Coronavirus Tidbits #255, July 23, 2023

Covid:

COVID-19 Weekly Update for the United States

Key Data Takeaways (as of 7/17/2023)
• COVID-19 indicators, including emergency department visits, test positivity, and wastewater levels, have begun to show small increases nationally.
• Hospital admissions have leveled off after steadily declining.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home

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Had COVID but no symptoms? You might have this genetic mutation

At least 20% of people who become infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus never feel sick. Now scientists have identified a genetic mutation that is linked to a higher likelihood of avoiding symptoms during infection¹.

This mutation might give an advantage to the immune cells of people who have previously been exposed to ‘seasonal’ coronaviruses, which cause the common cold. That extra boost means the immune system can quickly track down and destroy SARS-CoV-2 before it goes haywire trying to defend against the pathogen, says Jill Hollenbach, an immunogeneticist at the University of California, San Francisco, who co-authored the report. It was published on 19 July in Nature.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02318-w

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More on genetics from Eric Topol:

It has taken 3 years, but our genetics that play a role in the highly variable response to Covid, from no illness to #LongCovid, are getting unraveled. And that can lead to better prevention, treatment and vaccines https://erictopol.substack.com/p/from-asymptomatic-covid-to-long-covid

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Long Covid affects 16% study finds

Caveats first: In the rush to share information early in the Covid-19 pandemic, long Covid studies in children may not have met the highest research standards, authors of a new review in Pediatrics stipulate, citing only a vague definition and a dearth of control arms for comparison. Still, their analysis of 31 studies published through December 2022 offers a picture of long Covid in children: Persistent symptoms three months after confirmed infections affected 16% of children and adolescents. (Studies of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children with Covid-19 are also limited by that rush to share data, the authors note.)

If you remember, at first children accounted for fewer and milder cases of Covid. Later variants infected more children, who eventually had lingering symptoms. Overall, girls were more likely than boys to feel long-term problems, including sleep disturbances and headaches. Other symptoms included fatigue, depression, cough, sore throat, and GI illnesses.

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‘Brain fog’ of long Covid comparable to ageing 10 years, study finds

Wuhan:

The Biden administration has suspended funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology after it failed to answer safety and security questions, according to reports byBloomberg and the New York Times.

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WHO adds Omicron EG.5 to variants under monitoring

EG.5 is a descendant of XBB.1.9.2, with one extra spike mutation. Global prevalence has been rising since the end of May. The WHO now has seven VUMs. The number of variants of interest remains at two, including XBB.1.5, which is steadily declining, and XBB.1.16, which is holding steady at 20.7% of sequences.

US among countries seeing EG.5 activity

The United States is one of the countries seeing rising EG.5 proportions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its last estimates on Jul 8 that EG.5 made up 13% of samples. The WHO said so far there's no evidence that EG.5 is fueling any rises in cases or deaths or that infections involving the virus are more severe.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/who-adds-omicron-eg5-variant-monitoring-global-covid-markers-decline-further

Other:

Gain-of-function research is about much more than dangerous pathogens

Interesting op-ed in Stat 

By Saskia Popescu, Yong-Bee Lim and Angela Rasmussen  July 21, 2023

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve heard a lot about gain-of-function research, and some of its risks, particularly regarding the possible creation of dangerous pathogens.

But there’s a lot more to this field than that, including research that could potentially be quite beneficial to human society. If we focus solely on the risks, we may miss those benefits.

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INTREPID (International Readiness for Preventing Infectious Viral Disease) Alliance

• Seven pharmaceutical companies today announced the launch of the INTREPID Alliance to speed the discovery and development of new antiviral treatments for use in future pandemics. In a press release, the group said the effort supports the "100 Days Mission" established by G7 countries, which has a goal of having 25 antivirals for viral diseases with pandemic potential ready for phase 2 and phase 3 trials by 2026. As a first step, the INTREPID Alliance plans to publish an initial list later this year. The companies are AbbVie, Amgen, Gilead, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche, and Takeda.

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Avian flu, COVID outbreaks prompt calls for shutting down fur farms over pandemic risks

Thomas Peacock, PhD, and Wendy Barclay, PhD, both with Imperial College London, detailed their concerns in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

...Mink could provide an ample opportunity for reassortment between H5 avian flu subtypes and human-adapted flu strains, they warned. Fur farming should be in the same high-risk category as bush meat trade and live-animal markets, they concluded.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/avian-flu-covid-outbreaks-prompt-calls-shutting-down-fur-farms-over

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Tornado damage to Pfizer plant could aggravate drug shortages

STAT  July 21, 2023

The timing could not be worse. The tornado that struck North Carolina Wednesday damaged a Pfizer plant that makes almost 30% of sterile injectable medicines sold to U.S. hospitals, just as the shortage of prescription medicines escalates. While the Rocky Mountain plant is one of Pfizer’s biggest manufacturing facilities, the impact is still being determined. In addition to sterile injectables, it produces glass vials, plastic vials, syringes, flexible containers, and semi-rigid bottles. Local media reports suggested warehouse inventory may have been wiped out.

Current shortages range from ADHD pills to injectable treatments for syphilis and different forms of cancer, traced to quality control failures at manufacturing plants and surging demand, famously for weight loss drugs. “It’s hard to know exactly what the impact will be, but this stands to just make things worse,” said Erin Fox of University of Utah Health Care.

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85 people in Arizona suffered severe burns from contact with pavements

heated up to 180F (82C). 7 of them died. In total, 257 people had underlying cause of death listed as "exposure to excessive natural heat".