Covid19-Sources

It is not clear why some individuals develop postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) while others do not. Here, Herman et al. used systems serology to probe antibody features associated with development of PASC in individuals with rheumatic diseases. The authors found that the presence of functional antibodies specific to OC43, an endemic human coronavirus, were enriched in PASC. Although more causal analysis is warranted, these results suggest that immunological imprinting specific to OC43 may be a driver of PASC, particularly in individuals with prior rheumatic disease. —Courtney Malo

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the respiratory isolation capacity in hospitals; many wards lacking high-frequency air changes have been repurposed for managing patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 requiring either standard or intensive care. Hospital-acquired COVID-19 is a recognised problem amongst both patients and staff, with growing evidence for the relevance of airborne transmission. This study examined the effect of air filtration and ultra-violet (UV) light sterilisation on detectable airborne SARS-CoV-2 and other microbial bioaerosols. Methods We conducted a crossover study of portable air filtration and sterilisation devices in a repurposed ‘surge’ COVID ward and ‘surge’ ICU. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) cyclonic aerosol samplers and PCR assays were used to detect the presence of airborne SARS-CoV-2 and other microbial bioaerosol with and without air/UV filtration. Results Airborne SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the ward on all five days before activation of air/UV filtration, but on none of the five days when the air/UV filter was operational; SARS-CoV-2 was again detected on four out of five days when the filter was off. Airborne SARS-CoV-2 was infrequently detected in the ICU. Filtration significantly reduced the burden of other microbial bioaerosols in both the ward (48 pathogens detected before filtration, two after, p =0.05) and the ICU (45 pathogens detected before filtration, five after p =0.05). Conclusions These data demonstrate the feasibility of removing SARS-CoV-2 from the air of repurposed ‘surge’ wards and suggest that air filtration devices may help reduce the risk of hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2. Funding Wellcome Trust, MRC, NIHR ### Competing Interest Statement Vilas Navapurkar is the founder, Director, and shareholder of Cambridge Infection Diagnostics Ltd. Andrew Conway-Morris, Paul White, Gordon Dougan and Stephen Baker are members of the Scientific Advisory Board of Cambridge Infection Diagnostics Ltd. Theodore Gouliouris has received a research grant from Shionogi. R Andres Floto has received research grants and/or consultancy payments from GSK, AZ, Chiesi, Shionogi, Insmed, Thirty Technology. Effrossyni Gkrania-Klotsas has received a National Institute of Health Research Greenshoots Award ### Clinical Trial Service evaluation of ability of a device to remove bioaerosol not involving patient data ### Funding Statement This work was supported by a Wellcome senior research fellowship to Stephen Baker (215515/Z/19/Z). Andrew Conway Morris is supported by a Clinician Scientist Fellowship from the Medical Research Council (MR/V006118/1). Mailis Maes and Sally Forrest are funded by the National Institute for Health Research [Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust]. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: UK National Institute for Health Research confirmed that ethical approval was not required for this work. All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes Data is available on request to the corresponding author.

Patients suffering from this complex chronic health condition face barrier after barrier seeking care, including ignorance, stigma, and discrimination

The likelihood of self-reported long COVID after a first coronavirus (COVID-19) infection compatible with the Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 variants, compared with the Delta variant, using data from the COVID-19 Infection Survey.

Nature Biomedical Engineering - A computationally designed antigen based on the receptor binding domain of the spike protein of sarbecoviruses elicits broad humoral responses against severe acute...

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### Key messages High rates of long COVID or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) continue to be reported in academic journals and subsequently filtered to the public. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently stated ‘nearly one in five American adults who have had COVID-19 still have long Covid’.1 Many scientific publications overestimate PASC prevalence because of overly broad definitions, lack of control groups, inappropriate control groups, and other methodological flaws. This problem is further compounded by inclusion of poorly conducted studies into systematic reviews and meta-analyses that overstate the risk. This is fed to the public by the media and social media, raising undue concern and anxiety. This paper aims to discuss these estimation errors and why epidemiologic research on long COVID has been misleading. For the purposes of this paper, we define long COVID as a syndrome or individual symptoms which are direct sequelae of the virus, SARS-CoV-2, and last at least 12 weeks. Some post-COVID sequelae such as post-ICU syndrome, and post-pneumonia respiratory compromise are common to many upper respiratory viruses. While post-infectious conditions common to other respiratory illnesses may be included in estimates of prevalence of lasting symptoms, we propose future research avoid the umbrella term ‘long COVID’ and …

This study shows that SRS-CoV-2 of different lineages can infect tonsils and adenoids in one quarter of children undergoing tonsillectomy. These findings bring advancement to the area of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis, by showing that tonsils may be sites of ...

Scientific Reports - A wild boar cathelicidin peptide derivative inhibits severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 and its drifted variants

Emory Vaccine Center researchers say they have identified the Achilles heel of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Association between messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis has aroused public concern over vaccine safety.The goal of this study was t…

Objective To investigate the clinical outcomes of myocarditis associated with mRNA vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus compared with other types of myocarditis. Design Population based cohort study. Setting Nationwide register data from four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), from 1 January 2018 to the latest date of follow-up in 2022. Participants The Nordic myocarditis cohort; 7292 individuals aged ≥12 years who had an incident diagnosis of myocarditis as a main or secondary diagnosis, in a population of 23 million individuals in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Main outcome measures Heart failure, or death from any cause within 90 days of admission to hospital for new onset myocarditis, and hospital readmission within 90 days of discharge to hospital for new onset myocarditis. Clinical outcomes of myocarditis associated with SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination, covid-19 disease, and conventional myocarditis were compared. Results In 2018-22, 7292 patients were admitted to hospital with new onset myocarditis, with 530 (7.3%) categorised as having myocarditis associated with SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination, 109 (1.5%) with myocarditis associated with covid-19 disease, and 6653 (91.2%) with conventional myocarditis. At the 90 day follow-up, 62, nine, and 988 patients had been readmitted to hospital in each group (vaccination, covid-19, and conventional myocarditis groups, respectively), corresponding to a relative risk of readmission of 0.79 (95% confidence interval 0.62 to 1.00) and 0.55 (0.30 to 1.04) for the vaccination type and covid-19 type myocarditis groups, respectively, compared with the conventional myocarditis group. At the 90 day follow-up, 27, 18, and 616 patients had a diagnosis of heart failure or died in the vaccination type, covid-19 type, and conventional myocarditis groups, respectively. The relative risk of heart failure within 90 days was 0.56 (95% confidence interval 0.37 to 0.85) and 1.48 (0.86 to 2.54) for myocarditis associated with vaccination and covid-19 disease, respectively, compared with conventional myocarditis; the relative risk of death was 0.48 (0.21 to 1.09) and 2.35 (1.06 to 5.19), respectively. Among patients aged 12-39 years with no predisposing comorbidities, the relative risk of heart failure or death was markedly higher for myocarditis associated with covid-19 disease than for myocarditis associated with vaccination (relative risk 5.78, 1.84 to 18.20). Conclusions Compared with myocarditis associated with covid-19 disease and conventional myocarditis, myocarditis after vaccination with SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines was associated with better clinical outcomes within 90 days of admission to hospital. Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Individual level data underlying the country specific analyses were only available within each Nordic country. The data do not belong to the authors and they are not permitted to share these data, except as presented in this manuscript.

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“Among working people 35 to 44 years old, a stunning 34% more died than expected in the last quarter of 2022, with above-average rates in other working-age groups, too.” h/t @LongCovidFam https://t.co/J01f6rZWW6— Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) August 11, 2023

Covid-19 hospitalizations have been on the rise in the United States for months, with weekly admissions now more than triple what they were two months ago. Seniors have the highest rates of Covid hospitalizations by far, but hospitalizations among children — especially among those younger than 5 — are rising fast.

A Japanese government survey has found that about 10 to 20 percent of adults infected with the coronavirus had aftereffects, including cough and fatigue, for more than two months after infection.

This cohort study examines diabetes incidence before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in individuals aged 19 years and younger.

The spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has basked in the spotlight since the pandemic began. | In the world of COVID variants, many mutations seem to lead to the same goal: Evade innate immunity. By pinpointing key proteins that make this "convergent evolution" possible, researchers are on the way to finding new targets for therapies.

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Many patients with COVID-19 develop brain fog and other cognitive symptoms months later. Their cerebrospinal fluid may hold clues to why this is happening.

Vaccine-induced immunity may impact subsequent de novo responses to drifted epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 variants, but this has been difficult to quantify due to the challenges in recruiting unvaccinated control groups whose first exposure to SARS-CoV-2 is a primary infection. Through local, statewide, and national SARS-CoV-2 testing programs, we were able to recruit cohorts of individuals who had recovered from either primary or post-vaccination infections by either the Delta or Omicron BA.1 variants. Regardless of variant, we observed greater Spike-specific and neutralizing antibody responses in post-vaccination infections than in those who were infected without prior vaccination. Through analysis of variant-specific memory B cells as markers of de novo responses, we observed that Delta and Omicron BA.1 infections led to a marked shift in immunodominance in which some drifted epitopes elicited minimal responses, even in primary infections. Prior immunity through vaccination had a small negative impact on these de novo responses, but this did not correlate with cross-reactive memory B cells, arguing against competitive inhibition of naïve B cells. We conclude that dampened de novo B cell responses against drifted epitopes are mostly a function of altered immunodominance hierarchies that are apparent even in primary infections, with a more modest contribution from pre-existing immunity, perhaps due to accelerated antigen clearance. ### Competing Interest Statement Sana Biotechnology has licensed intellectual property of D.B. and Washington University in St. Louis. Gilead Sciences has licensed intellectual property of D.B. and Stanford University. Clade Therapeutics has licensed intellectual property of D.B. and University of Arizona. D.B. is a co-founder of Clade Therapeutics. D.B. served on an advisory panel for GlaxoSmithKline. B.J.L. has a financial interest in Cofactor Genomics, Inc. and Iron Horse Dx. Geneticure Inc. has licensed intellectual property of R.S. and R.S is a co-founder of Geneticure Inc. M.W. has received consulting fees from GLG on SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic. ### Funding Statement This work was supported by NIH grants R01AI099108 and R01AI129945 (D.B.) and a research grant from the Arizona Board of Regents (M.W. and D.B). This project has been funded in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. 75N93021C00015 (M.W.) The HEROES-RECOVER cohort is supported by the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (contracts 75D30120R68013 to Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, 75D30120C08379 to the University of Arizona, and 75D30120C08150 to Abt Associates). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: IRB of The University of Arizona gave ethical approval for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors

Das SARS-CoV-2-Virus gelangt nach Kontakt seines Spike-Proteins mit dem ACE2-Rezeptor durch Membranperfusion in menschliche Zellen. Aber das Spike-Protein kann noch mehr, wie Forscher feststellten: das Verschmelzen von Körperzellen. Und zwar bei allen, die sich mit…

Long-COVID, also known as post-COVID-19 conditions (PCC), has emerged as the next public health crisis with an estimated incidence of 10-30% in non-hospitalized and 50-70% in hospitalized individuals [1]. PCC is clinically heterogeneous, having been associated with over 200 symptoms [2]. In October 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined PCC as ε1 symptom not explained by an alternate diagnosis, lasting at least 2 months, in individuals with probable or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, 12 weeks from the onset of illness [3].

Ab heute gibt es in Arztpraxen eine neue Vakzine, die an aktuelle Virusvarianten angepasst ist. Wer sich boostern lassen sollte und was über den Impfstoff bekannt ist.

"It's very clear in our data that reinfection contributes additional risk of long Covid," says epidemiologist Ziyad Al-Aly.

COVID-19 is associated with higher risks of cardiovascular disease and death in the short- and long-term, according to a study in nearly 160,000 participants published today in Cardiovascular Research, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 Compared to uninfected individuals, the likelihood of COVID-19 patients dying was up to 81 times higher in the first three weeks of infection and remained five times higher up to 18 months later.

In September, 2023, the SARS-CoV-2 XBB descendants, such as XBB.1.5 and EG.5.1 (originally XBB.1.9.2.5.1), are the predominant variants circulating worldwide.1 Unexpectedly, however, a lineage distinct from XBB was identified and named BA.2.86 on Aug 14, 2023.2 Notably, BA.2.86 bears more than 30 mutations in the spike (S) protein when compared with XBB and the parental BA.2, and many of these mutations are assumed to be associated with immune evasion (appendix p 10).2 Although the number of reported cases is low (68 sequences have been reported as of Sept 7, 2023), BA.2.86 has been detected in several continents (Europe, North America, and Africa), suggesting that this variant might be spreading silently worldwide.

This study aimed to describe the presence of disabling symptoms in currently working Long-COVID survivors by comparing the hospitalized and non-hospitalized one year after infection. Patients with Long-COVID syndrome (LCS) that have been infected by COVID-19 a year ago and were actually working were included. Participants that had been hospitalized due to COVID-19 were included in the LCS hospitalized group, and participants that had not been hospitalized were included in the LCS non-hospitalized group. The eligible patients were prompted to complete the latest self-report version of the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Screening Tool (C19-YRS). A total of 465 subjects were included in the study. Participants in the LCS hospitalized group were significantly older, had a significantly higher BMI, and had a significantly higher prevalence of women compared to the LCS non-hospitalized group. Additionally, participants in the LCS hospitalized group had obtained significantly worse results in symptom severity, functional disability, and global health perceived subscales of C19-YRS compared to the participants included in the LCS non-hospitalized group. We concluded that disabling symptoms are presented in patients with LCS at working age one year after infection and are higher in LCS hospitalized patients compared to LCS non-hospitalized patients.