Coronavirus Tidbits #150 7/25/21

July 25, 2021 /

Quick links

First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting.

Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that.

News 

A coming wave of diabetes? The link with COVID-19

Researchers are observing a new long-term health concern in patients hospitalized with COVID-19-an increase in new-onset hyperglycemia lasting months after infection. An Italian study found that about half of the patients admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 during the start of the pandemic had new cases of hyperglycemia, or high levels of blood sugar. They also had poorer outcomes.

~ ~ ~

How concerned should we be about breakthrough coronavirus infections? One expert weighs in

https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/23/how-concerned-should-we-be-about-breakthrough-coronavirus-infections-one-expert-weighs-in/? Joshua P. Cohen has an article in Forbes that: fully vaccinated healthcare workers who contract coronavirus can transmit it, whether they are symptomatic or asymptomatic. Also, According to the Dutch RIVM (CDC counterpart in the Netherlands), 9% of all positive cases tallied last week in the Netherlands were fully vaccinated individuals,

~ ~ ~

_ _ _

Novel autoantibody adds fuel to COVID-19 ‘firestorm’ of inflammation, blood clots, may guide future Rx

Researchers at Michigan Medicine have discovered yet another functional autoantibody in COVID-19 patients that contributes to the disease’s development and the “firestorm” of blood clots and inflammation it induces.

A growing body of studies suggests COVID-19 emulates many aspects of systemic autoimmune disorders, including the release of a flurry of overactive immune cells that produce toxic webs of proteins and DNA called neutrophil extracellular traps, or NETs.

For this study, the team analyzed serum from over 300 hospitalized COVID patients, searching for a novel autoantibody that shields the toxic NETs from being destroyed and produces a lasting noxious effect in a patient’s body.

The results, published in JCI Insight, reveal markedly elevated levels of the anti-NET antibodies in many of the participants. Those with higher levels of the autoantibodies were more likely to develop severe COVID-19 symptoms.

Diagnostics:

still an incredible, negligent last of testing.

Drugs and Vaccines:

~ ~ ~

Study finds vaccine hesitancy lower in poorer countries

New research published in Nature Medicine reveals willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine was considerably higher in developing countries (80% of respondents) than in the United States (65%) and Russia (30%).

The study provides one of the first insights into vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in a broad selection of low- and-middle income countries (LMIC), covering over 20,000 survey respondents and bringing together researchers from over 30 institutions including the International Growth Centre (IGC), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), WZB Berlin Social Science Center, the Yale Institute for Global Health, the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE), and HSE University (Moscow, Russia).

~ ~ ~

Send vaccines where people want and need them: Developing nations

According to a new study co-authored by Yale’s Mushfiq Mobarak and Saad Omer, COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is significantly higher in low- and middle-income countries than wealthy ones. The results suggest that prioritizing developing nations for vaccine distribution could help save more lives and keep variants at bay.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-vaccines-people-nations.html?

~ ~ ~

Making the case for intranasal COVID-19 vaccines

A microbiologist and an immunologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham have published a Perspective piece in the journal Science outlining the possible benefits of developing COVID-19 vaccines delivered in an intranasal mist rather in the arm as an injection. In their paper, Frances Lund and Troy Randall suggest that nasal applications provide a host of benefits that injections do not.

~ ~ ~

Study: Chinese COVID shot may offer elderly poor protection

A new study suggests that a Sinopharm vaccine offers poor protection from COVID-19 among the elderly, raising questions for dozens of countries that have given the Chinese company’s shots to their most vulnerable populations.

~ ~ ~

Countries Move Ahead With Mix-and-Match COVID Vaccines

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/93706?

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

https://twitter.com/threadreaderapp/status/1417677922958258177?s=20

~ ~ ~

* AL: 901 / 4.903 m: ~183 per million people * VT: 8 / 0.624 m: ~13 per million people

~ ~ ~

https://twitter.com/alvie_barr/status/1418329236612517898?s=20

~ ~ ~

The Biden administration is giving $100 million to rural communities to help with COVID-19 vaccination outreach, HHS announced; in addition, $1.6 billion from the American Rescue Plan will go toward testing and mitigation of COVID-19 in congregant settings such as homeless shelters and prisons.

 

Devices:

Epidemiology/Infection control:

More than 1.5M children lost a primary or secondary caregiver due to the COVID-19 pandemic

More than 1.5 million children around the world are estimated to have lost at least one parent, custodial grandparent, or grandparent who lived with them due to death related to COVID-19 during the first 14 months of the pandemic, according to a study published today in The Lancet. The study highlights orphanhood as an urgent and overlooked consequence of the pandemic and emphasizes that providing evidence-based psychosocial and economic support to children who have lost a caregiver must be a key part of responding to the pandemic.

~ ~ ~

American Academy of Pediatrics: Everyone should wear masks in schools, regardless of vaccination status

The AAP said Monday that everyone aged 2 years or older should wear a mask in school, regardless COVID-19 vaccination status, because many students are not eligible for vaccination and it is difficult to tell who has been immunized.

The recommendation was part of updated back-to-school guidance in which the AAP “strongly” recommended in-person learning and urged eligible students, teachers and staff to get vaccinated.

~ ~ ~

Public health officials have tools to beat back Covid again. Does anyone want to use them?

Mask-wearing and social distancing could still be effective in the pandemic, but the political appetite to use them is not what it once was.

~ ~ ~

https://twitter.com/MackayIM/status/1417068787111587846?s=20

Tips, general reading for public:

StayAtHome

Wash your hands.

Rinse and repeat.

Politics:

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

https://twitter.com/tommychong/status/1417169361861693440?s=20

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

Feel good du jour:

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

Comic relief:

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

Perspective/Poem

~ ~ ~

Bits of beauty:

 

Share this post:
fb-share-icon
Tweet
fb-share-icon

You May Also Like

Coronavirus Tidbits #184 3/20/22

March 20, 2022

Coronavirus Tidbits #49 5/19/20

May 19, 2020

Coronavirus Tidbits #58 6/16/20

June 17, 2020

One Comment

  • John Pankowicz

    July 29, 2021 at 7:02 pm

    Great tidbits as usual!

    But I need to take issue with Sarah Kendzior’s seeming desire for Biden to force the hand on the Garland, Yellen and Wray decisions.
    I am enormously relieved that we now have a president that respects constitutional seperation of power in the U.S. Of course Trump would have forced any Treasury Secretary, Attorney General or FBI Director to do his bidding. But I much prefer that we no longer have an absolute dictator making all the decisions.