By Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter In Washington, D.C., For Dailymail.Com 22:05 11 Jun 2024, updated 22:05 11 Jun 2024
A longtime FBI employee's Top Secret security clearance was revoked after his pro-Trump, pro-gun and personal concerns over COVID vaccines were revealed, says his attorney.
During the background check process to renew his clearance, friends and family confirmedthe 12-year FBI employee did support Trumpand attended a Second Amendment and the January 6 rally.
His security clearance was later revoked by the FBI, according to his lawyer Tristan Leavitt, who provided internal Department of Justice (DOJ) documents revealing the political questions DailyMail.com.
Leavitt, who has represented multiple government whistleblowers in the past, subsequently sent a letter to the DOJ's inspector general asking why such political questions were necessary for the security clearance - and whether that process has been tainted.
'Instead of limiting its investigation to legitimate issues, [the FBI's security division] acted as if support for President Trump, objecting to COVID-19 vaccinations, or lawfully attending a protest was the equivalent of being a member of Al Qaeda or the Chinese Communist Party,' Leavitt said.
The review allegedly came after the former employee told his bosses that he had been at the January 6 rally.
Leavitt runsEmpower Oversight, a nonprofit which specializes in whistleblower cases, and he told the outlet that the questions are tantamount to internal FBI political bias against conservatives.
He also claimed that the former FBI employee he represents did nothing illegal on January 6.
Further, memos revealed by Empower Oversight show that FBI Security Division workers conducted multiple interviews to ascertain the politics of the employee who self-disclosed his January 6 attendance.
Those memos show witnesses were asked whether the employee ever vocalized 'support for President Trump' and whether he voiced 'objections to Covid-19 vaccination.'
The documents also show some workers were asked whetherthe FBI employee 'attended the Richmond Lobby Day event,' which is a gun-rights event.
'The FBl's intentions are made clear by the questions it chose to put in black and white on a government document,' Leavitt said.
He called the revocation of his client's clearance 'shocking' and an'abuse of authority and a violation of our client's rights under the First Amendment,' in his letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Sources familiar with the matter told Just The News that multiple instances of politically motivated clearance reviews have occurred, indicating that Leavitt's client is not the only who has faced repercussions for his stances on Trump, vaccines and guns.
The letter to Horowitz details how the former FBI employee received positive performance reviews and monetary compensation for his work.
The witnesses who were interviewed for this former employee's clearance told investigators that though he expressed Republican views he did not pose a threat.
One investigator wrote down during an interview the former FBI employee: 'Very significantly supported [Trump], would listen to talk shows. Trump did not lose. Dems stole it. Militant point of view. Never implied would do anything aggressive/physical.'
Another investigator noted in a different witness interview that the former employee 'had right wing views' adding 'nothing extreme.'
Those interviews also noted the FBI employee was against masking and vaccines.
Though, at the time of these interviews in April 2022, mandatory vaccine requirements were facing legal hurdles - and the federal government at the time was not allowed to enforce such requirements on FBI employees.
And other interviews with witnesses revealed that though the former FBI employee was a 'gun nut' that 'went to all 2nd Amendment gatherings' he did not display a 'promotion of violence.'
'I write today to formally disclose to you on our client's behalf shocking documents in [the FBI Security Division's] investigative file that evidence an abuse of authority and a violation of our client's rights under the First Amendment,' Leavitt's letter said.
'The documents appear to demonstrate [the FBI Security Division's] political bias and abuse of the security clearance process to purge the FBI of employees who expressed disfavored political views or concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement.'
Leavitt concluded his letter asking Horowitz to open an investigation into the matter, which would provide insight to the public on whether political preference and personal health decisions play a role in FBI agent's security clearance screenings.
"Vaccine-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (VAIDS)" -- a term used to refer to a weakened immune system allegedly caused by mRNA vaccines -- is a "fictitious claim", infectious disease experts said, refuting social media posts that falsely linked an increase in HIV infections in the Philippines to the Covid-19 vaccines. UN data show HIV infections in the Southeast Asian country have been on the rise since the early 2010s, long before the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent vaccine rollout.
"From 2022 but alarming if true.... 40 plus new cases per month," read the English-language caption of a Facebook poston April 11, 2024.
The post included a link to a December 2022 article by Philippine newspaper SunStar Davao,titled "396 new-HIV-Aids cases in Davao City recorded from January to September 2022".
The caption went on to claim that people vaccinated against Covid-19 were "testing positive for AIDS", referring to the condition as "VAIDS" or "vaccine acquired immune deficiency syndrome".
HIV infections have soared in the Philippines, with experts blaming the spread of online dating, poor sex education and conservative attitudes in the deeply religious country for fuelling the spread of the virus that causes the chronic disease AIDS.
Similar posts that falsely linked the spike to the Covid-19 vaccines were also sharedon Facebook here, here and here.
But there is no such thing as "VAIDS", a term referring to the weakening of the immune system that surfaced in a flood of misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines. AFP has debunked similar false claims about the made-up condition here, here and here.
"The term VAIDS is a fictitious claim that Covid vaccines can cause a form of AIDS-like immunodeficiency called vaccine-acquired immune deficiency syndrome," said Dr Edsel Maurice Salvana, an infectious diseases expert at the University of the Philippines' Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.
Salvana told AFP on May 31, 2024 the Covid vaccines did not have an HIV component and could not cause any mutations that could lead to similar infections.
"None of these vaccines have been shown to be mutagenic, and there is no scientifically plausible scenario where it can create an HIV virus or cause AIDS," he said.
HIV cases were already on the rise across the Philippines, including in Davao city, since before the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, Salvana added.
While new infections globally fell 38 percent from 2010 to 2022,UNAIDS data show the Philippines saw a 418 percent increase, making it the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region and the fourth fastest in the world (archived link).
They also show the number of HIV cases in the country has been on the rise since the early 2010s, before the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines.
Salvana added while there was a drop in the number of recorded AIDS cases during the pandemic due to decreased testing and less activity, these were eventually detected when pandemic restrictions in the country eased.
"There is no reason to believe that the rise in HIV cases is linked to the Covid vaccine because the increase in cases preceded the Covid vaccine rollout and the pandemic."
Dr Kris Claudette Trangia, the city's HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator at the Department of Health, told AFP on June 5, 2024 that there were1,030 new AIDS cases reported from January to December 2023 in Davao -- up from 836 cases in 2022.
"This increase in the number of reported cases can be attributed to people becoming more aware of the HIV-AIDS services offered in our health facilities, and the importance of getting tested and knowing your status," Trangia said.
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Tips for perfecting your downward-facing dog, aligning your chakras, and the dangers of life-saving vaccinations. These are the conversations Naomi Klein claims are taking places at classes in yoga studios on both sides of the Atlantic, which have turned into hotbeds for conspiracy theories.
The Canadian author and commentator, famed for her best-selling 1999 book No Logo, has turned her attention to the latest threat to public health: Fitness and wellbeing gurus.
Vaccination hesitation has seen a surge in recent years in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has posed an issue for decades.
Cases of measles in the UK shot up from 735 cases in 2022 to 1,603 in 2023, with the NHS urging parents to vaccinate their children from the deadly disease. The escalation comes as the number of young school children who have had both doses ofthe MMR vaccinelies about ten per cent below WHO targets.
Klein has warned it is no longer the fringes of society that succumb to the dangerous, outlandish speculation spreading fear in developed Western economies.
Far from the dark corners of the internet, she claims it is now the affluent, educated and seemingly normal members of society that subscribe to these ideas.
Klein writesin her book latest bookDoppelganger that this is where the white, wealthy, libertarian streak in the wellness industry can become lethal.
She goes on the say that it is gym and yoga classes that are primarily playing into conspiracy theories - bolstered by fitness influencers glamorous social media platforms preaching to millions of ordinary people vying to lead a healthier life.
So many of those fit and beautiful influencers stopped merely offering encouraging words to motivate our workouts and green juicing, she writes, and started whispering to us alarmingly about dark forces coming to poison us, and eventually to gag, jab and dominate us.
She was also unsurprised by figures showing the uptake in the measles vaccine were lowest in wealthier, more affluent postcodes where boutique gyms and yoga studios are more common
In March the House of Commons library revealed that the local authorities with the lowest rates of MMR vaccines were the London boroughs of Westminster and Kensington of Chelsea.
Klein herself turned to yoga several years ago and grew obsessive with the practice as she was treated for thyroid cancer.
She told The Times how her own experience spoke to how the community can fall victim to unfounded teachings from teachers with unchallenged authority.
Yoga became a carrier, she told the paper. Not all yoga, but I think theres a reason why yoga studios were very much a hotbed for conspiracy culture.
These figures positioned themselves as having access to a higher form of knowledge because they had taken a six-week yoga teacher training class, or maybe even been to India once, she added. That got us into a world of trouble.
Online, these messages translate as truth to audiences wanted to level-up their lives with beautiful fitness and wellbeing gurus.
She told the paper that the phenomenon of the masses turning away from top-down narratives and towards social media sources has spread misinformation like wildfire - with theories around the Covid vaccine pulling people further away from trusting vaccines.
We need major public education about childhood vaccinations, I think we are almost back to zero, after so many years of so much misinformation, she said. Even someone like Robert Kennedy Jr, now running for president, this is his main issue. We need to take it extremely seriously.
Thanks to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) shot Arexvys new label expansion into a slightly younger pool of adults, GSK is more confident than ever that its vaccine will be able to conquer the competition.
June 7, the FDA approved Arexvy for RSV prevention in adults ages 50 to 59 who are at increased risk of developing RSV disease. The green light marks Arexvys first new approval since the vaccines original nod to prevent lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) caused by RSV in adults ages 60 and older last May.
According to GSKs research, there are about 13 million people between the ages of 50 and 59 in the U.S. with underlying conditions that place them at higher risk of RSV disease, Len Friedland, M.D., vice president and director, scientific affairs and public health, vaccines at GSK, said in an interview.
Those chronic conditions include congestive heart disease, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as diabetes and chronic kidney disease, the executive explained.
Increasing age puts people at greater risk of developing severe outcomes from RSV, including hospitalizations and trips to the intensive care unit, Friedland said.
We estimate there are about 42,000 hospitalizations each year in adults 50 to 64 due to RSV, so theres tremendous opportunity to prevent morbidity and perhaps even mortality from RSV, Friedland said of the latest Arexvy approval.
With Arexvys label expansion locked down, the next milestone ahead for GSK is its meeting with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices scheduled for June 26, at which point the government's vaccine advisers will decide whether to widely endorse the companys vaccine in the new age range.
We see it as so important to build on whats happened in the pediatric space where vaccination has become part of routine practice, Friedland explained. To have that translate into the adult arena is really important.
GSKs Arexvy became the worlds first approved RSV vaccine last May, backed up by data showing the immunization was 82.6% effective at preventing RSV-related LRTD in older adults. Shortly thereafter, in June 2023, Pfizer won its own RSV nod in older adults with its vaccine Abrysvo, kicking off a fierce competition between the two companies.
Meanwhile, just last week, Moderna snagged a green light for the first FDA-approved mRNA shot in RSV, dubbed mRESVIA. The biotechs vaccine is also cleared to protect adults ages 60 and older from LRTD caused by RSV.
To hear Friedland tell it, Arexvys rollout has gone extremely well so far thanks to the high unmet medical need for an RSV vaccine at the time the shot debuted last summer.
More than 8 million people 60 years of age and older in the U.S. received a dose of Arexvy during the first RSV season after launch, the executive said.
Between Arexvywhich currently controls more than 60% of the marketand Pfizers rival RSV shot Abrysvo, roughly 22% of U.S. adults ages 60 and over received an RSV vaccine last year, which Friedland hailed as a great start.
Looking ahead, GSK will continue to attempt to expand Arexvys reach: The company is currently studying the shot in people 18 and older at increased risk of RSVboth those who are immunocompromised with solid organ transplants as well as those who have any of the underlying comorbidities covered in todays approvalFriedland pointed out.
GSK expects to have data on those populations in the second half of 2024, at which point the company will follow up with the FDA, he said.
As for the recent approval of Modernas RSV vaccine mRESVIA, I think its great, Friedland said.
We want there to be innovation, and we want there to be options, and we want there to be choices, he said. Now, its our job to gather and continue to generate the evidence that speaks to the value of Arexvy.
We believe that we have the market-leading vaccine, and our goal is to keep it that way, Friedland stressed.
Over the first three months of 2023, Arexvy maintained its market lead against rival Abrysvo. In the first quarter, Arexvy generated 182 million pounds sterling ($227 million) versus Abrysvo's sales of $145 million.
Cumulatively since launch, Arexvy hasgenerated 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) while Abrysvo has managed to take home $1.03 billion.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday expanded the approval for GSKs vaccine to protect against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, authorizing its use for at-risk adults as young as 50.
Arexvy, which was the first RSV vaccine approved, now becomes the first to be available to adults under the age of 60 who are not pregnant. Prior to this FDA decision, Arexvy was licensed for use in people 60 and older. Since the initial FDA approval, the vaccine has been licensed in more than 40 countries.
Todays approval reflects the importance of broadening the benefits of RSV immunization to adults aged 50-59 who are at increased risk, GSKs chief scientific officer, Tony Wood, said in a statement. For those with underlying medical conditions, RSV can have serious consequences, so we are proud to be the first to help protect them.
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A group of Dutch medical researchers has ignited a firestorm by calling for an investigation of the deaths caused by vaccine mandates and lockdowns imposedon the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whats wrong with that?
Everything, if youre part of the global public health mafia and want to avoid questions about the mistakes you made and the lies you told.
We all saw Anthony Fauci squirming last week when he was forced to admit to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that social-distancing rules like the six-foot rule on which the lockdowns were based were pulled out of thin air.
The Dutch researchers want answers.
They insist every death needs to be acknowledged and accounted for, including deaths caused by policy mistakes the collateral damage from heavy-handed public health policies.
One conclusion is already crystal clear: Dont entrust your life or health to the government.
The Dutch researchers examined data from 47 western countries, including the United States, and found that many months after the lockdowns began and vaccines were rolled out, death rates stayed higher than in pre-pandemic years.
The lockdowns and vaccines werent stopping the virus, it turns out, but were apparently causing other deaths a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.
Zeroing in on the United States, they cited double-digit increases in alcohol-caused fatalities and drug-overdose fatalities.
A separate pair of researchers, Rob Arnott and University of Chicago economics professor Casey Mulligan, reported the same.
During the pandemic, they found,US deaths from alcoholism, drug addiction, car accidents, hypertension, heart disease and diabetes soared, exceeding by 100,000 a year what would ordinarily occur.
They pinned those excess deaths on government COVID-19 policies that drove people to addiction, overeating and other acts of despair.
Even more tragically, those deaths of despair affected younger people, so each death meant many more years of life lost than when an elderly person died of COVID-19.
Young and middle-aged adults succumbed to alcoholism or drug addiction as they were laid off or watched their businesses and savings disappear because of the lockdowns.
Whats worse, even when it became obvious lockdowns were failing, government health officials stayed their deadly course.
They put their egos over the publics welfare.
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The Dutch researchers stunning data showed that for children the virus posed a minuscule 0.0003% risk of death, probably less risk than crossing the street to get to the playground.
Doctors like the Hoover Institutions Scott Atlas urged policymakers to target the high-risk elderly, rather than to lock down the low-risk young only to be demonized for questioning the Centers for Disease Control orthodoxy.
Had the public-health-industrial complex listened, children would have been in school learning, instead of home suffering learning losses.
Even now, as Dr. Joel Zinberg points out, children age 5 to 17 account for less than one-tenth of 1% of COVID deaths, but officials are still recommending vaccines for all schoolchildren.
Crazy.
The Dutch researchers touched off furious pushback with their suggestion that more investigation is needed into whether the vaccines themselves caused some pandemic-era and post-pandemic deaths.
In all likelihood, the vaccine is helpful for most adults, especially the elderly. But there are exceptions.
Research in the journal Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics showed that men can incur a higher risk of cardiac-related deaths after taking the mRNA vaccines.
In hospital settings, common fatal conditions such as ischemic stroke and acute coronary syndrome might not be readily identified and reported as possibly vaccine-caused.
The Dutch researchers didnt analyze any causal connection between vaccines and higher deaths.
But just suggesting further research into that issue provoked a nasty backlash.
Thats the public-health-industrial complex closing ranks.
No surprise. In August 2023, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association published an attack smearing 52 physicians for disseminating misinformation: The offending scientists disagreed with the CDC, which now has been proven wrong on almost every pandemic issue.
The global public-health establishment, including many journal editors and government advisers the Anthony Faucis and Deborah Birxes of the world dont want us to look back.
Kudos to the Dutch researchers for raising questions and challenging public health orthodoxy. That is what scientists are supposed to do, the status quo be damned.
With bird flu and other threats looming, we need to demand the truth about what saved lives and what killed.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.
Twitter: @Betsy_McCaughey
SARS-CoV-2 keeps evolving, and its time for COVID-19 vaccines to again follow suit, advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed early last week. The panel voted unanimously in favour of updating the shots to more closely match virus strains now circulating. www.science.org/content/article/covid-19-vaccines-should-get-fall-update-panel-concludes?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_content=alert&utm_campaign=WeeklyLatestNews&et_rid=785235729&et_cid=5240384
Although the FDA still needs to greenlight the change, the next iteration of vaccine is likely to match one of two versions of the virus, either JN.1, which emerged in September 2023, or one of its descendants, such as KP.2 (colloquially known as a FLiRT variant). Although such offshoots are now circulating more widely than JN.1, advisers urged FDA to at a minimum permit JN.1 vaccines, because the company Novavax is already working on one and says it cant quickly pivot to something different.
A retooled vaccine, its hoped, will be more likely to blunt COVID-19 symptoms and the risk of hospitalization, and somewhat dent transmission of the virus compared with the current version, which is tailored to XBB.1. That strain has now vanished, and 94% of infections are attributed to the JN.1 family. In late April, the World Health Organization (WHO) asked vaccine companies to supply JN.1 vaccines globally later this year.
The advisory committee considered whether the FDA should follow WHOs lead, embracing JN.1, or request a vaccine containing one of its progeny, some of which are now circulating much more widely than their parent. All three companies supplying COVID-19 vaccines to the United StatesModerna, Pfizer, and Novavaxsaid at the meeting they can have ample supply of a JN.1 vaccine available by late summer. But Novavax followed the WHO recommendation and has already settled on a JN.1 vaccine because its protein-based product requires roughly 6 months to produce, longer than messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. Novavax Chief Medical Officer Robert Walker says the company could not offer a fall vaccine in the U.S. if FDA requested a different strain, such as KP.2.
Although the advisory committees 16-0 vote to update the vaccine was no surpriseresearchers are now attuned to SARS-CoV-2s shape shiftingunanswered questions kept bubbling up. Its still unclear whether and to what degree young, healthy people benefit from annual COVID-19 vaccinations, whether regular boosting cuts the risk of Long Covid, and how long protection from severe disease after vaccination lasts.
Data presented at last weeks meeting by Ruth Link-Gelles, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated protection from symptoms and hospitalization took a nosedive within 6 months of an updated XBB shotsometimes to near zero. Earlier publications have reported a similar waning of COVID-19 vaccines. But protection against death and intensive care unit admission was much more durable.
The endless permutations in the number of vaccine doses and the number and timing of infections in the U.S. population are making it harder to resolve some questions about the shots. Still, many are answerable, but I dont know if people are interested in answering them by collecting the data, says David Ho, a virologist at Columbia University who posted a preprint last month analyzing recent SARS-CoV-2 evolution and how different variants might respond to vaccination. The pandemic is gone in most peoples minds. That was reflected by last years vaccine uptake: Just 22% of adults in the U.S. got a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 48% who rolled up their sleeves for a flu shot.
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In a first-of-its-kind operation, a 71-year-old man with a liver tumour had the malignant lobe of the organ removed and replaced with a pig liver genetically engineered to resist rejection, his surgeons in China reported. Following the 17 May operation, he was in good health this week with no signs of infection or rejection, and the liver was producing healthy quantities of bile, says Sun Beicheng of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, who led the operation. www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-tracking-clouds-reducing-fake-news-posts-and-counting-ties-big-tobacco?
A team at Yunnan Agricultural University developed the genetically modified pig. Another team in China previously reported transplanting such a liver into a patient who had been declared brain-dead. The latest procedure adds to a growing list of transplants of genetically modified pig organs, including kidneys and hearts. But a setback came last week when surgeons at NYU Langone Health had to remove an engineered pig kidney from a woman 47 days after the transplant surgery because it stopped working.
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A little-known pathogen named the Oropouche virus is on the move in South America, alarming scientists and public health experts. Brazil has reported 5530 cases so far this year, compared with 836 in all of 2023. Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru have seen upticks as well. Although the virus has traditionally been endemic in the Amazon Basin, it is now sickening people far from the rainforest. In May, Cuba reported its first cases. www.science.org/content/article/little-known-virus-rise-south-america-could-overwhelm-health-systems
The surge has scientists concerned that the virus, transmitted primarily by biting midges, could be the next one to cause a big outbreak in Latin America, which battled major epidemics of Zika and chikungunya in the past decade and is now in the middle of one of the worst dengue epidemics ever. Most cases of Oropouche fever are mild, with symptoms such as headache, body pains, nausea, and rashbut the virus can also cause brain inflammation and neurological problems, including vertigo and lethargy. And even a mild epidemic could overwhelm the continents health systems.
What worries us most is the expansion of a disease that was practically restricted to the Amazon, which has a very low-density population, to areas with greater population density, says Marcus Lacerda, an infectious disease researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).
The strain driving the outbreak originated with a genetic change a decade ago, but the Oropouche virus was first identified in 1955 in the village of Oropouche, in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1960, it turned up in a blood sample from a sick sloth during the construction of the Belm-Braslia highway. A year later, many people in Belm fell ill with what was believed to be Oropouche fever. Most of the roughly 30 outbreaks in Latin America since then have occurred in the Amazon Basin as well. In the forest, the virus circulates among primates, sloths, and birds; its unclear which insect spreads it there. In urban settings, the pinhead-size midge Culicoides paraensis transmits the disease between humans.
The first cases in the current outbreak were detected in Roraima, a state in northern Brazil, at the end of 2022. Since then, the disease has emerged along Brazils populous East Coast, including the states of Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, Bahia, and Minas Gerais. Some patients had traveled in the Amazonian region, but others had not, meaning the virus is now circulating locally. The numbers are likely to be underestimates: Oropouches symptoms resemble those of dengue, Zika, and several other diseases, and an infection can only be confirmed using polymerase chain reaction or antibody tests.
For the few scientists who study Oropouche fever, none of this was a big surprise. Since 2000, the virus has increasingly ventured outside its endemic region, says virologist Socorro Azevedo at the Evandro Chagas Institute, a research center for tropical diseases in the Brazilian Amazon. What we are seeing is a chronicle of a tragedy foretold, she says.
Oropouche fever is not known to have killed anyone, but a few suspected fatalities are under investigation, says Fiocruz virologist Felipe Naveca. As the number of infected people increases, so does the chance that we will discover unexpected impacts, says Naveca, who notes that Zika, a disease that seemed relatively innocuous at first, led to a wave of babies born with an underdeveloped brain from women infected with the virus. The Oropouche virus can also infect the brain, he points out.
Controlling Oropouche is a challenge. C. paraensis is a neglected vector for a neglected disease, says Joaquim Pinto Nunes Neto, an entomologist at Evandro Chagas. No one has cared about studying how to control it. The tiny midges easily pass through the mesh of mosquito nets, and common insect repellents may not work, Nunes Neto says. What may help is eliminating food waste and dead leaves that attract the insects and draining water reservoirs where females lay their eggs.
How much farther the disease could spread is unclear. C. paraensis has been found all the way from the United States to northern Argentina, but not every place has the right conditions for Oropouches spread. A model published in 2023 by Romero-lvarez that took into consideration current climate and vegetation loss suggested up 5 million people across the Americas are at risk. But the number is likely an underestimate, as the model did not predict the current disease expansion to big cities such as Rio de Janeiro and didnt factor in future deforestation and climate change. It also didnt account for the possibility that the common house mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus)and perhaps other insectscan transmit Oropouche, as some studies suggest.
Scientists worry that as the virus spreads, it could undergo genetic changes that make it more dangerous. The genomes of most insect-borne viruses consist of just one RNA segment, but the Oropouche virus has three. When two different strains infect the same cell, they can swap segments, resulting in a new and different combination of genes. Naveca, who leads a group that tracks Oropouche mutations, has traced the current outbreak to a variant that arose in Brazil in 2015 from reassortment between virus lineages from Peru and Colombia. Whether this exchange made the virus more transmissible isnt clear, Naveca says.
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Meanwhile in the battle against various types of cancer:
A drug that engages the immune system completely eliminated advanced colorectal cancers in six out of ten people. Thirty two people with a particular kind of advanced colorectal cancer were given the immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda). Tumours disappeared in 59% of participants and the remaining 41% underwent surgery to remove their tumours. All participants were cancer-free after treatment, compared with around 5% of people given standard treatment with chemotherapy and surgery. If you melt the cancer away before surgery you normally triple survival chances, says lead investigator and oncologist Kai-Keen Shiu. Patients also dont need any chemotherapy after, so they avoid all those side effects.
The Guardian | 3 min read Reference: American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting abstract
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A lung-cancer drug has achieved stunning success in a landmark clinical trial. The study included 296 people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Participants were randomised to receive either lorlatinib (Lorbrena) or standard treatment with crizotinib. After five years, 60% of the group treated with lorlatinib were alive without cancer progression, compared with 8% of people treated with the standard drug. You dont need a magnifying glass to see the difference, says Julie Gralow, the chief medical officer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. These long-term data results are off the chart, says David Spigel, the chief scientific officer at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute.
The Guardian | 3 min read Reference: ASCO annual meeting abstract
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Lalita Panicker is Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
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POLITICS Five cases of Mpox in SA with one death reported Joe Phaahla
Joe Phaahla |
12 June 2024
Minister says all patients are males aged between 30-39 years without travel history to the countries currently experiencing an outbreak
MinisterJoe Phaahla onoutbreak of Mpox disease in South Africa and efforts to curb the spread
12 June 2024
A global outbreak of Mpox disease, formerly known as Monkey pox, has been ongoing since 2022. Mpox is a notifiable medical condition which the Health Care Workers are required to report all the suspected and confirmed cases. Notifiable Medical Conditions refer to diseases that are of public health importance because they pose significant public health risks that can result in disease outbreaks or disease epidemics with high case fatality rates both nationally and internationally.
The last time South Africa recorded positive cases of Mpox was in 2022 when five cases confirmed in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Gauteng, with no cases reported in 2023. According to the World Health Organization multi-country outbreak of mpox published on 31 May 2024, cumulatively from 01 January 2022 through 30 April 2024, a total of 97 208 laboratory confirmed cases of mpox, including 186 deaths from 117 countries in all six WHO regions were reported. A total of 528 new laboratory-confirmed cases were reported in April, which represents a 21.2% decline in the number of new cases reported during the preceding month of March, including retrospectively reported for previous months.
The most affected WHO regions, in order by number of laboratory-confirmed cases, were the Region of the Americas, the African Region, the European Region, the South-East Asia Region, and the Western Pacific Region.In the African Region, the DRC reported the most (99.6%) of the confirmed mpox cases in the reporting month.
The disease is caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), an orthopoxvirus that transmits from person to person through close contact, and from unknown animal reservoirs in East, Central, and West Africa. This multi-country Mpox outbreak is characterised by sustained human-to-human transmission via direct skin-to-skin and sexual contact; people living with HIV are disproportionately affected.
South Africa is amongst the countries currently experiencing the outbreak of Mpox, a viral infection which spreads between people and occasionally from the environment to people via objects and surfaces that have been touched by a person with mpox.
South Africa has recorded a total number of 5 laboratory-confirmed cases and one death. Two of these cases were confirmed in Gauteng and three in KwaZulu-Natal. The death that occurred is amongst the two cases reported in Gauteng. The patient passed-on on Monday, 10 June 2024 in Tembisa Hospital. All cases/patients are males aged between 30-39 years without travel history to the countries currently experiencing an outbreak, which suggests there is local transmission of this infectious disease in the country.
All five cases were classified severe cases as per WHO definition requiring hospitalisation. The cases have co-morbidities and have been identified as key populations,Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). Thus, the Department is reaching out to organisations working on HIV programmes and with key populations in addition to other stakeholders to implement targeted communication to intensify awareness about the outbreak and local transmission of the disease.
One patient has been discharged, one discharged for home isolation and follow ups being made. Two cases are still admitted in hospital. Sequencing analysis of three of the cases revealed mpox clade IIb, in keeping with the multi-country mpox outbreak which began in 2022.
Breakdown of the cases
Cases
Confirmation Date
Area/Province
Age
Hospitalised
Case 1
8 May 2024
Sedibeng, GP
35
Yes
Case 2
21 May 2024
eThekwini, KZN
39
Yes
Case 3
31 May 2024
eThekwini, KZN
30
Yes
Case 4
03 June 2024
eThekwini, KZN
33
Yes
Case 5
07 June 2024
Tembisa, GP
37
Yes
All National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) laboratories have been sensitised to the ongoing outbreak and are referring samples for testing to the NICD. Private sector laboratories are also testing for mpox while NICD serves as the reference laboratory. Since the beginning of 2024, the NICD has received twelve mpox test requests, with three testing positive. The other two cases were diagnosed by private laboratories.Guidelines have been updated and shared widely across networks of healthcare workers using various platform.
Epidemiology and Surveillance
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) continues with epidemiological and surveillance activities to identify cases for investigation to estimate the magnitude of disease through systematic data collection and analysis.A total of 38 contacts were identified in KwaZulu-Natal by the outbreak response teams. The contacts include household contacts (16), hospital contacts (10), partners/sexual partners (5) and friends (7). One of the cases indicated to have had sexual contact with multiple partners including both males and females.
Regarding the case notified on the 08 May 2024 in Gauteng, seven (07) contacts have been followed up for 21 days, and none showed any signs and symptoms of mpox. Regarding the case notified on the 07 June 2024, the line list of the identified contacts was developed, they will be monitored for symptoms for a period of 21 days. Attempts will be made to identify other additional contacts.
The provinces have been notifying all the cases that meet the case definition of a suspected mpox case in the Notifiable Medical Condition (NMC) System. Meanwhile, the Outbreak Response Team comprising of experts from the Department, provinces, NICD, WHO and other stakeholders in the health sector have embarked on contact tracing and case finding in the affected provinces.
Treatment
At the current moment, there is no registered treatment for Mpox in South Africa. However, the World Health Organization recommends the use of Tecovirimat (known as TPOXX) for treatment of severe cases, such as in individuals with a CD4 count of less than 350. However, the Department has obtainedTecovirimat via Section 21 SAPHRA approval on compassionate use basis for the five known patients with severe disease.
Three of the five cases had access to Tecovirimat treatment as advocated by the NICD. The drug was obtained via Section 21 and the SAPHRA approval process; and donated by the WHO. SAPHRA has since approved a request for a small stockpile of Tecovirimat which the WHO will support as a donation.Our intention is to obtain a stockpile of Tecovirimat treatment for rapid deployment in case the current situation leads to a wider outbreak. The stock will be donated by the World Health Organization.
As far as the vaccine is concerned, options are being considered as to which population groups should be targeted. South Africa is trying to source vaccine from WHO member countries who have stockpiles that exceed their needs as well as from GAVI. These vaccines will be stored and distributed from our provincial depots.
Additional intervention is being considered, as National Advisory Group for Immunisation (NAGI) Technical Working Group for Mpox vaccines has been appointed and is considering mpox vaccine for both pre and post-exposure administration for high-risk groups, including but not limited to sex workers, men-who-have-sex-with-men, healthcare workers and laboratory workers.
Risk Communications
The Department working together with partner organisations, has intensified both targeted and public awareness using various channels of communications to empower the citizens with crucial information related to Mpox to make well informed health decisions. As part of additional efforts to increase opportunity for engagement, a clinical management webinar has been convened and was attended by five-hundred healthcare workers and public health professionals from across the country.
However, the most important intervention at present remains risk communication and community engagement (RCCE), which is being implemented, including addressing the high-risk population without discriminating to avoid stigma. We are also reaching out to organisations working with the HIV programmes and key populations such as the MSM to reach their members since they fall under the category of people at risk.
Although, the World Health Organization has not recommended any travel restrictions, it is important for travellers to and from endemic countriesto alert health officials on the situation to enable them to provide guidance for case detection and management.We can prevent further spread of this infectious disease if those with suspected symptoms or who were in contact with known cases/patients present themselves at health care facilities on time for early diagnosis and effective treatment.
We can disrupt the local transmission by supporting those diagnosed with this disease to take their treatment to prevent infecting others.We can prevent avoidable deaths by cooperating with health officials when they conduct contact tracing and case finding.
One death is too many, especially from a preventable and manageable disease like mpox.
I thank you.
Issued by Department of Health, 12 June 2024
Modernas combined coronavirus-influenza shot produced a higher immune response in older adults than separate vaccines for those viruses administered together, according to data the company released Monday.
The promising results from clinical trials, which have yet to be peer reviewed and published in a medical journal, could offer a new option to boost paltry uptake of updated coronavirus vaccines.
Moderna officials say the earliest that the combined vaccine could hit the market is fall 2025, pending regulatory approval.
Heres what you need to know:
Image source, Getty Images
10 June 2024
Drug company Moderna says its combined flu and Covid vaccine, which targets the two diseases in a single shot, has passed a vital part of final-stage scientific checks.
The phase-three trial shows the vaccine arms the body with protective antibodies.
And it does so as effectively as separate flu and Covid shots, results suggest.
Fewer injections would be more convenient and simpler, Moderna says.
Chief executive Stephane Bancel told BBC News he hoped the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine could be made widely available in 2026 - or perhaps, 2025.
"We are very delighted about the results, because its the first time in the world that a company is able to show positive phase-three results combining in a single dose flu and Covid vaccine," he said.
"You get one dose, one needle," which meant "ease and peace of mind for the consumer".
Competitors Pfizer and BioNTech are testing a similar two-in-one mRNA vaccine against flu and Covid.
In the continuing Moderna trial, the mRNA-1083 jab produced a higher immune response than the licensed comparator vaccines.
It matched or bettered currently approved flu jabs, including high-dose ones designed for older people.
And it was better than Modernas existing Covid booster, Spikevax, at making the body produce disease-fighting antibodies probably because it had been designed to fight more recent variants circulating around the world, Mr Bancel told BBC News in an interview.
The results are from 8,000 volunteers all aged over 50 and half over 64.
Moderna said it had focused on older people because they were most likely to continue to be offered Covid vaccines.
But it plans ultimately to offer the new jab to younger people also.
Any side effects were generally mild - a bit of soreness where the needle went into the skin and some tiredness - as with regular vaccines.
The company plans to present the findings at a medical conference, as well as submit them for publication.
Prof John Tregoning, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said work on a dual vaccine was "a promising direction of travel", but that the science world awaited the full data for scrutiny.
Moderna is also developing an mRNA vaccine against a disease called cytomegalovirus, for which it hopes to have late-stage trial results this autumn.
Currently, there is nothing to protect pregnant women and their unborn babies against CMV.
