The first patient to receive a dose in the coronavirus vaccine study at UC Health was Jarelle Marshall, 37, an IT professional who lives in Cincinnati. The first dose on Aug. was administered via syringe by a licensed pharmacist, and study participants will receive a second dose in approximately one month.(Photo: UC Health)
COLUMBUS A COVID-19 vaccine is likely months away for most Ohioans, but Ohio officials have already submitted a plan for how to distribute it.
Ohio will prioritize high-risk healthcare workers, first responders and elderly and at-risk Ohioans in nursing homes and other congregate care settings in the first phase of distribution, according to a plan submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Enquirer obtained the draft through a public records request.
The plan is marked "final draft" and is subject to change. Ohio Department of Health spokeswoman Melanie Amato said the draft plan provides a framework for decision-making when more details of a vaccineare known.
A handful of novel coronavirus vaccines are in phase III trials, including in Cincinnatiand Columbus. Vaccines are expected to be in short supply when first available.
The plan describes a system where state officials order the vaccine for the entire state and ship to counties and health care providers based on several factors, including population and the estimated immunity among residents.
[ The Enquirer is providing most of its coronavirus-related stories free to readers. We cant do this work without your support.Please consideradigital subscription to Cincinnati.com.]
As more vaccine becomes available, in phase two, distribution would broaden to essential workers at high risk of exposure, school teachers and staff, older Ohioans and people with underlying health conditions that put them at risk of complications from the virus. Minority populations, which have disproportionately been hospitalized or died after getting the novel coronavirus, could be prioritized.
The plan does not set a time line for when each group could get the vaccine, just when there are a large number of doses available, supply likely to meet demand for the second phase and then likely sufficient supply, slowing demand for the general public.
Texas plan similarly split everyone in three phases and estimated the third phase would begin in July 2021.
Ohio plans to partner with existing organizations, health care providers and employers to target each group.An estimated 2,000-5,000 providers are expected to enroll as pandemic vaccine providers.
The plan shows health officials are still working on many details, such as how to keep a vaccine cold throughout the supply chain. Ohio officialsare identifying sub-176 degree Fahrenheit freezers at hospitals, research facilities and other locations across the state; some may need extra security "because of the scarcity of the vaccine."
Officials want to display immunization progress by countyand immunization locations on the state's coronavirus website.
Read the 55-page plan below.
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Oct. 20, 2020 12:30 UTC
- Contribution of up to $2.8 million will support clinical advancement of bacTRL-Spike oral vaccine candidate - Proprietary bacTRL platform can be used to produce vaccines that can be stored at room temperature and administered orally rather than injected
BURNABY, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Symvivo Corporation today announced that it is receiving advisory services and funding of up to $2.8 million from the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to support the clinical advancement of bacTRL-Spike, the companys oral, room temperature-stable DNA vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19.
The funding follows a notification Symvivo received from the Government of Canada indicating it had reviewed Symvivos proposal and its bacTRL-Spike vaccine candidate had met the required scientific and technical thresholds for funding.
We are excited to receive this important funding from NRC IRAP for the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate, said Alexander Graves, president and CEO of Symvivo Corporation. It is our hope that the promise shown with bacTRL-Spike in preclinical models, particularly its ability to generate a mucosal immune response, will continue in first-in-human trials. We are grateful to the NRC for supporting further investigation of bacTRL-Spike as we initiate our first Phase I trial of the vaccine candidate this quarter.
Unlike traditional vaccines, bacTRL-Spike is a capsule that can be taken orally, allowing individuals to self-administer the vaccine rather than requiring a trained medical professional to deliver it with an injection. In addition, the capsules can also be stored at room temperature.
About Symvivo
Symvivo is a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing a proprietary platform for the site specific delivery of genes for the treatment and prevention of disease. Symvivos bacTRL platform technology delivers plasmid DNA, both orally and through IV application, that enables a patients own cells to produce therapeutic proteins. Symvivo is advancing therapeutics in the area of oral DNA vaccines, oncology, immunology and gene replacement. Symvivo is headquartered in Burnaby BC. For more information visit www.Symvivo.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201020005222/en/
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Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Just over half of all people in the United States are "extremely, moderately or slightly likely" to take a COVID-19 vaccine that meets the Food and Drug Administration's minimum threshold for effectiveness, an analysis published Tuesday by JAMA Network Open found.
The public's willingness to receive an injection intended to prevent infection with the new coronavirus is influenced by the characteristics of the vaccine, as well as the politics surrounding its development, the data showed.
The nearly 1,000 adults surveyed in the analysis indicated that they would be 16% more likely to take a vaccine if it is found to be 90% effective at preventing infection, the researchers said.
The FDA has said that it will approve any vaccine against COVID-19 that is at least 50% effective at preventing infection or reducing disease severity, which is roughly the protection offered by the annual flu shot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Unsurprisingly, vaccine efficacy is an important driver of public willingness to vaccinate," study co-author Douglas L. Kriner told UPI.
"If the first [approved] vaccine or vaccines are at or near this minimum threshold, public health officials may have to do more to overcome public skepticism and convince Americans of the broad public health benefits," said Kriner, director of the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs at Cornell University.
For their study, Kriner and his colleagues surveyed 1,971 adults from across the United States in July, when COVID-19 numbers were rising in many parts of the country.
An increase in vaccine effectiveness from 50% to 70% raised the likelihood respondents would take the shot by about 7%, the data showed.
A vaccine that was 90% effective increased respondents' willingness to receive it by about 16%.
In addition to the shot's effectiveness, politics also played a role in the public's interest in any vaccine against COVID-19, Kriner and his colleagues found.
For example, respondents to the survey were 13% less likely to accept a vaccine made in China than one made in the United States.
Respondents were least likely to accept a vaccine endorsed by President Donald Trump, but only 3% more likely to take it if it was endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden.
However, endorsements from the CDC and World Health Organization increased respondents' willingness to receive the vaccine by up to 10%, the researchers said.
"Our findings speak to the dangers of politicizing the vaccine -- endorsements form political leaders resulted in significantly lower levels of public willingness to vaccinate than endorsements from public health officials at the CDC or WHO," Kriner said.
"Politicization risks undermining all of the financial and intellectual capital invested thus far in this unprecedented effort," he said.
CanSino Biologicss experimental COVID-19 vaccine is one of at least four using an adenovirus that some worry could increase HIV susceptibility.
By Jon CohenOct. 19, 2020 , 6:30 PM
Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Certain COVID-19 vaccine candidates could increase susceptibility to HIV, warns a group of researchers who in 2007 learned that an experimental HIV vaccine had raised in some people the risk for infection with the AIDS virus. These concerns have percolated in the background of the race for a vaccine to stem the coronavirus pandemic, but now the researchers have gone public with a cautionary tale, in part because trials of those candidates may soon begin in locales that have pronounced HIV epidemics, such as South Africa.
Some approved and experimental vaccines have as a backbone a variety of adenoviruses, which can cause the common cold but are often harmless. The ill-fated HIV vaccine trial used an engineered strain known as adenovirus 5 (Ad5) to shuttle into the body the gene for the surface protein of the AIDS virus. In four candidate COVID-19 vaccines now in clinical trials in several countries, including the United States, Ad5 similarly serves as the vector to carry in the surface protein gene of SARS-CoV-2, the viral cause of the pandemic; two of these have advanced to large-scale, phase III efficacy studies in Russia and Pakistan.
In todays issue ofTheLancet, four veteran researchers raise a warning flag about those COVID-19 vaccine candidates by recounting their experience running a placebo-controlled AIDS vaccine trial dubbed STEP.An interim analysis of STEP found that uncircumcised men who had been naturally infected with Ad5 before receiving the vaccine became especially vulnerable to the AIDS virus. The vaccine, made by Merck, had been the leading hope for what was then a 20-year search for a shot that could thwart HIV. But after the STEP results appeared, the field went into a tailspin. It took a decade to recover, says one of the co-authors of theLancet correspondence, Lawrence Corey of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Corey, who now co-leads the COVID-19 prevention network in the United States that is testing vaccines at the behest of the National Institutes of Health, says he and his co-authors went public because Ad5-based COVID-19 vaccines may soon be tested in populations with high HIV prevalence and thus a greater risk of accidental infection during a clinical trial. If I were in a sub-Saharan African country and making a decision as to what I would want for my country for a general population use of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, I dont see why I would pick an Ad5 vector [vaccine] when there are many other alternative choices, Corey says.
The backfire in STEPwhich evaluated the efficacy of the Merck vaccine in people at high risk of HIV infection in the Americas and Australiaalso appeared in a second study, dubbed Phambili, of the same vaccine. It was taking place simultaneously in South Africa and was stopped early because of the STEP data.
Precisely how Mercks Ad5 vaccine increased the risk of HIV transmission in STEP and Phambili remains murky. The Lancet editorial spells out several possibilities, including dampening of HIV immunity, enhancing replication of the AIDS virus, or setting up more target cells for it.
In addition to the Ad5 COVID-19 vaccine candidates, several other leading vaccines, including ones made by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca/the University of Oxford, use different adenoviruses as vectors. Theres no evidence that any of those adenoviruses increases the risks of an HIV infection.
I dont see why I would pick an Ad5 vector [vaccine] when there are many other alternative choices.
Of the Ad5-based COVID-19 vaccine candidates, from China-based CanSino Biologics, has developed the furthest. In a Lancet report in May, researchers from the company recognized the controversial possibility of their vector increasing the risk of HIV infection and said they would watch for it in the candidates trials. CanSinos COVID-19 vaccine is being tested in efficacy trials in Russia and Pakistan that together hope to enroll more than 40,000 people, and the company is discussing starting studies in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.
China has already approved a CanSino vaccine against Ebola that uses the Ad5 vector. Yu Xuefeng, CanSinos CEO, tells Science the risk of increased HIV susceptibility may be limited to Ad5 vaccines that produce an AIDS virus protein. Theres no clear answer yet, Yu says. We certainly havent seen anything with the Ebola vaccine. The companys Ebola vaccine was tested in a population in Sierra Leone that, he notes, had a relatively high HIV prevalence, making it more likely to have detected the problem if it existed.
Russias Gamaleya Research Institute has a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that uses a combination of Ad5 and Ad26 vectors; its now in an efficacy trial in that country.
Last week, ImmunityBio received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin human trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, which uses Ad5 as a vector. The first trial will take place in Newport Beach, California, but Patrick Soon-Shiong, the companys CEO, says he also hopes to test it in South Africa, where he grew up and went to medical school.
He calls the STEP study results very, very fuzzy and stresses that ImmunityBios Ad5 has four deleted genes that reduce the immune responses it triggers. Its 90% muted, he says.
ImmunityBio is discussing the risks with scientists and regulators in South Africa of a trial there to test its modified Ad5 COVID-19 vaccine. The informed consent process for that proposed study would tell participants about potential risks given the previous STEP and Phambili results.
Soon-Shiong emphasizes that his companys experimental COVID-19 vaccine, unlike every other candidate that uses an adenovirus vector, presents two different SARS-CoV-2 genes and mighttherefore offer more protection from infection or disease. Why only test this in wealthy enclaves of Southern California, he asks? Why not South Africa? Why not for the underserved people of the world?
Pediatrician Glenda Gray, who heads the South African Medical Research Council and was the protocol chair of Phambili, has taken part in several discussions with the ImmunoBio team.When [Soon-Shiong] contacted South Africa, we were obviously quite concerned, Gray says. All of us who were in Phambili and quite traumatized by what happened asked whether there was an appetite to do something in South Africa.
But after several months of deliberations, the South Africans concluded that regulators should consider a small trial of the vaccine there in people at low risk of HIV infection, Gray says. We decided not to throw the baby out with the bath water just yet, she adds. If it does go ahead in South Africa, there has to be huge consultation with communities, and we have to make doubly sure that the participants understand what happened in the past.
Gray says South Africa appreciates ImmunoBios offer to allow the country to manufacture the product. Were in the middle of a COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa, and we dont know if well ever get access to the current suite of vaccines produced elsewhere, she says.
The decision to move forward, she insists, has to be left to South African scientists, regulators, and ethics committees. Its incredibly patronizing for people to determine what science is good or bad for other countries, she says. Everyone knows about Phambili and STEP, and the scientists understand that theres an important need to be cautious.
Gray, who has co-authored papers about HIV vaccines with Corey and the other three authors of the Lancet correspondence, says there are no easy answers. What if this vaccine is the most effective vaccine? she asks. If this works out to be an important vaccine, well have some experience with it.
Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Our evening roundup will help you stay on top of the day's latest updates. Sign up here.
Cases of COVID-19 in parts of Texas surged to near catastrophic levels this summer as some hospitals were forced to put beds in hallways, intensive care units exceeded capacity and health officials struggled to stem the tide of the virus.
After peaking in late July and August, cases fell and leveled off in September, and the states seven-day positivity rate or the proportion of positive tests reached its lowest point since early June.
But health officials are now eyeing a worrying trend: New infections are rising again, and the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is also ticking upward. The state reported 2,273 new cases Monday, and the seven-day average was up by 862 from the previous week. On Monday, at least 4,319 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19, far below the more than 10,000 in July, but that number has steadily risen during the last month.
Im no longer pondering if were going to see a surge, said Dr. James McDeavitt, dean of clinical affairs at the Baylor College of Medicine. Were already seeing it.
Eight months since Texas recorded its first case, experts say the state is more prepared to handle another wave, but they fear that if the state fails to control the outbreak, it could quickly spiral out of control.
The question is whether itll be a modest surge, or something like we saw in July, or worse, McDeavitt said.
The majority of new cases recently have been in people in their 20s and 30s who are generally healthier and less likely to face serious health complications, McDeavitt said. Thats a shift from the spring and summer surges, when older people and those with preexisting health conditions were hit hardest.
I suspect this surge will not be as medically intensive as the past, McDeavitt added.
Dr. David Persse, the city of Houstons chief medical officer, said that cases in a younger demographic would not stay concentrated within that population.
Its true that the biggest increase in cases is in younger people, he said. Its true that they tend to become less sick. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that those same people are at risk for spreading it to the 50-, 60-, 70-, 80-year-olds.
At Houston Methodist, one of the regions largest health care systems, medical staff were stretched thin this summer, said President Marc Boom. At its peak in July, the systems staff treated nearly 850 patients with COVID-19 each day. Since then, Boom said, the medical communitys understanding of the virus has evolved, along with how to treat the disease.
Remdesivir, an antiviral medication, has shown promising results in minimizing the severity of illness, especially when administered shortly after symptoms develop. Houston Medical was the first hospital to use convalescent plasma, a therapy in which antibody-rich blood from people who have recovered from COVID-19 is administered to ill patients, Boom said.
Weve had tons of experience gained, better outcomes, shorter lengths of stay, Boom said. But this is still a serious illness.
While health authorities are better equipped to deal with new spikes, including an adequate supply of protective gear and sizable quantities of drugs like Remdesivir, a fall surge could still be equally as taxing on hospitals, said Carrie Kroll, vice president of advocacy, quality and public health at the Texas Hospital Association. As colder weather forces people inside and families gather for the holiday season, the chances for transmission increase, she said.
We certainly have been tested, and we know the beast that it is, and have shown that we were able to make it through those first two spikes, Kroll said. But we dont want to test the limit by putting patients into hospitals.
Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have already begun to tick upward in areas of the state including West Texas, the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the Panhandle. But nowhere is the situation as dire as in El Paso.
A record 496 people were hospitalized Monday, and only 16 intensive care unit beds were available among facilities in El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties, according to city and state data. El Paso Mayor Dee Margo scaled back business capacity from 75% to 50% last week and banned home gatherings. Gov. Greg Abbott also dispatched an emergency team of doctors and nurses to assist local health care facilities.
El Paso Health Director Angela Mora said that while she is concerned with hospital capacity, shes confident the city can handle the influx of cases. Officials are instead focusing on reminding residents to follow simple precautions, such as wearing masks in public, washing hands frequently and avoiding gatherings.
Somebody mentioned that the pandemic is out of control, Mora said. We are the ones who are out of control, because we are not practicing preventive measures that really work.
Experts attribute this latest surge in part to pandemic fatigue thats leading more people to ignore precautions that help slow the virus.
We know what works, our community knows what works, weve seen the results when everyone sticks to it, said Dr. Philip Huang, who leads the Dallas County Health Department.
Last week, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins increased the countys coronavirus threat level to red indicating high community spread. Hospitals in the region are closely monitoring the trend and are able to quickly scale up capacity, said Stephen Love, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.
In response to rising hospitalizations in Amarillo and Lubbock, Abbott sent additional medical resources, including personnel, ventilators and IV pumps, last week. This came even as the governor allowed bars to reopen in parts of the state where patients with COVID-19 make up less than 15% of hospitalizations and local officials opted in.
Local officials in most major cities have so far been reluctant to lift restrictions, fearing packed bars and restaurants could lead to a dangerous rise in cases.
This is a super slick virus thats broken all the rules, said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of the Harris County Health Department. We may be tired of this virus, but the virus is not tired of us.
Disclosure: Texas Hospital Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Two studies published Wednesday in the journal Blood Advances add to a growing body of evidence showing there may be a correlation between a person's blood type and their risk of developing a severe case of Covid-19and suggest one blood type in particular may be tied to a lower risk.
Cheat sheets: Evidence-based medicine 101
Early in the novel coronavirus pandemic, research suggested that individuals with Type A blood were at an especially high risk of developing a severe case of Covid-19 or dying from the disease.
For example, one preprint study released in June examined blood samples from 1,610 Covid-19 patients who developed severe cases of Covid-19, which the researchers classified as needing oxygen or a ventilator as part of their treatment. The researchers found that many of the patients who had severe cases of Covid-19 possessed the same variant on a gene that determines a person's blood type, and that having blood type A was linked with a 50% increase in the likelihood a patient would develop a severe case of Covid-19.
In addition, another preprint study conducted by researchers in China found that, out of 2,173 Covid-19 patients, blood type A was associated with a higher risk of death from Covid-19 and a higher risk of contracting the new coronavirus. Those researchers also noted that patients with blood type O appeared to be the least likely to contract the virus.
However, later research revealed a more complicated picture, suggesting that the link between Covid-19 a person's blood type might not be significant enough to actually alter a person's risk.
For instance, after reviewing the medical records of 7,770 people who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Nicholas Tatonetti, a data scientist at Columbia University, and graduate student Michael Zietz said they found that having blood Type A blood was associated with a lower risk of being placed on a ventilator, while having blood type AB was associated with a higher risk of needing ventilation. But overall, Tatonetti said connections between individuals' blood type and their Covid-19 risk were not strong enough to consider blood type as a risk factor for contracting the new coronavirus or developing a severe case of Covid-19.
"No one should think they're protected" because of their blood type, he said.
Separately, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in a study published in Annals of Hematology, which has open access options, found that people with Type O blood appeared to have a slightly lower risk of contacting the novel coronavirusbut they also found that a patient's blood type was not associated with their risk of needing ventilation or dying because of Covid-19. Anahita Dua, a vascular surgeon at MGH and senior author of the study, said the link she and her colleagues found between blood type and coronavirus risk was so weak that she "wouldn't even" consider using blood type as a risk factor for the virus or Covid-19.
But now, two new studies offer more evidence suggested there is, in fact, a correlation between a person's blood type and their Covid-19 riskand that people with blood Type O are less susceptible to the coronavirus overall.
For one study, researchers in Denmark analyzed data on 473,654 people who were tested for the new coronavirus between February and July. In total, 7,422 of those people tested positive for the virus.
The researchers found that 38.4% of those who tested positive for the coronavirus had blood Type Oa finding that seemed low when considering that 41.7% of the untested Danish population had that blood type. In comparison, 44.4% of those who tested positive for the virus had blood Type A, while people with that blood type comprised 42.4% of the untested population.
The researchers wrote that their findings demonstrate that blood Type O "is significantly associated with reduced susceptibility to" the novel coronavirusthough they also noted that their study had several limitations and called for further research on the topic.
For the second study, researchers in Canada analyzed data on 95 patients in Vancouver who tested positive for the coronavirus between February and April. All of the patients were hospitalized for Covid-19 in an ICU.
Among those patients, the researchers found that those with Type A or AB blood had a median ICU stay of 13.5 days, compared to with a median ICU stay of nine days among patients with blood Type O or B. The researchers also found that the patients with Type A or AB blood were more likely to require mechanical ventilation, at 84%, than patients with blood Type O or B, at 61%.
The researchers wrote that, overall, their findings "demonstrate that critically ill Covid-19 patients with blood [Type] A or AB are associated with an increased risk for requiring mechanical ventilation and prolonged ICU length of stay compared with patients with blood [Type] O or B." However, they also noted that their research had several limitations and called for more studies on the topic. "Further research is required to delineate the biological mechanisms underpinning these findings," they wrote.
While experts generally agreed that the new findings are interesting, they cautioned that the results are correlationalnot causational.
Roy Silverstein, chair of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, called the new studies' findings "interesting cocktail party conversation," and he added that, with further study, they "could lead to new approaches for prevention or therapy." However, he said, "at the present time, there is no reason to think that if you have type O blood, you're protected from Covid-19."
Similarly, Mypinder Sekhon, an intensive care physician at Vancouver General Hospital and an author of the Canadian study, said, "As a clinician [blood type] is at the back of my mind when I look at patients and stratify them. But in terms of a definitive marker we need repeated findings across many jurisdictions that show the same thing."
Sekhon added that he doesn't believe blood type "supersedes other risk factors of severity" for Covid-19, such as a person's age or comorbidities.
"If one is blood group A, you don't need to start panicking," Sekhon said. "And if you're blood group O, you're not free to go to the pubs and bars" (Edwards, NBC News, 10/14; Fox8, 10/14; Hunt/Howard, CNN, 10/14; Bogetofte Barnkob et al., Blood Advances, 10/14; Hoiland, Blood Advances, 10/14).
We were already worried our phones were being monitored. But we could easily switch out SIM cards or use the ubiquitous pay phones at local grocery stores. The surveillance system back then still relied on people following other people. And even trained state security agents can lose track of people. Under this relatively lax regime, Jakes, the Time reporter, was able to contact a trauma surgeon from Beijings 301 Hospital, Jiang Yanyong, who revealed the true extent and scope of the outbreak and the astonishing scale of the cover-up, including patients being wheeled out of hospitals via back exits as WHO inspectors were entering the front. Jakes had gotten lucky when Jiangs daughter reached out to her and said her brother wanted to write an open letter on what he had seen. Jiang told Jakes that the Chinese government could not be relied on to tell the truth about the number of infected, sick, and dying.
The mayor of Beijing and the minister of health would both resign after Jakess stories, the only instance I can recall of high-level Chinese government ministers resigning due to a scoop.
Because of changes in China and the United States, reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak is more challenging. For a few weeks in January and February, journalists in Wuhan, some of them ordinary citizens, told the world what was happening at great personal risk. Then, in March, Chen Qiushi, one citizen journalist who wrote critical stories of the Chinese governments initial handling of the outbreak, simply vanished. Chinese journalists and scientists have since been wary of speaking out. And very few Westerners have managed to report from Wuhan. We havent definitively learned much more about the origins of the disease since those first reports last year: Who was the index patient? Where does the host species reside? What species was the intermediary, if there was one? In other words, the answers to the journalistic questions who, what, when, and where.
The Communist Partys security services have become so ruthless at shutting down dissent that today, a whistleblower like Jiang might hold back. The willingness to enlarge the circle of pain has made a difference, Pomfret told me. Talk to a journalist now, and that could mean ruining your childrens life, your grandchildrens. That has had a stultifying effect.
These extreme measures are in part due to disease outbreaks being particularly embarrassing for governments that tout prosperity and law and order as primary claims to legitimacy.
The surveillance situation is far more extreme, as well. China is practically a cashless society, where transactions are made via smartphone. And buying a new SIM card requires an official, state-issued identification card that is duly noted and logged. A system that tracks you by your smartphone can always find you via your smartphone. In 2003, Jakes talked with Jiang on a pay phone before going to meet him on a subway; that sort of scenario is improbable now.
WAVERLY, N.Y. (WETM) The Tioga County Public Health Department will be offering free rapid COVID-19 testing in Waverly from Oct. 21-23 at the Waverly Village Hall on Ithaca Street.
Testing will be available at the following times:
Participants must pre-register at covid19.tiogacountyny.com, visiting the Tioga County Public Health Facebook page, or by calling at 607-687-8600.
Those being tested do not have to be a resident of Tioga County for this testing location.
Masks are to be worn inside the building and visitors should follow the direction of staff before entering.
Those with general COVID-19 questions may call the Tioga County Public Health Department at 607-687-8623.
One in four women are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce entirely because of the impact of COVID-19, according to a new report.
As many as 2 million women are considering taking a leave of absence or leaving the workforce altogether, warns Women in the Workplace, the largest comprehensive study of the state of women in corporate America.
Many employees are exhausted and burned out. Women in particular have been negatively impacted, and three groups are facing distinct challenges: mothers, senior-level women, and Black women.
The report is published by management consultancy McKinsey & Company and the womens campaign group LeanIn.Org.
Here are five key findings.
1. COVID-19 could push many mothers out of the workforce
Mothers are significantly more likely than fathers to be thinking about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce, with childcare responsibilities as a primary reason.
An Asian American woman and senior manager with two children aged one and five tells the study: There were times when I said to my husband, One of us is going to have to quit our job. And I remember thinking, How come Im the only one thinking about this, and my husband isnt? I dont think him leaving was ever in question.
Mothers are more likely than fathers to consider leaving work.
Image: McKinsey/Lean In
Mothers are also more than twice as likely as fathers to worry that theyll be judged more harshly at work because of their caregiving responsibilities.
2. Companies are at risk of losing women in leadership
One working mother - a Vice President with a three-year-old child - told the studys authors: I dont have a sliver of time without a meeting from 8am until 6pm every single day. Theres no buffer to get a glass of water, go to the bathroom, check on my child.
More senior-level women are burning out than men.
Image: McKinsey/Lean In
Senior-level women are significantly more likely than men at the same level to feel under pressure to work more and be always on. And they are 1.5 times more likely than senior-level men to think about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce because of COVID-19. Almost three in four cite burnout as a main reason.
3. Black women are less likely to feel supported at work during COVID-19
Black women are more than twice as likely as women overall to say the death of a loved one has been one of their biggest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Incidents of racial violence across the US are also exacting a heavy emotional toll.
But fewer than one in three Black women report that their manager has checked in on them in light of recent racial violence. And only about a third say their manager has fostered an inclusive culture on their team.
There was a real silence after George Floyd happened. And I felt like that silence ripped open a wound that I didnt realize had been so deep, one Black and Latina manager told the authors.
Black women are less likely to feel supported at work during COVID-19.
Image: McKinsey/Lean In
4. How companies can address the core challenges women are facing
Employers need to check whether productivity and performance expectations set before COVID-19 are still realistic, and help create work-life boundaries, says the report. For example, establishing set hours for meetings.
They should also raise awareness in the workplace about unconscious bias - such as challenging assumptions that a child playing in the background of a video call means less commitment to work.
Employees need to be aware of the full range of benefits available to them, such as mental health counselling. Companies should share more regular updates on the state of the business and key decisions that affect employees work and lives.
Black women are less likely to feel supported at work during COVID-19.
Image: McKinsey/Lean In
5. How companies can better support Black women
Make an explicit commitment to advancing and supporting Black women and communicate it to employees, along with a clear explanation of why its important.
Many employees dont realize that Black women are having a markedly worse experience at work, the authors say. If employees understand this, they will be more likely to champion the Black women in their organization.
Companies also need to foster a culture in which Black women are fully valued and included.
Employees dont always support or advocate for others with less power.
Image: McKinsey/Lean In
Economists have dubbed the impact COVID-19 is having on women in work as a shecession.
For example, in August 2020, womens labour supply was still 20% below the pre-recession levels of February 2020, whereas mens labour supply was only 9% lower.
The World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Report 2020, published in December 2019, highlighted the growing urgency for action, with gender parity still at least 99.5 years away.
Through its Platform for Shaping the New Economy and Society, the Forums initiatives include Closing the Gender Gap Country Accelerators and Hardwiring Gender Parity into the Future of Work, a business commitment framework to ensure the new world of work is inclusive.
With COVID-19 threatening to set back decades of progress on gender equality, this work is more urgent than ever.
