The term "long COVID" should be scrapped,according to Queensland's Chief Health Officer, because it creates unnecessary fear and is "probably harmful".
John Gerrard said the description wrongly implied long-term post-COVID viral symptoms were "somehow unique and exceptional" to other viral infections, but new research suggested they were indistinguishable.
The infectious disease physician said a Queensland study of more than 5,000 people found similar rates of functional limitations in the daily lives of people a year after a COVID-19 infection, compared to seasonal flu and other respiratory illnesses.
Dr Gerrard will present the results of the study next month at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona.
"We believe it's time to stop using the term long COVID," he said.
"[It] causes unnecessary fear. It implies that there is something particularly sinister and ominous about COVID-19.
"Our evidence suggests that there isn't, that it is not dissimilar to other viruses. That does not mean that you can't get these persistent symptoms following COVID-19, but you're no more likely to get it after COVID than with other respiratory viruses."
Queensland researchers compared 2,399 adults who tested positive for COVID-19 with 995 influenza patients, and 1,718 others who reported respiratory symptoms in mid-2022 but were negative for COVID-19 and the flu.
They surveyed the participants a year later, asking about ongoing symptoms and functional impairments using a questionnaire delivered by text message.
Dr Gerrard said after controlling for influential factors such as age, sex and First Nations status the researchers found no evidence the COVID-19 patients were more likely to have ongoing symptoms or moderate to severe functional limitations, a year after their diagnosis, than the other participants.
After 12 months, 16 per cent of respondents reported ongoing symptoms, regardless of whether they had COVID-19, the flu, or another respiratory infection.
The survey also found three per cent of the COVID-19 patients said they had moderate to severe functional impairment compared with 4.1 per cent of the non-COVID participants.
Dr Gerrard said 94 per cent of participants who reported themoderate to severe level of functional limitations experienced fatigue, post-exertion symptom exacerbation, brain fog and changes to taste and smell a year after their infection.
The rates were similar regardless of whether the person had tested positive to COVID-19 or not.
Given the study results, Dr Gerrard described long COVID as "probably a harmful term", given its potential to make some people hypervigilant to symptoms in the months after their infection, which could be detrimental to recovery.
However, he stressed he was not questioning the validity of long COVID.
"Post-viral syndromes do occur. We're absolutely saying that it does exist," Dr Gerrard said.
"We see it with Ross River virus. Clearly, we see it with influenza as well.
"A severe viral infection can be quite a significant inflammatory insult and, in some people, that clearly can cause persistent symptoms. But in the vast majority of people, recovery is the norm."
The latest study builds on Queensland Health research, published in the British Medical Journal last year, that found no difference between COVID-19 and influenza symptoms three months on from infection.
Dr Gerrard said limitations of the Queensland research included that participants who had pre-existing illnesses were unable to be identified in the study.
He also said the risk of so-called long COVID in Queensland was lower during the Omicron waves, compared with other variants as 90 per cent of the state's population was vaccinated when Omicron emerged.
"We may well have found a different result in an un-immunised population, prior to the arrival of the Omicron variant," Dr Gerrard said.
"What they described in the UK with long COVID in the early days, we know their experience of COVID was completely different to our experience.
"It's quite possible their experience of long COVID is different to ours here in Queensland."
Dr Gerrard said the researchers sent text messages to more than 30,000 Queenslanders last year as part of the study, about 6,400 people responded and some of those were deemed ineligible because they didn't have respiratory symptoms at the time of the initial test.
He said Queensland Health planned to do more research into other complications following COVID-19 infection compared to other viruses including strokes, heart attacks and myocarditis an inflammation of the heart muscle.
"Somewhere between four and five million Queenslanders have caught COVID-19 over the last couple of years, so even a very small complication rate translates to a significant number of people when you have so many people infected," Dr Gerrard said.
Mater infectious diseases director Paul Griffin, who was not involved in the study, cautiously welcomed the findings but said much more research was needed to better understand long COVID.
"We should be looking at much larger samples and collaborating with people in other locations," Dr Griffin said.
He said the sheer volume of Queenslanders who had been infected with COVID-19 supported the need for public long COVID clinics.
"I do think long COVID clinics would be worthwhile," he said.
"I think investing in some guidelines for how practitioners can help long COVID patients, and then bringing together appropriate expertise into long COVID clinics for those that require it would be really helpful for those people that are suffering the worst.
"We need to be able to identify who's at highest risk and ideally, work out ways to prevent it and treat it if people do get it. All of those areas are sadly lacking."
New research from UC San Francisco has found that COVID-19 can remain in the blood and tissue of some patients for over a year after infection, offering insights into the development of long COVID symptoms. The studies led by Michael Peluso reveal COVID antigens persisting in the blood for up to 14 months and in tissue samples for over two years, suggesting a possible link to long-term health effects.
The COVID-19 virus can persist in the blood and tissue of patients for more than a year after the acute phase of the illness has ended, according to new research from UC San Francisco that offers potential clues to why some people develop long COVID.
The scientists found pieces of SARS-CoV-2, referred to as COVID antigens, lingering in the blood up to 14 months after infection and for more than two years in tissue samples from people who had COVID.
These two studies provide some of the strongest evidence so far that COVID antigens can persist in some people, even though we think they have normal immune responses, said Michael Peluso, MD, an infectious disease researcher in the UCSF School of Medicine, who led both studies.
The findings were presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which was held March 3 to 6, 2024, in Denver.
Early in the pandemic, COVID-19 was thought to be a transient illness. But a growing number of patients, even those who had previously been healthy, continued having symptoms, such as, brain fog, digestive problems, and vascular issues, for months or even years.
The researchers looked at blood samples from 171 people who had been infected with COVID. Using an ultra-sensitive test for the COVID spike protein, which helps the virus break into human cells, the scientists found the virus was still present up to 14 months later in some people.
Among those who were hospitalized for COVID, the likelihood of detecting the COVID antigens was about twice as high as it was for those who were not. It was also higher for those who reported being sicker, but were not hospitalized.
As a clinician, these associations convince me that we are on to something, because it makes sense that someone who had been sicker with COVID would have more antigen that can stick around, Peluso said.
Since the virus is believed to persist in the tissue reservoirs, the scientists turned to UCSFs Long COVID Tissue Bank, which contains samples donated by patients with and without long COVID.
They detected portions of viral RNA for up to two years after infection, although there was no evidence that the person had become reinfected. They found it in the connective tissue where immune cells are located, suggesting that the viral fragments were causing the immune system to attack. In some of the samples, the researchers found that the virus could be active.
Peluso said more research is needed to determine whether the persistence of these fragments drives long COVID and such associated risks as heart attack and stroke.
But, based on these findings, Pelusos team at UCSF is involved in multiple clinical trials that are testing whether monoclonal antibodies or antiviral drugs can remove the virus and improve the health of people with long COVID.
There is a lot more work to be done, but I feel like we are making progress in really understanding the long-term consequences of this infection, Peluso said.
Meeting: Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI)
The studies were supported by funding from the PolyBio Research Foundation to support UCSFs Long-Term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus (LIINC) Clinical Core and a Merck Investigator Studies Program Grant. The National Institute of Healths National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases also provided funding (3R01AI1411003-03S1, R01AI158013 and K23AI134327, K23AI157875 and K24AI145806). Additional support came from the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Department of Medicine and Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine.
It has been four years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The New York Times writes of the anniversary:
Four years ago today, society began to shut down.
Shortly after noon Eastern on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid or the coronavirus, then the more popular term to be a global pandemic. Stocks plummeted in the afternoon. In the span of a single hour that night, President Donald Trump delivered an Oval Office address about Covid, Tom Hanks posted on Instagram that he had the virus and the N.B.A. announced it had canceled the rest of its season.
It was a Wednesday, and thousands of schools would shut by the end of the week. Workplaces closed, too. People washed their hands frequently and touched elbows instead of shaking hands (although the C.D.C. continued to discourage widespread mask wearing for several more weeks).
The worst pandemic in a century had begun.
For some people, the earliest days of the pandemic may feel like a lifetime ago; for others, it may feel like just yesterday. But for all of us Covid has indelibly changed our lives and the world. What do you remember about the earliest days of the pandemic? When did it first hit home for you? How did it affect you, your family and your community? What lessons did you learn about yourself and the world?
In Four Years On, Covid Has Reshaped Life for Many Americans, Julie Bosman writes that while the threat of severe illness and death has faded for many people, the pandemics effects still linger:
Jessie Thompson, a 36-year-old mother of two in Chicago, is reminded of the Covid-19 pandemic every day.
Sometimes it happens when she picks up her children from day care and then lets them romp around at a neighborhood park on the way home. Other times, its when she gets out the shower at 7 a.m. after a weekday workout.
I always think: In my past life, Id have to be on the train in 15 minutes, said Ms. Thompson, a manager at United Airlines.
A hybrid work schedule has replaced her daily commute to the company headquarters in downtown Chicago, giving Ms. Thompson more time with her children and a deeper connection to her neighbors. The pandemic is such a negative memory, she said. But I have this bright spot of goodness from it.
For much of the United States, the pandemic is now firmly in the past, four years to the day that the Trump administration declared a national emergency as the virus spread uncontrollably. But for many Americans, the pandemics effects are still a prominent part of their daily lives.
In interviews, some people said that the changes are subtle but unmistakable: Their world feels a little smaller, with less socializing and fewer crowds. Parents who began to home-school their children never stopped. Many people are continuing to mourn relatives and spouses who died of Covid or of complications from the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization dropped its global health emergency designation in May 2023, but millions of people who survived the virus are suffering from long Covid, a mysterious and frequently debilitating condition that causes fatigue, muscle pain and cognitive decline.
One common sentiment has emerged. The changes brought on by the pandemic now feel lasting, a shift that may have permanently reshaped American life.
As part of our coverage of the pandemics anniversary, The Times asked readers how Covid has changed their attitudes toward life. Here is what they said:
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Illustration by Emma Gometz, for Science Friday
Four years ago this week, the world as we know it changed. Schools shut down, offices shuttered, and we hunkered down at home with our Purell and canned foods, trying to stay safe from a novel, deadly coronavirus. Back then most of us couldnt fathom just how long the pandemic would stretch on.
And now four years later, some 1.2 million people have died in the U.S alone and nearly 7 million have been hospitalized as a result of a COVID-19 infection, according to the CDC.
So, what have we learned about how COVID-19 attacks the body? What can be done for long COVID sufferers? And what can we expect in the future?
Ira analyzes this era of the pandemic with Hannah Davis, co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative in New York City, and Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, immunobiologist at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut.
Invest in quality science journalism by making a donation to Science Friday.
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According to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,377 people in Maine have died from the virus in the past four years.
Author: newscentermaine.com
Published: 7:57 PM EDT March 14, 2024
Updated: 7:57 PM EDT March 14, 2024
Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic provoked whole countries into lockdown, scientists are still trying to find conclusive evidence to pinpointwhere the virus first infected humans.
But does it really matter whereSARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID,originated now that life's back to a kind of normal? What's the difference if the virus leaked from a lab or developed in nature?
Well, researchers say it does matter: They say it's one of the most important questions for our understanding of how pandemics start and how we can prevent them in the future.
The answer, they say, would have a lasting effect on health policy, scientific funding, public opinion on science, and diplomatic relations.
Not to mention the fact we're still living with COVID:The World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Dashboard continues to reporthundreds of thousands of cases every month worldwide.
But from lab leak theory to zoonotic theory, and conspiracy theories in between, there's no consensus on COVID's origin.
With new investigations and analyses emerging on this fourth anniversary, we take a look at the current thinking.
Arguments for the lab leak theory center around the Wuhan Institute of Virology , aninstitute where scientists were researching coronaviruses at the time of the initial outbreak in China.
"The strongest evidence comes from the timeline of research [going back to] 2012. Published papers from the institute show scientists could construct modified coronaviruses," said Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University in theUS.
Research included genetically altering coronaviruses to make them stronger such asadding spike proteinsand testing the viruses' ability to spread. Their stated aim was to help prevent coronavirus outbreaks.
But we don't know how many coronaviruses the institute studied. "They refused to collaborate from the start," opined Ebright.
Some experts say it's possible that the Wuhan lab had progenitor strains ancestorsof SARS-CoV-2, butChina's alleged withholding information on the origin of COVID makes this impossible to prove or disprove.
Then there's the question of how the virus would have leaked.Some say it leaked by accident, due to weak security measures at the lab, and other suggest it was intentionally developed and released as a biological weapon. But there is no firm evidence for either theory.
"Every form of the lab leak theory involves some sort of cover up, which to me means that it's a conspiracy theory," said Edward Holmes, a professor of virology at the University of Sydney inAustralia.
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Some scientists prefer the zoonotic theory: The theory that the virus evolved in nature from an existing coronavirus and spread from wild animals to humans at theHuanan Seafood Wholesale Market, also in Wuhan, China.
Researchers said they had analyzed statistical data to locate what they said were the first human cases and that those cases were among market vendors who sold live animals.
"The evidencesupports a zoonotic origin," said Angie Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada."It includes detailed studies of SARS-CoV-2 [...] and its evolutionary trajectory once [it was in]the human population."
Scientists havestudied samples from wild animals in Wuhan for signs of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. But they have failed to find it. And they have also failed to trace how the virus spread from the market to the outside environment.
"The key step of tracing and testing the animals at the Huanan marketwas not done [at the time] and it's too late now. For this reason, we have been unable to identify the exact animal ancestry," said Holmes.
But given that Huanan market is 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, some people continue to suggests thatthe lab and/or the market were COVID's epicenter.
Anexpert survey in February 2024 found that most scientists believe COVID emerged from nature.
The expert respondents gave the natural, zoonotic (or zoonosis) theory an average likelihood of 77% four out of five of the experts said it was more than 50% likely. But the experts said there wasa 21% likelihood that COVID started due to "research-related accident" one out of five of the experts said there was a 50% or greater chance of that.
"When you takeother intelligence into account,the lab leak theory starts to seem more plausible," said Seth Baumof the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, which co-published the survey with Nemesys Insights.
When Baum refers to "other intelligence," he's talking about non-scientificfactors, such as proximity of the market to the lab.
Much of the evidence that might provide a conclusive answer, however, has been lostor remains unavailable for public scrutiny.
"Whether we'll get an evidence-based conclusion depends on countries like China collaborating and being forthcoming with data," said Baum.
The one thing experts do agree on is that we need to keep trying to solvethe mystery of COVID's origin it may determine how werespond to nextpandemic.
Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS)
The COVID-19 outbreak was officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020.
Its now been four years of new rules and regulations that were put in place as a response to the pandemic.
We spoke with residents about how much their lives have changed in the last four years.
In the past four years, COVID-19 has evolved from an unknown virus prompting social distancing to a more common part of society.
But while people have adapted, the virus had a profound impact on how some see the world and their own health.
Overall COVID was a soul sucker for a lot of people in a lot of towns. And you know, I mean, I think it's important just that we make a bounce back," said Springfield resident Vincent Vespa.
Many Springfield residents described the COVID-19 era as a worldwide crisis. Saying the pandemic made them aware of things that they may not have thought about before 2020.
I'm definitely a lot more cautious when I get sick and things like that because I don't know what it could be," said another Springfield resident Alex Cox. "I think it made a lot of people more weary of their health.
Dr. Vidhya Prakash said many of the hospital rules and regulations changed as a response to the pandemic, like requiring masks and social distancing.
What we had to deal with was the rapidly changing guidance. As we learned more about the guidance, we realized that isolation and quarantine guidelines were ever-changing, even treatment guidelines were ever-changing. So the key here was communication," she said.
Dr. Prakash said keeping up with all the new regulations was difficult, but that the healthcare industry did an amazing job quickly adapting to these updated rules.
"We learned the power of collaboration. We understood that we were better together, and we were making changes and standing up to this formidable enemy of COVID-19 together," said Dr. Prakash.
Residents said its hard to imagine what the world looked like before COVID-19, saying the pandemic created a new normal for them.
I think the willingness of people to wear masks when they're sick, has been a positive," Trisha Schlobohm, Springfield resident, said. "People are more likely to wear masks when they have a cold than they were. So, I think there's been some kind of overall improvements. You know, just being careful about spreading disease.
Residents said that while health has always been a priority in their lives, the pandemic increased their sense of urgency when it came to hygiene, wearing masks, and quarantining when sick.
According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 700 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 7 million deaths from the virus, as of February 2024.
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Army Col. Joshua Bookout receives the coronavirus vaccine at the Conroy Bowl on Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in January 2021. (Angelo Mejia/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON The Army and Air Force did not meet the Defense Department time guidelines in processing some requests from service members wanting to be exempt from taking coronavirus vaccines for religious reasons, the department inspector general revealed Thursday in a new report.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in August 2021 issued a memorandum to the secretaries of the military services to begin vaccination of all armed forces members against the coronavirus. Troops at the time with a health condition incompatible with the vaccine could get a waiver. Additionally, troops with religious beliefs that prohibit the use of vaccines could seek exemption under the Defense Departments Religious Liberty in the Military Services instruction.
The departments inspector general announced in February 2022 that the office would begin an audit of how the military services conducted exemption requests for the vaccine mandate, as well as disciplinary actions.
Though the Pentagon rescinded the coronavirus vaccine mandate last year a policy rollback in the defense authorization bill the IGs review recommendations apply to all vaccination exemptions and discharges required of service members.
More than 8,000 service members were separated from the armed forces for refusing the coronavirus vaccine, The Washington Post reported. Only 43 rejoined the U.S. military following the repeal, according to CNN.
The IGs report found in 12 instances the Army did not review requests within its 90-day requirement window. In those cases, the Army review averaged 192 days, more than twice the length of time allotted.
There were 35 cases the Air Force did not review in its 30-day requirement period, according to the report. In those cases, the service review averaged 168 days, more than five times as long.
The inspector general report also found the services did not always record medical and administrative exemptions as required. Additionally, the review found all the military branches discharged service members for coronavirus vaccination refusal under federal and department guidance, but service members did not receive the same discharge status or reentry code for potential reenlistment.
The services issued either honorable or general discharges for members who refused the vaccine. Discharged service members received different reentry codes because the Pentagon did not have department-level guidance requiring uniformity on the matter.
Prolonged delays in addressing requests for religious accommodations could impact a service members job placement and impede the commands ability to make well-informed deployment and assignment choices, Inspector General Robert Storch wrote in the report. DoDs lack of department-level guidance for uniformly characterizing discharges and assigning reentry codes for vaccination refusal resulted in service members experiencing different impacts to their educational benefits and eligibility to reenlist after discharge.
The inspector generals office recommended the acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness develop and issue guidance to require uniform discharge types, as well as assign uniform reentry codes for service members discharged for misconduct solely for refusing a vaccine.
The office also recommended the director of the Defense Health Agency, in their capacity as manager for the departments immunization program, develop and implement a requirement for personnel to maintain supporting documentation for medical exemptions in the service members medical records and administrative exemptions in service members personnel records.
A lot has changed since then. As of March 14, 57 people were hospitalized with the virus in Maine, including nine in critical care and five on ventilators.
Author: newscentermaine.com
Published: 4:25 PM EDT March 14, 2024
Updated: 4:25 PM EDT March 14, 2024
Jessie Thompson, a 36-year-old mother of two in Chicago, is reminded of the Covid-19 pandemic every day.
Sometimes it happens when she picks up her children from day care and then lets them romp around at a neighborhood park on the way home. Other times, its when she gets out the shower at 7 a.m. after a weekday workout.
I always think: In my past life, Id have to be on the train in 15 minutes, said Ms. Thompson, a manager at United Airlines.
A hybrid work schedule has replaced her daily commute to the company headquarters in downtown Chicago, giving Ms. Thompson more time with her children and a deeper connection to her neighbors. The pandemic is such a negative memory, she said. But I have this bright spot of goodness from it.
For much of the United States, the pandemic is now firmly in the past, four years to the day that the Trump administration declared a national emergency as the virus spread uncontrollably. But for many Americans, the pandemics effects are still a prominent part of their daily lives.
In interviews, some people said that the changes are subtle but unmistakable: Their world feels a little smaller, with less socializing and fewer crowds. Parents who began to home-school their children never stopped. Many people are continuing to mourn relatives and spouses who died of Covid or of complications from the coronavirus.
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