https://twitter.com/JPWeiland/status/1744862849279643895?s=2

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Senate HELP hearings

were pretty remarkable. I'll have more as I go through transcripts. Watch/read Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly's testimony, in particular:

https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/addressing-long-covid-advancing-research-and-improving-patient-care

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Could long Covid’s signs of immune dysregulation in the blood lead to a diagnostic test?

Long Covid has long eluded scientists looking for its cause. Not knowing what triggers its persistent and distressing symptoms makes the condition challenging to treat; it’s hard to even say definitively who has it. New research published Thursday in Science has identified proteins present in the blood of people with long Covid that could point the way to a much-needed diagnostic test and possibly to future therapeutic targets.

Scientists at the University of Zurich discovered high levels of proteins involved in the complement system — an important part of the immune system bridging innate and adaptive responses — that were disrupted in people with long Covid symptoms, but not in those who got better after the initial Covid-19 infection or in those who had recovered from long Covid symptoms after six months. The team also found damaged red blood cells and platelets as well as signs of harm to the endothelial cells that line blood vessels.

These biomarkers appeared after the researchers performed high-throughput analyses of more than 6,500 proteins found in the blood serum of 113 people infected with Covid, including 40 people who developed long Covid, and controls who were not infected.

https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/18/long-covid-new-research-blood-samples-show-immunity-link/?

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Potent new pill, simnotrelvir, provides COVID relief for the masses

The drug simnotrelvir shortens symptoms for those with mild infections and is sold at a lower price in China than its main rival.

There’s new hope for the average person seeking relief from COVID-19: a drug called simnotrelvir has been shown to speed recovery from mild to moderate disease by about 1.5 days¹.

A clinical trial found that simnotrelvir, which is administered as a series of pills, kicks in almost immediately after being taken, reliving symptoms such as fever, cough and runny nose.

The results were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00117-5

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HOWEVER,  trial participants were relatively young, healthy, and vaccinated. And the trial was not designed to provide information on simnotrelvir's effects on outcomes of greatest clinical relevance, Schaffner noted -- COVID-related hospitalization, ICU admissions, or mortality.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/108300?

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60% of #LongCovid patients at 2 yrs vs 8% of controls had a positive viral blood load, suggesting viral persistence. 

medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.14.24301293v1.full.pdf…

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COVID persistence:

"They identified SARS-CoV-2 RNA and protein in 7 of 14 of the biopsy samples obtained from asymptomatic COVID-19 patients with negative nasal-swab PCR, at an average of 4 months after acute infection."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8260991/

on Dec 20, 2022, I tweeted:

Pretty amazing to me that you can be an organ donor if you've had #Covid but can't donate your body to a med school/anatomy board. Ass backwards. There will be a dire shortage of #organdonors soon.

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California insanity

Californians infected with COVID-19 may go about their lives without isolating or testing negative as long as their symptoms are improving, according to new and significantly loosened guidelines from the California Department of Public Health. [This seems like a ploy so that employers can force sick employees to come to work]

California’s top public health official, Dr. Tomás Aragón, last week quietly rescinded the state’s previous order, which encouraged people infected with COVID-19 to isolate for five days.

The new health order allows Californians with COVID-19 to return to work or school as long as their symptoms are improving and they are fever-free for 24 hours without medication.

...Masking requirements have not changed, and people with COVID-19 should wear masks for 10 days whether or not they have symptoms. The new guidelines do not apply to employees at high-risk health care settings like hospitals and nursing homes...

students and staff can come to school if they test positive for COVID-19, as long as they’re asymptomatic, wear masks and avoid people who are at high risk of sickness, such as those who are immunocompromised. [You really think the kids are going to wear masks. How are they going to know who is at risk and to stay away from? I think this throws vulnerable people under the bus. This seems like a ploy so that employers can force sick employees to come to work. And if parents keep their kids home, the state will go after them for truancy.]

...Disability and equity advocates are particularly critical of the new guidelines. They contend the change could increase risk of infection for vulnerable Californians.

...The free COVID-19 hotline where residents could get Paxlovid prescriptions and vaccine appointments will also shut down at the end of February,

“This policy is not based in science, equity or public health. It devalues the lives of immunocompromised and disabled people, and completely ignores the risk of long COVID,” said Lisa McCorkell, co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, which studies the impacts of long COVID.

There is no treatment for long COVID, which can leave some patients debilitated for years, and increased transmission will disproportionately harm poor communities, McCorkell said.

These changes, too, are worrisome for equity advocates.

“Not everybody has a primary care doctor. If you don’t have a primary care provider or good access to a primary care provider that’s knowledgeable about treating, then you’re going to have a difficult time accessing it,” Aboelata said.

https://calmatters.org/health/2024/01/california-covid-rule-isolation/

NOTE: To object to this, call @CAPublicHealth by phone: 916-558-1700. "Lorna" at CDPH asked those who are concerned by the reduced isolation policy for SARS2 to email: cdph.internetadmin@cdph.ca.gov. She'll forward to emails to @CAPublicHealth  ID team & ensure replies.

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Other:

Measles:

With measles on the uptick despite the availability of a highly effective vaccine, it's worth reflecting on Roald Dahl's account of the final day of his 7-year-old daughter's life. https://t.co/3irdBSEIXQ pic.twitter.com/BEcWwQUydQ

— David Juurlink (@DavidJuurlink) January 13, 2024