Category: Corona Virus

This year is not yet one-third over, yet measles cases in the United States are on track to be the worst since a massive outbreak in 2019. At the same time, anti-vaccine activists are recklessly sowing doubts and encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Parents who leave their children unvaccinated are risking not only their health but also the well-being of those around them.

Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses more so than the coronavirus and is spread through direct or airborne contact when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The virus can hang in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left an area. It can cause serious complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis and death, especially in unvaccinated people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one person infected with measles can infect 9 out of 10 unvaccinated individuals with whom they come in close contact.

But measles can be prevented with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; two doses are 97 percent effective. When 95 percent or more of a community is vaccinated, herd immunity protects the whole. Unfortunately, vaccination rates are falling. The global vaccine coverage rate of the first dose, at 83 percent, and second dose, at 74 percent, are well under the 95 percent level. Vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners has slipped from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the CDC, leaving approximately 250,000 kindergartners at risk each year over the past three years.

The virus is slipping through the gaps. According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, 37 countries experienced large or disruptive measles outbreaks compared with 22 countries in 2021. In the United States, there have been seven outbreaks so far this year, with 121 cases in 18 jurisdictions. Most are children. Many of the outbreaks in the United States appear to have been triggered by international travel or contact with a traveler. Disturbingly, 82 percent of those infected were unvaccinated or their status unknown.

The largest toll has been in Illinois, followed by Florida. But when an outbreak hit the Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County in early March, Floridas top public health official, state Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo, did not follow the standard recommendation that parents of unvaccinated children keep them home for 21 days to avoid getting the disease. Instead, Dr. Ladapo said, Florida would be deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance. This means allowing children without protection to go to school. Dr. Ladapos letter was an unnecessarily reckless act of pandering to an anti-vaccine movement with increasing political influence.

Vaccine hesitancy is being encouraged by activists who warn of government coercion, using social media to amplify irresponsible claims. An article published March 20 on the website of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s Childrens Health Defense organization is headlined, Be Very Afraid? CDC, Big Media Drum Up Fear of Deadly Measles Outbreaks. The author, Alan Cassels, claims that the news media is advancing a a fear-mongering narrative, and adds, Those of us born before 1970 with personal experience pretty much all agree that measles is a big meh. We all had it ourselves and so did our brothers, sisters and school friends. We also had chicken pox and mumps and typically got a few days off school. The only side effect of those diseases was that my mom sighed heavily and called work to say she had to stay home to look after a kid with spots.

Today, he adds, Big media and government overhyping the nature of an illness, which history has shown us can be a precursor to some very bad public health policies such as mandatory vaccination programs and other coercive measures.

This is just wrong. The CDC reports that, in the decade before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, the disease killed 400 to 500 people, hospitalized 48,000 and gave 1,000 people encephalitis in the United States every year and that was just among reported cases.

The elimination of measles in the United States in 2000, driven by a safe and effective vaccine, was a major public health success. Although the elimination status still holds, the U.S. situation has deteriorated. The nation has been below 95 percent two-dose coverage for three consecutive years, and 12 states and the District below 90 percent. At the same time, the rest of the world must also strive to boost childhood vaccination rates, which slid backward during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the WHO, low-income countries with the highest risk of death from measles continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, only 66 percent.

The battle against measles requires a big not a meh effort.

The Washington Post

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NATIONAL VIEW: Measles is more contagious than the coronavirus, and it's back - Odessa American

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R.I. COVID-19 cases increased by 138 last week, with 3 deaths - Providence Business News

The World Health Organization (WHO) for the first time has reached a consensus on the definition of airborne disease transmission.

According to a report by news agency Reuters, this unified understanding aims to prevent the confusion experienced during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, which some scientists believe led to loss of life .

Released by the Geneva-based U.N. health agency, a technical document on the topic was made public on Thursday. It marks the first step towards devising strategies to effectively prevent such transmission, encompassing existing diseases like measles and potential pandemic threats in the future.

The document concludes that the term through the air can appropriately describe infectious diseases wherein the primary transmission mode involves pathogens traveling through or being suspended in the air. This aligns with established terminology like waterborne diseases, which are widely comprehended across various disciplines and by the general public. Nearly 500 experts, spanning disciplines such as physics, public health, and engineering, contributed to crafting the definition. Among them were individuals who had previously held stark disagreements on the subject.

Historically, agencies have demanded substantial evidence before classifying diseases as airborne, prompting the implementation of stringent containment measures. However, the new definition emphasizes the importance of considering not only the level of proof but also factors such as the risk of exposure and the severity of the disease.

Previous disputes often revolved around categorizing infectious particles as either droplets or aerosols, based on their size. However, the new definition departs from this distinction. In the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, approximately 200 aerosol scientists voiced public concerns that the WHO had not adequately alerted the public to the potential airborne transmission of the virus. They argued that this oversight resulted in an overemphasis on measures such as handwashing for virus prevention, neglecting the importance of ventilation.

By July 2020, the WHO acknowledged emerging evidence of airborne transmission, yet its then chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, who initiated the process to establish a definition, later admitted that the organization should have taken a more assertive stance much earlier. Jeremy Farrar, who succeeded Swaminathan, emphasized that the new definition encompassed more than just COVID-19. He acknowledged that at the outset of the pandemic, there was a dearth of evidence, and experts, including those at the WHO, operated in good faith. Farrar, who at the time served as head of the Wellcome Trust charity and advised the British government on the pandemic, highlighted that achieving consensus among experts from diverse fields would pave the way for discussions on crucial matters like ventilation in various settings, ranging from hospitals to schools.

He drew a parallel to the realization regarding the transmission of blood-borne viruses such as HIV or hepatitis B by healthcare workers not wearing gloves during procedures. Farrar remarked, When I started out, medical students, nurses, doctors, none of us wore gloves to take blood. Now it is unthinkable that you wouldnt wear gloves. But that came because everyone agreed on what the issue was, they agreed on the terminology [The change in practice] came later.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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100 scientists spend two years renaming viruses after Covid mistakes - Business Standard

Four years ago in the spring of 2020, physicians and patients coined the term "long COVID" to describe a form of the viral infection from which recovery seemed impossible. (And the old nickname "long-haulers" seems so quaint now.)

What started as a pandemic that killed nearly 3 million people globally in 2020 alone would turn into a chronic disease causing a long list of symptoms from extreme fatigue, to brain fog, tremors, nausea, headaches, rapid heartbeat, and more.

Today, 6.4% of Americans report symptoms of long COVID, and many have never recovered.

Still, we've come a long way, although there's much we don't understand about the condition. At the very least, physicians have a greater understanding that long COVID exists and can cause serious long-term symptoms.

While physicians may not have a blanket diagnostic tool that works for all patients with long COVID, they have refined existing tests for more accurate results, said Nisha Viswanathan, MD, director of the University of California Los Angeles Long COVID Program at UCLA Health.

Also, a range of new treatments, now undergoing clinical trials, have emerged that have proved effective in managing long COVID symptoms.

Catecholamine testing, for example, is now commonly used to diagnose long COVID, particularly in those who have dysautonomia, a condition caused by dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system and marked by dizziness, low blood pressure, nausea, and brain fog.

Very high levels of the neurotransmitter, for example, were shown to indicate long COVID in a January 2021 study published in the journal Clinical Medicine.

Certain biomarkers have also been shown indicative of the condition, including low serotonin levels. A study published this year in Cell found lower serotonin levels in patients with long COVID driven by low levels of circulating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the condition.

Still, said Viswanathan, long COVID is a disease diagnosed by figuring out what a patient does not have by ruling out other causes rather than what they do. "It's still a moving target," she said, meaning that the disease is always changing based on the variant of acute COVID.

Dysautonomia, and especially the associated brain fog, fatigue, and dizziness, are now common conditions. As a result, physicians have gotten better at treating them. The vagus nerve is the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system that controls everything from digestion to mental health. A February 2022 pilot study suggested a link between vagus nerve dysfunction and some long COVID symptoms.

Vagus nerve stimulation is one form of treatment which involves using a device to stimulate the vagus nerve with electrical impulses. Viswanathan has been using the treatment in patients with fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, and depression results, she contends, have been positive.

"This is something tangible that we can offer to patients," she said.

Curative treatments for long COVID remain elusive, but doctors have many more tools for symptom management than before, said Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a global expert on long COVID and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.

For example, physicians are using beta-blockers to treat postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a symptom of long COVID that happens when the heart rate increases rapidly after someone stands up or lies down. Beta-blockers, such as the off-label medication ivabradine, have been used clinically to control heart rate, according to a March 2022 study published in the journal HeartRhythm Case Reports.

"It's not a cure, but beta-blockers can help patients manage their symptoms," said Al-Aly.

Additionally, some patients respond well to low-dose naltrexone for the treatment of extreme fatigue associated with long COVID. A January 2024 article in the journal Clinical Therapeutics found that fatigue symptoms improved in patients taking the medication.

Al-Aly said doctors treating patients with long COVID are getting better at pinpointing the phenotype or manifestation of the condition and diagnosing a treatment accordingly. Treating long COVID fatigue is not the same as treating POTS or symptoms of headache and joint pain.

It's still all about the management of symptoms and doctors lack any US Food and Drug Administrationapproved medications specifically for the condition.

Still, a number of large clinical trials currently underway may change that, said David F. Putrino, PhD, who runs the long COVID clinic at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.

Two clinical trials headed by Putrino's lab are looking into repurposing two HIV antivirals to see whether they affect the levels of circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body that may cause long COVID. The hope is that the antivirals Truvada and maraviroc can reduce the "reactivation of latent virus" that, said Putrino, causes lingering long COVID symptoms.

Ongoing trials are looking into the promise of SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies, produced from cells made by cloning a unique white blood cell, as a treatment option. The trials are investigating whether these antibodies may similarly target viral reservoirs that are causing persistence of symptoms in some patients.

Other trials are underway through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RECOVER initiative in which more than 17,000 patients are enrolled, the largest study of its kind, said Grace McComsey, MD.

McComsey, who leads the study at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, said that after following patients for up to 4 years researchers have gathered "a massive repository of information" they hope will help scientists crack the code of this very complex disease.

She and other RECOVER researchers have recently published studies on a variety of findings, reporting in February, for example, that COVID infections may trigger other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes. Another recent finding showed that people with HIV are at a higher risk for complications due to acute COVID-19.

Still, others like Al-Aly and Putrino felt that the initiative isn't moving fast enough. Al-Aly said that the NIH needs to "get its act together" and do more for long COVID. In the future, he said that we need to double down on our efforts to expand funding and increase urgency to better understand the mechanism of disease, risk factors, and treatments, as well as societal and economic implications.

"We did trials for COVID-19 vaccines at warp speed, but we're doing trials for long COVID at a snail's pace," he said.

Al-Aly is concerned about the chronic nature of the disease and how it affects patients down the line. His large-scale study published last month in the journal Science looked specifically at chronic fatigue syndrome triggered by the infection and its long-term impact on patients.

He's concerned about the practical implications for people who are weighted down with symptoms for multiple years.

"Being fatigued and ill for a few months is one thing, but being at home for 5 years is a totally different ballgame."

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4 Years In, a Sobering Look at Long COVID Progress - Medscape

ANN ARBOR, MI - JULY 30: Michigan Stadium, the largest stadium in the United States, and second largest stadium in the world, home of the Michigan Wolverines football team and women's lacrosse team in Ann Arbor, Michigan on July 30, 2019. (Photo B

FOX 2 (WJBK) - The NCAA has handed down penalties for the University of Michigan's football program Tuesday in connection to coronavirus recruiting violations.

Penalties include three years of probation, fine, and recruiting restrictions, the NCAA announced. According to a release, Michigan and five people who currently - or previously worked for the football program have reached an agreement with NCAA enforcement staff on recruiting violations and coaching activities by non-coaching staff members that happened in the football program.

"A Committee on Infractions panel has approved the agreement. One former coach did not participate in the agreement, and that portion of the case will be considered separately by the Committee on Infractions, after which the committee will release its full decision," the announcement said.

The agreed-upon violations involve in-person recruiting contacts during a COVID-19 dead period, impermissible tryouts, and the program exceeding the number of allowed countable coaches when non-coaching staff members engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities "including providing technical and tactical skills instruction to student-athletes."

The decision also involved the school's agreement that the violations "demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation and the former football head coach failed to meet his responsibility to cooperate with the investigation."

The school agreed it did not stop or recognize the "impermissible recruiting contacts" and did not make sure that the football program adhered to rules for non-coaching staff members.

"The committee will not discuss further details in the case to protect the integrity of the ongoing process, as the committee's final decision including potential violations and penalties for the former coach is pending.

"By separating the cases, the Division I Committee on Infractions publicly acknowledges the infractions case and permits the school and the participating individuals to immediately begin serving their penalties while awaiting the committee's final decision on the remaining contested portion of the case. That decision will include any findings and penalties for the former coach. This is the fourth case where the committee has used multiple resolution paths."

Former Michigan star, current staffer Denard Robinson arrested for OWI in Ann Arbor

The penalties in this case include three years of probation for the school, a fine and recruiting restrictions with the "Level I-Mitigated classification for the school. "

The participating individuals also agreed to one-year show-cause orders consistent with the Level II-Standard and Level II-Mitigated classifications of their violations.

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Michigan football penalized by NCAA for coronavirus recruiting violations - FOX 2 Detroit

AMA Update covers a range of health care topics affecting the lives of physicians, residents, medical students and patients. From private practice and health system leaders to scientists and public health officials, hear from the experts in medicine on COVID-19, medical education, advocacy issues, burnout, vaccines and more.

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Which states have found bird flu in dairy cows? Why is measles coming back? What states are having a measles outbreak? When is respiratory virus season over?

Our guest is AMA's Vice President of Science, Medicine and Public Health, Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH. American Medical Association Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.

Unger: Hello, and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast. Today we have our weekly look at the headlines with the AMA's Vice President of Science, Medicine, and Public Health, Andrea Garcia. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer. Welcome back, Andrea.

Garcia: Thanks, Todd. It's great to be here as always.

Unger: Well, let's begin where we left off last week, and that's with bird flu. Andrea, what updates do we have on that topic?

Garcia: Well, that virus is continuing to spread among cattle, but I think the good news is there have been no new reports of human infection here in the U.S. There was some news according to the CDC that Vietnam has reported its first human infection with a low pathogenic avian influenza virus, that's H9N2.

It's a different subtype of avian flu than the highly pathogenic avian flu that's most reported globally and that's causing the outbreaks in poultry and cattle here in the U.S. At this time, there is no indication that this human infection in Vietnam is causing person-to-person spread or poses a threat to U.S. public health.

Unger: Well, that's good news. On the other hand, you did mention increased spread here among cattle, and that's obviously a problem. What is that looking like?

Garcia: There was a report in Reuters that indicated North Carolina and South Dakota became the seventh and eighth states to identify avian flu in a dairy herd. And just as a reminder, when we talked last week, the USDA had reported infections across six states, so Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Idaho and New Mexico.

So now we're seeing dairy farmers across the country going on the defensive to try and prevent further spread. Many are banning visitors and disinfecting vehicles coming onto their land. Some are even cutting down trees to discourage wild birds from landing, since that first case in Texas and Kansas appear to have originated with birds.

Many are increasing their safety and cleaning procedures. In that Reuters article, one dairy farmer described her farm as a gated community for cows, where only the most essential people are allowed to go since people can unintentionally contribute to that spread by carrying in contaminated bird droppings on their boots or on their vehicles. The good news is that, as we discussed last week, cows do seem to recover, whereas the disease is lethal in poultry.

Unger: I never thought I'd heard that term gated community for cattle, but I understand folks wanting to protect their herds, and that's a big problem. So we'll continue to pay attention to this. Has the increased spread change the risk at all to people?

Garcia: No. The CDC says that the risk for most people remains low. However, some dairy farmers are concerned about a potential drop in demand for milk and cheese due to fear. The USDA did report finding bird flu in some unpasteurized milk samples, but agricultural officials say that pasteurized milk is safe. Farmers are also isolating those infected cattle and dumping their milk.

Unger: All right, Andrea, thank you so much for the update there. Let's turn now to another disease that is back in the headlines and continues to be for the past several weeks, and that's the measles. Andrea, what's going on there?

Garcia: Well, two new cases, one in Las Vegas, the other in Los Angeles, have really put this disease back in the news. More measles cases have also been reported in Georgia and here in Illinois. Unfortunately, the cases in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles were found in people who visited popular tourist destinations that are often, as you know, filled with people. The one in LA reportedly visited Universal Studios and the Santa Monica Pier over Easter weekend. The one in Vegas reportedly visited the MGM Grand resort on the strip and then additional nearby locations.

So public health officials are warning that unvaccinated individuals who were at these reported locations during the designated dates and times may be at risk for developing measles within 21 days from that exposure date. Last Thursday, the CDC said that the rapid rise in measles cases in the first few months of 2024 threatens the U.S. elimination status. And that's a situation we haven't faced since 2019 when prolonged outbreaks posed a similar problem.

Unger: Well, Andrea, where exactly do we stand in terms of cases?

Garcia: Well, Todd, on Thursday, we saw the CDC release an analysis of measles activity. And that was from January 1 of 2020 to March 28 of 2024. That said that cases in that first quarter of 2024 have risen 17-fold compared to that mean first quarter average that we've seen from 2020 to 2023. As of the March 28 data cutoff for that analysis, we had seen 97 cases of measles reported to the CDC, and then as of April 11, we have a total of 121 measles cases reported by 18 jurisdictions. So that number is definitely continuing to increase.

Of those 121 cases, 86 were linked to seven outbreaks, including a large one here in Chicago where most of those 61 cases that have been identified have been linked to that outbreak at a migrant shelter. If we look at the measles cases this year, though, 47% have occurred in children younger than five. Young children also had that highest level of hospitalization, at about 65%. And of people infected, 82% were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.

Of the 20 outbreaks, which we know involves three or more cases that we've seen since 2020, so far seven of those have occurred in 2024. And for further context, in all of 2023, we had 58 cases. And we are only in April. So maintaining that measles elimination status, which we know helps reduce cases, deaths and costs, means that no outbreaks have persisted for 12 months or more in a setting where we know the surveillance system is working well.

Unger: So tell us a little bit more about this status. What do we need to do to help maintain the status?

Garcia: Well, CDC has said that really comes down to increasing MMR vaccination coverage, especially in those close-knit and under-vaccinated communities. And as a reminder, that vaccine is incredibly safe and effective. We know that two shots are about 97% effective at preventing measles. I think the other steps include encouraging vaccination before international travel and then rapidly investigating those suspected measles cases.

Most measles cases are still imported. However, of those, 61% in U.S. residents who were eligible for vaccination but were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status. So the CDC is also reportedly seeing a shift this year in overseas regions where people were likely exposed.

So during that study period that we talked about earlier, the two most common WHR regions where we saw cases were from the Eastern Mediterranean or the Middle East and Africa, but six of the 2024 cases were reported to have originated in European and Southeast Asian regions. So that's a 50% increase from earlier in the study period.

So according to the CDC, along with under-vaccination here in the U.S. population, there's a global gap in measles vaccination that is also fueling this rise in cases. And if we look at those numbers more closely, first dose coverage declined from 86% in 2019 to 83% in 2022, leaving nearly 22 million children younger than one vulnerable to the virus.

Unger: Andrea, besides this huge, as you point out, global vaccination gap, is there anything else that is kind of fueling this now? Why is it happening?

Garcia: Well, in the U.S., some of it is driven, of course, by misinformation, which is causing parents to seek vaccine exemptions. Every year, that number of kids in kindergarten with measles vaccination is going down.

Years ago, a fraudulent study claimed there was a link between the vaccine and autism. Of course, that study was later debunked. And other studies have searched for a connection but failed to find one. So to be very clear, there's no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. So here's where physicians and particularly pediatricians can play an important role in curbing that spread of misinformation by talking to parents, being very clear about the evidence and the very real dangers and potential long-term effects of measles.

According to the CDC, in the decades before the measles vaccine was available, 48,000 people were hospitalized per year. One thousand people developed dangerous brain inflammation, and 400 to 500 people died.

Unger: So big risks there, and we need to close that gap. The evidence is really clear and getting those vaccinations, if you haven't already, so critical. Andrea, we haven't talked about RSV, COVID, and the flu and the array of other viruses for a while. The weather does seem, of course, to be getting nicer, thank goodness, it is here in Chicago, and we're now well into spring. Are we kind of out of the woods with viruses for the moment?

Garcia: Well, it appears so. And according to a recent report in the Associated Press, which was sharing CDC data, the 2023, '24 respiratory virus season is slowing for all three viruses. Overall, respiratory illness activity is currently the highest in the central U.S. North Dakota is the only state that is experiencing high activity levels at the moment.

The CDC gauges this activity by tracking doctor visits that involve a patient showing flu-like symptoms. And for that week of April 5, those made up only about 2.76% of all visits. The other metric, as you know, we look at is the test positivity rate for each virus, which can help inform which viruses are the most prevalent. While results are delayed for the CDC data set, flu has had the highest test positivity rate since mid-December.

Hospitalizations, of course, give us that idea of severity associated with each virus. COVID is hospitalizing people at a rate of 2.21 per 100,000. That's the highest rate among the three viruses. However, hospitalization rates for all three viruses are declining. I think the key takeaway from all of this as well, activity levels are still elevated. We're seeing decreasing trends across each of these metrics, which do suggest that the season is waning.

Unger: All right. Well, why don't we finish up then with that piece of good news. Andrea, thanks so much for being here and keeping us informed. To all the folks out there listening, if you found this discussion valuable, you can support more programming like it by becoming an AMA member at ama-assn.org/join.

We'll be back soon with another AMA Update. In the meantime, you can find all our videos and podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts. Thanks for joining us today and please take care.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.

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What illnesses are going around? RSV, COVID-19, influenza, measles outbreak, plus avian flu news - American Medical Association

School students without wearing masks walk past a COVID-19 mural at Korukkupet in Chennai.

When the COVID-19 pandemic set out on a worldwide rampage in late 2019, it did not care for who it affected. However, even through its apparent indiscriminate spread, the virus displayed clear favourites for torture candidates: the elderly.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that over 80% of the total COVID-19-related between 2020 and 2021 occurred in senile populations aged 60 years or older. Since then, a flurry of studies have consistently shown that people above 65 are at higher risk of developing serious symptoms of the viral infection and now we might finally know why.

To understand how the coronavirus plans its assault on our bodies, a study delved into the part of our bodies that encounters the virus first: our noses. More specifically, researchers wanted to examine how our nasal cells respond to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which they hoped could offer crucial insights into potential treatment strategies tailored to different age groups.

The research focused on the early effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on human nasal epithelial cells (NECs). We have an abundance of epithelial cells covering the inside and outside of our bodies, which are instrumental in carrying out key bodily functions and protecting us. The team cultured NECs to mimic the cellular environment of the nasal cavity and infected them with SARS-CoV-2.

By analysing cells donated by participants spanning various age groups, including children (0-11 years), adults (30-50 years), and the elderly (over 70 years), the study discovered that there were distinct age-related responses to the coronavirus. The team found that children's NECs responded swiftly to SARS-CoV-2 by ramping up the production of interferons, key components of the body's antiviral defence system, which effectively restricted viral replication.

In contrast, NECs from elderly individuals exhibited increased viral replication, accompanied by heightened cell shedding and damage. This could be why the elderly are at greater risk of severe COVID-19 than other groups, even with the advent of vaccinations.

Our research reveals how the type of cells we have in our nose changes with age, and how this affects our ability to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection, explains lead author Claire Smith. This could be crucial in developing effective anti-viral treatments tailored to different age groups, especially for the elderly who are at higher risk of severe COVID-19.

By properly understanding the age-specific differences in nasal cell response to SARS-CoV-2, researchers can develop targeted antiviral therapies that enhance interferon production in older adults. This could potentially mitigate the severity of COVID-19 and reduce mortality rates in this demographic.

Moreover, the study underscores the importance of considering age as a critical factor in research and treatment strategies for infectious diseases. Beyond COVID-19, future research should explore how aging impacts the body's response to other viral infections, informing preventive measures and therapeutic interventions across diverse age groups.

The findings of this research have been published in Nature Microbiology and can be accessed here.

**

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Why Do Children Handle COVID-19 Better Than Old People? The Answer May Lie in Their Noses | Weather.com - The Weather Channel

This year is not yet one-third over, yet measles cases in the United States areon track to be the worstsince a massive outbreak in 2019. At the same time, anti-vaccine activists are recklessly sowing doubts and encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Parents who leave their children unvaccinated are risking not only their health but also the well-being of those around them.

Measles isone of the most contagioushuman viruses more so than thecoronavirus and is spread through direct or airborne contact when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The virus can hang in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left an area. It can cause serious complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis and death, especially in unvaccinated people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,one person infected with measles can infect 9 out of 10 unvaccinated individualswith whom they come in close contact.

But measles can be prevented with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Two doses are 97% effective. When 95% or more of a community is vaccinated, herd immunity protects the whole. Unfortunately, vaccination rates are falling. Theglobal vaccine coverage rateof the first dose, at 83%, and second dose, at 74%, are well under the 95% level.Vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartnershas slipped from 95.2% during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1% in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the CDC, leaving about 250,000 kindergartners at risk each year over the past three years.

The virus is slipping through the gaps. According to the World Health Organization, in 2022,37 countries experienced large or disruptive measles outbreakscompared with 22 countries in 2021. In the United States, there have beenseven outbreaks so far this year, with 121 cases in 18 jurisdictions. Most are children. Many of the outbreaks in the United States appear to have been triggered byinternational travelor contact with a traveler. Disturbingly, 82% of those infectedwere unvaccinatedor their status unknown. ...

The largest toll has been in Illinois, followed by Florida. But when an outbreak hit the Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County in early March, Floridas top public health official, state Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo,did not follow the standard recommendationthat parents of unvaccinated children keep them home for 21 days to avoid getting the disease. Instead,Dr. Ladapo said, Florida would be deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance. This means allowing children without protection to go to school. Dr. Ladapos letter was an unnecessarily reckless act of pandering to an anti-vaccine movement with increasing political influence.

Vaccine hesitancy is being encouraged by activists who warn of government coercion, using social media to amplify irresponsible claims. An article published March 20 on the website of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s Childrens Health Defense organization is headlined,Be Very Afraid? CDC, Big Media Drum Up Fear of Deadly Measles Outbreaks.The author, Alan Cassels, claims that the news media is advancing a a fear-mongering narrative, and adds, Those of us born before 1970 with personal experience pretty much all agree that measles is a big meh. We all had it ourselves and so did our brothers, sisters and school friends. We also had chicken pox and mumps and typically got a few days off school. The only side effect of those diseases was that my mom sighed heavily and called work to say she had to stay home to look after a kid with spots.

Today, he adds, Big media and government overhyping the nature of an illness, which history has shown us can be a precursor to some very bad public health policies such as mandatory vaccination programs and other coercive measures.

This is just wrong. TheCDC reportsthat, in the decade before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, the disease killed 400 to 500 people, hospitalized 48,000 and gave 1,000 people encephalitis in the United States every year and that was just among reported cases. The elimination of measles in the United States in 2000, driven by a safe and effective vaccine, was a major public health success. Though the elimination status still holds,the U.S. situation has deteriorated.The nation has been below 95% dose coverage for three consecutive years, and 12 states are below 90%. At the same time, the rest of the world must also strive to boostchildhood vaccination rates, which slid backward during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the WHO, low-income countries with the highest risk of death from measles continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, only 66%.

The battle against measles requires a big not a meh effort.

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Measles more contagious than the coronavirus. And it's back - Globe Gazette

Overview

SARS-CoV-2 PCR percent positivity, as detected in integrated sentinel surveillance as part of the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) and reported to FluNet was around 8.0% from 69 countries during the week ending 31 March 2024.

Globally, JN.1 was the most reported variant of interest (VOI, now reported by 121 countries), accounting for 95.1.8% of sequences in week 13 compared to 93.0% in week 10. Its parent lineage, BA.2.86, has been declining and accounted for 1.6% of sequences in week 13 compared to 3.0% in week 10. Three variants under monitoring (VUMs): XBB, XBB.1.9.1, and XBB.2.3 have been de-escalated after having a prevalence of less than 1% for more than eight epidemiological weeks globally and across the WHO regions.

Globally, the number of new cases decreased by 11% during the past 28-day period of 4-31 March 2024 compared to the previous 28-day period (5 February to 3 March 2024), with over two hundred and seven-five thousand new cases reported. The number of new deaths decreased by 41% as compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 4200 new fatalities reported. As of 31 March 2024, over 774 million confirmed cases and more than seven million deaths have been reported globally.

During the period from 4-31 March 2024, COVID-19 new hospitalizations and admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU) both recorded an overall decrease of 45% and 50% with over 49 000 and more than 1200 admissions, respectively.

In this edition, we include:

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COVID-19 epidemiological update 12 April 2024 - World Health Organization (WHO)