Category: Corona Virus

(The Hill) A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study has found that mRNA vaccines for the COVID-19 virus are not linked to cardiac death in younger adults.

The study was conducted using Oregon death certificate data for people aged 16 to 30 who died from a heart condition between June 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022. The study was done after cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

Of the 40 people who died who had a COVID vaccine dose, three died within 100 days of receiving their vaccination. Two were because the person had an underlying illness and one had an undetermined cause of death, the CDC said.

The data do not support an association of COVID-19 vaccination with sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons, the CDC said.

While the risk of dying due to myocarditis was higher for younger people during 2021, the CDC found that it remained an infrequent cause of death among the age group.

During the same time period, 30 Oregon residents in the same age group died from COVID and only three of the people who died had received any sort of COVID vaccine.

The CDC said the report cant exclude vaccine-related cardiac deaths after the 100-day mark, but published data indicate that potential adverse effects associated with vaccinations tend to occur within 42 days of vaccine receipt.

The study also noted that the small population size made it less likely to see a rare event such as sudden cardiac death among the age group.

The CDC maintains that a COVID vaccination is recommended for all people 6 months and older to prevent infection, complications and death.

View post:

COVID vaccines not linked to cardiac death in young people: CDC study - WGN TV Chicago

Health authorities continue to monitor a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which has infected at least 9 people in South Africa since first being identified last year.

The new covid strains have recently been detected in wastewater in Asia.

Professor Adrian Esterman, Chair of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of South Australia says the US Centre for Disease Control and its European equivalent are now monitoring the BA.2.87.1 subvariant, which has 30 changes in its spike protein, compared to its lineage strain.

This has, so far, been detected in South Africa and Southeast Asia. Although it appears to only have slow growth, that was also true of BA.2.86.1 which then mutated into JN.1, Esterman says.

Although Australia is in its best position with respect to COVID-19 for some time, we should not get complacent. Last month there were over 250 active COVID-19 outbreaks in residential aged care homes, and only 36% of Australians aged 75 and over have had a booster shot within the last six months.

We see very little messaging from any of our governments encouraging elderly people to get vaccinated. This is not good enough. We should at the very least still be doing all we can to protect our vulnerable population.

Esterman says Australia is in a trough after the wave caused by the subvariant JN.1 at the end of last year. However, that trough is still at a fairly high level, with over 22,000 confirmed cases so far in March, and presumably many times that number of actual cases, he says.

The subvariant JN.1 and its descendants now account for pretty much all infections in Australia.

Original post:

Aust in best position as authorities monitor new COVID strains - Cosmos

From spring break parties to Mardi Gras, many people remember the last major normal thing they did before the novel coronavirus pandemic dawned, forcing governments worldwide to issue stay-at-home advisories and shutdowns.

Even before the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S., fears and uncertainties helped spur misinformations rapid spread. In March 2020, schools closed, employers sent staff to work from home, and grocery stores called for physical distancing to keep people safe. But little halted the flow of misleading claims that sent fact-checkers and public health officials into overdrive.

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View original post here:

Four years after shelter-in-place, COVID-19 misinformation persists - The Daily News Online

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has largely dissipated, the viruss impact has lingered for many Mississippians.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than20%of Mississippis adults have experienced a phenomenon known as long COVID. The Magnolia State has the7th highestshare of its adult population overall that has ever experienced long COVID nationally. Roughly39%of Mississippi adults who have had COVID-19 have had long COVID, the 4th highest rate in the U.S.

Thepatient-created termbroadly defines signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Long COVID is not one condition. Instead, it represents many potentially overlapping conditions. Those conditions are ongoing for many Mississippians. More than 5% of Mississippi adults overall, roughly 10% of those who have ever had COVID-19, are currently dealing with long COVID.

U.S. Census Bureau data indicates differences in who has experienced long COVID based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, age and sex. Among all adults nationally,

The statistics cited represent data available as of March 4, 2024.

The rest is here:

CDC: 20% of Mississippians have dealt with long COVID - WJTV

Healthcare at Foster Creek quickly became the state's largest outbreak site, where 30 residents died from COVID-19 before the state shut it down.

PORTLAND, Ore. Four years later, 13 people who lost loved ones to COVID-19 at a Portland nursing home have reached a settlement with the company that owned it.

In just the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Healthcare at Foster Creek quickly became the state's largest outbreak site. Thirty residents died from COVID-19, and nearly 120 were infected before the state shut down the facility on May 4, 2020.

The plaintiffs sought$1.8 million in damages.

Bonnie Richardson, an attorney for the families that sued, said that the care home, in addition to operating on a for-profit basis, was chronically understaffed and did not have proper infection protocols.

"They treated a lot of these residents as if they were just going to die anyway," she said. "So, in that way, it was, in my opinion, a very poor negligent treatment of all of these individuals and led to a massive disaster."

Richardson said that family members could not visit with their loved ones, so they knew "very little that was going on," even when the state shut down the facility.

"There were no records, nothing," she said. "All of these 13 brave families that came forward ... what they were doing was wanting to make sure that the people were held accountable and to find out what happened to their loved ones when they died."

The details of the settlement are confidential, so the amount of money is unknown, but attorneys for the plaintiffs said they hoped the settlement gives the families closure after years of legal battles.

Read the original here:

Portland nursing home lawsuit over COVID-19 deaths settled - KGW.com

COVID-19 with water drops.

Image Credits: Unsplash

In the US, the increase in homelessness, influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, poses public health challenges. Research indicates that environmental surveillance of flood control areas can reveal infectious disease prevalence among the homeless, often overlooked in clinical data. This approach provides insights into health trends and emphasizes the importance of public health interventions for marginalized communities.

This approach reflected the variant compositions found in municipal wastewater, and clinical specimens revealed previously unreported mutations, underscoring its potential for enhancing understanding of viral evolution and public health monitoring among underrepresented populations. Researchers focused on analyzing environmental water samples from flood control channels known to be inhabited by unsheltered individuals. Their findings reveal a closer look into the spread and variants of SARS-CoV-2 within these marginalized populations, often missed in traditional clinical data.

The variant compositions in the samples were similar to those in municipal wastewater samples and clinical specimens from the same geographic area and period," according to investigators. "In January 2022, a year after the peak of Alpha variant infections, 10 of the 22 mutations characteristic of the Alpha variant were detected in the environmental water samples. Additionally, mutations in the spike gene, not previously documented in reports, were identified.

This study emphasizes the potential of environmental surveillance in understanding public health dynamics among unsheltered populations. Using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and whole genome sequencing, researchers could identify specific SARS-CoV-2 lineages and mutations within the virus's spike gene, which was previously undocumented.

Tests were conducted for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA within 2 flood control channels frequented by unsheltered individuals residing in upstream tunnels," explains investigators. "Environmental water samples from these channels were analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction during periods that coincided with notable COVID-19 outbreaks in the surrounding community.

High SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in these environments, especially during peak periods of the Omicron surge, align with confirmed case counts from clinical surveillance, indicating that even minimal direct human contributions can significantly impact environmental viral loads.

This approach to public health surveillance presents a case for the importance of inclusive public health interventions. By considering the environmental factors and the unique challenges marginalized communities face, public health officials can better strategize interventions to prevent the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19.

Reference

Harrington A, Vo V, Chang C, et. al. Environmental Surveillance of Flood Control Infrastructure Impacted by Unsheltered Individuals Leads to the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Novel Mutations in the Spike Gene. Published April 3, 2024. Accessed April 10, 2024. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00938

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Environmental Surveillance Sheds Light on COVID-19 Among Homeless Populations - Contagionlive.com

The pandemic has claimed over seven million lives officially, but the actual death toll is believed to be much higher. Among COVID-19 survivors, a significant number develop long-term health problems. The World Health Organization uses the term Long COVID for individuals experiencing such symptoms for over three months without another explanation.

Unfortunately, measuring chronic illness and disability resulting from COVID-19 has been challenging due to various factors. While binary outcomes like deaths and ICU admissions are easily counted, tracking slow-onset health issues is more difficult. This is further complicated by the fact that new health problems can arise even without SARS-CoV-2 infection. Consequently, studies utilising different methodologies have reported a wide range of Long COVID incidence rates. A recent study inJAMA Network Openhas aimed to address this issue by comparing people who had COVID-19 with those who did not.

The researchers utilised the U.S. blood donor data from 2,38,828 individuals, leveraging antibody test results from the pre-Omicron era to identify individuals who had COVID-19. Specifically, they looked for the presence of anti-nucleocapsid (anti-N) antibodies, which indicates past natural infection. The advantage is that it also identifies people who had asymptomatic infection and those who were infected but did not get tested. The two COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. do not elicit the anti-N antibody, thus distinguishing natural infection from COVID-19 vaccination.

Participants were categorised into those who tested positive for the anti-N antibody and those who did not. A diagnosis of COVID-19 by a healthcare professional or a positive COVID-19 test were also accepted as evidence of infection. Essentially, the researchers were able to distinguish individuals who genuinely had COVID-19 from those who did not, using robust parameters. This differs from other studies that may have relied on self-reported COVID-19 diagnoses, which tend to be less reliable. Having a dependable control group for comparison is crucial for accurately estimating the impact of the pandemic.

The researchers discovered that 43.3% of individuals with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections experienced new symptoms lasting four weeks or longer, after recovering from COVID. Among those without infection, 22.1% reported new-onset symptoms, as might be expected in the general population. This indicated that 21.2%, or the difference between 43.3% and 22.1%, had long-term health problems genuinely resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among them, 84.5% were still experiencing symptoms, while 15.5% said that their symptoms had resolved. Long-term physical symptoms were less common following mild or asymptomatic infection.

Neurological symptoms were reported by 23.6%, while 23.1% experienced other problems such as changes in taste or smell, and 15.8% had cardiac or respiratory symptoms. The two most common individual long-term symptoms were difficulty thinking or concentrating (12.7%) and fatigue (11.1%).

Surprisingly, the picture of mental health was different. Among those without infection, as many as 9.8% developed mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. The incidence was only slightly higher at 11.9% among those with prior infection. This is attributed to loneliness, fear of infection or death of oneself or loved ones, bereavement and financial worries that affected people regardless of their infection status. The World Health Organization (WHO) had noted a 25% increase in anxiety and depression in 2022 due to these factors. Therefore, a key takeaway from the study is that a pandemic impacts the mental well-being of the entire population - not just those who got COVID.

Among those who had prior infection in the study, one out of six people (16.5%) said that their current physical health was worse than before the pandemic. For those without prior infection, the corresponding percentage was 10.9%.

Although symptoms lasting over a year are common, the study also reveals that Long COVID resolves in a significant number of cases. Accordingly, household pulse surveys in the U.S. indicate that the percentage of people currently experiencing Long COVID has remained steady, with 10% of adults with prior COVID-19 (equivalent to 7% of all adults) still affected by it.

Studies from India show that Long COVID is less common following Omicron infection compared to previous variants. A study from AIIMS Bhubaneswarfound that 8.2% of individuals developed long-term symptoms following Omicron infection, compared to 29.2% with the Delta variant. They found that the risk of Long COVID is heightened with repeated infections.

A limitation of the current study is that it did not measure antibodies at subsequent time points, potentially missing individuals who were infected afterward. They could have incorrectly classified people as uninfected controls. The study also excluded people who were not healthy enough to donate blood, focusing on those with relatively mild outcomes.

(RajeevJayadevanisco-chairmanof the National IMA COVID task Force)

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Blood bank study reveals true incidence of Long COVID - The Hindu

Australia remains yet to record zero weekly deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, despite federal health data yesterday showing the milestone had been reached.

The Department of Health and Aged Care's rolling seven-day average at one point showed the number of deaths fell to zero briefly in March, however it has since been confirmed there were fatalities linked to the virus that week.

Hospital admissions are also at their lowest since January 2022.

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While hailed as a "milestone", some experts were sceptical about the data from the outset.

"While this is encouraging data, it's almost certainly not correct that there were zero COVID deaths in that week," infectious disease modeller Associate Professor James Wood, from the University of New South Wales, said.

"Instead, our near real-time reporting system for reporting of deaths has mostly wound down and we now need to rely on the slower ABS reporting which tends to occur at about a two-month delay."

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Karen Cutter, the chair of the Actuaries Institute's Mortality Working Group, agreed that the error was due to delays in how the data is collected and processed.

"The graph on the federal health website showing COVID-19-associated deaths is based on date of death, but there are delays between when a death occurs and when it is reported," she said.

"So for the most recent month shown, the number of deaths is vastly understated as not all deaths have been reported.

"This is particularly the case for the most recent week, where it is almost impossible for a death to happen and for it to be captured in the federal database.

"As such, to state that there have been no COVID-19 deaths in the last week based on this graph is simply not true."

The latest COVID-19 strain spreading across the world

Wood estimated COVID-19 infections are still high, previously saying 20 to 25 per cent of Australians had caught the virus in the most recent wave.

"Clearly, we are in a trough after the wave caused by the subvariant JN.1 at the end of last year," University of South Australia chair of biostatistics Professor Adrian Esterman said.

"However, that trough is still at a fairly high level, with over 22,000 confirmed cases so far in March, and presumably many times that number of actual cases."

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Esterman said Australia may be in its best position since the beginning of the pandemic, but warned against complacency.

"Last month there were over 250 active COVID-19 outbreaks in residential aged care homes, and only 36 per cent of Australians aged 75 and over have had a booster shot within the last six months," he said.

"We see very little messaging from any of our governments encouraging elderly people to get vaccinated. This is not good enough. We should at the very least still be doing all we can to protect our vulnerable population."

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Australian weekly COVID-19 deaths haven't actually dropped to zero for first time since pandemic - 9News

The intense reaction of one of the lungs guardians against infection may help explain why COVID-19 can become severe.

The guardians, immune cells called interstitial macrophages, patrol lung tissue. These cells can be infected in a big way by SARS-CoV-2, researchers report online April 10 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Overwhelmed by the virus onslaught, the cells extreme inflammatory response may contribute to the development of pneumonia, a disease that damages the lungs and makes breathing difficult.

There is this gap in our knowledge of how human lung tissue really responds in the earliest phases of a SARS-CoV-2 infection, says Jos OrdovsMontas, an immunologist at Boston Childrens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the research. The new work has put a spotlight on interstitial macrophages role, he says. I think this is an interesting piece of the puzzle.

A bout of COVID-19 can begin after someone breathes in the coronavirus, which launched by a sneeze or a cough spreads through the air (SN: 12/16/21). Evidence suggests the virus first infects cells that line the nasal cavity or the throat, and then the immune system response kicks in. From that point, many people clear the infection, says Catherine Blish, a viral immunologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. But some dont, and the virus can spread into the airways of the lungs and infect cells lining the air sacs, the structures where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged.

Blish and her colleagues wanted to investigate the next steps of a coronavirus infection in the lungs and what might drive the progression to pneumonia. The team worked with thin slices of human lung tissue, procured from organ donations or surgeries in which some of the tissue needed to be removed. The researchers exposed the tissue to SARS-CoV-2 to see which cells became infected. It was really no contest, Blish says. The vast majority were macrophages, immune cells that take up viruses and other pathogens and eat them in order to present the parts to other immune cells. This helps activate the bodys immune response.

Specifically, there were two types of macrophages: Those that reside in the lung tissue, called interstitial, and those associated with the air sacs. The researchers took purified macrophages of each type and put them in a dish with SARS-CoV-2 for additional experiments to show that the cells were being infected, not just gobbling up virus. The team also probed the immune response of the two populations of macrophages. Those that reside in the lungs air sacs werent as dominated by the virus and produced a proportionate inflammatory response.

But the coronavirus was able to take over the cellular machinery of the interstitial macrophages. The team found that in response, these macrophages ramped up their production of proteins that target viruses and call in other immune cells. The cells are sending massive alarm signals Theres an invader, danger, danger, Blish says.

In the body, this kind of immune response can lead to a huge influx of cells and inflammatory proteins into the lungs air space, Blish says. That can compromise the air sacs ability to function and help set the stage for pneumonia.

Blish and colleagues also found that SARS-CoV-2 enters the interstitial macrophages through a different receptor than the very well-known entry point for other cells, ACE2. This may help explain why treatments that target ACE2 havent worked well for severe pneumonia, Blish says.

Experiments with lung slices cant exactly replicate whats going on in the body. The study doesnt answer how the virus would get into the lung tissue and gain access to the interstitial macrophages, Blish says.

Its a sensible model to put forward, OrdovsMontas says. But with the lung slices, you give equal chance to any cell that was either on the outside part or on the inside part of the lung to become infected. It may be helpful to complement this research with studies in animal models in which the lungs physiology is intact, he says, although those types of studies also dont exactly translate to whats happening in people. Each model is going to give you a slightly skewed view of reality.

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Immune cells' intense reaction to the coronavirus may lead to pneumonia - Science News Magazine

In 2023, US Senator Rand Paul's (from Kentucky) book, Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up, blew up the covers of public health bureaucracy. His well-documented coverage blew the lid off Anthony Fauci, the former Chief Medical Advisor of the President of the United States, and his scientific yes-men who knew about Covid's supposed true origins from day one.

Paul's book presented evidence that The Covid virus was likely the product of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab in Chinaresearch funded in part by the U.S. government.

On April 9, he again took back the reins in his hands to further expose bombshells about federal employees covering up alleged hard facts about COVID-19's reality. His recent discoveries caught government officials from 15 federal agencies possessing knowledge of how the coronavirus was basically manufactured in 2018.

Penning his findings on the Fox News website, Paul claimed these officials were well aware that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was attempting to create a virus like COVID-19. Despite the hefty knowledge in their corner, they failed to expose the scheme to the public and chose to maintain their forthcoming stance. Moreover, 15 organisations similarly turned away from publicly releasing the details of the hazardous research.

The US senator reported that at least 15 federal agencies had knowledge of the project introduced by Peter Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These findings imply that all these agencies were privy to the EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology's need for federal funding in 2018.

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Known as the DEFUSE project, its plans intended to insert a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus to create a novel chimeric virus that would have been shockingly similar to the COVID-19 virus.

US-based research organisation EcoHealth Alliance's President, Peter Daszak, and Ralph Baric, the University of North Carolina scientist, concealed all facts related to the issue that could've possibly birthed the coronavirus, an alleged man-made virus.

Dr Anthony Fauci was previously also mentioned in the senator's book. His latest report again brings him up, claiming that his National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) wasn't merely briefed on the matter, but also engaged in the initial DEFUSE project pitch. Additionally, Fauci's Rocky Mountain Lab was also associated as a partner of the Wuhan Institute of Virology for the same proposal.

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The newly discovered documents also out researcher Ian Lipkin, whose lab has been funded (worth millions of dollars) by EcoHealth, as one of the original participants of the project.

In his Fox News piece, Paul declared that despite all these agencies and their top-notch officials staying tight-lipped, Marine Lt. Col. Joseph Murphy came forward as the whistleblower, revealing the truth.

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'The Great Covid Cover-Up': Senator Rand Paul blows the lid off major federal agencies concealing facts - Hindustan Times