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COVID-19 Vaccine Perspective From Adolescents' Lens in the US - Cureus

What are some contributors to the latest COVID-19 surge? Dr. Sobieszczyk: Every winter we see an increase in respiratory infections: flu, RSV, and more recently, COVID-19. People have been staying indoors and congregating in settings with less ventilation, which gives the virus an opportunity to spread.

Were seeing more COVID cases due to JN.1. At the end of October 2023, it made up less than 0.1% of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants the virus which causes COVID-19. By January 19, 2024, it accounted for up to approximately 88 percent of currently circulating variants, according to the CDC.

What are the symptoms of the COVID-19 variant JN.1? JN.1 does not seem to cause more severe symptoms compared to other variants.

Common symptoms reported include sore throat, nausea, and diarrhea within a few days of the illness onset. Loss of smell may be less frequently reported.

There are a wide range of symptoms including fever, chills, fatigue, cough, muscle or body aches, and congestion.

What differentiates JN.1 from other subvariants? JN.1 is an offspring of the earlier Omicron variants and closely related to BA.2.86. It seems to be more contagious and transmissible.

Every virus mutates. Thats what allows them to survive. They mutate by making mistakes in the processes of replication, which is how these variants emerge. Some mutations are good for the virus, helping it thrive and become easier to transmit, changing the way the virus behaves.

When we talk about variants of concern, these are viruses that have mutations that make them more contagious or may cause more severe COVID illness, or more resistant to vaccines and antiviral medications. But compared to the first Omicron surge, JN.1s severity is not as robust. The overall number of virus-related illnesses that require emergency room visits is lower compared to last year, and COVID hospitalizations and percent of total deaths are down as well.

This shift is most likely related to the fact that we have more immunity in the general population, both from vaccines and prior infection. This protection can fade over time, but tends to last longer for preventing severe disease.

Other variants we are watching include HV.1. and JD.1.1, according to the CDC.

What are treatments for the subvariant? For people with mild to moderate infection who are not hospitalized and are at risk of severe disease or hospitalization, treatment with antivirals is recommended, similar to other variants.

The first line of treatment is Paxlovid, an antiviral pill that reduces the amount of the virus that causes COVID-19 in the body and prevents symptoms from getting worse.

Though the viruses are mutating, there is still data to suggest that the medication is effective. There is a lot of research happening in this space, including looking for new antiviral treatments.

A question I often get asked is, Why should I take Paxlovid, especially if I only have a mild case of COVID? I do want to emphasize that it is still an area of important research with mixed data, but recent data suggests that there may be a benefit to reducing the risk of developing long-COVID, or post-COVID conditions, especially in individuals over age 50 and those with preexisting medical conditions.

It is important to keep in mind that some patients continue to have an increased risk of progressing to more severe COVID. Paxlovid is beneficial and recommended for people over the age of 50, or for those with underlying medical conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes who are at risk of complications from COVID-19 and hospitalization.

Does the current vaccine protect against JN.1? We are seeing good data that this updated vaccine can elicit robust antibodies against current and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Thats good news for effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing some degree of infection and severe disease.

A report released in February 2024 from the CDC shared that the updated vaccine provided approximately 54 percent protection against symptomatic infection, compared with no receipt of the updated vaccine.

We are also seeing data that show that immunologic imprinting is less severe for this updated vaccine compared to the previous bivalent vaccine, which means the immune system has more of a robust and purposeful response to the current variants. This bodes well for its ability to respond to a newer variant that may be coming around the corner.

How can people best protect themselves against COVID-19? I advocate for masking in congested or crowded settings, not just to protect against COVID-19 but other respiratory viruses.

In addition to COVID, flu season typically peaks between December and February, and we see cases into the spring.

I suggest people get their flu and COVID-19 vaccine, and if needed, the RSV vaccine. Currently, only 21 percent of adults in the United States have received the updated COVID vaccine.

Test when you feel sick, and remember to always wash your hands.

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COVID-19 Variant JN.1: Symptoms, Severity and Treatment - Health Matters

Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) experience more negative effects in health and work after being infected with COVID-19 compared to White individuals who were similarly infected, according to new research published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.1

Many health disparities were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for ethnic and racial minoritized populations. Due to an overrepresentation in the essential workforce, these populations were at an increased risk for infection. While this has been demonstrated by previous research, not much is known about disparities in recovery after COVID-19.

We want to understand what is driving these differences, with the goal of advancing health equity after infection, Kelli OLaughlin, lead author on the study and associate professor of emergency medicine and of global health at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said in a release.2

Investigators from the Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections(INSPIRE) group, a collaboration between 8 major academic medical centers in the United States funded by the CDC, conducted a study to examine the ethnic and racial differences in symptoms and health-related impacts 3 and 6months after the first SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The study cohort included 3161 participants, of which 2402 were COVID-19-positive and 759 were negative, who were enrolled in the INSPIRE study between December 11, 2020, and July 4, 2022. Individual symptoms, health status, activity level, and missed work 3 and 6 months after COVID-19 illness were assessed.

Investigators found that Hispanic patients were more likely to report fair or poor health and reduced activity compared to non-Hispanic patients at 3 months. However, the differences were not present at 6 months. Other/multiple race patients were also more likely to report fair or poor health and reduced activity compared to White participants at 3 months.

Additionally, compared to White patients at 6 months, Black patients reported missing more work, Asian patients were more likely to report fair or poor health, and other/multiple race patients were more likely to report fair or poor health, reduced activity, and more missed work.

Study limitations included small sample sizes of different ethnic and racial subgroups, lack of data on insurance and frontline worker status, that individuals who agreed to participate may not have been representative of their larger ethnic and racial subgroup, and that important neurological and mental health sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 were not evaluated.

We must understand what is driving these differences in order to advance health equity after infection, Joann Elmore, principal investigator of the UCLA INSPIRE study site, said in a release.3 Several minority populations reported worse overall health, lower activity levels, or more missed work months after infection. While we cant pinpoint the cause, we know that, historically, these populations may have a harder time accessing health care, which could complicate their recovery.

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BIPOC Experience More Negative Effects After COVID-19 Infection - Drug Topics

The latest round of COVID-19 boosters is about 54% effective in preventing symptomatic infection in those with normal immune systems, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thats comparable to the effectiveness of the flu vaccine in a good year.

The analysis found the updated vaccine equally effective against the strain it targets, XBB.1.5, and the JN.1 subvariant, which is currently the most common strain in the United States.

Ruth Link-Gelles, an author of the study, said it shows that the latest COVID shot offers significant protection to recipients, per STAT News.

We know that COVID is continuing to cause thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths in this country each week, Link-Gelles, of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told STAT. And 50% added protection against COVID-19 is really going to be a meaningful increase in protection, especially for those at highest risk.

The analysis included 9,222 people with symptoms that could have been COVID-19; nearly 3,300 tested positive for the virus. Effectiveness was calculated based on comparing those who were boosted versus those who werent.

Experts say vaccine effectiveness is known to wane over time, but officials say that getting the vaccine is important even if cases are declining in a community.

The shot is recommended for anyone 6 months and older. But only about 22% of U.S. adults have gotten the shots and only 11% of children. The slow uptake meant that it took longer for researchers to gather enough data to assess how well the shots work, Link-Gelles told The Associated Press.

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How effective is the newest COVID-19 booster shot? - Deseret News

More than a year after the Florida Supreme Court granted Gov. Ron DeSantis request to empanel a statewide grand jury to investigate criminal or wrongful activity related to COVID-19 vaccines, the body released its first report and said its probe is nowhere near complete.

Their 33-page report released late Friday said lockdowns were not a good trade and that we have never had sound evidence of (masks) effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 transmission, among other conclusions.

In a way, this Grand Jury has allowed us to do something that most Americans simply do not have the time, access, or wherewithal to do: Follow the science, the report said.

Conclusions in the report on masks contradict recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDCs guidance says research shows masks are effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19 and recommends as of late January that people with symptoms, people who have tested positive, and people who have been exposed to the virus should wear masks when indoors in public.

The report discussed whether lockdowns, mask mandates and social-distancing guidelines had a significant impact on the overall risk of COVID-19.

Among the bodys conclusions:

The report said the grand jury talked with doctors, scientists and professors with a broad range of viewpoints.

Kenneth Goodman, founder and director of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicines Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, said the report raises questions about which professionals the grand jury spoke with and how those professionals were vetted.

Using the language of science to promote mysticism is particularly egregious, Goodman said.

Joseph Ladapo says anti-vaccine crusade was Gods plan. It cost him his peers trust

In an update on the CDCs website on Thursday, the agency said their new data shows updated COVID-19 vaccines were effective and advises that everyone ages 6 months and older should get the updated 202324 COVID-19 vaccines.

Since Jan. 1, 2020, more than 82,000 Floridians have died from COVID-19, according to the most current CDC data. Just under 900 people have died from the virus in the past three months.

There are 17.8 million people in Florida who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, CDC data shows, about 83% of the states population. About 70% completed the first series of vaccines. Only about 12% of the states population has received an updated booster dose.

DeSantis and State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo routinely have voiced skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccines. Ladapo in September advised people under the age of 65 against getting the new booster when it was approved.

Last month, Ladapo called for a halt in using the vaccines, discussing in a statement a refuted theory that they may be delivering contaminant DNA into human cells.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a letter to Ladapo last December refuted his concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

The challenge we continue to face is the ongoing proliferation of misinformation and disinformation about these vaccines which results in vaccine hesitancy that lowers vaccine uptake, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research for the FDA, wrote to Ladapo. Given the dramatic reduction in the risk of death, hospitalization and serious illness afforded by the vaccines, lower vaccine uptake is contributing to the continued death and serious illness toll of COVID-19.

A University of South Florida/Florida Atlantic University public survey last August showed that notable numbers of Floridians incorrectly believe that vaccines can cause DNA alterations or believe a conspiracy theory that they contain microchips. Republicans were more likely than Democrats and independents to believe vaccine misinformation, the survey found.

Most Floridians see COVID vaccines as safe. But many also believe conspiracy theories including microchips.

DeSantis has time and again fought against the federal mandates that he and his voter-base viewed as governmental overreach while portrayingFloridas policies as pro-freedom.

DeSantis office in a news release in March 2023, marking three years since the start of the pandemic, criticized President Joe Bidens administrations handling of the pandemic and touted Floridas economic and tourism statistics. DeSantis in the statement said the federal measures were about exercising control at the expense of the American economy and the American way of life.

Its just important to say, the experts that designed these policies and that were hectoring everybody they were wrong about almost everything, DeSantis said at a March 16 news conference held in Polk County with Ladapo.

The report issued Friday emphasized that the grand jury is apolitical, diverse in ethnicity, gender and politics and has no specific agenda with respect to these issues.

Despite that assertion, Goodman said, it would still be nice to have a little transparency about who selected their experts and the names of those experts.

Its Florida, and what weve become used to in Florida is people with an agenda finding a way to put their thumb on the scientific scale, he said.

Jurors summoned were from the Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth Judicial Circuits, according to the report, and were randomly selected. The bodys primary legal adviser is Statewide Prosecutor Nicholas B. Cox, who was appointed by Attorney General Ashley Moody and who has been overseeing the voter fraud cases moving through the courts since DeSantis announced the arrests of some 20 people in August 2022 for allegedly voting illegally.

The majority of registered voters in all but one of the 14 counties that make up those circuits are registered Republicans, according to Division of Elections records.

(Article continues after document.)

Like Goodman, Dr. Leslie Beitsch, courtesy faculty professor at Florida State Universitys College of Medicine, said the report raises transparency questions about those who did and did not appear to the grand jury and called it far from an unbiased effort.

Beitsch said it appears to him that the report was written by someone who has a great deal of biostatistics and epidemiology knowledge and beyond the bachelors level. He said the data discussed in the report was chosen to best suit their position.

There is no expert consensus on the conclusions drawn in the report, Beitsch said.

From just reading this, this doesnt present itself as a neutral, apolitical document of a diverse group selected at random, he said. It reads very much like a pointed perspective of a selected group I dont see neutrality here. And I think an unbiased report by a group of scientists would be helpful.

He pointed out what he called a rich irony, where it says early on in the report: Follow the science.

And I think thats a good admonition I think we should all follow it, but I think this is a partial presentation of the science thats cherry-picked Beitsch said.

DeSantis office in a news release Friday evening pointed out a section of the report that said officials from the CDC, the FDA and the U.S. Army did not give testimony, putting roadblocks in the grand jurys investigation.

Other potential witnesses chose not to testify, some citing potential professional or personal consequences from being involved with the investigation, the report said.

The grand jury explained that DeSantis involvement ended once he petitioned the state Supreme Court and that the body is insulated from the influence of the political actors that caused us to be impaneled.

Occasionally, prospective witnesses have raised concerns about the underlying fairness of this body, which for the reasons described above we believe to be unfounded, the report later said.

Floridas Surgeon General told the FDA that COVID vaccines arent safe. The FDA calls that misinformation.

The Supreme Courts order stated the grand jury can investigate pharmaceutical manufacturers (and their executive officers) and other medical associations or organizations involved in almost any way with the use of vaccines purported to prevent COVID-19 infection, symptoms, and transmission.

The order also said the grand jury could also look into other criminal activity or wrongdoing that the statewide grand jury uncovers during the course of the investigation or anything thats part of an organized criminal conspiracy.

The report did not include any recommendations, but the grand jury could make some in future reports.

The Statewide Grand Jury only has the power to recommend solutions; we cannot enact them. It will be up to state legislators, federal lawmakers or even the people themselves to ensure that our efforts are not wasted, the report said. Moreover, we concur that if violations of Florida criminal law occurred with respect to COVID-19 vaccines, they must be addressed by the appropriate authorities.

The grand jury remains in session and Cox is scheduling future witnesses to appear, the report said. It was signed by Christopher C. Sabella, chief judge for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.

Information from the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.

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Florida grand jury investigating COVID-19 vaccines releases first report - South Florida Sun Sentinel

The first US study on the latest COVID-19 vaccines to be developed found that they are 54 per cent effective in preventing symptoms of the disease in adults.

The newest COVID-19 vaccine shots are 54 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic infections in adults, according to a recent study by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The latest vaccines, which became available last year, were designed to better protect people against the more recent variants of the virus.

In a study released on Thursday, which involved 9,000 people who got tested for COVID-19 at CVS and Walgreens pharmacies across the US, the CDC came to the conclusion that in 54 per cent of the cases, the new shots prevented adults infected with the virus from developing symptoms.

The studys findings are similar to those observed in other countries, according to Ruth Link-Gelles of the CDC, the study's lead author, and similar to the results obtained by previous vaccines.

Researchers will need more time to understand if the new shots are effective at preventingsymptoms severe enough to send patients to a doctor's office or hospital, Link-Gelles said.

At the end of summer last year, the CDC recommended that everyone aged six months and older take the new shots, especially as a surge in infections was expected by autumn and winter when people traditionally get sick with the cold, the flu, and other common respiratory diseases.

The latest CDC data suggest only 22 per cent of US adults have gotten the shots and only 11 per cent of children.

In Europe, vaccination campaigns have varied from country to country, but most have recommended the new shots be administered to the most vulnerable first, including the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.

According to the latest report on vaccination released by the European Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on January 26, approximately 19.4 million people aged 60 years and older received one COVID-19 vaccine dose between September 2023 and January 2024.

Approximately 5.5 million people aged 80 years and older received one COVID-19 vaccine dose during the same period.

The median COVID-19 vaccination coverage among people aged 60 years and older in Europe was 11.1 per cent, with high variation among countries, according to the ECDC.

For people aged 80 years and older, the median coverage was slightly higher at 16.3 per cent, with high variation among countries.

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Newest COVID shots are 54% effective in preventing symptoms in adults, according to US data - Euronews

The first time 41-year-old Evan James caught COVID-19 in 2022 he said it "absolutely destroyed" him.

He would go on to be infected another four times.

"Each time has been very different," Mr James told the ABC.

"The first time it wiped me out three weeks are still a blur, I couldn't get up off the couch, I sweated constantly."

The Sydney barrister said he was asymptomatic the second and fourth times and had mild symptoms the third time, but by the fifth infection he was "hit very hard again" and was prescribed anti-viral medication.

Mr James was one of dozens of people who responded to an ABC News Sydney call out on social media to hear from people who had been infected with COVID-19 multiple times.

Seventy-six people wrote in with a range of symptoms, severity, and duration.

Most respondents had been reinfected three times, but there were also people who had tested positive four and five times.

One woman reported nine infections.

Professor Steven Faux, a rehabilitation and pain physician at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital and co-director of the hospital's long COVID clinic, told the ABC there were two main explanations.

"Getting COVID-19 multiple times means either you're exposed to it a fair bit and you're not as diligent protecting yourself, or there might be something wrong with your ability to fight infections," Professor Faux said.

"It's probably the former, it's probably that people are now becoming lackadaisical about protection and that's not without reason because I think people are fed up, but it's still a serious illness, it's still more serious than flu.

"The fact that it's a highly contagious makes it more of a worry and it keeps mutating, so the vaccines are never absolutely perfect."

Professor Stuart Tangye, the head of immunology and immunodeficiency laboratory at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said that people who keep getting infected should see a doctor.

"What COVID has shown us is that there are some people who have holes in their immune system," Professor Tangye said.

"If you're susceptible to repeated SARS-CoV-2 infections, maybe you've got an underlying immune problem so get it checked for peace of mind, but also for information."

Professor Tangye said he would advise people who had tested positive over and over again to go to GP and get a referral to a clinical immunologist for a blood test to measure immune markers.

Mr James said he is planning to do that.

He is already immunocompromised because of autoimmune disease vitiligo, and because he has had whooping cough several times despite being regularly vaccinated against it.

He wants to find out more about the effect COVID-19 is having on his body.

"Part of [catching COVID-19 five times] is the nature of my work, because at court you're exposed to so many people, you're always a high risk of catching whatever is going around," he said.

"But I'm hoping that I can get an appointment to eventually to see an immunologist."

Four years since COVID-19 spread around the world, medical researchers are still studying the effects on human health.

"The picture that's starting to come together is clearly the more times you do get infected with SARs-CoV-2, the more you're at risk of ongoing clinical complications [such as] heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease," Professor Tangye said.

"And the more times you get infected, the higher likelihood you're going to have long COVID or chronic health conditions manifesting in time, so it's an ongoing problem."

Professors Faux and Tangye said people should discuss booster vaccinations with their GPs.

The Australian Government's current advice about booster shots is that they are "recommended" for:

The advice also states that adults without risk factors for severe COVID-19 and children over five with medical comorbidities that increase their risk of severe COVID-19 illness or with a disability or complex health needs, can "consider" a booster dose.

A second booster dose is recommended for all adults aged 75 years and over.

Professor Raina MacIntyre, the head of the biosecurity program at the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW, said she thought Australia's vaccine policies were "too restrictive".

"A problem around COVID is that we're still stuck in a 2020 mentality, and in 2020 it was clear that it was older people who were dying and getting hospitalised," she told the ABC.

"That remains true, but we've now got mountains and mountains of data showing that it's a serious infection in any age group.

"We've had so many stories about athletes and healthy young people either dropping dead, or having a cardiac arrest, or developing long COVID and becoming debilitated, so if you don't think you're vulnerable COVID might make you vulnerable."

Professor Faux said anyone who is not in the "recommended" vaccine booster categories, but still feels at risk because of their job or lifestyle should get a booster.

"Some of the public health people might say, 'if you're fit don't worry about it', but if you're going to be in situations where you have no idea about the risk pool I would recommend regular vaccinations."

"This doesn't stop you from catching it, but it does is it means you're not going to be out of the picture for a long time and won't be admitted to hospital."

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Have you been infected with COVID-19 multiple times? There might be something else going on - ABC News

There have been over seven million recorded fatalities due to Covid-19, from the beginning of the pandemic until the end of 2023, according to official data, but the actual death toll from the disease may be closer to 21 million, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

And while the coronavirus may no longer be of concern to most people, there are those who continue to suffer silently from long-term impacts.

The WHO is in the process of conducting an analysis of excess deaths during the pandemic, as well as after the disease ceased to be a global health emergency.

Excess deaths are calculated based on the difference between observed deaths in a specific time frame and the expectednumber of deaths for that same period.

We are working to estimate what this is. We have estimates up to the end of 2021, and these are being revised to look at excess deaths for 2022 and will be done for 2023 as well, said WHOs Covid-19 technical lead and director ad interim for Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, at a virtual press conference on Jan 12. We expect that the actual true number is at least three times higher.

At the height of the pandemic, countries such as India and China were accused of falsifying Covid-19 data, ostensibly to maintain their international reputations.

Reports of overflowing mortuaries and, in the case of India, bodies being burnt in hospital car parking lots and on the banks of the River Ganges raised doubts about the true toll.

The actual number of infections caused by the virus is also subject to speculation. On paper, at least, the world has seen over 712 million cases of Covid-19 since the first outbreak in the city of Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

The WHO began keeping records of Covid-19 cases and fatalities from January 2020.

But Dr Van Kerkhove said the reported numbers were likely just the tip of the iceberg.

Case-based data, as reported to WHO, is not a reliable indicator. It has not been a reliable indicator for a couple of years now. And so if you look at the epi curve, it looks like the virus is gone, and its not, she said.

The epi curve or epidemic curve is a bar chart that shows the distribution of cases over time.

According to wastewater estimates that we have from a number of countries, the actual circulation of Sars-CoV-2 is anywhere between two and 19 times higher than what is being reported, Dr Van Kerkhove added.

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Over 7m Covid-19 deaths recorded, but actual fatalities may be three times higher: WHO - The Straits Times

NEW YORK (AP) The latest versions of COVID-19 vaccines were 54% effective at preventing symptomatic infection in adults, according to the first U.S. study to assess how well the shots work.

The shots became available last year and were designed to better protect against more recent coronavirus variants.

In Thursdays study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 9,000 people who got tested for COVID-19 at CVS and Walgreens pharmacies, checking who tested positive and whether they had gotten a new shot or not.

The 54% finding is similar to whats been reported in other countries, and its also about what was reported for an earlier vaccine version, said the Ruth Link-Gelles of the CDC, the studys lead author.

Studies coming out later this year will assess how effective the shot was at preventing symptoms severe enough to send patients to a doctors office or hospital, she said.

The CDC recommends the new shots for everyone 6 months and older, but most Americans havent gotten them. The latest CDC data suggests only about 22% of U.S. adults have gotten the shots, and only 11% of children. The slow uptake meant that it took longer for researchers to gather enough data to assess how well the shots work, Link-Gelles said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Newest COVID shots are 54% effective in preventing symptoms, CDC finds - The Associated Press

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Investigators in the Department of Computational Biomedicine at Cedars-Sinai wanted to find out which factors influenced susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and disease severity the most. Was it genetics? Or was it home environment, meaning the germs circulating throughout your everyday life?

Their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggest that more was in play than either factor alone.

"Our results suggest that initially, differences in shared home environment influenced who was infected with COVID-19 more than genetic differences," said Katie LaRow Brown, MA, first author of the study and a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University who collaborated with Cedars-Sinai on this study.

"Over time, however, the importance of these differences in shared home environment decreasedand the importance of genetics increasedeventually eclipsing shared home environment."

COVID-19 has infected more than 340 million people in the U.S., underscoring the urgency in conducting therapeutic research and uncovering potential treatments. However, until this study, little was known about how an individual's environment and genetic background impacted their experience with the virus.

Using electronic health records from New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, investigators identified 12,764 patients who received conclusive resultseither positive or negativefrom a PCR test for COVID-19. These patients belonged to 5,676 families with an average of 2.5 family members who had a bout of COVID-19. The time frame studied was Feb. 21, 2020, to Oct. 24, 2021.

The investigators' analysis found that at the start of the pandemic, genetics accounted for 33% of variation in susceptibility. By the second half of the research study, however, genetics accounted for 70% of variation in susceptibility.

When measuring patients' severity of COVID-19, investigators also found that a patient's genetics were more of a factor than his or her home environment. Disease severity was defined by length of hospital stay. Genetics explained 41% of variation while shared environment explained 33%.

"We were especially surprised by the percentages of susceptibility," said Nicholas Tatonetti, Ph.D., senior and corresponding author of the study, vice chair of Operations in the Department of Computational Biomedicine and an associate director of Computational Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Cancer. "Since this is an infectious disease, we assumed that home environment differences would explain most variation for the entirety of the study."

While Tatonetti says his team of investigators cannot know for certain, they suspect that over time, discrepancies between people's home environments changed in important ways.

"This work also suggests that the specific genetic factors influencing susceptibility and severity have not been fully identified," said Tatonetti. "This is very important in terms of directing resources and defining future research goals."

Jason Moore, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Computational Biomedicine and a professor of Medicine, said the study provides critical information and insights for future pandemics.

"The age-old debate of what matters mostgenetics or your environmentcontinues through the work of this important study," said Moore.

More information: Kathleen LaRow Brown et al, Estimating the heritability of SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 severity, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44250-7

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Investigators explore what factors increase susceptibility to COVID-19 - Medical Xpress