Category: Covid-19

An initial zero draft that circulated more than a year ago now appears to have been diluted, or as the Lancet medical journal notes, filled with platitudes, caveats and the term where appropriate.

In early 2023, the zero draft contained details on building an equitable global health security ecosystem. It included recommendations on supply chain resilience for products needed to ensure health security.

But now, with the World Health Assembly meeting just weeks away, differences between the rich Western countries and the developing world seem wider than ever. When the latest round of negotiations ended inconclusively on March 28, the Fox News channel in the United States went on the attack with a story highlighting critics who say the Biden administration was selling out US sovereignty.

The foundation insists the agreement should be rejected in its current draft form, and that even an improved draft would need to be submitted to the US Senate for advice and consent.

In the US Congress, Brad Wenstrup, the Republican chair of the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, insisted the treaty must not violate international sovereignty or infringe upon the rights of the American people or the intellectual property of the US.

Voicing the concerns of the global science community, a Lancet editorial retorted that such approaches were shameful, unjust and inequitable, saying that there is a need for high-income countries and private companies to behave fairly, [and] that they do not stockpile millions of doses of vaccines or refuse to share life-saving knowledge and products.

The editorial complained that, under the current draft treaty, the WHO would only have access to 20 per cent of the pandemic-related products for distribution based on public health risks and needs, leaving 80 per cent of medicines and vaccines prey to the international scramble that in Covid-19 saw vital health technologies sold to the highest bidder.

Ensuring equitable access is not an act of kindness or charity, it insisted: It is an act of science, an act of security and an act of self-interest Ultimately it is the politicians of G7 countries who must put aside vested industry interests and finally understand that in a pandemic it is not possible to protect only your own citizens.

It is of course possible that, by some miracle of pragmatism, a meaningful pandemic treaty will emerge from next months World Health Assembly, just as it is possible for China to open its doors to further investigations into the origins of Covid-19, or for the US government to face down the pharmaceutical giants keeping a firm grip on intellectual property rights.

The realist in me says we are likely to emerge with few meaningful protections. As Horton noted a year ago: Delivering a global agreement on pandemic preparedness and response would be challenging even in the best of circumstances. And todays fractured and hostile world does not present the best of circumstances.

Failure to secure an agreement would be a tragedy for which we would pay a terrible price, perhaps dangerously soon.

David Dodwell is CEO of the trade policy and international relations consultancy Strategic Access, focused on developments and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific over the past four decades

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How nationalism threatens a repeat of Covid-19 tragedies in next pandemic - South China Morning Post

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Jacksonville attorney is sentenced to prison in COVID-19 relief fraud - The Florida Times-Union

This brief is part of a larger research project, Cities as Home, carried out by IOM Iraq, the Returns Working Group, and Social Inquiry, that explores both drivers and deterrents of integration across 14 urban locations that still host the largest share of IDPs in the country. The outputs of this project also include an analysis report on determinants of integration for IDPs and host community members, factsheets for each location, and four detailed case studies.

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Cities as Home: Describing the Regulatory Landscape Around COVID-19 and its Implications for the Local Integration ... - ReliefWeb

Thinking about getting a spring-time booster shot?A new studycoming out of York University's Centre for Disease Modelling in the Faculty of Science shows that immunity after a COVID-19 booster lasts much longer than the primary series alone. These findings are among other, sometimes "unintuitive," revelations of how factors like age, sex and comorbidities do and don't affect immune response.

The study's authorsYork Post Doctoral researchers Chapin Korosec and David Dick, Applied Mathematics Professor Iain Moyles and Professor James Watmough with the University of New Brunswickused health data submitted to the Covid Immunity Task-Force project for more than 150 individuals who received either Pfizer-BioNTechor Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to look at how immunity holds up over time.

Our approach as mathematicians is to create mathematical models of the immune system, and then calibrate those models to health care data in order to advance our understanding of the human immune system. It was really interesting to see the SARS-CoV-2 booster dose have such a huge increase in protective longevity capacity as compared to the primary series of two doses."

Chapin Korosec, study's lead author

Published today in the journalScientific Reports, the study used Canadian vaccine data collected from individuals living in long-term care, as well as frontline health-care workers working in long-term care and hospitals.

Looking at the group as a whole, the median length for the antibody half-life immune response was 63 days for the primary series, and increased to 115 days for those who went on to receive their boosters, a statistically significant finding, says Korosec.

It is well-established that age can affect how adept the body is at priming an immune response after vaccines, so much so that advanced age is considered a comorbidity itself, says Korosec.

"Chronological age is your time since birth. But you also have an immunological age, which is correlated to your chronological age, and is related to how your body loses its ability to prime against invading pathogens and produce antibodies as time marches on," explains Korosec. "What's convoluted is that as we age chronologically, the probability that we accrue diseases that can affect the immune system in unintuitive ways also increases."

Looking into this aspect, the researchers found that older adults did have a less long-lasting immune response, but once they controlled for other comorbidities such as hypertension, lung disease and cancer, age no longer had as significant of an influence on the immune response.

Other interesting findings include a small, but statistically significant immune response for males versus females, and people with asthma having a longer lasting immune response more durable, in fact, than those with hybrid immunity from vaccines and contracting COVID-19.

"We found that some outcomes were surprising and worth further study, but of course we're not advocating any particular comorbidity is beneficial," says Dick. "We don't have any information from this study on how asthma would affect the severity of the COVID-19 illness, for example."

Outside of the strict findings, the researchers also say the study points to the importance of interdisciplinary research and are excited about the possibilities for collaboration, with plans to open York's medical school in 2028.

"While we're all from math and stats departments, the data comes from clinicians who went through medical school and are now professors studying immunology, and I think this study shows how people with different skill sets can come together and do really interesting science," says Korosec.

Adds Moyles: "We have a really top applied math program at York, and now the university has announced a medical school. Imagine these clinicians were at York and we had access to the data on the ground floor. This would cut the research timeline by years and has huge potential for future interdisciplinary research at the university."

Source:

Journal reference:

Korosec, C. S., et al. (2024). SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccine dose significantly extends humoral immune response half-life beyond the primary series.Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58811-3

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Boosted immunity: Study reveals longevity of COVID-19 booster shots - News-Medical.Net

Milton, along with fellow experts from around the globe, drafted a consultation report outlining types of respiratory virus transmission and airborne infections the main focus of Milton's work for the past 25 years. The report sought to establish wording that could be easily used and understood by all professional groups.

The report corrects a number of misconceptions and misunderstandings that were major problems earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic. said Milton. It is important to have clear terminology and a shared understanding as a basis for developing effective policy to prevent infection and control pandemics.

The report proposes airborne transmission/inhalation as the best term for infectious respiratory particles emitted into the air and breathed in. This transmission can cause infection and can occur when the particles travel both short and long distances from the person with the infection.

When infectious respiratory particles follow a semi-ballistic trajectory over a short distance through the air and land directly onto the mouth, nose or eyes of another individual, the report proposes using the term direct deposition.

The report states clearly that the risk of airborne/inhalation transmission is greatest close to an infected person, Milton said.

The new report offers clarification that infectious particles floating in the air can be various sizes. Because the terms aerosol and droplet were misunderstood or used differently in different scientific disciplines, these terms were avoided in this report.

Though the report helps clarify terminology for important modes of respiratory infection transmission, Milton notes that there is still a great deal of work needed to reach scientific consensus on the relative importance of each mode for specific infectious agents.

These two modes are very different. They require very different controls to protect healthcare workers and other high-risk people, Milton said. How this report is translated into infection prevention and control policy will be critical that work lies ahead. Acknowledging that airborne/inhalation and direct deposition transmission are very different, as described in the body of the report, could be a first step toward new and more effective policies.

This report, 20 years after the release of pivotal research in the New England Journal of Medicine outlining the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-1 and Miltons NEJM Perspective on airborne transmission, is one step WHO is taking to standardize scientific terminology. The organization plans to research this topic further through the collaboration of scientists in other disciplines and explore broader implications the updated terminology may have on health care.

I hope that this report will help move that process toward a stronger foundation in the science of airborne infection, Milton said.

-By Sumaya Abdel-Motagaly 26

Originally posted here:

SPH professor coauthors new WHO report to combat COVID-19 misinformation - University of Maryland | School of Public Health

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Free-Floating Thrombus of the Aorta: A Rare Complication of COVID-19-Induced Hypercoagulability - Cureus

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Gov. Roy Coopers closure of certain bars, but not restaurants, in the early months of the pandemic was irrational and arbitrary, not based on data and science.

Our careful review of the Record does not reveal the existence of any scientific evidence demonstrating Plaintiffs bars, as opposed to the bars located in other establishments serving alcohol, posed a heightened risk at the time Executive Order No. 141 was issued, wrote Judge April C. Wood, a Republican. Overall, the articles and data submitted by Defendant entirely fail to address any differences in the risk of spread of COVID-19 between the bars he allowed to reopen and Plaintiffs bars which remained closed.

Cooper issued an executive order early in the pandemic, on March 17, 2020, closing all bars in North Carolina. On May 20, 2020, he issued another executive order, allowing some but not all bars to reopen with specific safety precautions. Coopers attorneys said hed relied on science and data to determine which types of bars should be allowed to open and which should remain closed, using research showing that bars presented a higher risk of COVID-19 transmission.

But Woods 39-page opinion, joined by Republican colleagues Judges Donna Stroud and Jefferson Griffin, who is also running for the state Supreme Court, said that Cooper did not submit any evidence that showed why members of the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association the plaintiff in the lawsuit would have been unable to comply with his executive order, when he allowed other types of bars to reopen under certain restrictions.

It is illogical and arbitrary to attempt to achieve Defendants stated health outcomes by applying different reopening standards to similarly situated businesses that could have complied with those standards, Wood wrote. In other words, if restaurants serving alcohol could operate at fifty percent capacity and keep groups six feet apart with both food and alcohol at the customers tables, Defendant has failed to present any forecast of evidence of any reason bars would not be able to do the same with alcohol service.

Cooper wrote in the executive order that bars presented a greater risk to spreading COVID-19, due to factors such as people traditionally interacting in that space in a way that would spread COVID-19 . . . or a business model that involves customers or attendees remaining in a confined indoor space over a sustained period.

But Wood wrotein her ruling that Cooper didnt have sufficient science and data at the time of the executive order to justify closing some bars and not others.

Most of the information is news articles, at best anecdotal reports of various incidents in different places around the world, Wood wrote. None of the information addresses any differences in risk of COVID-19 transmission between Plaintiffs bars and the other types of bars allowed to reopen.

Wood wrote that news reports cited by Coopers attorneys were not the same as scientific studies.

Research such as these news articles could be conducted by private citizens utilizing Internet search engines, Wood wrote. In fact, many of the documents in the Record were gathered from Internet searches as evidenced by the tags and links at the bottom of the printed pages.

The panel sent the case back down to the trial court for further proceedings.

Wood and her colleagues did not agree with every argument the Bar and Tavern Association made. The court ruled that the associations members were not entitled to financial compensation under the Emergency Management Act because Cooper did not physically take their land or property; he merely prohibited them from using their land for the purpose of conducting their business. Wood wrote that what Cooper did was within the bounds of state law, and not within the parts of the statute the legislature determined would give someone a right to compensation.

Clearly, the General Assembly considered which governmental actions would trigger a statutory right to compensation and employed language which encompassed certain specific actions while excluding others, wrote Judge April C. Wood, a Republican. Ordering mandatory business closures is not one of those actions which triggers a statutory right of compensation under the statute as it is currently written.

Click here to read the courts ruling in N.C. Bar and Tavern Association v. Cooper.

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Appeals Court: Gov. Roy Cooper erred in COVID-19 bar closures - NC Newsline

In a recent study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers investigated the impact of aging on immune response, viral dynamics, and nasal microbiome in 1031 hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, using advanced profiling techniques to understand age-related differences in disease severity and immune function.

Study: Host-microbe multiomic profiling reveals age-dependent immune dysregulation associated with COVID-19 immunopathology. Image Credit:Corona Borealis Studio/ Shutterstock

Age is a significant risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes, with older adults facing drastically higher risks of complications and mortality than younger individuals. Despite high vaccination rates, older adults are still profoundly vulnerable. Aging correlates with elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines, like interleukin-6 (IL-6), which are critical markers of COVID-19 severity, hinting at a link between aging and disease pathophysiology. Studies show that aging dampens both innate and adaptive immune responses, including reduced type I interferon (IFN) production. Additionally, older adults show enhanced inflammatory responses and impaired immune signaling when infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Further research is needed to fully understand the complex interactions between aging, immune response variations, and COVID-19 severity to improve treatment strategies and outcomes for older populations.

The present study utilized data from 1,031 participants enrolled in the IMmunoPhenotyping Assessment in a COVID-19 Cohort (IMPACC) observational cohort, which involved 20 hospitals across 15 medical centers in the United States from May 5, 2020, to March 19, 2021. It involved hospitalized individuals with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, displaying typical COVID-19 symptoms. Blood and respiratory tract samples were collected within 72 hours of hospitalization, following a standardized protocol across participating institutions. Ethical approval was granted under the public health surveillance exception, with participant consent for follow-up involvement and data usage.

Statistical analysis was performed using R software. Initial assessments were done within 72 hours of hospital admission, followed by longitudinal evaluations at subsequent visits. Data analysis applied various statistical methods depending on the data type and required adjustments for factors like age, sex, and baseline disease severity. For longitudinal studies, age groups were divided into quintiles and analyzed for changes in viral abundance and immune response, employing linear and generalized additive models to account for the observed non-linear patterns. All p-values were adjusted using the Benjamini-Hochberg method, considering results statistically significant at p < 0.05.

The study involved analyzing blood and nasal swab specimens from 1,031 vaccine-nave adults hospitalized with COVID-19. These participants were part of the IMPACC cohort, sourced from 20 hospitals across the United States. They were categorized into five age quintiles, ranging from 18 to 96 years, with each group comprising between 187 and 223 individuals. Samples were collected at the time of hospital admission and during up to five follow-up visits. The distribution of ages showed that older individuals were often more severely affected by the disease, evident in both the initial severity of symptoms and the outcomes, including mortality.

At the initial hospital visit, typically within 72 hours of admission, a range of diagnostic assays was conducted. These included transcriptional profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and nasal swabs, serum inflammatory protein profiling, whole blood mass cytometry (CyTOF), nasal metatranscriptomics, and SARS-CoV-2 antibody (Ab) assays. A significant finding from these initial tests was that older adults displayed higher viral loads and experienced delayed viral clearance compared to younger patients. Moreover, age-related differences in immune cell populations were noted, with older adults showing higher proportions of various monocyte subtypes and activated T cells but lower levels of nave T and B cells.

The study's longitudinal analysis revealed that these differences persisted over time, affecting viral load dynamics, antibody titers, and immune response. Specifically, the eldest participants not only retained high levels of the virus longer but also showed more significant fluctuations in antibody levels over time. Additionally, immune cell analysis by CyTOF highlighted that with advancing age, certain immune cell types, including different monocyte classes and differentiated natural killer cells, increased, suggesting shifts in immune system composition and function with age.

Changes in cytokine and chemokine levels measured in the participants' serum further underscored the impact of aging on the immune response. Older individuals showed elevated levels of inflammatory markers at hospital admission, which were linked to more severe disease outcomes.

Moreover, the analysis extended to the nasal microbiome and upper respiratory gene expression, revealing age-associated changes in the microbial composition and host gene activity. Changes in Toll-like receptor signaling and other immune pathways were evident, suggesting that older adults experience different immune modulations, possibly influencing their susceptibility to severe outcomes.

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Aging affects immune response and virus dynamics in COVID-19 patients, study finds - News-Medical.Net

In a striking departure from recent voting and polling trends, health care has tumbled to the 16th most important problem facing Americans today, according to new Gallup data.

At first glance, this shift is bewildering, especially considering the central role health care played in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles.

Americans now list the nations top problems as immigration (28%), the government (20%), the economy in general (12%), inflation (11%), poverty, hunger and homelessness (5%), unifying the country (4%), crime/violence (4%), and so on.

Contrary to what the Gallup poll might suggest, the importance of health care hasnt diminished. In fact, the scenario is quite the reverse. Health care continues to be a pivotal issue, but its impact now permeates a broader array of societal concerns, redefining what constitutes a health care issue.

To grasp this shift, consider the unprecedented health crisis our nation has recently navigated. The COVID-19 pandemic didnt just challenge our health care system. It reshaped our nation and exacerbated nearly all of its underlying issues. Even with a significant reduction in disease-related fatalities, the pandemics imprint on our everyday lives is unmistakably widespread and deep-rooted. Four years filled with upheaval and apprehension have blurred the traditional boundaries between health care and other areas of our lives, from the economy and social relations to our trust in government and other people.

Take, for example, the direct and tangible impact of COVID-19 on our nations economy, which is reflected in the concerns ranked third, fourth and fifth in the Gallup survey. The pandemics disruption of supply chains, along with the governments substantial financial relief packages, contributed massively to inflation. Since then, measures taken by the Federal Reserve to tame higher prices have increased interest rates, housing costs and homelessness.

As a result, the cost of health care, which was once viewed as an isolated financial burden, has become intertwined with other economic pressures, including soaring rents, grocery bills and fuel prices. Health care isnt unimportant. It has simply become another item on a growing list of unaffordable expenses.

The pandemic took a toll not only on our pocketbooks, but also on the nations mental health and societal cohesion, too. Forced isolation and the widespread fear of infection sowed seeds of loneliness and distrust, leaving lasting scars on our collective psyche. This period of upheaval intensified perceptions of the other, fueling xenophobia and deepening social divides (reflected in first- and ninth-ranked concerns immigration and race relations, respectively).

Immigration fears, a striking symptom of these anxious times, signal a deeper societal malaise and mistrust that gained momentum during the pandemic. Our shrinking social circles made us wary of engaging with those outside our immediate networks, exacerbating feelings of division.

As economic uncertainties and safety concerns mounted, so too has apprehension about the implications of open borders. What initially emerged as a health precaution self-isolation has evolved into a more profound shift in social attitudes, fueling the instinct to safeguard ourselves and our loved ones by keeping strangers out.

The ongoing crisis atmosphere also deepened distrust in government leadership (the second biggest issue), which further widened societal divisions and has prompted a desire among many Americans to unify the country (the sixth concern on the Gallup list).

The governments handling of the pandemic marred by testing-kit shortages, inconsistent health advisories, and fluctuating policies on school closures and mask mandates amplified doubts about elected leaders and eroded peoples trust in regulatory bodies. Coupled with congressional struggles to enact bipartisan legislation, these issues paint a picture of pervasive government failure. The inability of elected officials to protect peoples health currently blends with its failure to address countless other basic needs.

Taken together, the reordering of national concerns in the wake of COVID-19 doesnt suggest health cares diminished relevance. Instead, it reveals the extent to which the pandemic unraveled the social fabric and collective psyche of our nation.

The fact that voters now prioritize issues like immigration, government effectiveness and the economy over traditional health care topics doesnt indicate that our country is content with the health care system. To the contrary, in separate polling, 73% of U.S. adults say the health care system fails to meet their needs.

The reality is that the United States cant successfully address the problems spotlighted in the Gallup poll unless we overcome our health challenges be they physical, mental or economic.

To effectively tackle our economic hurdles, its essential to curb rising health care costs, which already exceed $4 trillion annually and are projected to reach $7 trillion by 2031. We also cant narrow the widening rifts in our society unless we prioritize the physical and mental well-being of our populace. And finally, the publics trust in government will continue eroding until legislators confront the issue of lobbying. Since 2021, health care companies have spent $1.4 billion on campaign contributions and lobbying more than any other industry to influence policy decisions. It is clear these practices have undermined the credibility of elected officials.

The COVID-19 pandemic indelibly altered our lives, caused widespread fear and laid bare the vulnerabilities of American politics. Its enduring influence is evident today. Surveys like this capture the extensive and profoundly negative effects it has had on peoples perceptions and priorities.

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Their View: Health care is not a top issue in 2024. COVID-19 explains why - The Times Leader

BEIJING (AP) The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months.

The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.

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