 Covid variant. pic.twitter.com/5hE57DKa2r
— Noah Smith ?????? (@Noahpinion) August 13, 2022
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The formidable challenge of BA.5 doesn't detract from the outstanding containment of the virus and high adoption of vaccines in these countries, with a 6-11 fold reduction of cumulative mortality per capita compared with the United States@OurWorldInData pic.twitter.com/00wQpIlJ3T
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 14, 2022
Present situation… as opposed to cumulative. pic.twitter.com/dYrmiWN5n1
— DankH2O (@Dank_H2O) August 14, 2022
something I keep having to correct writers on – the idea that there's a single united covid health app in China! there very much is not, it's a messy patchwork that often communicates badly and that's one of the things that makes travel and supply chains especially hard https://t.co/T6njE8SGF6
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) August 13, 2022
After weeks in #COVID19 confinement, folks in Shanghai eagerly swarm a newly reopened @IKEA https://t.co/lKVx5iNRk2
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 14, 2022
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… A number of Pacific islands had success with keeping coronavirus at bay early in the pandemic through stringent restrictions.
The Marshall Islands, which has a population of 59,000, was one of the last nations in the world to be untouched by Covid-19, before two cases were identified in October 2020. The pair had arrived from the US and were isolated from others.
As recently as one week ago, it had seen no community transmission of the virus – meaning that Covid had not been detected passing from person to person.
But on Monday, the first local spread was confirmed. The government responded by declaring a “state of health disaster”, closing schools and introducing a range of public health measures.
The explosion in cases has seen the Marshall Islands shift from a “prevention to mitigation” strategy, Mr Niedenthal wrote in a Facebook update…
No lockdown has been ordered, but Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reports that many people have chosen to stay at home, with church services cancelled and restaurants appearing quiet.
Since October 2020, two deaths have been reported across the Marshall Islands, and a cumulative total of 3,036 cases have been logged.
However, only nine hospitalisations had been recorded at the time of Mr Niedenthal’s Facebook update on Monday – with figures showing that 70% of Marshallese had been fully vaccinated…
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… Moderna’s latest vaccine – called Spikevax – targets both the original strain and the first Omicron variant (BA.1), which emerged last winter. It is known as a bivalent vaccine as it takes aim at two forms of Covid.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has considered the evidence and given the vaccine approval for use in adults.
Dr June Raine, the regulator’s chief executive, said: “What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve.”
Experiments on 437 people showed the updated vaccine was safe and gave better immune protection against newer variants.
Levels of antibodies that were able to stick to and disable Omicron (BA.1) were 1.7 times higher in people given the new vaccine. Tests against more recent Omicron variants (BA.4 and BA.5), which are causing the UK’s current wave, also showed higher levels of protection with the updated vaccine.
However, it is far from clear what that means in terms of preventing someone from becoming seriously ill.
Additionally, it is uncertain what variants we will be facing in the coming months and exactly how well the updated vaccine will perform against them…
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Why some people suffer more from #COVID19 than others: a team of scientists #BIH and colleagues from the United Kingdom and Canada have found #genes and #proteins that contribute to a higher risk of severe COVID-19: https://t.co/YA0qtPI6ls ©M. Pietzner w. https://t.co/aeQPAIJKbP pic.twitter.com/zDv95vPrDq
— Berlin Institute of Health (@berlinnovation) August 15, 2022
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In one week's time we learned more about #LongCovid that we had in months, including evidence for a potential biomarker. Yet we're still way behind where we need to be to help millions of people who are affected. https://t.co/IEMD9R3LtU pic.twitter.com/ONWeuShJ1o
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 13, 2022
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Counter-argument, for what it’s worth (I’ll admit — I personally think Dr. Topol is a little bit doomerist):
also, the "percentage of people who have had COVID" is now upwards of 80%! this would imply that 20% or more of Americans had long COVID, which if correct I would not need a chart to determine!
— Andreas Schou (@revhowardarson) August 15, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Aug. 15-16Post + Comments (26)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Aug. 11-12
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
New CDC guidelines not only ditched quarantines, they put less emphasis on social distancing, routine testing & contact tracing. You no longer have to stay 6-feet away. But CDC leadership is in disarray so it's best to act the best interest of your health https://t.co/cPSwTwwCpP
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 12, 2022
The CDC effectively throws up its hands:
Glass practically half full — and, let’s be realistic, who needs that much liquid anyways?
… At this point in the pandemic, the emphasis must shift from universal mandates to individual decisions to minimize the disruption of in-person learning.
Previous guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was appropriate for the last school year, but it is out of step with the situation today. It referenced social distancing and separating kids into cohorts, which posed practical difficulties for many schools. It urged masking at schools in communities with high levels of covid transmission, which is the case for more than 40 percent of the United States.
Masks and distancing are mitigation measures that were needed before vaccines became widely available for school-age children. That’s no longer the case. Everyone 6 months and older can be vaccinated, and those 5 years old and above can be boosted. Moreover, the vast majority of children have been exposed to covid. A CDC study found that as of February 3 out of 4 kids have had the coronavirus. That was before the BA.2 and BA.5 omicron subvariants became the dominant strains. By now, most children, and most of the general population, are well-protected from severe illness as a result of vaccination, prior infection or both…
The CDC’s new guidance removes blanket distancing and cohorting requirements. Importantly, it also allows children exposed to covid to stay in class. This should prevent entire classrooms from being forced to stay home because one child tested positive and will come as a huge relief to parents who have seen how the unpredictability of covid restrictions negatively affects their work and their children’s education.
Masking in areas of high transmission remains part of the guidance, which schools will not follow anyway; a survey of 500 of the largest K-12 school districts found that 98 percent no longer plan to mandate masks…
Those opposed to the CDC easing restrictions warn that the new policies will lead to super-spreader events at schools. They are right. Schools will have more outbreaks as layers of protection are removed. But daily outbreaks already occur at conferences, weddings, restaurants, gyms and workplaces. Most are probably not reported or even detected, as there is increased recognition that the United States cannot contain covid-19 through contact tracing.
Rather, everyone engaging in public life should be aware that those around them could be infected with the coronavirus. They should protect themselves with vaccines, know which treatments they are eligible for and take precautions such as masking according to their level of risk tolerance. Students, teachers and school staff are no different…
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Anger and anxiety are mounting among tens of thousands of tourists stranded in Sanya, a beach resort destination in China that has become the country’s latest site of a sudden lockdown following a Covid-19 outbreak.@_KarenHao @qianweizhang @ZhaoReddyhttps://t.co/hw8gavi7CC
— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) August 9, 2022
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The 75th Indian Independence Day is August 15th, next Monday:
As the country continues to record an average of over 15,000 #coronavirus cases daily, the Centre has asked States to ensure there are no large gatherings for Independence Day celebrations and that everyone follows Covid protocols. https://t.co/lHOa6U4J4s
— National Herald (@NH_India) August 12, 2022
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Correction, typo: its striking BA.2 wave
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 10, 2022
Kim Jong Un suffered a "fever" during the Covid outbreak in North Korea, his sister reveals, blaming Seoul.
Pyongyang refers to "fever patients" rather than "Covid patients".
Kim has declared a "shining victory" over Covid in North Koreahttps://t.co/DJCYgoGu8P pic.twitter.com/I8NpR5Xkam
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 11, 2022
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Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month it was hopeful South African pharmaceutical firm Aspen Pharmacare would get orders for its own brand COVID vaccine. However, it has not received any orders to date https://t.co/VXjmrJ4XOD pic.twitter.com/rnLOMaaooM
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2022
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In the past week, there's been a flurry of new, informative reports on #LongCovid. I've tried to summarize them here along with the implicationshttps://t.co/IEMD9R3LtU
(PS you can subscribe, it's free)— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 12, 2022
Scientists in Germany have identified an effective combination of therapies for #Covid that may reduce the formation of novel variants https://t.co/DbkqUtd72e pic.twitter.com/sX6Lyhz9ia
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) August 8, 2022
—I'd like a little postcard-sized system that would rapidly and accurately detect a Covid infection, which strain of virus, and my level of immunity, all from my saliva
—No problem, we've got onehttps://t.co/KmVrlJoFab @natBME @wyssinstitute @DonIngber @MIT pic.twitter.com/wgywLhWQcR— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 8, 2022
Consumer news for technophiles (with a spare $188 or so):
Very professional review of the LG Puricare from @ashri_k. The Puricare is honestly marketed- no N95 claims. I own one and in my opinion it's a viable option for people who truly have problems tolerating disposable or elastomeric N95 masks to the point where they cannot wear one. https://t.co/g6acAkn6iY
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) August 11, 2022
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From a long thread, on a *recent* (Feb. 22) observational study here in Massachusetts:
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Aug. 11-12Post + Comments (22)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Aug. 8-9
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
NOTE: Next update will be Friday morning, Aug. 12. See you then!
Fauci warns of ‘trouble’ for those w/ BA.5 variant if not up to date on vaccines. The nation’s top infectious diseases expert says he understands people are exhausted, but is urging those not up to date on vaccines to get the shots —BA.5 is no joke https://t.co/2eSLG5qL8E
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 7, 2022
The US BA.5 wave has plateaued https://t.co/bNPQGNXI4t by @jon_kamp pic.twitter.com/hCrlz1Y6MH
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 6, 2022
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Parts of Tibet are running mass COVID-19 testing on Tuesday, including the Chinese autonomous region's two largest cities, to fight a rare flare-up, while clusters were growing in tropical Hainan and in Xinjiang in China's west. https://t.co/XlxLzPxrDv
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) August 9, 2022
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Over the following four days at home, arrivals will undergo “medical surveillance,” when they will be allowed to take public transport, go to work, and enter shopping malls, but barred from accessing certain businesses including restaurants, bars, gyms and beauty salons.
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) August 9, 2022
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Not true, if the Financial Times and Dr. Topol are correct:
The BA.5 vaccine trial hasn't even started yet @Pfizer @BioNTech_Group, so the September date that has been touted for that booster is unrealistic https://t.co/TAFoxggKmm by @hannahkuchler @FT
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 8, 2022
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The shift from Delta #SARSCoV2 to #Omicron & then many subvariants resulted in ever-better evasion of the human immune system, w/the mutants using different receptors to gain entry to a wider range of human cell types. Thus, Omicron is far more contagious.https://t.co/pnzg8Fy7rf
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 7, 2022
Seeing the impact of BA.5 when the immunity wall consists of a high vaccination rate, limited prior infections except with BA.1, strong mitigation measures@OurWorldInData
What are immunity walls?https://t.co/pQYFuqy954 pic.twitter.com/avXxjfqrpK— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 7, 2022
In development: An at-home saliva-based Covid test that's as effective as PCR in preliminary analyses. PCR is the 'gold standard' method of detecting SARSCoV2. A Penn State team has developed a test that spots SARS2 in 45 mins w/ the accuracy of PCR https://t.co/4HcvpufMFP
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) August 6, 2022
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Paxlovid rebound: first evidence that the variant can influence the likelihood. ~30% increase for BA.5 compared with the preceding US dominant variant, BA.2.12.1https://t.co/tSxByRKKd1
Low frequency across both variants, as derived from EHRs, not the way to determine rebound pic.twitter.com/L01LOk0skM— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 6, 2022
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Scrutiny of 140,000 classroom interactions at Boston U, fall 2021 found only 9 possible cases of #COVID19 spread in class. BU had a 100%, no exceptions mask😷 mandate & max room ventilation with full student in-person attendance.https://t.co/z7ukHqLA24
&https://t.co/AuUAWe6VX9— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 6, 2022
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Aug. 8-9Post + Comments (17)
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