Category: Covid-19

Theres roughly $19 million in unclaimed COVID-19 and energy relief funds for Mainers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers were laid off or quit their jobs at the height of the public health crisis, and inflation rose drastically after the fact, pushing up costs for many.

Gov. Janet Mills and the Legislature implemented several programs to provide financial assistance to Mainers affected by their losses at the onset of the pandemic.

In 2021, 524,912 Mainers who worked during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were issued a $285 disaster relief payment. In 2022, 876,283 Mainers were issued $850 to help them combat pandemic-driven inflation, and just last year, 877,129 qualified for $450 energy relief payments.

But about 40,000 checks, equivalent to nearly 2 percent of the 2.3 million payments, remain unclaimed through the Maine Unclaimed Property Program overseen by Treasurer Henry Beck.

Mainers may claim their benefits and find out if they have any at maineunclaimedproperty.gov.

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There's $19M in unclaimed Maine pandemic and energy relief payments - Bangor Daily News

BANGKOK (AP) Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist, was released from prison after serving four years for charges related to reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, according to a video statement she released Tuesday, eight days after her sentence ended, though there are concerns about how much freedom of movement she has.

Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, a vaguely defined charge often used in political cases, and served her full term. Yet, on the day of her release, her former lawyers could not reach her or her family. Shanghai police had paid visits to activists and her former lawyers in the days leading up to her release.

In a short video, Zhang said she was taken by police to her brother Zhang Jus home on May 13, the day she finished her sentence.

I want to thank everyone for their help and concern, she said in a soft voice, standing in what appeared to be a hallway of an apartment building.

The video was posted by Jane Wang, an overseas activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign in the United Kingdom and is in contact with one of Zhangs former lawyers. However, Wang said in a statement that Zhang still has limited freedom. They became concerned that Zhang would be kept under further control by police even if she was no longer in prison.

The United States Department of State also issued a statement of concern over Zhangs status in the days after she was due to be released.

Ren Quanniu represented Zhang before being stripped of his license in February 2021. He said he confirmed the video was true by speaking with Zhangs family.

Shes not free, shes relatively free, he said in a message to the AP. Shes still under the watch and care of the police.

During her detention at Shanghais Women Prison, Zhang staged a hunger strike and was hospitalized at one point in 2021. Zhangs family, who could often only speak to her by phone, faced police pressure during her incarceration, and her parents refused to speak to news outlets.

Zhang was among a handful of citizen journalists who traveled to the central Chinese city of Wuhan after the government put it under total lockdown in February 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. She walked around the city to document public life as fears grew about the novel coronavirus.

Others spent time in jail for documenting the early days of the pandemic, including Fang Bin, who published videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the outbreak. Fang was sentenced to three years in prison and released in April 2023.

Chen Qiushi, another citizen journalist, disappeared in February 2020 while filming in Wuhan. Chen resurfaced in September 2021 on a friends live video feed on YouTube, saying he had suffered from depression. He did not provide details about his disappearance.

The coronavirus remains a sensitive topic in China. In the first week of May, the Chinese scientist who first published a sequence of the COVID-19 virus protested authorities barring him from his lab, after years of demotions and setbacks.

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Zhang Zhan: Chinese journalist arrested for reporting on COVID released after 4 years - The Associated Press

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Sen. Rand Paul is calling on the Justice Department to probe whether a top adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci improperly concealed, and perhaps even destroyed, documents pertaining to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kentucky Republican is formally calling for an investigation into accusations of improper concealment and destruction of COVID-19 origin records by Dr. David Morens in a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday.

The letter, citing emails obtained by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, presents "significant evidence" suggesting Morens may have violated federal law by hiding and erasing records related to the origins of COVID-19 to avoid leaks through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

"Moreover, newly revealed emails suggest a broader conspiracy within the NIH FOIA office to assist Dr. Morens in unlawfully destroying records and evading public records laws," Paul wrote.

For his part, Fauci has repeatedly publicly repudiated theories suggesting a lab leak as the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

HIGH-RANKING FAUCI ADVISER USED PERSONAL EMAIL TO AVOID FOIA REQUESTS, DISCUSS COVID ORIGIN

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is formally calling for an investigation into accusations of improper concealment and destruction of COVID-19 origin records. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"These emails provide strong evidence that Dr. Morens violated federal law by concealing and destroying federal records. It is imperative that your Department investigate the allegations against Dr. Morens and, if substantiated, ensure that he is held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," the letter continued.

Paul's letter comes as emails recently released between Morens and the president of a non-governmental organization being funded to conduct coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, the EcoHealth Alliance, were investigated by House lawmakers last week.

NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak testified on Thursday that Morens allegedly deleted emails to thwart the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic's investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

"Dont worry, just send to any of my addresses, and I will delete anything I dont want to see in the New York Times."

During the hearing, Tabak informed Republican House Oversight Chairman James Comer that Morens purportedly breached NIH policy by deleting emails after public records requests.

"Dr. David Morens, a senior advisor to Fauci for decades, wrote in an email to Dr. Daszak, I learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIAd, but before the search starts. So I think we are all safe. Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail. Is that consistent with NIH document retention policies?" Comer asked Tabak, to which he responded that it is not.

FAUCI ADMITS SOCIAL DISTANCING NOT BASED ON SCIENCE, 'SORT OF JUST APPEARED'

The coronavirus mutation COVID-19 illustration with dark blue brain cell background. (iStock)

WUHAN LAB SCIENTISTS WERE FIRST TO CATCH COVID-19: REPORT

"He also later wrote Dr. Daszak, We are all smart enough to know to never have smoking guns and if we did, we wouldnt put them in emails. And if we found them, we would delete them,'" Comer said. "Finally, emails show that Dr. Morens would share internal questions about upcoming FOIA releases with Dr. Daszak. He would then help Dr. Daszak craft responses to documents being released in these FOIAs."

In other emails, Morens expressed concern over what was sent to his work email and what was sent to his personal email, informing those on the email chain that they did not need to worry and that he would "delete anything I dont want to see in the New York Times."

"As you know, I try to always communicate on gmail because my NIH email is FOIAd constantly," Morens wrote in a September 2021 email, which was sent at the time to many scientists involved in the debate over the origins of COVID. "Stuff sent to my gmail gets to my phone but not my NIH computer."

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"Dont worry, just send to any of my addresses, and I will delete anything I dont want to see in the New York Times," he added in the email.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the NIH and Garland for comment.

Fox News Digital's Kyle Morris contributed to this report.

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Fauci adviser's alleged destruction of COVID origin docs must be probed by AG: Rand Paul - Fox News

The coronavirus pandemic didnt give rise to health inequities in the U.S. Rather, it revealed and exacerbated them.

That was the consensus of a panel at Fortunes Brainstorm Health conference in Dana Point, Calif., on Monday, just over a year after the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ended.

It exposed the deep fissures within our health care system, said Dr. Uch Blackstock, founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity. Many of us knew what those fissures were, but I think to a more general audience, it exposed them in a way that [they] had never been exposed before.

Jayasree Iyer, PhD, CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation, echoed, Health equity has been a chronic issue for time immemorial.

Age, sex and gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and digital literacy are among the determinants of health equity, defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people. In the U.S. for example, COVID-19 morbidity and mortality were higher among Black, Hispanic, and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, noted a 2023 analysis in the Avicenna Journal of Medicine.

The silver lining? The pandemic woke people up to the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in medicine, according to Dr. Hala Borno, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and cofounder and CEO of Trial Library.

It emboldened organizations to talk about DEI when they werent interested or [didnt have] the bandwidth to do so before, Borno said. But I think now is the time of reckoning where theyre starting to define what it means and how they can consistently apply it within the organization.

The HHS Healthy People 2030 campaign touts a strengthened focus on health equity and offers a toolkit for organizations to improve their own health and well-being. While such initiatives are well-intended, Iyer said not nearly enough action has been taken to ensure people facing disparities are getting careparticularly on a global scale.

Theres still a lot of work to do, Iyer said. But it can be done, and there are fantastic models out there on how this can be doneits about scaling that up.

For more on health equity:

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Brainstorm Health: How COVID exposed the inequalities in health care - Fortune

Zhang Zhan was detained in May 2020 and sentenced seven months later to four years in jail

Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has been released from prison after serving four years for her coverage of Beijing's COVID-19 response, according to a video released by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. However, rights groups said Zhang was still under surveillance and that her freedom was extremely limited.

Zhang, a former lawyer, travelled to the central city of Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the chaos at the pandemic's epicentre, questioning the authorities' handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos.

She was detained in May 2020 and sentenced seven months later to four years in jail for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" -- a charge routinely used to suppress dissent.

Zhang was due to be released on May 13 but a lack of information about her whereabouts had sparked concern among rights groups and activists that she could still be detained.

A short video featuring a pyjama-clad Zhang shared by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday appeared to show she had been released as scheduled.

"Police released me from prison at five in the morning on May 13 and sent me to my older brother's home in Shanghai," Zhang said in the video, in a soft, halting voice.

"Thank you everyone for your help and concern, I wish you all the best... there is not much more that I can say," Zhang said.

It was unclear who filmed the video, with RSF saying it was released "via an intermediary".

While Zhang appears to have been released, "her contact with the outside world and daily life are all under surveillance", Jane Wang, a UK-based activist involved in the campaign to release and locate Zhang, wrote on social media platform X.

"She only has limited freedom," Wang said.

Activists as well as the United Nations' rights office have expressed concern about 40-year-old Zhang's health after she conducted several hunger strikes in prison to protest against her conviction.

"RSF remains concerned by her situation and emphasises that partial freedom is not freedom at all," the media watchdog wrote in a statement on Wednesday.

"Diplomatic intervention remains crucial to ensure her full and unconditional release without delay," RSF said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Chinese Citizen Journalist Arrested For Reporting On Covid Released After 4 Years - NDTV

South Sudans Minster of Health, Elizabeth Chuei, receives a COVID-19 vaccine in March 2021, delivered by the WHO co-sponsored COVAX vaccine mechanism.

Sixteen leading scientists and manufacturers involved in vaccine development and production worldwide issue an urgent call for a pandemic accord that can be a win-win for all. The full list of authors is available below.

Health misinformation was not invented during COVID-19 but was certainly brought to a higher, more malevolent and destructive pitch during the pandemic. That hostile crusade has since been (mis)directed at two landmark agreements, the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Agreement (Pandemic Agreement), and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), that are currently being negotiated by WHOs 194 member states for approval at the World Health Assembly.

The overarching goal of ensuring that the world will deal more equitably with the next pandemic appears to be elusive as we near the deadline of May 2024 for the close of the negotiations.

Several social media and news outlets have claimed that the WHO is negotiating two instruments that will afford the agency far-reaching powers in case of a future pandemic.

While the WHO is the global custodian of human health, the WHO is not negotiating these agreements the 194 member states are. Aside from being untrue, the false claims undermine the goals of the Pandemic Agreement and its ability to ensure that it remains centered around the key pillars of access, equity, and global health security.

Moreover, these false claims gainsay the grim facts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lethal consequences that the lack of equitable access to life-saving medical countermeasures imposed on the greater part of the worlds population.

The Pandemic Agreement and the IHR amendments do not grant WHO far-reaching powers and do not compel member states to surrender national sovereign rights.

Rather, they seek to ensure that, by working together, the global community can ensure the health of all. The Pandemic Agreement is an important and empowering step in that direction.

The Pandemic Agreement is a powerful instrument for mankind and, while recognising that the WHO is the internationally-recognised lead agency, it is important to remember that WHO member states initiated these processes, remain the main players in the negotiations, and are themselves, not WHO, responsible for the outcome. The World Health Assembly (WHA), not WHO, decides on the content and adoption of the agreement.

It should be borne in mind that the Pandemic Agreement is NOT written for low- and middle-income countries, but for all countries to secure health security for all peoples rich and poor. This is critical as pandemics do not stop at country borders, nor put all within a countrys population at similar risk.

Fostering a value system that emphasises equity, as demonstrated through commitments to equal access to vaccines and therapeutics for all people, no matter who they are or where they live is central to such an outcome.

For this to happen, the agreement we need is one that will ensure access by providing a clear pathway to enable access and equity.

The world already has several instruments and treaties, such as the flexibilities under the World Trade Organizations Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), and the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, now repositioned as H-TAP (Health Technology Access Programme), which have not yet been used to their full potential.

The agreements success will be measured by how it can provide a better roadmap and enable more effective use of complementary agreements and instruments. We must not just discuss notions of technology access, transfer, production and equitable access but move beyond the words on paper to implementation.

There must be clarity on leadership and the need for one entity to lead and govern the implementation of the entire agreement where health is the focus. WHO, as the directing and coordinating authority in international health work, should be empowered, and supported to effectively execute its mandate with WHO still being accountable to the WHA.

But WHO alone cannot protect the world; there are many other essential players regional health agencies, governments, public and private agencies, funders, civil society organisations, communities, research, development entities, as well as academic and public health institutions.

Building trust for consensus amongst all these players is complex: it requires a clear view on the barriers to trust.

Moving the needle toward consensus amongst the 194 World Health Assembly states with a few days left to go will require a strong effort to eliminate the fundamental misunderstandings about the Agreement and bring forth its acceptance.

The answer is both simple and profound: in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were often afterthoughts, and some countries used the worst pandemic in a century to further their own geopolitical and domestic political agendas rather than to unite to advance life-saving solutions together, effectively, efficiently, equitably, and justly both globally and within their own country.

During the pandemic, it was governments (many elected by the people) that chose or did not choose to impose lockdowns to quell waves of COVID-19; it was governments that chose or did not choose to impose travel restrictions.

When high-income countries pre-ordered far more vaccine doses than they could ever use, and indeed, millions upon millions of doses were disposed of, rather than being shared with health workers, elderly people, and immune-suppressed patients in lower-income countries when demand was high, it was governments that justified these excesses.

Act-Accelerator and COVAX partners, including the WHO, which works for its 194 member states, did their best to streamline access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.

But WHO is only as strong as governments of the member states wish it to be WHO cannot force governments to do anything.

At present, there are several issues in the agreement still to be resolved. Higher income countries are worried about their autonomy and pharmaceutical corporations based in those, about profits, while lower-income countries in all regions, including those across Africa, are requiring mechanisms that will prevent gross inequities from recurring.

The pandemic agreement is not designed to be detrimental to the autonomy of nations or the profits of private firms but a win-win for all by preventing gross inequalities in access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

Some of the mechanisms being discussed involve nesting within WHO several time-bound processes that would alert governments when the first signs of a dangerous outbreak are being detected; that would require governments to share information about nascent outbreaks anywhere on the globe; whereby pandemics that threaten all people everywhere result in the equitable sharing of life-saving medical interventions with industry, researchers, and governments agreeing in advance to a level of essential benefits-sharing that will save lives while fostering scientific innovation.

Paradoxically, ensuring the spread of technical know-how and manufacturing capacity to lower-income countries, which is central to these outcomes, is a strong area of disagreement amongst WHOs Member States about the Pandemic Agreement, although the WHO has been leading an effort over the past two years to do just this.

South Africa is at the centre of this shift, and there is real hope that it will change the game for mRNA vaccine production in Africa and the use of other vaccine manufacturing technologies.

A global pandemic agreement that addresses the issue of technical know-how for manufacturing will ensure that the next time around, the global community is prepared ahead of time to accelerate this shift. Ultimately, when governments agree on principles like sharing and equity, it is ordinary people who benefit. At the same time, in the face of conflict and chaos, it is ordinary people who suffer.

To be clear, the Pandemic Agreement will not be enacted in isolation. Other established instruments, especially those that govern intellectual property and trade, will support and continue to co-exist working together to enhance access in a synergistic manner.

The agreement is a means to better address equity globally and must be owned by all governments.

We urge all of those who are curious about the Pandemic Agreement and its agreement process to learn more and join millions of others around the world to urge all governments to get the job done, to find a way to bequeath to future generations the sort of pandemic agreement which, will ensure a swifter, fairer response for a better healthier world for all.

Prof Petro Terblancheis managing director of Afrigen Biologics, South Africa, which hosts the WHOs global mRNA technology vaccine hub.

Dr Jerome Kim is Director General of the International Vaccine Institute, South Korea.

Rajinder Suri is CEO of Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network, India.

Prof Padmashree Gehl Sampath is CEO of the Africa Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, Rwanda.

Prof Kiat Ruxrungtham is founder and co-director of the Vaccine Research Center at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

Frederik Kristensen is managing director of the Regionalized Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation.

Ramon Rao is CEO of Hilleman Laboratories, Singapore, which translates early discovery of vaccines and biologics for infectious diseases into affordable products with global health impact.

Prof Sarah Gilbert is Sad Professorship of Vaccinology at Oxford University UK, and co-developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Prof Glenda Gray is president of the South African Medical Research Council South Africa.

Boitumelo Semete is CEO of the South Africa Health Products Regulatory Agency, South Africa.

Prof Noni MacDonald is professor of paediatrics (infectious diseases) at Dalhousie University in Canada.

Charles Gore is executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool Switzerland.

Dr Amadou Sall is CEO of the Institute Pasteur Dakar in Senegal and Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Arboviruses and Viral Hemorrhagic Fever.

Prof Cristina Possas is an infectious diseases expert at the Institute of Technology on Immunobiologicals (Bio-Manguinhos) at Fundao Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) in Brazil.

Dr Simon Agwale is CEO of Innovation Biotech (Nigeria and USA).

Image Credits: Chris Black/WHO, UNICEF, International Rescue Committee, PMO Barbados, Kerry Cullinan.

Combat the infodemic in health information and support health policy reporting from the global South. Our growing network of journalists in Africa, Asia, Geneva and New York connect the dots between regional realities and the big global debates, with evidence-based, open access news and analysis. To make a personal or organisational contribution click here on PayPal.

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The Pandemic Agreement: A Bridge To Nowhere Or North Star To Access And Global Health Security? - Health Policy Watch

Identification of individual correlates of immunogenicity

Characteristics of the 115 participants with humoral and cellular data included in the analyses are presented in Table 1. The median age was 66.4 years (IQR 61.068.9), 47 (41%) males and 68 (59%) females, 57 (49.6%) had a BMI less than 25, 45 (39.1%) had a BMI of 2530 and a further 13 (11.3%) had a BMI of greater than 30. Of the participants 77 (66.9%) received ChAdOx1 and 38 (33.0%) received BNT162b2. When individuals were separated according to vaccine type received, the individual characteristics were similar (Supplementary Table 1). To identify demographic and technical factors associated with humoral and cellular responses to COVID-19 vaccination we first performed univariate analysis of ten factors: age, sex, ethnicity, general health category, vaccine type, number of days between 1st and 2nd vaccination [inter-vaccine days], days post second vaccine, pre-vaccine SARS-CoV-2 serostatus, BMI value, and BMI category. This analysis identified seven factors, which had a significant association with cellular and/or humoral immune responses: age, sex, pre-vaccine SARS-CoV-2 serostatus, BMI category, vaccine type, inter-vaccine days, and days post second vaccine (Supplementary Tables 2ai). These seven factors were adjusted for in subsequent analyses to identify independent associations.

First, we investigated whether there was any relationship between humoral and cellular immune responses we measured and post-vaccine anti-Spike and neutralising titres, adjusting for the seven baseline and post-vaccination covariates identified in univariate analyses described above. Post-vaccination titres of anti-Spike combined IgG/A/M antibody ratio responses were identified to be associated with neutralising antibody concentrations, three spike-specific CD4+T cell phenotypes and spike-stimulation induced IFN secretion (Fig. 1, Supplementary Table 3; quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). In addition, neutralising antibody concentrations significantly correlated with SARS-CoV-2-specific TNF+CD8+ T cell frequency (p=0.0003, Supplementary Table 4; quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). As expected, post-vaccination titres of neutralising and anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratio correlated positively with each other (R=0.47, p<0.0001, Fig. 1a; Pearson correlation and quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively). In addition, anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio correlated positively with IFNy secretion from SARS-CoV-2 peptide-stimulated whole blood (R=0.31, p=0.001; Fig. 1b; Pearson correlation and quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively). The three spike-specific CD4+T cell populations from PBMC SARS-CoV-2 peptide-stimulated cultures that positively correlated with anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratio post-vaccination were all double-positive cytokine producers: IFN-+IL2+ (R=0.37, p=0.0003; Pearson correlation and quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively); TNF+IL-2+ (R=0.35, p=0.0004; Pearson correlation and quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively); IFN-+TNF+ (R=0.32, p=0.001; Pearson correlation and quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively) (Fig. 1c). There was also a trend (q=0.1) for a positive correlation between anti-Spike IgG/A/M and SARS-CoV-2 peptide-specific CD4+IL-2 single positive T cells (Supplementary Table 3; quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). Significant correlations were maintained between anti-Spike combined IgG/A/M antibody and neutralising antibody concentrations and spike-stimulation induced IFN secretion when not including vaccine type as a covariate adjustment (R=0.56; Pearson correlation and Supplementary Fig. 4).

Correlation between post-COVID-19 vaccine anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio and a, neutralising antibody titre IC50, b, whole blood IFN production after S peptide stimulation and c, percent of cytokine positive CD4+ T after PBMC stimulation with S peptide as determined by intracellular cytokine staining. Coloured according to IFN production from S peptide-stimulated whole blood (SARS-S WB). Data presented on x and y axes are normalised including log2 transformation and adjusted for the baseline and post-vaccination covariates (age, sex, BMI category, pre-vaccine SARS-CoV-2 serostatus, vaccine type, vitamin D randomisation, inter-vaccine days, and days post second vaccine), p values derived using the quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustments for covariates, all q<0.01. Trend line indicates Pearson correlation (R-statistic).

We next determined whether there was a relationship between pre-vaccine anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratio on post-vaccine humoral and cellular responses (Supplementary Table 5), including adjustment for baseline and post-vaccination covariates (age, sex, BMI category, vitamin D randomisation, vaccine type, inter-vaccine days, and days post second vaccine). Pre-vaccine anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratios were significantly correlated with post-vaccine anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratios (p<0.001; Pearson correlation and quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively) (Fig. 2a), frequency of IFN+CD4+ and IFN+CD8+SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells (p<0.001; quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates) (Fig. 2b, c) and frequency of effector memory CD4+T cells in unstimulated PBMC (p=0.006; Supplementary Table 5; quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). Comparing those who were considered seropositive (anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratio 1) vs seronegative pre-vaccination, post-vaccine anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratios and frequency of IFN+CD4+SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells remained significantly different (p<0.001) (Supplementary Table 6; t-test for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). Together, these data demonstrate that individuals with baseline seropositivity due to prior SARS-CoV-2 infection had a stronger absolute cellular immune response following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination than those who were anti-S seronegative. These responses will be a combination of the original infection induced T cell memory and that expanded by the vaccination, as baseline PBMC were not taken, T cell expansion could not be assessed.

Correlation between pre-COVID-19 vaccine anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio and post-COVID-19 vaccine. a anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio, and frequency of IFNy+ b, CD4+ and c, CD8+ T cells after S peptide stimulation, b, c coloured according to anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio normalised to mean 0 and variance 1. Data presented on x and y axes are normalised including log2 transformation and adjusted for the baseline and post-vaccination covariates (age, sex, BMI category, vaccine type, vitamin D randomisation, inter-vaccine days, and days post second vaccine), p value derived using thequadratic regression for general linear models with adjustments for covariates, all q<0.01. Trend line indicates Pearson correlation (R-statistic).

Having identified cellular and humoral correlates of post-vaccination anti-S and neutralising antibody titre, irrespective of vaccine type, we next investigated whether there were any differences in cellular and humoral correlates between those who received BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1-nCoV-19. Adjusting for the other baseline and post-vaccination covariates, as above, we found BNT162b2 induced significantly higher anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio and neutralising antibody titres compared to ChAdOx1-nCoV-19 (Fig. 3a, b, Supplementary Table 7; t-test for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). There were, however, no significant differences in unstimulated or antigen-stimulated cellular responses that we measured in PBMC or whole blood between those who received BNT162b2 compared with those who received ChAdOx1-nCoV-19 (Supplementary Table 7). Separately analysing post-vaccination anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio correlations for each vaccine type, BNT162b2 had a stronger correlation compared to ChAdOx1-nCoV-19 with neutralising antibody titres (R=0.691 vs R=0.467, respectively; Pearson correlation) (Fig. 3c) and spike-stimulation induced IFN secretion (R=0.418 vs R=0.345, respectively) (Fig. 3d), although BNT162b2 Pearsons correlations were less significant due to smaller sample size compared to ChAdOx1-nCoV-19. Post-vaccination anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio correlations with the three polyfunctional spike-specific CD4+T cell populations previously identified, irrespective of vaccine type (Fig. 1c), showed stronger correlation for BNT162b2 with TNF+IL-2+CD4+T cells (R=0.51, vs R=0.31 ChAdOx1-nCoV-19; Pearson correlation) and IFN-+IL2+CD4+T cells (R=0.39, vs R=0.35 ChAdOx1-nCoV-19; Pearson correlation); whereas ChAdOx1-nCoV-19 had stronger for IFN-+TNF+CD4+T cells (R=0.33, vs R=0.14 BNT162b2; Pearson correlation) (Supplementary Fig. 5).

Cumulative data showing a anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratio and b neutralising antibody titre IC50 in participants post-vaccination with either BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1-nCoV-19. Line indicated Median. Data points are plotted without covariate adjustment. Correlations plotted separately for participants who received either BNT162b2 (blue) or ChAdOx1-nCoV-19 (yellow) comparing post-vaccination anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio, and post-vaccination. c neutralising antibody (NAB) titre IC50. d whole blood IFN production after S peptide stimulation. Data presented on x and y axes are normalised including log2 transformation and adjusted for the baseline and post-vaccination covariates (age, sex, BMI category, pre-vaccine SARS-CoV-2 serostatus, vitamin D randomisation, inter-vaccine days, and days post second vaccine), p value derived using t-test (a and b) or quadratic regression (c and d) for general linear models with adjustment for covariates. Trend line indicates Pearson correlation (R-statistic).

When analysing whether there was an impact of the number of days between vaccinations and measured immune responses, we only identified a trend for the frequency of SARS-CoV-2 peptide-specific TNF+IFN+CD4+T cells and TNF+CD8+ T cells (p0.007; q=0.16) when adjusting for the other baseline and post-vaccination covariates (Supplementary Table 8; quadratic regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). However, we did find that the delay from the date of the second vaccine dose to the date of blood draw was positively correlated with the level of SARS-CoV-2 peptide-induced whole blood secretion of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF (p0.0004), and a trend for negative correlation with Neutralising antibody titres (p=0.01; q=0.14) (Supplementary Table 9; linear regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates).

Having determined the vaccine type and timing variables independently associated with vaccine-induced humoral and cellular immune responses, we next analyzed demographic correlates adjusting for all other baseline and post-vaccination covariates as previously. We found that increasing age was independently associated with lower anti-S antibody titres post-vaccination (R=0.277, all participants adjusting for vaccine type; Pearson correlation) (Fig. 4a). There was no difference when analysing each vaccine type independently (R=0.26, BNT162b2; R=0.27, ChAdOx1-nCoV-19, Supplementary Fig. 6A; Pearson correlation). However, due to lower number of individuals who received BNT162b2, this did not reach statistical significance. For all participants, the frequency of polyfunctional spike-specific CD4+T cells from PBMC SARS-CoV-2 peptide-stimulated cultures post-vaccination also negatively correlated with increasing age for IFN-+IL-2+ (R=0.24, p=0.012; Pearson correlation and linear regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively) and TNF+IL-2+CD4+T cells (R=0.24, p=0.013; Pearson correlationand linear regression for general linear models with adjustment for covariates respectively) (Supplementary Table 10; and Fig. 4b). Supplementary Fig. 6B, C shows the same analysis separating by vaccine type, ChAdOx1-nCoV-19 had a stronger negative correlation for both CD4+T cell populations with age, compared to BNT162b2 (IFN-+IL-2+, R=0.34 vs R=0.15 and TNF+IL-2+, R=0.32 vs 0.14; Pearson correlation), although the larger and younger age range of those who received ChAdOx1-nCoV-19 may have improved the strength of correlation for ChAdOx1-nCoV-19. As would be expected, we also found increasing age was independently associated with lower frequency of naive CD8+ T cells (p<0.0001) and higher frequency of CD8+EM (p=0.004) and EMRA T cells (p=0.004). These data collectively show that increasing age was associated with reduced humoral immunity associated with reduced double-positive cytokine-producing spike-specific CD4+T cells, and vaccine type having no or only minor effect on these age-related differences.

a Correlation between age and post-vaccine anti-Spike IgG/A/M antibody ratio, coloured according to frequency of naive (CD45RA+CD27+) CD8+ T cells present in the peripheral blood of the individuals. b percent of cytokine positive CD4+T after PBMC stimulation with S peptide as determined by intracellular cytokine staining, coloured according to anti-S IgG/A/M antibody ratio normalised to mean 0 and variance 1. Data presented on y axis is normalised including log2 transformation and adjustment for baseline and post-vaccination covariates (sex, BMI category, pre-vaccine SARS-CoV-2 serostatus, vaccine type, vitamin D randomisation, inter-vaccine days, and days post second vaccine), p values derived using linear regression for general linear models with adjustments for the same covariates, all q<0.1. Trend line indicates Pearson correlation (R-statistic).

Finally, we tested for associations between sex and BMI with SARS-CoV-2 cellular and humoral immunity, with analyses adjusted for baseline and post-vaccination co-variates as previously. We found a highly significant lower frequency of SARS-CoV-2-specific TNF+CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (p<0.0001) correlated with increasing BMI category (Supplementary Table 11; ANOVA for general linear models with adjustment for covariates), as well as trends of lower SARS-CoV-2-specific IL-2+CD4+T cells and higher CRP (p0.014, q<0.156). There was no significant association between higher BMI category and anti-Spike or neutralising antibodies. (Supplementary Table 11; ANOVA for general linear models with adjustment for covariates), despite our finding that the level of neutralising antibodies significantly correlated with SARS-CoV-2-specific TNF+CD8+ T cells (Supplementary Table 5), which were decreased with increasing BMI. This remained true if we analysed each vaccine type separately.

When analysing associations between sex immune correlates, the most significant difference was in our control assay with higher LPS induced IL-6 secretion in whole blood stimulated plasma (p<0.0001). Males also had a higher frequency of CD8+ (p=0.0001) and CD4+ (p=0.011) EM T cells, whilst females had a higher frequency of naive CD4+ (p=0.012) and CD8+ (p=0.002) T cells (Supplementary Table 12; t test for general linear models with adjustment for covariates). However, these differences did not impact upon SARS-CoV-2-specific cellular or humoral responses post-vaccination between males and females with no significant differences observed (Supplementary Table 11). Collectively these data show sex had no impact on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine immunogenicity, whilst BMI had significant effects on single cytokine producing SARS-COV-2-specific T cell functions we independently identified to be associated with SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibody concentrations post-vaccination.

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In new research, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) show that the 100-year-old Bacillus Calmette-Gurin (BCG) vaccine, originally developed to prevent tuberculosis, protects individuals with type 1 diabetes from severe COVID-19 disease and other infectious diseases.

Two back-to-back randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trials found that the BCG vaccine provided continuous protection for nearly the entire COVID-19 pandemic in the US, regardless of the viral variant.

"Individuals with type 1 diabetes are highly susceptible to infectious diseases and had worse outcomes when they were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus," said senior author Denise Faustman, MD, Ph.D., director of the Immunobiology Laboratory at MGH and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

"Published data from other investigators show mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are not very effective in this group of vulnerable patients. But we've shown that BCG can protect type 1 diabetics from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases."

The 18-month Phase III trial, published in iScience, was conducted late in the US pandemic when the highly transmissible omicron variant was circulating. A 15-month Phase II trial was conducted early in the pandemic; results of that trial were published in Cell Reports Medicine.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several international trials tested if BCG as a single shot, or booster, given to previously BCG-vaccinated adults protected them from infection and COVID-19. This research expanded the large global clinical trial database showing that BCG administered to newborns works as a platform for all infectious disease, maybe for decades. But results from these COVID-19 booster trials in people previously vaccinated with BCG were mixed, with five randomized trials showing efficacy and seven trials showing no benefit.

The MGH Phase II and Phase III clinical trials testing BCG differed from other BCG trials in important ways. Instead of receiving one dose of BCG, participants received five or six doses of a particularly potent strain of BCG vaccine. The US participants were followed for a total of 36 months instead of weeks or months.

"We know that in people who are nave to BCG vaccine, the off-target effects can take at least two years to achieve full protection," said Faustman. "Giving multiple doses of the vaccine may speed up that process."

And importantly, the US population had never received BCG vaccines, so these clinical trials were not booster trials.

"The Phase II and Phase III trials conducted at MGH were unique in that they were the only COVID trials in the world in which the study population had never received a BCG vaccine and was never exposed to TB," said Faustman. "Trials conducted in countries where participants had previously received BCG vaccine as newborns or who had previous exposure to tuberculosis may have obscured any benefit from a BCG booster."

The MGH trials enrolled 141 participants with type 1 diabetes; 93 people in the treatment group received five or six doses of BCG vaccine and the 48 individuals in the placebo group received sham vaccine and were followed for 36 months to capture diverse COVID-19 genetic variants and many infectious disease exposures.

During the earlier Phase II trial (January 2020 to April 2021) when the virus was more lethal but less transmissible, the BCG vaccine's efficacy was 92%, comparable to the efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in healthy adults.

Over the full 34 months of the US COVID-19 pandemic, the BCG vaccine had a significant efficacy of 54.3%. The investigators also found that the BCG-treated participants had lower rates of viral, bacterial, and fungal infections as well as COVID-19 disease itself.

The BCG vaccine confers an immunity that likely lasts decades, a clear advantage to the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccines against other infectious diseases, such as influenza, where the duration of effectiveness is only two or three months.

"The BCG vaccine offers the prospect of near-lifelong protection against every variant of COVID-19, the flu, respiratory syncytial virus, and other infectious diseases," said Faustman.

Some of the BCG-treated participants also received the commercially available COVID-19 vaccines during the Phase III trial. The investigators observed that the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines did not protect people with type 1 diabetes against COVID-19.

"Our study showed that the BCG vaccine neither increased the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, nor was it harmful to those who received the COVID-19 vaccine," said Faustman. "As the pandemic continues to evolve it will be interesting to see if we can work with the FDA to allow access to BCG vaccine for type 1 diabetics, who appear to be particularly at risk for all infectious diseases."

Other contributing authors include Willem M. Khtreiber, Emma R. Hostetter, Grace E. Wolfe, Maya S. Vayshnaw, Rachel Goldstein, Emily R. Bulczynski, Neeshi S. Hullavarad, Joan E. Braley, and Hui Zheng.

More information: Late in the US pandemic, multi-dose BCG vaccines protect against COVID-19 and infectious diseases, iScience (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109881. http://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext 2589-0042(24)01103-9

Journal information: Cell Reports Medicine , iScience

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Century-old vaccine found to protect type 1 diabetics from infectious diseases - Medical Xpress

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Repeat Covid-19 shots help ward off variants, even other viruses - The Lexington Times

According to INSACOG sources cited by news agency PTI on Tuesday, India has documented 324 instances of COVID-19 so far. Of those, 290 cases are of KP.2 and 34 cases are of KP.1, sub-variants of JN1 (a branch of the Omicron variant) that are responsible for the spike in cases in Singapore.

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The report highlighted that there is no rise in hospitalisation or serious instances, therefore there is no need for alarm or panic. Mutations will continue to occur rapidly, as is typical of viruses such as SARS-CoV2.

According to data gathered by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), there have been 34 KP.1 cases reported from seven states and union territories, with 23 of those cases coming from West Bengal. Maharashtra has reported four KP.1 cases, Gujarat and Rajasthan have reported two, while Goa, Haryana, and Uttarakhand have reported one.

Out of all the states that have reported KP.2 cases, INSACOG has identified around 290 cases nationwide, with 148 of those cases coming from Maharashtra alone. Other states and Union territories that record KP.2 sub-variants include:

The report also said that hospital samples are selected in a systematic manner to detect any shift in the severity of the virus-related condition, and that INSACOG is capable of identifying the appearance of any new variant.

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It is pertinent to note that Singapore is currently dealing with a new wave of COVID-19, as reported by the authorities, who counted over 25,900 cases between May 5 and May 11. Every week, the instances are almost doubling. A health alert from the government advises people to wear masks once more.

According to Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH), the estimated number of COVID-19 infections for the week of May 511 increased to 25,900, a 90% rise from the 13,700 cases recorded the week before.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), JN.1 and its sub-lineages, including KP.1 and KP.2, remain the most common COVID-19 variations worldwide, with KP.2 designated as a Variant Under Monitoring. Scientists have also given KP.1 and KP.2 the nickname 'FLiRT', which comes from the technical nomenclature of their mutations.

(With inputs from agencies)

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India reports 324 cases of COVID-19 sub-variants KP.1 and KP.2. Here`s what you need to know - WION