COVID-19 News and Discussions

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La Jolla Institute Scientists Publish First Head-to-Head Comparison of Four COVID-19 Vaccines
May 31, 2022

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) LA JOLLA, CA—Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have published the first analysis of how four types of COVID-19 vaccines prepare the body to fight SARS-CoV-2. Their in-depth look at how T cells, B cells, antibody levels shift in the six months following vaccination is critical for understanding of how to protect people in the ongoing pandemic.

The new investigation, published in Cell (https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S009 ... 22)00653-5), is the first study in history to compare how three different vaccine platforms trigger an immune response against the same pathogen.

“This study is important because it lets us answer how different vaccine platforms perform in terms of inducing immune responses,” says LJI Professor Alessandro Sette, Dr. Biol. Sci..

The researchers studied human immune responses to an mRNA platform (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines), a recombinant protein-based adjuvanted vaccine platform (Novavax), and a viral vector-based platform (Janssen/J&J). All four vaccines in this study were designed to prepare the immune system to fight the same target, called the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein.

“We aren’t giving a vaccine scorecard,” says LJI Research Assistant Professor Daniela Weiskopf, Ph.D., who co-led the study with Sette and LJI Professor Shane Crotty, Ph.D. “This kind of side-by-side analysis has never been done before with people who received different vaccines at the same time—in a real life setting. Just understanding the immune responses to these vaccines will help us integrate what is successful into vaccine designs going forward.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/954429

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Anti-Asian Hate Tweets During COVID-19
May 31, 2022

(EurekAlert) In January of 2020, SARS-CoV-19 reached the United States. With it came an even faster-spreading virus—xenophobic rhetoric referring to the pandemic’s epicenter in Wuhan, China. Politicians flooded news outlets and social media with distrust of the Chinese government and labeled COVID-19 as the “Chinese flu,” “Wuhan flu,” “Kung flu” and more.

The messaging that blamed COVID-19 on its Asian country of origin appeared to spill over into the streets. Americans who are Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) began to experience racist harassment, discrimination and physical assault at higher rates than before the pandemic. According to the Stop AAPI Hate Initiative, an online tool for self-reported hate incidents against AAPI individuals, there were 9,000 hate incidents during the first year of COVID-19. In our online age, it’s crucial to understand whether racist trends on social media cause harm in the real world. If so, how can we best predict where racists attacks are most likely to occur?

A new University of Utah-led study has taken a first step in a paper that published in the American Journal in Publish Health in April. The researchers mapped anti-Asian hate by using Twitter’s data set of geolocated tweets that contained keywords reflecting COVID-19 and anti-Asian hate during November 2019 and May 2020.

They found that anti-Asian hate language surged between January and March of 2020 with clusters of hateful tweets spread across the contiguous U.S. that varied in size, strength distribution and location. The authors identified two spikes in hateful tweets: The first at the end of January 2020 when COVID-19 first came to the U.S.; the second in mid-March after President Donald Trump tweeted about the “Wuhan flu” and “Chinese virus.” Eventually the volume of anti-Asian tweets went down but remained higher than before the pandemic.

“We can interpret that as, once the hate is up, then the hate persists. At least as long as our study period,” said Alexander Hohl, assistant professor at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. “During the onset of COVID, there were reports of hate crimes committed on Asians and Asian Americans in the U.S. We think that warrants a research perspective.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/954418

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Two million people in UK estimated to be suffering from long COVID, Office for National Statistics says

Wednesday 1 June 2022 11:44, UK

A record two million people in the UK are estimated to be suffering from long COVID, the Office for National Statistics has said.

Of the two million, 1.4 million said they first had coronavirus, or suspected they had the illness, at least 12 weeks previously, while 826,000 first had it at least a year earlier.

Another 376,000 said they first had COVID-19 at least two years previously.

The condition is estimated to be adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of 1.4 million people - around seven in 10 of those who reported having it.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-two ... s-12625155

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St. Louis health director considers mask requirement as coronavirus spreads again
Source: STL Public Radio

St. Louis is seeing rising numbers of coronavirus cases, and the city’s health director is again considering recommending public health measures, including mask requirements, to protect people from the virus.

The number of new reported coronavirus cases is as high as it was during last summer’s delta variant surge, Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis said during a virtual town hall meeting Wednesday. An average of 212 cases per 100,000 people has been reported in the past week. However, the number of cases is difficult to tally as fewer people are getting tested.

“We’ve been in the high transmission level for some time when we talk about cases and positivity rate,” Hlatshwayo Davis said. “We’re definitely in a surge right now.”

The Board of Aldermen would have to enact requirements based on the health department’s recommendations.

Read more: https://news.stlpublicradio.org/coronav ... eads-again

[Time_Traveller]

Omicron sub-variant fuels Portugal's COVID-19 surge

2 minute read

LISBON, June 2 (Reuters) - An Omicron sub-variant has fuelled a surge in COVID-19 cases in Portugal that now has the world's second-highest infection rate, potentially threatening the tourism sector's recovery.

Portugal registered an average of 2,447 new cases per million people over the last seven days. That compares to neighbouring Spain's 449 and Britain's 70, according to tracker Our World In Data.

The rolling average has subsided slightly in the past few days and is just over a third of the Jan. 31 Omicron peak.

Portugal has the world's fifth-highest death rate from COVID-19 and hospitalisations are on the rise, but both are still far below previous peaks.

Several tourism businesses contacted by Reuters have expressed fears about the surge, but said they had had no cancellations so far. The number of foreign tourists in April was close to levels seen before the pandemic.

More than 90% of Portugal's population is fully vaccinated.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/om ... 022-06-02/

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How American Influencers Built a World Wide Web of Vaccine Disinformation
by Kiera Butler & Neha Wadekar
June 2, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Last year, Saphinah Kenyando was struggling to decide whether to get vaccinated against Covid. Kenyando, who is 38 and teaches chemistry and biology at a high school in Kenya, had read about horrifying side effects—blood clots, long-term disabilities—that sounded worse than the virus itself. She watched a (possibly doctored) clip from former US President Donald Trump saying that the effects included gruesome facial deformities that develop as a person ages. And she wondered whether the rumors circulating on Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube were true—that a person could take the jab and drop dead shortly thereafter.

In addition to her academic role, Kenyando also serves as the school chess coach, a duty she takes very seriously. She believes the game imparts valuable lessons to students: Make the right move, and you’ll reap the benefits. Make the wrong one, and you’ll be forced to deal with the fallout. “Chess is life,” she says. “Every decision we make in life is about the game of chess.” That’s how Kenyando framed her own decision on whether to get herself and her children vaccinated against Covid. She decided to hold off until she had more information.

The misleading posts Kenyando had seen were just a small portion of the avalanche of disinformation that flowed through social media in Kenya as the pandemic intensified and the virus infiltrated the households of everyday Kenyans. Wanja Kimani, a house cleaner in Nairobi, read that the vaccine could cause mental illness. Lucy Wambui, a human rights activist in Nairobi, heard that Covid doesn’t exist in the slum where she lives and concluded that the vaccine is a way to control populations in neighborhoods like hers. She warned her own elderly father that he shouldn’t get vaccinated.

Conclusion:

But she (Kenyando) worries that the same myths she saw are still circulating. “The falsehoods about the Covid vaccine, much of it was online,” she says. “There is power in information. Irrespective of how it comes, the first moment that somebody gets the information, they take it as the true Gospel.”

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... ormation/

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Bentley University Research Examines Relationship Between Political Affiliations and Interpretations of COVID-19 Graphs
June 6, 2022

Extract:

(EurekAlert)…the public’s response to the pandemic in the United States has often diverged sharply along political lines, raising important questions about how virus data are being interpreted. For example, is there a relationship between our political affiliations and how we see and interpret Covid-19 graphs? When Democrats and Republicans look at a line graph showing the number of Covid cases over time, do they generally agree on the slope of line in degrees, or do they actually see entirely different line slopes? And do members of the two parties agree in terms of the words that they select to subjectively interpret the slope of “the curve”?

Dr. Jonathan Ericson, Dr. William Albert, and Bentley Ph.D. Student Ja-Naé Duane, recently published a study on this timely and important topic in Big Data & Society: (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/ ... 7221080678.

The team found that the Democrats and Republicans in their study sample saw the graphs similarly in terms of actual percentages and line slopes in degrees. For example, members of both parties agreed that the mathematical slope of “the curve” in Covid-19 line graphs was steeper than the curve in the Flu-labeled line graphs, even though the slopes were adjusted to be exactly the same in all of the graphs. This result shows that members of both parties agreed on the mathematical features of the data, and it also suggests that members of the two political parties shared a heightened awareness of Covid-19 in comparison to the Flu. However, members of the two parties selected different words when they were asked to describe the data in terms of whether the curve was “slightly” or “sharply” increasing…

This study…provides research-based evidence that although members of the two parties may agree on the mathematical features of a graph… those features (e.g., whether a trend line is “slightly” or “sharply” increasing) may diverge along political lines. The team notes in their article that they see this research as confirming how critically important it is that researchers, policy makers, and data professionals “continually seek to clarify the relationship between how data are presented and how they are subjectively interpreted and continually seek new ways of ethically displaying data that promote shared understanding and minimize our biases.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/954982

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Omicron booster candidate shows 'superiority' against variant, Moderna says
Source: Washington Post

Preliminary data on Moderna’s omicron-targeting coronavirus vaccine booster candidate showed that the shot gives recipients a “superior” antibody response against the variant, Moderna announced Wednesday, expressing hope that the company can make the new shots available by late summer. The booster candidate, which provided an eightfold rise in immunization against omicron, also increased antibodies against the alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants.

Soon after omicron’s discovery last year, Moderna said it was developing shots specifically designed to fight the variant. Rivals Pfizer and BioNTech announced the same. In April, Moderna released data that showed a booster shot that the company began working on in February 2021, tailored to fight the original version of the virus and the beta variant, increased the level of virus-blocking antibodies against several variants, including omicron, better than a regular booster.

Data from the recent clinical trial, which involved 437 participants, showed that Moderna’s omicron-targeting booster would probably provide longer protection against variants a month after administration when compared with earlier versions of its coronavirus vaccine, Moderna said, making it the company’s “lead candidate for a Fall 2022 booster.” It will submit the data to regulators in the coming weeks. The booster “was generally well-tolerated,” with side effects comparable to earlier boosters, the company said.

New daily coronavirus infections are slowly climbing in the United States. The country recorded a 38 percent uptick in new cases during the past week, according to figures compiled by The Washington Post, as protection from booster shots and previous infections wanes and as more people go about their lives without masks.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... rus-trial/

[Time_Traveller]

COVID-19: Infections increase in UK for the first time in two months

Friday 10 June 2022

COVID cases have risen for the first time in two months, according to the latest figures.

The spike is likely to be caused by increases in cases compatible with the original Omicron variant BA.1 and the newer variants BA.4 and BA.5, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

A total of 989,800 people in private households are estimated to have had the virus last week - up from 953,900 the previous week.

It is the first time total infections have risen week-on-week since the end of March, when the number hit a record 4.9 million at the peak of the Omicron BA.2 wave.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-inf ... s-12631373

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U.S. to lift coronavirus testing requirement for flyers returning to the country
Source: Washington Post

International travelers flying to the United States will no longer need to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding their flights to the U.S., a senior Biden administration official said Friday, ending one of the nation’s last pandemic-related travel requirements.

The requirement will end at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

The administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement, said science and data show the requirement is no longer necessary. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will reassess the decision in 90 days and would reinstate the requirement if necessary, officials said.

The Biden administration in April dropped its requirement that people wear masks on airplanes, buses and in other public transportation settings after a federal judge ruled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority by putting the mandate in place. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of Florida is being appealed.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transpor ... ment-ends/

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FDA says Moderna vaccine for youngest children is safe and effective
Source: Washington Post

Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration on Friday said Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for infants and young children was safe and effective, setting the stage for a review by the agency’s outside advisers Wednesday and a potential authorization by the end of the week.

The analysis was released in briefing documents ahead of next week’s meeting, when the independent advisers also will consider whether a vaccine by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, should be authorized for the youngest children. Babies and children younger than 5 — a group numbering 19 million — remain the only age group in the United States still not eligible for a coronavirus vaccine.

Moderna has asked the FDA for permission to use its vaccine in children 6 months through 5 years old. The Pfizer-BioNTech request is for children 6 months through 4 years old. The FDA is expected to release its assessment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the next few days.

The FDA said the Moderna two-shot regimen for the youngest children met the main requirement set by regulators — that it generate an immune response at least as strong as the protection afforded young adults. The vaccine, according to data from the company and confirmed by the FDA, was only somewhat effective in preventing illness among the youngest group of recipients, reflecting the impact of the highly transmissible omicron variant, which has blunted the power of the vaccine in adults as well.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... -analysis/

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