Covid19-Sources

Nature Medicine - Machine learning applied to electronic health records in two US cohorts from the RECOVER initiative identified four Long-COVID subphenotypes that differ in the involvement of...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common pathogen causing acute lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) in children. RSV usually peaks in winter and declines by early spring in China. The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported to bring changes to the transmission pattern of respiratory pathogens including RSV. Here in this paper, we analyzed RSV-positive nasopharyngeal aspirates from inpatients in the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University from October 2019 to October 2021 and compared the clinical features of the RSV-positive patients before and during COVID-19. We found an atypical upsurge of RSV infection in the late summer of 2021 after a major suppression in 2020. RSV B was the main subtype spreading among children throughout the study. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all RSV A strains belonged to ON1 genotype and all RSV B strains were BA9 genotype. Deduced amino acid analysis displayed different substitutions in the RSV strains observed before and during COVID-19. Demographic analysis suggested that males and infants aged under 5 months were the main populations infected with RSV by gender and age, respectively. Less severe clinical outcomes were observed in patients during COVID-19 than before the pandemic, especially in RSV B-positive patients. Our findings described the epidemiological changes in RSV infection brought by COVID-19, which further underscored the importance of continuous surveillance of RSV in the shadow of CO...

IntroductionDespite numerous efforts to describe COVID-19's immunological landscape, there is still a gap in our understanding of the virus's infections after-effects, especially in the recovered patients. This would be important to understand as we now have huge number of global populations infected by the SARS-CoV-2 as well as variables inclusive of VOCs, reinfections, and vaccination breakthroughs. Furthermore, single-cell transcriptome alone is often insufficient to understand the complex human host immune landscape underlying differential disease severity and clinical outcome.MethodsBy combining single-cell multi-omics (Whole Transcriptome Analysis plus Antibody-seq) and machine learning-based analysis, we aim to better understand the functional aspects of cellular and immunological heterogeneity in the COVID-19 positive, recovered and the healthy individuals.ResultsBased on single-cell transcriptome and surface marker study of 163,197 cells (124,726 cells after data QC) from the 33 individuals (healthy=4, COVID-19 positive=16, and COVID-19 recovered=13), we observed a reduced MHC Class-I-mediated antigen presentation and dysregulated MHC Class-II-mediated antigen presentation in the COVID-19 patients, with restoration of the process in the recovered individuals. B-cell maturation process was also impaired in the positive and the recovered individuals. Importantly, we discovered that a subset of the naive T-cells from the healthy individuals were absent from the recov...

Hospitalisations due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections largely decreased after social distancing measures were introduced to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Lifting these measures resulted in out-of-season RSV activity, sometimes exceeding the incidence of hospitalisations observed in regular seasons.1–3 Declining immunity due to reduced exposure to the virus may contribute to this altered epidemiology.1,4,5 Bardsley and colleagues1 showed that the combination of laboratory, clinical, and syndromic data capture the impact of RSV activity, yet did not provide insight into the proposed decline in immunity.

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant continues to evolve, with new BQ and XBB subvariants now rapidly expanding in Europe/US and Asia, respectively. As these new subvariants have additional spike mutations, they may possess altered antibody evasion properties. Here, we report that neutralization of BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB, and XBB.1 by sera from vaccinees and infected persons was markedly impaired, including sera from individuals who were boosted with a WA1/BA.5 bivalent mRNA vaccine. Compared to the ancestral strain D614G, serum neutralizing titers against BQ and XBB subvariants were lower by 13-81-fold and 66-155-fold, respectively, far beyond what had been observed to date. A panel of monoclonal antibodies capable of neutralizing the original Omicron variant, including those with Emergency Use Authorization, were largely inactive against these new subvariants. The spike mutations that conferred antibody resistance were individually studied and structurally explained. Finally, the ACE2-binding affinities of the spike proteins of these novel subvariants were found to be similar to those of their predecessors. Taken together, our findings indicate that BQ and XBB subvariants present serious threats to the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines, render inactive all authorized monoclonal antibodies, and may have gained dominance in the population because of their advantage in evading antibodies. ### Competing Interest Statement S.I, J.Y., L.L., and D.D.H. are inventors on patent applications (WO2021236998) or provisional patent applications (63/271,627) filed by Columbia University for a number of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies described in this manuscript. Both sets of applications are under review. D.D.H. is a co-founder of TaiMed Biologics and RenBio, consultant to WuXi Biologics and Brii Biosciences, and board director for Vicarious Surgical. Aubree Gordon serves on a scientific advisory board for Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Other authors declare no competing interests.

It has been recently discovered that the measles virus can damage pre-existing immunological memory, destroying B lymphocytes and reducing the diversity of non-specific B cells of the infected host. In particular, this implies that previously acquired immunization from vaccination or direct expositi …

SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with higher incidence of hospitalisation with several respiratory and non-respiratory conditions

Using a new analytical method, Empa researchers have tracked viruses as they pass through face masks and compared their failure on the filter layers of different types of masks. The new method should ...

Edmonton – Patienten mit COVID-19, die aufgrund schwerer Atemprobleme im Krankenhaus behandelt werden müssen, benötigen tatsächlich seltener eine Intubation,...

This meta-analysis has suggested that zinc supplementation is associated with a lower mortality rate in COVID-19 patients. Zinc supplementation could be considered as a simple way and cost benefit approach for reduction of mortality in COVID-19 patients.

This randomized clinical trial examines whether high-dose zinc and/or high-dose ascorbic acid reduces the severity or duration of symptoms compared with usual care among ambulatory patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Read information about zinc and COVID-19.

Realitätslevel US-Daten zu Masken und zur Maskenpflicht an Schulen belegen einen positiven und imposanten Effekt auf das Infektionsgeschehen.Wann korrigieren@hendrikstreeck@stohr_klaus@ChanasitJonas ihre Empfehlung - pro 😷#Maske und #Maskenpflicht? https://t.co/4i0jJbedxl— Bert Weingarten (@WeingartenDE) November 10, 2022

Ende 2021 erschien die Corona-Variante Omikron. Anders als angenommen, entstand die Variante in mehreren Ländern Afrikas. Doch die Studie wird auch kritisiert.

SARS-CoV-2 evolution, post-Omicron Cornelius Roemer1, Ryan Hisner2, Nicholas Frohberg2, Hitoshi Sakaguchi3, Federico Gueli4, Thomas P. Peacock5 1Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics 2Independent Researcher, USA 3Retired, Japan 4Independent Researcher, Italy 5Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, UK *corresponding author: tpp09@ic.ac.uk Summary Following the emergence and global spread of Omicron lineage BA.5, there h...

Children dying from Strep throat and other immune consequencesThis virus season has been like no other with high hospitalization rates from RSV, Influenza and now more children are dying from Strep A bacterial infections. This long thread looks at what might be going on.🧵1/ pic.twitter.com/r8mcrtBA7d— Dr. Jeff Gilchrist (@jeffgilchrist) December 5, 2022

The bivalent booster vs the BQ.1.1 variantThere have been 7 lab study preprint reports, 4 with live virus, assessing level of neutralizing antibodies for the bivalent vs original booster. Fortuitously, they converge on a 5-10 fold increase. Another reason to get a booster. pic.twitter.com/GMFuWTLqfA— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 4, 2022

Nature Medicine - A new analysis using US Department of Veterans Affairs databases showed that reinfection is associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality, hospitalization and a wide range...

For one, washing your hands is unlikely to prevent COVID spread.

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The rapid development of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 has been a triumph of medical science, but vaccines only work if people take them. Although there is extensive evidence that COVID-19 vaccination does not affect fertility, misinformation that it could has been a major source of vaccine hesitancy among young women. As the vaccination program was rolled out to younger age groups, some people noticed menstrual changes after COVID-19 vaccination, and many members of the public found these reports concerning. Research was needed to generate robust data to inform health care professionals and the public about these potential side effects. Menstrual changes have been reported in association with a variety of vaccines, including those against pathogens other than severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), so a secondary aim of this work is to understand the mechanisms by which vaccine-associated menstrual changes could occur.

The question of whether SARS-CoV-2 is mainly transmitted by droplets or aerosols has been highly controversial. We sought to explain this controversy through a historical analysis of transmission research in other diseases. For most of human history, the dominant paradigm was that many diseases were carried by the air, often over long distances and in a phantasmagorical way. This miasmatic paradigm was challenged in the mid to late 19th century with the rise of germ theory, and as diseases such as cholera, puerperal fever, and malaria were found to actually transmit in other ways. Motivated by his views on the importance of contact/droplet infection, and the resistance he encountered from the remaining influence of miasma theory, prominent public health official Charles Chapin in 1910 helped initiate a successful paradigm shift, deeming airborne transmission most unlikely. This new paradigm became dominant. However, the lack of understanding of aerosols led to systematic errors in the interpretation of research evidence on transmission pathways. For the next five decades, airborne transmission was considered of negligible or minor importance for all major respiratory diseases, until a demonstration of airborne transmission of tuberculosis (which had been mistakenly thought to be transmitted by droplets) in 1962. The contact/droplet paradigm remained dominant, and only a few diseases were widely accepted as airborne before COVID-19: those that were clearly transmitted to people not in the same room. The acceleration of interdisciplinary research inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that airborne transmission is a major mode of transmission for this disease, and is likely to be significant for many respiratory infectious diseases.

1/ What were the historical reasons for the resistance to recognizing airborne transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic?Our peer-reviewed open-access paper is now published:https://t.co/2SuvreBOxK pic.twitter.com/ainqOsT2cA— Prof. Jose-Luis Jimenez (@jljcolorado) August 23, 2022

Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) is a life-threatening syndrome of aggressive thrombosis, often profound thrombocytopenia, an…

Scientific Reports - The distinctive structure and composition of arterial and venous thrombi and pulmonary emboli

The impact of COVID-19 virus infection during pregnancy is still unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to quantitatively pool the evidence on impact of COVID-19 infection on perinatal outcomes. Databases of Medline, Embase, and Cochrane library were searched using the keywords related to COVID-19 and perinatal outcomes from December 2019 to 30 June 2021. Observational studies comparing the perinatal outcomes of COVID-19 infection in pregnancy with a non-infected comparator were included. The screening process and quality assessment of the included studies were performed independently by two reviewers. Meta-analyses were used to pool the comparative dichotomous data on perinatal outcomes. The database search yielded 4049 results, 1254 of which were duplicates. We included a total of 21 observational studies that assessed the adverse perinatal outcomes with COVID-19 infection. The odds of maternal death (pooled OR: 7.05 [2.41−20.65]), preeclampsia (pooled OR: 1.39 [1.29−1.50]), cesarean delivery (pooled OR: 1.67 [1.29−2.15]), fetal distress (pooled OR: 1.66 [1.35−2.05]), preterm birth (pooled OR: 1.86 [1.34−2.58]), low birth weight (pooled OR: 1.69 [1.35−2.11]), stillbirth (pooled OR: 1.46 [1.16−1.85]), 5th minute Apgar score of less than 7 (pooled OR: 1.44 [1.11−1.86]) and admissions to neonatal intensive care unit (pooled OR: 2.12 [1.36−3.32]) were higher among COVID-19 infected pregnant women compared to non-infected pregnant women.

Conflicting reports of increases and decreases in rates of preterm birth (PTB) and stillbirth in the general population during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have surfaced. The objective of our study was to conduct a living systematic review and meta-analyses of studies reporting pregnancy and neonatal outcomes by comparing the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods.

Objective To assess the risk of preterm birth, small for gestational age at birth, and stillbirth after covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy. Design Population based retrospective cohort study. Setting Ontario, Canada, 1 May to 31 December 2021. Participants All liveborn and stillborn infants from pregnancies conceived at least 42 weeks before the end of the study period and with gestational age ≥20 weeks or birth weight ≥500 g. Main outcome measures Using Cox regression, hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated for preterm birth before 37 weeks (overall and spontaneous preterm birth), very preterm birth (

In the era of Covid 19 and mass vaccination programs, the anti-vaccination movement across the world is currently at an all-time high. Much of this anti-vaccination sentiment could be attributed to the alleged side effects that are perpetuated across social media from anti-vaccination groups. Fear m …