Category: Corona Virus

Exactly four years ago today the UK's first coronavirus cases were confirmed.

On 31 January 2020, Public Health England said a University of York student from China had tested positive for COVID-19, along with his mother.

Almost two months later, the UK locked down and it was another two years until the final legal restrictions were removed - with some arguing this happened prematurely.

Now in 2024, the virus is still affecting people in ways scientists are only just beginning to fully understand - and affecting the NHS. So how prevalent is COVID today and what have we learned?

How widespread are COVID infections now?

Unsurprisingly, COVID cases are much lower than they have been at various peaks over the past four years.

But the latest data, which covers up to 10 January, estimates that 2.3% of the population of England and Scotland had COVID in the community - the equivalent of around 1.2 million people.

As people no longer report their test results, the most reliable recent estimates on COVID prevalence come from the winter infection survey, carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK Health Security Agency.

It is smaller than the original, regular ONS infection study that was discontinued in March 2023, and it doesn't cover Wales or Northern Ireland.

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Although the winter infection study uses lateral flow not PCR tests, the results are broadly comparable.

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It shows that following the spread of the JN.1 variant, which is a sub-lineage of the BA.2.86 version of Omicron, the virus last peaked before Christmas, with highs of 4.4% between 19 and 23 December - roughly one in 23 people.

Similarly to the height of the pandemic, the peak was felt most strongly in London, with 5.5% of the capital believed to have COVID by 19 December. The lowest peak was in the North East, with 3.2% of the region thought to have had the virus by 12 December.

Will we see more waves of cases?

The recent COVID peaks are only around half what they were in spring 2022, when 7.6% of England were estimated to have the virus and 9% of Scotland.

Stephen Griffin, professor of virology at the University of Leeds, warns that although the peaks look less dramatic, repeated waves mean they add up to a very high number of cases.

"We're still seeing multiple waves of COVID every year because the virus is still evolving at an incredible rate," he says.

The government often cites the initial vaccine rollout as the biggest success of its COVID response.

After they were offered to everybody aged 12 and over, 85% had two doses of a vaccine by mid-2022. But additional booster jabs are now only offered to the over-65s.

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And with new variants constantly emerging and most people's vaccine protection waning, Prof Griffin says the UK is "not suppressing prevalence", which means "we'll continue to see those waves".

How many people have to go to hospital for COVID now?

The pre-Christmas peak in cases didn't result in as large numbers needing hospital treatment compared with the early days of the pandemic.

Professor Oliver Johnson, professor of information theory at the University of Bristol, says while there have been "many infections" recently, "they are much less severe on average since before we had vaccines".

Fewer than 5,000 people with COVID have needed hospital treatment in England every week since early 2023. That number peaked at more than 25,000 in a single week in January 2021.

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What impact has the anti-vax movement had?

Far fewer people are dying with COVID than before vaccines were offered to all over-18s in June 2021.

Despite the pandemic sparking a resurgence in the "anti-vax" movement, Greg Fell, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, says the overwhelming positive impact of vaccines on COVID mortality has undoubtedly been "good PR" for them.

"Anti-vax sentiment clearly got highlighted during COVID - but I think most people know that those vaccines really work and that in a world without them, it would be Christmas 2021 again."

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Asked whether the recent drop in MMR vaccines and the measles outbreak in the West Midlands are solely the result of anti-vax groups, he admits there has been "some outright anti-vax sentiment" around MMR that has had an impact, particularly on social media.

But he stresses that addressing "missed opportunities" to use community leaders to engage with disenfranchised groups is just as important in reversing the problem.

Prof Griffin says the delayed decision to vaccinate five to 11-year-olds in 2022 was bad for jab rates, alongside the then-health secretary Sajid Javid's description of the programme as "non-urgent". Data shows only around 10% of under-12s had a single dose.

"The dithering and indecision around the benefits for vaccinating children was pretty damaging in the sense that if you look at uptake in younger groups, it's appalling," Prof Griffin adds.

Primary courses of the vaccine are also no longer universally available for all age groups, aside from the clinically vulnerable and people who live with them.

"So children turning five after September 2022 have to wait until they're in their 60s to have a vaccine, unless they become clinically vulnerable," Prof Griffin says.

"The idea that repeated infections are a preferable means of generating population immunity to vaccines, especially in children, is a dangerous nonsense."

Concerns over 'silent organ damage' from COVID

Long COVID is defined by symptoms that persist for three months or more with no other explicable cause. Almost two million people in the UK had the condition at the time of the latest ONS survey in March 2023.

Studies have put the extra cost to UK GP and other primary care services at an estimated 23m a year - with annual losses to the workforce and greater economic cost thought to be as much as 1.5bn.

A Canadian study suggested that for people infected three times or more, long COVID rates were around 38%.

Dr Rae Duncan, a consultant cardiologist and long COVID research clinician at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, warns that studies are beginning to suggest serious complications from COVID that could lie dormant for years.

"COVID is a spectrum and long COVID is only one end of that," Dr Duncan says.

"It's never been just a cold. The more times you're infected, the higher your cardiovascular risk, neurological, and endocrine risk. These can all result in life-altering conditions.

"Some may have underlying silent organ damage, which is asymptomatic, meaning people are not aware of it. It needs more research but it's very concerning."

Read more: How long COVID ruined my life Hundreds of long COVID doctors suing NHS

A UK biobank study found increased risk of cardiovascular death up to a year-and-a-half after getting COVID in unvaccinated people. Others, including data pooled by scientists in Taiwan, show far greater COVID mortality in people with Alzheimer's disease.

One piece of research suggested babies born to COVID-positive, unvaccinated mothers had a 20.3% risk of neurodevelopmental delay by age, compared to 5.9% of babies whose mothers did not catch COVID while pregnant.

Given emerging research the virus may carry cardiovascular risks for children, citing NHS guidance that children can go back to school three days after getting COVID, Dr Duncan adds: "We have published data showing it takes around seven days for 75% of children, and 10 days for 90% of children to become non-infectious.

"So we have largely chosen to ignore the impact of COVID on our kids and I think that's a really bad decision."

How many people are dying with COVID?

Last year excess deaths (how many more deaths occur than are expected) were still higher than the five-year average, but down on 2022 - from more than 30,000 in 2022 to nearly 27,000 in 2023.

COVID-related deaths almost halved from 32,300 in 2022 to 16,600 in 2023. But they still made up almost two-thirds (62%) of excess deaths last year.

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Many argue that NHS backlogs are contributing to excess death numbers, and pressures are evident across all areas of services.

According to the latest data from November, 6.4 million patients were on the waiting list for treatment in England, 42% of whom were still waiting beyond the 18-week target.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine attributed more than 23,000 excess deaths in England in 2022 to long waits in emergency departments - where the latest figures show nearly half (46%) are still waiting far longer than the four-hour target to be seen.

Prof Griffin says: "Excess mortality has got less attributable to COVID, but it's still a problem.

"COVID did have a huge impact on NHS capacity to deal with the backlog, but we haven't had those widespread restrictions for several years now, yet the NHS has been unable to catch up again and the year-long added pressure from COVID hospitalisations remains."

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Prof Griffin says that as the years go by, one would expect COVID-related deaths to creep down, but not enough is being done to prevent COVID fatalities.

He adds: "We try and bring down excess deaths from non-communicable diseases like cancer and obesity, but we don't seem to do it very well for infectious disease, even though that's something we can do a lot more about."

Dr Duncan says that we "urgently need multi-layered public health protections", including seasonal vaccines and ventilation systems for cleaner indoor air to "stop people continuously re-infected with constantly evolving new variants".

She adds that "already licenced medications" could help people with long-term COVID complications but the government needs to fund them.

What has COVID taught us?

Mr Fell says that as a nation we went into the pandemic in a poor state of health, with "deep inequalities" between ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

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"The pandemic reminded us that inequalities in health outcomes are very real and matter enormously," he says.

"There was more infection in some populations because of underlying health differences, but also things like occupational exposure and overcrowded housing in terms of chains of transmission."

In those aged 65 and over, Alzheimer's disease was the most common pre-existing health condition in people who died with COVID. Diabetes was the most common for those under 65.

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Although COVID is still a factor driving excess deaths, Mr Fell highlights the mortality rate for age-old public health concerns like smoking, which according to the NHS, causes around 76,000 deaths a year in the UK.

"We still have all the other pandemics of death and illness day in day, out," he adds. "We need to put as much effort into some of those things as we did in how we responded to COVID."

From improved ventilation in schools and hospitals to investment in more antiviral drugs and vaccines, Prof Griffin adds: "If you think about the trillions of pounds that have been destroyed by COVID globally, surely the investment of however many million is worthwhile for this and future pandemics."

Government guidance states that, based on evidence, the vaccine programme changed in 2023 to target higher-risk groups, and that vaccinating children outside of those groups is not recommended.

It also says that data at the end of 2022 suggested almost all older children and adults had coronavirus antibodies from either vaccines or infection.

Sky News has contacted the Department of Health and NHS England for comment.

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'The virus is still evolving at an incredible rate': How widespread is COVID now - and how many people are dying with it? - Sky News

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COVID and travel: Should I still wear a mask on the plane? - USA TODAY

Danaher took a major dip in its full-year earnings report, with revenues dropping more than 10% in 2023 despite better-than-expected results from the fourth quarter, following what it described as a transformational year for the company and an ongoing period of change that it expects will extend through at least the first half of 2024.

President and CEO Rainer Blair said on the companys earnings call Tuesday that, Now, over the long term, we believe Danaher will be a faster-growing business with higher margins and stronger free cash flow generation.

Last year saw Danaher spin out its environmental, water quality and applied solutions businesses in late Septemberforming the independent company Veraltoto help renew its focus on life sciences and diagnostics, while last December brought the addition of British antibody and proteomics player Abcam through the closure of a $5.7 billion acquisition deal.

At the same time, like all diagnostics developers, the company felt COVID-19 pandemic tailwinds turn into headwinds, according to Blair, as the publics demand for tests continued to wane. Meanwhile, challenges in high-growth international markets such as China also contributed to Danahers declines in its life science and biotechnology divisions.

Full-year sales dropped 10.5%, from 2022s $26.64 billion to 2023s $23.89 billion, the company said. That included a slight decrease among Danahers core businesses coupled with a COVID-related headwind of about 9.5%, Blair said. Net earnings reached $4.2 billion.

For the fourth quarter alone, sales were down 10% to $6.41 billion versus $7.13 billion during the same period the year before. Bioprocessing sales, which includes Danahers Cytiva unit, were down 21% during that time, falling to $1.76 billion from the segments $2.22 billion total a year prior.

The environment in North America and Europe is stable, with customers still working through inventory built up during the pandemic, Blair said. Demand and underlying activity levels in China remain weak as customers are continuing to conserve capital and prioritize programs. For the full year of 2024, we expect core revenue in our bioprocessing business to be down low single digits.

Still, Blair said core quarterly revenues in each of the companys segments were at least better than expected. One clear winner was a respiratory testing gain from Cepheid: On the back of a four-in-one screener for COVID, respiratory syncytial virus and two types of flu, the diagnostics subsidiary's sales reached about $650 million to thoroughly beat previous internal estimates of $350 million.

Based on what we saw the last two years and on our discussions with customers and public health experts, we believe annual respiratory revenue in a typical season will be approximately $1.5 billion, Blair said. This increase from our initial assumption of $1.2 billion per year is driven by modestly higher volumes and a greater mix of our four-in-one tests.

Additionally, Cepheid's respiratory franchise is now six times larger than it was prior to the pandemic, and we expect this to be sustainable, he added.

Among the several life-science-focused companies in Danahers portfolioincluding Sciex, Leica, Aldevron and now Abcam, among othersrevenue slid a total of 1% amid drops in core sales and gains from acquisitions. The fourth quarter of 2023 logged $1.93 billion in sales compared to $1.95 billion the year prior.

In terms of 2024 guidance, the company said it expects core revenue to be down low single digits year over year, with the first quarter declining by high single digits. And, going forward, Danaher said it will no longer separate out and report base business core revenue, as the pandemic has transitioned to an endemic state.

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Danaher's 2023 sales drop 10% during 'transformational year' - FierceBiotech

Tearful Nicola Sturgeon says she at times felt overwhelmed by pandemic video Coronavirus

Former first minister of Scotland admits to inquiry that she failed to properly record key discussions

Wed 31 Jan 2024 14.15 EST

Nicola Sturgeon has admitted failing to properly record key discussions about the Covid crisis after being pressed at the UK Covid inquiry over claims that some decisions were too centralised and secretive.

The former first minister, who led Scotlands response to the pandemic, pushed back tears when she admitted she found the pressure of the crisis incredibly stressful, and at times wished she had not been in charge.

I was the first minister when the pandemic struck, she said, her voice breaking. Theres a large part of me wishes that I hadnt been but I was and I wanted to be the best first minister I could be during that period.

During a day-long evidence session, Sturgeon repeatedly denied challenges from Jamie Dawson KC, the inquirys counsel, about whether she had sought to politicise the pandemic to promote independence.

She was shown an email from July 2020 that appeared to come from the office of her deputy and closest political ally, John Swinney, in which a senior official told Swinney and Sturgeon he was extremely concerned about Spain being subject to far tougher travel rules than other countries.

The official said he feared the Spanish government would believe this was entirely political; they wont forget; there is a real possibility they will never approve EU membership for an independent Scotland.

Sturgeon said she assumed she had read the email but rejected the suggestion she agreed with it. Travel policy with Spain had been decided entirely on finely balanced scientific and economic grounds, she said. The Scottish government told the hearing the email had not come from Swinney or his private office, but from another civil servant.

Why is that even part of the discussions? Dawson asked. It wasnt part of my consideration, Sturgeon replied. I, certainly to the best of my knowledge, didnt have any discussions of that nature.

Under close questioning from Dawson, Sturgeon admitted she had made a number of errors in her handling of policymaking and some of the key decisions taken during the crisis.

Those included:

That she regretted not telling people about Scotlands first outbreak, involving 38 cases linked to a Nike conference in Edinburgh in March 2020, as that had the potential to undermine public confidence.

That she had thought wrongly that her chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, could remain in post after admitting she had breached lockdown rules by visiting her holiday home.

Sturgeon strongly refuted repeated suggestions from Dawson that there had been a deliberate effort on her part to centralise and control key decisions by taking a very firm grip of decision-making. She said any mistakes were unintentional, driven by the intense pace and significance of the events that were unfolding.

I did not operate on any issue at any point of the Covid pandemic in a way that sought to exclude people from decision-making, she said.

I tried to lead from the front. I tried to shoulder my fair share, sometimes deliberately more than my fair share of the burden of decision-making given the severity and the difficulty of the decisions that were being made. I thought that was appropriate for a first minister.

Dawson pressed Sturgeon who quit as first minister last February in part, she said, because of the immense pressures of the Covid crisis on why her regular gold group meetings had not been minuted, and why only a small group of ministers and advisers had taken part.

It emerged on Tuesday that Sturgeon had failed to include Kate Forbes, then her finance secretary, in gold group meetings, which routinely took place before cabinet meetings. Forbes said she had known they existed only in early 2021.

Sturgeon denied Forbes had been deliberately excluded but admitted those meetings were held with key advisers to help shape the policies and decisions she wanted to put to cabinet.

The inquiry heard on Tuesday that Sturgeon and Swinney had decided to shut all Scottish schools in March 2020 without telling the cabinet. Dawson then showed Sturgeon a WhatsApp exchange between her and her chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, which appeared to show them jointly deciding on a policy to ban alcohol consumption in public, before a cabinet meeting.

Sturgeon denied his suggestion that the Scottish cabinet had largely existed simply to ratify her decisions. Cabinet meetings were robust and had real power, she said, insisting the inquiry had all the material it needed to see how and why policy decisions had been taken.

However, she admitted she preferred gold group meetings because she didnt have a great deal of patience for large meetings with a cast of unnecessary thousands. She said: I wanted to get all of the people with the right expertise in the room so that we could take the best decisions we possibly could.

Sturgeons emotions again broke through when she denied seeking to exploit the crisis for political gain. She said her only instinct had been to minimise harm in horrific circumstances.

Again fighting back tears, she stated: For as long as I live, I will carry the impact of these decisions, I will carry regret at the decisions and judgments I got wrong.

But I will always know in my heart and in my soul, that my instincts and my motivation was nothing other than trying to do the best in the face of this pandemic.

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A Retrospective Study on the Outcome of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients Admitted to a District ... - Cureus

Taipei, Feb. 2 (CNA) A COVID-19 vaccine research from Taiwan-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp., which found its locally-produced vaccine was as effective as the Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, will be featured in a United States medical publication.

The research paper will be published in the March issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a monthly peer-reviewed journal from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director General Lo Yi-chun () told CNA on Friday.

Lo said Medigen will be publishing the positive results of its protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine, which has been proven to provide 90 percent protection against moderate to severe infections on individuals who get three jabs.

The protein subunit vaccine is effective against the Omicron subvariant, and could protect those receiving the inoculation from moderate to severe symptoms and even death, according to Lo.

Moreover, Medigen's research documents are the first big data comparison between the strengths of mRNA and protein subunit vaccines, he added.

Taiwan's CDC explained that data for the research were collected domestically in Taiwan through the nation's vaccine rollout programs.

The data used for the comparison was based on more than 60 million vaccine jabs received by over 23 million individuals during the mass Omicron community infections that broke out domestically in 2022.

The CDC said the research concluded that Medigen's protein subunit inoculation provided protection against COVID-19 that is akin to that offered by the vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech, which have been proven to be more efficient and long lasting than those from Astrazeneca (AZ).

The research completely maps out the strength of various vaccine combinations between different age groups and the results are available to experts around the world, the CDC said.

Lo told CNA that Medigen's findings have already been made public and presented at the 30th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle last February.

The CDC also advised anyone who received an AZ vaccine as their first two initial inoculation jabs to get additional boosters with next-generation serums.

(By Tseng Yi-ning and James Lo)

Enditem/cs

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Medigen to publish COVID-19 research on U.S. journal - Focus Taiwan

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Just last month, a study highlighted the alarming speed at which the highly contagious COVID variant JN.1 could spread, even among vaccinated individuals. Researchers attributed this heightened transmissibility to JN.1 being one of the most immune-evading variants of SARS-CoV-2 identified to date.

But now, early vaccine data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has offered a glimmer of hope. According to a report by CNN, data indicates that the latest COVID-19 vaccine can reduce the risk of symptomatic infection by half.

Vaccine manufacturers had adapted their formulations to target the Omicron variant XBB.1.5 that was predominant in the US throughout much of 2023. Encouragingly, the new CDC data suggests that these updated vaccines also exhibit similar efficacy against JN.1.

The CDC report reveals that the updated COVID-19 vaccines provide 54% protection against symptomatic infection in recently vaccinated immunocompetent adults, compared to those who did not receive the updated vaccine. These findings are reassuring for all, even in the absence of data on vaccine effectiveness in immunocompromised individuals.

Despite this positive development, experts caution that the latest COVID-19 vaccines may not consistently prevent infections caused by JN.1 or other Omicron subvariants, but they can mitigate the severity of the disease. They emphasise that vaccination's aim isnt just preventing infection, but also reducing the seriousness of infections.

Turning to India's JN.1 situation, experts foresee a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the virus's spike protein mutation, which enhances its infectiousness. Indeed, the country is already witnessing an upward trend in infections, The Times of India reports.

Fortunately, JN.1 typically induces mild illness, primarily manifesting as upper respiratory symptoms. Moreover, the prevalence of hybrid immunity among the Indian population is sure to keep it reasonably protected.

Nevertheless, medical professionals advise against complacency, given the virus's propensity to mutate. While panic is unwarranted, adherence to COVID-appropriate behaviourmask-wearing, avoiding crowded settings and maintaining hand hygieneremains crucial.

Individuals with underlying health conditions and the elderly should exercise heightened caution to minimise the risk of infection. Normal life and travel must go on, albeit while maintaining vigilance and adhering to preventive measures.

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JN.1 Isn't Vaccine-Immune! Latest US Vaccine Can Cut Its Infection Chances By Half: CDC | Weather.com - The Weather Channel

Representational image

In addition to the intrinsic severity of COVID-19, there is a hidden threat many patients face when inflicted with the virus: secondary bacterial infections. With the immune system already working overtime to liberate the body of the coronavirus, other harmful invaders such as bacteria have a much easier time entering us in our weakened states and inflicting illnesses.

It is important to note that secondary bacterial infections can be deadly, and must never be underestimated. As University of Queensland Professor Kirsty Short elaborates, most to all COVID-19 fatalities have a secondary co-infection as a culprit.

Now, a team of researchers led by Dr Short has harnessed the power of machine learning to predict the risk of secondary bacterial infections.

Ever since the discovery of Penicillin, we've made monumental strides in the field of antibiotics, and a few of them would certainly be effective against such secondary infections.

However, while treating all patients with antibiotics might seem logical, over-prescription can set a dangerous precedent for bacteria to evolve to evade our current antibiotics. Essentially, experts warn that unregulated antibiotic usage could end up starting an antibiotic-resistant superbug revolution, something we obviously hope to avoid at all costs.

One solution is to predict which patients are more likely to develop a secondary bacterial infection, and begin their treatment promptly and preemptively. Fortunately, with a little AI magic, Kirsty might have an answer.

To help those hospitalised and at risk from secondary bacterial infections, the researchers developed LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator). This technique analysed blood samples from COVID-19 patients across six countries, identifying seven genes whose expression levels could predict the risk of developing a secondary bacterial infection within 24 hours of hospital admission.

Dr Meagan Carney, a key researcher on the project, emphasises that LASSO has the potential to revolutionise antibiotic prescription, and put doctors more at ease during the process. Further, Carney explains that the LASSO technique is a relatively simple method compared to the complex AI algorithms often discussed in the media. Its straightforwardness could make it easier for scientists from other fields to build upon the procedure, and accelerate the adoption of data science in the medical industry.

We should strive towards making data science less of a black box and inspire scientists across the world to better understand how it can revolutionise the medical industry, she remarks.

The findings of this research have been published in Lancet Microbe and can be accessed here.

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AI-Guided Prescriptions May Help Prevent Bacterial Co-Infection Deaths In COVID Patients | Weather.com - The Weather Channel

Its been four years since the COVID-19 virus first began to spread. The U.S. National Intelligence Council assessed that two theories on the viruss origins are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal or a laboratory-associated incident.

Recent alarming headlines of Chinese experiments involving the virus reignited pandemic-era fears online.

VERIFY reader Karen asked us on Facebook if a story from the Staten Island Advance, a newspaper local to New York Citys Staten Island, titled Chinese scientists create COVID-19 strain that is 100% lethal to humanized mice, report says is true. Similar headlines have appeared on other news sites like the New York Post.

Did Chinese scientists create a COVID-19 strain thats 100% lethal to mice?

No, Chinese scientists did not create a COVID-19 strain thats 100% lethal to mice.

Chinese scientists did recently conduct a study in which they cloned a coronavirus, not a COVID-19 strain, that killed all four mice that were infected with it. However, this is not consistent with past studies, and the researchers say it does not mean it would kill humans.

A group of Chinese scientists, the majority of which are affiliated with the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, recently pre-printed a study meaning theyve published it online before it has been reviewed by peers to confirm its scientifically sound titled Lethal Infection of Human ACE2-Transgenic Mice Caused by SARS-CoV-2-related Pangolin Coronavirus GX_P2V(short_3UTR).

The scientists did not create a mutant COVID-19 strain to conduct this study, as some of the headlines suggest, nor did they use COVID-19 at all. Instead, the scientists studied a different coronavirus using just four mice. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include COVID-19, but also strains of the common cold.

The studys authors clarified that the mouse infections in the study do not mean the virus would also kill humans. The exact same virus has been the subject of other studies, including those in which the virus infected similar kinds of mice. The mice in those other studies did not die.

First, well explain why the claim that the scientists created a COVID-19 strain is false. Then well add context to this coronaviruss lethality to mice both in this study and in similar studies.

Chinese scientists did not create a COVID-19 strain

The scientists explain within the text of the study that they worked with a coronavirus, which is a family of viruses that includes COVID-19, but not COVID-19 itself. This coronavirus, which they called GX_P2V, was a sample they found in an animal called a pangolin in 2017, according to the scientists.

The virus used in the study was first collected in 2018, according to an earlier study by researchers from Hong Kong and Beijing. Its collection date is confirmed by the Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC), which shows it was one of six related viruses collected from pangolins by researchers at the time.

The virus began adapting, or mutating, after it was first collected, according to a study published in December 2022. The studys researchers, some of whom later worked on the viral lethal mouse study, said the virus rapidly adapted to a kind of animal cell commonly used as a host for viruses studied by scientists.

Lihua Song, Ph.D., one of the scientists who worked on the viral lethal mouse study, explained on ScienceCast, a forum for researchers to discuss studies with other scientists, that the sample they used is a clone of the virus sample that mutated between 2018 and 2022.

Scientists no longer have an original, unmutated version of the virus because the original sample adapted in the animal cell, Song explained. Song suspected that the original pangolin sample mutated because it had difficulty growing in the animal host cells used by scientists

Putting 100% lethal to humanized mice claim in context

The scientists in the viral study used a small sample size of mice: 12 in total, four of which were infected with the virus. All four of the infected mice died, but the researchers noted that the virus did not kill similar mice in other studies.

The mice used in the study were ACE2 humanized mice. These kinds of mice, according to the Jackson Laboratory, are humanized because their cells have human ACE2, the receptor used by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) to gain cellular entry.

While GX_P2V(short_3UTR) proved lethal in our mouse model, it's important to consider that it did not cause disease upon infecting two other distinct ACE2 humanized mouse strains, Song said on ScienceCast.

Song is referring to a January 2023 study that said it infected three groups of mice, two of which were groups of humanized ACE2 mice. The researchers noted that the infected mice presented no obvious clinical symptoms, leading them to believe that GX_P2V may not be very good at causing disease.

Song and the other researchers in the viral study wrote that the reason the virus was so lethal may have been because their mice had abnormally high ACE2.

It is very likely that the high pathogenicity of GX_P2V C7 in our hACE2 mice is due to the strong expression of hACE2 in the mouse brain, the researchers wrote. Under normal circumstances, both human and mouse brains exhibit low expression of ACE2.

The researchers said that because of this mouse infections in this study have no correlation with human infections.

The scientists said the purpose of the study was to assess a potential candidate for use in vaccines or drugs meant to protect against broad groups of coronaviruses.

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(CNN) Im not getting a fat check! joked Kelly R as she helped her daughters with homework in the kitchen of their Los Angeles home. But Im hoping that the kids will benefit. Thats the biggest thing that I was worried about. All kids benefitting.

Kelly is among the parents, students and community groups who successfully sued California, demanding more money, time and focus be spent to help underserved students disproportionately low-income Black and Latino kids recover from educational losses during the Covid pandemic. These students were already at a disadvantagebefore the pandemic, according to experts, then suffered more than students in affluent school districts during Covid and are not rebounding as quickly.

The plaintiffs were only identified by first name and last initial in the lawsuit, and Kelly askedCNN to do the same.

Kelly, like so many other parents, does not have fond memories of virtual schooling.She was stuck at home with her daughters who were ages 9, 11 and 14 when the pandemic began.

The computers were glitchyWe live in the airport flight paths; sometimes we werent getting internet connection. Sometimes the school Internet connection wasnt working as well, she told CNN. We were kind of just thrown into a situation to be teachers for three different kids, you know, at three different schools with no training at all.

To settle the lawsuit, California agreed to spend $2 billion to help children impacted the most to recover from lost learning and the mental health impact caused by school closures during the pandemic. The federal government granted public school districts more than $190 billion between March 2020 and March 2021 for that purpose, but the plaintiffs argued that in California the state failed to ensure local districts targeted the money for students who needed the most help.

The settlements provisions still must be enacted into law by the state legislature, directs school districts to use extended school days, tutors and mental health professionals to help these kids. The process will be closely monitored by the state. And parents can file complaints at any time.

This proposal includes changes that the Administration believes are appropriate at this stage coming out of the pandemic to focus use of these one-time dollars on the students who were most impacted and continue to need support, Alex Traverso, a spokesperson for the California Board of Education, told CNN.

It is the most urgent crisis in America today, said Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. And hopefully this settlement will be a model for 49 other states to say that there is nothing more important than we can do.

In California, around 10,000 public schools were closed during the pandemic, impacting around 6 million students.

We know in California that there were between 800,000 and a million kids who had no digital access whatsoever for 18 and 19 months, said Rosenbaum. What does that mean? It doesnt mean they got bad education. It means they got no education.

And there were other problems. Plaintiffs Cayla and Kai were second graders in Oakland when Covid hit.Between March 17, 2020 and the end of the 2019-2020 school year, their teacher held class only twice, the complaint alleges.

They and otherplaintiffs reported a lack of computer equipment, broken equipment and teachers not trained to cope with the technology or the challenges of remote learning. Plaintiff Ellori was in first grade during the 2020-2021 school year and, with 33 kids and just one teacher on Zoom, felt isolation, abandonment and anxiety.

Not enough has been done since the pandemic ended to assess students needs and help them recover lost learning, according to the lawsuit. Jordan, another plaintiff, was in elementary school in the spring of 2020 when the school closed, according to the plaintiffs.

Since returning to in-person instruction in the 2021-2022 school year, Jordan E. has not had an assessment of his learning or mental health needs, according to the suit, referring to the 2021-22 school year.

School-age children were among those with the lowest risk of serious illness from Covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Butthey suffered greatly from the restrictions to stem the spread of the virus because so many schools were closed for so long.

And essentially were asking poor kids to pay for the public health measures that were meant to, you know, benefit us all, said Thomas Kane, a professor at Harvard University and author of a new study tracking post-pandemic progress in education.

The average American public school student in grades 3 through 8 lost half a grade level in math achievement during the pandemic, according to Kane and his fellow researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth Universities. TheirEducation Recovery Scorecardalso found a third-of-a-year drop in reading.

Some students are rebounding surprisingly well, they say. But not all.

In Alabama, for example, kids in some more affluent areas have already made up for all their lost learning in math, Kane says.

But the higher poverty districts like Montgomery are still a half a year or more behind, Kane told CNN. Here in Massachusetts, the high poverty districts did the opposite of catching up last year, they actually lost additional ground between 2022 and 2023.

The fear, say these researchers, is that some students might never catch up.

Kelly says her kids are still behind in math.

In-person tutoring would be beneficial for the kids, she said after patiently helping her 5th grader with some arithmetic at the kitchen table. Right now, she said, They do online tutoring. Sometimes.

Kelly says shes trying to fill the gap and is pretty good at 1980s math but doesnt know how to teach the subject as its taught today.

Black, Latino and low-income students have traditionally lagged behind White students in academic achievement.

Kelly hopes this suit and settlement will spur the country into addressing, once and for all, the historic inequities.

Thats one of the major reasons why I felt like this was important, she said. Because we cannot continue to let things like this happen and let our kids fall short.

The-CNN-Wire

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