Variants
CDC, WHO Establish New Threat Levels for COVID-19 Variants
New designation levels will help clarify what's known about circulating viruses, and then help explain risk.
www.medscape.com
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š¦Cacatman's Personal Coronavirus COVID-19 Update Thread
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COVID-19 Fuelling TB Epidemic
Impact of COVID-19 on the tuberculosis epidemic is much worse than they predicted a year ago.
āA worse reality than we expectedā: COVID-19 fuels TB epidemic
Experts said during a media briefing Thursday that the impact of COVID-19 on the tuberculosis epidemic is even worse than they predicted a year ago. āA year ago, we did a very similar briefing,ā said Lucica Ditiu, MD, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership. āIn that briefing, we assessed...www.healio.com
Reinfection - 26 cases
Ie. rare
COVID-19 reinfection tracker
NOTE: This page is no longer being updated. The table below shows confirmed cases of COVID-19 reinfection. The first confirmed case of reinfection was reported in Hong Kong in late August 2020, and 543 other cases were reported over the next year, along with nearly 180,000 suspected cases...bnonews.com
Dutch site following 1600 more cases
COVID-19 reinfection tracker
NOTE: This page is no longer being updated. The table below shows confirmed cases of COVID-19 reinfection. The first confirmed case of reinfection was reported in Hong Kong in late August 2020, and 543 other cases were reported over the next year, along with nearly 180,000 suspected cases...
A majority of patients with COVID-19 are protected from reinfection over a span of at least 6 months, according to a new real-world assessment from Denmark.
Just 0.65% of approximately 4 million PCR test-positive COVID-19 patients returned another positive test in 2020. The findings would indicate that persons under the age of 65 years old have an approximate 80% likelihood of protection against COVID-19 reinfectionāwhile among older patients, protection was just 47%.
Advice for schools
Lower physical distancing policies can be adopted in school settings with masking mandates without negatively impacting student or staff safety. ie 3 feet distance vs 6 feet found to be ok.
Effectiveness of 3 Versus 6 ft of Physical Distancing for Controlling Spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Among Primary and Secondary Students and Staff: A Retrospective, Statewide Cohort Study
There is no significant difference in K-12 student and staff severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 case rates in Massachusetts public school dist
academic.oup.com
Sharing a household with children and risk of COVID-19: a study of over 300 000 adults living in healthcare worker households in Scotland
Between March and October 2020, living with young children was associated with an attenuated risk of any COVID-19 and COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation among adults living in healthcare worker households. There was no evidence that living with young children increased adultsā risk of COVID-19, including during the period after schools reopened.
Main outcomes COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation, and any COVID-19 (any positive test for SARS-CoV-2) in adults aged ā„18 years between 1 March and 12 October 2020.
Results 241 266, 41 198, 23 783 and 3850 adults shared a household with 0, 1, 2 and 3 or more young children, respectively. Over the study period, the risk of COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation was reduced progressively with increasing numbers of household childrenāfully adjusted HR (aHR) 0.93 per child (95% CI 0.79 to 1.10). The risk of any COVID-19 was similarly reduced, with the association being statistically significant (aHR per child 0.93; 95% CI 0.88 to 0.98). After schools reopened to all children in August 2020, no association was seen between exposure to young children and risk of any COVID-19 (aHR per child 1.03; 95% CI 0.92 to 1.14).
Vaccines : Safety Surveillance Manual
Covid-19 vaccines: safety surveillance manual
Publicaciones de la OrganizaciĆ³n Mundial de la Saludwww.who.int
Yep, weāll be in a cycle of annual boosters, amended for new circulating variants. A Possible Reason Why Men Get COVID-19 Worse
Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, noted that several genes involved in the immune systemās response to viruses are on the X chromosome.
Women have two copies of this chromosome ā along with two copies of each gene. That gives women a backup in case one copy of a gene becomes defective, Iwasaki said.
Men, however, have only one copy of the X chromosome. So if there is a defect or harmful gene on the X chromosome, they have no other copy of that gene to correct the problem, Iwasaki said.
Bastard noted that one woman in the study who developed autoantibodies has a rare genetic condition in which she has only one X chromosome.
Anticoagulation Possibly a Key?
Blood-clot-promoting autoantibodies have been found in at least half of the serum samples collected from 172 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. These autoantibodiesāwhich are also linked to a dangerous autoimmune condition called antiphospholipid syndromeāare promising therapeutic targets. For example, if the clot-causing autoantibodies were to be neutralized or removed from the blood, perhaps by plasmapheresis, clotting could be lessened in patients with severe COVID-19.
Researchers are also currently running a randomized clinical trial called DICER, which is testing a well-known anticlotting agent, dipyridamole, in patients with COVID-19 to determine whether itās more effective than a placebo in reducing excessive blood clots.
Some COVID-19 survivors have developed serious autoimmune diseases, which occur when an overactive immune system attacks the patient, rather than the virus. Doctors in Italy first noticed a pattern in March 2020, when several COVID-19 patients developed Guillain-BarrƩ syndrome, in which the immune systems attacks nerves throughout the body, causing muscle weakness or paralysis. As the pandemic has surged around the world, doctors have diagnosed patients with rare, immune-related bleeding disorders. Other patients have developed the opposite problem, suffering blood clots that can lead to stroke.
All these conditions can be triggered by āautoantibodiesā ā rogue antibodies that target the patientās own proteins and cells.
Key immune players called āhelper T cellsā typically help antibodies mature. If the body is invaded by a pathogen, these T cells can switch jobs to hunt down viruses, acting more like ākiller T cells,ā which destroy infected cells. When an infection is over, helper T cells usually go back to their old jobs.
In some people with severe COVID-19, however, helper T cells donāt stand down when the infection is over, said James Heath, a professor and president of Seattleās Institute for Systems Biology.
About 10% to 15% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients Heath studied had high levels of these cells even after clearing the infection. By comparison, Heath found lingering helper T cells in fewer than 5% of COVID-19 patients with less serious infections.
10% of nearly 1,000 COVID patients who developed life-threatening pneumonia had antibodies that disable key immune system proteins called interferons. These antibodies ā known as autoantibodies because they attack the body itself ā were not found at all in 663 people with mild or asymptomatic COVID infections. Only four of 1,227 healthy individuals had the autoantibodies. The study, published on Oct. 23, was led by the COVID Human Genetic Effort, which includes 200 research centers in 40 countries.
AAAS
science.sciencemag.org
Half of the hospitalized COVID-19 patients had autoantibodies, compared with fewer than 15% of healthy people. While some of the autoantibodies were present before patients were infected with SARS-CoV-2, others developed over the course of the illness.
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients harbored a diverse array of autoantibodies.
Distinct Autoimmune Antibody Signatures Between Hospitalized Acute COVID-19 Patients, SARS-CoV-2 Convalescent Individuals, and Unexposed Pre-Pandemic Controls
Increasing evidence suggests that autoimmunity may play a role in the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection during both the acute and ālong COVIDā phases of disease. However, an assessment of autoimmune antibodies in convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients has not yet been reported. Methodology We...www.medrxiv.org
Rogue autoantibodies in patients for up to 6 months following infections
Distinct Autoimmune Antibody Signatures Between Hospitalized Acute COVID-19 Patients, SARS-CoV-2 Convalescent Individuals, and Unexposed Pre-Pandemic Controls
Increasing evidence suggests that autoimmunity may play a role in the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection during both the acute and ālong COVIDā phases of disease. However, an assessment of autoimmune antibodies in convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients has not yet been reported. Methodology We... COVID-19 Mortality Rates
Table 1
Estimated covid-19 mortality for different individuals based on the ALAMA COVID-19 Medical Risk Assessment1
BMIā=ābody mass indexIndividualRisk factorsāCovid-ageāEstimated mortality if infected (range of uncertainty)Your patient60 year old woman
White
BMI <30
Type 2 diabetes
Rheumatoid arthritis7114 per 1000 (7 to 28 per 1000);
~1 in 70 chance of dyingYour patient without medical risk factors60 year old female
White
BMI <30553 per 1000 (1 to 5 per 1000);
~1 in 333 chance of dyingHigh risk friend (father of groom)75 year old man
Asian
BMI 35-39.9
Heart failureā„8560 per 1000 (30 to 119 per 1000);
~1 in 8 chance of dyingLow risk friend (daughter)31 year old woman
White
BMI <30260.1 per 1000 (0.07 to 0.3 per 1000);
~1 in 10ā000 chance of dying
What is my covid risk?
### What you need to know A 60 year old woman with type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis contacts her GP to discuss her risk from covid-19. Her daughter is getting married next month and is planning a socially distanced ceremony with 30 guests . One of the many unprecedented challenges that...www.bmj.com
Vaccine Side Effects
While you can get the COVID-19 vaccine and have no side effects, there's a chance you could experience something. If it happens to you, don't freak outāthe CDC says that side effects are normal signs that your body is building protection against the virus, should you ever come into contact with it. Possible side effects include:
- Pain in the arm where you got the shot
- Redness around the area where you were vaccinated
- Swelling in the arm where you got the shot
- Tiredness
- Headache
- Muscle pain
- Chills
- Fever
- Nausea
Why People of This Sex May Have Worse COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects
According to data from the CDC, more women are reporting worse side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine than men. Here's what to know.www.health.com
