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COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

We have ALL your misinformation, plus some TRUE FACTS and SCIENCE.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#26

Post by RTH10260 »

In the Swiss German language press today is an article that says the doctors and midwifes at the Zürich hospitals have observed severe issues with newborns of women that contracted covid Delta variant infections with strong effects (aka hospilization equired). The Swiss doctors recommend a Cesaerian for delivery.

Found this research paper
The Effects of COVID-19 on the Placenta During Pregnancy

Habib Sadeghi Rad1, Joan Röhl1, Nataly Stylianou1, Mark C. Allenby2,3, Sajad Razavi Bazaz4, Majid E. Warkiani4, Fernando S. F. Guimaraes5, Vicki L. Clifton6 and Arutha Kulasinghe1,5*
1School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
2School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
3Centre for Biomedical Technologies, School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
4School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
5The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (UQDI), Brisbane, QLD, Australia
6Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a global pandemic. The virus primarily affects the lungs where it induces respiratory distress syndrome ranging from mild to acute, however, there is a growing body of evidence supporting its negative effects on other system organs that also carry the ACE2 receptor, such as the placenta. The majority of newborns delivered from SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers test negative following delivery, suggesting that there are protective mechanisms within the placenta. There appears to be a higher incidence of pregnancy-related complications in SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers, such as miscarriage, restricted fetal growth, or still-birth. In this review, we discuss the pathobiology of COVID-19 maternal infection and the potential adverse effects associated with viral infection, and the possibility of transplacental transmission.


https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 43022/full

which contradicts other prior findings like
COVID-19 vaccine does not damage the placenta in pregnancy
Study adds to growing evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe in pregnancy

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2 ... -placenta/
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#27

Post by W. Kevin Vicklund »

RTH10260 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 6:30 am In the Swiss German language press today is an article that says the doctors and midwifes at the Zürich hospitals have observed severe issues with newborns of women that contracted covid Delta variant infections with strong effects (aka hospilization equired). The Swiss doctors recommend a Cesaerian for delivery.

Found this research paper
The Effects of COVID-19 on the Placenta During Pregnancy

Habib Sadeghi Rad1, Joan Röhl1, Nataly Stylianou1, Mark C. Allenby2,3, Sajad Razavi Bazaz4, Majid E. Warkiani4, Fernando S. F. Guimaraes5, Vicki L. Clifton6 and Arutha Kulasinghe1,5*
1School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
2School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
3Centre for Biomedical Technologies, School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
4School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
5The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (UQDI), Brisbane, QLD, Australia
6Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a global pandemic. The virus primarily affects the lungs where it induces respiratory distress syndrome ranging from mild to acute, however, there is a growing body of evidence supporting its negative effects on other system organs that also carry the ACE2 receptor, such as the placenta. The majority of newborns delivered from SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers test negative following delivery, suggesting that there are protective mechanisms within the placenta. There appears to be a higher incidence of pregnancy-related complications in SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers, such as miscarriage, restricted fetal growth, or still-birth. In this review, we discuss the pathobiology of COVID-19 maternal infection and the potential adverse effects associated with viral infection, and the possibility of transplacental transmission.


https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 43022/full

which contradicts other prior findings like
COVID-19 vaccine does not damage the placenta in pregnancy
Study adds to growing evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe in pregnancy

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2 ... -placenta/
Does it, though? The first paper is about the disease, the second is about the vaccine.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#28

Post by insomnia »

I don't see the contradiction. One is talking about the disease and the other is talking about the vaccine. :confuzzled:
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#29

Post by RTH10260 »

:bag:
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#30

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/heal ... 36880.html
A research study that linked a very rare side effect to the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines has been withdrawn by researchers after they made a major mathematical error.

The Canadian study attracted headlines after it suggested there was a 1 in 1,000 risk of people developing myocarditis or inflammation of the heart after receiving the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines.

But the paper’s conclusions were wrong, and the calculation flawed.

The numbers used by the researchers, from the Ottawa Heart Institute, underestimated the amount of vaccines delivered in Ottawa over a two-month period with the result being 25 times smaller than the true figure.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#31

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https://www.nbcnews.com/health/sexual-h ... d_nn_tw_ma
Worries that the Covid-19 vaccine could cause infertility are among the reasons people give for avoiding vaccination. While there’s no evidence any of the Covid vaccines cause problems with fertility, becoming severely ill from the disease has the potential to do so, reproduction experts say, making vaccination all the more important.

“There is evidence to suggest that infection with SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to impact both male fertility, female fertility, and certainly the health of a pregnancy of someone infected,” said Dr. Jennifer Kawwass, a reproductive endocrinologist and associate professor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. “And there is simultaneously no evidence that the vaccine has any negative impact on male or female fertility.”
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#32

Post by Sam the Centipede »

From early October '21, an announcement by drug company AstraZeneca (manufacturer of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine): AZD7442 request for Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19 prophylaxis filed in US

Short extract (the whole thing is accessible, it's a press release, not an academic paper):
AstraZeneca has submitted a request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for AZD7442, its long-acting antibody (LAAB) combination, for prophylaxis of symptomatic COVID-19.
[…]
In August, 2021, AstraZeneca announced high-level results from the PROVENT pre-exposure prophylaxis trial which showed AZD7442 reduced the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77% […] compared to placebo. Importantly, the trial population included people with co-morbidities and who may be in need of additional protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
[…]
AZD7442 was optimised using AstraZeneca’s proprietary YTE half-life extension technology which more than triples the durability of its action compared to conventional antibodies
As you all know, antibodies are the first line of defense against viral (and other) invaders. They disable or tag nasty stuff in the bloodstream, on mucosal membranes etc. They don't clean up the infection or work inside cells that the virus has already successfully invaded, other parts of the immune system (e.g. T-cells) do that.

High levels of relevant antibodies will blunt an infection, and reduce the risk of the immune system going crazy, which is the source of a lot of problems in severe (acute or chronic) COVID-19. They give extra time for the immune system to mount its response, hopefully quite calmly. People with co-morbidities or under-powered immune systems (e.g. elderly or immunocompromised) can really benefit from that extra help.

Antibody levels decline over time for two reasons: (1) the body stops making them as fast because the immune system doesn't invest resources in doing so without an indication that the threat continues, which is where vaccine booster shots help by telling the immune system that the (fake!) threat is still around; and (2) they naturally degrade with time, as do all complex molecules. They aren't actively cleared in the same way as many drugs, hence a single dose of monoclonal antibodies is effective for a long time, whereas antivirals like molnupravir (in another thread) need to be taken twice a day for several days (because the liver actively degrades them).

The rate of decline is characterized as a half-life (just as for radioactivity), which is the time it takes for the level to drop by half (so in twice the half life, it halves twice, i.e. it drops by a quarter). The half life of IgG (immunoglobulin G) antibodies circulating in the blood is typically about 10-21 days, but is dependent on many factors.

So what's the LAAB (long-acting antibody) bit? These cunning folk changed part of the antibody, and that change reduces the molecule's rate of dissociation (i.e. falling apart) in vitro which reduces its rate of loss in vivo. So that can be measured as an increase in the half-life, and that increase can be very significant. For AZD7442 AstraZeneca report a tripling (3×) of the half-life, which they say means good levels persist in the body for 9 months.

LAAB tricks are also used in other monoclonals; it's not a new thing just for COVID-19. Neat, isn't it?!
Off Topic
I wish medicines regulators had chosen a better term than EUA, which is used internationally as well as in the US. "Emergency" implies a sense of panic and corner-cutting, but the authorization process is still very strict, it just doesn't have as much data from large, long trials as full authorization because those trials have not been done. Many high-quality drugs, especially expensive drugs for rare diseases, only ever have EUA, because full trials would be difficult and uneconomic. So the term doesn't matter when intelligent adults understand it, but it allows the anti-vaxxers to imply to gullible marks that a drug or vaccine is "experimental" (well, E could be either word!) or just waved through authorization. I don't have a strong view on what the ideal term would be, but something like "Initial Use Authorization".
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#33

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/ ... us-lancet/
A common antidepressant medication often used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder may join a growing arsenal of covid-19 treatments after it showed promise in reducing hospitalizations and deaths from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

:snippity:

In use since the 1990s, the drug is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that helps restore the balance of serotonin in the brain. Researchers said they decided to study its possible use in treating covid-19 because of its anti-inflammatory and possibly anti-viral properties. It was also identified early in the pandemic as capable of reducing what’s known as cytokine storms, in which the body attacks healthy cells and tissues.

The study, published Wednesday in the Lancet journal, found that giving high-risk covid-19 patients fluvoxamine — 100 mg twice daily for 10 days — early in their treatment reduced the need for hospitalization.

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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#34

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People testing negative for Covid-19 despite exposure may have ‘immune memory’
Study says some individuals clear virus rapidly due to a strong immune response from existing T-cells, meaning tests record negative result

Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
Wed 10 Nov 2021 16.45 GMT

We all know that person who, despite their entire household catching Covid-19, has never tested positive for the disease. Now scientists have found an explanation, showing that a proportion of people experience “abortive infection” in which the virus enters the body but is cleared by the immune system’s T-cells at the earliest stage meaning that PCR and antibody tests record a negative result.

About 15% of healthcare workers who were tracked during the first wave of the pandemic in London, England, appeared to fit this scenario.

The discovery could pave the way for a new generation of vaccines targeting the T-cell response, which could produce much longer lasting immunity, scientists said.

Leo Swadling, an immunologist at University College London and lead author of the paper, said: “Everyone has anecdotal evidence of people being exposed but not succumbing to infection. What we didn’t know is whether these individuals really did manage to completely avoid the virus or whether they naturally cleared the virus before it was detectable by routine tests.”


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... inds-study
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#35

Post by Slim Cognito »

that gives me a little hope.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#36

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Investigating Antidepressants’ Surprising Effect on COVID Deaths
Researchers are still puzzling over what this drug does at the molecular level to help COVID patients

By Esther Landhuis on November 12, 2021

Researchers reported last month that an inexpensive, widely available pill substantially reduced hospitalizations and deaths in a large study of individuals with mild COVID symptoms who were at high risk for complications. It is the only existing oral medication with promising peer-reviewed data from multiple randomized COVID trials—and it is already used by millions of people worldwide. The drug is fluvoxamine, and it is approved in the U.S. for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. So how did this antidepressant end up in a trial for treating COVID?

“Drugs don’t know what their original indicated purpose was, they just do what they do, and they don’t usually do only one thing,” says Angela Reiersen, a child psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU). Along with her WashU psychiatry colleague Eric Lenze, Reiersen conducted a smaller randomized trial last year that suggested fluvoxamine could keep newly infected COVID patients from deteriorating.

Fluvoxamine is best understood for its impact on serotonin—a chemical messenger linked to mood and anxiety disorders. But the drug has other molecular targets. One is a protein called the sigma-1 receptor, which regulates the release of inflammatory molecules, including several that escalate in people with severe COVID. In a 2019 study, University of Virginia scientists chemically induced sepsis, a life-threatening infection complication, in mice. They observed that animals lacking the sigma-1 receptor developed severe inflammation, and many died. Yet in normal mice, a shot of fluvoxamine quieted the immunity overdrive and helped the animals survive.

That study caught Reiersen’s attention: the same overdrive immune response seen in those mice was a central feature observed in children who had come under her care because they had a rare genetic disorder—Wolfram syndrome—that led to psychiatric symptoms. When the pandemic hit and reports emerged that some people with COVID worsen because their inflammatory response goes haywire, Reiersen recalled the mouse study and wondered if fluvoxamine could also keep immune responses from spiraling out of control in these individuals.



https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... id-deaths/
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#37

Post by Sam the Centipede »

Thanks for that, it's an interesting development. My first thought on reading the introductory lines was "I don't know anything significant about the biochemical basis of depression beyond a bit of stuff about serotonin, is the immune system implicated?"

Then the article starts describing antiinflammatory effects – and inflammation is (1) important in Covid, and (2) an immune system response. Yay!

Of course, it is widely accepted (proven? I don't know) that depression is linked with immune under-performance. I wonder if we'll see that issue untangled in the future? I think one beneficial effect of the response to this pandemic will be a better understanding of the complex interactions of various systems and processes of the body, especially as more researchers are working across (sub-)disciplinary boundaries than in the past. They're not becoming generalists, rather multi-specialists.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#38

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... -syndrome/
“A lot of people think after the ICU, if you make it, you come home and your life’s normal again,” said her daughter, Brittany Butler. “Because that’s what I thought. I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to have her back home with us. We’re going to have the same life that we once had.’”

For perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, the coronavirus pandemic has proved it often does not work out that way. Intensive care has saved countless lives since January 2020, but the invasive process can also yield a poorly recognized cluster of serious consequences that together constitute “post-intensive care syndrome.” They are symptoms not of the disease but of the cure.

The worst effects include debilitating weakness and fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, difficulty thinking, and hard-to-define challenges functioning in daily life. Family members, suddenly thrust into the role of caregivers for a seriously ill loved one, endure emotional and practical e think after the ICU, if you make it, you come home and your life’s normal again,” said her daughter, Brittany Butler. “Because that’s what I thought. I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to have her back home with us. We’re going to have the same life that we once had.’”

Only in recent years have doctors and researchers begun to focus on the long-term impact of their efforts in the ICU to stave off death. Much remains unknown, but growing evidence points to prolonged inactivity, deep sedation, delirium and powerful medications as some of the main causes of serious side effects that can last for years.
Excellent, scary article if you can read it all.

Edited because the quotes got really mixed up. :oopsy:
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#39

Post by PaulG »

OK, Fluvoxamine helps. What about Fluoxetine? Asking for a friend third of the country.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#40

Post by keith »

AndyinPA wrote: Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:39 am Excellent, scary article if you can read it all.
I predicted this back in early 2019 as the first reports of something called 'long Covid' started appearing. And people coming out of it with kidney problems, liver problems, lung damage, even brain damage.

A whole lot of people that have 'recovered' are going to be in the 'health' system for years - and burdened with financial impossibilities by the draconian American 'Health' system for life.
Has everybody heard about the bird?
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#41

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Starting today, Pennsylvania is reporting the number of reinfections with its daily update. The number today was around 1,300 for the last three days. The number of reinfected was about 1,100 of that.

In a way, that doesn't surprise me as the state has a pretty high vaccination rate, with the highest rate here in Allegheny County.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#42

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Scientists warn of new Covid variant with high number of mutations
The B.1.1.529 variant was first spotted in Botswana and six cases have been found in South Africa

Ian Sample Science editor
Wed 24 Nov 2021 18.30 GMT

Scientists have said a new Covid variant that carries an “extremely high number” of mutations may drive further waves of disease by evading the body’s defences.

Only 10 cases in three countries have been confirmed by genomic sequencing, but the variant has sparked serious concern among some researchers because a number of the mutations may help the virus evade immunity.

The B.1.1.529 variant has 32 mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that most vaccines use to prime the immune system against Covid. Mutations in the spike protein can affect the virus’s ability to infect cells and spread, but also make it harder for immune cells to attack the pathogen.

The variant was first spotted in Botswana, where three cases have now been sequenced. Six more have been confirmed in South Africa, and one in Hong Kong in a traveller returning from South Africa.

Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, posted details of the new variant on a genome-sharing website, noting that the “incredibly high amount of spike mutations suggest this could be of real concern”.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -mutations
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#43

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I've been watching the reports on mutations. Sometimes a virus mutates to become milder, like the 1918 pandemic virus. That virus still exists, now as a seasonal flu. My worry is that the longer the virus has a lot of hosts, it will continue to mutate without weakening. Antivaxers & antimaskers are aiding the virus and supporting the continuation of the pandemic.

We probably will have a new vaccine within a year to combat the next prominent mutation. <sigh>
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#44

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The Coronavirus in a Tiny Drop

By Carl Zimmer and Jonathan CorumDec. 1, 2021

To better understand the coronavirus’s journey from one person to another, a team of 50 scientists has for the first time created an atomic simulation of the coronavirus nestled in a tiny airborne drop of water.

To create the model, the researchers needed one of the world’s biggest supercomputers to assemble 1.3 billion atoms and track all their movements down to less than a millionth of a second. This computational tour de force is offering an unprecedented glimpse at how the virus survives in the open air as it spreads to a new host.

The simulated drop of liquid includes the coronavirus and its spike proteins, long mucins, sticky surfactants, and a mixture of molecules from deep lung fluid.Lorenzo Casalino and Abigail Dommer, Amaro Lab, U.C. San Diego

“Putting a virus in a drop of water has never been done before,” said Rommie Amaro, a biologist at the University of California San Diego who led the effort, which was unveiled at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis last month. “People have literally never seen what this looks like.”

Droplets and Aerosols

How the coronavirus spreads through the air became the subject of fierce debate early in the pandemic. Many scientists championed the traditional view that most of the virus’s transmission was made possible by larger drops, often produced in coughs and sneezes. Those droplets can travel only a few feet before falling to the floor.

But epidemiological studies showed that people with Covid-19 could infect others at a much greater distance. Even just talking without masks in a poorly ventilated indoor space like a bar, church or classroom was enough to spread the virus.

Those findings pointed to much smaller drops, called aerosols, as important vehicles of infection. Scientists define droplets as having a diameter greater than 100 micrometers, or about 4 thousandths of an inch. Aerosols are smaller — in some cases so small that only a single virus can fit inside them. And thanks to their minuscule size, aerosols can drift in the air for hours.



much more at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... ation.html
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#46

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Omicron coronavirus variant three times more likely to cause reinfection than delta, S. Africa study says

By Amy Cheng
Today at 2:33 a.m. EST

Scientists in South Africa say omicron is at least three times more likely to cause reinfection than previous coronavirus variants such as beta and delta, according to a preliminary study published Thursday.

Statistical analysis of some 2.8 million positive coronavirus samples in South Africa, 35,670 of which were suspected to be reinfections, led researchers to conclude that the omicron mutation has a “substantial ability to evade immunity from prior infection.”

Scientists say reinfection provides a partial explanation for how the new variant has been spreading. The elevated risk of being reinfected is “temporally consistent” with the emergence of the omicron variant in South Africa, the researchers found.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... infection/
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#47

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Covid booster shots significantly strengthen immunity, trial finds
Jabs offer far higher protection than that needed to prevent hospitalisation and death, Cov-Boost trial lead says

Ian Sample Science editor
hu 2 Dec 2021 23.30 GMT

Covid booster shots can dramatically strengthen the body’s immune defences, according to a study that raises hopes of preventing another wave of severe disease driven by the Omicron variant.

In a study published in the Lancet, researchers on the UK-based Cov-Boost trial measured immune responses in nearly 3,000 people who received one of seven Covid-19 boosters or a control jab two to three months after their second dose of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine.

Those boosted with Pfizer after two doses of AstraZeneca had antibody levels a month later nearly 25 times higher than controls. When the Pfizer booster was given following two Pfizer shots, antibody levels rose more than eightfold.

The most potent booster in the study was a full dose of the Moderna vaccine, which raised antibody levels 32-fold in the AstraZeneca group and 11-fold in the Pfizer group. When Moderna is used in the UK booster programme, it is given at a half-dose.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... rial-finds
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#48

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How well masks protect
A detailed study shows the maximum risks of being infected by the coronavirus for different scenarios with and without masks

DECEMBER 02, 2021
Corona Medicine

Three metres are not enough to ensure protection. Even at that distance, it takes less than five minutes for an unvaccinated person standing in the breath of a person with Covid-19 to become infected with almost 100 percent certainty. That's the bad news. The good news is that if both are wearing well-fitting medical or, even better, FFP2 masks, the risk drops dramatically. In a comprehensive study, a team from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen has investigated to what extent masks protect under which wearing conditions. In the process, the researchers determined the maximum risk of infection for numerous situations and considered several factors that have not been included in similar studies to date.



more at the link https://www.mpg.de/17916867/coronavirus ... protection
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#49

Post by RTH10260 »

Effect of early treatment with fluvoxamine on risk of emergency care and hospitalisation among patients with COVID-19: the TOGETHER randomised, platform clinical trial
Gilmar Reis, PhD
Eduardo Augusto dos Santos Moreira-Silva, PhD
Daniela Carla Medeiros Silva, PhD
Prof Lehana Thabane, PhD
Aline Cruz Milagres, RN
Thiago Santiago Ferreira, MD
et al.

Background
Recent evidence indicates a potential therapeutic role of fluvoxamine for COVID-19. In the TOGETHER trial for acutely symptomatic patients with COVID-19, we aimed to assess the efficacy of fluvoxamine versus placebo in preventing hospitalisation defined as either retention in a COVID-19 emergency setting or transfer to a tertiary hospital due to COVID-19.




details in https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lang ... 4/fulltext
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#50

Post by RTH10260 »

Scientists find ‘stealth’ version of Omicron that may be harder to track
Variant lacks feature that allows probable cases to be distinguished among positive PCR tests

Ian Sample and Peter Walker
Tue 7 Dec 2021 19.11 GMT

Scientists say they have identified a “stealth” version of Omicron that cannot be distinguished from other variants using the PCR tests that public health officials deploy to gain a quick picture of its spread around the world.

The finding came as the number of cases of the original Omicron variant detected in the UK rose by 101 to 437 in a single day and Scotland announced a return to working from home.

The stealth variant has many mutations in common with standard Omicron, but it lacks a particular genetic change that allows lab-based PCR tests to be used as a rough and ready means of flagging up probable cases.

The variant is still detected as coronavirus by all the usual tests, and can be identified as the Omicron variant through genomic testing, but probable cases are not flagged up by routine PCR tests that give quicker results.

Researchers say it is too early to know whether the new form of Omicron will spread in the same way as the standard Omicron variant, but that the “stealthy” version is genetically distinct and so may behave differently.

The stealth variant was first spotted among Covid virus genomes submitted in recent days from South Africa, Australia and Canada, but it may already have spread more widely. Among the seven cases identified so far, none are in the UK.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... id-variant
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