COVID-19 News and Discussions

[raklian]

[wjfox]

Why So Many Long COVID Patients Are Reporting Suicidal Thoughts

JUNE 13, 2022 10:44 AM EDT

Last year, Diana Berrent—the founder of Survivor Corps, a Long COVID support group—asked the group’s members if they’d ever had thoughts of suicide since developing Long COVID. About 18% of people who responded said they had, a number much higher than the 4% of the general U.S. adult population that has experienced recent suicidal thoughts.

A few weeks ago, Berrent posed the same question to current members of her group. This time, of the nearly 200 people who responded, 45% said they’d contemplated suicide.

While her poll was small and informal, the results point to a serious problem. “People are suffering in a way that I don’t think the general public understands,” Berrent says. “Not only are people mourning the life that they thought they were going to have, they are in excruciating pain with no answers.”

Long COVID, a chronic condition that affects millions of Americans who’ve had COVID-19, often looks nothing like acute COVID-19. Sufferers report more than 200 symptoms affecting nearly every part of the body, including the neurologic, cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems. The condition ranges in severity, but many so-called “long-haulers” are unable to work, go to school, or leave their homes with any sort of consistency.

The statistics around Long COVID and mental health are striking. A report published in eClinical Medicine last year found that about 88% of Long COVID patients experienced some form of mood or emotional issue during the first seven months of their illnesses. Another study, published in BMC Psychiatry in April, found that people with post-COVID conditions were about twice as likely to develop mental health issues including depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder as people without them. COVID-19 survivors were also almost 50% more likely to experience suicidal ideation than people who hadn’t had the virus, according to a study published in February in the BMJ.

https://time.com/6186429/suicide-long-covid/

[wjfox]

I swear, it feels like this country has lost its mind sometimes.

[wjfox]

Is UK at start of new Covid wave driven by BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants?

Wed 15 Jun 2022 12.39 BST

If you thought Covid-19 was dead and gone, think again. Early signs indicate that the UK may be at the start of a new wave of Covid infections driven by BA.4 and BA.5 – while new data suggests these variants may have evolved to refavour infecting lung tissue, which could make them more dangerous.

So what can we expect in the coming weeks and months?

Although BA.2 continues to account for the bulk of UK infections, data from the Office for National Statistics up to 2 June suggests that Covid cases may be starting to rise again in England and Northern Ireland, driven by an increase in BA.4 and BA.5 infections. The trends were uncertain in Wales and Scotland.

[...]

According to preliminary data from Kei Sato at the University of Tokyo and colleagues, BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 may have evolved to refavour infection of lung cells, rather than upper respiratory tract tissue – making them more similar to earlier variants, such as Alpha or Delta. The propensity of earlier Omicron variants to prefer infecting non-lung tissue may be one reason why infections tend to be milder in most people.

[...] Experiments indicate that BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 replicate more efficiently in human lung cells than BA.2, while further experiments in hamsters suggest that BA.4 and BA.5 may cause more severe disease.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... a-suggests

[weatheriscool]

FDA authorizes coronavirus vaccine for young kids with shots likely next week
Source: Washington Post

More than a year and a half after the oldest Americans gained access to coronavirus vaccines, the nation’s youngest citizens are poised to start getting shots next week, a move made possible when federal regulators Friday authorized vaccines for children as young as 6 months. For many parents and pediatricians, the Food and Drug Administration clearing of two vaccines — one by Moderna and the other by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech — comes as a huge relief.

Friday’s authorizations arrived two days after a panel of external advisers unanimously recommended that the agency greenlight vaccines for the last age group eligible for a shot of protection against the virus. “Many parents, caregivers and clinicians have been waiting for a vaccine for younger children and this action will help protect those down to 6 months of age,” FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a statement. “As we have seen with older age groups, we expect that the vaccines for younger children will provide protection from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death.”

The vaccines for young children arrive at a critical moment in the nation’s quest to vanquish the virus, with vaccination levels overall flagging even as covid-19 hospitalizations reach their highest average level in more than three months. And they come a few months before the fall which, along with the winter, could feature another deadly surge of covid cases. Many parents with babies and young children see the shots as critical to resuming their pre-pandemic lives, without frequent disruptions to day-care schedules or family celebrations. Several parents said they intend to get their children vaccinated as soon as possible.

Their first opportunity, if all goes as expected, will be early next week, following what are expected to be favorable recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday. “This is a very important moment,” Sallie Permar, an expert in pediatric vaccines at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said. “Children and their parents have been waiting since the pandemic began to have a tool to prevent disease.” Yet indications are that initial uptake of the vaccines will be low. In a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, only 18 percent said they plan to get their children vaccinated right away, while 27 percent said they will “definitely not” get their child vaccinated.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... ce=twitter

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

CDC advisers vote to recommend Covid-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months
By Jacqueline Howard, CNN
Updated 3:08 PM ET, Sat June 18, 2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/18/health/c ... index.html

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted unanimously on Saturday in support of recommending the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to children as young as 6 months.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky will have to sign off before vaccines can be administered, which could happen as early as next week.

My thought on this: None of it is glamorous. It is a job that apparently needs to be done and one that I do my part at the local level by getting the vaccine and getting out to do other things afterwards. As to whether there is a benefit throughout or after the climate crisis and COVID is over so be it. I'm not expecting one but if there is that is great too.

[wjfox]

BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 escape antibodies elicited by Omicron infection

Published: 17 June 2022

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineages BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 exhibit higher transmissibility over BA.2. The new variants’ receptor binding and immune evasion capability require immediate investigation. Here, coupled with Spike structural comparisons, we show that BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5 exhibit comparable ACE2-binding affinities to BA.2. Importantly, BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5 display stronger neutralization evasion than BA.2 against the plasma from 3-dose vaccination and, most strikingly, from post-vaccination BA.1 infections.

[...]

Together, our results indicate that Omicron may evolve mutations to evade the humoral immunity elicited by BA.1 infection, suggesting that BA.1-derived vaccine boosters may not achieve broad-spectrum protection against new Omicron variants.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04980-y

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

CDC endorses coronavirus vaccines for children under 5
By Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach
Updated June 18, 2022 at 3:17 p.m. EDT|Published June 18, 2022 at 1:26 p.m. EDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... -children/

Pediatricians are preparing to administer the nation’s first coronavirus vaccines for children under 5 in coming days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off Saturday on giving the shots to as many as 19 million children across the United States.

The endorsement from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to vaccinate all children as young as 6 months old against the virus came less than two hours after the agency’s vaccine advisory panel unanimously recommended two vaccines — one by Moderna and the other by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech.

“Together, with science leading the charge, we have taken another important step forward in our nations fight against COVID-19,” Walensky said in a statement. “We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today’s decision, they can."

[wjfox]

[andmar74]

So here in Denmark they will offer a 4. vaccine shot after summer, to people aged 50 and older. I'm 47.. The very weak will get one sooner.

[Time_Traveller]

COVID-19: Britons to have first access to vaccines and treatments when new science super-centre opens

Wednesday 22 June 2022

Britons will have access to all the latest vaccines and treatments when a new research and manufacturing centre opens in the UK.

American pharmaceutical giant Moderna is opening a new mRNA Innovation and Technology Centre that will develop vaccines for a wide range of respiratory diseases, including COVID vaccines that can protect against multiple variants.

Construction is expected to start as early as this year, with the first mRNA vaccine due to be produced in the UK in 2025.

Full details of the venture including where it will be, are not yet available and have been described as "commercially sensitive".

But government officials said the deal will see NHS patients get access to "cutting edge" vaccines while being able to enrol in clinical trials for vaccines developed by the firm.

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine used messenger RNA (mRNA) - these vaccines teach the body's cells how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-bri ... s-12638186

[weatheriscool]

F.D.A. advisers recommend updated boosters that target forms of Omicron.
Source: New York Times

An expert committee recommended Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration plan on an updated booster shot of the coronavirus vaccines that targets some form of the Omicron variant that has dominated for months. The panel’s vote paves the way for F.D.A. regulators to authorize a new formulation for the boosters that the Biden administration hopes to offer later this year, before an expected winter resurgence of the virus.

The committee debated but did not specify which formulation might work best. The F.D.A. appeared to be leaning toward a combination of the existing vaccine and two subvariants of Omicron, known as BA.4 and BA.5. According to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those two subvariants together now make up more than half of new cases in the country.

Dr. Peter Marks, who oversees the F.D.A.’s vaccine division, displayed a timeline suggesting that regulators would decide on a new vaccine composition by early July, and that a fall booster campaign could begin in October. Manufacturers of the mRNA vaccines, made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, require roughly three months to begin producing doses with a new composition.

Clinical trial results on a combination of the so-called “prototype,” or existing, vaccines and Omicron itself have received mixed reviews so far. In briefing materials, regulators suggested that such a design is “already somewhat outdated.” The panel struggled with what one member called “trying to predict the future” of where the virus is headed. Another panelist called the data “uncomfortably scant.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/us/p ... n-fda.html

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

At a staff meeting yesterday (my company's first large-scale, in-person event since 2020), I was the only person wearing a mask.

70+ people crowded together in a room, talking loudly for several hours.

I wore an FFP3 (equivalent to N99) for the entire duration, but over such a long period I doubt its effectiveness. I guess I'll see this weekend when I take my next lateral flow test.

Hardly anybody seems to care about Covid anymore, only 1-2% are now masking in London, many people don't isolate and just carry on as if everything is back to normal. This, despite 2 million cases (and growing) of Long Covid, alongside waning immunity, and the new variants which are said to favour infection of the lungs (unlike the earlier Omicron) and are triggering yet another new wave of cases and hospitalisations.

I sometimes feel like I'm living in a different reality to most other people. I mean, sure, life has to go on. I don't want a return to lockdowns. But we can't just pretend this virus doesn't exist. The rapid disappearance of masks, and the general attitudes among the public are just bizarre to me.

[caltrek]

We are still doing a lot of mask-wearing here in the part of California where I live. I doubt that is true across the state. I notice that areas heavily traveled by tourists are the worst. Working class neighborhood commercial enterprises are very good about wearing masks, as are medical establishments.

What I came here to post:

New Imaging Technique Starkly Reveals the Source of Long COVID in The Lungs
by Tessa Koumoundouros
June 30, 2022

Extract::

(Science Alert) While COVID vaccines have saved millions of lives globally by reducing the overall severity of the disease, nearly one in ten of those recovered are still ending up with ongoing symptoms after the initial illness has passed.
….
Frustratingly, even long COVID patients describing breathing-related problems are showing normal results on standard clinical breathing tests, says respirologist Michael Nicholson from St. Joseph's Health Care London.
But a new imaging technique has now clearly revealed the source of the breathing problem.
…
"For those who are symptomatic post-COVID, even if they hadn't had a severe enough infection to be hospitalized, we are seeing this abnormality in the exchange of oxygen across the alveolar membrane into the red blood cells," says Western University medical biophysicist Grace Parraga.

"What we saw on the MRI was that the transition of the oxygen into the red blood cells was depressed in these symptomatic patients who had had COVID-19, compared to healthy volunteers."

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-imagi ... look-like

[Ken_J]

... I was the only person wearing a mask.

...I sometimes feel like I'm living in a different reality to most other people. I mean, sure, life has to go on. I don't want a return to lockdowns. But we can't just pretend this virus doesn't exist. The rapid disappearance of masks, and the general attitudes among the public are just bizarre to me.

I went to get my driver ID renewed, my car registered, and car inspected (3 different locations) only ever saw 1-2 people at each location wearing a mask like I was. mostly elderly folks with walkers, and people of asian descent.

For so many people it's become, wasn't it a crazy time back then. while they pass it around to each other for the 3-4 time, who knows because nobody checks if they have it anymore. They've had the vaccine so it's just a seasonal cold now.

I'm still kinda feeling like rooting for the virus and maybe monkey pox too. we need to thin the willfully ignorant a bit out of our world. I wouldn't mind it making it's way through the supreme court right about now either.

[erowind]

.

[raklian]

Everyone here is right to be concerned about the long term consequences of Covid.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]