Covid19-Sources

"Regardless of whether they think lockdowns work, policymakers must be cognizant of the fact shutting down society also leads to excess deaths. Whether it’s from the government policies themselves...

Neutralising antibody immunity likely to fall with delayed dose, say these authors There is ongoing debate about the UK government’s decision to delay the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine [...]More...

Recently, a new SARS-CoV-2 lineage called B.1.1.7 has emerged in the United Kingdom that was reported to spread more efficiently than other strains. This variant has an unusually large number of mutations with 10 amino acid changes in the spike protein, raising concerns that its recognition by neutralizing antibodies may be affected. Here, we investigated SARS-CoV-2-S pseudoviruses bearing either the Wuhan reference strain or the B.1.1.7 lineage spike protein with sera of 16 participants in a previously reported trial with the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2. The immune sera had equiva...

SARS-CoV-2 501Y.V2, a novel lineage of the coronavirus causing COVID-19, contains multiple mutations within two immunodominant domains of the spike protein. Here we show that this lineage exhibits complete escape from three classes of therapeutically relevant monoclonal antibodies. Furthermore 501Y.V2 shows substantial or complete escape from neutralizing antibodies in COVID-19 convalescent plasma. These data highlight the prospect of reinfection with antigenically distinct variants and may foreshadow reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines. ### Competing Interest Statement The aut...

Rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2 variants present not only an increased threat to human health due to the confirmed greater transmissibility of several of these new strains but, due to conformational changes induced by the mutations, may render first-wave SARS-CoV-2 convalescent sera, vaccine-induced antibodies, or recombinant neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) ineffective. To be able to assess the risk of viral escape from neutralization by first-wave antibodies, we leveraged our capability for Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation of the spike receptor binding domain (S RBD) and its binding to human ...

Sweden mortality from 1900 to 2020.This week's data update from SCB puts Sweden past a sad milestone: year 2020 recorded both the most excess *deaths* as well as the highest excess *mortality* (population adjusted) since the 1918 flu pandemic.Let this sink in.1/n pic.twitter.com/KsNFpyEtpP— Beͫvͣaͬnͨd (@zorinaq) January 19, 2021

SIR-like Models for COVID-19 by Dr. Frank Nestel for Technical University of Denmark November 2020

I’m seeing many discussions about the evidence for vaccine effectiveness in Israel. This is a thread with my thoughts on what we know and don’t know at this point. First some vaccination statistics:https://t.co/54HBmKosRZ1/18— Uri Shalit (@ShalitUri) January 20, 2021

Studies of hundreds of thousands of Israeli vaccinees provide real-world info on efficacy; but health official also warns 17% of current serious cases had already gotten 1st shot

CDC recommends a quarantine period of 14 days. Based on local circumstances and resources, this page offers options to shorten quarantine.

Um die impfende Ärzteschaft in ihrer täglichen Arbeit zu unterstützen, hat das Robert Koch-Institut kompakte Faktenblätter zum Impfen entwickelt. Bereits verfügbar sind die Faktenblätter als PDF für die HPV-Impfung, zur Herpes-zoster-Impfung, zur Masern-Impfung, zur Influenza-Impfung und zu "Impfungen in der Schwangerschaft". Neu ist nun das Faktenblatt "COVID-19-Impfung". Weitere Faktenblätter sind in Arbeit. Die Faktenblätter fassen kurz und knapp die wichtigsten Informationen zu einer Impfung zusammen und richten sich in erster Linie an Ärztinnen und Ärzte. Darüber hinaus können die Info...

Wie schlägt sich die Corona-Pandemie in der Sterbe-Statistik nieder? Vergleichen Sie die Zahlen der Bundesländer - und wo Deutschland international steht.

Das #NoCovid-Papier widerlegt die These, dass Kinder unter Schulschließungen mehr zu leiden hätten als unter Präsenzunterricht in der Pandemie. Angst vor Infektionen und die Belastungen der Quarantäne wirken sich negativ aus. 1/ https://t.co/nvG9BRRZQF pic.twitter.com/Bd3hvGY1S6— Michael Oberst (@miob1781) January 19, 2021

To date severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected nearly 100 million individuals resulting in over two million deaths. Many vaccines are being deployed to prevent coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) including two novel mRNA-based vaccines. These vaccines elicit neutralizing antibodies and appear to be safe and effective, but the precise nature of the elicited antibodies is not known. Here we report on the antibody and memory B cell responses in a cohort of 20 volunteers who received either the Moderna (mRNA-1273) or Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccines. Consis...

Aktuelle Reproduktionszahl aller deutschen Bundesländer

1/ Ein bisschen #ZeroCovid Mathematik, weil diese bei all den gefühlten Wahrheiten etwas zu kurz kommt.a) Was unterscheidet die Inzidenz 50/100.000 von 25/100.000?Immerhin ist das ein Faktor 2?!b) Und um drei Schritte zu machen, was unterscheidet 50/100.000 von 5/100.000?— Matthias Linden (@matthiaslinden) January 19, 2021

Statistiker stoßen in Sachsen auf ein unerklärliches Phänomen: Es sterben viel mehr Menschen, und die Übersterblichkeit lässt sich nicht nur mit den bestätigten Corona-Toten erklären.

Background Nasopharyngeal (NP) swab samples for antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) require qualified healthcare professionals and are frequently perceived as uncomfortable by patients. Methods We performed a manufacturer-independent, prospective diagnostic accuracy study, comparing professional-collected nasal mid-turbinate (NMT) to nasopharyngeal swab, using the test kits of a WHO-listed SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDT (STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag Test, SD Biosensor), which is also being distributed by Roche. Individuals with high suspicion for COVID-19 infection were tested. The reference st...

Background A new variant of SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.7/VOC202012/01, was identified in the UK in December-2020. Direct estimates of its potential to enhance transmission are limited. Methods Nose and throat swabs from 28-September-2020 to 2-January-2021 in the UK’s nationally representative surveillance study were tested by RT-PCR for three genes (N, S and ORF1ab). Those positive only on ORF1ab+N, S-gene target failures (SGTF), are compatible with B.1.1.7/VOC202012/01. We investigated cycle threshold (Ct) values (a proxy for viral load), percentage of positives, population positivity and growth ra...

This systematic review and meta-analysis quantified the protective effect of facemasks and respirators against respiratory infections among healthcare workers. Relevant articles were retrieved from Pubmed, EMBASE, and Web of Science. Meta-analyses were ...

The pandemic of COVID-19 is growing, and a shortage of masks and respirators has been reported globally. Policies of health organizations for healthca…

Mandates for mask use in public during the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, worsened by global shortage of commercial supplies, have led to widespread use of homemade masks and mask alternatives. It is assumed that wearing such masks reduces the likelihood for an infected person to spread the disease, but many of these mask designs have not been tested in practice. We have demonstrated a simple optical measurement method to evaluate the efficacy of masks to reduce the transmission of respiratory droplets during regular speech. In proof-of-principle studies, we compared a...