COVID-19 News and Discussions

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Georgia orders National Guard to hospitals as virus spreads
Source: AP news

More than 100 National Guard personnel are being deployed to 20 hospitals across the state to help them deal with the state’s latest surge of COVID-19 cases, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday.

The 105 medically trained Guardsmen and women will help staff at hospitals in Atlanta, Macon, Savannah, Brunswick, Albany and other cities across the state, Kemp said in a statement.

“These guardsmen will assist our frontline healthcare workers as they provide quality medical care during the current increase in cases and hospitalizations, and I greatly appreciate General Carden and his team for their willingness to answer the call again in our fight against COVID-19,” Kemp said.

The Guard is coordinating with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Community Health in the effort, Kemp said.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-educa ... 646972a4ec

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Covid infection protection waning in double jabbed

10 hours ago

Researchers say they are seeing some waning of protection against Covid infections in double-jabbed people.

The real-world study includes data on positive Covid PCR test results between May and July 2021 among more than a million people who had received two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine.

Protection after two shots of Pfizer decreased from 88% at one month to 74% at five to six months.

For AstraZeneca, the fall was from 77% to 67% at four to five months.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58322882

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Johnson & Johnson booster shot prompts large increase in immune response, company says
Source: CNN

(CNN)Booster doses of Johnson & Johnson's one-shot coronavirus vaccine generated a big spike in antibodies, the frontline immune system defenses against infection, the company reported Wednesday.

People who received a booster six to eight months after their initial J&J shots saw antibodies increase nine-fold higher than 28 days after the first shot, Johnson & Johnson said.

The data comes from two Phase 2 studies conducted in the United States and Europe, the company said in a statement. Some of the 2,000 or so people in the studies got booster doses six months after their first doses of J&J's Janssen vaccine.
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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/25/health/j ... index.html

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The Associated Press
@AP

BREAKING: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledges nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state from COVID-19 than had been publicized by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.

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Illinois governor to order statewide mask mandate and require vaccines for educators from kindergart
Source: Chicago Tribune

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to double down Thursday on his efforts to deal with a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic’s delta variant as schools reopen by requiring all educators from kindergarten through college to be vaccinated.

Additionally, Pritzker plans to require a statewide mandate of masking of people age 2 and above in indoor locations, according to two sources familiar with the governor’s actions, as the variant has led to increasing hospitalizations among younger people and the unvaccinated, along with increasing reports of “breakthrough cases” among those who are vaccinated.

The Democratic governor’s announcement is expected to come days after he said he had no plans to expand a vaccine mandate beyond state and private workers in congregate settings, such as nursing homes, prisons and veterans’ homes. His comments followed the federal Food and Drug Administration’s full use approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday, after it had previously received FDA emergency authorization during the pandemic.

The Pfizer full-use authorization is for people age 16 and above, meaning the vast majority of grade school students are not cleared for vaccination. The FDA has not yet granted full use authorization for the other two vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavi ... story.html

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Study confirms virus variants reduce protection against COVID-19

by Erik Robinson, Oregon Health & Science University
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-08- ... ovid-.html

A new laboratory study from Oregon Health & Science University finds that blood serum drawn from people previously vaccinated or naturally infected show "significantly reduced" defense against two widely circulating variants of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Researchers said that their findings emphasize the importance of vaccinations combined with maintaining public health measures to cut off the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

"We know that the virus continues to evolve for its own advantage," said co-senior author Fikadu Tafesse, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology in the OHSU School of Medicine.

Researchers found that two variants of concern—B.1.1.7, originating in the U.K., and B.1.351, originating in South Africa—show reduced neutralization by antibodies in the blood of almost 100 people who were vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine or previously infected by the virus. In the case of the B.1.351 variant, researchers measured a nine-fold reduction in effectiveness compared to the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.

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Intelligence Community Investigation Unable to Reach Consensus on the Origin of the COVID-19 Pandemic
by John Mecklin
August 27, 2021

https://thebulletin.org/2021/08/intelli ... -pandemic/

Introduction:

(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) US intelligence agencies have been unable to reach consensus on how the COVID-19 pandemic began after a 90-day investigation ordered by US President Joe Biden, an unclassified summary of the results of that inquiry released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says.

Made public Friday, the summary says that four elements of the intelligence community assess with “low confidence” that the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus.

One agency found with “moderate confidence that the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” the summary says. A New York Times’ report on the summary suggests that agency is the FBI.

And three other elements of the intelligence community were unable to decide between those two possible origins for the pandemic, “with some analysts favoring natural origin, others a laboratory origin, and some seeing the hypotheses as equally likely,” the summary says.

The summary also says that the intelligence and scientific communities lack the clinical samples and other data from the earliest COVID-19 cases needed to make a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19. China’s cooperation would be needed to gain that information, the assessment asserts, and Beijing has refused to cooperate because of its “own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead as well as its frustration the international community is using the issue to exert political pressure on China.”

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https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 021-08-25/

Japan suspends 1.6 mln doses of Moderna shot after contamination reports

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How a Cheap Antidepressant Emerged as a Promising Covid-19 Treatment
by Kelsey Piper
August 26, 2021

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2261 ... y-mcmaster

Introduction:

(Vox) Since Covid-19 patients started showing up at clinics and hospitals a year and a half ago, doctors and researchers have been hard at work trying to figure out how to treat them. Most drugs and treatments haven’t panned out, producing either no results or small ones in large-scale clinical trials. Many of the few that work are expensive and difficult to administer.

Hydroxychloroquine, enthusiastically endorsed by President Trump last year, has been shown to have no measurable benefits. New drugs like monoclonal antibodies — proteins meant to imitate the immune system’s response to the disease — have been approved by regulators but must be administered by a doctor through an IV or series of injections.

But scientists haven’t stopped searching, and the results of a new massive clinical trial suggest they’re getting somewhere. In a large, randomized clinical trial conducted with thousands of patients over the past six months, researchers at McMaster University tested eight different Covid-19 treatments against a control group to figure out what works.

One drug stood out: fluvoxamine, an antidepressant that the Food and Drug Administration has already found to be safe and that’s cheap to produce as a generic drug.

These new results follow some promising findings in small-scale trials last year. In those smaller studies, researchers found that fluvoxamine was strikingly good at reducing hospitalization for Covid-19 patients — but small-scale trials can sometimes turn up spurious good results, so those findings were obviously tempered by a lot of caveats.

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Biden says U.S. health officials are considering Covid booster shots at 5 months, moving up timeline
Source: CNBC

President Joe Biden said U.S. regulators are looking at administering Covid-19 booster shots five months after people finish their primary immunizations, moving up the expected timetable for a third shot by about three months. Biden, who was speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday, said health officials were considering following that country’s lead on boosters. “We’re considering the advice you’ve given that we should start earlier,” Biden said, adding that officials are debating whether the timeline should be shorter.

“Should it be as little as five months, and that’s being discussed.” Approval of the booster shots is expected to come sometime around Labor Day after federal health officials have time to review data from other countries. National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins last week said data released by Israel on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines over time was prompting U.S. health leaders to rethink their position on vaccine booster shots. Israel released new data on Aug. 16 showing a reduction in the effectiveness of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine against severe illness among people 65 and older who were fully vaccinated in January or February.

Israel released more data Sunday showing a booster dose provided four times as much protection against infection from the delta variant than the previous two-dose regimen in people 60 and older, Reuters reported, citing data from the Ministry of Health of Israel. The booster dose also provided five to six times more efficacy in preventing hospitalization or serious illness. About 1.5 million Israel residents have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Later in the day, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki clarified Biden’s comments, saying that he would rely on officials at the CDC and FDA to make any changes to formal U.S. health guidance, which is currently that booster doses should be given after eight months. “So I want to be very clear on that. If they were to change their guidance based on data for any particular group, he would, of course, abide by that,” Psaki said at a press briefing Friday. “But for people watching at home, for you all who are reporting out this nothing has changed about the eight-month timeline as it relates to the boosters.”

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/27/biden-s ... onths.html

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COVID deaths in Florida hit a record for the 2nd week in a row
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Florida once again recorded more coronavirus deaths than ever in a single week. The state logged 1,727 fatalities among residents over the past seven days, a comparison of Florida Health Department reports published Friday and Aug. 20 shows.

Health officials also documented 151,760 more COVID-19 infections, the second-biggest amount in one week.

Florida’s death toll stood Friday at 43,979 residents. The respiratory illness has infected 3,179,714 residents statewide since the start of the pandemic.

In another sign that the virus has yet to subside — the highly infectious delta variant is the dominant strain — 16.8% of COVID-19 tests came back positive over the past week.

Read more: https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/new ... 622161001/

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Oregon county asks for morgue truck as COVID fatalities rises
Source: AssociatedPress

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Noting that the COVID delta variant “is spreading like wildfire among the unvaccinated in our community,” the leaders of an Oregon coastal county said Friday they no longer have capacity to store the bodies of those who have died and are asking the state for a refrigerated morgue truck.

“The spread of COVID in Tillamook County has reached a critical phase,” the county board of commissioners said in a statement. They said that from Aug. 18 to Aug. there were six new COVID-19 deaths in the county, surpassing the five total COVID-19 deaths that occurred during the first 18 months of the pandemic.

“That is six tragic deaths in six days. We grieve for our friends and neighbors and their families. We are so very sorry for your loss,” Commissioners Mary Faith Bell, David Yamamoto and Erin Skaar wrote.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-hea ... 22529a1394

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Liberty University announces quarantine amid COVID-19 spike
Source: AP

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Liberty University announced a temporary campus-wide quarantine Thursday amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. The quarantine is set to begin Monday and last until Sept. 10, news outlets report. The university has about 15,000 students and 5,000 faculty or staff on campus

There were 159 known active cases among students, faculty and staff as of Wednesday, according to the university’s online COVID-19 dashboard. Of those cases, 124 cases were among students. It is a sharp increase from last week when 40 students and staff tested positive as students were welcomed back to campus. It also surpasses the highest confirmed active caseload last September, when at least 141 people on campus tested positive and nearly 1,200 people were quarantined.

As the university began its fall semester this week, the university, which doesn’t require vaccination, lifted building capacity restrictions and distancing and masking requirements. The university changed its protocol late Thursday to enact the campus-wide quarantine, moving classes online and suspending large indoor gatherings.

Outdoor events will continue as scheduled and worship services will move to the stadium. The university will encourage masking and social distancing and host vaccine clinics on campus, but it didn’t indicate it would mandate those measures.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-coron ... 77fd578cf5

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Delta variant doubles risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation compared to alpha variant, new UK study confirms
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-08- ... alpha.html
by Lancet

People infected with the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant have approximately double the risk of hospitalization compared with those infected with the alpha variant, a study of more than 40,000 cases from England between 29 March and 23 May 2021, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal has confirmed.

The risk of attending hospital for emergency care or being admitted to hospital within 14 days of infection with the delta variant was also one and a half times greater compared with the alpha variant (1.45-fold increase in risk).

This new study is the first to report hospitalization risk for the delta versus alpha variants based on cases confirmed by whole-genome sequencing, which is the most accurate way to determine the virus variant.

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Delta variant doubles risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation compared to alpha variant, new UK study confirms
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-08- ... alpha.html
by Lancet

People infected with the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant have approximately double the risk of hospitalization compared with those infected with the alpha variant, a study of more than 40,000 cases from England between 29 March and 23 May 2021, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal has confirmed.

The risk of attending hospital for emergency care or being admitted to hospital within 14 days of infection with the delta variant was also one and a half times greater compared with the alpha variant (1.45-fold increase in risk).

This new study is the first to report hospitalization risk for the delta versus alpha variants based on cases confirmed by whole-genome sequencing, which is the most accurate way to determine the virus variant.

so danger

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FFS.

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New COVID variant detected in South Africa, most mutated variant so far

AUGUST 29, 2021 14:47

A new coronavirus variant, C.1.2, has been detected in South Africa and a number of other countries, with concerns that it could be more infectious and evade vaccines, according to a new preprint study by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform. The study is awaiting peer review.

Scientists first detected C.1.2 in May 2021, finding that it was descended from C.1, which scientists found surprising as C.1 had last been detected in January. The new variant has "mutated substantially" compared to C.1 and is more mutations away from the original virus detected in Wuhan than any other Variant of Concern (VOC) or Variant of Interest (VOI) detected so far worldwide.

While first detected in South Africa, C.1.2 has since been found in England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.

The scientists believe that the number of available sequences of C.1.2 may be an underrepresentation of the spread and frequency of the variant in South Africa and around the world. The study found consistent increases in the number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa on a monthly basis, rising from 0.2% of genomes sequenced in May to 1.6% in June and then to 2% in July, similar to the increases seen with the Beta and Delta variants there.

The study also found that the C.1.2 lineage has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, which is nearly twice as fast as the current global mutation rate of the other variants.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/ne ... far-678011

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