
Coronavirus Tidbits #220 11/19/22
Announcements:
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.
With Twitter taking a nosedive and likely to soon be destroyed by Musk, the format here will likely be evolving. There will be no embedded tweets and fewer pictures to break things up. I will take screenshots of some tweets for visuals for now, but formatting probably won't be uniform.
Please let me know how these changes are working for you. It's a nightmare for me--Twitter is THE best place for real time infectious disease news and misc news, especially that not covered by mainstream press.
Georgia:
How to help reelect Senator Warnock:
From a trusted friend there: We present a selected list of some of the many Georgia-based organizations that are doing critical runoff election work *right now* across the state specifically to *get out the vote for the runoff*, with a special emphasis on organizations that focus on and are led by women and people of color. Even a small-dollar donation will make a difference.
Please click on the public Facebook post (http://bit.ly/3Tyr0Wf) to see details.
NOPE Neighbors also recommends:
The Black Male Initiative Fund
Black Voters Matter
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR)
New Georgia Project
Fair Fight
News
Covid:
New-onset diabetes risk higher in recovering COVID-19 patients
People recovering from COVID-19 are at higher risk of a new diabetes diagnosis, a research team from Beijing reported this week in BMC Medicine. Their findings come from a meta-analysis of nine studies that included nearly 40 million participants, the largest of its kind.
They note that an increased risk of diabetes has also been found for other viruses, but their analysis shows a 20% higher risk of developing diabetes following COVID compared to patients with other upper respiratory viruses and an 82% increased risk compared to the general population.
Possible mechanisms include the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on pancreatic cells and the cytokine storm in those who have an exaggerated immune response to the virus, which might promote insulin resistance.
The researchers wrote that their findings reinforce the need for clinicians to pay attention to patients' glucose metabolism in the post-acute phase of COVID-19, especially in the first 3 months following infection.
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U.S. COVID public health emergency to stay in place
WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The United States will keep in place the public health emergency status of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing millions of Americans to still receive free tests, vaccines and treatments, two Biden administration officials said on Friday.
The possibility of a winter surge in COVID cases and the need for more time to transition out of the public health emergency to a private market were two factors that contributed to the decision not to end the emergency status in January, one of the officials said.
https://www.reuters.com/world/
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Hospitalized or Not, COVID Symptoms Persist in Many After 2 Years
— Fatigue, pain, and memory loss cited most frequently
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/longcovid/101758?
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Second year of pandemic deadlier for middle aged than the first, analysis finds
The first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic saw an increase in mortality rates, both from COVID-19 and other causes, but the groups hardest hit shifted between the first and second years, according to an analysis of publicly available data.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-year-pandemic-deadlier-middle-aged.html?
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Association between diabetes medication and less severe cases of COVID-19
Published in PLOS ONE, a study led by the University of Minnesota Medical School studied adults with type 2 diabetes who were taking metformin, a commonly prescribed diabetes medication. Researchers found an association with less severe cases of COVID-19 for those prescribed metformin. These findings were part of an observational study that analyzed electronic medical charts and compared adults who were taking either metformin, a sulfonylurea or a DPP-4 inhibitor.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-association-diabetes-medication-severe-cases.html?
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AmerAcadPeds asked @POTUS to declare emergency
"Infants 6 months & younger are getting hospitalized w/ RSV at more than 7x rate observed b4 the Covid-19 pandemic in 2018, according to data from @CDCgov." cnbc.com/2022/11/18/bid
Monkeypox:
Study describes #monkeypox in women; As much as 25% of infections in women were not linked to sexual transmission
CDC warns of #Tpoxx resistance
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Alcohol hand rubs are Efficient at Inactivating Monkeypox Virus (WHO Recommended Hand Rub Formulations and Alcohols)
Emerging Infectious Diseases Volume 29, Number 1—January 2023
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/
Ebola:
3 Ebola vaccine candidates will be shipped next week to Uganda for a clinical trial,

To beat Ebola in Uganda, fund what worked in Liberia
Nature Mosoka P. Fallah 15 November 2022
When Ebola reached Kampala, the capital of Uganda, in September, I was reminded of a spine-chilling phone call I received in August 2014. “Leave everything and come down: Ebola has entered West Point.” West Point is a poor, densely populated peninsula, home to 70,000 people, in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. From there, we feared the disease could explode across the country.
How did we eventually get to zero Ebola cases in Liberia? By using some unconventional approaches. We supplied illicit drugs to gang members and food to armed robbers so that we could trace their contacts in West Point. Above all, we learnt that mobilizing communities to help themselves is crucial to containing Ebola.
I was head of case detection in Liberia during that crisis. Now, from Ethiopia, I manage the COVID-19 programme of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and provide guidance to our Ebola response team in Uganda.
So far, at least 53 people in Uganda have died of the Sudan species of Ebola virus. Unlike the Zaire species in the West Africa crisis, the Sudan virus has no approved vaccines or therapeutics. Several weeks ago, cases were found among schoolchildren in Kampala. Yet Ebola response workers meet with denial and resistance, indicating that a fundamental lack of trust is holding back the response.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03695-4
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Other infections:
The Lanzhou Brucella Leak: The Largest Laboratory Accident in the History of Infectious Diseases?
Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 75, Issue 10, 15 November 2022, Pages 1845–1847, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac463
An inadequacy in sanitizing processes in a biopharmaceutical plant in Lanzhou, China, during July and August 2019, led to the aerosolization of Brucella that was subsequently spread through wind to nearby settlements and academic institutes, resulting in .10 000 human brucellosis cases, as of November 2020. The leak, possibly the largest laboratory accident in the history of infectious diseases, underlines the particular characteristics of Brucella that have made the pathogen a historical entity in biodefense research and a major cause of laboratory-associated infections. It further underlines the need for enhanced vigilance and strict regulatory interventions in similar facilities.
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article-abstract/75/10/1845/6604450
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#Enoki mushrooms linked to #Listeria outbreak Michigan #Nevada
https://outbreaknewstoday.com/enoki-mushrooms-linked-to-listeria-outbreak-20994/
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`Indonesia: Extraordinary Event (KLB) Declared In Aceh After Child Diagnosed With #Polio'
Indonesia had been polio free since 2014. This new case likely is just the start.
Fewer than 1% of those infected develop paralysis, while the rest are either asymptomatic or have flu-like illness. All, however, can shed the polio virus for weeks, meaning that 1 case of paralysis very probably indicates a much larger outbreak.
Measles outbreak in Ohio:
Diagnostics:
Researchers may have found a new biomarker for acute COVID-19
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have shown that patients with acute COVID-19 infection have increased levels of the cytokine IL-26 in their blood. Moreover, high IL-26 levels correlate with an exaggerated inflammatory response that signifies severe cases of the disease. The findings, which are presented in Frontiers in Immunology, indicate that IL-26 is a potential biomarker for severe COVID-19.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-biomarker-acute-covid-.html
Drugs:
BQ.1 variant is now the most common in US
The BQ.1.1 variant, as compared with many of the other new variants, is resistant to all clinically used monoclonal antibodies. BQ.1/BQ.1.1 are now the dominant variants in the United States thelancet.com/journals/lanin
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Devices:
Epidemiology/Infection control:
Keeping indoor humidity levels at a 'sweet spot' may reduce the spread of COVID-19
We know proper indoor ventilation is key to reducing the spread of COVID-19. Now, a study by MIT researchers finds that indoor relative humidity may also influence transmission of the virus.
Relative humidity is the amount of moisture in the air compared to the total moisture the air can hold at a given temperature before saturating and forming condensation.
In a study appearing today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the MIT team reports that maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40 and 60% is associated with relatively lower rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths, while indoor conditions outside this range are associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes. To put this into perspective, most people are comfortable between 30 and 50% relative humidity, and an airplane cabin is at around 20% relative humidity.
The findings are based on the team's analysis of COVID-19 data combined with meteorological measurements from 121 countries, from January 2020 through August 2020. Their study suggests a strong connection between regional outbreaks and indoor relative humidity.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-indoor-humidity-sweet-covid-.html
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Study: Rapid COVID tests allow up to 74% of college students end isolation early
CIDRAP November 16, 2022
According to a study published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases from researchers at Yale University, exit COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RATs) enabled 53% to 74% of college students to leave isolation early when they began isolation at the time of the first positive test, but 15% to 22% remained positive beyond the recommended isolation period.
The study included 323 infected college students living in university housing; undergraduate students were required to screen upon arrival on campus and then twice weekly on designated days. Testing took place between Jan 1 and Feb 11, 2022, during the Omicron surge in the United States.
Positive students were expected to isolate for 10 days, or 5 days if they received a negative RAT, following new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Upon testing negative, students ended isolation but continued mandatory masking until day 10.
"We found a day 5 positivity of 47% in the twice-weekly screening group and 26%–28% in the less frequently screened groups," the authors wrote.
Negative RAT tests on day 5 allowed 78% to 85% of students to confidently leave isolation, the authors said. The percentage remaining positive dropped to 6% to 8% on day 7.
Unexpectedly, the authors found that students who had received three or more COVID-19 vaccine doses had longer RAT positivity duration than students with only the primary series. The authors posit this could be a finding based solely on the transmissibility of the Omicron variant.
Tips, general reading for public:
Ventilate.
Mask.
Vax.
Politics:
Election:
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Libraries are places that can help distinguish reliable and accurate sources of information and debunk misinformation and disinformation. When in doubt...got to the library. pic.twitter.com/HXfRWRlewc
— Michigan Library Association (@MLAoffice) November 13, 2022
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GOP/TFG:
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Racism:
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LGBTQ rights/Interracial marriage
Alabama
Arizona
Alaska:
California:
Colorado
Adam Frisch just conceded to Lauren Boebert. While it’s not the news we hoped for, remember that in 2020, she won by almost 25,000 votes. This time around, she won by slightly over 500 votes. Let’s all make sure the next time Lauren Boebert runs she loses—badly.
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Frisch said an automatic recount will likely happen under state law but encouraged supporters to save fundraising $$ for gas, groceries and other causes.
Florida:
Georgia:
Nevada
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Texas/Guns:
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Virginia
Wisconsin:
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Bezos
Iran:
Feel good du jour:
Comic relief:
Perspective/Poem:
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Bits of beauty:

