Category: Covid-19

By Elizabeth Hlavinka

An increased number of girls are going through premature sexual development amid the pandemic

Dan Kenyon 2013

The covid-19 pandemic may be triggering early puberty in some girls. Several studies suggest the outbreak is increasing the number of girls going through premature sexual development and experts are unsure why.

In the latest of a string of studies, researchers at the University of Bonn, Germany, reported how the number of girls diagnosed with early puberty at a single medical centre remained constant between 2015 and 2019, at fewer than 10 cases a year.

This more than doubled to 23 in 2020, when the covid-19 outbreak took hold worldwide, rising further still to 30 in 2021, according to results presented at The European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology 2022 meeting today.

The German researchers arent the only ones to see cases double. In the pre-covid year, we had 28 children start treatment and in the covid year, we had 64 children start treatment, says Karen Klein at Rady Childrens Hospital and the University of California, San Diego.

Similar results have also been reported in Turkey and Italy.

Early puberty is rare, affecting one in 5000 to 10,000 children in pre-pandemic times. For every 1 boy, it affects 10 girls. The reasons behind this sexual disparity are unclear.

Regardless of a persons sex, early puberty is linked to short stature in adulthood, as well as serious health conditions, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Early puberty has also been associated with certain mental health problems, such as anxiety in boys and depression in girls.

Sezer Acar at Dr. Behet Uz Childrens Education and Research Hospital in Izmir, an author of the Turkish study, says: Previously, I [treated] one or two patients a month due to precocious [early] puberty, but during this period [the early stages of the pandemic before his study was published], I had to treat two or three patients a week.

In addition to an increased number of girls starting puberty early, the age of onset may have also declined.

In the German study, pre-pandemic puberty onset occurred at age 6.8, on average, compared with 7.6 among those diagnosed during the covid-19 outbreak. A statistical analysis suggests this wasnt a chance finding.

We know stress can cause earlier puberty, so thats certainly high on the list of whats going on, says Klein.

The other thing people immediately started to think about was, well, everyone is at home not exercising as much and maybe its weight gain, because we know rapid weight gain can cause earlier puberty. But in our study and in a couple of other studies, we didnt see that the children were heavier.

Increased screen time and changes in sleep cycles due to remote learning could also be at play, says Paul Kaplowitz at the Childrens National Hospital in Washington D.C.

These factors werent assessed in all the studies. However, in a follow-up study to the Italian paper, researchers found that girls who were diagnosed with early puberty during lockdown had more disturbed sleep and later bedtimes than those diagnosed pre-pandemic.

Some have questioned whether SARS-CoV-2 itself could be to blame. Inflammation of the nasal cavity has been documented in both covid-19 cases and people going through early puberty. Although this hypothesis cant be ruled out, especially because many childhood covid-19 cases are mild and may be missed, it seems unlikely, says Kaplowitz.

I dont think the effect of covid on female puberty is restricted to girls who actually had the infection, says Kaplowitz. Especially since, in the earlier stages of the pandemic, children were much less likely to become infected than adults.

The pandemic aside, the age of puberty onset has been declining by about three months per decade since 1977, although there is little data on the effect of other traumatic events like wars or recessions.

Medication can reduce hormone levels and stunt sexual development for several years. However, this is generally only recommended if early puberty is expected to cause emotional or physical problems.

Some doctors hope that the return of in-person schooling and children adapting to pandemic-related challenges will slow the rate of early puberty.

When the data is looked at for the past year, particularly in places where kids almost all went back to school and life returned to more normal, I would predict that the rate of precocious puberty will return to what it had been previously, says Kaplowitz. But we obviously dont know.

More on these topics:

Read more from the original source:

Covid-19 pandemic linked to early onset of puberty in some girls - New Scientist

CNN

You may have up to a 50% higher risk of developing long Covid-19 if you suffer from common psychiatric issues such as anxiety or depression, a recent study found.

Signs of the malady can include breathing problems, brain fog, chronic coughing, changes in taste and smell, overwhelming fatigue, difficulties in performing daily life functions, and disruptions in sleep that can last months, even years, after the infection has cleared the body.

People who self-identified as having anxiety, depression or loneliness, or who felt extremely stressed or worried frequently about the coronavirus were more likely to experience long Covid-19, according to the study published this month in JAMA Psychiatry.

We found participants with two or more types of psychological distress before infection had a 50% higher risk of getting long Covid, said study coauthor Dr. Siwen Wang, a research fellow in the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

About 40 million adults over 18 in the United States live with an anxiety disorder, while over 21 million have suffered from major depression, according to national statistics. Many mental health conditions often overlap, with concurrent diagnoses, experts say. More than a fifth of adults in the US (22%) and the UK (23%) say they often or always feel lonely, a Kaiser Family Foundation study said.

Having higher levels of psychological distress prior to a Covid infection also increased the risk of getting long Covid by 50%, Wang said. Those people also reported more symptoms seen in long Covid.

Its possible that some could use the studys findings to support a hypothesis that post-Covid illness is psychosomatic, a prevalent belief in the early days of the pandemic, said Dr. Wesley Ely, a professor of medicine and critical care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He was not involved in the study.

Instead, the studys message should be that people with existing psychological distress are closer to the disaster of long Covid, said Ely, codirector of Vanderbilts Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center.

Imagine 10 people are running a race, and you give five people a head start, Ely said. Those are the people who already had a mental health issue they are just closer to the unfortunate finish line of getting long Covid.

The idea that mental distress can affect the body in negative ways isnt new. Its also a two-way lane: Having a chronic illness is strongly associated with the development of depression and other psychological disorders.

With common noninfectious disorders such as heart disease, depression/anxiety/emotional distress do appear to play a role, said Dr. Joseph Bienvenu, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, in an email. He was not involved in the study.

People with major depression can develop blood pressure issues and may be more likely to have a heart attack. Chronic depression, stress and anxiety have been linked to insomnia, and a lack of quality sleep is a major culprit in the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other disorders.

And psychological distress has been shown to weaken the immune system, said study coauthor Dr. Angela Roberts, an associate professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Stanford University in California.

Your brain and your immune system are very tightly interconnected, Roberts said. Studies have shown when youre depressed or anxious, your immune system doesnt work as well against targets like viruses and bacteria.

To do the new study, researchers worked with nearly 55,000 people with no history of Covid-19 who were enrolled in three major longitudinal studies: the Nurses Health Study II, the Nurses Health Study 3 and the Growing Up Today Study. Participants in those studies tend to be predominantly female and White, which can limit how much the results can be generalized to a wider population, the study said.

Participants were asked about their mental health in April 2020, quite early in the pandemic. They continued to fill out mental health surveys each month for six months, then quarterly. At the end of a year, researchers narrowed the pool of subjects to nearly 3,200 people who had developed Covid-19 and met study requirements.

This study is particularly nice in that participants baseline characteristics were assessed independently in time from their later Covid symptoms, Johns Hopkins Bienvenu said.

Compared with people not having mental distress, those with depression and loneliness had a 1.32 times greater chance of developing long Covid symptoms. Participants who worried a good deal about the coronavirus predominantly people of color, women and asthma sufferers were 1.37 times more likely to develop long Covid, the study found.

Anxiety was associated with a greater risk 1.42 times more likely but people with higher levels of perceived stress were nearly 50% more likely to develop post-Covid symptoms, said Wang, the study coauthor.

All the associations between psychological distress and long Covid remained significant, even after researchers adjusted for demographics, body weight, smoking status and a history of asthma, cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure or cholesterol.

In addition, all types of psychological distress except loneliness were linked to a higher risk of being unable to complete the actions of daily life due to ongoing long Covid symptoms.

While many cases of long Covid are mild and resolve within a few months, other patients continue to suffer for an extended time. Some still havent recovered their quality of life more than two years into the pandemic, according to Dr. Aaron Friedberg, a clinical assistant professor of internal medicine who works in the Post-Covid Recovery Program at Ohio State Universitys Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.

They cant think, they cant breathe. I have one person whose disease is so severe, they basically cant get out of bed, Friedberg told CNN in an earlier interview. I saw a person recently who is still not working because of Covid symptoms two years later.

Original post:

What moves us 'closer to the unfortunate finish line of getting long Covid' - CNN

At last month's Bloodstock Open Air festival, former MACHINE HEAD and current VIO-LENCE guitarist Phil Demmel was asked by TotalRock if Willie Adler's COVID-19 vaccination status is the reason Phil has been filling in for the LAMB OF GOD guitarist at some of the Virginia metal band's recent non-U.S. concerts. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think Willie's just in a spot right now, and it's not really my spot to say, but I get the vibe that he's I don't even think I should talk about it. I don't think it's my spot to say anything about Will. But he's making his decisions, and I am the contingent. So here I am."

Demmel went on to praise his involvement with LAMB OF GOD, saying: "They're one of the biggest metal bands in the world. And it feels good to be, like, 'Hey, we'd like for you to step into Willie's shoes,' which Willie writes those riffs and he's an awesome guitar player. And to be, like, 'Hey, we want you to be the guy,' or whatever I get along well with the dudes. In a 'me' way, it feels good to be wanted It's pretty cool. They're all fucking amazing dudes and a great band and a totally pro camp. I love the way they run things. So it's good to be part of that."

Demmel most recently filled in for Adler on nearly a dozen European LAMB OF GOD shows in August. Prior to that, Demmel stepped in for Adler during LOG's January appearance on the ShipRocked cruise and in May for the Canadian portion of LAMB OF GOD's "The Metal Tour Of The Year" with MEGADETH.

When Adler's absence from LAMB OF GOD's summer 2022 European tour was first announced, he released a statement saying that he wasn't able to make the trip" because he had "some things that I need to be home for". He also thanked his bandmates for "supporting my decision."

Although LAMB OF GOD has not officially commented on Adler's absence from the shows, VIO-LENCE singer Sean Killian revealed in an interview in April that Willie is "not down with doing the vaxx," referring to the COVID-19 vaccine, and is being replaced by Demmel for dates in those countries that still require proof of vaccination from U.S. travelers.

In April, Demmel also filled in for LAMB OF GOD's John Campbell when the bassist had to miss a couple of shows on "The Metal Tour Of The Year" in order to "take care a family matter back home."

Demmel's appearance with LAMB OF GOD marked his third high-profile fill-in gig in four years. Demmel stepped in for SLAYER guitarist Gary Holt for four European shows in the fall of 2018 after Gary returned home to be with his dying father. Demmel also subbed for Dave Linsk at OVERKILL's November 13, 2021 concert at The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey and on the band's spring 2022 U.S. tour.

In a February 2022 interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, Demmel discussed how he became such an in-demand hired gun. "The SLAYER thing happened within 24 hours of me quitting MACHINE HEAD," he said. "I think [SLAYER drummer] Paul Bostaph's girlfriend knew that MACHINE HEAD was done and knew that I was home, so they reached out for that. As the urban legend goes [laughs], I had three hours to learn 19 songs. It was pretty successful; a fill-in trip, one of the higher-profile things you can imagine SLAYER on their final world tour. I filled in for my buddies in NONPOINT, too. The OVERKILL gig was more about me and Bobby [Ellsworth, vocals] doing the BPMD record together [2020's 'American Made']. We're familiar and I got the rep of being able to learn songs pretty quick. The METAL ALLEGIANCE, guys, too. I'll play 25 songs with them in a night. It's one of those quirky things where I can learn songs pretty quickly and I can pick them up pretty quick."

Demmel was then asked whether his nerves for the LAMB OF GOD and OVERKILL gigs were on the same level as playing with SLAYER. "I was pretty confident with the OVERKILL songs," he said. "We had three good rehearsals. I didn't rehearse with SLAYER at all. I played two songs at a soundcheck. [Laughs] 'Okay, we're good!' It's like, 'Fuck!' OVERKILL, we had a couple of days of rehearsal. I had two and a half, three weeks to prepare for that. I felt pretty strong with that.

"The LAMB OF GOD gig, that was a big deal. They had approached me before their MEGADETH States tour last summer and wanted me to learn both parts, Mark [Morton] and Willie's, just in case one got sick, they didn't want to cancel their tour. That's where I am: I'm their bullpen guy when one of them can't make the shows, I'm ready to go. It's such a high-profile band. I didn't want to go out there and blow it. I wanted the band to sound good. I wanted to keep that pride in what they are and not have a drop-off. Willie and I play differently. There's different vibrato in our left hand and pinkies. I didn't want there to be a drop-off. I wanted people to be not bummed that he wasn't there. And that's not a slag on Willie. If I went to see one of my favorite bands, let's say QUEENSRCHE. I want to see [Chris] DeGarmo, I want to see Michael Wilton. No slight against the other dudes, but they better fucking bring it if they're not going to be out there."

LAMB OF GOD singer Randy Blythe discussed Demmel's involvement with the band during an interview with Bloodstock TV's Oran O'Beirne. After O'Beirne noted how talented Demmel is to be able to step in on a moment's notice, Blythe said: "We make him put in work, though, to be fair. The guitar parts aren't easy. We are playing a song tonight, 'The Faded Line', and that's a song that hasn't been in our set for a while because some guys are, like, 'Oh, this is hard.' And it's, like, 'No. We need to do this.' And even he was just, like, 'Oh. We've gotta learn that. That's a fucked up riff.' But we saw Phil fill in for SLAYER on, like, two days' notice in Europe at the end of the SLAYER tour, 'cause Gary Holt's dad was passing away. R.I.P. And Phil came over and killed it. We've known him for many years. There's never really been any question of whether he can do it. He's a phenomenally talented guy."

Read more from the original source:

Is WILLIE ADLER's COVID-19 Vaccination Status The Reason He Has Missed International LAMB OF GOD Shows? PHIL DEMMEL Responds - BLABBERMOUTH.NET

New York state's Department of Health vaccination portal offers a link to search for appointments. CVS, Walgreens and a number of other chain and independent drug stores offer the boosters. The supply is plentiful.

Are you eligible?

New Yorkers ages 12 and older are eligible for a Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster if it is at least two months after their previous booster dose or two months after completing the initial primary vaccine series.

New Yorkers ages 18 and older are eligible for a Moderna bivalent booster if it is at least two months after their previous booster dose or two months after completing the initial primary vaccine series.

The boosters are free and available across the state.

In early September, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer and Moderna boosters. The shots target the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants, the most recent variants to spread the virus in New York and the U.S.

The original COVID-19 boosters are still recommended for children ages 5-11 who have completed their primary series at least five months ago.

While the vast majority of cases right now are linked to the highly contagious BA.5 strain, BA 4.6, is also gaining traction in much of the country, accounting for about 8 percent of new infections in the U.S. last week, according to the latest state and federal variant analysis.

See the article here:

Where to find a COVID-19 booster in the Capital Region, Hudson Valley - Times Union

In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers assessed the impact of targeting intracellular Neu1 on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

There is an urgent need to develop coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatments and SARS-CoV-2 antivirals. Additionally, studies show that the novel SARS-CoV-2 mutations are less resistant to the current vaccinations. Therefore, to create therapeutic drugs, it is vital to comprehend the SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity mechanisms and the host response.

In the present study, researchers demonstrated that host Neu1 controlled the sialylation of the coronavirus nucleocapsid protein, thus regulating coronavirus replication.

The team employed mass spectrometry to study the N- and O-glycans on the nucleocapsid (N) protein from the human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), a beta coronavirus that causes mild respiratory symptoms. A lectin blot was performed using samples immunoprecipitated from the serum of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients and healthy controls, as well as cell lysates infected with HCoV-OC43 and treated with anti-N protein antibodies.

The lectin blot ascertained whether sialylation occurred on N protein corresponding to coronavirus HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2. The immunoprecipitated samples were either subjected or not to sialidase treatment before undergoing sodium dodecyl-sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) separation.

The team investigated how the sialylation on the N protein might impact its capacity to bind ribonucleic acid (RNA). Nucleic acid-binding tests were performed with a 32-mer stem-loop II (32m) motif single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) and its 32-mer ss-deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) mimic to evaluate the nucleic acid-binding affinity of N protein. The HEK293T cells were lysed 48 hours after the SARS-CoV-2 N protein expression vector was transfected.

Subsequently, cells were administered with or without sialidase for nucleic acid-binding experiments. Using THP-1 cell lines, the team assessed the role of endogenous sialidases in the sialylation of N protein.

The team assessed how sialylation might impact viral replication. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to measure the viral infection using primers targeting the viral N gene's coding region. After the viral challenge, cell RNA was collected at the designated times, and viral transcripts were measured. Additionally, supernatants underwent processing for the 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) assay, which was used to measure the virus titer.

The study results showed that while N- and O-link glycosylation were observed on the N protein in vitro overexpress system, it is unclear if the N protein from the virion is glycosylated or not. The SARS-CoV-2 spike (S), envelope (E), and membrane (M) proteins are all glycosylated. N protein was significantly sialylated in cells from both COVID-19- and HCoV-OC43-infected patients. Most of the sialic acid on N protein was attached in alpha-2, 6 links, while sialidase treatment verified N protein sialylation. A SARS-CoV-2 N protein expressed in HEK293T cells, HCoV-OC43-N protein expressed in THP-1 cells, and HCoV-OC43 virion were all found to be sialylated.

In the presence of anti-N protein antibodies, a SARS-CoV-2 N protein formed a potent complex with 32-mer ssRNA and 32-mer ssDNA that was supershifted, demonstrating that this complex was exclusive to N protein. As anticipated, lysates of HEK293T cells transfected with an empty vector failed to bind 32-mer ssRNA and ssDNA. Furthermore, the amount of 32-mer ssDNA and ssRNA bound to N protein after sialidase treatment rose significantly. These results corroborated the crucial function of N protein sialylation in RNA binding by showing a considerable increase in N protein RNA binding activity following sialidase treatment.

After being infected with HCoV-OC43 for 72 hours, Neu1 expression was considerably elevated, but not Neu2, Neu3, or Neu4, according to real-time PCR and western blot analyses. Notably, patients with COVID-19 had upregulated Neu1 as well. Additionally, in cells infected with HCoV-OC43, N protein was associated with Neu1.

Two days after the viral challenge, the replication of HCoV-OC43 was more than 10-fold greater in cell culture supernatants of cells that overexpressed Neu1 as compared to cells that expressed empty vectors at the level of viral transcripts and viral titers. In contrast, HCoV-OC43 replication was over 100-fold lower in cells that overexpressed short hairpin RNA (shRNA) for Neu1 than those that expressed scrambled shRNA, both in terms of viral transcripts and viral titers.

In line with the knockdown effectiveness of shRNA, Neu1sh3 dramatically reduced HCoV-OC43 replication more than Neu1sh1 and Neu1sh2 did. N protein levels were also noticeably higher in Neu1 overexpressing cells than in Neu1 knockdown cells. These findings suggested that host Neu1 controlled HCoV-OC43 replication in THP-1 cells. The most effective protection was provided by Neu5Ac2en-OAcOMe, while viral neuraminidase inhibitors Zanamivir and oseltamivir displayed little inhibitory activity. These results supported earlier reports that Zanamivir and oseltamivir have weak anti-human sialidases activity.

The HCoV-OC43 challenge resulted in the death of all vehicle-treated mice but only 50% of animals treated with Neu5Ac2en-OAcOMe survived the entire observation period. Compared to mice treated with Neu5Ac2en-OAcOMe, vehicle-treated mice had considerably lower body weight. Mice treated with Neu5Ac2en-OAcOMe also reduced HCoV-OC43 viral replication in the blood, brain, and lungs.

The study findings showed that a newly developed sialidase inhibitor, Neu5Ac2en-OAcOMe, targeted the intracellular host sialidase Neu1 selectively and suppressed coronavirus replication, accounting for the roles of the host as well as the pathogen in disease manifestation.

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

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What is the impact of COVID-19 treatments targeting intracellular Neu1? - News-Medical.Net

Marissa Leshnov / The Washington Post / Getty Images

When youve lived through two-plus years of a pandemic, it can feel weird to see disease and good news in the same sentence. But here we are, watching a disease decline, with cautious optimism. Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization announced that monkeypox cases in Europe had fallen so fast, the outbreak could be eliminated there. And while the U.S. recently experienced its first monkeypox death, cases here have fallen by 40 percent between the middle and end of August. In other words, its too early to declare victory and dust off our hands, but the situation is generally improving.

This news shows that public health officials and the public itself got some important stuff right in combating this serious illness. But monkeypox is also a reminder that humans will encounter many potentially dangerous new diseases. COVID wasnt the first, or the last. What stops most diseases from becoming pandemics is as much about luck as it is about human intervention.

This spring, many of us braced ourselves for the worst. Monkeypox seemed mysterious, and cases of it were soaring. But a positive outcome was not surprising to the scientists who study the disease. One of the difficulties Ive faced in public communication is trying to get people to understand that none of us who work in public health thought the sky was going to be falling from monkeypox, said Jay Varma, a professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College. We were just concerned that a lot of people were going to suffer needlessly because we had a diagnostic test, a drug to treat this and a vaccine to prevent it all stockpiled. Monkeypox was, in other words, a serious disease that needed attention to make sure vulnerable groups were protected, but it was never likely to become the same kind of massive problem as COVID-19.

In August, scientists surveyed more than 800 men who have sex with men, trying to find out how monkeypox and the education campaigns surrounding it had affected their lives. According to results published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half of the men made some important changes to their behavior. Of the 824 surveyed, 48 percent reported reducing their overall number of sex partners, 50 percent said they had reduced their one-time sexual encounters and 50 percent said they had reduced sex with people they met on dating apps and in sex clubs. Those voluntary behavioral changes as well as the public health campaigns that inspired them have been particularly crucial to curbing monkeypox, said Varma and Rodney Rohde, a professor of clinical laboratory science at Texas State University.

Thats because other studies have shown that while one-night stands account for only a fraction of sex happening daily among men who have sex with men about 3 percent of daily sexual relationships those interactions are responsible for about half of daily monkeypox transmissions.

Vaccination campaigns have also been important, but the behavioral changes seem to be more widespread in the high-risk community than vaccination has been, Varma said. The original guidance from the CDC has been refreshingly frank and honest and transparent about what are the behaviors that put people at highest risk and what are the ways in which you can minimize your risk, without questioning whether sex is an essential activity to life, he said.

But had the monkeypox outbreak happened just a few years ago, it might not have been on the radar of anyone outside the most affected communities. Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a Johns Hopkins University professor of genetic medicine who worked at the CDC for 20 years, remembers a former director at the agency often saying that when public health did its job well, we never heard about it.

New diseases are popping up and entering the U.S. all the time, according to Rasmussen and the other experts I spoke with. But SARS-CoV-2 aside, most of them are swiftly and effectively shut down by the hard work of public health. Remember that MERS outbreak when there were two cases in the U.S.? she asked, referring to the time in May 2014 when a particularly deadly cousin of COVID cropped up in unlinked cases in Indiana and Florida. People would say, I dont even remember that. And thats because we dealt with it.

Were more likely to hear about these diseases now because everyone is much more primed to pay attention after a couple of years of COVID. But the reality is that thousands of people nationwide are working to ensure those diseases dont spread unnoticed, that the highest-risk populations are treated, and that we dont end up constantly marinating in preventable pandemics. Thats the good news.

The bad news: Not every pandemic is a preventable one. We did get a little lucky [with monkeypox], Rohde said. Yes, theres pain involved and some risk of death, but if and when this disease is nipped in the bud, that will be in part because the virus makes itself relatively easy to prune. Its not a respiratory virus that people can easily spread to strangers at the bus stop. The mode of transmission, primarily through sex, limits who can spread to whom. The transmission rate is also different from that of COVID, he said. And the mode of transmission means the virus affects primarily a high-risk group rather than all of society, so its easier to change behavior and administer pharmaceutical treatments. Monkeypox is also a DNA virus, not an RNA virus like SARS-CoV-2, so it mutates less than COVID and can be prevented with older, existing vaccines. Those are the kinds of outbreaks humans can stop from turning into pandemics. Of course, both scientists and the public have to take action when they pop up, but its relatively easy to manage.

Most new or new-to-us diseases that appear will have more in common with monkeypox than with COVID. Theyll be dealt with. And youll forget you ever saw them on the news. But, eventually, another pathogen will come along thats more challenging just by its nature another fast-spreading, fast-mutating respiratory virus that hits everybody all at once. I am concerned as we move away from COVID that were going to say, Thats our pandemic. We dont need to fund [public health infrastructure] anymore, Rasmussen said.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest takeaways from this monkeypox outbreak and how it was handled is a paradox. You dont need to assume that every new disease you hear about will be another uncontrollable pandemic, so you can let that tension go. But, at the same time, that doesnt mean another pandemic wont happen in your lifetime. Somebody needs to be on the job, paying attention.

It doesnt matter if youre tired, if youre fatigued, if youre done with it, Rohde said. Those [infectious diseases] dont care. They never get tired.

See the original post:

Why Monkeypox Wasnt Another COVID-19 - FiveThirtyEight

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that children age 6 months through 17 years get vaccinated against COVID-19.

COVID-19 illness is typically not serious in children, but there is a chance of severe complications, and children can still spread the disease, says Mini Kamboj, MSKs Chief Medical Epidemiologist.

Mini Kamboj

Dr. Kamboj has answers to your questions about getting your child vaccinated against COVID-19.

Rigorous clinical trials found that COVID-19 vaccines were safe and effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. Since then, tens of millions of children have been vaccinated. The FDA, CDC, and vaccine manufacturers will continue to monitor new data as more children get vaccinated to ensure that the vaccines are safe.

The side effects are mostly the same for children. Your child could experience soreness at the injection site, fatigue, headache, body aches, and fever. These symptoms dont last long about 1 to 3 days.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a rare complication in children infected with COVID-19. The vaccines do not cause MIS-C, and by preventing COVID-19 infection, they actually prevent MIS-C.

Research has shown that there is a greater risk of heart problems from being infected with COVID-19 than from being vaccinated.

The group that is most likely to develop this condition after getting the COVID-19 vaccine is young men aged 12 to 39. Because of this, this group can wait longer between their first and second dose (of their primary vaccine series) to reduce their risk of myocarditis or pericarditis. They should wait 8 weeks between shots.

Read more aboutmyocarditis, a rare COVID-19 vaccine side effect

Yes. Children who are moderately to severely immunocompromised should get vaccinated. Just like immunocompromised adults, children with weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19 illness.

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines for people who have had cancer

You can schedule a vaccination by talking to your childs primary doctor at MSK.

At this time, MSK is not vaccinating caregivers or family members of patients.

No. A parent or guardian must be on-site to consent to their child getting the vaccine. They are not permitted to give consent over the phone or electronically.

Yes. The COVID-19 vaccines remain effective and safe when given with other vaccines. There is no specific time interval that is recommended between routine vaccinations and the COVID-19 vaccine for children.

However, many vaccinations come with a risk of mild side effects. You may want to schedule your childs COVID-19 vaccination at a different time from other vaccinations, to reduce the chance that they experience several side effects all at once.

The CDCs website has resources to guide you on the timing of COVID-19 shots:

COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters

Stay Up to Date with Your COVID-19 Vaccines

COVID-19 Vaccines for People who are Moderately or Severely Immunocompromised

Its true that children are at a lower risk overall of becoming severely ill with COVID-19 compared with adults. However, children can stillbecome very sick. Like adults, children can also experience symptoms of long COVID that can affect their quality of life and daily activities. These symptoms are prevented by the vaccine.

Most importantly, children are at least as likely to be infected as adults and spread COVID-19 to others, including in the household and at school.

Yes, its recommended that children who have been infected with COVID-19 should still get vaccinated and boosted. Primary vaccination and booster doses after infection increases protection against future infection and severe disease.

September 14, 2022

Continued here:

COVID-19 Vaccine Information for Children Ages 6 Months to 17 Years: What You Should Know - On Cancer - Memorial Sloan Kettering

Kevin Snow is a Bennington resident and retired Energizer employee who received an updated booster for COVID-19 at the COVID Resource Center on Tuesday, September 13. SVHC photo.

Vermont Business Magazine More than 200 people were vaccinated with updated bivalent boosters for COVID-19 at Southwestern Vermont Health Cares (SVHC) COVID-19 Resource Center this morning. The clinic exhausted its supply of Moderna and will be offering Pfizer boosters only in the coming days.

In addition, a limited number of Pfizer shots available for Thursdays clinic has caused the health system to reduce clinic hours to 8 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 15.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna bivalent vaccines are equally effective, said Trey Dobson, MD, Southwestern Vermont Medical Centers chief medical officer. The most important step is to get one as soon as you can.

The COVID-19 Resource Center is located on the former campus of Southern Vermont College at 982 Mansion Drive in Bennington. The Center expects to resume normal hours8 a.m. noon Tuesdays and Thursdaysstarting Tuesday, September 20, though only Pfizer shots are expected to be available for the next few weeks. Service is provided on a walk-in basis during operating hours. No appointment is needed.

To be eligible, you must:

More information about bivalent boosters is available athttps://svhealthcare.org/Wellness-Connection/bivalent-boosters. The primary series of COVID-19 vaccines are also available.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care will run walk-in flu shot clinics on Saturdays throughout the month of October. The clinics will offer both traditional and high-dose flu vaccine. High-dose vaccine is available to those 65 or older. Additional details will be posted atsvhealthcare.organdfacebook.com/svmedicalcenter. Note that insurances will be billed and patients may receive a bill for the remaining cost.

About SVHC:Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, healthcare system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.

BENNINGTON, VTSeptember 13, 2022Southwestern Vermont Health Care

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COVID-19 Resource Center vaccinates hundreds with updated boosters - Vermont Biz

BUFFALO, N.Y. As public health experts cautiously anticipate how COVID-19 will play out this fall, a University at Buffalo scientist is reiterating that substantial immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus will only happen with a vaccine that can be delivered through the nose.

The best protection against initial infection with the coronavirus, as well as transmission of it, as opposed to the development of COVID-19 disease, will be most effectively achieved by intranasal vaccines, said Michael Russell, PhD, professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and first author on a paper published last month in Frontiers in Immunology.

The reason, he said, is that the most robust immunity against COVID-19 comes about as a result of infection that takes place in the upper respiratory tract and the mouth, and gives rise to mucosal immunity through the secretion of Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies.

That kind of immunity is not induced to any great extent by the existing injectable vaccines, said Russell. But, he said mucosal immunity is exactly the kind of immunity that would protect against initial infection, instead of protecting against severe disease after infection, the goal of the current COVID-19 vaccines.

It all results from a widespread lack of understanding of the operation of the mucosal immune system, said Russell, despite the fact that this has been known about for at least 40 years, but is poorly covered in most medical curricula.

He said that evidence is accumulating that shows that mucosal IgA antibodies have a significant impact on acquisition of SARS-CoV-2, the subsequent course of disease, and further transmission of the virus.

Vaccines delivered through the nose would not only induce mucosal immunity and thus prevent individuals from becoming infected, but they could also suppress community spread, which results from the circulation of aerosol particles and droplets generated by these upper respiratory and oral secretions.

A better route to herd immunity

Our main point, therefore, is that protection against initial infection (rather than protection against the development of COVID-19) and the onwards transmission of the virus will be more effectively achieved by intranasal vaccines, said Russell.In other words, the much-discussed and elusive accomplishment of herd immunity, which is not effectively generated by the existing injected vaccines, will be more likely to be achieved with mucosal immunity induced by intranasal vaccines.

The paper also argues that despite the fact that antibody responses to COVID-19 have almost entirely focused on serum, it turns out the level of antibodies that are circulating in the blood doesnt reflect the antibody level in mucosal secretions. Meanwhile, mucosal IgA antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 antigens have been detected in the saliva, nasal fluids, tears, tracheo-bronchial secretions and even breast milk in infected individuals.

The authors conceded that while there have been numerous animal model trials launched to develop intranasal vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, many havent continued past the preclinical stage. In part, they explained, this might be due to inadequate understanding of how the human and animal mucosal immune systems differ. Mucosal IgA antibodies found in secretions are much more effective at viral neutralization than circulating IgG antibodies, which are found in serum, said Russell.

The authors noted that the success of the influenza vaccines delivered through the nose indicate that this is a feasible delivery method for a vaccine. A recent article in Nature reports that approximately 100 intranasal COVID-19 vaccines are in development worldwide, two of which were approved last week in China and India. However, details of the trials supporting these approvals have not yet been released.

Russell concluded: If even a fraction of the time, effort and resources that were applied to the development of the first generation of COVID vaccines was applied to intranasal vaccines, the world might be benefiting from a widely available intranasal COVID-19 vaccine right now.

Jiri Mestecky, MD, PhD, professor of microbiology in the Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is co-author.

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The best protection against COVID-19 could be a vaccine delivered through the nose - University at Buffalo

The global impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causal agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has been immense, especially for the healthcare sector and economy. To date, the pandemic has claimed more than 6.5 million lives worldwide.

Several COVID-19 vaccines have received emergency use authorization (EUA) from global regulatory bodies like the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with vaccination programs having commenced in most countries.

Study:A third SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine dose in people receiving hemodialysis overcomes B cell defects but elicits a skewed CD4+ T cell profile. Image Credit: pics five / Shutterstock.com

Vaccination against COVID-19 vaccines has significantly reduced the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection. COVID-19 vaccines based on the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology elicit a robust humoral and cellular immune response, especially in their ability to recruit T helper (TH) and B-cells.However, mRNA vaccines induce a weak CD8+ T-cell response.

Initially, two mRNA vaccine doses were recommended; however, this vaccination regimen was revised to three doses to improve their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs). A longer interval between the first two COVID-19 vaccine doses has been shown to enhance humoral responses, as well as increase specific B-cell responses and maturation among low-risk populations. However, an increase in the interval did not have any significant effect impact on T-cell responses.

Patients at a mature stage of kidney disease and subjected tohemodialysis (HD) are susceptible to COVID-19. Previously, research has shown that this group exhibits a suboptimal response to the standard vaccination protocol for hepatitis B virus (HBV), diphtheria, and influenza immunizations.

A delayed immune response affecting B and T lymphocytes, dendritic cells, monocytes, and neutrophils has been observed due to uremia toxins and blood-membrane interactions during dialysis. Importantly, higher or multiple vaccine doses are effective strategies against influenza and HBV in this patient population.

Due to the high risk that HD patients will contract COVID-19 and experience severe disease, this group is considered to be a high priority for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Following vaccination against COVID-19, HD patients often exhibit reduced anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody production as compared to the general population. In addition, an earlier decline, even after three doses of vaccines, has been observed.

In a recent study published on the bioRxiv* preprint server, scientists define the quantitative and qualitative trajectories of vaccine-induced antibody responses, such as B, CD4+, and CD8+ T-cells, against COVID-19 in HD patients who received three mRNA COVID-19 vaccine doses. These findings were compared to antigen-specific responses in the healthy control group.

A third COVID-19 vaccine dose is crucial for HD patients to induce B-cell expansion and maturation equal to that of the control group. Previous high-dimensional functional assays have shown that TH responses in patients undergoing HD are phenotypically and functionally skewed; however, no changes in quantitative levels were observed in the current study.

The cellular analysis findings are consistent with previous studies that have reported that multiple or higher vaccination dosage can counterbalance their low responses to immunization. When the time between the first two vaccine doses was increased in COVID-19-vaccinated individuals also subjected to HD treatment, a weaker humoral and cellular immune response occurred. Nevertheless, the third vaccine dose enhanced antibody levels in the HD cohort as compared to the control group.

In the HD group, reduced production of receptor binding domain (RBD)+ B-cells was observed after the first two COVID-19 vaccine doses. HD patients vaccinated against COVID-19 with mRNA vaccines exhibited a delay in the maturation of B-cells, along with immature and unswitched immunoglobulin M (IgM)+ and IgD+ RBD+B cells. Similar conditions were observed in kidney transplant recipients and dialysis patients due to chronic inflammation as a result of the presence of uremia toxins, as well as anomalies in innate and T-cell immunity.

Strong antigen-specific CD4+ T-cell responses were observed in HD patients vaccinated against COVID-19. However, a quantitative difference was found between HD and control groups. Receipt of a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was characterized by the regularization of the effector function profile as compared to controls.

The current study reports that a twelve-week interval between the first two COVID-19 vaccine doses was not beneficial for HD patients. A weak B-cell response was observed after the second vaccine dose in the HD cohort. Although the optimal vaccination regimen in this group has not been determined, a marginally longer interval was recommended for stronger humoral responses.

Many alterations in adaptive immunity were found to be induced by COVID-19 vaccination in HD patients. Therefore, more research is needed to elucidate the factors associated with this heterogeneity and determine the underlying mechanism responsible for this immune defect. Further research is also needed to understand how prior SARS-CoV-2 infection affects hybrid immunity in HD patients upon vaccination.

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

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Altered T-cell response in hemodialysis patients following third COVID-19 vaccine dose - News-Medical.Net