CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
From Geert's public page:

(fair use applies)


Game-changing? What the heck! It’s not even close!
Geert Vanden Bossche
Nov 13, 2024

I came across some bold statements on X (Twitter) glorifying a new ‘Needle-Free COVID-19 (live attenuated) Intranasal Vaccine’ (https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-develop-game-changing-needle-free-covid-19-intranasal-vaccine/), so I decided to review the publication itself (A single-dose intranasal live-attenuated codon deoptimized vaccine provides broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants - Nature Communications) and basically found it confirmed what I had anticipated.
How immunologically ‘naïve’ can one be? Here’s a summary of my comments:
  • ‘Antigenically broad immune responses’ alone do not guarantee protection against newly emerging immune escape variants. This is because neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) require a lag time of several weeks to reach their full neutralizing potential. Viral exposure during periods when NAbs have suboptimal titers or functionality—such as after primary vaccination or during declines in antibody (Ab) concentrations—promote immune selection pressure and, therefore, foster viral immune escape.
  • Mucosal antibodies are typically short-lived, lacking longevity. Even neutralizing IgG Abs induced by this mucosal vaccine appeared to be not only short-lived but also individually very variable (and by the way, why were they measured in ‘arbitrary units’ ??).
  • The preclinical studies conducted do not assess the role of cell-mediated innate immunity in the observed protection. Hence, one cannot rule out that vaccine-mediated cross-protection in hamsters and transgenic mice was largely conferred by innate effector cells.
  • Preclinical experiments in transgenic hACE2 mice may be misleading as some SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) immune escape variants have the capacity to infect target cells through mechanisms not mediated by hACE2 (i.e., via non-hACE2-mediated viral entry).
  • The infectious challenge studies were performed shortly after immunization and thus do not demonstrate the durability of immune protection.
  • There is no indication whatsoever that the intranasal vaccine induced T cells with cytolytic activity against SC-2-infected cells. Furthermore, T cell-based immunogenicity does not equate to T cell-mediated immune protection!
  • The cross-neutralizing titers (e.g., including SARS-CoV-1) are very low and are unlikely to be long-lasting. Cross-reactivity of poorly neutralizing Abs primarily promotes immune refocusing, thereby fostering viral immune escape.
  • Protection studies in non-human primates are conspicuously missing. Why?
  • The authors appear enthusiastic about the extremely high levels of the immune response/effector cells, which they label as ‘super-immunity.’ To me, this is concerning, as ‘more is better’ is rarely applicable in immunology.
Conclusion: The mucosal vaccine approach lauded by the authors would, at best, provide only short-lived protection outside a pandemic. It is not going to provide durable protection against SC-2 immune escape variants. On the contrary, it may actually promote the emergence of such variants if administered during this COVID-19 pandemic, which – by the way – hasn’t come to an end.
 
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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


China identifies new feline coronavirus that is extremely lethal and could pose a threat to humans
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team
Nov 14, 2024

In a significant scientific breakthrough, researchers in China have identified a new strain of feline coronavirus known as FCoV HL2019, found to be highly lethal among cats. The discovery, led by scientists from the Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Research Center of General Administration of Customs in Beijing, has raised concerns due to the virus's similarities to human coronaviruses. This new strain, belonging to the Type I variant of feline coronavirus, has shown a propensity for causing severe disease, including feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a fatal illness in cats.

This Medical News report delves into the findings of this groundbreaking study, where researchers sequenced the virus’s complete genome, revealing significant genetic traits and potential for recombination, an essential aspect for understanding the virus's behavior and transmission.


A Closer Look at HL2019's Pathogenicity
The HL2019 strain was isolated from a British Shorthair cat in Anhui Province, China, and researchers found it to be extremely pathogenic. Laboratory tests involving 9 to 12-month-old cats showed that HL2019 spread quickly and severely impacted the animals' health. Within 28 days, two out of three infected cats displayed classic symptoms of FIP, including weight loss, persistent fever, inappetence, and, eventually, death. Real-time PCR testing revealed that the virus exhibited a broad tissue tropism, or the ability to infect multiple tissues, with the highest viral load found in the duodenum at a concentration of 10^4 copies per milligram.

Microscopic examination of tissue samples from infected cats revealed signs of severe inflammation. The virus particularly targeted macrophages - cells essential for immune defense - while also causing lesions in organs such as the liver, spleen, kidneys, and intestines. The cats in the HL2019 group displayed a consistent fever and significant weight loss, contrasting with the control group, which showed no symptoms.


Genomic Characteristics and the Threat of Recombination
A central aspect of the study focused on analyzing the genome of HL2019. Researchers sequenced its complete genome, identifying 29,044 nucleotides, which code for structural proteins (spike, envelope, membrane, and nucleocapsid) and other proteins vital for the virus’s lifecycle. The genetic analysis placed HL2019 close to other FCoV Type I strains but more distantly related to FCoV Type II, which is typically less virulent. Interestingly, the genome of HL2019 bears notable similarities to human coronavirus strains HCoV 229E and HCoV NL63, suggesting an evolutionary link and hinting at the potential risk of cross-species transmission.

Through recombination analysis, researchers identified genetic sequences within the HL2019 strain that are likely derived from other feline c oronaviruses, including FCoV I China/ZJU1709 and FCoV I Netherlands/UU16. This recombination - a process where viruses exchange genetic material to form new strains - was particularly evident in the virus’s ORF1a region, which encodes an enzyme called papain-like protease (PLpro). This enzyme is crucial for viral replication and is also known to suppress the immune response, allowing the virus to evade immune defenses more effectively. Recombination events within ORF1a could facilitate the virus's adaptability and increase its potential for infecting new species.


Implications for Human Health and Cross-Species Transmission
One of the most concerning findings from this study is the close genetic relationship between FCoV Type I strains and human coronaviruses, such as HCoV 229E and HCoV NL63. Previous studies have documented cases of coronaviruses crossing species barriers, notably in SARS-CoV-2, which has been observed to infect cats. This new feline strain’s similarities with human coronaviruses raise questions about the possibility of HL2019 evolving further to infect humans. While there is no direct evidence yet that HL2019 can infect humans, the study’s authors emphasize the need for vigilance, especially given the history of coronaviruses in crossing species.

The researchers highlight that cats could potentially serve as intermediate hosts for coronavirus strains that could jump to humans. With the demonstrated pathogenicity of HL2019 in feline populations, it’s essential to monitor this virus’s spread in domestic and feral cats alike. A cross-species transmission could pose a significant threat to human health, especially if the virus were to acquire additional mutations that increase its infectivity in humans.


Conclusion: A Call for Continued Surveillance and Research

The discovery of the HL2019 strain is an important milestone in understanding feline coronaviruses and their potential risks to both cats and humans. The study emphasizes the need for further research into the evolution of feline coronaviruses, particularly those belonging to the highly pathogenic Type I group.

The scientists behind this research urge for ongoing surveillance of FCoV strains in cat populations to detect emerging variants that may have zoonotic potential, meaning the ability to jump from animals to humans.

As the study sheds light on the virus’s high virulence and genetic complexity, it also calls for heightened biosecurity measures in animal handling and closer monitoring of companion animals’ health, especially given the increasing interactions between humans and pets. As researchers continue to investigate the nuances of HL2019’s genomic structure and pathogenesis, understanding this virus in greater depth will be crucial in developing potential preventive measures and therapeutic strategies.

The study findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal: Transboundary and Emerging Diseases.

 

Zoner

Veteran Member
This video is from Radagast/Rintrah.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0JgNVauWYM
What they don't tell you about bird flu.
House of Rintrah
Nov 11, 2024
11 min 30 sec
I decided to explain a problem I have read about a lot, I hope you find it useful (not that there's anything you can do about it by now, but at least you'll understand the problem).
All very alarming. We shall soon see. Thanks for posting it. I keep thinking there is no way they allow Trump to be sworn in office with this A-Team Cabinet. They have options...
 

ktrapper

Veteran Member
This video is from Radagast/Rintrah.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0JgNVauWYM
What they don't tell you about bird flu.
House of Rintrah
Nov 11, 2024
11 min 30 sec
I decided to explain a problem I have read about a lot, I hope you find it useful (not that there's anything you can do about it by now, but at least you'll understand the problem).
I have really bad hearing and can only make out part of what he says with his accent even with my head phones cranked up. Could not get CC to work.
Could someone give a short gist of what he is getting at?
 

naegling62

Veteran Member
I have really bad hearing and can only make out part of what he says with his accent even with my head phones cranked up. Could not get CC to work.
Could someone give a short gist of what he is getting at?
There is a transcript that you can follow along with if you click on the “more” prompt in the description on the video.
 

naegling62

Veteran Member
Basically we created the virus starting after WW2 because of the commercialization of big chicken houses. The Chinese tried vaccinating their way out and made it worse. The virus is relatively new, around the 90’s.

The chicken houses allowed the virus to mutate to have polybasic cleavage sites. The virus mutated to attack the endothelial layer of the blood vessels. This virus won’t become milder as it crosses species. It won’t become milder like the 1918 outbreak.
I have really bad hearing and can only make out part of what he says with his accent even with my head phones cranked up. Could not get CC to work.
Could someone give a short gist of what he is getting at?
 

ktrapper

Veteran Member
Basically we created the virus starting after WW2 because of the commercialization of big chicken houses. The Chinese tried vaccinating their way out and made it worse. The virus is relatively new, around the 90’s.

The chicken houses allowed the virus to mutate to have polybasic cleavage sites. The virus mutated to attack the endothelial layer of the blood vessels. This virus won’t become milder as it crosses species. It won’t become milder like the 1918 outbreak.
Thank You.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
Basically we created the virus starting after WW2 because of the commercialization of big chicken houses. The Chinese tried vaccinating their way out and made it worse. The virus is relatively new, around the 90’s.

The chicken houses allowed the virus to mutate to have polybasic cleavage sites. The virus mutated to attack the endothelial layer of the blood vessels. This virus won’t become milder as it crosses species. It won’t become milder like the 1918 outbreak.


Thank you for posting the summary.

I have really bad hearing and can only make out part of what he says with his accent even with my head phones cranked up. Could not get CC to work.
Could someone give a short gist of what he is getting at?

I'm sorry I didn't post a summary. I usually do but didn't this time because the video was basically an oral presentation of his article that I posted to this thread on Nov 4th and I assumed it was still fresh in the thread readers' minds, but it's a page up and may have been missed. Click on this post number and you can read the article that says what he says in the video if you want some more explanation on his theory.

#71,693


HD
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


The CDC Planned Quarantine Camps Nationwide
By Jeffrey A Tucker
November 7, 2024

No matter how bad you think Covid policies were, they were intended to be worse.

Consider the vaccine passports alone. Six cities were locked down to include only the vaccinated in public indoor places. They were New York City, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. The plan was to enforce this with a vaccine passport. It broke. Once the news leaked that the shot didn’t stop infection or transmission, the planners lost public support and the scheme collapsed.

It was undoubtedly planned to be permanent and nationwide if not worldwide. Instead, the scheme had to be dialed back.

Features of the CDC’s edicts did incredible damage. It imposed the rent moratorium. It decreed the ridiculous “six feet of distance” and mask mandates. It forced Plexiglas as the interface for commercial transactions. It implied that mail-in balloting must be the norm, which probably flipped the election. It delayed the reopening as long as possible. It was sadistic.

Even with all that, worse was planned. On July 26, 2020, with the George Floyd riots having finally settled down, the CDC issued a plan for establishing nationwide quarantine camps. People were to be isolated, given only food and some cleaning supplies. They would be banned from participating in any religious services. The plan included contingencies for preventing suicide. There were no provisions made for any legal appeals or even the right to legal counsel.

The plan’s authors were unnamed but included 26 footnotes. It was completely official. The document was only removed on about March 26, 2023. During the entire intervening time, the plan survived on the CDC’s public site with little to no public notice or controversy.

It was called “Interim Operational Considerations for Implementing the Shielding Approach to Prevent COVID-19 Infections in Humanitarian Settings.”

“This document presents considerations from the perspective of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) for implementing the shielding approach in humanitarian settings as outlined in guidance documents focused on camps, displaced populations and low-resource settings. This approach has never been documented and has raised questions and concerns among humanitarian partners who support response activities in these settings. The purpose of this document is to highlight potential implementation challenges of the shielding approach from CDC’s perspective and guide thinking around implementation in the absence of empirical data. Considerations are based on current evidence known about the transmission and severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and may need to be revised as more information becomes available.”

By absence of empirical data, the meaning is: nothing like this has ever been tried. The point of the document was to map out how it could be possible and alert authorities to possible pitfalls to be avoided.

The meaning of “shielding” is “to reduce the number of severe Covid-19 cases by limiting contact between individuals at higher risk of developing severe disease (‘high-risk’) and the general population (‘low-risk’). High-risk individuals would be temporarily relocated to safe or ‘green zones’ established at the household, neighborhood, camp/sector, or community level depending on the context and setting. They would have minimal contact with family members and other low-risk residents.”

In other words, this is what used to be concentration camps.

Who are these people who would be rounded up? They are “older adults and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions.” Who determines this? Public health authorities. The purpose? The CDC explains: “physically separating high-risk individuals from the general population” allows authorities “to prioritize the use of the limited available resources.”

This sounds a lot like condemning people to death in the name of protecting them.

The model establishes three levels. First is the household level. Here high-risk people are“physically isolated from other household members.” That alone is objectionable. Elders need people to take care of them. They need love and to be surrounded by family. The CDC should never imagine that it would intervene in households to force old people into separate places.

The model jumps from households to the “neighborhood level.” Here we have the same approach: forced separation of those deemed vulnerable.

From there, the model jumps again to the “camp/sector level.” Here it is different. “A group of shelters such as schools, community buildings within a camp/sector (max 50 high-risk individuals per single green zone) where high-risk individuals are physically isolated together. One entry point is used for exchange of food, supplies, etc. A meeting area is used for residents and visitors to interact while practicing physical distancing (2 meters). No movement into or outside the green zone.”

Yes, you read that correctly. The CDC is here proposing concentration camps for the sick or anyone they deem to be in danger of medically significant consequences of infection.

Further: “to minimize external contact, each green zone should include able-bodied high-risk individuals capable of caring for residents who have disabilities or are less mobile. Otherwise, designate low-risk individuals for these tasks, preferably who have recovered from confirmed COVID-19 and are assumed to be immune.”

The plan says in passing, contradicting thousands of years of experience, “Currently, we do not know if prior infection confers immunity.” Therefore the only solution is to minimize all exposure throughout the whole population. Getting sick is criminalized.

These camps require a “dedicated staff” to “monitor each green zone. Monitoring includes both adherence to protocols and potential adverse effects or outcomes due to isolation and stigma. It may be necessary to assign someone within the green zone, if feasible, to minimize movement in/out of green zones.”

The people housed in these camps need to have good explanations of why they are denied even basic religious freedom. The report explains:

“Proactive planning ahead of time, including strong community engagement and risk communication is needed to better understand the issues and concerns of restricting individuals from participating in communal practices because they are being shielded. Failure to do so could lead to both interpersonal and communal violence.”

Further, there must be some mechanisms to prohibit suicide:

Additional stress and worry are common during any epidemic and may be more pronounced with COVID-19 due to the novelty of the disease and increased fear of infection, increased childcare responsibilities due to school closures, and loss of livelihoods. Thus, in addition to the risk of stigmatization and feeling of isolation, this shielding approach may have an important psychological impact and may lead to significant emotional distress, exacerbate existing mental illness or contribute to anxiety, depression, helplessness, grief, substance abuse, or thoughts of suicide among those who are separated or have been left behind. Shielded individuals with concurrent severe mental health conditions should not be left alone. There must be a caregiver allocated to them to prevent further protection risks such as neglect and abuse.

The biggest risk, the document explains, is as follows: “While the shielding approach is not meant to be coercive, it may appear forced or be misunderstood in humanitarian settings.”

(It should go without saying but this “shielding” approach suggested here has nothing to do with focused protection of the Great Barrington Declaration. Focused protection specifically says: “schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.”)

In four years of research, and encountering truly shocking documents and evidence of what happened in the Covid years, this one certainly ranks up at the top of the list of totalitarian schemes for pathogenic control prior to vaccination. It is quite simply mind-blowing that such a scheme could ever be contemplated.

Who wrote it? What kind of deep institutional pathology exists that enabled this to be contemplated? The CDC has 10,600 full-time employees and contractors and a budget of $11.5 billion. In light of this report, and everything else that has gone on there for four years, both numbers should be zero.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
This article is obviously biased against vaccine deniers and Marjorie Taylor Greene, but I posted it anyway because it reports on MTG's comments on how she hopes Gaetz goes after what she called crimes against humanity in relation to covid. I highlighted her comments so you can ignore the (actually pretty funny because it's so butt hurt obnoxious) bias and read the news from MTG ;)


(fair use applies)


“Crimes Against Humanity”: MTG Suggests Targets for AG Matt Gaetz
MAGA representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wants Matt Gaetz to wield his future power as attorney general by demolishing our country’s health standards.

Malcolm Ferguson
November 14, 2024 9:48 p.m. ET

It looks like there is at least one person who is happy about Matt Gaetz’s nomination to be the next attorney general: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said she was hopeful Gaetz would prosecute vaccine “crimes against humanity,” whatever that means.

The Georgia Republican, with a penchant for regurgitating extremist conspiracy theories, unleashed a diatribe of vaccine misinformation during a congressional meeting Thursday titled, “Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Lessons Learned and the Path Forward.”

“I think one of the greatest lessons that has been learned here is that the government and its powerful agencies should never use the American people’s hard earned tax dollars to create viruses that can be unleashed on the world, like Covid-19 was,” Greene said.

Greene claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci “lied to the American people, abusing his power and position and role, a very powerful role paid for by the American tax people.” She suggested that the United States had been behind the deadly disease, just to sell Americans an even more horrific medicine.

“People that perpetuated and continue to perpetuate these crimes need to be prosecuted, and that needs to be starting in the next administration, and I’m pretty sure our next attorney general will do that, and I look forward to seeing that happen,” she said.


Greene, who bragged about being unvaccinated, also suggested that vaccines should be further “investigated” and linked them to a supposed “rise in autism” and neurological disorders—something that has also been suggested by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump announced Thursday will be his nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“This has literally been a war on people’s health,” Greene said, misusing the word “literally” and describing lifesaving vaccines as a “war.”

“Preparing for the next pandemic is actually recognizing that the last pandemic resulted in crimes against humanity,” Greene continued.

Will Gaetz be interested in prosecuting Fauci over his efforts to pull America out of a global pandemic? It’s unclear.

Gaetz claimed in 2021 that the best way to prevent yourself from getting Covid-19 was … to get Covid-19. “The best vaccine we’ve found is mother nature’s vaccine,” Gaetz told the right-wing One America News Network.

When CNN asked whether he had been vaccinated, Gaetz cut the interviewer off. “That’s very nosy of you,” he said.

“I think we should be talking more about freeing Britney,” he added.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


New American Study Finds That SARS-CoV-2’s XEC Variant Shows Alarming Ability to Evade Immunity and Boosts Infectivity
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team
Nov 15, 2024


Medical News: American Researchers Investigate the New XEC Variant
A team of scientists from The Ohio State University-USA and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston-USA recently examined the new SARS-CoV-2 variant known as XEC, a recombinant strain combining the properties of two other variants, KS.1.1 and KP.3.3. The study, led by Shan-Lu Liu at the Center for Retrovirus Research at Ohio State, sought to uncover the unique biological features of XEC that could potentially help it evade immunity and affect transmission rates. This Medical News report delves into how the XEC variant may impact current vaccines and infection patterns worldwide.

This research is particularly significant given that XEC carries two unique mutations, T22N and F59S, within the spike protein’s N-terminal domain (NTD). These mutations alter the virus's interactions with neutralizing antibodies, potentially making it harder for the immune system to recognize and neutralize the virus. The study reports that understanding how these mutations affect viral behavior is critical to ongoing efforts to control the spread of COVID-19.


Key Mutations and Their Impacts on Immune Evasion and Spike Stability
The T22N mutation, akin to a mutation previously seen in other variants, introduces a new glycosylation site on the spike protein. Glycosylation is a biochemical process where sugar molecules attach to proteins, which in this case can alter how the immune system perceives the virus. Researchers found that the T22N mutation in XEC forms a glycosylation pattern that disrupts the binding sites for certain antibodies, reducing the immune system's ability to neutralize the virus. Similarly, the F59S mutation modifies local spike protein structure by disrupting hydrophobic interactions, thus increasing infectivity. The XEC variant also shows reduced cell-to-cell fusion, a factor influenced by the T22N mutation. This reduction, however, does not appear to limit the variant’s capacity to evade neutralizing antibodies.


Reduced Neutralization Across Different Sera Samples
Researchers studied the neutralizing antibody (nAb) response in different sera samples. These samples included those from healthcare workers vaccinated with a combination of three doses of the monovalent mRNA vaccine and one dose of the bivalent mRNA vaccine, patients infected with BA.2.86/JN.1 lineage variants, and hamsters vaccinated with a recombinant mumps vaccine expressing the XBB.1.5 spike protein. For all these groups, XEC showed a significantly reduced neutralization response compared to other SARS-CoV-2 variants. The F59S mutation was primarily responsible for this escape from immunity, while the T22N mutation had a lesser but still notable impact.

Notably, sera from bivalent-vaccinated healthcare workers saw a 3.8-fold reduction in neutralization for XEC, and sera from BA.2.86/JN.1-infected individuals e xhibited a 4.0-fold decrease in effectiveness. This indicates that the mutations in XEC’s spike protein enable it to evade neutralizing antibodies effectively, suggesting that current vaccination and infection-derived immunity may provide limited protection against XEC.


Insights from Antigenic Cartography Analysis
To further evaluate XEC’s immune escape abilities, scientists conducted an antigenic cartography analysis. This technique plots viruses and antibody responses in two-dimensional space to map antigenic distances, where each antigenic unit represents about a two-fold change in neutralization capacity. The analysis showed that XEC was the furthest variant from the original D614G and other parental lineages, reflecting a high degree of immune escape. For individuals with prior BA.2.86/JN.1 infection, XEC was the most antigenically distant variant from JN.1, demonstrating its substantial immune escape.


Structural Insights into the XEC Spike Protein

Molecular modeling of the spike protein revealed how the T22N and F59S mutations affect spike stability, fusion, and immune escape. The T22N mutation, which adds a glycan to the spike protein, interferes with antibody binding and makes the virus more difficult for the immune system to detect. Meanwhile, the F59S mutation disrupts hydrophobic interactions within the spike protein, leading to a more flexible spike structure that enhances its ability to bind ACE2 receptors on host cells.

These structural changes mean the virus can evade immune responses more effectively and increase infectivity. Although the precise mechanisms behind these structural changes require more research, these findings are crucial for predicting how variants like XEC might spread and impact immunity.


Experimental Findings and Future Directions

Beyond immune escape, XEC exhibited a unique balance of increased infectivity and modified cell fusion compared to other SARS-CoV-2 variants. Notably, the XEC spike protein has reduced S1 shedding, which could enhance spike stability, aiding immune escape. Importantly, when researchers removed the glycosylation caused by the T22N mutation, they observed increased cell fusion activity and partially restored antibody neutralization.

These findings highlight the importance of the NTD in SARS-CoV-2's ability to evade immunity and remain infective. Moreover, the study indicates that as SARS-CoV-2 evolves, future vaccines may need to target the unique features of these spike mutations to maintain efficacy.


Conclusion
The emergence of the XEC variant underscores the adaptive nature of SARS-CoV-2 and the continuous evolution of its spike protein to evade immune responses. This variant, with its unique mutations, presents a challenge for existing vaccines and could affect the effectiveness of antibody-based treatments. By understanding the mechanisms behind immune escape and increased infectivity in variants like XEC, researchers hope to guide the development of next-generation vaccines and therapeutic strategies.

The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed.

 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


Scientists warn a new SARS-CoV-2 lineage that will have more mutations and pose challenges will likely emerge early 2025
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team
Nov 15, 2024

The global scientific community is raising fresh concerns about the ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Researchers from Inner Mongolia University and Inner Mongolia University of Technology in China have uncovered an alarming trend: the number of mutation sites in SARS-CoV-2 variants is increasing steadily over time. This discovery has significant implications for the pandemic's trajectory and the development of vaccines and treatments.

This Medical News report delves into the findings of a new study that has meticulously tracked the genetic evolution of the virus. By analyzing data from 61 SARS-CoV-2 variants, the researchers observed a near-linear increase in mutation sites, particularly in the spike protein - the part of the virus that facilitates its entry into human cells.


The Linear Trend of Mutations

Using regression analysis, the researchers demonstrated a strong correlation between the number of mutation sites in a variant and the time since its first appearance. The study revealed that the spike protein's mutation sites increase at a rate of approximately 1.27 mutations per month. These mutations accumulate over time, creating distinct macro-lineages, each with unique genetic traits.

For instance, the study identified a series of macro-lineages, labeled N, O, P, and Q. Each lineage represents a step in the virus's evolutionary journey, with newer lineages typically outcompeting their predecessors. Notably, lineage P was observed in recent months, and predictions suggest that lineage Q is on the verge of emergence. The researchers estimate that macro-lineage Q will appear by February 2025 and could dominate by the end of 2026.


The A-X Model and Predicting New Variants

A significant aspect of the study was the use of the A-X model, which combines existing mutation sites (Set A) with new, randomly generated mutations (Set X) to predict the emergence of novel strains. This model provided insights into how certain mutation thresholds lead to the transition between macro-lineages. For example, the study showed that lineage Q would likely emerge when the number of mutations exceeds 79 and become a dominant strain when the count reaches 108.

By applying this model, the researchers successfully predicted the emergence of lineage P in earlier studies. Their current findings suggest that lineage Q, with even more mutations, could introduce new challenges for public health strategies.


Implications for Public Health and Vaccines
The steady increase in mutation sites poses significant challenges for controlling the pandemic. Mutations in the spike protein can alter the virus's transmissibility, immune evasion capabilities, and resistance to treatments. This means that vaccines and therapies may need constant updates to remain effective.

The findings also highlight the importance of global genomic surveillance to track and respond to these changes. Continuous monitoring can help anticipate the rise of new variants, enabling proactive adjustments to vaccines and public health measures.


Study Methods and Analysis

The study relied on data from outbreak.info, a global resource for tracking SARS-CoV-2 mutations. Researchers examined the earliest samples of 61 variants, analyzing both the number of mutation sites and the total accumulated mutations in the spike protein. Their statistical analysis revealed a discontinuous but overall linear trend in mutation accumulation over time.

This linearity, despite occasional jumps during lineage transitions, provides a reliable framework for predicting the future evolution of the virus. For example, the researchers calculated that the slope of mutation accumulation could predict the timeline for new lineage emergence with high confidence.


Broader Impacts of the Study

This research not only advances our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 evolution but also underscores the broader implications of viral mutations. As new variants emerge, they may carry unforeseen traits that could complicate efforts to control the pandemic. The researchers emphasized the need for adaptive strategies that account for the virus's dynamic nature.


Conclusion

The study's findings serve as a stark reminder of the challenges posed by SARS-CoV-2's rapid evolution. The near-linear increase in mutation sites highlights the virus's relentless adaptation, making it imperative for scientists, public health officials, and policymakers to stay ahead of the curve. Proactive measures, including enhanced genomic surveillance and agile vaccine development, are crucial to mitigate the impact of emerging variants.

The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed.

 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


Researchers Discover COVID-19’s Secret to Evading Early Immune Response

By Medical University of Vienna
November 13, 2024

Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna and the Medical University of Innsbruck have found that SARS-CoV-2 manipulates three critical host proteins that normally suppress the activity of the complement system, a crucial part of early antiviral immunity. This interference hinders the body’s ability to clear the virus effectively, potentially influencing the progression of both acute COVID-19 infections and long-term post-COVID-19 conditions. The findings were recently published in the journal Emerging Microbes & Infections.

An early and effective immune response is crucial for resolving viral infections and preventing post-infectious complications. The complement system, a pivotal element of antiviral immunity, is a cascade of proteins found in the bloodstream and at mucosal sites, such as the respiratory tract.

Activated through three different pathways, complement facilitates the clearance of virus particles by directly inducing their destruction (lysis). To prevent bystander damage to host cells, complement is rapidly inactivated by a set of host molecules referred to as complement regulatory proteins.

The new study led by Anna Ohradanova-Repic and colleagues from the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology, and Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna in collaboration with the team of Heribert Stoiber from the Institute of Virology at the Medical University of Innsbruck shows that SARS-CoV-2 hijacks three of these regulatory proteins, CD55, CD59, and Factor H, and thereby successfully shields itself from complement-mediated lysis.


Hijacking host proteins for effective complement resistance

By propagating SARS-CoV-2 in human cells, the researchers discovered that the virus particles acquire the cellular proteins CD55 and CD59. Further experiments showed that SARS-CoV-2 also binds to Factor H, another complement regulatory protein that is primarily found in the bloodstream.

Confronting the virus particles with active complement revealed that they are partially resistant to complement-mediated lysis. By removing CD55, CD59, and Factor H from the virus surface or inhibiting their biological functions, the researchers could successfully restore complement-mediated clearance of SARS-CoV-2.

“Through hijacking these three proteins, SARS-CoV-2 can evade all three complement pathways, resulting in reduced or delayed viral clearance by the infected host,” Anna Ohradanova-Repic, the leader of the study explains.

Because complement is intricately linked with other components of the immune system, this not only affects virus elimination but can also cause significant inflammation, a core feature of both severe COVID-19 and Long COVID. “Uncovering immune evasion mechanisms that allow the virus to linger within the host for longer, deepen our understanding of the acute and long-term impacts of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” says first author Laura Gebetsberger.

Reference: “SARS-CoV-2 hijacks host CD55, CD59 and factor H to impair antibody-dependent complement-mediated lysis” by Laura Gebetsberger, Zahra Malekshahi, Aron Teutsch, Gabor Tajti, Frédéric Fontaine, Nara Marella, André Mueller, Lena Prantl, Hannes Stockinger, Heribert Stoiber and Anna Ohradanova-Repic, 28 October 2024, Emerging Microbes & Infections.
DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2024.2417868
 

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Study Reveals Why COVID-19 Vaccine Antibodies Wane Rapidly

FDA Proposes New Vaccine Approval Process for Pandemics

By Marina Zhang
11/13/2024

Research shows that, unlike tetanus and influenza vaccines, COVID-19 mRNA vaccines do not prompt the generation of durable antibody-producing cells.

Research led by scientists at Emory University in Atlanta found that while tetanus and influenza vaccines prompt the body to produce long-lived plasma cells that generate antibodies, COVID-19 vaccines do not.

The study may explain why antibody protection from COVID-19 mRNA vaccines wanes so rapidly.

The mRNA vaccines cause the body to produce short-lived plasma cells that can only generate antibodies for a period of time before dying off.

Vaccines like tetanus give long-lasting immunity, with antibodies persisting in the body for up to 10 years. COVID-19 antibodies rapidly wane three to six months after vaccination, often resulting in breakthrough infections.

The study’s senior author, Dr. Frances Eun-Hyung Lee, professor of medicine and director of Emory University’s Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology program, told The Epoch Times that it is still unclear why COVID-19 vaccines do not confer durable antibody immunity, though there are several possibilities.

According to the researcher, one reason could be that the body cannot form long-term immunity to COVID-19. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine induces the body to produce COVID-19 spike proteins to stimulate the immune response. This spike protein may not be stimulating enough to cause the formation of lifelong plasma cells.

Another reason could be that the mRNA vaccine platform, which delivers the vaccine to the body, does not induce durable antibody immunity.

Currently, mRNA vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are in development. Whether these vaccines confer durable immunity to the viruses they are intended to protect against may help explain the body’s response to COVID-19 vaccines.

“We will have to wait and see if the reason … is unique to the spike protein or if it’s something unique to the mRNA platform,” Lee told The Epoch Times.


Not All Immunity Is Lifelong

It was generally assumed that when people get infected with or vaccinated against viruses or bacteria, the immunity formed would be life-long, Dr. Stanley Perlman, a professor in the Microbiology & Immunology Department at the University of Iowa, told The Epoch Times.

However, the current study and other research on RSV, which infects people every year despite everyone having antibodies to the virus by age 3, suggests that whether a person is immune to a virus or bacteria can vary depending on the pathogen, Lee said.

The study, published in Nature Medicine in September, followed 19 healthy volunteers who had taken influenza, tetanus, and several COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. Researchers extracted immune cells from their bone marrow and followed them for up to three years.

They found that these participants had durable plasma cells—a type of cell that provides lifelong immunity—that generate antibodies to influenza and tetanus but no or few durable plasma cells working against COVID-19 spike proteins.

When our B-cells (immune cells) encounter a pathogen, they divide into plasma cells and produce antibodies. Most of these cells will die, but a few will migrate into specific niches in the bone marrow and mature into long-lived plasma cells.

“Even if some of these cells want to die, they can’t,” Lee said. “They undergo changes in their RNA and changes in their DNA so that they can become resistant to apoptosis (cell death).”

“There’re many other factors and mechanisms and programs, and we’re trying to study those and unravel those steps so that we can figure out how to make the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine better.”

Having long-term immunity also does not “guarantee complete protection against future infections,” Dr. Joseph Varon, professor of medicine at the University of Houston and chief medical officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care (FLCCC) Alliance, told The Epoch Times. “Viruses can evolve to escape immune responses, and waning immunity or other factors like age and health status can influence vulnerability.”

This is why new influenza vaccines are made every year as the virus evolves and changes, Lee said.


Infections Did Not Enhance Immunity

Some participants likely contracted COVID-19 throughout the study period, indicated by a sudden spike in COVID-19 antibody levels despite a lack of immunization. However, the authors found this was also not linked to the formation of long-lasting plasma cells.

This finding concurs with prior research by the University of Maryland, which found that COVID-19 infections did not induce long-term antibody protection.

In some cases, infections may result in stronger immunity than vaccines can provide. Life-long immunity to influenza, for example, is likely driven by natural immunity rather than vaccination.

Antibodies formed from only the influenza vaccine may last a few months. However, since many vaccinated people will also become infected, this cross-reactivity is likely what drives plasma cells to mature into durable cells, Lee said.


Boosting Did Not Increase Durable Antibodies

Some study participants took several doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines during the study period.

The authors found that having more doses of mRNA vaccines did “not necessarily promote more” long-lived plasma cell responses in the study’s small cohort.

“These findings reinforce the fact that boosters are not really working at this point,“ Varon said. ”Boosters can temporarily restore protection by increasing circulating antibodies and memory immune cells.”

Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said that people who are at high risk of dying from COVID-19 should still follow the schedule from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recommends vaccinating every six months.

Lee agreed, adding that while her study found that antibody protection is short-lived, there are other cells in the body, like T-cells, by which vaccinations confer long-lived immunity and could, therefore, still be helpful for people at a higher risk of infection.
 

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Why We’re Drinking More: The Pandemic’s Lasting Effect on Alcohol
By American College of Physicians
November 11, 2024

Alcohol use among U.S. adults escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained elevated afterwards, reveals a recent study.

Stress from the pandemic and limited access to healthcare services were seen as major contributors to the continued rise in drinking levels, underscoring the necessity for targeted health and policy interventions.


Public Health Concerns


A population-based study of adults aged 18 and older revealed a significant rise in alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic, with levels remaining high even after the pandemic. This trend raises serious public health concerns and highlights the need for new policies and health care interventions. The findings were published today (November 11) in the Annals of Internal Medicine.


Research Methodology and Demographic Analysis


Researchers from the University of Southern California and Thomas Jefferson University examined data from the 2020 and 2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to assess whether increased alcohol use during the pandemic persisted. The survey, which included over 24,000 adults, gathered information on alcohol use, demographics, socioeconomic factors, and health data. Participants were classified based on any alcohol use or heavy alcohol use in the year preceding the survey, allowing researchers to determine prevalence rates for both categories. The study showed that rates of both general and heavy alcohol use rose in 2020 and stayed elevated in 2022.


Implications and Calls for Action


The researchers suggest that pandemic-related stress and reduced access to health services may have contributed to this sustained increase in alcohol consumption. Given that alcohol use is a leading cause of illness and death in the U.S., they stress the importance of clinical, community-based, and policy responses to address these long-term effects. Although the study focused on nonmilitary, noninstitutionalized adults and did not include populations who may be more vulnerable to alcohol misuse, the findings underscore the need for increased awareness and intervention surrounding pandemic-related alcohol use.

Reference: “Trends in Alcohol Use After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Cross-Sectional Study” by Divya Ayyala-Somayajula, MD, Jennifer L. Dodge, MPH, Adam M. Leventhal, PhD, Norah A. Terrault, MD, MPH, and Brian P. Lee, MD, MAS, 12 November 2024, Annals of Internal Medicine.
DOI: 10.7326/ANNALS-24-02157
 

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COVID’s Lasting Legacy: How Pandemic Stress Fueled America’s Growing Alcohol Problem
By University of Southern California - Health Sciences
November 14, 20241

A USC study shows a significant rise in alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic that persisted into 2022.

This increase was seen across most demographics with adults aged 40-49 experiencing the most notable surge. The ongoing high rates of alcohol use pose serious public health risks, highlighting the need for increased screening and intervention efforts.

Alcohol use in the United States rose significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic and stayed high even after the pandemic officially ended. This is according to a large, nationally representative study by Keck Medicine of USC, published on November 12 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Between 2018 (pre-pandemic) and 2020 (pandemic peak), heavy drinking among Americans increased by 20%, while general alcohol use rose by 4%. By 2022, these higher levels of alcohol use persisted.


Demographic Analysis of Increased Alcohol Consumption

The increase was widespread, affecting all age groups, genders, races, ethnicities, and regions, except for Native Americans and Asian Americans. Adults aged 40-49 showed the highest rise in heavy alcohol use.

“These numbers reflect an alarming public health issue that could result in severe health consequences for far too many people,” said Brian P. Lee, MD, MAS, a hepatologist and liver transplant specialist with Keck Medicine of USC and principal investigator of the study. “Our results suggest men and women under 50 are at special risk.”


Health Impacts of Rising Alcohol Use


Excessive alcohol use is one of the leading preventable causes of illness and death in the United States, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to Dr. Lee, alcohol accounts for half of all liver-related deaths and is now the top cause of liver transplants due to alcohol-related cirrhosis.

To reach their conclusions, researchers studied data from the National Health Interview Survey, one of the largest and most comprehensive health surveys in the country. The survey collected alcohol use information as well as demographic and socioeconomic data for more than 24,000 adults age 18 or older. They compared 2018 with 2020 alcohol use numbers, then 2018 with 2022.


Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Drinking Behaviors

While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the official end of the pandemic in May 2023, the study defined the year 2022 as post-pandemic, as behaviors were beginning to return to normal.

Adults were characterized as having any alcohol use or heavy alcohol use within one year of the survey, and researchers calculated the rate of both measures of alcohol use. Heavy drinking was defined as greater than or equal to five drinks a day or 15 drinks a week for men, and greater than or equal to four drinks a day or eight drinks a week for women.

The study did not analyze why there was an increase in alcohol consumption between 2018 to 2022, but Lee hypothesizes that pandemic stress may have caused drinking to become more normalized. He further speculates that the effects of the pandemic, including disruptions to school and work, may have driven the increases in alcohol use in adults ages 40-49.

Lee hopes the study will bring more awareness to the issue. “We encourage health care providers to offer more screenings for harmful drinking as well as interventions for at-risk populations,” he said.

Reference: “Trends in Alcohol Use After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Cross-Sectional Study” by Divya Ayyala-Somayajula, MD, Jennifer L. Dodge, MPH, Adam M. Leventhal, PhD, Norah A. Terrault, MD, MPH, and Brian P. Lee, MD, MAS, 12 November 2024, Annals of Internal Medicine.
DOI: 10.7326/ANNALS-24-02157

Divya Ayyala-Somayajula, MD, from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, was lead author of the study.

Jennifer Dodge, MPH, an associate professor of research medicine and population and public health science at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Adam Leventhal, PhD, professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School and director of the USC Institute for Addiction Science, and Norah Terrault, MD, a Keck Medicine gastroenterologist and division chief of gastroenterology and liver diseases at the Keck School, were also study authors.
 

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COVID-19's Surprising Effect on Cancer
Alice Park - TIME
Fri, November 15, 2024 at 9:50 PM UTC

Viruses don’t often come with silver linings, and infections don’t generally lead to positive health effects. But during the pandemic, some doctors anecdotally began noticing that some people with cancer who got very sick with COVID-19 saw their tumors shrink or grow more slowly.

“We didn’t know if it was real, because these patients were so sick,” says Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern University. “Was it because the immune system was so triggered by COVID-19 that it also started to kill cancer cells? What was it?”

Bharat and his team decided conduct a study to find out if the seeming “benefit” of COVID-19 for these cancer patients could teach them anything about a potential new way to fight cancer—or if it was simply a red herring. They published their findings Nov. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Using a combination of human cells and animal models, Bharat and his team found that in the presence of SARS-CoV-2, immune cells called monocytes act differently than they normally do. Typically, monocytes, as part of the immune system, cruise the bloodstream and alert other immune cells to the presence of foreign cells or pathogens; some monocytes can attract cancer-killing immune cells to tumors, but others aren't as effective in doing so. That's because in some cases, cancer cells can co-opt monocytes —“like a demon summoning forces,” says Bharat—and form an immune wall protecting the tumor from being discovered and attacked by additional immune defenses.

But during a COVID-19 infection, SARS-CoV-2 attaches itself to these monocytes, and by doing so reverts them back to doing their original job: defending the body against cancer. “They look the same, and are still recruited to the tumor sites, but instead of protecting the cancer cells, they start to bring specific natural killer cells—which are the body’s main cells that kill cancer—to these tumor sites,” says Bharat. “So where before the cancer was brainwashing the monocytes into protecting the cancer, the virus now helps them to attack cancer.”

It’s a potentially powerful turnabout that—if confirmed by human studies—could represent a new way to control cancer. By analyzing the receptor on the monocytes that the COVID-19 virus attached to, Bharat found a compound that currently isn’t used to treat any disease but is a close mimic of the COVID-19 virus in the way that it binds to the monocyte to induce the cell’s transformation into a cancer-fighting cell. “We can use a drug to cause the same effect that the RNA of the COVID-19 virus was doing,” he says. “By manipulating that pathway through the drug, we might be able to help patients with many different types of cancers, particularly those with stage 4 cancers.”

In animal tests, the compound—called muramyl dipeptide (MDP)—reduced tumors by 60% to 70% in mice with human cancers including breast, colon, lung, and melanoma.

More studies are needed to confirm whether the cells have the same cancer-fighting effect in people, but there are promising hints. These transformed, cancer-flagging monocytes, called inducible non-classical monocytes, are rare compared to other types of monocytes, but tend to proliferate when inflammation occurs, such as during a COVID-19 infection. Transplant surgeons have previously identified them in people who have had lung and spleen transplants, and Bharat is conducting additional research to understand why the transplant process and COVID-19 infections—both of which activate the immune system—trigger the specific change in the monocytes. Interestingly, the transformation doesn’t occur with all RNA-based viruses; Bharat tested influenza and parainfluenza, which are also RNA viruses, and failed to see the same population of cancer-fighting monocytes emerge.

Another intriguing part of the equation, says Bharat, is that this pathway is independent of the T cell immune treatments that are becoming a big part of cancer therapy now, in which doctors boost the population of T cells that can recognize and attack cancer cells. They can be effective, but generally only work for a while, since cancers quickly find ways to circumvent the T cells and become resistant to the therapies.

The virus-induced changes in the monocytes, in contrast, aren’t dependent on T cells. Bharat tested the approach in mice genetically bred to lack T cells and still saw a strong effect on tumors in these animals from the monocytes. That means that the monocytes may help shore up the body's response to immunotherapy—and its ability to fight tumors. Much more research is needed before the finding leads to any treatments. But "this approach could potentially be used to promote regression,” he says.
 

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Rand Paul vows to investigate ‘covid coverup’ as Senate panel’s new chair

Dan Diamond and Rachel Roubein - The Washington Post
Fri, November 15, 2024 at 12:09 AM UTC

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) on Thursday announced he would lead the Senate’s government oversight panel and prioritize investigations into the coronavirus pandemic, repeating his allegation that federal officials participated in a “covid coverup” related to the possible origins of the virus.

The libertarian senator has long maintained that government leaders have not been forthcoming about U.S. ties to virus research conducted in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak was first detected in 2019.

In combative congressional hearings, infectious-disease experts such as Anthony S. Fauci, the longtime National Institutes of Health official who retired from government service in 2022, have insisted to Paul and other Republicans that while NIH funded the virus research, the work could not have sparked the pandemic. Paul has rejected those explanations.

“NIH and HHS have refused to turn over the documents as to why Wuhan got this research money and why it wasn’t screened as dangerous research,” Paul said on Fox News last week. “I’m looking forward to getting those [documents], mainly because we need to try to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Paul has laid out other priorities for his coronavirus-related investigations, such as reviewing possible conflicts of interest among government scientists who recommended vaccines for the coronavirus and other diseases.

“I’ve been asking the question for a couple of years. If you are a scientist and you’re on the committee that approves vaccines and recommends that they be mandatory, shouldn’t you have to reveal if you get Pfizer royalties?” he told reporters Tuesday. The drug company Pfizer makes one of the leading coronavirus vaccines.

Paul’s announcement was panned by public health experts who blasted his assertions about the pandemic’s origin and criticism of coronavirus vaccines.

“He’s demonstrated on numerous occasions that he doesn’t follow the evidence and the known science,” said Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Ashish Jha, who led the nation’s coronavirus response under President Joe Biden, said he agreed with Paul’s desire to learn more about the origins of the pandemic - calling it a “very, very important” priority - but said he had not seen evidence of a coverup in the United States.

“I suspect that, ultimately, what we really need is more transparency from China,” Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said in an interview Thursday. “And unless he has subpoena power over the Chinese government, I don’t know that we’re going to be able to make a lot more progress.”

Jha and other experts also said Fauci has been unfairly targeted by Paul and other congressional Republicans.

Amesh A. Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, wrote in an email that he worried that Paul’s investigations could “further tribalize and sensationalize what should be a sober scientific inquiry into the Chinese government’s transparency,” citing the “bombastic” questions posed to Fauci in congressional inquiries.

Paul had sought a Senate chairmanship in 2022, campaigning on promises to open new investigations into Fauci if he received subpoena power but was stymied when Democrats held the Senate.

The senator has repeatedly said Fauci should “go to prison” for allegedly lying to Congress, saying Fauci’s private comments about the possible origins of the virus and the government’s response have conflicted with what Fauci said in congressional testimony.

Fauci declined to comment.

Paul has worked with Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), the current chairman of the government oversight panel, on bipartisan efforts to investigate whether the government is funding virus research that could pose a risk to Americans.

“The biggest item of the covid coverup is that for years, we’ve known there is this dangerous research,” Paul told the New York Post in an article published Thursday.

Paul’s announcement came the same day that the House panel investigating the government’s coronavirus response held its final hearing of this Congress.

The panel last month referred former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D) to the Justice Department, saying he lied to Congress about aspects of New York’s pandemic response - a potential template for what Paul and Senate Republicans could seek to do next year with government officials. Cuomo and his lawyers have said the allegations are baseless.

Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-California), the panel’s top Democrat, said Republicans had pursued “vendettas” against scientists and public health officials rather than work constructively on investigating the pandemic and preparing for the next health crisis.
 

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How RFK Jr. could strip legal protections from vaccine makers as HHS Secretary

The protections are a key part of a system that’s virtually eradicated diseases like polio in the U.S.

By Rachel Cohrs Zhang
Nov. 15, 2024

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has criticized laws that provide companies that make vaccines with protections from lawsuits. If he takes office, he has broad power to strip those protections, experts told STAT.

Most routine vaccines have had protections from lawsuits for nearly 40 years, and vaccines developed to address emergencies have enjoyed protections for 20. For the most part, the programs have been uncontroversial.

But that all ended during the Covid-19 pandemic, when programs meant to compensate people with severe side effects from vaccines were stretched, distrust in science rose, and routine policy decisions related to vaccines became highly politicized.

[the rest is behind the paywall]
 

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Pandemic Pause Reveals Flu’s Hidden Highways Around the World
By University of Oxford
November 14, 2024

The reduction in global travel during COVID-19 offered researchers new insights into influenza spread and mutation. After restrictions lifted, flu activity returned rapidly, showcasing the virus’s resilience and adaptability.
  • Increased capabilities for genomic surveillance have offered new insights into global viral evolution;
  • Seasonal flu showed a ‘remarkable’ bounce back to pre-pandemic levels once international air travel resumed;
  • Regions with fewer COVID-19 restrictions were associated with sustained flu virus transmission.

Seasonal Influenza and Global Health Burdens

Seasonal influenza epidemics place significant strain on healthcare systems and lead to over 5 million adult hospitalizations annually. Current flu vaccine development depends on extensive surveillance to track flu strains as they circulate across continents. The sharp reduction in global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic offered a rare chance to study how seasonal influenza responds when human mobility is limited.

In this new study, an international research team from institutions including the University of Oxford, Fudan University, and KU Leuven analyzed data on the spread of seasonal flu, its genetic variations, and patterns in international travel. This approach allowed researchers to estimate how long flu viruses remained in specific regions under varying levels of global travel and how their genetic diversity evolved before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this new study, an international team of researchers, including from the University of Oxford, Fudan University, and KU Leuven, combined data on the spread of seasonal influenza, its genetic makeup, and international travel patterns to study how seasonal flu viruses moved and evolved. This approach helped to estimate how long the viruses remained in certain regions during periods of high and low volumes of international travel and how their genetic diversity changed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.


Impact of COVID-19 on Seasonal Flu

During the COVID-19 pandemic, seasonal influenza levels dropped worldwide due to COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions on population movement and mixing. However, the subsequent rapid bounce back of influenza once air travel returned to pre-pandemic levels showed that the virus was in most cases maintained during the pandemic with continued viral movements and accumulation of genetic diversity.

Lead author of the study Zhiyuan Chen (University of Oxford and Fudan University) says “It was remarkable how quickly seasonal flu re-established to a pre-pandemic equilibrium just a few years after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.”


Influence of Climate on Flu Diversity

Tropical climates, like those found across South and East Asia, allow for continued flu transmission year-round, thereby creating a broader range of flu strains and increasing overall viral diversity. The increased capacity for virus genomic surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic has provided more detail on the role of other regions, such as Africa and West Asia, in the global circulation of influenza. These regions also showed evidence of sustained transmission and during the pandemic had relatively less restrictions on movement, in part due to lower levels of COVID-19 transmission.

Co-author Professor Moritz Kraemer (Department of Biology and Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford) says: “Increased genomic surveillance capacity established during the COVID-19 pandemic means that we are finally getting a deeper insight into the global distribution patterns of seasonal flu and other respiratory viruses. These novel and large openly accessible datasets provide an opportunity to learn about the intricate relationships of climate, co-circulating viruses, and human behavior.”


Implications for Influenza Monitoring and Prevention


Further, with this increased global capacity for surveillance of viruses it might be possible to better monitor seasonal influenza to reduce the risk of vaccine mismatches, help inform more effective interventions, and reduce the burden of seasonal influenza on our healthcare systems. This is especially relevant as more regions become suitable for year-round circulation of influenza with changes in climatic conditions.

Co-author Professor Hongjie Yu from Fudan University says: “Further efforts should still focus on the continuing surveillance of seasonal influenza viruses and other respiratory pathogens, particularly resource-limited regions. The established surveillance systems for seasonal respiratory pathogens could also play an extremely vital role when the next pandemic emerges in the future.”

Reference: “COVID-19 pandemic interventions reshaped the global dispersal of seasonal influenza viruses” by Zhiyuan Chen, Joseph L.-H. Tsui, Bernardo Gutierrez, Simon Busch Moreno, Louis du Plessis, Xiaowei Deng, Jun Cai, Sumali Bajaj, Marc A. Suchard, Oliver G. Pybus, Philippe Lemey, Moritz U. G. Kraemer and Hongjie Yu, 8 November 2024, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adq3003
 

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Therapeutic approach to treat virus-induced lung failure for severe COVID-19 shows promise in clinical trial
by University of Cologne
November 14, 2024


new-therapeutic-approa-2.jpg

Kaplan–Meier cumulative rate and its 95% confidence interval for the time to clinical improvement. SOC, standard of care. Credit: eClinicalMedicine (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102879

A new clinical study shows that an inhibitor of Fas ligand (FasL), also called CD95 ligand (CD95L), led to a faster recovery of COVID-19 patients and reduced mortality. On average, it took eight days to recover for patients who received asunercept, a biotherapeutic FasL inhibitor, compared to 13 days in the control group.

In addition, mortality was decreased by about 20%. The study "Efficacy and safety of asunercept, a CD95L-selective inhibitor, in hospitalized patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19: ASUNCTIS, a multicentre, randomized, open-label, controlled, phase 2 trial" has been published in eClinicalMedicine.

The physiological role of FasL is to keep cells of the immune system, so called T lymphocytes, short T cells, under control by killing them once they have fulfilled their function. In patients with severe COVID-19, however, the immune system is hyper-activated, causing an over-production of FasL.

As a result, FasL does two things: it kills way too many T cells and it also attacks normal lung cells. This aberrant increase in cell death causes lymphopenia, which is the loss of lymphocytes, and severe lung inflammation, two hallmark characteristics of severe COVID-19.

The new therapeutic concept is based on blocking FasL and to thereby prevent the untoward death of T cells and lung epithelial cells and the inflammation resulting therefrom.

The academic members of the research team that conducted the clinical trial recently demonstrated in a preclinical model that therapeutic inhibition of FasL significantly increased survival of mice with severe COVID-19.

The Phase II dose-finding study with the FasL inhibitor asunercept was initiated as an academic-industrial collaboration by Professor Henning Walczak and his team at the University of Cologne and University College London (UCL) as well as Professor Michael Bergmann at the Medical University of Vienna and Dr. Thomas Hoeger at Apogenix GmbH, a biotech company from Heidelberg, Germany. The clinical trial was conducted at ten study centers in Spain and Russia between October 2020 and December 2021.

"It is important that the inhibition of FasL targets the overreaction of the host's immune system rather than the virus itself," said Walczak, Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine and the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research at the University of Cologne and Professor of Tumor Biology at the UCL Cancer Institute.

"I am therefore confident that our approach should be effective not only during future outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, but possibly also for other respiratory RNA viruses that may emerge in the human population in the future. Especially before vaccines against such viruses become available, it would be crucial to have such drugs at our disposal from the very beginning should another pandemic situation arise."

A total of 438 patients took part in the study, which was led by Dr. Maria Pilar Ruiz Seco (Infanta Sofía University Hospital, Madrid), Dr. Jose Ramon Paño Pardo (University of Zaragoza/IIS Aragón/CIBERINFEC) and Dr. Christian Schörgenhofer (Medical University of Vienna) and supervised by the Deputy Head of Clinical Pharmacology at Medical University of Vienna, Professor Bernd Jilma.

The participants were divided into four groups. All patients received standard of care treatment. In addition, different doses of the FasL inhibitor asunercept were administered in three of the four groups (25 milligrams, 100 milligrams and 400 milligrams per week) and compared with the control group.

The 100 and 400 mg doses had the most beneficial tendency for early recovery after an average of eight days, and the 25 mg dose after nine days.

Patients in the standard-of-care control group achieved clinical improvement after an average of 13 days. While statistical significance was narrowly missed in each of the individual dose groups, a post-hoc analysis combining the three asunercept dose groups showed a significant therapeutic effect of the FasL inhibitor in terms of an earlier recovery of eight days on average instead of 13 days in the control group.

The 100 and 400 milligram doses were also associated with a reduction in mortality of approximately 20%. Overall, this study thus showed that the FasL inhibitor was safe and well tolerated by the patients and achieved very promising results for the efficacy of this drug in patients with severe COVID-19.

These results render the inhibition of FasL among the few concepts identified during the COVID-19 pandemic as potentially therapeutically valuable.

"Even though further clinical trials are required to confirm the efficacy, our study shows that the administration of the FasL inhibitor has a positive effect on patients. In future pandemics, the shorter recovery time could reduce the burden on the health care system on the one hand and the restrictions for the population on the other," said Bergmann, surgeon and researcher at the Medical University of Vienna.

In addition, increased levels of FasL are also found in samples from the lower respiratory tract of patients who are severely ill following infection with a pandemic version of the influenza A virus, which could extend the field of application in the future.

More information: Maria Pilar Ruiz Seco et al, TEMPORARY REMOVAL: Efficacy and safety of asunercept, a CD95L-selective inhibitor, in hospitalised patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19: ASUNCTIS, a multicentre, randomised, open-label, controlled, phase 2 trial, eClinicalMedicine (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102879
Journal information: EClinicalMedicine
Provided by University of Cologne
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
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Pandemic associated with increase in babies born with heart defects
by City St George's, University of London
November 15, 2024

The proportion of babies born with a congenital heart abnormality increased by 16% after the first year of the pandemic, according to research at City St George's, University of London and published today in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Heart defects are the most common type of anomaly that develop before a baby is born, with about 13 babies diagnosed with a congenital heart condition every day in the U.K. and impacting 1 in 110 births globally. These include defects to the baby's heart valves, the major blood vessels in and around the heart, and the development of holes in the heart.

In more than 18 million births, researchers analyzed data from US birth certificates from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between December 2016 and November 2022 to evaluate the effect of the pandemic on the number of babies born with a congenital heart defect.

They compared the number of babies born with a congenital heart condition every month before the COVID-19 pandemic (1st December 2016 to 30th November 2019) with those during the pandemic (1st December 2020 to 30th November 2022).

This data was then compared to the number of babies born with Down Syndrome—a genetic condition not affected by the virus. This was to help ascertain if any differences observed might have been due to COVID-19, or if they were a result of other factors including limited access to antenatal services during the pandemic.

A total of 11,010,764 births before and 7,060,626 births during the pandemic were analyzed. Data was adjusted to account for mother's BMI, diabetes and blood pressure before pregnancy, age, number of times they had given birth and the season in which prenatal care started.

The number of births with a congenital heart condition increased by 16% after the first year of the pandemic, with 65.4 cases per 100,000 live births compared to 56.5 per 100,000 births in the period studied before the pandemic.

The number of babies born with Down Syndrome did not change for the duration of the study, suggesting that the increase in fetal heart defects were not due to a disruption of health services.

Professor Asma Khalil, lead author and professor of obstetrics and maternal fetal medicine at City St George's, University of London said, "Studying this large U.S. dataset has revealed an unexpected picture for how the pandemic has affected the hearts of unborn babies, but we need to untangle the reasons for this link.

"We need to determine if the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly causes the development of fetal heart problems during pregnancy, and if so, how the virus makes these changes in the heart.

"We don't have this type of data set available in the U.K., but it's important to see if this pattern is seen in other parts of the world.

"COVID-19 is still circulating and is easier to catch in the winter months. These results act as an important reminder for pregnant women to get their COVID-19 vaccinations to help protect themselves and their baby."

More information: A. Khalil et al, Congenital heart defects during COVID-19 pandemic, Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology (2024). DOI: 10.1002/uog.29126
Provided by City St George's, University of London
 

summerthyme

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Why We’re Drinking More: The Pandemic’s Lasting Effect on Alcohol
By American College of Physicians
November 11, 2024

Alcohol use among U.S. adults escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained elevated afterwards, reveals a recent study.

Stress from the pandemic and limited access to healthcare services were seen as major contributors to the continued rise in drinking levels, underscoring the necessity for targeted health and policy interventions.


Public Health Concerns

A population-based study of adults aged 18 and older revealed a significant rise in alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic, with levels remaining high even after the pandemic. This trend raises serious public health concerns and highlights the need for new policies and health care interventions. The findings were published today (November 11) in the Annals of Internal Medicine.


Research Methodology and Demographic Analysis

Researchers from the University of Southern California and Thomas Jefferson University examined data from the 2020 and 2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to assess whether increased alcohol use during the pandemic persisted. The survey, which included over 24,000 adults, gathered information on alcohol use, demographics, socioeconomic factors, and health data. Participants were classified based on any alcohol use or heavy alcohol use in the year preceding the survey, allowing researchers to determine prevalence rates for both categories. The study showed that rates of both general and heavy alcohol use rose in 2020 and stayed elevated in 2022.


Implications and Calls for Action

The researchers suggest that pandemic-related stress and reduced access to health services may have contributed to this sustained increase in alcohol consumption. Given that alcohol use is a leading cause of illness and death in the U.S., they stress the importance of clinical, community-based, and policy responses to address these long-term effects. Although the study focused on nonmilitary, noninstitutionalized adults and did not include populations who may be more vulnerable to alcohol misuse, the findings underscore the need for increased awareness and intervention surrounding pandemic-related alcohol use.

Reference: “Trends in Alcohol Use After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Cross-Sectional Study” by Divya Ayyala-Somayajula, MD, Jennifer L. Dodge, MPH, Adam M. Leventhal, PhD, Norah A. Terrault, MD, MPH, and Brian P. Lee, MD, MAS, 12 November 2024, Annals of Internal Medicine.
DOI: 10.7326/ANNALS-24-02157
I wonder how many are older adults forced to use alcohol to mitigate their chronic pain?

Summerthyme
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
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Health care database analysis highlights lingering symptoms long after COVID-19 infection

by University of Oxford
November 15, 2024


study-highlights-linge.jpg

Incidence rate of post-acute COVID-19 symptoms in the infected cohort. Note: Plots have been scaled independently so that all incidences can be visualized. Credit: eClinicalMedicine (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102903

A new international study has shed light on the significant burden of post-acute COVID-19 symptoms across North America, Europe and Asia.

For an article published in eClinicalMedicine, NDORMS researchers analyzed data from 10 large health care databases in 7 countries, covering more than 932 million individuals, including more than 3 million individuals diagnosed with COVID-19.

They found that post-COVID symptoms listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) are commonly experienced by those who have recovered from COVID-19 infection, the most frequently reported symptoms being joint pain, abdominal discomfort, gastrointestinal issues, cough, and anxiety. Some symptoms like muscle spasms and cognitive dysfunction were found to be less common.

Co-first author of the study Junqing Xie said, "Incidence rates for specific symptoms varied widely across different health care settings, but compared to the general population, those who had COVID-19 had a 40% higher incidence of developing any post-acute symptom.

"Notably, we found that the incidence of these symptoms generally increased with age, and women exhibited higher rates of several post-acute symptoms compared to men.

"Yet, these patterns could differ or even completely reverse for some specific symptoms, which stresses the possible heterogeneous manifestations of post-acute COVID-19 between individuals."

The findings underscore the substantial and prolonged burden that many COVID-19 survivors continue to face and highlight the challenges in characterizing and managing the condition in health care settings.

"This is the first truly international study to systematically evaluate the epidemiology of post-acute COVID-19 symptoms using the WHO's clinical case definition," said Kim López-Güell, co-first author.

"As COVID-19 continues to affect global health, the findings from this study provide critical insights into the long-term consequences of the virus and the challenges it presents for health care systems worldwide.

"By addressing these findings through enhanced treatment strategies, resource allocation, and ongoing research, health care providers can better support the millions of individuals navigating life after COVID-19."

More information: Junqing Xie et al, Incidence of post-acute COVID-19 symptoms across healthcare settings in seven countries: an international retrospective cohort study using routinely-collected data, eClinicalMedicine (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102903
Journal information: EClinicalMedicine
Provided by University of Oxford
 

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Trump's former CDC director makes bombshell COVID claim that 'there is a real possibility' virus was born in North Carolina

By STEPHEN M. LEPORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Published: 23:10 EST, 17 November 2024 | Updated: 23:32 EST, 17 November 2024

A former director of the CDC under Donald Trump says he believes COVID-19 may have been born in a North Carolina laboratory as part of a secret biodefense program.

Robert Redfield has previously been a proponent of the 'lab leak' theory which posits the disease came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

Now Redfield - a frequent critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci - says that the disease may have origins in the Tar Heel State.

Appearing on the Third Opinion podcast, Redfield flat out stated that COVID-19 was 'intentionally engineered as a part of a biodefense program.'

He now argues that China did not necessarily create the virus and did the best that they could once 'they realized they had a problem.

However, he calls the United States' role in the development of the virus 'substantial.'

He claims that the American government holds responsibility for funding research into the NIH, USAID and the Department of Defense.

He then calls out researcher Dr. Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina, whom he calls 'the scientific mastermind' behind all of this.

'I think he probably helped create some of the original viral lines, but I can’t prove that. But he was very involved,' he said.

When pressed on whether the virus was 'actually developed here' and that the Chinese may have been wrongfully accused of developing the virus, Redfield doubles down.

'Well, I don’t know if they were framed, but I think there is a real possibility that the virus’s birthplace was Chapel Hill,' Redfield said, naming the hometown of the University of North Carolina.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Dr. Baric for comment.

The virus is believed to have originated in bats, but debate is currently raging over whether it leaked from the Wuhan lab - and whether it was modified by Chinese scientists to become more contagious beforehand.

Redfield, who was CDC director under the Trump administration, has in the past said Fauci was 'holding on tightly' to the theory that the virus evolved naturally, before likening the White House COVID tsar to a 'dog with a bone.'

And in 2021, he slammed the 'highly compromised' World Health Organization for not cracking down on China at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for letting its communist government dictate the terms of the WHO probe into the origins of COVID.

Donald Trump and his supporters were widely derided for sharing the same theory when he was president.

Redfield, who doesn't believe the virus was intentionally leaked by China, said COVID-19's ability to spread rapidly from human-to-human was unlike other coronaviruses such as SARS.

Redfield said he was 'disappointed' there was a lack of openness within the scientific community early on to investigate both hypotheses.

Some scientists, the media and academics long heaped scorn on the lab leak hypothesis, insisting that it was a fringe conspiracy theory and even racist after Donald Trump embraced the idea.

New evidence, including reports of three workers at the Wuhan lab who fell seriously ill with COVID-like symptoms in November 2019, has forced a sober reassessment among doubters.

Redfield went on to say that it was a 'critical error' to treat COVID-19 the same as SARS in January and February last year.

'By calling it SARS-like, we mounted a public health response that was mirrored off SARS. The problem is, COVID is nothing like SARS,' Redfield said, adding that response was 'flawed'.

Redfield acknowledged that he should have pushed harder for the CDC to be allowed into the Wuhan lab when the virus first emerged and said the World Health Organization was compromised by China.

'I think they were highly compromised. Clearly they were incapable of compelling China to adhere to the treaty agreements they have on global health,' Redfield said.
 

Heliobas Disciple

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEbo3d8rd_Q
Former CDC Director Dr. Redfield Opens Up About Pandemic Lessons and Public Health
Dana Parish
Nov 13, 2024
1 hr 31 min 58 sec

In this deep dive conversation, I’m honored to sit down with Dr. Robert Redfield, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to discuss his perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine, public health, and emerging threats like the bird flu. With over 30 years of experience in public health, Dr. Redfield shares invaluable insights into the challenges of managing a global health crisis and what lessons we can learn for the future.

Throughout this interview, we cover a range of crucial topics, including the decision-making process behind the early days of the pandemic, the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the ongoing efforts to combat emerging diseases. Dr. Redfield speaks candidly about the political and social aspects of the pandemic, the intersection of science and policy, and what we need to do to ensure better preparedness for future health threats.

As a global health expert, Dr. Redfield also sheds light on the current status of the bird flu, discusses the future of public health initiatives, and provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the CDC navigated one of the most significant health crises of our time. This is an essential conversation for anyone interested in the intersection of science, policy, and public health, especially as we continue to address the challenges posed by pandemics and other emerging diseases.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
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They're trialing self-amplifying RNA-LNP-based products for H5N1 in humans

GMO products need GMO licensing - a cautionary tale

Jessica Rose
Nov 14, 2024

On November 11, 2024, an article was published online in businesswire pertaining to the launch of a clinical trial NCT06602531 intended to test “Safety and Immunogenicity Study of Self-Amplifying RNA Pandemic Influenza Vaccine in Adults”.

Question: Why is the word “Pandemic” in the title?

The article provides information on the ARCT-2304 product which is a “sa-mRNA vaccine candidate formulated within a lipid nanoparticle (LNP).”1

So. Many. Questions. For example, beyond the use of the word pandemic in the study title, why is this product being called a vaccine? Why is a new version of a product riddled with unresolved compendial standard issues being trialed?

ARCT-2304 is a gene-therapy-based prodrug that uses self-amplifying RNA technology (specifically, the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) gene, which allows it to replicate autonomously) that originates from an Alphavirus. Just so you know, this makes these products genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and this is because of the fact that the coding template is a modified Alphavirus genome with the virus sub-genomic bits spiked out and the foreign flu genes ‘spiked in’. The genetic material is capable of reproduction. The following slide shows how they did this for the COVID-19 version (KOSTAIVE® (ARCT-154) Monovalent: JN.1).


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Use of GMOs require specific licensing application and procedures.

The author of the businesswire article writes:

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (the “Company”, “Arcturus”, Nasdaq: ARCT), a commercial messenger RNA medicines company focused on the development of infectious disease vaccines and opportunities within liver and respiratory rare diseases, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a “Study Can Proceed” notification for the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application, ARCT-2304, a self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) vaccine candidate for active immunization to prevent pandemic influenza disease caused by H5N1 virus. The clinical study is funded by Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and designed to enroll approximately 200 healthy adults in the United States.

It’s so telling to me how these pharma companies are always so interested in the ‘Nasdaq’ and allegedly not so much in potential harms of their products. You’d think the ‘value’ would reflect in the Nasdaq but apparently, it doesn’t. At least, not as it should if transparency was key. This probably has something to with hiding harms associated with commercial products that are sub-compendial standard.


MAJOR RED FLAGS

1. self-amplifying RNA-LNP technology is NOT the same as modified mRNA-LNP technology - it uses an Alphavirus genomic backbone making it a genetically-modified organism with the ability to self-copy it’s genetic material once inside a cell

2. H5N1 is a flu virus - no one needs to be vaccinated against flu viruses

3. BARDA?


To me, based on evidences collected over the past four years from peer-reviewed literature and FOIA requested data, it is more likely than not that this is the priming of/grooming of the public for the next “planned pandemic” (or “Plandemic” as some like to call it). I mean, it’s in the clinical trial name, isn’t it?

As Odessa Orlewicz recently pointed out, up in Canada Bonnie Henry has started propagating messages pertaining to the next round of pandemicemia based on H5N1 bird flu. Interesting how she’s so interested in the biosafety 4 lab in Winnipeg. By the way Bonnie, we owe whole genome sequencing ability that you seem to hold in such high regard partially to the work of our very own Kevin McKernan. Bonnie, perhaps you should start actually listening to what Kevin has been saying based on his recent findings and expertise pertaining to these new RNA-LNP based prodrugs?

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It’s just a coincidence that this messaging is concurrent to the incumbent ‘readiness’ of new experimental prodrugs though, right?

The Phase 1 trial: NCT06602531 - Safety and Immunogenicity Study of Self-Amplifying RNA Pandemic Influenza Vaccine in Adults

Phase I trials follow animal studies. Question: Were these animal studies done and is this data available?

Here’s a synopsis of the trial:

Phase 1, first-in-human, randomized, controlled, observer blind, dose level and schedule-finding study, to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of a self-amplifying mRNA pandemic influenza (H5N1) vaccine (ARCT-2304) when administered as a 2-dose vaccination series to healthy adults in comparison with an inactivated influenza vaccine.
Study drug (ARCT-2304 or control) will be administered as a 2-dose vaccination series as an intramuscular (IM) injection. The study comprises two parts.
In Part 1, 120 participants (young adults) will be randomized to one of the three dose levels of the ARCT-2304 vaccine or control vaccine. Participants will be further randomized to one of the two different vaccination schedules.
In Part 2, 80 participants (older adults) will be randomized to one of the three dose levels of the ARCT-2304 vaccine or control vaccine. Participants will be further randomized to one of the two different vaccination schedules.
So they’ve enrolled 200 people 18-80 years of age, who are allegedly healthy (although we have no data on how many COVID shots they got or if they are currently carrying a replicating Alphavirus) to get 2 doses of this self-amplifying-LNP-wrapped product), to determine primary outcome endpoints such as solicited and spontaneous local and systemic adverse events and antibody levels. There is a cut-off of 60 days pertaining to last COVID shot and and 90 days for last flu shot. This seems kind of pointless in the case of the latter since it’s been shown in the literature that there are long-term adverse effects from the COVID-19 modified mRNA-LNP shots including continued spike production.

As part of the anemic inclusion criteria list, they give a warning to the ‘childbearers’ among the participants to wear a condom during the trial. Isn’t that bizarre? Why wouldn’t this be listed as part of the exclusion criteria?

As part of the exclusion criteria list, they include people who had “significant adverse reactions” (such as anaphylaxis) in the context of the modified mRNA-LNP COVID-19 products.

Question: How would a determination of a significant adverse reaction in the context of the COVID modified mRNA-LNP products be made accurately since ‘the COVID shots don’t cause AEs’?

Just as a reminder, Phase I trials don’t ever need to proceed to Phase II if there is a demonstrated inability to overcome the primary outcome endpoints. This means that if too many people succumb to, let’s say, unsolicited systemic significant adverse reactions, then the trial should end. What do you think the chances that the former and/or the latter will ensue?

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I’ll tell you one thing, if the data is not made entirely transparent as it comes in, then no conclusions could ever be made about the outcome of this Phase I trial.

I think trialing (and releasing in the case of the Japanese!) self-amplifying gene-based technology is appalling in so many ways. If you have not seen my presentation/slide deck on the potential dangers of self-amplifying tech please watch here. Thank you to the National Citizen’s Inquiry.

Besides the inherent dangers of this new technology with regard to potential recombination events, GMO-ness and forever copying, I personally don’t understand why the risk of developing this technology for use in mammals would ever be taken, especially in the context of a bloody coronavirus or a flu virus.

Regarding the GMO-ness of these products; it’s not up for debate: these products are GMOs and they will require GMO licensing if and when they get operation bioweapon-war-mongered-star-trekked through. It’s written right here on the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care Office of the Gene Technology Regulator website, and you can download the FOI 051 document here that addresses “The determination of self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) as a GMO” here. Here’s a page from the document that demonstrates this.

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I am curious if the manufacturers have sought out or will seek the appropriate licenses and even if they do, will the people be told the truth about the GMO-ness and forever-copying-ness of these products? Will the remaining and unresolved compendial standard issues pertaining the potency and process-related impurities be addressed? Will the LNP toxicity issues be investigated properly and resolved?

That’s it for now.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


Arcturus Therapeutics Receives Clearance from FDA to Begin H5N1 Pandemic Flu Vaccine Clinical Trial

November 11, 2024 04:01 PM Eastern Standard Time

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (the “Company”, “Arcturus”, Nasdaq: ARCT), a commercial messenger RNA medicines company focused on the development of infectious disease vaccines and opportunities within liver and respiratory rare diseases, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a “Study Can Proceed” notification for the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application, ARCT-2304, a self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) vaccine candidate for active immunization to prevent pandemic influenza disease caused by H5N1 virus. The clinical study is funded by Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and designed to enroll approximately 200 healthy adults in the United States.

“Arcturus is actively engaged with the U.S. government to prepare for the next pandemic, and clearance to proceed into the clinic with our STARR® self-amplifying mRNA technology is a key step in this important process,” said Joseph Payne, President & CEO of Arcturus Therapeutics. “The Phase 1 clinical trial is designed to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of ARCT-2304 as a potential vaccine to protect against the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza.”
 

Heliobas Disciple

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Columbia study warns that COVID-19 KP.3.1.1 and XEC variants are highly immune evasive than even JN.1 or KP.3
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team
Nov 20, 2024

The COVID-19 virus continues to evolve, introducing new variants that challenge existing immunity and public health strategies. In a recent study conducted by researchers from Columbia University's Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center along with assistance from scientists from the University of Michigan, alarming insights have emerged regarding two new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants: KP.3.1.1 and XEC. These variants, according to the researchers, exhibit a higher level of immune evasiveness than their predecessors, including the JN.1 and KP.3 variants. The implications are that people who only just recently got infected by the JN.1 and KP.3 strains could possibly get reinfected by the newer KP.3.1.1 and XEC strains easily. Furthermore, the degree of protection from the current new boosters being promoted by various health authorities around the world are also being questioned as the study findings prove contentious issues.

This Medical News report dives deep into the study findings, shedding light on the evolutionary advancements of these variants and their implications for global health. With KP.3.1.1 now being the most prevalent variant worldwide and XEC showing the fastest growth rate, understanding their behavior is critical to managing the pandemic's next phase.


The Rising Threat of KP.3.1.1 and XEC Variants
KP.3.1.1 and XEC are not just new names in the long list of SARS-CoV-2 variants; they represent a significant leap in the virus's ability to evade human immunity. KP.3.1.1, which evolved from the KP.3 lineage, carries a unique spike mutation (S31?) that enhances its immune resistance. Meanwhile, XEC, a recombinant variant of JN.1 sublineages KS.1 and KP.3.3, introduces additional mutations in the spike protein's N-terminal domain (NTD), specifically T22N and F59S.

The researchers conducted comprehensive laboratory tests to assess how these variants interact with human immune defenses. By analyzing serum samples from individuals previously infected with JN.1 and those vaccinated with updated KP.2-based mRNA boosters, the study revealed that KP.3.1.1 and XEC were 1.3-1.6 times more resistant to neutralization compared to KP.3. This resistance directly contributes to their growing dominance across populations.


Antigenic Mapping and Immune Escape
One of the study's groundbreaking aspects was its use of antigenic mapping to visualize the immune evasion strategies of these variants. The findings highlighted that KP.3.1.1 and XEC cluster closely together in their antigenic properties, standing apart from earlier variants like JN.1. This clustering is a result of the mutations in their spike proteins, which enhance their ability to bypass antibodies targeting the virus's receptor-binding domain (RBD).

Interestingly, the study also tested monoclonal antibodies and soluble human ACE2 receptor inhibition against these variants. The S31? and F59S mutations were found to interfere with the virus's spike structure, reducing the efficacy of neutralizing antibodies and ACE2 binding. These mutations impair the upward motion of the RBD, which is crucial for effective antibody binding, giving the virus a distinct advantage.


What Sets KP.3.1.1 and XEC Apart?

Unlike other variants, KP.3.1.1 and XEC employ unique mechanisms for immune escape:

-Spike Mutations: Both variants possess mutations that alter the NTD and RBD of the spike protein. These changes hinder antibody attachment and spike conformational changes, reducing immune recognition.

-Monoclonal Antibody Resistance: The variants show resistance to key monoclonal antibodies, including C17173 and others targeting RBD class 4/1 epitopes. This resistance complicates treatment options for severe COVID-19 cases.

-Lower Affinity for ACE2: The mutations also affect the virus's binding affinity for the ACE2 receptor, which paradoxically helps it evade neutralization while maintaining infectivity.


Study Implications and Future Directions

The researchers, led by Dr. David D. Ho of Columbia University, emphasized that these variants' immune evasiveness poses a significant challenge for vaccine development and therapeutic interventions. The findings underscore the urgent need to update COVID-19 vaccines to include these emerging variants, ensuring broader protection against the virus.

Furthermore, the study's detailed analysis of antigenic properties provides valuable insights for designing next-generation monoclonal antibodies. By targeting regions of the spike protein less affected by these mutations, future treatments could potentially overcome the resistance seen in KP.3.1.1 and XEC.


Conclusion

The Columbia and Michigan team has sounded an important alarm with their study. As KP.3.1.1 and XEC continue to spread globally, their ability to evade immune defenses highlights the evolving nature of the pandemic. These variants remind us that SARS-CoV-2 is far from static, and our response strategies must adapt quickly to keep pace.

While current vaccines and treatments offer some protection, the findings make it clear that innovation is needed to stay ahead of the virus. Global cooperation in surveillance, vaccine development, and public health measures will be crucial to mitigating the impact of these new variants.

The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed.

 

Heliobas Disciple

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EMPHASIS IN ORIGINAL (not mine)


Virulence seems to be increasing
Radagast

November 19, 2024

So, they’re noticing in Italy that the case fatality rate is steadily climbing:

Weekly COVID updates in Italy​
Case Fatality Rate: 3.3%
1.jpg
— Antonio Caramia (@Antonio_Caramia) November 15, 2024


We can exclude one explanation, it’s not because they’re testing less:

Weekly COVID update in Italy
New Cases: 2,629
2a.jpeg

— Antonio Caramia (@Antonio_Caramia) November 15, 2024
Weekly COVID update in Italy
Tests: 66.289
2.jpg
— Antonio Caramia (@Antonio_Caramia) November 15, 2024

So it may be that with fewer people getting infected right now in Italy, cases are more concentrated among more vulnerable people.

The quasispecies tends to expand its genetic diversity over time, which has the effect of increasing virulence. The quasispecies started over from scratch when BA.2.86 emerged, which had such a huge fitness advantage that it wiped out other lineages, but that’s well over a year ago by now.

But you have to keep in mind, that something else happened during the last few months. We know that the neutralizing antibodies now depend on using the N1 and N2 loop of the NTD. Those neutralizing antibodies no longer work, because of new glycans. So I wonder: Has the case fatality rate shot up because the most important neutralizing antibodies no longer work?

And as you may expect, the virus has immediately moved towards the next predictable step: It now introduces two new mutations in the N3 loop, to get rid of the antibodies there. The fastest growing lineage is now LP.8.1, which introduces these mutations:

>KP.1.1.3* (Nextclade) + S:H445R, S:Q493E, S:F186L, ORF3a:P178L, S:R190S

This is very obvious. S:R190S introduces a new N-linked glycan at 188, right in the N3 loop. S:F186L is also in the N3 loop and seems necessary to make S:R190S fit, it’s not very fit without S:F186L. In other words, it slightly changes its structure to help adjust to that new N-linked glycan on 188.

I find it strange how nobody is really remarking on this. We have a pretty clear pattern: Glycans introduced on N1, followed by new glycans for N2, then followed by new glycans for N3.

I wonder how they expect the immune system to neutralize this virus, once the NTD is covered in these glycans and the population has a whole bunch of poor affinity IgG4 antibodies against the RBD.

Can I just point out, that this is what everyone now apparently considers normal:

“New Yorkers are cooked—we all have this wheezing cough (not bacterial*) we all need inhalers because it’s the city & it’s disgusting so you’re constantly coughing all over each other… I’m so sick; we’re all sick!”
*aka not infectious ???? (u sure about that??) pic.twitter.com/9FZMvwQyt5
— I Brake 4 Ants (@ibrake4ants) November 17, 2024

“Yeah everyone has this wheezing cough that’s not bacterial that you need inhalers for, perfectly normal.”

Imagine I’m wrong for a moment. Perhaps we never get a version of SARS2 for which we can’t develop a neutralizing antibody response.

What do you think happens if otherwise healthy young people just spend every day coughing? None of this is just hypothetical, me sperging out over text and numbers on a screen. No, I’ve personally met people my age, who developed nerve damage from all their coughing, they just have to spend the whole day laying on the couch, in hopes of healing the nerve damage. You cough too hard and you just damage your nerves.

You can also develop lung fibrosis from constant coughing. If your lungs have their cells destroyed, the immune system tries to repair things by depositing fibrin, as a place-holder before full regeneration. But when the damage is too big, or fibrin is deposited faster than it can be removed (eat your natto), you just end up with declining lung function.

And remember, the immune system has different ways to deal with an infection. Infected cells can just detect and destroy the RNA of a virus, on their own or with help from innate immune cells. Those cells are then afterwards better able to deal with exposure to similar viruses. Alternatively, antibodies can instruct the immune system to destroy infected cells. After vaccination, antibody levels against Spike are about 20 times normal. What happens when you constantly have the immune system destroying the infected cells, rather than letting those cells resolve the problem on their own?

I will say this again: The body sends the adaptive immune system after a respiratory infection, when the innate immune system can’t handle it on its own. It has reasons for that.

You made an intervention in a complex system and it didn’t work. Let’s say there is no grand finale where the antibody response just fails, perhaps we just end up with 10 years of these constant COVID waves, rather than naturally resolving this pandemic after 2 years. Do you realize what sort of irreversible damage to the fabric of society that does? It means an entire generation of children grow up with damaged lungs, damaged brains and damaged immune systems. It is essentially a civilization-ending event that most people just want to forget about.
 
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INTERESTING COMMENT TO ABOVE ARTICLE:

U. J.
November 20, 2024 at 7:51 am

In The Glycans Are Coming – Rintrah (Aug 30) it was N1, N3, N5 that were covered; now it’s N1, N2, N3… What am I missing? Are the two posts discussing different strains, which are taking multiple approaches towards building a complete glycan shield?


Radagast

November 20, 2024 at 1:52 pm

There are five loops. The most immunogenic ones seem to be N1 N3 and N5 (at least before the glycans showed up). But N1 and N2 turn out to be most important for neutralization. I didn’t know that back in August, because the study that found it had not been published yet.
 

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US CDC expects COVID and RSV levels to increase in coming weeks
by Christy Santhosh - Reuters
Wed, November 20, 2024 at 7:22 PM UTC

(Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday it expects to see an increase in levels of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the country in the coming weeks, as they usually do during the holiday season.

Large gatherings, travel and more time indoors, which typically happen during the holiday season, tend to cause more viruses to spread easily, the health agency said.

CDC expects hospitalizations for flu and COVID-19 to start increasing in the coming weeks. It also sees increased RSV activity, particularly in young children, in the southern and eastern U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved updated COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, as well as Moderna in August. The health regulator also granted emergency use authorization for Novavax's traditional protein-based shot.

Currently, there are three FDA-approved RSV vaccines made by GSK, Moderna and Pfizer.

As of Oct. 5, 11.2% of adults aged 18 years or above received an updated COVID-19 vaccine and 36.9% of adults 75 years or older received an RSV shot, according to CDC data.
 

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Supreme Court rejects RFK Jr. group’s attempt to protect anti-Covid-vaccine doctors from investigations
Lawrence Hurley - NBC News
November 21, 2024

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt by Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to protect doctors being investigated in Washington state for allegedly spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 virus.

The emergency application was denied by Justice Elena Kagan on behalf of the court.

“We hope that one day the Supreme Court will clearly state that the Constitution does not permit the government to sanction the public viewpoint speech of physicians,” Rick Jaffe, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said.

Kennedy, whom President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was listed as one of the lawyers on the application.

Kennedy's group and other plaintiffs claim that any investigations seeking to sanction doctors for their views on the virus would violate free speech rights under the Constitution's First Amendment.

Lower courts, including the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, declined to impose injunctions blocking investigations led by the Washington Medical Commission.

"The enforcement actions not only chill speech but also deprive the public of critical viewpoints necessary for informed debate, especially during a public health crisis," Kennedy and his fellow lawyers wrote in court papers.

The Supreme Court did not ask the state to file a response to the application, suggesting that it was deemed lacking in legal merit.

Two doctors subject to investigations, Richard Eggleston and Thomas Siler, had joined Kennedy's group in asking the court to weigh in.

During the pandemic, Eggleston and Siler spread false information about the virus, saying among other things that vaccines were ineffective, a federal judge wrote in declining to impose an injunction.
 

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Trump likely to pick Johns Hopkins surgeon, COVID mandate critic Makary for FDA, sources say
Stephanie Kelly and Nathan Layne - Reuters
Wed, November 20, 2024 at 11:44 PM UTC

(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will likely choose Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer Martin Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Makary raised concerns about a number of public health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, touting the protection from natural immunity and opposing COVID vaccine mandates.

The FDA is the world's most influential drug regulator with a more than $7 billion budget. It is responsible for approving new treatments and assuring they are safe and effective before entering the biggest and most lucrative market. It has regulatory authority over human and veterinary drugs, biological medicines, medical devices and vaccines.

The agency is also responsible for maintaining safety standards for the food supply, tobacco, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team, said he would not speculate on or get ahead of any announcement.

As FDA commissioner, Makary would report to the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.

To lead HHS, Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist who has spread misinformation about the safety of vaccines and one of several unconventional Trump picks for top administration jobs.

As a doctor, Makary was a co-developer of the Surgery Checklist, a routine for surgeons that improved patient outcomes and has been spread around the globe by the World Health Organization.

His most recent book, "Blind Spots", was published in September. In interviews promoting the book, he spoke against what he called "massive overtreatment" in the U.S. that he called "an epidemic of inappropriate care."

He has advocated for reexamining the use of hormone replacement treatment in menopausal women, reducing overuse of antibiotics and reforms to medical education.

Makary, who lives in Baltimore, has served as an adviser to Washington conservative healthcare think tank Paragon Health Institute.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed Dr. Robert Califf, a cardiologist and researcher who also held the role of FDA commissioner in the Obama administration.

In his second term, Califf revamped the agency's food operations and inspections processes and tried to combat misinformation.
 

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Long COVID and Exercise Intolerance Unveiled by Yale Researchers
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team
Nov 19, 2024

Exercise intolerance is a troubling problem for many living with long COVID, a condition officially known as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). Researchers from Yale School of Medicine recently published a groundbreaking study shedding light on why even mild physical activity can feel like an uphill battle for long COVID patients. The findings provide insights into the physiological and metabolic impairments causing these symptoms, paving the way for better treatments.

This Medical News report explains the research in simple terms, highlighting the study's methodology and findings to make the science accessible to everyone. It offers a clear perspective on how long COVID affects exercise tolerance and what future research might mean for patients.

Understanding the Study
The study involved 47 long COVID patients who underwent invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing (iCPET). This advanced testing measures oxygen use and metabolic changes in the body during exercise. By comparing data from mild versus severe initial COVID-19 infections, the team uncovered key insights into the body’s response to physical exertion.

Among the study’s participants, eight had been hospitalized for severe COVID-19, while the remaining 39 experienced milder cases. Despite differences in initial illness severity, all participants reported significant and unexplained exercise limitations.


Key Findings: What’s Happening in the Body?
-Reduced Oxygen Use in Muscles

Long COVID patients exhibited reduced peak oxygen extraction (EO2) during exercise, suggesting their muscles struggle to use oxygen effectively. This problem was more pronounced in those who had severe initial COVID infections. However, cardiac output (the amount of blood the heart pumps) was within normal ranges, indicating that the issue lies with the muscles rather than the heart.

-Switch to Anaerobic Energy
When oxygen-dependent energy production falls short, the body relies on anaerobic metabolism, a less efficient backup system. The researchers observed that long COVID patients began using this backup system at lower exercise intensities, even during everyday activities like climbing stairs.

-Metabolic Changes and Potential Biomarkers
The team performed detailed metabolomic analysis, examining blood samples for signs of how the body’s metabolism shifts during exercise. They found increased levels of succinate and inosine, metabolites linked to energy production. Elevated succinate, in particular, correlated with worse exercise tolerance, suggesting it could serve as a biomarker to identify long COVID severity.

-Impaired Energy Production
Long COVID patients showed reduced capacity to produce energy through both aerobic and anaerobic pathways. This dual impairment leaves patients with limited ability to sustain physical activity, leading to quicker fatigue.


What These Findings Mean
The study highlights that long COVID’s impact on exercise tolerance stems from a mix of impaired oxygen use and altered metabolic pathways. This combination results in an early reliance on anaerobic energy production, which is less efficient and contributes to fatigue. The researchers suggest that targeting these metabolic dysfunctions could offer new ways to treat long COVID symptoms.

For example, therapies aimed at improving mitochondrial function (the part of the cell responsible for energy production) or enhancing the purine nucleotide cycle (which supports energy generation during high-intensity exercise) might help patients recover their ability to exercise comfortably.


Moving Forward: Hope for Treatment

While this study provides significant insights, it’s just the beginning. The researchers plan to expand their work to include larger groups and healthy control participants to refine their findings. They also hope to explore new treatments based on the metabolic impairments identified in their study.

For long COVID patients, these findings offer hope. Identifying biomarkers like succinate and understanding the role of purine metabolism opens doors to targeted therapies that could restore energy levels and improve quality of life.


Conclusion: A Step Toward Recovery

Exercise intolerance is a major barrier for many people living with long COVID, but understanding its root causes marks a critical step toward finding solutions. This Yale-led study offers valuable insights into the physiological and metabolic changes driving these symptoms, emphasizing the importance of oxygen and energy production in recovery. By uncovering potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets, the research team has laid the groundwork for future innovations in long COVID treatment.

The study findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal: Pulmonary Circulation.

 

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COVID-19 hitches a ride on mucus to spread deep into lungs, live imaging shows
by Olivia Dimmer, Northwestern University
November 18, 2024

The COVID-19 virus spreads via mucus once inside an infected airway, allowing it to reach into the lower lungs, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Communications.

More than 770 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported to the World Health Organization since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

While it's understood that the virus latches onto healthy cells in the nose and throat to copy itself, not much is known about the process by which it spreads once inside an infected airway.

To better understand how the virus proliferates, investigators in the laboratory of Thomas Hope, Ph.D., professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and of Obstetrics and Gynecology and senior author of the study, performed live imaging of human bronchial epithelium cells exposed to COVID-19.

In the study, investigators observed that the movement of mucus can spread the COVID-19 virus inside the respiratory tract, where it later forms aerosols that infect other people. Additionally, the virus travels on mucus to infect deeper into the lower lung.

"The virus goes where the mucus goes," said Mark Becker, a student in the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences (DGP) and first author of the study.

Although mucus is generally thought to protect against infection by trapping and removing viruses and other particles, COVID-19 appears to exploit mucosal spread following an infection, Becker said.

As funding begins to dwindle for COVID-19 research, Hope said the discovery could prove useful in other viral diseases, such as HIV.

"Interestingly, the mucosal environment most similar to the lungs is the upper female reproductive tract," Hope said.

"The infrastructure at Feinberg really helped us build the facilities needed for this research," Hope said. "The university really supported us and that is a testament to what a great environment Feinberg is."

More information: Mark E. Becker et al, Live imaging of airway epithelium reveals that mucociliary clearance modulates SARS-CoV-2 spread, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53791-4
Journal information: Nature Communications
Provided by Northwestern University
 

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COVID-19 cases rise in Japan for the first time in three months, driven by the highly contagious XEC variant
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team
Nov 22, 2024

Japan is witnessing a worrying uptick in COVID-19 cases for the first time in three months, driven by the highly contagious XEC variant and its newer sub-lineages like XEC.2. This resurgence has triggered public health concerns as cases climb steadily across the country.


Weekly Cases Climb by Nearly 30 Percent

According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the average number of new COVID-19 cases reported by around 5,000 designated hospitals reached 1.90 per institution in the past week. This marked a 29 percent increase compared to the previous week, totaling 9,406 new infections. This Medical News report underscores the significance of these figures, as they represent the first significant rise in cases since the summer months.

Notably, the increase in hospitalizations mirrors this trend. Reports from 500 designated medical facilities show a 37 percent spike, with 1,175 COVID-19 patients admitted in the same period. Experts have attributed this rise to the XEC variant, known for its enhanced transmissibility.


【都道府県別】人口あたりの新型コロナウイルス感染者数の推定値

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001336742.pdf


Symptoms and Vulnerable Groups at Higher Risk
Akihiro Sato, an infectious disease specialist and head of Karada Internal Medicine Clinic, has observed a rise in patients presenting with severe symptoms such as high fevers and persistent coughs. "In addition to basic infection prevention measures, individuals in high-risk categories, such as the elderly, should seriously try to self-isolate and avoid crowded settings" Sato advised.

The rapid spread of the XEC variant raises alarms for vulnerable groups, including older adults and those with underlying health conditions. Health authorities emphasize the importance of maintaining preventive measures like mask-wearing, hand hygiene, and social distancing to curb the spread of these variants.


Understanding the XEC Variant and Its Sublineages
The XEC variant is part of a new wave of COVID-19 mutations characterized by their ability to bypass immunity from prior infections and vaccinations. XEC.2, a newer spawn of this strain, appears to exhibit even greater transmissibility. Scientists are closely monitoring these variants to assess their potential impact on public health, including hospitalization and mortality rates.

Data from hospitals across Japan suggest that these new variants could pose challenges to the healthcare system during the colder months, traditionally a period of heightened respiratory infections. Experts are urging increased vigilance, particularly as holiday travel and gatherings approach.


Conclusion

Japan’s recent spike in COVID-19 cases highlights the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic. The XEC variant and its sublineages serve as a reminder that the virus continues to adapt, creating new challenges for public health. Enhanced surveillance, vaccination campaigns, and adherence to preventive measures are crucial to mitigating the spread and protecting at-risk populations.
 

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Pandemic associated with increase in babies born with heart defects
by City St George's, University of London
November 15, 2024

The proportion of babies born with a congenital heart abnormality increased by 16% after the first year of the pandemic, according to research at City St George's, University of London and published today in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Heart defects are the most common type of anomaly that develop before a baby is born, with about 13 babies diagnosed with a congenital heart condition every day in the U.K. and impacting 1 in 110 births globally. These include defects to the baby's heart valves, the major blood vessels in and around the heart, and the development of holes in the heart.

In more than 18 million births, researchers analyzed data from US birth certificates from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between December 2016 and November 2022 to evaluate the effect of the pandemic on the number of babies born with a congenital heart defect.

They compared the number of babies born with a congenital heart condition every month before the COVID-19 pandemic (1st December 2016 to 30th November 2019) with those during the pandemic (1st December 2020 to 30th November 2022).

This data was then compared to the number of babies born with Down Syndrome—a genetic condition not affected by the virus. This was to help ascertain if any differences observed might have been due to COVID-19, or if they were a result of other factors including limited access to antenatal services during the pandemic.

A total of 11,010,764 births before and 7,060,626 births during the pandemic were analyzed. Data was adjusted to account for mother's BMI, diabetes and blood pressure before pregnancy, age, number of times they had given birth and the season in which prenatal care started.

The number of births with a congenital heart condition increased by 16% after the first year of the pandemic, with 65.4 cases per 100,000 live births compared to 56.5 per 100,000 births in the period studied before the pandemic.

The number of babies born with Down Syndrome did not change for the duration of the study, suggesting that the increase in fetal heart defects were not due to a disruption of health services.

Professor Asma Khalil, lead author and professor of obstetrics and maternal fetal medicine at City St George's, University of London said, "Studying this large U.S. dataset has revealed an unexpected picture for how the pandemic has affected the hearts of unborn babies, but we need to untangle the reasons for this link.

"We need to determine if the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly causes the development of fetal heart problems during pregnancy, and if so, how the virus makes these changes in the heart.

"We don't have this type of data set available in the U.K., but it's important to see if this pattern is seen in other parts of the world.

"COVID-19 is still circulating and is easier to catch in the winter months. These results act as an important reminder for pregnant women to get their COVID-19 vaccinations to help protect themselves and their baby."

More information: A. Khalil et al, Congenital heart defects during COVID-19 pandemic, Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology (2024). DOI: 10.1002/uog.29126
Provided by City St George's, University of London
“Pandemic”— Because of course we can’t blame it on the mothers getting the clot shot
 
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