Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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14 Apr 2023, 10:40 pm

‘Arcturus,’ a COVID variant sweeping India, is now in the U.S., the CDC says—and it’s coming in hot. What it means for the future of the pandemic

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A new Omicron spawn fueling a surge of cases in India—considered the most transmissible COVID variant yet—has reached reportable levels in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

And it’s coming in hot. XBB.1.16, dubbed “Arcturus” by variant trackers, is estimated to be behind 7% of COVID cases in the country this week, according to the CDC’s Nowcast, a viral forecast released each Friday by the national public health agency. The variant doesn’t look to cause more severe disease, according to a COVID situation report released Thursday by the World Health Organization.

Friday was the first time the CDC had assigned XBB.1.16 its own category. Before then, cases had been lumped under XBB.

XBB variants hold the top six spots in the U.S. when it comes to variant frequency. XBB.1.5, also known as “Kraken,” rose to U.S. and global prominence during a winter wave of cases. It’s still thought to represent more than three-quarters of U.S. cases, though levels are waning.

XBB.1.9.1, XBB.1.9.2, and XBB.1.5.1 hold the third, fourth, and fifth spots, respectively, each representing an estimated 2.4% to 6.5% of cases.

FD.2—a shortened name for another XBB spawn, XBB.1.5.15—comes in at No. 6, and is estimated to fuel nearly 2% of U.S. cases this week.

XBB.1.5 is still technically “top dog” in the U.S., but it “looks spent,” Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., and a top COVID variant tracker, tells Fortune.

While XBB.1.16 looks to be on the path for eventual U.S. dominance, other up-and-coming Omicron spawn could provide competition, Rajnarayanan says—like XBB.2.3 and descendants, and XBC.1.6 and descendants.

In the U.S., levels of XBB.1.16 are highest in the south central region, where they are projected to represent more than 20% of cases, and on the West Coast, where they hover around 10%, according to the CDC. They’re lowest in the Northeast, where they’re estimated to fuel less than 2.5% of cases.

In fact, they’re up nearly 500% month over month in the region, with cases in India responsible for much of the rise. Reported cases are also trending upward in the organization’s Eastern Mediterranean region—there, they’ve increased slightly more than 100% month over month.

COVID deaths are also rising in both regions, up 109% month over month in Southeast Asia and 138% in the Eastern Mediterranean, according to the report.

Levels of XBB.1.16 are also rising in the U.S., Singapore, and Australia, among other countries, according to data from GISAID, an international research database that tracks changes in COVID and the flu virus. The variant has so far been identified in 29 countries, and reported sequences of it more than doubled from the last full week of March to the first partial week of April, according to the WHO’s Thursday update.

Pandemic now in an ‘age of recombinants’
The pandemic is now in the “age of recombinants”—or existing variants that have combined with each other to potentially wreak more havoc—Ryan Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, told Fortune earlier this week. He has spearheaded efforts to assign “street names” like Arcturus and Kraken to variants when the WHO chose not to assign new Greek letters to them, in an effort to make some sense out of the COVID alphabet soup.

XBB.1.16 is a recombinant of two descendants of so-called stealth Omicron BA.2. A preprint study updated Sunday from scientists at the University of Tokyo suggests that the variant spreads about 1.17 to 1.27 times as efficiently as relatives XBB.1 and XBB.1.5, the latter of which still dominates U.S. cases.

XBB.1.16’s increased ability to outpace other variants suggests that it “will spread worldwide in the near future,” researchers wrote, adding that the variant is “robustly resistant” to antibodies from a variety of COVID variants, including “stealth Omicron” BA.2 and BA.5, which surged globally last summer.

That means it could cause cases to rise again, even in areas that have recently seen increased COVID infections—and especially if those infections stemmed from either BA.2, BA.5, or their descendants.

New variants may not always cause “waves” of cases anymore. That’s because a continual parade of new Omicron variants creates a baseline of infections that remains “unsustainably high,” Gregory says.

For most people, severe disease from COVID isn’t an issue right now—especially not for the vaccinated. In that regard, XBB.1.16 may not change much, if anything. But with its record-setting growth advantage, and continued breakneck evolution, the variant is indicative of a concerning trend, experts say.

A surge of even a supposedly mild COVID variant should be avoided “because every new infection provides the virus an opportunity to evolve and create new recombinants to further evade immunity,” Vashishtha tweeted Wednesday.

Because spread of the virus fuels the evolution of new, potentially concerning variants, it’s a mistake to ignore infections and worry only about rates of hospitalizations and deaths, he added.

Rajnarayanan says his level of discomfort with the virus will increase all the more if Omicron spawn begin to pick up mutations that enhance their usage of TMPRSS2, an enzyme that helps COVID gain access to the cells it infects.

Such mutations could result in a variant with the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and the more severe symptom set of Delta, including a potential return to lung involvement—a development scientists have anticipated for months.

Such a scenario, while not a “nightmare,” would be “a problem,” he says.

With so much about COVID up in the air less than a month away from May 11, the day the U.S. public health emergency (PHE) is set to expire, Rajnarayanan questions whether it’s the right time for such a move—especially if it threatens viral surveillance.

“If you end the PHE, make sure the virus gets the memo too,” he says.

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jimmy m
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17 Apr 2023, 9:44 am

Since the pandemic began more than three years ago, numerous variants have emerged as the virus that causes COVID-19 evolved. As the COVID public health emergency ends, case numbers drop and concerns subside, another new variant has caught the attention of scientists.

While it does have a higher transmissibility rate than previous strains, the variant "Arcturus," also known as omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, stands out for bringing along a new COVID symptom - conjunctivitis, known as red or pink eye, which is often combined with itchiness.

The World Health Organization has considered the strain a "variant under monitoring" since March 22, and as of Friday, cases have been confirmed in around 20 countries. "Arcturus" is responsible for a surge in case counts in parts of the world, including India, where itchy or "sticky" eyes have been most often reported in children.

This is the latest variant distribution in the U.S. as of the period 4/9/2023 to 4/15/2023.

XBB.1.5 ----- 82.3 %
XBB.1.16 ----- 6.0 %
XBB.1.9.1 --- 4.8 %
XBB.1.5.1 --- 2.8 %
XBB.1.9.2 --- 2.3 %
BQ.1.1 -------- 0.7 %
CH.1.1 ------- 0.3 %
FD.2 --------- 0.2 %
XBB -----------0.2 %
BQ.1 --------- 0.1 %

Higher levels of infectivity are being reported with newer variants, but overall, they tend to be causing less severe disease, which is likely the result of higher vaccination rates, higher rates of immunity from prior infection and lower pathogenicity of recent variants, according to the Mayo Clinic.

So overall, this variant is a little different in several respects. It is targeting children. It is producing red or pink colors eyes. Then to top it all off it is hitting the opposite side of the country than normal. Normally during the winter, the northern sates are affected, but this variant is growing in the south.

Source: This One Symptom Is Emerging With the New Highly Transmissible ‘Arcturus' COVID-19 Variant

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17 Apr 2023, 11:44 am

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Arcturus variant does not seem to cause more severe disease. The WHO has identified XBB.1.16 as a new variant that resulted from the combination of BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75, with a shared mutation also found in XBB.1.5.

In India, there appears to be an increase of cases but have not resulted in more hospitalizations or deaths. If this is true, then it will follow the trendline of the greater the infection rate the lower the death rate for COVID evolution. In other words, COVID will progress to a state of the common cold.

The other issues produced by this strain includes:
fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, fatigue, muscle ache, and abdominal issues

Another article states, "By late February, the Arcturus strain accounted for 0.21 percent of cases around the world. A month later, this had risen to 3.96 percent, according to WHO figures. In the United States, it is estimated to account for 7.2 percent of coronavirus infections for the week ending April 15, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

In another article, it reads: " On March 22, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the XBB.1.16 as a new variant under monitoring (VUM), which isn’t as serious as a variant of interest (VOI) which isn’t as serious as a variant of concern (VOC). Nevertheless, a VUM could always eventually become a VOI or even a VOC."

So it looks like everyone else has moved on.

Then another article said: "All of this is a reminder that although many political leaders seem to want to shove Covid-19 under the metaphorical rug and act as if it’s not a problem anymore, the virus certainly hasn’t agreed to simply go away. It is still important to keep track of what variants and subvariants continue to emerge and what problems they may bring."

How true.

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18 Apr 2023, 7:31 am

jimmy m wrote:

While it does have a higher transmissibility rate than previous strains, the variant "Arcturus," also known as omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, stands out for bringing along a new COVID symptom - conjunctivitis, known as red or pink eye, which is often combined with itchiness.

I very well likely had it last week then since I felt an unusual tenderness when closing one of my eyes

Fortunately I don't have that symptom anymore.

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18 Apr 2023, 7:46 am

Weird, I remember hearing that pinkeye was the main symptom of one of the older variants.

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18 Apr 2023, 11:17 am

FDA authorizes 2nd dose of updated Covid booster for older adults

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The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized a second dose of the updated Covid booster for older adults and people with weakened immune systems.

Those 65 and older can get a second dose of the updated versions of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s Covid booster at least four months after their last dose, the FDA said in a statement. Most people who are immunocompromised can get an additional dose at least two months after their last dose, according to the agency.

The FDA also authorized using the bivalent formula in all Covid vaccines moving forward and is doing away with the multi-dose primary series for people who have not yet been vaccinated. That means people who haven’t been vaccinated yet would get a single dose of the updated vaccine.

The FDA’s decision will now be handed off to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has scheduled a meeting with its panel of outside advisers for Wednesday. If the panel votes in favor of the additional boosters, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, signs off, immunizations could begin immediately.

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19 Apr 2023, 7:05 pm

CDC signs off on 2nd dose of omicron Covid booster for older adults

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday backed a second dose of the updated Covid booster for older adults and people with weakened immune systems.

Those 65 and older can get a second dose of the updated versions of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s Covid booster at least four months after their last dose, the FDA said in a statement. Most people who are immunocompromised can get an additional dose at least two months after their last dose, according to the agency.

The move by the CDC came hours after the agency's advisory panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, met to discuss the changes authorized by the FDA. The CDC sign off means shots could begin immediately.

Following the FDA's decision, the CDC also recommended using the bivalent formula in all Covid vaccines moving forward and is doing away with the multidose primary series for people who have not yet been vaccinated.

That means people who haven’t been vaccinated yet would need to get only a single dose of the updated vaccine for the primary series.

As of Saturday, roughly 78% of new U.S. Covid cases are caused by the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, according to the CDC.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said that while the boosters don’t match the currently circulating strain, they should still provide people with some protection.

A CDC report published in January found that the updated Covid boosters reduced the risk of Covid infection from the XBB.1.5 subvariant by nearly half. Another study, published by Israeli researchers in the Lancet this month, found that the Covid boosters reduced the risk of hospitalization in people 65 and older by 72%. Neither study, however, looked at the effects of receiving two doses of the bivalent booster.

Uptake of the boosters has been low, with only around 17% of the total U.S. population having received one, according to the CDC.

It's not yet known whether younger adults and children will be allowed to get an additional dose of the omicron shot, but FDA officials have previously said they plan to convene an advisory committee this summer to discuss what the Covid booster campaign might look like in the fall.

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21 Apr 2023, 11:41 am

It appears that the next version of COVID vaccine is hitting the streets.

The government approved a second dose of the COVID booster for the elderly and immunocompromised. The bivalent booster shot targets the omicron variants. Seniors 65 years and older can now receive the updated booster four months after their first dose. Amna Nawaz spoke with Dr. Jeremy Faust to understand why this is a significant move in the fight against COVID.

Unfortunately, people only have a very short attention span and COVID no longer occupies their focus on NEWS reporting.
So I will probably stand in line and get the advanced booster soon.
It should be noted that the government along with individuals seem to HAVE MOVED ON. As a result only very limited information is now available. The article then goes on to say:

And we have very, very rarely seen a time where there were more COVID deaths being counted than there were all excess deaths. If that were to happen, you would start to think, oh, there's something to that argument. But, for the most part, it hasn't happened. It's happened at times.

And, in terms of hospitalizations and other outcomes, again, it's very difficult. People don't agree when they look at medical charts. But, actually, when we do that kind of work, I think we do see that, if anything, we're probably undercounting COVID deaths that happen that don't look like COVID deaths, so someone who dies at home, but they never got a COVID test, or someone who died of a diabetic crisis or heart failure exacerbation, and it's chalked up to heart failure or diabetes.

But they never would have had that exacerbation had they not contracted coronavirus the week before. And so, as long as we have excess mortality and COVID deaths going hand in hand, step by step, it's pretty hard to make an epidemiological argument that would support the overcounting approach.

Source:

So the death rate from COVID is a mixed bag of worms. People may have several types of illnesses and then getting COVID is only the last straw, "the straw that broke the camel's back". Death is a combination of several causes.

I never had COVID. I was about to die of a massive heart attack. What do they do? They stick me in a COVID ward in the hospital during the first surge (when COVID was really deadly), where people are dying in plagues.

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22 Apr 2023, 8:10 am

I took an Engineering approach to dealing with the COVID threat. During the past 3 years I have used Ultra Violet Light C (UVC) to purify the air in my home and the homes of my children. It worked very effectively. I used a small OION Model B1000 Purifiers to accomplish this. These units are fairly inexpensive around $65 each. They generally provide protection for about one room each. So I use several. Since I live in the Northern side of the U.S., the threat is generally during the wintertime.

For the past month I have been trying a different type of system. It covers a little bit larger area around 500 square feet. It is called a Shark Model HC455 HEPA Air Purifier. It purifies the air to the level of 99.95%. I believe it is a good unit and I have bought a system for each of my children. I consider the COVID threat primarily over with.

But then again since I suspect that COVID originated in a bio lab in China, I think they will continue experimenting and produce another threat in the future. As a result it is reasonable to equip now and prepare for the next shock.

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23 Apr 2023, 10:51 am

Weekly COVID deaths hit new record low, CDC data shows

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COVID-19 deaths hit a new low this week, reaching levels not seen since late March 2020, when the pandemic was just beginning.

An estimated 1,160 Americans died from the virus this week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The next lowest point was the week of March 18, 2020, with 169 deaths.

Over 1 million people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic.

“It’s very unlikely that COVID deaths will go to zero, because we have a virus that is now here to stay and, in all likelihood, will constantly evolve to outpace our immunity,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an ABC News contributor and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Cases have also significantly declined, with less than 100,000 people testing positive this week. Experts have warned that case counts may be a gross underestimate due to the widespread availability of at-home tests.

More than 50 million Americans have received the most updated COVID bivalent vaccine, CDC data shows.

Uptake has been slowing down since the beginning of the year, with only 5 million people getting the shot in the past few months.

The FDA also recently announced a new simplified vaccination schedule for COVID vaccines.

We don’t know what a fall surge can bring but given the rapidly declining numbers of deaths and hospitalizations over time, even with new variants emerging, this is a really positive outlook for the future,” Brownstein said.

Some areas did it earlier then others but by March 2022 even the most “COVID nanny” states were dropping mandates. Americans had learned to live with it, if had not moved beyond it. While we were far better then when when the pandemic first started I felt that this attitude was not justified. I believe people did suffer, became disabled, and died unnecessarily.

Now I think this attitude is justified. As noted in the last paragraph in the article we can’t predict the future but it is my opinion that the “pandemic” stage of COVID is probably over with. It probably is not “just the flu” but we are pretty close. As atypical in so many ways that this pandemic has been be it a bit slower it has followed the pattern of other pandemics with an overall weakening trend interrupted by bad surges that are not quite as bad as the previous ones until becoming just another disease.

I for the most part in the last month or two have stopped wearing masks indoors. I made an exception last week when I had a very mild cold. You can’t go through what we went through an expect to come out on the other side exactly the way you were before. Which to some extent is not a bad thing. We learn lessons. And I am a 65 year old cancer survivor. So I still wash and hand sanitize more often. Yes COVID does not spread much so via surfaces, but other diseases do. As a senior I am eligible for the second updated booster and plan on taking it next month with the hope that I will be eligible for another one in November ahead of what ever winter surge will occur.

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24 Apr 2023, 8:05 pm

After Mexican president tests positive for 3rd time with COVID, what do we know about reinfection?

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Over the weekend, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he had tested positive for COVID-19, his third time battling the virus.

Lopez Obradour, who suffered a heart attack in 2013, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that his case is mild and that "my heart is at 100 percent."

Studies suggest that most Americans have been infected with COVID at least once but a growing number have been infected multiple times.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not provide reinfection data but state-level data paints a varied picture.

Data from the New York State Department of Health shows that about 8.5% of total infections are reinfections. In Washington state, about 1% of all infections are reinfections as of October 2022, the latest date for which data is available, the state health department said.

Experts say reinfection is caused by a number of factors -- including waning immunity and more transmissible variants -- but the risk is highest for those who are vulnerable to serious complications from COVID.

There are several factors tied to a person's likelihood of being reinfected.

As of March 19, CDC data shows the COVID-19 case rate for unvaccinated people was 81.11 per 100,000 -- more than three times higher than the rate of 25.81 per 100,000 among people fully vaccinated and boosted.

While being fully vaccinated and getting the bivalent booster shot can lower the risk of reinfection, studies have shown that immunity does wane over time.

Additionally, the chances of reinfection increases if a person lives in a county with high community transmission levels versus low transmission levels.

Another study from the CDC looked at essential workers who had previously been infected. It found that being unvaccinated, not frequently wearing a mask since first infection and being Black all increased the risk of being reinfected.

"The reality is three years into the pandemic, we know that infection is dependent on a variety of factors, including prior immunity," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation office at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor. "It's not impossible especially over a long period of time, with immunity waning, whether that's through infection or through vaccination."

He continued, "We've seen many people with two, three, even four times COVID infection. It's related to behavior. It's related to practices around masking or travel."

Brownstein said there has been conflicting data on whether or not COVID reinfection raises the risk of chronic illness. Having a prior infection, however, does offer some protection, experts say.

"At the end of the day having the underlying immunity is beneficial ... some level of immunity will provide some cross protection to new variants," he said.

Brownstein said there is still a risk for those who are more likely to have severe complications from COVID-19, including the elderly and those who are immunocompromised.

Additionally, every COVID infection increases the risk of someone developing long COVID, which occurs when a person has ongoing symptoms of COVID lasting three months or longer.

"The concern that we have is not just about hospitalizations and deaths; it's the long-term chronic impact of COVID," Brownstein said. "And each time that you get infected, there's a potential for having longer-lasting symptoms, which we've seen strong data support, how debilitating some of these impacts can be for the population."

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25 Apr 2023, 9:57 am

Well I came across another device that uses UV radiation to purify the air from contaminants such as COVID virus cells. I believe it uses UV light Type C to purify the air. It is called an HT1216UV heater, a 23" 3 Element Infrared Mood Tower Heater with UV LED light. In general this is a small heater with a UV system built in. So I will pick one up at SAMS Club the next time I am there and check it out. It is currently going for around $80.

This unit looks only large enough to keep one small room warm during the winter, but the fact that it may be designed to purify the air of Viruses such as COVID makes it an important device to have handy for the next KILLER VIRUS that comes along.

Perhaps the manual that comes with the device will provide a little more information and pinpoint the exact level of UV light used by the device. I need some fine details.

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28 Apr 2023, 1:00 pm

! !!TRIGGER WARNING!! !

It is a very bad week for Covid news.

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1651220545097310208

This one is especially freaking me out, because it confirms what we've all been saying for years: https://twitter.com/RajeevJayadevan/sta ... 1949454337

Quote:

Arteries became stiffer after even mild COVID - among young healthy volunteers

Study compared stiffness levels measured just prior to pandemic vs. well after COVID symptoms fully resolved

The parameters only worsened with time, and did not improve.

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28 Apr 2023, 11:13 pm

SabbraCadabra wrote:

! !!TRIGGER WARNING!! !

It is a very bad week for Covid news.

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1651220545097310208

This one is especially freaking me out, because it confirms what we've all been saying for years: https://twitter.com/RajeevJayadevan/sta ... 1949454337

Quote:

Study suggests mild COVID-19 can have harmful effects on cardiovascular health

Quote:

New research suggests that even mild cases of COVID-19 can have long-term detrimental effects on cardiovascular health.

The study was the first to compare pre and post COVID-infection levels of arterial stiffness; a marker associated with the ageing and function of our arteries. The aftermath of the COVID infection, commonly known as long COVID, is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and in extreme cases death.

An international team of scientists were able to do this research using baseline measurements from a group of participants involved in a separate study that began pre-pandemic, also investigating arterial stiffness.

In those who had been diagnosed with mild COVID-19, artery and central cardiovascular function were affected by the disease two to three months after infection. Side effects include stiffer and more dysfunctional arteries that could lead to cardiovascular disease development.

The paper, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, revealed age and time from COVID infection is associated with increased ageing of the arteries.

Co-author, Dr Maria Perissiou from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science, said: “We were surprised to observe such a decline in vascular health, which deteriorated even further with time since COVID-19 infection. Usually, you’d expect inflammation to decrease with time after infection, and for all the physiological functions to go back to normal or a healthy level.

“We can only speculate on what causes this phenomenon without further investigation, but emerging evidence suggests that it stems from COVID-19 triggering the auto-immune process that leads to vasculature deterioration.”

While COVID-19 has been associated with a type of acute heart failure and vascular dysfunction, the long-term consequences of the disease on vascular health still need to be explored.

The study was part of the University of Split’s NormPreven project funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, and the team formation was facilitated by EU COST VascAgeNet action.

Participants were monitored between October 2019 and April 2022 in the Laboratory for Vascular Aging at the University of Split School of Medicine.

Most were young, less than 40-years-old, and healthy. Only nine percent of the group had high blood pressure, and none had high cholesterol. Two were diabetic, and 78 percent did not smoke. The group was also almost an even split between males (56 percent) and females (44 percent).

Professor Ana Jeroncic from the University of Split, who led the study, said: “Given the number of people infected with COVID-19 worldwide, the fact that infection can have harmful effects on cardiovascular health in young people who had a mild form of the disease warrants close monitoring.

“The question remains as to whether this harmful effect is irreversible or permanent, and if not, for how long it lasts.”

Dr Perissiou added: “This study, while small, does support the prediction amongst vascular physiologists that we’ll have an increase in cardiovascular disease in the future as a result of COVID-19 infections. But we have to consider what other variables would have contributed to this increase.”

The paper concludes the results have important implications for understanding the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19 infection and may guide prevention and management strategies for associated vascular disease.

However, it recommends further research Co-author, Dr Maria Perissiou from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science, said: “We were surprised to observe such a decline in vascular health, which deteriorated even further with time since COVID-19 infection. Usually, you’d expect inflammation to decrease with time after infection, and for all the physiological functions to go back to normal or a healthy level.

“We can only speculate on what causes this phenomenon without further investigation, but emerging evidence suggests that it stems from COVID-19 triggering the auto-immune process that leads to vasculature deterioration.”

While COVID-19 has been associated with a type of acute heart failure and vascular dysfunction, the long-term consequences of the disease on vascular health still need to be explored.

The study was part of the University of Split’s NormPreven project funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, and the team formation was facilitated by EU COST VascAgeNet action.

Participants were monitored between October 2019 and April 2022 in the Laboratory for Vascular Aging at the University of Split School of Medicine.

Most were young, less than 40-years-old, and healthy. Only nine percent of the group had high blood pressure, and none had high cholesterol. Two were diabetic, and 78 percent did not smoke. The group was also almost an even split between males (56 percent) and females (44 percent).

Professor Ana Jeroncic from the University of Split, who led the study, said: “Given the number of people infected with COVID-19 worldwide, the fact that infection can have harmful effects on cardiovascular health in young people who had a mild form of the disease warrants close monitoring.

“The question remains as to whether this harmful effect is irreversible or permanent, and if not, for how long it lasts.”

Dr Perissiou added: “This study, while small, does support the prediction amongst vascular physiologists that we’ll have an increase in cardiovascular disease in the future as a result of COVID-19 infections. But we have to consider what other variables would have contributed to this increase.”

The paper concludes the results have important implications for understanding the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19 infection and may guide prevention and management strategies for associated vascular disease.

However, it recommends further research is needed to strengthen our understanding of causes and contributing factors.

Bolding=mine:

And Yet
CDC to stop tracking Covid levels in communities

Quote:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to stop tracking the spread of Covid in communities across the U.S., the agency said Friday.

Moving forward, the CDC is expected to rely more heavily on Covid-related hospitalizations, according to two people familiar with the plans — much like it does to track the spread of the flu.

The agency has been using a color-coded system since February 2022 to indicate high, medium or low transmission of Covid, county by county.

But as reported cases have steadily fallen and availability of rapid, at-home tests has risen, it has become difficult to get an accurate view of how much virus is circulating.

The CDC is expected to announce the new tracking system within the coming weeks. The news was first reported by CNN.

The CDC said the move away from tracking community level transmission is tied to the May 11 expiration of the national public health emergency.

According to the CDC's tracker, the average number of weekly cases has been falling steadily since early January. As of April 26, the weekly average was 88,330 cases.

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29 Apr 2023, 8:45 am

COVID will eventually evade one of the few treatments for those infected and cause deaths to ‘easily double,’ former White House advisor Deborah Birx says

Quote:

COVID will evolve to evade popular antiviral treatment Paxlovid, a critical line of defense for the unvaccinated and those at risk of severe disease and death from the virus—of this, Deborah Birx is certain.

During her time as White House COVID response coordinator under former President Donald Trump, from March 2020 through January 2021, Birx oversaw the development and widespread distribution of COVID tests, treatments, and vaccines. American innovation in combating COVID, however, slowed to a crawl after the initial hurried push—and it leaves her frustrated and worried about the future, as the virus continues to evolve to pick off COVID treatments and chip away at the protection that vaccines provide.

“I’ve been really upset that the federal government has not prioritized next-generation vaccines that are more durable, next-generation monoclonals, and long-acting monoclonals,” Birx told Fortune in an interview at the magazine’s Brainstorm Health conference, held earlier this week in Marina del Rey, Calif.

Omicron is mutating to bypass the initial arsenal of weapons developed for use against it. Already, Omicron’s changes have rendered every universal monoclonal antibody treatment—administered to people at high risk of hospitalization and death—useless. Eventually, it will take down Paxlovid, too, Brix says.

‘We’ve lost ground’
As the U.S. COVID public health emergency (PHE)—slated to end May 11—draws to a close, Birx is concerned that apathy has overtaken common sense. She says she’s more worried about the lack of progress on vaccines and therapeutics than she is about the government declaring an end to the COVID crisis.

“If they were ending the PHE and I could say, ‘Okay, we now have three therapeutics, we have better monoclonals, we have a more durable vaccine’—instead, we’ve lost ground in therapies for those who are vulnerable,” she said.

Thus, the end of the PHE is not a victory, she maintains—far from it.

“Right now, we’re just accepting that 270,000 Americans died last year,” she said. “Two-hundred and seventy thousand. We’re going to easily lose over 100,000 this year. That, to me, is not success.”

Birx continued: “You don’t want to back yourself into controlling the pandemic because all the vulnerable Americans have died. That’s not how you win in public health.”

Annual summer and winter surges
As for the future of the pandemic, nothing is certain. Birx points out that wastewater levels of the virus are virtually the same as they were a year ago, and that every year so far we’ve seen summer and winter surges—signaling that the virus is now seasonal, like the flu.

When it comes to COVID, “we’ll have a summer surge, and we’ll have a winter surge,” like we have had in years past, she said, adding that surges have become less dramatic lately due to a high level of population immunity.

Birx says it remains to be seen whether COVID becomes more deadly. Omicron has become so highly transmissible that it’s virtually stuck in evolutionary stasis, with new variants incredibly similar to the previous one. To get unstuck, sometimes viruses will evolve to become less infectious but more severe—”so it’s just a matter of tracking it.”

Americans have accepted repeat infections, Birx says—and while such frequent infections have helped blunt spikes in cases, they also bring along with them a “high level of long COVID,” she said.

Brix called for wastewater monitoring at every American embassy overseas, asserting that such testing would give scientists an idea of how COVID, the flu, RSV, and adenovirus are circulating globally. Doing so would allow them to better prepare for surges to come.

New York ‘wouldn’t have happened’ with better planning
We’ve missed the mark before, and without proper surveillance, we could miss it again, Birx warns. Case in point: The nation’s pandemic preparedness plan “failed immediately”—in the first week of the pandemic, she says—when those involved didn’t realize that COVID could be transmitted among people who had no symptoms.

Early in the pandemic, the bulk of those hospitalized were 50 and older. But “there’s never been a pandemic that only infects certain age groups,” she said. Just because those under 50 generally weren’t hospitalized didn’t mean they weren’t being infected. “You had to know there was a spectrum of disease and a lot of asymptomatic spread.”

When Birx joined the White House COVID response team in early March 2020, COVID testing was only available in public health labs. She gathered private companies in a hurried push to develop and manufacture tests that could be made widely available, an effort that took six weeks.

“Imagine if we had done that in the end of December, beginning of January,” she said. “New York and all of those fatalities wouldn’t have happened, because we would have seen it at the very beginning.”

‘We’re not ready’ for the next pandemic
As for the next pandemic—whether it’s a future evolution of COVID, the bird flu, or something different entirely—Birx says the U.S. is unprepared—and is perhaps even less prepared now than it was on the eve of COVID-19. In large part, that’s due to the lack of involvement of private companies in governmental pandemic planning—and a rapid-onset amnesia of lessons learned over the past three years.

When she called on private companies shortly after assuming her position, they stepped in and saved the day, she says—and countless American lives. The companies missed out on revenue when they diverted supplies to safety net hospitals that paid less, rearranged their supply chains, “and dropped all pretense of competition and just helped,” she said.

“The group that saved Americans was the private sector. To not have the private sector at the table makes certain that we’re not going to be prepared.”

Birx called for researchers to be more cautious when conducting lab experiments with viruses like COVID and the bird flu. At the moment, bird flu doesn’t easily infect humans—a trait that prevented coronaviruses SARS and MERS from becoming larger problems in the early 2000s.

But that could change quickly and easily, if researchers modify the bird flu to easily adapt to humans—a move that, in case of a lab leak, could put humans permanently at risk, she says.

As for whether the COVID pandemic started from a lab leak in China or an animal-to-human spill-over event in the Wuhan wet market or elsewhere, Birx doubts we’ll ever have enough data to say definitively.

We can—and should—guard against both scenarios, going forward, she maintains.

More than amnesia, cynicism and mistrust. At least within next decade any mitigation measures will widely not be followed. We are just down to hope that we get lucky that a COVID variant that breaks through our defenses or another pandemic does not happen in the short to medium term.

beady
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02 May 2023, 2:26 pm

My son tested positive for covid last week.
Western Texas
This is the second time he had it and while it wasn’t as dreadful as the first time, he was still quite sick; exhausted, cold symptoms, throat sore, aching, a week later has a mild laryngitis.
Covid isn’t finished with us yet and it doesn’t seem as seasonal as the flu.

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