CLAIM
[Spike] is harmful to the human body in at least eight different ways [and] can persist in the human body for weeks, or even months, after a person gets vaccinated
DETAILS
Misleading: Small studies in cells or animals have found that the COVID-19 spike protein may cause damage in high concentrations. However, there is no indication that this would be relevant after vaccination with much lower quantities of spike present in the bloodstream.Inadequate support: There is no evidence to support the use of detox diets to inhibit the spike protein. The spike protein is cleared from the body within days of vaccination through the normal processes in the body.
KEY TAKE AWAY
The spike protein is a vital component for the SARS-CoV-2 virus to infect cells. As it is situated on the virus's surface, it is an easy target for the immune system to recognize. The COVID-19 vaccines cause the body to produce a small amount of spike protein, which is cleared within days, to prompt an immune response. There is no evidence that the spike protein causes damage to cells at these levels, and there is no evidence that detox diets will alter this process. The risks of developing serious complications like blood clots or lung damage are far higher after severe COVID-19 than after a vaccine; in fact, vaccination helps to reduce this risk instead.
REVIEW The spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to human cells and allows the virus to enter. The COVID-19 vaccines were developed to target the spike protein in order to induce immunity against SARS-CoV-2.
The most common vaccines used against SARS-CoV-2 work by delivering the genetic instructions for the body to temporarily produce spike proteins. These genetic instructions can be provided through mRNA, like the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, or a viral vector, like the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca ones. This is enough for the body to generate an immune response and be better prepared to fight an infection. The common side effects seen after the vaccines, such as pain at the injection site or fever, are due to the immune response being activated.
A trailer for Epoch Times TV claimed that the spike protein was harmful to the body in several ways, that it can persist in the body for months after vaccination, and that detox can help to remove the protein. This review will explain why these claims are misleading or incorrect.
The Epoch Times claimed that spike protein is harmful to the human body in at least eight different wayssuch as by damaging the cells of our lungs, damaging our cells mitochondria, causing inflammation, and even increasing the risk of blood clots. While studies in cells and lab animals have identified the potential for damage caused by the spike protein at high concentrations, these studies have not shown a real effect in people or at the quantities produced following vaccination. As we will explain, the spike protein is barely detectable in the bloodstream of vaccinated people for a few days, and the studies that have been misinterpreted by the Epoch Times used up to 100,000 times greater concentration.
The claim that the Spike protein has toxic effects after vaccination has been repeated several times over the last year, based on the misinterpretation of a few studies as explained here, here, here, here, and here.
One of the studies cited by the Epoch Times was covered previously on Health Feedback in response to similar claims. The small study, carried out by Lei et al., reported damage in the lungs of hamsters injected with an engineered pseudovirus that carried the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on its surface[1]. When this paper was reviewed by experts for Health Feedback, they made a number of comments cautioning the interpretation of this study. Peter Hotez, an expert in vaccinology and professor at Baylor College of Medicine, stated:
[The study] looks at cellular mechanisms of how viral spike protein works, not the immune response from a vaccine.
Julie Bettinger, an associate professor at the Vaccine Evaluation Centre at the University of British Columbia, also pointed out:
[The study] actually concludes by stating, vaccination-generated antibody and/or exogenous antibody against [spike] protein not only protects the host from SARS-CoV-2 infectivity but also inhibits [spike] protein-imposed endothelial injury. That is, COVID-19 vaccines may actually prevent vascular damage.
Abraham Al-Ahmad, an assistant professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, raised questions about the relevance of the study to vaccination:
We dont know what the viral load given to the animals is. Furthermore, is the expression of spike protein by these pseudoviruses comparable to SARS-CoV-2 virions?
In short, the study was never designed to look at the toxicity of the spike protein after vaccination; we cannot tell how the exposure compares to vaccination or infection; it was only carried out in hamsters; and the researchers actually concluded that vaccination would protect against potential damage caused by the spike protein during a COVID-19 infection, contradicting the claim made by the Epoch Times.
Many of the other research papers cited by the Epoch Times set out to understand the potential causes of the symptoms seen in severe cases of COVID-19, rather than determining if spike protein caused toxicity in patients. While these may be useful for identifying potential treatments for further research, they do not tell us if these effects occur in any cases. For instance, Cappelletto et al. studied the mechanisms for formation of blood clots, showing that spike protein can activate platelets in the lab but they did not establish if this happened at concentrations found in patients or vaccinated people[2]. Similarly, Avolio et al. showed that the spike protein can affect heart cells in the lab, but they used higher amounts of the protein than those found in COVID-19 patients[3].
Another study cited by the Epoch Times studied 13 people who had received the Moderna vaccine[4]. The S1 region of the spike protein could be detected a day after the first vaccine dose, peaking at five days and becoming undetectable after nine days. While trace amounts of spike protein can enter the bloodstream following vaccination, this is about 100,000 times less than the Lei et al. study cited by the Epoch Times.
The study was designed to use highly sensitive techniques to test whether the vaccines worked as planned. After vaccination, trace amounts of spike protein appeared in the samples and the volunteers quickly developed antibodies that removed it from the bloodstream. The senior author of the study previously spoke out against the study being misinterpreted by people claiming that spike protein is causing damage to vaccinated people.
The mRNA in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is broken up by the body within a few days. This means that no more spike protein is produced after this point. The immune response quickly targets the spike protein present in the body and any remaining would be degraded like other proteins. The spike protein would not last months in the body, as The Epoch Times claimed.
Many of the harms listed by Epoch Times, including lung damage, blood clots, and inflammation, are complications caused by COVID-19. This is caused by the virus infecting and damaging cells as well as the immune system fighting to control the infection. COVID-19 can cause long-lasting damage on a scale far greater than the rare side effects seen with the vaccines.
For instance, one study found that patients had a fivefold increase in the risk of deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the leg), a 33-fold increase in the risk of pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs), and an almost twofold increase in the risk of bleeding in the 30 days after infection compared to similar, uninfected people[5]. The patients were at a higher risk of blood clots for up to six months after infection, and the risk was even greater for more severe cases.
Another study found that, although there were rare cases of blood clots following vaccination, the risks of most of these events were substantially higher and more prolonged after SARS-CoV-2 infection than after vaccination in the same population[6]. For instance, there was a 12 times greater risk of a blood clot in a vein after COVID-19 than after the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Epoch Times suggested that these serious complications are due to exposure to the spike protein, whether through infection or vaccination. As these studies and many others have shown, the risk of blood clots and lung damage is vastly greater following COVID-19, with worse effects for more severe cases. Vaccination helps to promote a faster immune response against the virus and reduce the likelihood of severe COVID-19 and such complications.
In addition, patients with severe cases of COVID-19 risk significantly higher concentrations of spike protein in the bloodstream compared the levels produced following vaccination. The team who identified trace amounts of spike protein in people after vaccination also studied samples from people hospitalized due to COVID-19[7]. While some people did not have detectable levels, potentially due to the immune response, the more severe cases had up to 100-fold greater concentration of the S1 region of the spike protein in the blood than seen in the vaccine study.
Finally, the Epoch Times claimed that a detox diet could remove spike protein from the body.
Aside from medically supervised chelation therapy using specially designed chemicals to remove toxic metals from people who have been dangerously exposed, attempts to improve health through detox regimens arent effective. A 2015 review concluded that the evidence didnt support detox diets for eliminating toxins from the body[8]. The body already uses the liver and kidneys very effectively for breaking down and removing toxins.
The Epoch Times linked to a list of recommendations from Joseph Mercola, an osteopath who markets supplements, whose claims have been found to be inaccurate on several occasions by Health Feedback previously. The detox list includes the suggestion that pine needles and dandelion leaf extract can inhibit the spike protein, although no studies appear to have been published to provide evidence for these claims. Given that the spike protein is eliminated from the body within days after vaccination, its unclear what expected benefit would come from a detox.
While there is no evidence supporting the use of detox supplements to clear spike protein from the body, there is clear evidence that the levels of spike protein following vaccination is barely detectable and is far below the levels where damaging effects have been observed in cells and animals. The trace amount that is found in the body is quickly removed by the bodys own responses.
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE)hasissued updated interim policy recommendations for the use of the Ad5-nCoV-S recombinant (Ad5-nCoV) vaccine against COVID-19.This article provides a summary of those interim recommendations; you may access thefull guidancedocumenthere.
Here is what you need to know.
While COVID-19 vaccine supplies are limited, health workers at high risk of exposure and older people should be prioritised for vaccination.
Countries can refer to the WHO Prioritization Roadmap and the WHO Values Framework as guidance for their prioritisation of target groups.
The vaccine is not recommended for persons younger than 18 years of age, pending the results of further studied in that age group.
SAGE recommends the use of Ad5-nCoV vaccine as a single dose (0.5 ml) given intramuscularly into the deltoid muscle.
Vaccination is recommended for persons with comorbidities or certain health states that have been identified as increasing the risk of severe COVID-19, including diabetes mellitus, obesity, cardiovascular and respiratory disease and neurodegenerativedisease.
The vaccine can be offered to people who have had COVID-19 in the past. The optimal time interval between a natural infection and vaccination is not yet known. People who have had previous infection may choose to delay vaccination for 3 months followingthe infection. When more evidence becomes available, the length of this time period may be revised as well as the number of doses needed.
SAGE recommends that moderately and severely immunocompromised persons should be offered an additional (i.e. second) dose as part of the primary series 1-3 months after the first dose. This is due to the fact that this group are less likely to respondadequately to vaccination following standard primary vaccination series and are at higher risk of severe COVID-19, regardless of age.
For purposes of this interim recommendation, moderately and severely immunocompromised persons include those with active cancer, transplant recipients, immunodeficiency, and active treatment with immunosuppressives. It also includes people living withHIV with a current CD4 cell count of <200 cells/l, evidence of an opportunistic infection, not on HIV treatment, and/or with a detectable viral load (i.e. advanced HIV disease).
The available data on the Ad5-nCoV vaccine in pregnant women are insufficient to assess either vaccine efficacy or possible vaccine-associated risks in pregnancy. However, based on previous experience with other vaccines during pregnancy, the effectivenessof the Ad5-nCoVAd5-nCoV vaccine in pregnant women is expected to be comparable to that observed in non-pregnant women of similar age. Further studies are expected to evaluate safety and immunogenicity in pregnant women.
In the interim, WHO recommends the use of the Ad5-nCoV vaccine in pregnant women when the benefits of vaccination to the pregnant woman outweigh the potential risks. To help pregnant women make this assessment, they should be provided with informationabout the risks of COVID-19 in pregnancy; the likely benefits of vaccination in the local epidemiological context; and the current limitations of safety data in pregnant women. WHO does not recommend pregnancy testing prior to vaccination. WHO doesnot recommend delaying pregnancy or considering terminating pregnancy because of vaccination.
WHO recommends the same use of Ad5-nCoV vaccine in breastfeeding as in other adults. WHO does not recommend discontinuing breastfeeding following vaccination.
A history of anaphylaxis to any component of the vaccine is considered a contraindication to vaccination.
Individuals with an immediate non-anaphylactic allergic reaction to the first dose (i.e. urticaria, angioedema without respiratory signs or symptoms that occur within 4 hours of administration) should not receive additional doses, unless recommended afterreview by a health professional with specialist expertise. Similarly, anyone who experienced thrombotic thrombocytopenic syndrome (TTS) following the first dose of this vaccine should not receive a second dose of the same vaccine.
Persons with acute PCR-confirmed COVID-19 should not be vaccinated until after they have recovered from acute illness and the criteria for ending isolation have been met.
The Ad5-nCoV booster dose following a primary series with the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac (CoronaVac) was associated with higher vaccine effectiveness compared to a homologous CoronaVac booster. Ad5-nCoV vaccine may be used as abooster dose following a completed primary series using any other EUL COVID-19 vaccine.
Heterologous boosters should take into account current vaccine supply, vaccine supply projections, and other access considerations, alongside the potential benefits and risks of the specific products being used.
We cannot easily compare vaccines head-to-head due to different approaches taken in designing the respective efficacy and effectiveness studies, but overall, all of the vaccines that have achieved WHO Emergency Use Listing can be considered safe and highlyeffective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization due to COVID-19.
SAGE has thoroughly assessed the data on quality, safety and efficacy of this vaccine and has recommended its use for people aged 18 and above.
Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), a very rare syndrome of blood clotting combined with low platelet counts, has been reported around 330 days following vaccination with Ad5-nCoV. A causal relationship between the vaccine andTTS is considered plausible although more evidence is needed to confirm this.
In countries with ongoing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, the benefit of vaccination in protecting against COVID-19 far outweighs the risks of TTS. However, benefitrisk assessments may differ from country to country. As part of the EUL process, CanSinohas committed to continuing submit data on safety, efficacy and quality in ongoing vaccine trials and rollout in populations, including in older adults.
Clinical trial data showed that the Ad5-nCoV vaccine had an efficacy of 58% against symptomatic disease and 92% against severe COVID-19.
The principal clinical trial for this product was completed in January 2021, before the emergence of Delta and Omicron variants. There are still insufficient data for these more recent variants.
SAGE currently recommends using this vaccine, according to the WHO Prioritization Roadmap.
As recent data suggest limited effect of the vaccine on transmission, particularly against Omicron, it is advisable that public health and social measures to reduce SARS-CoV2 transmission should be considered. These measures include wearing a mask,physical distancing, handwashing, respiratory and cough hygiene, avoiding crowds and ensuring adequate ventilation according to local national advice.
Lawrence County reported 80 new cases of COVID-19 in the week of May 13-19, along with five hospitalizations.
The figure represents a continued rise over the past few weeks and from the prior week, when 66 new cases were reported.
The county now ranks 14th of the states 88 counties for new cases of the virus.
The Lawrence County Health Department has scheduled vaccine clinics for this week, as follows:
Today 1-6 p.m., Lawrence County Health Department, 2122 S. 8th St., Ironton
Friday 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Lawrence County Health Department, 2122 S. Eighth St., Ironton
Initial doses and booster shots are provided. Vaccines are also available at most pharmacies. For more information, call 740-532-3962. Booster doses are available for those 12 years of age and older who are eligible.
Those coming for a second dose or a booster dose are asked to bring their vaccine card to the clinic with them. Those seeking a vaccine are also asked to bring a copy of their insurance card for the administration fee. No one will be charged out-of-pocket, and no one will be denied a vaccine if uninsured.
In the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw unparalleled collaboration between academia, government, industry and regulators. The result was billions of vaccine doses developed and supplied to help protect the world from the devastating impact of the virus.
Yet more than two years later, despite a plentiful supply of vaccines, equitable access remains a pressing challenge in many parts of the world. And while COVID-19 vaccines have undoubtedly helped to save millions of lives, for some people such as the immunocompromised immunisation alone does not offer adequate protection from the disease.
While the fight against COVID-19 is not over, we must take lessons from this to help the world respond even better to future pandemics. To ensure no one is left behind, we must act without delay and foster healthcare systems that are sustainable, resilient and capable of administering large-scale vaccination programmes and other measures to protect people.
Our world responded to this pandemic with a truly global effort developing multiple, effective vaccines at record speed. At the time of writing, more than 11.6 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally.
At AstraZeneca, we made broad and equitable access to our vaccine a key principle of our response to the pandemic. As part of this principle, we are proud to have been the first manufacturer to join the COVAX facility, an initiative established by CEPI, Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF at the start of the pandemic working for global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Yet, while some countries are seemingly emerging from the pandemic, many parts of the world remain unprotected because of low vaccination rates, especially in low-income countries. Although supply has been a limiting factor in the past, the greater issue is now one of distribution. The impact of this is felt particularly hard in Africa, where only 17% of the population was reported to be fully vaccinated as of May 2022.
The global community now needs to shift our efforts and support countries to successfully deliver the vaccines they receive especially for the crucial last-mile delivery. Many countries need help to establish reliable cold chain capacity, build more robust data systems, tackle vaccine hesitancy and address gaps in local workforces.
While vaccines remain our strongest first-line defence, we must also support the two per cent of the global population who are immunocompromised and for whom vaccines may not offer adequate protection.
More than 40% of those hospitalised with breakthrough infections despite a previous vaccination are immunocompromised; they are not adequately protected by a vaccine alone and are at high risk of becoming seriously ill if they were to become infected. The continued threat posed by potential exposure to COVID-19 means they are enduring prolonged anxiety and suffering that affects their quality of life. For many of these people, there is no end to the pandemic in sight.
For this reason, alongside the measures described earlier, it's important that methods to support immunocompromised patients are also strengthened. This includes communicating specific information about the safety measures that should be maintained by this community, including continued mask-wearing, access to free COVID-19 testing, access to additional therapeutic options and providing advice and support for continued self-isolation.
Governments and health leaders must act now to address the unmet needs of immunocompromised people.
Beyond COVID-19, our world will face both new and unresolved healthcare challenges. A survey of 134 countries showed that the pandemic significantly impacted healthcare delivery, with chronic care and other services severely compromised in at least 44% of the countries studied. Solutions to these issues require all of us to think differently.
Thats why we must continue efforts that accelerate clinical trials and regulatory approvals to allow the global health community to respond to the next pandemic with even greater efficiency. By further accelerating and harmonising these processes we can develop life-saving products, such as vaccines, even quicker. In doing so, we will help to minimise systemic disruption to other essential health services and support CEPIs 100-Days Mission an ambition to develop a vaccine against emerging diseases in as little as 100 days.
Importantly, if we truly want to avoid a repeat of human suffering on the scale seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, we now must face the bigger task of building resilient and sustainable health systems equipped for future crises. We have to develop strategies that support timely diagnosis and care in the face of disruption, and fund healthcare systems that allow for stable and effective workforce planning even as they have to grow in line with population demand.
Public-private partnerships, brought to the fore during the pandemic, will be central to achieving this. A partnership-driven approach that considers lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR), can help to strengthen global health system resilience. Ongoing cross-sector action will be essential if we want to ensure health systems can better withstand future crises.
Im optimistic that the lessons weve learned during the pandemic will help us fight the next one more effectively ensuring greater global health equity, protecting vulnerable populations and creating a fairer and healthier future. And lets be clear: we must not fail, because we all have a pledge to fulfil that no one is left behind.
Written by
Iskra Reic, Executive Vice-President, Vaccines and Immune Therapies Unit, AstraZeneca
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Monkeypox outbreak won't be the next global pandemic thanks to vaccines, drugs: analysts FiercePharma
Spallanzani infectious disease hospital Director Francesco Vaia talks to reporters at the end of a news conference Friday in Rome. Andrew Medichini/AP hide caption
Spallanzani infectious disease hospital Director Francesco Vaia talks to reporters at the end of a news conference Friday in Rome.
The recent headlines about a sudden emergence of an unusual disease, spreading case by case across countries and continents may, for some, evoke memories of early 2020.
But monkeypox is no COVID-19 in a good way.
Health officials worldwide have turned their attention to a new outbreak of monkeypox, a virus normally found in central and west Africa that has appeared across Europe and the U.S. in recent weeks even in people who have not traveled to Africa at all.
But experts say that, while it's important for public health officials to be on the lookout for monkeypox, the virus is extremely unlikely to spin out into an uncontrolled worldwide pandemic in the same way that COVID-19 did.
"Let's just say right off the top that monkeypox and COVID are not the same disease," said Dr. Rosamund Lewis, head of Smallpox Secretariat at the World Health Organization, at a public Q&A session on Monday.
For starters, monkeypox spreads much less easily than COVID-19. Scientists have been studying monkeypox since it was first discovered in humans more than 50 years ago. And its similarities to smallpox mean it can be combated in many of the same ways.
As a result, scientists are already familiar with how monkeypox spreads, how it presents, and how to treat and contain it giving health authorities a much bigger head start on containing it.
Here are some of the other ways the public health approach to monkeypox is different from COVID-19:
Monkeypox typically requires very close contact to spread most often skin-to-skin contact, or prolonged physical contact with clothes or bedding that was used by an infected person.
By contrast, COVID-19 spreads quickly and easily. Coronavirus can spread simply by talking with another person, or sharing a room, or in rare cases, being inside a room that an infected person had previously been in.
"Transmission is really happening from close physical contact, skin-to-skin contact. It's quite different from COVID in that sense," said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the WHO.
The classic symptom of monkeypox is a rash that often begins on the face, then spreads to a person's limbs or other parts of the body.
"The incubation from time of exposure to appearance of lesions is anywhere between five days to about 21 days, so can be quite long," said Dr. Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, an infectious disease physician and virologist at Emory University in Atlanta.
The current outbreak has seen some different patterns, experts say particularly, that the rash begins in the genital area first, and may not spread across the body.
Either way, experts say, it is typically through physical contact of that rash that the virus spreads.
"It's not a situation where if you're passing someone in the grocery store, they're going to be at risk for monkeypox," said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a briefing Monday.
The people most likely to be at risk are close personal contacts of an infected person, such as household members or health care workers who may have treated them, she said.
"We've seen over the years that often the best way to deal with cases is to keep those who are sick isolated so that they can't spread the virus to close family members and loved ones, and to follow up proactively with those that a patient has contact with so they can watch for symptoms," McQuiston said.
With this version of virus, people generally recover in two to four weeks, scientists find, and the death rate is less than 1%.
One factor that helped COVID-19 spread rapidly across the globe was the fact that it is very contagious. That's even more true of the variants that have emerged in the past year.
Epidemiologists point to a disease's R0 value the average number of people you'd expect an infected person to pass the disease along to.
For a disease outbreak to grow, the R0 must be higher than 1. For the original version of COVID-19, the number was somewhere between 2 and 3. For the omicron variant, that number is about 8, a recent study found.
Although the recent spread of monkeypox cases is alarming, the virus is far less contagious than COVID-19, according to Jo Walker, an epidemiologist at Yale School of Public Health.
"Most estimates from earlier outbreaks have had an R0 of less than one. With that, you can have clusters of cases, even outbreaks, but they will eventually die out on their own," they said. "It could spread between humans, but not very efficiently in a way that could sustain itself onward without constantly being reintroduced from animal populations."
That's a big reason that public health authorities, including the WHO, are expressing confidence that cases of monkeypox will not suddenly skyrocket. "This is a containable situation," Van Kerkhove said Monday at the public session.
Monkeypox and smallpox are both members of the Orthopox family of viruses. Smallpox, which once killed millions of people every year, was eradicated in 1980 by a successful worldwide campaign of vaccines.
The smallpox vaccine is about 85% effective against monkeypox, the WHO says, although that effectiveness wanes over time.
"These viruses are closely related to each other, and now we have the benefit of all those years of research and diagnostics and treatments and in vaccines that will be brought to bear upon the situation now," said Lewis of the WHO.
Some countries, including the U.S., have held smallpox vaccines in strategic reserve in case the virus ever reemerged. Now, those can be used to contain a monkeypox outbreak.
The FDA has two vaccines already approved for use against smallpox.
One, a two-dose vaccine called Jynneos, is also approved for use against monkeypox. About a thousand doses are available in the Strategic National Stockpile, the CDC says, and the company will provide more in the coming months.
"We have already worked to secure sufficient supply of effective treatments and vaccines to prevent those exposed from contracting monkeypox and treating people who've been affected," said Dr. Raj Panjabi of the White House pandemic office, in an interview with NPR.
How can we tell how high cases are when people have stopped testing?
For almost two years weve been glued to a set of numbers: the grim trio of cases, hospitalisations and deaths that defined coronavirus in the UK.
The daily figures led news reports for more than a year: people watched in horror as the height of the Omicron wave brought the highest ever daily caseload on Tuesday 4 January 2022 when 275,618 people tested positive. And they saw how many people died: a number that peaked on Tuesday 19 January 2021, when 1,366 people died, making it the the worst day of the pandemic*.
Since March 2022 case numbers from the daily government dashboard have tumbled. A fall that has coincided with the governments Living with Covid plan: as restrictions fell away in England, so did cases. The government ended restrictions including the legal requirement to self-isolate on 24 February and cut the provision of free tests on 1 April.
After two long years of disease, restrictions and fear its the news everyone has been hoping for.
But have cases really gone down that fast?
Like all statistics the UKs coronavirus statistics are a way of measuring something but not the thing itself.
Its not hard to see that as the government cut free NHS tests and people werent able to report private tests, the total number of tests fell, and so did the number of positive tests. Then, by the governments measurements at least, cases fell.
And falling cases made it look like the government was justified to cut tests.
The good news? Cases are on a downward trend. But it hasnt been as fast or as rosy as the government charts have made out.
Looking at the weekly coronavirus infection survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) puts the recent fall in perspective.
What the government (coronavirus.gov.uk) case numbers actually measure is not the number of of new people in the UK infected with coronavirus every day. But, the number of people who take a test, get a positive test result, and then report that test.
Throughout most of the pandemic, government numbers were recording about a third of the cases that the ONS was picking up.
Instead of relying on people choosing to take a test, the ONS numbers are estimates based on a sample of around 200,000 people across the UK who take a test every month regardless of whether they have symptoms. This makes the ONS system better at catching asymptomatic infections, and better at picking up milder variants like Omicron.
However the ending of free tests sees that relationship break down with the gov.uk figures almost entirely missing the March 2022 spike and recording less than a twelfth of the cases that the ONS picked up at the start of April
But the overall picture is positive. On all measures cases are down. Vaccination levels are high, antibody levels are high, and the spread of infectious disease tends to reduce in the summer. But that wont last for ever.
In all four scenarios considered by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies of how the pandemic will unfold, there is a resurgence in the autumn/winter of 2022. In the best case, it is a small one.
Given that this will happen, it is vital to maintain virus surveillance system and the ability to ramp up protection measures again, as Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK governments chief scientific adviser, argued at the launch of the Living With Covid plan.
But the warning system doesnt have to come from the daily numbers we have got used to on the government dashboard. Prof Kevin McConway argues that daily cases numbers from the gov.uk dashboard were always more about news cycles than actual health surveillance.
The data from tests did help, but the numbers and rates were always subject to biases of unknown size, because they depended on who was turning up to be tested, he says. That varied some people had jobs that required frequent testing, and those requirements changed over time; some people might not choose to be tested even if they knew, or suspected, they had symptoms because they would lose their income; at a few times tests were difficult to get.
Even before people had to turn to private tests on 1 April, we see a big dip in testing showing a change in attitude to the virus, as much as people reacting to the price change.
UK testing peaked in January 2022
Registered coronavirus test results and number that are positive, by date of publication. 5 April 2020 had the highest percentage of positive test results. 4 January 2022 had the highest number of registered tests. *From 26th Feb 2022: no case data is published on Saturdays or Sundays and figures published on Monday include three days' data, so case data is removed from this label on these days to allow for accurate comparisions over time. Test data continues to be reported as normal over the weekend. Data: data.gov.uk. updated
Even if free tests were still available now, peoples propensity to ask for them would have changed a lot because of the perception that the disease isnt as important or dangerous as it was, says McConway. That partly stems from government policies and announcements but by no means all of it it would have happened anyway.
The UK Health Surveillance Agency (UKSHA), which has taken over from Public Health England, is continuing to publish Flu and Covid-19 Surveillance reports that draw together data sources including the ONS infection survey but also information from GPs and hospitals, places outside the health system such as care homes and schools, and even sources such as Google searches for symptoms and reports of disease outbreaks at workplaces like restaurants.
More creative data sources such as sewage have even been used to gauge coronavirus levels in the population. Though are not currently referenced in the surveillance report.
The emergence of a more transmissible or more deadly variant is one of the key areas of concern for next winter so continued genomic sequencing of samples is required to keep track of how the virus is mutating. And blood samples will continue to be needed as antibody levels give an indication of immunity.
McConway says the UK has decent measures in place to keep track of diseases that get less media attention than coronavirus.
Whats unique about Sars-CoV-2 is the scale of the pandemic, and the public and government and media interest, and some of that led to different and more elaborate and expensive surveillance approaches, but lots of things go on all the time without most people noticing.
So as with flu it is likely authorities will see the warning signs before a new surge hits in the winter. The question is then as Vallance notes whether the government will act on it.
The Guardians UK coronavirus tracker will switch over shortly to use ONS infection survey numbers for cases, instead of the gov.uk numbers
Notes:
* Gov.uk counted 275,618 new cases by specimen date on 4 January 2022 in the UK the highest daily caseload for the pandemic. The date with the highest number of cases by date reported was also the 4 January 2022 with 218,724 new cases (for the period when the government was publishing figures daily).
Gov.uk counted 1,366 deaths within 28 days of a positive test by date of death on 19 January 2021, in the UK. The worst day for deaths by date reported within 28 days of a positive test in the UK is 20 Jan 2021, when 1,820 deaths were reported.
COVID-19 cases back on the rise in US after new subvariants appear
COVID-19 infections have spiked over the past month due to new and more infectious subvariants, waning vaccines, and fewer people wearing masks.
Damien Henderson, USA TODAY
COVID-19 infections rose sharply again last week throughout Tennessee and Davidson County, continuing an upward trend that has been ongoing for the last two months or so, according to state Department of Health data.
Notably, statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations are now starting to quickly rise again after remaining relatively flat for months. As of May 21, there were 270 such hospitalizations a 44% increase from the previous week's 187 cases.
The seven-day average for infections throughout the state was 1,288, up from the prior week's 944 average. About six weeks ago, the average was 192.
In Davidson County, the seven-day average was 206.7 as of Saturday, up from 169.6 the week prior.
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The statewide average test-positivity rate (the rate of people who get tested and are positive for COVID-19) last week also signaled an increased spread of the novel coronavirus.
As of May 21, the rate was 13.52%, up from the prior week's 10.87%. In Davidson County, the rate was 20.1%, up from 17.1% the prior week.
Higher test-positivity rates in a given community suggest that COVID-19 is spreading widely, public health officials say. Generally speaking, the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health considers rates above 5% as "too high."
State public health agencies have counted more than 2.05 million cases of COVID-19 in Tennessee since the start of the pandemic. Of those, 26,372 have died as a result of the novel coronavirus.
About54.7% of Tennesseans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19,according tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national average is 66.6%.
Frank Gluck is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at fgluck@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at@FrankGluck.
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Steroids, or corticosteroids, are a group of medications that resemble a hormone in your body called cortisol. They reduce inflammation and are used to treat a wide range of conditions, including:
Regularly taking steroids can weaken your immune system and increase your risk of developing COVID-19 or more severe illness.
Corticosteroids are different than anabolic steroids, which are drugs that replicate the hormone testosterone. Although anabolic steroids do have legitimate medical uses, people often use them recreationally to build muscle and improve sports performance.
The use of anabolic steroids has also been linked to poorer COVID-19 outcomes.
Keep reading to learn how steroids work and how they affect your immune system.
Corticosteroids are human-made drugs that replicate the hormone cortisol. Your adrenal glands, located at the top of your kidneys, produce cortisol.
Corticosteroids are among the most widely prescribed drugs worldwide. Nearly 1 percent of the global population uses long-term corticosteroid therapy as treatment.
Among the conditions they treat include:
Corticosteroids reduce inflammation in your body by binding to receptors that suppress your immune systems activity.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), long-term steroid use can compromise your immune system and make you more likely to get sick from COVID-19 or other respiratory diseases.
Long-term (or chronic) corticosteroid use is associated with:
In a previous study from 2020, researchers found that taking over 10 milligrams of the steroid prednisone per day was associated with a 2.05 times higher chance of hospitalization in people with rheumatoid arthritis.
Some steroids can potentially cause the antiviral drug remdesivir to be removed from the body more quickly. This makes the drug less effective at treating COVID-19.
Athletes and bodybuilders widely abuse anabolic steroids to improve appearance or performance. The use of anabolic steroids can alter the immune system and increase the risk of infection.
A 2022 study found that current anabolic steroid use is a risk factor for COVID-19 severity.
In the study, current steroid use was associated with five times a greater chance of contracting COVID-19. Current anabolic steroid use was also associated with a higher chance of developing moderate to severe COVID-19.
If you have a medical condition that increases your chances of getting very sick with COVID-19, the CDC recommends talking to a healthcare professional about how to best protect yourself.
Doctors decide whether to continue corticosteroid treatment on a case-by-case basis. Your doctor can give you the best idea about whether you should stop taking steroids or lower your dosage. Up to 90 percent of people who take steroids longer than 60 days develop side effects.
You can also protect yourself by making sure your COVID-19 vaccines are up to date. You may be eligible for additional boosters if youre considered immunosuppressed.
Other ways you can protect yourself include:
Here are some of the frequently asked questions people have about steroids and COVID-19.
Oral or injected steroids are more likely to cause side effects such as immunosuppression than inhaled steroids or topical steroids. Side effects tend to increase with the dose and the longer you take them.
Inhaled steroids generally cause fewer and milder side effects than oral corticosteroids.
According to a 2022 study, theres ongoing discussion on whether steroids decrease vaccine efficiency despite no direct evidence that they do.
In a 2021 review of studies, five out of six studies found evidence of successful vaccination in people taking steroids.
They concluded that based on the current evidence, its reasonable to delay steroid injections for chronic pain for 1 to 2 weeks after vaccination, and to delay vaccination for 2 weeks after procedures involving steroids.
According to the National Institutes of Healths COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines, multiple high-quality studies suggest that corticosteroid therapy improves outcomes in people with COVID-19 who require oxygen therapy. This may be because they reduce the inflammatory reaction that leads to lung injury and dysfunction.
The most widely studied corticosteroid for treating COVID-19 is dexamethasone. Researchers have also studied other steroids like hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone, but evidence to back the use of these medications isnt as strong.
A 2022 study linked steroids to better outcomes in younger people but not older people.
Some studies have found evidence that steroids increase the risk of COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergilloses (CAPA) in intensive care patients. CAPA is a fungal infection of the lungs that can increase the risk of mortality.
Steroids treat a wide variety of conditions. They work by reducing inflammation and suppressing your immune system. Taking steroids, especially in high doses, may make you more prone to COVID-19 infection.
Your doctor can best advise you on whether you should lower or reduce your dose. You can also reduce your chances of getting COVID-19 by taking preventive measures like washing your hands regularly and staying up to date with your vaccines.
By Becky Sullivan, Michaeleen Doucleff
The recent headlines about a sudden emergence of an unusual disease, spreading case by case across countries and continents may, for some, evoke memories of early 2020.
But monkeypox is no COVID-19 in a good way.
Health officials worldwide have turned their attention toa new outbreak of monkeypox, a virus normally found in central and west Africa that has appeared across Europe and the U.S. in recent weeks even in people who have not traveled to Africa at all.
But experts say that, while it's important for public health officials to be on the lookout for monkeypox, the virus is extremely unlikely to spin out into an uncontrolled worldwide pandemic in the same way that COVID-19 did.
"Let's just say right off the top that monkeypox and COVID are not the same disease," said Dr. Rosamund Lewis, head of Smallpox Secretariat at the World Health Organization, at a public Q&A session on Monday.
For starters, monkeypox spreads much less easily than COVID-19. Scientists have been studying monkeypox since it was first discovered in humans more than 50 years ago. And its similarities to smallpox mean it can be combated in many of the same ways.
As a result, scientists are already familiar with how monkeypox spreads, how it presents, and how to treat and contain it giving health authorities a much bigger head start on containing it.
Here are some of the other ways the public health approach to monkeypox is different from COVID-19:
Monkeypox typically requires very close contact to spread most often skin-to-skin contact, or prolonged physical contact with clothes or bedding that was used by an infected person.
By contrast, COVID-19 spreads quickly and easily. Coronavirus can spread simply by talking with another person, or sharing a room, or in rare cases, being inside a room that an infected person had previously been in.
"Transmission is really happening from close physical contact, skin-to-skin contact. It's quite different from COVID in that sense," said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the WHO.
The classic symptom of monkeypox is a rash that often begins on the face, then spreads to a person's limbs or other parts of the body.
"The incubation from time of exposure to appearance of lesions is anywhere between five days to about 21 days, so can be quite long," said Dr. Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, an infectious disease physician and virologist at Emory University in Atlanta.
The current outbreak has seen some different patterns, experts say particularly, that the rash begins in the genital area first, and may not spread across the body.
Either way, experts say, it is typically through physical contact of that rash that the virus spreads.
"It's not a situation where if you're passing someone in the grocery store, they're going to be at risk for monkeypox," said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,in a briefing Monday.
The people most likely to be at risk are close personal contacts of an infected person, such as household members or health care workers who may have treated them, she said.
"We've seen over the years that often the best way to deal with cases is to keep those who are sick isolated so that they can't spread the virus to close family members and loved ones, and to follow up proactively with those that a patient has contact with so they can watch for symptoms," McQuiston said.
With this version of virus, people generally recover in two to four weeks, scientists find, and the death rate is less than 1%.
One factor that helped COVID-19 spread rapidly across the globe was the fact that it is very contagious.That's even more true of the variants that have emerged in the past year.
Epidemiologists point to a disease's R0 value the average number of people you'd expect an infected person to pass the disease along to.
For a disease outbreak to grow, the R0 must be higher than 1. For the original version of COVID-19,the number was somewhere between 2 and 3. For the omicron variant, that number is about 8,a recent study found.
Although the recent spread of monkeypox cases is alarming, the virus is far less contagious than COVID-19, according to Jo Walker, an epidemiologist at Yale School of Public Health.
"Most estimates from earlier outbreaks have had an R0 of less than one. With that, you can have clusters of cases, even outbreaks, but they will eventually die out on their own," they said. "It could spread between humans, but not very efficiently in a way that could sustain itself onward without constantly being reintroduced from animal populations."
That's a big reason that public health authorities, including the WHO, are expressing confidence that cases of monkeypox will not suddenly skyrocket. "This is a containable situation," Van Kerkhove said Monday at the public session.
Monkeypox and smallpox are both members of the Orthopox family of viruses.Smallpox, which once killed millions of people every year, was eradicated in 1980 by a successful worldwide campaign of vaccines.
The smallpox vaccine is about 85% effective against monkeypox, the WHO says,although that effectiveness wanes over time.
"These viruses are closely related to each other, and now we have the benefit of all those years of research and diagnostics and treatments and in vaccines that will be brought to bear upon the situation now," said Lewis of the WHO.
Some countries, including the U.S., have held smallpox vaccines in strategic reserve in case the virus ever reemerged. Now, those can be used to contain a monkeypox outbreak.
The FDA has two vaccines already approved for use against smallpox.
One,a two-dose vaccine called Jynneos, is also approved for use against monkeypox. About a thousand doses are available in theStrategic National Stockpile, the CDC says, and the company will provide more in the coming months.
"We have already worked to secure sufficient supply of effective treatments and vaccines to prevent those exposed from contracting monkeypox and treating people who've been affected," said Dr. Raj Panjabi of the White House pandemic office,in an interview with NPR.
