Coronavirus Tidbits #234 February 26, 2023

Covid:

XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant now dominant in all US regions

In its new variant estimates today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant is now dominant in the northwestern region, making it the most frequently detected type in all US regions. In the Northeastern, the more transmissible XBB.1.5 makes up nearly all of the samples. -CIDRAP

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Thanks to saliva, infectious coronavirus particles linger twice as long in drier air

Experiments conducted during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic help explain why we tend to get sick when the air is dry.

the saliva emitted with them serves as a protective barrier around the virus, especially at low humidity levels.

it’s not the proteins in saliva that allow the virus to persist so well in drier air, but its sugary carbohydrates that stabilize them.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/980762#.Y_ljUFY1H5k.twitter

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Molnupiravir fails at preventing post-exposure infection

https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/2023/02/21/covid-19-pill-under-performs-post-exposure-prevention

and

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The risk of COVID-19 hospitalization among previously infected adults

is 89% to 90% lower for at least 10 months than for their never-infected peers, according to a meta-analysis published late last week in The Lancet.

By 10 months, protection against reinfection had waned against the wild-type, Alpha, and Delta variants but was still 78.6%. In contrast, protection against Omicron reinfection fell to 36.1% over the same period. But protection against hospitalization or death remained high at 10 months for all variants, at 90.2% for the wild-type, Alpha, and Delta variants and 88.9% for Omicron.

The authors said the results suggest that the level and length of infection-conferred protection against reinfection, symptomatic illness, and severe disease is at least as good as that provided by two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines for the wild-type, Alpha, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 variants (the study took place before the emergence of the more transmissible Omicron XBB strain and its subvariants).

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/previous-covid-19-may-slash-severe-illness-reinfection-89

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Back to Office:

"another reason some of them want their employees to return to the office: tax breaks.

The theory goes like this: Companies negotiate tax write-offs on offices based on the assumption that the employees filling them will support nearby businesses and pay state and local taxes. New work-from-home norms mean those offices are much emptier now, jeopardizing those deals. “It's always about money,”...

Now that almost 80% of employees who can work remotely are doing so at least part of the time, some employers are at risk of losing out on these lucrative incentives.

Cities and states have been lenient for the past few years given the pandemic’s limitations and unpredictability. But now governments have to decide whether to start enforcing the terms of their agreements — or to rewrite them entirely for the new realities of remote work.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-02-21/tax-breaks-threaten-work-from-home-as-ceo-s-get-return-to-office-incentives?

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Telehealh in Trouble:

Risk of #COVID19 related hospitalization in the COVID-Out randomized trial with #metformin vs blinded identical matched placebo.
2.9% (19/663) placebo vs. 1.2% (8/660) metformin.
Also included in today's #CROI presentation. pic.twitter.com/CiuWdkeFpC

— David Boulware, MD MPH (@boulware_dr) February 21, 2023

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Avian Flu:

@ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org:   Feb 24

Today's news of a young girl's death from H5N1 in Cambodia is tragic and the news that 4 of 12 contacts are showing influenza-like symptoms is worrisome.

It's not time to panic yet by any means—we've seen similar events a number of times—but obviously we'll be watching closely.

Whatever happens, we need to be taking steps *now* to bolster rapid production capacity for cellular H5N1 vaccines such as Audenz.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/

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Monkeypox:

is a much more severe disease in those w HIV. “It’s like a different disease.” In the cases where people had few CD4 cells, mpox’s normally small skin lesions grew into large necrotizing patches and their infection sometimes spread to the lungs or caused severe secondary infections with bacteria....

(some) argue this disseminated form of mpox should be added to the list of AIDS-defining conditions, opportunistic secondary infections

Starting coinfected patients on antiretrovirals for their HIV infection could worsen their mpox...The Lancet report also revealed an important dilemma for physicians caring for these coinfected people. When those with untreated HIV were given antiretrovirals, one-quarter of them seemed to develop a condition in which the recovering immune system responds to the opportunistic infection—mpox in this case—with an overzealous inflammatory response. More than half the patients suspected to have this overreaction, known as immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome, died.

https://www.science.org/content/article/case-studies-expose-deadly-risk-mpox-people-untreated-hiv   by  Kai Kupferschmidt

https://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00273-8/fulltext…

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Polio:

The CDC's new travel alert expanded the number of countries impacted by polio or poliovirus detections to include countries such as Egypt, Isreal, and the United Kingdom.

Additionally, the CDC says before traveling to any at-risk destination, it recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine.

https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/adults-can-consider-polio-boosters

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U.S. Unprepared for Dangers Posed by Zoonotic Diseases, New Analysis Concludes

• More zoonotic diseases originated in the United States than in any other country during the second half of the 20th century.
• In 2022, the U.S. processed more than 10 billion livestock, the largest number ever recorded and an increase of 204 million over 2021.
• The ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak has left 58 million animals dead in backyard chicken coops and industrial farms in the U.S.
• Since 2011, the U.S. has recorded more swine-origin influenza infections than any other country. Most occurred at state and county fairs, which attract 150 million visitors each year and where an estimated 18% of swine have tested positive.

Moreover, they add, the current patchwork of siloed agencies and authorities is marked by a lack of coordination, leaving significant gaps and areas of underregulation.

https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2023/february/u-s--unprepared-for-dangers-posed-by-zoonotic-diseases--new-anal.html

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