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How Scientists Are Making an attempt to Spot New Viruses Earlier than They Trigger Pandemics

How Scientists Are Trying to Spot New Viruses Before They Cause Pandemics

In the summer, Dr. Michael Mina signed a contract with a cold storage company. With many of its restaurant customers closed, the company had freezers available. And Dr. Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, had half a million vials of plasma made from human blood come to his laboratory from around the country. The samples come from the carefree days in January 2020.

The vials that are now in three huge freezers in front of Dr. Mina’s laboratory are at the center of a pilot project for what he and his staff call the Global Immunological Observatory. You envision an immense surveillance system that can check blood from around the world for the presence of antibodies to hundreds of viruses at the same time. This will give scientists real-time detailed information on how many people have been infected with the virus and how their bodies have responded to the next pandemic.

It could even provide early notification, like a tornado warning. Although this surveillance system cannot directly detect new viruses or variants, it can show when large numbers of people are beginning to gain immunity to a particular type of virus.

The human immune system records the pathogens it has previously hit in the form of antibodies that fight against them and then stay lifelong. By testing for these antibodies, scientists can get a snapshot of what flu viruses you had, which rhinovirus pierced you last fall, even if you had respiratory syncytial virus as a kid. Even if an infection had never made you sick, this diagnostic method called serological tests would detect it.

“We’re all like little recorders,” said Dr. Mina to track viruses without even realizing it.

This type of immune system display is different from a test that looks for an active viral infection. The immune system starts producing antibodies one to two weeks after an infection starts. So the serology is retrospective, looking back at what you caught. Closely related viruses can also produce similar responses, producing antibodies that bind to the same types of viral proteins. This means that carefully designed assays are required, for example to differentiate between different coronaviruses.

But serology reveals things virus testing doesn’t, said Derek Cummings, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida. With a large database of specimens and clinical details, scientists can see patterns in how the immune system reacts in someone without symptoms compared to someone who has difficulty clearing the virus. Serology can also tell before an outbreak begins whether a population has robust immunity to a particular virus or whether it is dangerously low.

“You want to understand what has happened in a population and how well that population is prepared for future attacks from a particular pathogen,” said Dr. Cummings.

The approach could also detect events in the viral ecosystem that would otherwise go unnoticed, said Dr. Cummings. For example, the 2015 Zika outbreak was discovered by doctors in Brazil who noticed a group of babies with unusually small heads who were born seven to nine months after their mothers were infected. “A serological observatory might have picked this up beforehand,” he said.

Serological tests are often small and difficult to perform because they require blood draws from volunteers. For several years now, Dr. Mina and his colleagues came up with the idea of ​​a large and automated monitoring system using sample residue from routine laboratory tests.

“Had we set it up in 2019, when this virus hit the US, we would have had instant access to data that would have enabled us to see it floating around, for example, in New York City without doing anything else,” said Dr. Said Mina.

Updated

Apr. 15, 2021, 5:07 p.m. ET

Although the observatory could not have identified the new coronavirus, it would have detected an abnormally high number of infections from the coronavirus family, including those that cause colds. It may also have shown that the new coronavirus interacted with the patient’s immune system in unexpected ways, causing tell-tale markers in the blood. This would have been a signal to start genetic sequencing of patient samples to identify the culprit, and possibly have provided reasons to close the city earlier, said Dr. Mina. (Similarly, serology would not be able to detect the emergency of a new virus variant, such as the contagious coronavirus variants discovered in South Africa and England, before they spread elsewhere Leave standard genomic sequencing of virus test samples.)

The observatory would require agreements with hospitals, blood banks and other blood sources, as well as a system for obtaining consent from patients and donors. It also faces the problem of funding, noted Alex Greninger, a virologist at the University of Washington. Health insurance companies are unlikely to pay the bill, as serological tests are typically not used by doctors to treat people.

Dr. Mina estimated the observatory would cost about $ 100 million to go live. He pointed out that, according to his calculations, the federal government provided diagnostics company Ellume with more than twice as much to run enough rapid Covid tests to meet American needs for just a handful of days. A pathogen observatory, he said, is like a weather forecasting system based on a variety of buoys and sensors around the world that passively reports events where and when they occur. These systems were funded by government grants and are widely appreciated.

The predictive power of serology is well worth the investment, said Jessica Metcalf, Princeton epidemiologist and member of the observatory team. A few years ago, she and her staff found in a smaller survey that immunity to measles in Madagascar was threateningly low. In fact, there was an outbreak in 2018 that killed more than 10,000 children.

Now the half million plasma samples in Dr. Minas freezers, collected last year by plasma donation company Octopharma at sites across the country, underwent serological testing that focuses on the new coronavirus and is funded with a $ 2 million grant from Open Philanthropy. The tests had to wait for the researchers to set up a new robotic test facility and process the samples. Now they are working on their first batches.

The team hopes to use this data to show how the virus has made its way into the US week after week and how immunity to Covid has grown and changed. They also hope this will spark interest in using serology to shed light on the movement of many more viruses.

“The big idea is to show the world that you don’t have to spend big dollars doing this type of work,” said Dr. Mina. “We should let this happen all the time.”

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Roche arthritis drug reduces loss of life in hospitalized sufferers with extreme Covid, Oxford researchers say

Roche arthritis drug reduces death in hospitalized patients with severe Covid, Oxford researchers say

A pharmacist shows a box of tocilizumab, which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, in the pharmacy of Cambrai Hospital in France on April 28, 2020.

Pascal Rossignol | Reuters

A drug used to treat people with rheumatoid arthritis appears to reduce the risk of death in hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19, especially when combined with the steroid dexamethasone, Oxford University researchers said Thursday.

Oxford researchers found that the drug tocilizumab, an intravenous drug of A department of the Swiss drug manufacturer Roche also shortened the length of stay for patients in hospitals and reduced the need for a ventilator. The study was part of the recovery study, which has tested a number of potential treatments for Covid-19 since March.

“Previous studies of tocilizumab had shown mixed results and it was unclear which patients might benefit from the treatment,” said Peter Horby, professor at Oxford University and co-investigator for the recovery study, in a statement. “We now know that tocilizumab benefits apply to all COVID patients with low oxygen levels and significant inflammation.”

A total of 2,022 patients were randomly selected to receive tocilizumab, sold under the brand name Actemra, by intravenous infusion and compared to 2,094 patients who were randomly selected to receive standard care alone. The researchers said 82% of patients were also taking a steroid like dexamethasone, another drug that was found to reduce deaths in the sickest Covid-19 patients.

Researchers said 596 patients in the tocilizumab group died within 28 days, compared with 694 patients in the standard care group. That means that for every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, “an extra life would be saved,” said Oxford researchers.

The drug increased the chances of being discharged from 47% to 54% within 28 days, the researchers said. The benefits have been seen in all patients, including those who need mechanical ventilators in an intensive care unit, they added. In patients who were not given a ventilator prior to the start of the study, tocilizumab reduced the chance of getting invasive mechanical ventilation or death from 38% to 33%, the researchers said.

The researchers said that using tocilizumab in combination with dexamethasone reduced mortality by about a third in patients who require oxygen and by almost half in patients who require a ventilator.

The results of the Oxford study have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Public health officials and infectious disease experts say world leaders will need a range of drugs and vaccines to end the pandemic that, according to Johns, will infect more than 107.4 million people in just over a year and has killed at least 2.3 million people at Hopkins University.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration has approved Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug Remdesivir for the treatment of Covid-19 patients who are 12 years or older and require hospitalization.

The FDA has approved the use of two monoclonal antibody treatments as well as two vaccines – from Pfizer and Moderna. A third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is expected to receive FDA approval as early as this month.

The Covid-19 Therapy Randomized Evaluation, or Recovery Study, was launched in March by researchers at Oxford University to find treatments for Covid-19. The study previously showed that hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir ritonavir, azithromycin, and convalescent plasma had no benefits for patients hospitalized with Covid-19.

The study is currently investigating aspirin, the anti-inflammatory drugs baricitinib and colchicine, and Regeneron’s antibody cocktail.

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‘Proper Now Feels So Lengthy and With out Any Finish in Sight’

‘Right Now Feels So Long and Without Any End in Sight’

As the reality of an indefinite psychological marathon worsened, many journalists began counting their blessings in entries that were filled with both gratitude and fear.

“There have been many losses in recent months, including transportation on public buses and cycling as the bike path is washed out and the library is closed. … When I hear that this could take another year, I am desperate. But I take it one day at a time and am grateful that I can pay my bills, have a roof over my head and have found out how to get food so far. “- Retired from Michigan in her 70s.

In their preliminary analysis, Dr. Mason and Dr. Will firmly that feelings of guilt, privilege and gratitude be expressed early in the epidemic and appear in about a third of the total of 530 English-speaking contributors. Ten of these journalists devoted most of their posts to giving thanks – for what they have and what they took for granted.

Updated

Apr. 15, 2021, 11:32 p.m. ET

“Some of that is white-liberal guilt that feels bad when so many aren’t,” said Dr. Mason. “But we have a lot of colored people who are not privileged and feel guilt for a slightly different reason. You see family members die, lose jobs, and fail to pay rent. “

“The world seems to be imploding again with the police murdering black and brown people, children murdering innocent protesters, teachers are afraid to go to school, the economy continues to collapse, a hurricane. It’s overwhelming … we’re all just sick of it. “- Nonprofit worker and mother in her forties from New Jersey

During the summer, Covid-19 outbreaks spread across much of the country, despite Black Lives Matter protesters taking to the streets in more than 400 cities. California was on fire in August and struck by one of the worst wildfires of all time. And all of this seemed to fuel an increasingly evil, highly polarized presidential campaign that kicked off in September and October.

Many people, especially younger journalists, were ready to scream. “At this point, selfish or whatever it sounds, I’d rather be homeless than spend another day in this house,” wrote a young woman, a late-teenage student, from New York. “That may sound dramatic and I’m angry, but I’m done with it.”

The magazines swell and flinch like a living organism, creating a growing sense that the world is coming from its berths. “The record temperature measured in Death Valley reminds me not to forget the despair over the climate crisis,” wrote another woman, a software engineer in California in her 50s. “The pandemic made everything feel like it was falling apart.”

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AstraZeneca says gross sales rose 10% in 2020, sees income progress forward

AstraZeneca says sales rose 10% in 2020, sees revenue growth ahead

A box of vials with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is pictured on February 6, 2021 at Foch Hospital in Suresnes at the start of a vaccination campaign for health workers with the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine.

Alain Jocard | AFP | Getty Images

AstraZeneca announced on Thursday that product sales increased 10% in 2020. This year, the drug maker attracted attention for its work on developing a coronavirus vaccine.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company reported total product sales of $ 25.8 billion for the year. In the fourth quarter, sales rose 12% to just over $ 7 billion. The company said it was the first time in “many years” that quarterly product sales were this strong. Total revenue for the year was $ 26.6 billion and the fourth quarter was $ 7.4 billion.

CEO Pascal Soriot said last year’s performance was “a significant step forward for AstraZeneca. Despite the significant impact of the pandemic, we achieved double-digit sales growth.”

“The consistent successes in the pipeline, the accelerated performance of our business and the advancement of the COVID-19 vaccine have shown what we can achieve,” he added in a statement.

The company also kept its dividend unchanged for the full year at $ 2.80 per share.

AstraZeneca’s report comes as the UK, European Union and other countries rely heavily on the Covid vaccine in an attempt to end the public health crisis.

The company has announced that it will provide no-profit access to its vaccine for the “duration of the pandemic”, although the timing is uncertain. It is also committed to making the vaccine available on a permanent basis to nonprofits in low and middle income countries. Therefore, the current result did not include vaccine sales.

AstraZeneca, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, expects sales to grow by a “low-teens percentage” in 2021. The company also forecast “core earnings” per share of between $ 4.75 and $ 5. The guidelines do not include any revenue or profit impact from the sale of the Covid vaccine, AstraZeneca said. The company intends to separate these sales as of the next quarter.

The company’s shares listed in London and the United States changed little on Thursday.

Some controversy

AstraZeneca’s vaccine, developed with Oxford University, was hailed as a game changer along with candidates from other pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Although clinical studies have shown the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to be less effective than its competitors, the fact that it is cheaper and easier to store and transport has proven to be a boon to countries like the UK where it is in January was introduced. The swift introduction of vaccines is seen as critical to reopening economies that have been badly damaged by lockdowns and job losses.

The company has gotten some controversy over its vaccine.

Some drug regulators in Europe have stated that they will not recommend the vaccine for people over 65 – the target age group as the introduction wins steam – because there are supposedly no data to show its effectiveness in this age group.

In addition, South Africa suspended and then abandoned the use of the vaccine because of concerns that it would have limited effectiveness against a variant of the virus found there.

Independent experts advising the World Health Organization on vaccination recommended using AstraZeneca’s vaccine on Wednesday, even in countries where variants exist.

During the test, late-stage clinical trial results highlighting a higher rate of effectiveness after a dosing error highlighted eyebrows among experts, as well as questions about the results and the recommended dosing regimen (like most coronavirus vaccines currently in use) a two-dose shot).

AstraZeneca also got into hot water with the EU when the company said it wouldn’t be shipping as many vaccines to the block as expected in the spring, and blamed teething problems at its manufacturing facilities in Belgium and the Netherlands.

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An Inside Take a look at Cuba’s Fixed Battle for Clear Water

An Inside Look at Cuba’s Constant Struggle for Clean Water

Manuel Reyes Estrada carried a shape and a pencil in one hand, and a bucket filled with small fish and a plastic bucanero beer mug in the other. “It is like that,” he said. “We, the employees of the health brigade, are only allowed to write with pencils.” His superiors, he explained, use pens. In the afternoon, the superiors visit the houses in which the employees of the health brigade worked earlier in the day – “to check whether we have done our job well”.

Manuel stopped for a second on the dirt road in the Cuban city of Holguín to fill in the house numbers on his otherwise blank form. He brushed the sweat from his face.

Every day in cities across Cuba, a multitude of workers – from inspectors and fumigators to truck drivers and pipelines – take to the streets to provide clean water to their fellow citizens.

Among other things, health workers conduct extensive inspections of the water tanks on the roof to make sure the water is clean and free of mosquito larvae, helping to prevent the transmission of tropical diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and zika.

The effort is part of an analog, labor-intensive solution in a largely non-digital society.

Much of Cuba’s available drinking water is lost to its leaky and outdated pipelines – more than 50 percent, according to estimates.

In recent years, infrastructure problems have been exacerbated by droughts and rising temperatures. For a large part of the population, running water is only available sporadically – in some cases every few days for an hour or two a day. During the river, residents store the available water in cisterns or tanks, which then serve as a potential breeding environment for mosquitoes.

Manuel ignored the barking dog as he entered the house. A woman with curlers in her hair showed him the spiral staircase that leads to the roof. After he found the building’s water tank, he illuminated the shady interior of the building with his small mirror.

With the plastic beer cup, Manuel scooped five small fish from his bucket into the water tank. “We usually use Abate,” he said, referring to a larvicide, also known as temefos, that is used to treat water. But the chemical is not available, he explained, and so the fish that the larvae eat are being used as a natural – albeit complicated – alternative.

With a background in anthropology, I have long been interested in how people live and face their daily challenges.

On previous visits to Cuba, I noticed the daily struggles for fresh water: people struggling with water pumps, the streets soaked due to faulty pipelines, water trucks constantly driving the streets. Born and raised in the rainy Netherlands, where clean drinking water is taken for granted, I didn’t expect water to become scarce on a tropical island.

In February 2019, Cubans approved a new constitution that laid down the right to clean water, along with many other provisions. I have decided to use this constitutional law as a starting point for a project on the underreported water crisis in Cuba.

I traveled to Cuba for six weeks in April and May 2019 and for another four weeks in January 2020. On the first trip I learned how different areas have different problems – and found solutions. I also discovered how many professions were involved in providing water to residents.

By shadowing various workers who were involved in ensuring water access in different parts of the island, I saw a cross-section of what is now Cuba.

In the city of Trinidad, for example, I met Alexis Alonso Mendoza, who described himself as “the most popular man in town”.

Trinidad is divided into several districts, each of which typically has two hours of running water every five days. As the “water key man”, Alexis is responsible for turning the underground locks that change the direction of the water in the city.

With the help of an offline map, I found the small clinics called Policlínicas, where the inspectors and fumigators of the health brigade gather at 8 a.m. before they spread out onto the street.

I got into several water trucks, so-called pipas, which deliver water if the pipeline is broken or the pressure is insufficient – or if the sanitary facilities are simply not working.

Many of the drivers were kind enough to let me watch them fill their trucks and distribute the water. I’ve witnessed the bureaucracy firsthand – and the seemingly endless time the drivers spent waiting to fill their tanks.

I also got into the horse-drawn carriages that carry the water around town and watched how Cubans – with ingenuity and thoroughness – tried to fasten their water hoses and pumps with whatever materials they had at their disposal.

It is difficult to see the full impact of the pandemic on Cuba’s water crisis. For much of 2020, the country largely controlled the virus, but a lack of tourists led to one of the worst food shortages in nearly 25 years. Infections increased dramatically after the lockdowns were lifted and national borders opened in November. Since then, additional pressures on the public health system may have exacerbated inspection, fumigation and delivery.

When Manuel, who has worked for the health brigade for 13 years, returned to the Policlínica at the end of a shift, he thought about his work. He was pleased to “contribute to the health of my compatriots”. But he also enjoys the interactions – visiting people, chatting. “They often invite me to coffee,” he said.

A man on a bicycle greeted him as he drove past. “Manuel, can you bring me fish tomorrow? I’ll get you some cigars for it. “

Manuel later passed his superior. “You know the greenhouse on the corner where the elderly lady lives alone?” he said. “I found mosquito larvae in the lower tank on the terrace.”

“OK,” replied his supervisor. “I’ll send the fumigators to smoke them out. See you tomorrow, mi vida. “

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India might play an essential position in producing vaccines

India could play an important role in producing vaccines

A medical professional holds Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin vial during the nationwide vaccination campaign in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Saturday, February 6, 2021.

Vishal Bhatnagar | NurPhoto | Getty Images

India could become the second largest Covid vaccine maker in the world, and analysts say the country has the capacity to manufacture for both its own people and other developing countries.

Most of the world’s vaccines historically came from India. Even before Covid-19, the South Asian country was producing up to 60% of the world’s vaccines – and at relatively low costs.

“India was a vaccine manufacturing center before the pandemic and should be a strategic partner in vaccinating against COVID-19 worldwide,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a report last month.

Consultancy firm Deloitte predicts India will rank second after the US in terms of coronavirus vaccine production this year. PS Easwaran, partner at Deloitte India, said more than 3.5 billion Covid vaccines could be produced in the country in 2021, compared to around 4 billion in the US

In addition, companies in India are currently increasing production to meet demand.

“We are expanding our annual capacity to deliver 700 million doses of our intramuscular COVAXIN,” said Indian company Bharat Biotech, which worked with the Indian State Council for Medical Research to develop a Covid vaccine.

Covaxin was approved for emergency use in India, but was controversial due to criticism that the approval was not transparent enough and because not enough efficacy data was published.

India vaccines suitable for developing countries

Another vaccine – known in India as Covishield and jointly developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford – has also been approved as an emergency in India. It is made locally by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

SII manufactures around 50 million cans of Covishield every month, according to Reuters, and plans to grow production to 100 million cans per month by March.

Other Indian companies have agreed to make vaccines for developers such as the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the US company Johnson & Johnson. To be clear, these vaccine candidates have not yet been approved for use.

“Even without successful vaccine development from our own pipelines, the available capacity offers the opportunity to work as a contract manufacturer with approved vaccine developers in order to meet the supply needs, particularly for India and other countries [emerging markets]”said the JPMorgan report.

With a proven track record on the scale that vaccines are made, India should be able to ramp up production to meet international demand as well.

Nissy Solomon

Center for Policy Research

India’s vaccines are likely to be more suitable for developing countries, said K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

Some of today’s leading vaccines, such as those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, use messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which uses genetic material to trigger the body’s infection control process.

These vaccines require “stringent cold chain requirements” that will be difficult or even “out of the realm of possibility,” for most health systems, Reddy said.

Vaccines made in India are easier to transport and cheaper, putting the country in a better position than the US and Europe when it comes to meeting demand in developing countries, he added.

India’s “proven record”

India’s enormous manufacturing capacity also gives analysts confidence that the country can provide vaccines to other nations.

New Delhi has pledged to send vaccines to its neighboring countries and has already delivered 15.6 million doses to 17 countries, according to Reuters.

“India’s manufacturing capacity is sufficient to meet domestic demand,” said Nissy Solomon, senior research associate at the Center for Public Policy Research (CPPR).

“With a proven track record of the same scale as vaccines, India should be able to ramp up production to meet international demand as well,” she told CNBC.

Solomon added that the country is monitoring domestic needs before making decisions about exports.

For its part, Bharat Biotech said it was “fully prepared to meet the needs of India and global public health”.

Vaccine storage and distribution challenge

However, there will be challenges as the country attempts to meet vaccine demand in India and beyond.

Jefferies stock analyst Abhishek Sharma wrote in a note that vaccine adoption in India has been slow. Even assuming the speed of vaccination will increase, Sharma estimates that only 22% of India’s 1.38 billion people can be vaccinated in one year.

That is roughly the number of people India would like to vaccinate by July or August.

“The supply of vaccines is less of an issue than the storage, distribution and intake of vaccines,” said Solomon of CPPR.

“India is unable to store and distribute such large quantities to the masses,” she said, adding that the country should “strategically” choose vaccines that do not need to be stored in extreme temperatures.

I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed limiters slowing the program down than actual roadblocks where the program must be stopped.

K Srinath Reddy

Public Health Foundation of India

The vaccines India is currently manufacturing require normal refrigeration. However, the vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech must be stored at extremely cold temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius, while those made by Moderna must be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit).

The “real challenge” lies in the sheer number of people who need to be vaccinated, said Reddy of the Public Health Foundation of India.

“This is the first time an adult vaccination program has been carried out on such an unprecedented scale,” he told CNBC.

He said vaccination programs usually focus on vaccinating children and mothers, and the logistics network may not be prepared to handle vaccines for entire populations.

Reddy suggested using the existing food cold chain for vaccines, hoping this could be resolved.

“I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed limiters slowing down the program than actual roadblocks where the program has to be stopped, “he said.

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New Yorkers With Many Well being Circumstances Are Now Eligible for Vaccination

New Yorkers With Many Health Conditions Are Now Eligible for Vaccination

New Yorkers with chronic illnesses they re-questioned for the Covid-19 vaccine flooded a state website and call center Sunday morning, leaving many unable to make appointments at mass vaccination centers right away.

State officials said Sunday that 73,000 appointments were scheduled by 11:30 a.m. while 500,000 people went through an online eligibility check tool that was needed to make appointments. Thousands were in virtual waiting rooms that can accommodate up to 8,000 people per vaccination station. Once these waiting rooms are full, people trying to make appointments will be encouraged to try again later.

Richard Azzopardi, a senior advisor to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, said demand is high, but “our infrastructure is up and running and intact.” He said the state’s ability to schedule appointments depends on vaccine supplies, which are growing steadily.

Officials said the new criteria, which include chronic conditions like obesity and high blood pressure, made four million more New Yorkers eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine. They are joining a growing number of people in the state who are eligible for the vaccine despite a lack of supplies.

Eligible people now include adults with certain health issues that can increase their risk of serious illness or death from the coronavirus. Aside from obesity and high blood pressure, other conditions New Yorkers would qualify for the vaccine include lung disease and cancer, Mr. Cuomo announced this month. He also made pregnancy a qualifying condition.

Appointments for people in this group can be scheduled as early as Monday, although most people will likely have to wait a long time as vaccine doses are currently tight. New Yorkers must provide evidence of their condition with a doctor’s letter, signed certificate, or medical documentation, Cuomo said.

“While this is a big step forward in ensuring that the most vulnerable among us have access to this life-saving vaccine, it’s no secret that every time you deal with such a scarce resource there will be attempts to Committing fraud and gambling systems, ”said Mr Cuomo in a statement.

In New York state, about 10 percent of the population received the first dose, according to the New York Times. With the new criteria, around 11 million people in the state are now eligible, including people 65 and over, healthcare workers and teachers – more than half of the state’s population.

New York City recently opened mass vaccination sites at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Citi Field in Queens to better reach the communities affected by the virus. The state and federal government also announced last week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be opening vaccination centers at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and York College in Queens.

To verify eligibility and make an appointment, New Yorkers can do a pre-screening on the state website. You can also call the state vaccination hotline at 1-833-NYS-4VAX (1-833-697-4829) for more information about vaccination appointments.

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How CVS and different retailers will dole out any surplus Covid vaccine doses

How CVS and other retailers will dole out any surplus Covid vaccine doses

A health care worker wearing a protective mask fills a syringe with a dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a large-scale vaccination site in Sacramento, Calif., On February 4, 2021.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As the Covid-19 vaccination efforts begin at major retailers and pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, what to do with excess vaccine becomes a bigger question.

Both versions of the vaccine must be stored at very low temperatures. Once thawed, the vaccine must be administered within hours. In addition, vaccine bottles contain multiple doses.

Companies told the Wall Street Journal that they are planning to use waiting lists and will consider vaccinating employees who are eligible when excess supplies become available. The aim is to avoid wasting doses that are still scarce.

Starting Thursday, vaccine doses will be sent to thousands of pharmacies and grocery stores such as CVS and Walmart across the US. This move starts with approximately 6,500 retail locations and will help accelerate adoption to ensure more Americans are protected from Covid-19.

The companies schedule appointments based on the amount of vaccine they receive at each location. However, you could get an excess vaccine if customers don’t show up for an appointment or if a vaccine bottle contains more vaccine than expected.

Currently, only two vaccines, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and one from Moderna, have received emergency use approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Both types require two doses of the shot to be effective.

Retailers must adhere to different state and local rules for licensing requirements when managing waiting lists and what to do with excess doses. In some states, retail workers qualify for the vaccine, while in other states they are not considered a high priority group unless they are over a certain age or have a specific illness.

A Walmart spokeswoman told the newspaper that the retailer has reached out to buyers or workers who qualify under a state’s guidelines to get vaccinated in the event of oversupply.

Walmart worked with state health departments on logs to avoid waste, a Walmart spokesman told CNBC. These protocols allow the administration of excess opened and available doses to individuals, including employees, who fall under authorized groups in order of priority.

A Walgreens spokesman told CNBC that they will consider their staff for the remaining doses and will communicate with state and local jurisdictions about any excess doses.

In the meantime, CVS pharmacists will keep a list of qualified patients by state and use that list to determine who will receive the remaining doses of the vaccine, CVS Health senior vice president Chris Cox told CNBC.

Read the full story in the Wall Street Journal.

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7 Virus Variants Present in U.S. Carrying the Identical Mutation

7 Virus Variants Found in U.S. Carrying the Same Mutation

While Americans are excited to see variants that were first distributed in the UK and South Africa in the US, scientists are finding a number of new variants that originated here. What is even more worrying is that many of these flavors are moving in the same direction and potentially becoming contagious threats themselves.

In a study published on Sunday, a team of researchers reported seven growing lineages of the novel coronavirus discovered in states across the country. All of them have developed a mutation in the same genetic letter.

“There is clearly something wrong with this mutation,” said Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University’s Shreveport Health Sciences Center and co-author of the new study.

It’s unclear whether it makes the variants more contagious. However, since the mutation occurs in a gene that affects the entry of the virus into human cells, scientists are very suspicious.

“I think there is a clear signature for an evolutionary benefit,” said Dr. Kamil.

The history of life is full of examples of what is known as convergent evolution, in which different lines follow the same path. Birds were given wings when they evolved from feathered dinosaurs, for example, just as bats did when they evolved from furry, shrew-like mammals. In both cases, natural selection resulted in a pair of flat surfaces that could be fluttered to create lift. So bats and birds alike could soar in the sky and fill an ecological niche that other animals couldn’t.

Charles Darwin first recognized convergent evolution by studying living animals. In recent years, virologists have found that viruses can also develop convergently. For example, HIV emerged when several types of virus were passed from monkeys and monkeys to humans. Many of these lines of HIV received the same mutations that made them adapt to our species.

While the coronavirus is now branching into new variants, researchers observe Darwin’s theory of evolution in action every day.

Dr. Kamil stumbled upon some of the new variants while sequencing samples from coronavirus tests in Louisiana. At the end of January he observed an unfamiliar mutation in a series of samples.

The mutation changed the proteins that examine the surface of the coronavirus. Known as spike proteins, they are folded chains of more than 1,200 molecular building blocks called amino acids. Dr. Kamil’s viruses all shared a mutation that changed the 677th amino acid.

When Dr. Kamil examined these mutant viruses, he found that they all belonged to the same lineage. The earliest virus in the line dates back to December 1st. It became more common in later weeks.

On the evening of his discovery, Dr. Kamil uploaded the genomes of the viruses to an online database used by scientists around the world. The next morning he received an email from Daryl Domman of the University of New Mexico. He and his colleagues had just found the same variant in their condition with the same 677 mutation. Your samples are from October.

The scientists wondered if the line they discovered was the only one that had a 677 mutation. Dr. Kamil and colleagues examined the database and found six other lineages that independently received the same mutation.

It is difficult to answer even basic questions about the prevalence of these seven lineages because the United States sequences genomes from less than 1 percent of coronavirus test samples. The researchers found samples from the lineages that were scattered across much of the country. But they cannot tell where the mutations first originated.

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Apr. 14, 2021, 3:56 p.m. ET

“At the moment I would be quite reluctant to give a place of origin for one of these lines,” said Emma Hodcroft, epidemiologist at the University of Bern and co-author of the new study.

It’s also hard to tell if the increase in variants is actually due to their being more contagious. They might have become more frequent simply because of all the travel during the holiday season. Or they exploded during superspreader events in bars or factories.

Still, scientists are concerned because the mutation could plausibly affect how easily the virus gets into human cells.

Infection begins when a coronavirus uses the tip of the spike protein to attach itself to the surface of a human cell. It then releases harpoon-like arms from the base of the spike, pulls toward the cell, and supplies its genes.

Before the virus can make this invasion, however, the spike protein must encounter a human protein on the surface of the cell. After this contact, the spike is free to rotate, exposing its harpoon tips.

The 677 mutation changes the spike protein next to where our proteins cut into the virus, which may make it easier to activate the spike.

Jason McLellan, a structural biologist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study, called it “an important advance.” But he warned that the way the coronavirus unleashed its harpoons was still pretty mysterious.

“It’s hard to know what these substitutions do,” he said. “There really needs to be some additional experimental data added.”

Dr. Kamil and his colleagues begin these experiments in the hope that the mutation actually makes a difference to infections. If the experiments confirm their suspicions, the 677 mutation will join a small, dangerous club.

Convergent evolution has transformed several other locations on the spike protein as well. For example, the 501st amino acid is mutated in a number of lineages, including the contagious variants first seen in the UK and South Africa. Experiments have shown that the 501 mutation changes the tip of the tip. This change allows the virus to attach itself more tightly to cells and infect them more effectively.

Scientists believe that coronaviruses will converge on more mutations that will give them an advantage – not just against other viruses, but also against our own immune system. However, Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh and co-author of the new study, said laboratory experiments alone could not reveal the extent of the threat.

To really understand what the mutations are doing, scientists need to analyze a much larger sample of coronaviruses from across the country. Currently, however, they can only look at a relatively small number of genomes collected from a patchwork of government and university laboratories.

“It is ridiculous that our country is not developing a national strategy for surveillance,” said Dr. Cooper.

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Health

CDC director says lifting masks necessities is a mistake

CDC director says to watch Super Bowl virtually or only with people you already live with

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Joe Biden’s chief executive officer for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), listens as Biden announces candidates and officers for his health and coronavirus response teams during a press conference at his transitional headquarters Wilmington, Delaware, December 8, 2020.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday that it was too early for states to stop wearing masks, given the high number of daily coronavirus cases and deaths in the United States

“We still have 100,000 cases a day. We still have between 1,500 and 3,500 deaths a day,” Walensky said during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation. “Yet we see some communities loosening some of their mitigation strategies. We are nowhere outside of the forest.”

As the spread of the virus slows in the US and the introduction of the vaccine speeds up, states have begun to relax restrictions. Republican governors in Montana and Iowa lifted statewide mask wear requirements this month. North Dakota’s mask mandate expired in January.

In New York, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo recently allowed indoor dining at 25% capacity despite the high risk of contagion, and opened stadiums and arenas with limited capacity.

However, health experts fear that the rapid spread of more contagious variants could lead to a renewed spike in cases and deaths in the United States. The cases of the contagious variant, first found in the UK and known as B.1.1.7, double around the country about every 10 days.

“If we loosen these mitigation strategies with increasing communicable variants, we could be in a much more difficult place,” Walensky said. “Now is the time not to let go of our watch. Now is the time to double up.”

Health officials are urging Americans to tighten and double the masks, which offers significant protection against the transmission of viruses. Recent studies by the CDC suggest that firmly worn surgical masks or doubling up with a surgical and cloth mask reduce the risk of transmission by up to 96%.

“We need to get our communities back to normal functioning before we can think about abandoning our mitigation strategies,” said Walensky.