Tag: researchers

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Coronary heart Issues After Vaccination in U.S. Are Unusual and Quick-Lived, Researchers Say

Heart Problems After Vaccination in U.S. Are Uncommon and Short-Lived, Researchers Say

For every one million Americans immunized with a coronavirus vaccine, about 60 develop temporary heart problems, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA magazine.

The complications were all short-lived, the researchers found. And these heart problems are far more common in patients who develop Covid-19, as external experts have found.

When analyzing the medical records of just over 2 million people who had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by May 2021, the new study found 20 cases of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, and 37 cases of pericarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle membrane that surrounds the heart.

Patients who were admitted to the hospital were discharged after just a few days, none of them died.

The incidence of myocarditis in the study is 10 cases per million vaccinated, higher than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimate of 4.8 cases per million, suggesting there may be more cases than the federal database tracking these Side effects mentioned after vaccinations.

“We see that these adverse events lead to very short and inconspicuous hospital stays,” said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who was not involved in the study. “The same cannot be said so far of hospital stays for Covid-19 in this or any other age group.”

“When people are hospitalized for Covid, the consequences are far more severe,” added Dr. Faust added, who compared post-vaccination myocarditis rates with those in Covid-19 patients.

The researchers worked with the Providence Health System to evaluate medical records from 40 hospitals in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Los Angeles County, California.

They found that myocarditis developed a median 3.5 days after vaccination, mostly after the second dose and in people with a median age of 36 years. Three quarters of the 20 cases were men.

The 19 patients admitted to the hospital were discharged after a median of two days. About three weeks after vaccination, 13 patients had recovered from their symptoms and the remaining seven improved.

Pericarditis affected elderly patients, a mean age of 59 years and later, about 20 days after vaccination, the researchers found. Pericarditis was also more common in men. Of the 37 identified cases, 13 were hospitalized; the average stay was one day.

A separate study published online last week found that the incidence of myocarditis in boys ages 12 to 17 with Covid-19 was 876 per million; in girls of the same age group with Covid-19, the incidence was 213 cases per million.

The study has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

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Politics

U.S. Strikes to Drop Circumstances Towards Chinese language Researchers

U.S. Moves to Drop Cases Against Chinese Researchers

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department moved this week to drop cases that it brought last year against five visiting researchers accused of hiding their ties to China’s military, prompting questions about the department’s efforts to combat Chinese national security threats.

The department filed motions on Thursday and Friday to dismiss visa fraud and other charges it brought last summer against the researchers as the Biden administration grapples with holding Beijing accountable for its cyberattacks and its harsh crackdowns in Hong Kong and in the far western region of Xinjiang. The dismissals also come as the State De­part­ment’s No. 2 of­fi­cial, Wendy R. Sher­man, is to meet in the coming days with Chinese officials in Tianjin, China.

“Recent developments in a handful of cases involving defendants with alleged, undisclosed ties to the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China have prompted the department to re-evaluate these prosecutions,” said Wyn Hornbuckle, a Justice Department spokesman, offering few specifics. “We have determined that it is now in the interest of justice to dismiss them.”

The arrests were part of a spate of cases last summer involving researchers and academics who had ties to China as the Trump administration aggressively sought to curb Beijing’s efforts to steal intellectual property, corporate secrets, military intelligence and other information it could use to expand its global influence. At the time, the United States ordered China to close its Hous­ton con­sulate, accusing it of being a hub for “massive illegal spying and influence operations.” China denied the allegations and retaliated by forcing a U.S. consulate in Chengdu to close.

Under the Trump-era initiative, the Justice Department prosecuted people affiliated with the Chinese government for major computer breaches and for economic espionage. It also cracked down on China’s efforts to cultivate and influence academics at American colleges and research centers, arresting academics accused of improperly sharing technical expertise and other research.

Officials have said that more than 1,000 researchers affiliated with the Chi­nese mil­i­tary left the United States after the arrests last summer.

Mr. Hornbuckle said that the latest motions did not reflect a shift away from the initiative and that the department “continues to place a very high priority on countering the threat posed to American research security and academic integrity” by Beijing.

Among the five scientists arrested was a cancer researcher named Tang Juan, who was charged last July and whose trial was slated to begin on Monday in the Eastern District of California.

Credit…Justice Department, via Associated Press

A federal court granted the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss Ms. Tang’s case on Friday, several weeks after a judge concluded that the F.B.I. had not informed her that she had the right not to incriminate herself and dismissed the department’s charge of making false statements.

The case was complicated by a draft F.B.I. analysis issued this year that said it could not show a clear link between people who obfuscated their ties to China, as she and the four other defendants were accused of doing, and those who illegally transferred information to the country.

A senior Justice Department official said that the analysis prompted the defense counsel to raise questions that the department could not resolve before Ms. Tang’s trial was to begin.

The department also determined that the maximum sentence for visa fraud charges is a year or less in prison, and given that Ms. Tang and the other defendants had already been imprisoned or otherwise had their liberty restricted for about a year as they awaited trial, they had essentially served their time.

The department’s motions to dismiss cases against Guan Lei, Wang Xin, Song Chen and Zhao Kaikai are pending in federal courts in California and Indiana.

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Health

Lengthy Covid check may quickly be accessible, researchers hope

Long Covid test could soon be available, researchers hope

Shalonda Williams-Hampton, 32, has her blood drawn by Northwell Health medical staff for the antibody tests that determine if a person has immunity to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the First Baptist Cathedral of Westbury in Westbury, New York, has developed. 05/13/2020.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

“Long Covid” – the name for persistent symptoms that millions have reported after being infected with Covid-19 – is here to “haunt us for a while,” according to a scientist studying the effects of the disease. But there is hope that a diagnostic test may be developed soon.

Symptoms of long-term Covid vary, but may include persistent tiredness, shortness of breath, memory loss or difficulty concentrating (referred to as “brain fog”), insomnia, chest pain, or dizziness. However, it remains a poorly understood condition and scientists do not yet know why some people continue to have some symptoms after Covid and others do not.

Data recently collected in a UK study suggested that millions of people could be affected by long-term Covid following coronavirus infection. To date, more than 187 million cases of Covid have been registered worldwide. Given this number, the potential number of people who could be affected by long-term Covid is significant.

Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told CNBC on Tuesday that “the data (on long Covid) is coming through thick and fast and what they say of the 170 million people on the planet who are infected with this virus that 10-20% of them will have long-term persistent symptoms. “

“What you see are people with wheezing or shortness of breath, fatigue and brain fog and this long list of about 50 symptoms. So it’s really a thing and a thing that will haunt us for a while. It’s a price we’re paying we have to and we have to look at people’s lives and jobs and health care for them, “he told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.

Altmann found that data on long Covid “were very reproducible all over the world, regardless of whether you are looking in China or Bangladesh or France or the USA”.

Scientists consider organ damage due to a Covid infection, problems with the immune system after an infection or reactivation of the virus as possible causes of long Covid; or maybe a combination of factors.

A UK study published last October identified the main factors that increase the likelihood of patients suffering from the coronavirus over the long term, including age, weight and gender. But further research gives hope that there may soon be a test to diagnose the poorly understood, but often life-changing condition.

Tests for long Covid?

Altmann from Imperial College is part of a team that has been researching Covid and analyzing blood samples from those who have it to find the cause.

In a preview of their early results on Monday evening on the BBC’s Panorama program, the team said it found that irregular antibodies were common in blood samples from people with long-term Covid.

Usually the immune system creates a protective response by making antibodies to fight a virus, but sometimes it goes wrong and “autoantibodies” – sometimes called “rogue antibodies” – are produced that attack healthy cells.

Altmann’s researchers found that such autoantibodies were widespread in people with long Covid, although only a few blood samples were analyzed in the pilot study. However, autoantibodies were found in comparative blood samples from people who recovered quickly from the virus or who never tested positive for Covid-19.

Still, the detection of such irregular antibodies in people with long Covid could pave the way for a simple diagnostic test that analyzes a person’s blood. If autoantibodies are found, long Covid could potentially be diagnosed; and this, in turn, could help create treatment and recovery plans for patients.

Speaking to the BBC, Altmann said the results could not yet be called a breakthrough, but they were “very exciting progress”.

“One of the things that we know with absolute certainty is that Covid can result from any type of infection for a long time: asymptomatic, light or severe,” he told Panorama.

“The pilot data we have says that you can really see different patterns of autoimmunity in people with long Covid,” he said. Although more research needs to be done, Altmann said he was optimistic that there could be a simple blood test that can diagnose long Covid within six months.

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Politics

Western warmth wave just about not possible with out local weather change, researchers say

Western heat wave virtually impossible without climate change, researchers say

People sleep at a cooling shelter set up during an unprecedented heat wave in Portland, Oregon, U.S. June 27, 2021.

Maranie Staab | Reuters

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — The deadly heat wave that brought triple-digit temperatures to the Pacific Northwest and western Canada and killed hundreds of people was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, according to a new analysis by an international team of 27 scientists.

The temperature records were so extreme — 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon, and 121 degrees Fahrenheit in Canada’s British Columbia — that researchers said it was difficult to quantify just how rare the heat wave was. The team, working under the umbrella of Oxford University-based World Weather Attribution, estimated it was a once-in-a-millennium event.

The scientists, who are based in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands, France, Germany and Switzerland, estimated that human-caused climate change increased the likelihood of such a heat wave by at least 150 times.

“An event such as the Pacific Northwest 2021 heatwave is still rare or extremely rare in today’s climate, yet would be virtually impossible without human-caused climate change,” the team of scientists wrote. “As warming continues, it will become a lot less rare.”

The researchers urged adaptation measures that account for the rising risk of heat waves, including action plans that incorporate early warning systems for high temperatures, as well as more ambitious targets to drastically reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Researchers also found that in a world with 2 degrees Celsius of warming, which could happen this century unless there are significant cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, such a heat event would occur about every five to 10 years.

The Earth has already heated up more than 1 degree Celsius compared with preindustrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

The analysis by World Weather Attribution, which conducts quick analyses to determine if there is a link between climate change and specific extreme weather events, has not yet been peer-reviewed. However, it uses processes that have been peer-reviewed in the past 10 years.

Scientists used computer simulations that compared a hypothetical world without greenhouse gas emissions to the existing world in order to assess the impact of climate change on weather events. The research will later be published in peer-reviewed journals.

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The study, published on Wednesday, is in line with previous research on the impact climate change has on the frequency and severity of heat waves and drought.

The recent historic heat wave, which started at the end of June, fueled wildfires, threatened water shortages and was linked to hundreds of deaths in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The official death count is expected to rise.

More than one-third of global heat-related deaths during warm seasons can be attributed to climate change, experts have said. Heat also kills more people than any other weather-related disaster in the U.S.

“Our results provide a strong warning: our rapidly warming climate is bringing us into uncharted territory that has significant consequences for health, well-being and livelihoods,” the scientists wrote.

North America just recorded its hottest June on record, according to scientists with the Copernicus Climate Change Service, with 2021 virtually certain to be among the 10 hottest years on record.

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Health

Coronary heart Issues After Vaccination Are Very Uncommon, Federal Researchers Say

Heart Problems After Vaccination Are Very Rare, Federal Researchers Say

The coronavirus vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna could have caused heart problems in more than 1,200 Americans, including about 500 who were under 30, according to data reported Wednesday by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

Still, the benefits of vaccination far outweighed the risks, and CDC advisors strongly recommended vaccination for all Americans 12 and older.

The reported heart problems are myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle; and pericarditis, inflammation of the lining of the heart. The risk is higher after the second dose of an mRNA vaccine than after the first, the researchers reported and much higher in men than in women.

Overall, however, the side effect is very rare – only 12.6 cases per million second doses given. The researchers estimated that out of a million second doses given to boys ages 12-17, the vaccines could cause a maximum of 70 cases of myocarditis, but would prevent 5,700 infections, 2,215 hospitalizations, and two deaths.

Agency researchers presented the data to members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on vaccine use in the United States. (The scientists grouped pericarditis with myocarditis for reporting purposes.)

Most of the cases were mild, with symptoms like fatigue, chest pain, and irregular heartbeat that cleared up quickly, the researchers said. Of the 484 cases reported in Americans under the age of 30, the CDC has definitely linked 323 cases to vaccination. The rest are still being investigated.

“These events are really very rare, extremely rare,” said Dr. Brian Feingold, an expert on pediatric heart inflammation at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. “That has to be seen in the context of illness and morbidity and mortality in connection with Covid.”

Separately, more than a dozen state and professional medical organizations said in a joint statement Wednesday that myocarditis “is an extremely rare side effect and affects an extremely small number of people after vaccination.”

Federal researchers also presented early safety data on Wednesday on the six million vaccine doses given to children ages 12 to 15. The side effects – usually fatigue and pain at the injection site – were similar to those seen in young people aged 16-25.

“So far, the Covid-19 vaccines approved in the USA have shown a high level of safety,” said Dr. Matthew F. Daley, Principal Investigator at Kaiser Permanente Colorado and a member of the Advisory Committee.

The CDC advisors met when the Biden administration publicly admitted that it expects to miss its target of at least partially vaccinating 70 percent of Americans by July 4, will be immunized.

About two in 100,000 people aged 15 to 18 – about two-thirds of them male – are hospitalized with myocarditis each year, according to data presented at the meeting. Patients with the most severe cases may need mechanical assistance, such as a ventilator or a heart transplant.

Even people with mild symptoms may have to abstain from exercise for about six months after recovery. It is unclear what typically causes the condition or why it is more common in young men than women.

Updated

June 23, 2021 at 4:46 p.m. ET

The first cases of coronavirus vaccine-related myocarditis were reported in Israel, mostly in young men ages 16-19. Israel recorded 148 cases, 95 percent of them mild, from December to May.

In the United States, too, myocarditis was more common in men and boys: up to 80 percent of the cases diagnosed after the second dose were in men. There was also a marked difference in age, with the side effect becoming more common in people in their late teens and early 20s.

As of June 21, about 318 million doses of coronavirus vaccine had been administered in the United States and 150 million people are considered fully protected. Most symptoms of myocarditis appeared within about four days of the first or second dose.

“We have clear evidence here that vaccinated cases started within the first week,” said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a vaccine expert at the CDC, who presented the new data. There is also a dose effect, he said, adding, “The rates are higher with both vaccines after the second dose.”

The vast majority of patients with the side effect made a full recovery, noted Dr. James de Lemos, a cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, who reported one of the first cases in January.

Covid-19 itself can cause heart problems in young people. A large study of college athletes showed that 2.3 percent of those who recovered from Covid-19 had heart abnormalities associated with myocarditis.

“Even in young men, myocarditis will be far more common if you get Covid than if you get a vaccine,” said Dr. de Lemos.

More than 4,000 children infected with the coronavirus developed a multisystem inflammatory syndrome that includes cardiac symptoms. Some children have also died while none died from the vaccination, noted Dr. Fine gold. “You can say no to the vaccine, but you take different risks.”

The CDC recommends vaccination for all Americans over the age of 12. But on Wednesday officials suggested that anyone who develops myocarditis after the first dose should postpone a second dose until they discuss the risks with a doctor.

The CDC’s recommendations may influence decisions about whether to vaccinate children under 12 years of age when vaccines become available for that age group. Some experts have questioned whether the benefits to children outweigh the potential risks, as the chances of developing serious illness from the virus in young children are small.

Still, the agency reported this month that Covid-19-related hospitalizations among teenagers in the United States were about three times higher than influenza-related hospitalizations in the last three flu seasons.

The total number of infections has fallen sharply since January, but as more adults have been vaccinated, the proportion of children in the total has increased. About a third of the new infections reported in May were in Americans ages 12 to 29, and there have been 316 deaths in that age group since April.

Vaccination becomes an even more pressing priority given more contagious variants of the coronavirus now circulating in the United States, said Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccination Safety Committee, in an interview.

“We’re still a long way from where we need to be” in terms of the percentage of Americans who should be vaccinated, said Dr. Offit, who is also a pediatrician at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital. “And you will go into winter when you have a generally underinoculated population.”

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Business

MIT researchers say you are no safer from Covid indoors at 6 toes or 60 toes in new research

MIT researchers say you're no safer from Covid indoors at 6 feet or 60 feet in new study

Customers dine at Picos Restaurant, which was threatened after the announcement of its continued need for masks as the state of Texas prepares to lift its mask mandate and shut down business during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Houston, Texas to fully expand again. March 9, 2021.

Callaghan O’Hare | Reuters

The risk of being exposed to Covid-19 indoors is just as high at 60 feet as it is at 6 feet – even when wearing a mask. So, according to a new study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who are questioning the social distancing guidelines adopted around the world.

MIT Professors Martin Z. Bazant, who teaches chemical engineering and applied mathematics, and John WM Bush, who teaches applied mathematics, developed a method of calculating the risk of exposure to Covid-19 indoors that takes into account a variety of issues that have an impact could be transmission, including time spent inside, air filtration and circulation, immunization, variant strains, mask use, and even respiratory activity such as breathing, eating, speaking, or singing.

Bazant and Bush question the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s long-standing Covid-19 guidelines and the World Health Organization in a peer-reviewed study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States earlier this week has been.

“We don’t think the 6-foot rule is of much use, especially when people are wearing masks,” Bazant said in an interview. “It really has no physical foundation as the air a person breathes while wearing a mask tends to rise and fall elsewhere in the room, leaving you more exposed to the average background than a person in the distance.”

The important variable that the CDC and WHO have overlooked is the amount of time they spend indoors, Bazant said. The longer someone is in the house with an infected person, the greater the chance of transmission, he said.

Opening windows or installing new fans to keep the air moving could be just as effective or more effective than spending large sums of money on a new filtration system, he said.

Bazant also says the guidelines for enforcing indoor occupancy limits are flawed. He said that 20 people gathered for 1 minute is probably fine, but not over several hours, he said.

“Our analysis also shows that many rooms that have actually been closed do not have to be closed. Often the room is big enough, the ventilation is good enough, the time people spend together is so big rooms can be even at full capacity safely operated, and the scientific support for reduced capacity in these rooms really isn’t very good, “Bazant said. “I think if you enter the numbers, even now, for many types of rooms, you will find that no occupancy restrictions are required.”

Six feet of social distancing rules accidentally leading to closed businesses and schools are “just not sensible,” according to Bazant.

“That emphasis on distancing was really misplaced from the start. The CDC or the WHO never really provided a justification for it. They just said that this is what you have to do, and the only justification I know of is based on coughing and sneezing studies that look at the largest particles that could settle on the floor, and even if it’s very approximate, you can certainly have large droplets of greater or shorter range, “said Bazant.

“The distancing doesn’t help you that much and also gives you a false sense of security because you’re just as safe at 6 feet as you are at 60 feet when you’re inside. Everyone in this room is about the same risk actually,” he noted.

Droplets laced with pathogens move through the air indoors when people are talking, breathing, or eating. Airborne transmission is now known to play a huge role in the spread of Covid-19 compared to the earlier months of the pandemic when hand washing was seen as the top recommendation to avoid transmission.

These droplets from the warm exhalation mix with body heat and air currents in the area and rise and travel across the room, no matter how socially distant a person is. According to the study, people seem to be more exposed to this “background air” than distant droplets.

For example, if someone infected with Covid-19 wears a mask and sings loudly in an enclosed room, a person sitting on the other side of the room is no better protected than someone just three feet from the infected person sitting person. Because of this, the time you spend in the confined area is more important than the distance from the infected person.

Masks generally prevent transmission by blocking larger droplets. Therefore, larger droplets don’t make up the majority of Covid infections as most people wear masks. The majority of people who transmit Covid do not cough or sneeze, they are asymptomatic.

Masks also prevent transmission indoors by blocking direct clouds of air. The best way to see this is when someone is exhaling smoke. Continuous exposure to direct infectious air plumes would result in a higher risk of transmission, although exposure to direct air plumes usually does not last long.

Even with masks on, such as when smoking, those in the vicinity are severely affected by the second-hand smoke that moves and lingers around the enclosed area. The same logic applies to infectious droplets in the air, according to the study. Indoors and when masked, factors besides distance can be more important to avoid transmission.

As for outdoor social distancing, Bazant says it makes almost no sense and that doing it with your masks on is “kind of crazy”.

“When you look at the flow of air outside, the infected air is swept away and is very unlikely to cause transmission. There are very few recorded cases of outdoor transmission.” he said. “Crowded outdoor spaces could be a problem, but if people keep a reasonable distance of about 3 feet outside, I feel pretty comfortable with it even without masks.”

According to Bazant, this could possibly explain why states like Texas or Florida, where companies reopened with no capacity constraints, had no transmission spikes.

For variant strains that are 60% more transmissible, increasing ventilation by 60%, reducing the time spent indoors, or limiting the number of people indoors could offset this risk.

Bazant also said a big question will be when to remove masks and that the study’s guidelines can help quantify the risks involved. He also noted that measuring carbon dioxide in a room can also help quantify how much infected air there is, and therefore the risk of transmission.

“We need scientific information that is conveyed to the public in a way that is not only frightening but actually based on analysis,” said Bazant. After three rounds of intense peer reviews, he said it was the most review he had ever been through and he hoped it will influence policy now that it is released.

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Business

Offshore wind agency to work with researchers and sort out blade waste

Offshore wind firm to work with researchers and tackle blade waste

This file photo taken on July 31, 2018 shows workers checking the quality of newly manufactured wind turbine blades at a factory in China.

AFP | Getty Images

A collaboration between science and industry is expected to focus on recycling fiberglass products, which could ultimately help reduce waste from wind turbine blades.

In an announcement on Thursday, the University of Strathclyde, based in Glasgow, Scotland, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Aker Offshore Wind and Aker Horizons.

Among other things, the trio will work together to scale and commercialize a laboratory-developed process that involves recycling fiberglass-reinforced polymer composites used in wind turbine blades.

According to the university, the system focuses on the “heat recovery and post-treatment of glass fibers” from glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite scrap with the end result “glass fibers of almost virgin quality”. The idea is that with this system the composite waste can be reused.

“This is a challenge not just for the wind power industry, but for all industries that rely on GRP materials to manufacture and manufacture them,” said Liu Yang, head of the Advanced Composites Group at the University of Strathclyde, in a statement.

“Maintaining and redistributing the energy contained in the fibers is critical to moving towards a circular economy,” he added.

What to do with wind turbine blades when they are no longer needed is an industry headache. This is because the composite blades can prove difficult to recycle, which means many end up in landfill at the end of their lifespan.

As the number of wind turbines on the planet increases, the problem becomes even greater. According to Strathclyde, blade waste could reach 400,000 tons per year by 2030.

In recent years, a number of companies in the industry have tried to find solutions to the problem.

For example, last December, GE Renewable Energy and Veolia North America signed a “multi-year contract” to recycle blades removed from onshore wind turbines in the US.

In an announcement at the time, GE Renewable Energy said the blades would be crushed at a Veolia North America facility in Missouri before being “used as a substitute for coal, sand and clay in cement factories in the United States.”

In January 2020, the Danish wind energy giant Vestas announced that it wanted to produce zero-waste wind turbines by 2040.

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Health

Researchers establish 5 new instances of variant in California

Researchers identify five new cases of variant in California

A healthcare worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) inserts a Covid-19 test tube into a box at a drive-through test location at the Alemany Farmers Market in San Francisco, California on November 19, 2020.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Stanford University researchers have identified five new cases of a “double mutant” strain of Covid-19 recently discovered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Doctors suggest it may be more contagious than previous strains and may be resistant to existing vaccines.

The new variant is originally from India, where after months of declining cases in Maharashtra state, home of Mumbai, cases have increased by 55%.

It contains two key mutations that scientists call E484Q and L452R that have been found in other variants separately but not together in a single strain, according to Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, Medical Director of the Stanford Clinical Virology Laboratory, who discovered the new variant in the United States

“There’s a decent amount of information on how these mutations behave in viruses themselves, but not in combination,” Pinsky said in an interview.

In other variants, the L452R mutation has been shown to make the virus more transmissible. There is also evidence that antibodies fail to recognize this mutation, which has been found in other strains to reduce vaccine effectiveness.

The E484Q mutation has also been shown to be less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies that help fight the coronavirus. It’s too early to tell if the mutation makes the virus more contagious.

“But you would expect that when combined with L452R, it would increase transmission and decrease neutralization of antibodies,” Pinsky said.

If the mutation makes the virus more resistant to antibodies, Pinsky said it could reduce the effectiveness of both vaccines and antibody treatments, which have become a crucial tool for doctors in fighting Covid-19.

“I suspect that existing vaccines are a little less effective at preventing infection with this new variant,” he said, “but all vaccines are extremely effective at preventing hospitalizations and death.”

Treatment with Eli Lilly’s Bamlanivimab antibodies has been shown to be less effective in the treatment of strains containing the E484Q or L452R mutations. US health officials stopped distributing this antibody treatment last month, saying it was not as effective against the new variants.

The double mutant variant “has known mutations in the scariest spot where a mutation is – the receptor binding domain where the virus attaches to cells in our bodies to enter,” said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California San Francisco. “The mutations are either identical or eerily similar to mutations in variants that we already know are scientifically proven to be more transmissible and / or evade vaccines. So many believe this Indian variant will have these superpowers too.”

Dr. Tom Kenyon, chief health officer at Project HOPE and former director of global health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said scientists are finding more mutations, at least in part, because the new CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has instructed the agency to increase surveillance. “The more we look for these, the more we will find them,” he said.

“There’s something about the world that scares people and makes it sound like it’s doubly bad,” Kenyon said in an interview. “Any mutation that affects transmissibility or virus replication would be dangerous.”

There is a chance the new variant will stay in the Bay Area, unlike variant B.1.1.7 from the UK, which has become the predominant variety almost everywhere, Chin-Hong said.

“If the British variant goes into a boxing ring with the Indian variant, the British variant will likely emerge victorious. But only time will tell,” said Chin-Hong.

The longer it takes to vaccinate the world, the more chance the virus has of mutating into even worse strains, scientists say. Walensky has warned of “impending doom” in the US as states lift Covid-19 restrictions. She has urged people to get vaccinated and continue to follow public health precautions, including wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

“The variants that scare me the most are the ones that haven’t been invented yet. The more the virus replicates, the more we will see these escape mutants,” said Chin-Hong. “We need global vaccination justice and continued battles against pandemic fatigue.”

California will lift most of its Covid restrictions by June 15, but still plans to maintain a mask mandate.

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Health

Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Price Covid-19 Vaccine

Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Cost Covid-19 Vaccine

Ein neuer Impfstoff gegen Covid-19, der in Brasilien, Mexiko, Thailand und Vietnam in klinische Studien geht, könnte die Art und Weise verändern, wie die Welt die Pandemie bekämpft. Der Impfstoff mit der Bezeichnung NVD-HXP-S ist der erste in klinischen Studien, der ein neues molekulares Design verwendet, von dem allgemein erwartet wird, dass es wirksamere Antikörper erzeugt als die aktuelle Generation von Impfstoffen. Und der neue Impfstoff könnte viel einfacher herzustellen sein.

Bestehende Impfstoffe von Unternehmen wie Pfizer und Johnson & Johnson müssen in spezialisierten Fabriken unter Verwendung schwer zu beschaffender Inhaltsstoffe hergestellt werden. Im Gegensatz dazu kann der neue Impfstoff in Hühnereiern in Massenproduktion hergestellt werden – dieselben Eier, die jedes Jahr in Fabriken auf der ganzen Welt Milliarden von Influenza-Impfstoffen produzieren.

Wenn sich NVD-HXP-S als sicher und wirksam erweist, könnten Grippeimpfstoffhersteller möglicherweise weit über eine Milliarde Dosen davon pro Jahr produzieren. Länder mit niedrigem und mittlerem Einkommen, die derzeit Schwierigkeiten haben, Impfstoffe aus wohlhabenderen Ländern zu erhalten, können möglicherweise NVD-HXP-S für sich selbst herstellen oder es zu geringen Kosten von Nachbarn erwerben.

“Das ist atemberaubend – es würde das Spiel verändern”, sagte Andrea Taylor, stellvertretende Direktorin des Duke Global Health Innovation Center.

Zunächst müssen klinische Studien jedoch nachweisen, dass NVD-HXP-S tatsächlich bei Menschen wirkt. Die erste Phase der klinischen Studien wird im Juli abgeschlossen sein, und die letzte Phase wird noch einige Monate dauern. Experimente mit geimpften Tieren haben jedoch Hoffnungen auf die Aussichten des Impfstoffs geweckt.

“Es ist ein Heimrennen zum Schutz”, sagte Dr. Bruce Innis vom PATH Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access, das die Entwicklung von NVD-HXP-S koordiniert hat. “Ich denke, es ist ein Weltklasse-Impfstoff.”

Impfstoffe wirken, indem sie das Immunsystem gut genug mit einem Virus bekannt machen, um eine Abwehr dagegen zu veranlassen. Einige Impfstoffe enthalten ganze Viren, die abgetötet wurden. andere enthalten nur ein einziges Protein aus dem Virus. Wieder andere enthalten genetische Anweisungen, mit denen unsere Zellen das virale Protein herstellen können.

Sobald das Immunsystem einem Virus oder einem Teil davon ausgesetzt ist, kann es lernen, Antikörper herzustellen, die es angreifen. Immunzellen können auch lernen, infizierte Zellen zu erkennen und zu zerstören.

Im Falle des Coronavirus ist das beste Ziel für das Immunsystem das Protein, das seine Oberfläche wie eine Krone bedeckt. Das als Spike bekannte Protein bindet sich an die Zellen und lässt das Virus dann mit ihnen fusionieren.

Die einfache Injektion von Coronavirus-Spike-Proteinen in Menschen ist jedoch nicht der beste Weg, um sie zu impfen. Das liegt daran, dass Spike-Proteine ​​manchmal die falsche Form annehmen und das Immunsystem dazu veranlassen, die falschen Antikörper herzustellen.

Diese Erkenntnis entstand lange vor der Covid-19-Pandemie. Im Jahr 2015 trat ein weiteres Coronavirus auf, das eine tödliche Form der Lungenentzündung namens MERS verursachte. Jason McLellan, damals Strukturbiologe an der Geisel School of Medicine in Dartmouth, und seine Kollegen machten sich daran, einen Impfstoff dagegen herzustellen.

Sie wollten das Spike-Protein als Ziel verwenden. Aber sie mussten damit rechnen, dass das Spike-Protein ein Formwandler ist. Während sich das Protein auf die Fusion mit einer Zelle vorbereitet, verzieht es sich von einer tulpenartigen Form zu etwas, das eher einem Speer ähnelt.

Wissenschaftler nennen diese beiden Formen die Präfusions- und Postfusionsformen der Spitze. Antikörper gegen die Präfusionsform wirken stark gegen das Coronavirus, aber Postfusionsantikörper stoppen es nicht.

Dr. McLellan und seine Kollegen verwendeten Standardtechniken, um einen MERS-Impfstoff herzustellen, endeten jedoch mit vielen Postfusionsspitzen, die für ihre Zwecke unbrauchbar waren. Dann entdeckten sie einen Weg, das Protein in einer tulpenartigen Präfusionsform zu halten. Alles, was sie tun mussten, war, zwei von mehr als 1.000 Bausteinen im Protein in eine Verbindung namens Prolin umzuwandeln.

Die resultierende Spitze – 2P genannt – für die beiden darin enthaltenen neuen Prolinmoleküle nahm mit weit größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit die gewünschte Tulpenform an. Die Forscher injizierten die 2P-Spikes in Mäuse und stellten fest, dass die Tiere Infektionen des MERS-Coronavirus leicht abwehren konnten.

Das Team meldete ein Patent für seinen modifizierten Spike an, aber die Welt nahm die Erfindung kaum zur Kenntnis. Obwohl MERS tödlich ist, ist es nicht sehr ansteckend und hat sich als relativ geringe Bedrohung erwiesen. weniger als 1.000 Menschen sind an MERS gestorben, seit es zum ersten Mal beim Menschen aufgetreten ist.

Ende 2019 tauchte jedoch ein neues Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, auf und begann, die Welt zu verwüsten. Dr. McLellan und seine Kollegen traten in Aktion und entwarfen einen 2P-Spike, der nur für SARS-CoV-2 gilt. Innerhalb weniger Tage nutzte Moderna diese Informationen, um einen Impfstoff für Covid-19 zu entwickeln. Es enthielt ein genetisches Molekül namens RNA mit den Anweisungen zur Herstellung des 2P-Spikes.

Andere Unternehmen folgten bald diesem Beispiel, nahmen 2P-Spikes für ihre eigenen Impfstoffdesigns an und begannen mit klinischen Studien. Alle drei bisher in den USA zugelassenen Impfstoffe – von Johnson & Johnson, Moderna und Pfizer-BioNTech – verwenden den 2P-Spike.

Andere Impfstoffhersteller verwenden es ebenfalls. Novavax hat in klinischen Studien starke Ergebnisse mit dem 2P-Anstieg erzielt und wird voraussichtlich in den nächsten Wochen bei der Food and Drug Administration eine Genehmigung für den Notfall beantragen. Sanofi testet auch einen 2P-Spike-Impfstoff und geht davon aus, dass die klinischen Studien noch in diesem Jahr abgeschlossen sein werden.

Dr. McLellans Fähigkeit, lebensrettende Hinweise in der Struktur von Proteinen zu finden, hat ihm tiefe Bewunderung in der Impfstoffwelt eingebracht. “Dieser Typ ist ein Genie”, sagte Harry Kleanthous, Senior Program Officer bei der Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Er sollte stolz auf diese große Sache sein, die er für die Menschheit getan hat.”

Aktualisiert

5. April 2021, 4:37 Uhr ET

Aber als Dr. McLellan und seine Kollegen den 2P-Spike an Impfstoffhersteller weitergaben, wandte er sich für eine genauere Betrachtung wieder dem Protein zu. Wenn der Austausch von nur zwei Prolinen einen Impfstoff verbessern würde, könnten zusätzliche Optimierungen ihn sicherlich noch weiter verbessern.

“Es war sinnvoll, einen besseren Impfstoff zu versuchen”, sagte Dr. McLellan, der jetzt Associate Professor an der University of Texas in Austin ist.

Im März schloss er sich mit zwei anderen Biologen der Universität von Texas, Ilya Finkelstein und Jennifer Maynard, zusammen. In ihren drei Labors wurden 100 neue Spikes mit jeweils einem veränderten Baustein erstellt. Mit Mitteln der Gates Foundation testeten sie jeden einzelnen und kombinierten dann die vielversprechenden Änderungen bei neuen Spikes. Schließlich schufen sie ein einziges Protein, das ihren Wünschen entsprach.

Der Gewinner enthielt die zwei Prolinen in der 2P-Spitze sowie vier zusätzliche Prolinen, die an anderer Stelle im Protein gefunden wurden. Dr. McLellan nannte den neuen Spike HexaPro zu Ehren seiner insgesamt sechs Prolinen.

Die Struktur von HexaPro war sogar stabiler als die von 2P, stellte das Team fest. Es war auch widerstandsfähig, besser in der Lage, Hitze und schädlichen Chemikalien zu widerstehen. Dr. McLellan hoffte, dass sein robustes Design es in einem Impfstoff wirksam machen würde.

Dr. McLellan hoffte auch, dass Impfstoffe auf HexaPro-Basis mehr von der Welt erreichen würden – insbesondere Länder mit niedrigem und mittlerem Einkommen, die bisher nur einen Bruchteil der Gesamtverteilung der Impfstoffe der ersten Welle erhalten haben.

“Der Anteil der Impfstoffe, die sie bisher erhalten haben, ist schrecklich”, sagte Dr. McLellan.

Zu diesem Zweck hat die University of Texas eine Lizenzvereinbarung für HexaPro getroffen, die es Unternehmen und Labors in 80 Ländern mit niedrigem und mittlerem Einkommen ermöglicht, das Protein in ihren Impfstoffen zu verwenden, ohne Lizenzgebühren zu zahlen.

In der Zwischenzeit suchten Dr. Innis und seine Kollegen bei PATH nach einer Möglichkeit, die Produktion von Covid-19-Impfstoffen zu steigern. Sie wollten einen Impfstoff, den weniger wohlhabende Nationen selbst herstellen können.

Die erste Welle zugelassener Covid-19-Impfstoffe erfordert spezielle, kostspielige Inhaltsstoffe. Zum Beispiel benötigt der RNA-basierte Impfstoff von Moderna genetische Bausteine, sogenannte Nukleotide, sowie eine maßgeschneiderte Fettsäure, um eine Blase um sie herum aufzubauen. Diese Inhaltsstoffe müssen in eigens dafür errichteten Fabriken zu Impfstoffen verarbeitet werden.

Die Art und Weise, wie Influenza-Impfstoffe hergestellt werden, ist dagegen eine Studie. In vielen Ländern gibt es riesige Fabriken für billige Grippeschutzimpfungen, in die Hühnereier mit Influenzaviren injiziert werden. Die Eier produzieren eine Fülle neuer Kopien der Viren. Fabrikarbeiter extrahieren dann die Viren, schwächen oder töten sie und setzen sie dann in Impfstoffe ein.

Das PATH-Team fragte sich, ob Wissenschaftler einen Covid-19-Impfstoff herstellen könnten, der billig in Hühnereiern angebaut werden könnte. Auf diese Weise könnten dieselben Fabriken, die Grippeschutzimpfungen durchführen, auch Covid-19-Impfungen durchführen.

In New York wusste ein Team von Wissenschaftlern der Icahn School of Medicine am Mount Sinai, wie man einen solchen Impfstoff mit einem Vogelvirus namens Newcastle Disease Virus herstellt, das beim Menschen harmlos ist.

Seit Jahren experimentieren Wissenschaftler mit dem Newcastle-Virus, um Impfstoffe für eine Reihe von Krankheiten zu entwickeln. Um beispielsweise einen Ebola-Impfstoff zu entwickeln, fügten die Forscher dem eigenen Satz von Genen des Newcastle-Disease-Virus ein Ebola-Gen hinzu.

Die Wissenschaftler setzten dann das manipulierte Virus in Hühnereier ein. Da es sich um ein Vogelvirus handelt, vermehrte es sich schnell in den Eiern. Die Forscher hatten Viren der Newcastle-Krankheit, die mit Ebola-Proteinen beschichtet waren.

Am Berg Sinai machten sich die Forscher daran, dasselbe zu tun, indem sie Coronavirus-Spike-Proteine ​​anstelle von Ebola-Proteinen verwendeten. Als sie von Dr. McLellans neuer HexaPro-Version erfuhren, fügten sie dies den Newcastle-Krankheitsviren hinzu. Die Viren waren voller Spike-Proteine, von denen viele die gewünschte Präfusionsform hatten. In Anspielung auf das Newcastle-Virus und den HexaPro-Spike nannten sie es NDV-HXP-S.

PATH veranlasste die Herstellung von Tausenden von Dosen NDV-HXP-S in einer vietnamesischen Fabrik, in der normalerweise Influenza-Impfstoffe in Hühnereiern hergestellt werden. Im Oktober schickte die Fabrik die Impfstoffe nach New York, um sie zu testen. Die Forscher des Mount Sinai fanden heraus, dass NDV-HXP-S Mäusen und Hamstern einen starken Schutz verleiht.

“Ich kann ehrlich sagen, dass ich jeden Hamster, jede Maus auf der Welt vor SARS-CoV-2 schützen kann”, sagte Dr. Peter Palese, der Leiter der Forschung. “Aber die Jury ist sich immer noch nicht sicher, was sie beim Menschen tut.”

Die Wirksamkeit des Impfstoffs brachte einen zusätzlichen Vorteil: Die Forscher benötigten weniger Viren für eine wirksame Dosis. Ein einzelnes Ei kann fünf bis 10 Dosen NDV-HXP-S ergeben, verglichen mit einer oder zwei Dosen Influenza-Impfstoffen.

“Wir freuen uns sehr darüber, weil wir glauben, dass dies ein Weg ist, einen billigen Impfstoff herzustellen”, sagte Dr. Palese.

PATH verband dann das Mount Sinai-Team mit Influenza-Impfstoffherstellern. Am 15. März gab das vietnamesische Institut für Impfstoffe und medizinische Biologika den Beginn einer klinischen Studie mit NDV-HXP-S bekannt. Eine Woche später folgte Thailands Government Pharmaceutical Organization. Am 26. März kündigte das brasilianische Butantan-Institut die Genehmigung an, eigene klinische Studien mit NDV-HXP-S zu beginnen.

Inzwischen hat das Mount Sinai-Team den Impfstoff auch als intranasales Spray an den mexikanischen Impfstoffhersteller Avi-Mex lizenziert. Das Unternehmen wird klinische Studien starten, um festzustellen, ob der Impfstoff in dieser Form noch wirksamer ist.

Für die beteiligten Nationen war die Aussicht, die Impfstoffe vollständig selbst herzustellen, attraktiv. “Diese Impfstoffproduktion wird von Thailändern für Thailänder hergestellt”, sagte Thailands Gesundheitsminister Anutin Charnvirakul bei der Ankündigung in Bangkok.

In Brasilien hat das Butantan-Institut seine Version von NDV-HXP-S als „brasilianischen Impfstoff“ bezeichnet, der „vollständig in Brasilien hergestellt wird, ohne von Importen abhängig zu sein“.

Frau Taylor vom Duke Global Health Innovation Center war mitfühlend. “Ich konnte verstehen, warum das wirklich so eine attraktive Aussicht wäre”, sagte sie. “Sie waren den globalen Lieferketten ausgeliefert.”

Madhavi Sunder, ein Experte für geistiges Eigentum an der Georgetown Law School, warnte, dass NDV-HXP-S Ländern wie Brasilien nicht sofort helfen würde, da sie sich mit der aktuellen Welle von Covid-19-Infektionen auseinandersetzen. “Wir sprechen nicht über 16 Milliarden Dosen im Jahr 2020”, sagte sie.

Stattdessen wird die Strategie für die langfristige Impfstoffproduktion wichtig sein – nicht nur für Covid-19, sondern auch für andere Pandemien, die in Zukunft auftreten könnten. “Es klingt super vielversprechend”, sagte sie.

In der Zwischenzeit ist Dr. McLellan zum molekularen Zeichenbrett zurückgekehrt, um zu versuchen, eine dritte Version ihres Spikes herzustellen, die noch besser als HexaPro ist.

“Es gibt wirklich kein Ende für diesen Prozess”, sagte er. „Die Anzahl der Permutationen ist nahezu unendlich. Irgendwann müsste man sagen: ‘Dies ist die nächste Generation.’ “

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Health

Coronavirus Reinfections Are Uncommon, Danish Researchers Report

Coronavirus Reinfections Are Rare, Danish Researchers Report

The vast majority of people who recover from Covid-19 will remain protected from the virus for at least six months, researchers reported Wednesday in a large study from Denmark.

Previous coronavirus infection reduced the likelihood of a second fight for people under 65 years of age by about 80 percent, but only about half for people over 65. However, these results, published in the journal Lancet, have been tempered by many reservations.

The number of infected elderly people in the study was low. The researchers had no information beyond the test results, so it’s possible that only people who were mildly ill the first time were re-infected and the second infections were largely symptom-free.

Scientists have said reinfections are likely to be asymptomatic or mild because the immune system suppresses the virus before it can do much damage. The researchers also did not evaluate the possibility of re-infection with newer variants of the virus.

Still, the study suggests that immunity to natural infection is unpredictable and uneven, and it underscores the importance of vaccinating everyone – especially the elderly, according to experts.

“You certainly cannot rely on a previous infection to protect you from disease again and possibly be quite ill if you are in the elderly area,” said Steen Ethelberg, epidemiologist at Statens Serum Institute, Denmark’s public health department.

Because people over 65 are at the highest risk of serious illness and death, he said, “They are the ones we are most likely to want to protect.”

Rigorous estimates of secondary infections have generally been rare because many people around the world initially did not have access to testing and laboratories need genetic sequences from both rounds of testing to confirm re-infection.

However, the results are consistent with those from experiments in a variety of settings: sailors on a fishing trawler in Seattle, Marine Corps recruits in South Carolina, healthcare workers in the UK, and patients in clinics in the US.

The design and size of the new study benefited from Denmark’s free and extensive tests for the coronavirus. Almost 70 percent of the country’s population was tested for the virus in 2020.

Updated

March 19, 2021, 7:06 a.m. ET

The researchers examined the results of 11,068 people who tested positive for the coronavirus during the first wave in Denmark between March and May 2020. During the second wave from September to December, 72 of these people, or 0.65 percent, tested positive again. compared to 3.27 percent of people who were infected for the first time.

This corresponds to 80 percent protection against the virus in those who were previously infected. Protection fell to 47 percent for those over 65. The team also analyzed the test results of nearly 2.5 million people during the epidemic, some longer than seven months after the initial infection, and found similar results.

“It was really nice to see that there was no difference in protection against re-infection over time,” said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

She and other experts found that 80 percent may not seem great, but protection from symptomatic illness is likely to be higher. The analysis included everyone who was tested, regardless of symptoms.

“Many of these will be asymptomatic infections, and many of them will likely be people who have a virus stain,” noted Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in New York. “An 80 percent reduction in the risk of asymptomatic infections is great.”

The results show that people who have recovered from Covid-19 should receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine to increase levels of protection, added Dr. Krammer added. Most people produce a robust immune response to natural infection, “but there is great variability,” he said. After vaccination “we don’t see any variability – with very few exceptions we see very high reactions in practically everyone.”

Experts were less convinced of the results in people over 65, saying the results would have been more robust if more people in that age group had been included in the analysis.

“I wish it had actually been broken down into specific decades over 65,” said Dr. Pepper. “It would be nice to know if the majority of the people who were re-infected were over 80 years old.”

The immune system becomes progressively weaker as we age, and people over 80 tend to respond weakly to infection with a virus. The lower levels of protection seen in the elderly in the study are consistent with these observations, said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.

“I think we tend to forget that vaccines are amazingly protective in this age group because you can see that natural infections don’t offer the same protection,” she said. “This really highlights the need to provide the elderly with the vaccine, even if they had Covid first.”