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DNA Synthesis Market to hit USD 20.5 Bn by 2032, says Global Market Insights Inc. – GlobeNewswire

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

Selbyville, Delaware, April 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DNA Synthesis Market size is expected to reach a remuneration of USD 20.5 billion by 2032. Rising advancements in biotechnology and genetic engineering across various research, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications will augment the industry growth.

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With the rise of precision medicine and personalized healthcare, there is a growing need for custom-designed DNA sequences tailored to specific research objectives or patient requirements. For instance, in March 2024, global genomics solutions provider Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) expanded its gene synthesis offerings by introducing a new custom vector onboarding tool. The advancing fields of synthetic biology and gene editing techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9 have further propelled the demand for DNA synthesis, as researchers seek to engineer novel organisms and develop innovative therapies for various diseases.

Collaborations between academic institutions, biotechnology companies, and pharmaceutical firms are also facilitating the development of cutting-edge technologies and streamlined workflows in DNA synthesis. These partnerships foster innovation and knowledge exchange, driving advancements in the methodologies while expanding the repertoire of available synthetic DNA products. Furthermore, the increasing affordability and accessibility of DNA synthesis services, coupled with improvements in synthesis throughput and scalability are democratizing access to synthesized DNA for researchers worldwide.

Rising usage for diagnostics

DNA synthesis market share from the therapeutic application segment is slated to gain momentum through 2024-2032. This is driven by the increasing adoption of molecular diagnostics for disease detection and personalized treatment approaches. Custom-designed DNA sequences help in the development of molecular diagnostic tests, enabling precise detection of genetic mutations and biomarkers associated with various diseases. The advent of targeted therapies and gene editing technologies has also fueled the demand for synthesized DNA in therapeutic applications.

CRO segment to gain traction

The DNA synthesis market from the contract research organization (CRO) segment is expected to expand exponentially up to 2032. This is driven by specialized expertise and infrastructure for DNA synthesis services for catering to the diverse needs of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic research institutions. These organizations possess state-of-the-art facilities equipped with high-throughput synthesis platforms and experienced scientific teams capable of delivering custom-designed DNA sequences with precision and efficiency. CROs also provide end-to-end solutions, including gene synthesis, cloning, and sequence verification, allowing clients to focus on their core research objectives while entrusting the synthesis process to specialized professionals.

Asia Pacific to emerge as a prominent industry

Asia Pacific DNA synthesis market is estimated to record significant valuation by 2032, attributed to the increasing investment in genomics research and biotechnology initiatives by governments and private enterprises across countries like China, Japan, and India. The rising prevalence of genetic disorders and infectious diseases in the region has spurred the demand for customized DNA sequences for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Advancements in healthcare infrastructure and the growing adoption of precision medicine will further stimulate the regional industry growth.

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DNA Synthesis Industry Players

Some of the prominent DNA synthesis market players include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., ELISA experts, Twist Bioscience, BOSTER antibody, Bioneer Corporation, ProteoGenix, Eton Bioscience, BIOMATIK, LGC Biosearch Technologies, ProMab Biotechnologies, IBA GmbH, Eurogentec, Eurofins Scientific, Quintara Biosciences OriGene Technologies, Inc., Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc.and GenScript Biotech Corporation.

These firms are focusing on partnership ventures and innovations to proliferate their product portfolio and customer base. To cite an instance, in August 2023, Genscript Biotech formed a strategic collaboration agreement with T-MAXIMUM Biotech to develop CAR-T cell therapy.

Partial Table of Contents (ToC) of the report:

Chapter 2Executive Summary

2.1 Global DNA synthesis market 360 synopsis, 2018 2032 2.1.1 Business trends 2.1.2 Regional trends 2.1.3 Service trends 2.1.4 Method trends 2.1.5 Application trends 2.1.6 End-use trends Chapter 3DNA Synthesis Industry Insights 3.1 Industry ecosystem analysis 3.2 Industry impact forces 3.2.1 Growth drivers 3.2.1.1Growing prevalence of diseases globally 3.2.1.2Rapid technology advancements in the field of synthetic biology 3.2.1.3Rising investments towards research and development(R&D) activities 3.2.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges 3.2.2.1Stringent government regulations and guidelines 3.2.2.2High cost, potential biosafety,biosecurity and ethical issues 3.3 Growth potential analysis 3.3.1 By service 3.3.2 By method 3.3.3 By application 3.3.4 By end use 3.4 COVID- 19 impact analysis 3.5 Regulatory landscape 3.5.1 U.S. 3.5.2 Europe 3.6 Porter's analysis 3.7 PESTEL analysis

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About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

National Biosafety Authority urged to step up its communication efforts on GMOs – Myjoyonline

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

Fellow at the Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Center of the North Carolina State University Joseph Opoku Gakpo is urging Ghanas National Biosafety Authority (NBA) to step up its communications efforts on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Speaking at a webinar organised by the Africa Genetic Biocontrol Consortium on "gaps, challenges, and innovations in science communication, he said recent media reports in which some stakeholders condemned the approval of 14 genetically engineered products in the country could have been avoided through proactive communication.

A report by the United States Department for Agriculture published last month disclosed the authority has approved 14 new GMOs including eight corn events and six soybean events.

The report drew backlash from some groups including the Peasant Farmers Association, Ghana Agricultural Workers Union, Ghana Journalists for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (GJESHA), and the Centre for Climate Change and Food Security (CCCFS), among others.

The Peasant Farmers Association warned its members will not accept any GMO seeds under the governments flagship Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

The authority subsequently clarified in a statement that the approval is for the GMOs to be imported for use as feed, food, and for processing, and not for local cultivation.

Mr. Gakpo questioned why the authority did not find it necessary to inform Ghanaians about the approval early in the year, and waited until a foreign entity told the story first.

The approval was in February. The USDA report was published on 20th March and has been making rounds on various social media platforms.

"It wasnt until April 14 before the NBA issued a statement clarifying what it had done. How will Ghanaians feel about hearing of this approval first from a foreign partner? he quizzed.

The NBA should have been the first to put a statement, at least on its website, explaining what exactly it had done and not have created a situation where other institutions had to tell their story for them, Mr Gakpo said.

So, there wasnt proactive communication. It was simply reactive communication. And even the reactive communication happened almost a month later. The authority needs to step up its communications efforts, he added.

Mr. Gakpo whose research at the GES Center focuses on how communication influences the deployment of agricultural biotechnologies noted the National Biosafety Act 2011 which governs the operations of the NBA urges it to prioritise proactive communication.

Section 4 (d) of Act 831 says one of the functions of the authority is to promote public awareness, participation and education concerning the activities of the authority under this Act he said.

Section 41(2) also says the Authority shall publish notices of final decisions concerning applications made under this Act in the Gazette and the electronic and print media, he explained.

Mr. Gakpo said the law passed by parliament recognises the important role of the media in helping disseminate information on genetic technologies and the authority must do more in that regard.

I am not saying the Biosafety Authority is shirking its responsibility to communicate. Because I have seen officials from the authorities do media interviews and other such communication activities.

"But I am only saying they need to do more. And they should particularly be proactive rather than always fighting back, he added.

Cecilia Lubanga who is a communication specialist at the Office of the Senate in Kenya also told the webinar the field of communicating science is changing quickly and actors in the industry need to be abreast with the latest developments.

Science communication is a rapidly evolving field, driven by advancements in technology, changes in societal attitudes, and the effective dissemination of complex scientific information to diverse audiences, she said.

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

Original post:

National Biosafety Authority urged to step up its communication efforts on GMOs - Myjoyonline

Man had rare Covid infection that lasted 613 days, showed extensive mutations – South China Morning Post

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

Researchers from the Netherlands have reported an extremely long Covid-19 infection in a man who died last year and warn of the emergence of more dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

The elderly man, who was immunocompromised due to previous illnesses, was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam in February 2022 with a Covid-19 infection, according to a statement.

He was continuously positive for the coronavirus until his death in October 2023 for a total of 613 days.

Other cases of very long infections in people whose immune systems were unable to adequately fight the virus have previously been reported.

01:29

Like drinking milk tea: China launches worlds first inhalable Covid vaccine

The researchers led by Magda Vergouwe from the University of Amsterdam plan to present the results at a congress of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona on April 27-30.

The case is also interesting for researchers because the coronavirus can change particularly strongly in such long-term infected people. This harbours the risk of variants of the virus emerging that can more easily overcome the immune systems of healthy people.

The researchers in the Netherlands repeatedly took samples from the man to analyse the genetic material of the coronavirus. They found a total of more than 50 mutations compared to the Omicron variant BA.1 that was circulating at the time, including those that would allow the virus to evade the immune defence.

Just 21 days after the man had received a certain anti-coronavirus drug, the virus also developed signs of resistance to it.

German with comically large number of Covid jabs 217 had no side effects

The man eventually died from a flare-up of one of his previous illnesses. As far as is known, he had not infected anyone with his mutated version of the coronavirus, also known under its scientific name Sars-CoV-2.

This case highlights the risk of new immune-evasive Sars-CoV-2 variants emerging in immunocompromised patients, the researchers are quoted as saying in the press release.

The extensive development of the virus in a single patient could lead to the emergence of unique variants, they warn.

It is important to closely monitor the evolution of the coronavirus in immunocompromised individuals. There is a risk that variants could emerge and spread in society that are less susceptible to the immune systems of healthy people, they added

Read the rest here:

Man had rare Covid infection that lasted 613 days, showed extensive mutations - South China Morning Post

General Information About At-Home OTC COVID-19 Diagnostic Tests – FDA.gov

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough, Inc.: BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test

Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough, Inc.: BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test

Access Bio, Inc.: CareStart COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

Alternate brand name:

ACON Laboratories, Inc: Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

Alternate brand name:

Aptitude Medical Systems Inc.: Metrix COVID-19 Test

Celltrion USA, Inc.: Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Home Test

CorDx, Inc. CorDx TyFast Flu A/B & COVID-19 At Home Multiplex Rapid Test

CTK Biotech, Inc.: ImmuView COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

Cue Health Inc.: Cue COVID-19 Test for Home and Over The Counter (OTC) Use

Ellume Limited: Ellume COVID-19 Home Test

Genabio Diagnostics Inc.: Genabio COVID-19 Rapid Self-Test Kit

iHealth Labs, Inc.: iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test

Alternate brand name:

InBios International Inc: SCoV-2 Ag Detect Rapid Self-Test

Immunostics Inc.: Swab-N-Go Home Test COVID-19 Ag

PfizerInc: Lucira CHECK-IT COVID-19 Test Kit

Maxim Biomedical, Inc.: MaximBio ClearDetect COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

Mologic, Inc.: COVI-Go SARS-CoV-2 Ag Self-Test

OraSure Technologies, Inc.: InteliSwab COVID-19 Rapid Test

OSANG LLC: OHC COVID-19 Antigen Self Test

Alternate brand name:

OSANG LLC: QuickFinder COVID-19/Flu Antigen Self Test

PHASE Scientific International, Ltd.: INDICAID COVID-19 Rapid Antigen At-Home Test

Quidel Corporation: QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Test

Alternative Brand Names:

SD Biosensor, Inc.: Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Test

FDA Safety Communication - Recall of Certain Lots

Siemens Healthineers: CLINITEST Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test

Watmind USA: Speedy Swab Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test

Xiamen Boson Biotech Co., Ltd.: Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test Card

SEKISUI Diagnostics, LLC.: OSOM COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

Beijing Hotgen Biotech Co., Ltd.: Hotgen COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

CorDX, Inc.: CorDx COVID-19 Ag Test

Azure Biotech Inc.: Fastep COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

Oceanit Foundry LLC: ASSURE-100 Rapid COVID-19

Advin Biotech Inc.: Advin COVID-19 Antigen Test @Home

GenBody Inc.: GenBody COVID-19 Ag Home Test

Azure Biotech, Inc.: Azure FaStep COVID-19 Antigen Pen Home Test

Pfizer Inc.: Lucira by Pfizer COVID-19 & Flu Home Test

Princeton BioMeditech Corp: Status COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test for Home Use

Nano-Ditech Corporation: Nano-Check COVID-19 Antigen At-Home Test

BioTeke USA, LLC: Bio-Self COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

3EO Health, Inc.: 3EO Health COVID-19 Test

SEKISUI Diagnostics, LLC: OSOM Flu SARS-CoV-2 Combo Home Test

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General Information About At-Home OTC COVID-19 Diagnostic Tests - FDA.gov

UNM research analyzes government intervention and COVID-19 pandemic – UNM Newsroom

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

While theres a strong determination worldwide to return to a new normal in a post-COVID world, the pandemic is nearly impossible to forget. A large amount of data also provides insight we may not want to move past just yethow we handled it.

UNM Political Science Associate Professor and Chair Jami Nelson-Nuez is evaluating COVID policies in a research paper titled, Non-pharmaceutical interventions to combat COVID-19 in the Americas described through daily sub-national data, published

Jami Nelson-Nuez

recently in the journal, Scientific Data, a Nature publication. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, she and an international team of researchers investigated the impact of Latin American governments' actions and plans.

Like in the U.S., politics at national, state and local levels influenced decisions on COVID-19 mitigation around the world impacting cases, deaths, hospitalizations, jobs and education. Nelson-Nuez specifically looked at the cause and effect of policies and politics in Bolivia through months of data.

Bolivia is a really interesting case because they have a system that's mainly decentralized creating a lot of variation across different regions. Our main focus was looking at the effects of policies and how they evolved, Nelson-Nuez said. We were extremely productive on the project and our work shed light on the political intersection of the pandemic in Bolivia and how that spoke to what was happening in several other countries.

This tied into what was going on in the United States. It was a deeply political time in our country.These political patterns were reflected across several countries, making for an interesting comparative study. UNM Political Science Associate Professor Jami Nelson-Nuez

The pandemic occurred at a time of upheaval in national politics in Bolivia. After an already tumultuous fall 2019 election, Bolivias transitional government lacked legitimacy and the country was deeply divided.

There was a conflict that had been bubbling for a while. The country was in a moment of crisis of contested leadership. It was interesting to follow how the dynamics of the pandemic in Bolivia were shaped by these political complexities throughout the country, Nelson-Nuez said.

When the elections were postponed a second time, tens of thousands of Bolivians across the country rushed to the streets and protested for months. Part of those protests in some places included creating blockades so that medical equipment couldn't get through.

Bolivia has always been an outlier when it comes to protest. Its people have always been highly mobilized and able to overcome those collective action problems to mount significant protests, Nelson-Nuez said. There's a history in Bolivia of people marching for days to the central government and then occupying the streets in the capital.

With that unrest,non-pharmaceutical interventions(NPIs) were few and far between. A large governmental response given the challenge of already weak state capacity in health services made it difficult to make and enforce coherent policies.

The central government was trying to figure out how to steer the ship for the whole country, while regional and local actors were contesting these decisions, Nelson-Nuez said. The politics and the dynamics of multi-level governance can render local communities very vulnerable to these types of events.

Even with the NPIs and guidance issued over time, it was too little too late. The hospital system fully collapsed in the summer of 2020.

Additionally, given the state of leadership, although some NPIs were issued, there needed to be more public trust to abide by government policies and enable governments to make and enforce policies.Her colleagues found similar results in other Latin American countries.

Underlying disparities in health are political. Underneath health realities are important political factors, and if we ignore those, we really don't understand how and why pandemics are occurring or why health disparities are emerging in the way that they are, Nelson-Nuez said.

Nelson-Nuez says this research is one of many ways public health and politics are intertwined.

Sometimes people don't understand political science. As a discipline, we study power, which means we study resources and the distribution of those resources, Nelson-Nuez said. Health is a resource, and access to services is a resource. We can see political factors across the world that shape the ability of diseases to spread and how deadline global health emergencies can be.

Read this article:

UNM research analyzes government intervention and COVID-19 pandemic - UNM Newsroom

Man dies after 613-day COVID-19 infection that underwent 50 mutations – Scripps News

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

A new reportby Dutch scientists revealed a very peculiar case: On Feb. 2022, a 72-year-old man with a compromised immune system was admitted to Amsterdam University Medical Center with aCOVID-19infection. The virus in his body proceeded to evolve over the course of 613 days, leading to a highly mutated variant that ultimately killed him.

According to the study, the man, whose identity was not disclosed, suffered from a blood disorder. Despite receiving multiple doses of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, his compromised immune system made him unable to generate a detectable antibody response, allowing the virus to continue to evolve into a "novel immune-evasive variant" that had mutated over 50 times. The man died from his underlying blood disorder after fighting COVID for nearly two years, the scientists from the University of Amsterdams Centre for Experimental and Molecular Medicine stated.

This case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals as unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge due to extensive intra-host evolution," the study authors stated ina press release. "We emphasize the importance of continuing genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 evolution in immunocompromised individuals with persistent infections given the potential public health threat of possibly introducing viral escape variants into the community.

While the study notes there have been cases in which people have tested positive for COVID-19 for hundreds of days, this case is the longest reported by far. Furthermore, researchers say the rare variant found in this patient hasn't been reported in anyone else, but emphasize the need for more study to protect the public from potential new variants.

The researchers say they plan to further present this study at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Global Congress in Barcelona, Spain, startingthis weekend.

The rest is here:

Man dies after 613-day COVID-19 infection that underwent 50 mutations - Scripps News

COVID virus mutated in Dutch man, raising importance of proper immunocompromised care – Cosmos

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

Dutch medical scientists are warning about the risk of viruses mutating over long periods in infected immunocompromised people.

Forthcoming research from the group relates to a previously reported case of a 72-year-old Dutch man who was infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus for a record 613 days before dieing from a blood disorder.

The research, which is not yet published or peer-reviewed, will this week be presented at a global congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

They tracked the evolution of the virus within the mans system, while he was administered the antivirals sotrovimab, sarilumab and dexamethasone.

Samples taken between February 2022 and September 2023 noted more than 50 mutations in the viruss genetic sequence. Evidence of immune escape was also observed in the form of changes multiple changes to the virus spike protein.

During the period of infection, the virus evolved resistance to sotrovimab.

In their presentation, the 6 researchers will argue that immunocompromised patients need close monitoring, not only for their own health outcomes but also for signs of viral change that could spread beyond the patient.

They report that in this case the highly mutated, drug-resistant variant was not passed to anyone else.

This case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection in immunocompromised individuals as unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge due to extensive intra-host evolution, the researchers write.

Though they note this is an extreme case, they report also monitoring other prolonged infections ranging from a month to 2 years in length.

Prolonged infections in immunocompromised patients are much more common compared to the general community, they say However, from the viewpoint of the general public, prolonged infections remain rare as the immunocompromised population is only a very small percentage of the total population.

Continue reading here:

COVID virus mutated in Dutch man, raising importance of proper immunocompromised care - Cosmos

Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous – Albuquerque Journal

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

BEIJING (AP) The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months.

The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.

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Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous - Albuquerque Journal

Dozens of COVID Virus Mutations Arose in Man With Longest Known Case – HealthDay

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

FRIDAY, April 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- An immune-compromised man with a year-and-a-half-long COVID infection served as a breeding ground for dozens of coronavirus mutations, a new study discovered.

Worse, several of the mutations were in the COVID spike protein, indicating that the virus had attempted to evolve around current vaccines, researchers report.

This case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals, as unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge, said the research team led by Magda Vergouwe. She's a doctoral candidate with Amsterdam University Medical Center in The Netherlands.

The patient in questioned endured the longest known COVID infection to date, fighting with the virus for 613 days before dying from the blood disease that had compromised his immune system, researchers said.

Immune-compromised patients who suffer persistent infections give the COVID virus an opportunity to adapt and evolve, the investigators explained.

For instance, the Omicron variant is thought to have emerged in an immune-compromised patient initially infected with an earlier form of COVID, researchers said.

In this latest report, the man was admitted to Amsterdam University Medical Center in February 2022 with a COVID infection at age 72, after hed already received multiple vaccinations.

He suffered from myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative overlap syndrome, a disease in which the bone marrow makes too many white blood cells, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Following a stem cell transplant, the man also had developed lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells, researchers said.

A drug he took for lymphoma, rituximab, depleted all the immune cells that normally produce antibodies for COVID, they added.

To clear his COVID, the man received a monoclonal antibody cocktail that ultimately proved ineffective.

In fact, gene sequencing showed that the coronavirus started mutating to evade the antibodies hed received, a step that could have potentially undermined the effectiveness of the treatment in others, researchers said.

Gene sequencing of 27 nasal specimens taken from the man revealed more than 50 mutations in the COVID virus, including variants with changes in the spike protein targeted by vaccines.

The prolonged infection has led to the emergence of a novel immune-evasive variant due to the extensive within-host evolution, researchers said.

Such cases pose a potential public health threat of possibly introducing viral escape variants into the community, they added.

However, they noted that there had been no documented transmission of any COVID variants from the man into other people.

The researchers will present their findings at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases meeting next week in Barcelona. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about COVID.

SOURCE: European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, news release, April 19, 2024

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Dozens of COVID Virus Mutations Arose in Man With Longest Known Case - HealthDay

Criminal Prosecutions Of Illegal Immigrants Stopped When Coronavirus Hit. They Never Resumed – The Daily Wire

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

President Joe Biden has largely given up on criminally prosecuting illegal immigrants for crossing the border, with the number of prosecutions of serious immigration offenses lower during every year of the Biden administration than any year of the Trump or Obama administrations, a Daily Wire analysis of newly-released data shows.

The prosecutions have screeched to a virtual halt under Biden. In 2018, the Department of Justice charged 84,000 people with illegal entry, a misdemeanor. The total number charged with this misdemeanor during the entire three-year period from 2021 to 2023 was 11,000, according to a Daily Wire analysis of Department Of Justice data only 4% of the old rate.

Illegals who re-enter the country after they have already been deported once are committing a felony. In 2019, the DOJ charged 27,000 people with that crime. In 2023, the number was about half that, at 14,000. This comes as the number of illegal crossings has skyrocketed, making the decrease even more striking.

The apparent decision to rely on, at best, civil deportation proceedings instead of bringing criminal charges particularly in more egregious cases such as those who re-enter the country after already having been deported contradicts Bidens claim that he needs new authorities from Congress in order to secure the border.

Criminal cases against illegal immigrants essentially ceased in April 2020 when courts closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In March 2020, 4,000 illegals were charged with entry and 2,000 with felony reentry; by April those numbers were only 671 and 960. Criminal cases for illegal entry remained essentially nonexistent during the coronavirus-lockdown period of the rest of 2020, at 13 cases in December, while felony illegal reentry charges were at half their earlier levels.

Joe Biden took office in January 2021, and the coronavirus pandemic receded. Yet criminal enforcement of immigration laws never returned.

In December 2023, the most recent month with data, a mere 708 people were charged with illegal entry and 1,236 with felony reentry. Compare that to December 2018, when those numbers were nearly 7,000 and 2,000, respectively.

The peak of criminal enforcement during the Trump administration came in June 2018, when the numbers were 9,500 and 2,237. Border apprehensions decreased, which the administration argued showed that its efforts were working as a deterrent. By comparison, the current record-low prosecution of illegal border crossing comes as crossings are at all-time highs.

The change is not simply an expected difference between Republican and Democrat administrations. Rather, Biden has taken a more lenient posture towards illegals than Barack Obama, the Democrat president for whom he served as vice president.

Though detailed data only goes back to 2019, the Executive Office of US Attorneys released annual statistics last month that make it possible to track a longer period. That data shows cases prosecuted by the Department of Justice pursuant to a referral by the Department of Homeland Security, though it doesnt include most misdemeanor illegal-entry charges. They show that the number of illegals charged with serious immigration crimes in each year of the Biden administration was lower than any year since at least 2009.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the Department of Justice responded to requests for comment.

In 2011, the Obama administration brought 37,000 serious cases referred by DHS almost twice as many as Biden did last year. But after he won re-election to a second term, he lowered that number every year, ending at 27,000 in 2016.

The Trump administration took a few years to get back to the levels of Obamas first term, reaching 36,607 cases in 2019 but never actually surpassing Obamas peak, according to the DOJ data covering serious immigration crimes.

But it smashed records when it came to misdemeanor charges for illegal first-time entry. Although the criminal charge is less serious, it captures a significantly larger number of people.

In FY 2018, more than 68,400 defendants were charged with misdemeanor illegal entry. This is the highest number of such defendants charged since EOUSA started to track this category and an almost 86 percent increase from the previous year. This total is also more than 4 percent higher than the previous record of over 65,500 defendants set in FY 2013, the Trump administration said in a 2018 press release.

Gene Hamilton, who served in the DOJ during the Trump administration and now works as general counsel for America First Legal, which is helmed by Trump immigration czar Stephen Miller, told The Daily Wire that crossing the border illegally is a crime, prosecutable in criminal court, but the Biden administration has chosen to treat it like a traffic ticket, causing word to get out in Latin America that there is little reason not to try to come to the United States.

Given the number of illegal aliens crossing the border, you should be seeing all-time records for prosecutions for crossing the border illegally, but youre not, Hamilton said. They have removed a deterrent. The ultimate thing that matters to people is whether they make it into the country and are released and they call home and tell their family. If people know they could be criminally prosecuted, it acts as a deterrent and reduces the number of people who come in the first place.

Debate about immigration has rarely discussed the criminal figures, instead focusing on the number of civil deportation proceedings, which in the Biden administration have stacked up into a record backlog. But criminal charges, with the prospect of punishment instead of merely turning them away, can be filed for illegal entry, illegal reentry, alien smuggling, and immigration fraud.

While the Trump administration sought to create a deterrent by emphasizing prosecutions of misdemeanor, first-time border crossings, Biden has departed from historical norms by rarely prosecuting even those who commit felony re-entryrecidivist criminals who have shown that a gentle approach did not work.

In a report on fiscal year 2022 data, the United States Sentencing Commission said that illegal reentry prosecutions had decreased by 34% since 2018. It said that 97.6% of illegal reentry offenders were men, their average age was 39, and many had extensive criminal histories. It said 99.3% of convicts are sentenced to prison, for an average of 13 months.

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Criminal Prosecutions Of Illegal Immigrants Stopped When Coronavirus Hit. They Never Resumed - The Daily Wire

Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous – El Paso Inc.

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

The investigation drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing.

As early as Jan. 6, 2020, health officials in Beijing closed the lab of a Chinese scientist who sequenced the virus and barred researchers from working with him.

Scientists warn the willful blindness over coronavirus origins leaves the world vulnerable to another outbreak, potentially undermining pandemic treaty talks coordinated by the World Health Organization set to culminate in May.

At the heart of the question is whether the virus jumped from an animal or came from a laboratory accident. A U.S. intelligence analysis says there is insufficient evidence to prove either theory, but the debate has further tainted relations between the U.S. and China.

Unlike in the U.S., there is virtually no public debate in China about whether the virus came from nature or from a lab leak. In fact, there is little public discussion at all about the source of the disease, first detected in the central city of Wuhan.

Crucial initial efforts were hampered by bureaucrats in Wuhan trying to avoid blame who misled the central government; the central government, which muzzled Chinese scientists and subjected visiting WHO officials to stage-managed tours; and the U.N. health agency itself, which may have compromised early opportunities to gather critical information in hopes that by placating China, scientists could gain more access, according to internal materials obtained by AP.

In a faxed statement, China's Foreign Ministry defended Chinas handling of research into the origins, saying the country is open and transparent, shared data and research, and made the greatest contribution to global origins research. The National Health Commission, China's top medical authority, said the country invested huge manpower, material and financial resources and has not stopped looking for the origins of the coronavirus.

It could have played out differently, as shown by the outbreak of SARS, a genetic relative of COVID-19, nearly 20 years ago. China initially hid infections then, but WHO complained swiftly and publicly. Ultimately, Beijing fired officials and made reforms. The U.N. agency soon found SARS likely jumped to humans from civet cats in southern China and international scientists later collaborated with their Chinese counterparts to pin down bats as SARS natural reservoir.

But different leaders of both China and WHO, Chinas quest for control of its researchers, and global tensions have all led to silence when it comes to searching for COVID-19s origins. Governments in Asia are pressuring scientists not to look for the virus for fear it could be traced inside their borders.

Even without those complications, experts say identifying how outbreaks begin is incredibly challenging and that its rare to know with certainty how some viruses begin spreading.

Its disturbing how quickly the search for the origins of (COVID-19) escalated into politics, said Mark Woolhouse, a University of Edinburgh outbreak expert. Now this question may never be definitively answered.

Secrecy clouds the beginning of the outbreak. Even the date when Chinese authorities first started searching for the origins is unclear.

The first publicly known search for the virus took place on Dec. 31, 2019, when Chinese Center for Disease Control scientists visited the Wuhan market where many early COVID-19 cases surfaced.

However, WHO officials heard of an earlier inspection of the market on Dec. 25, 2019, according to a recording of a confidential WHO meeting provided to AP by an attendee. Such a probe has never been mentioned publicly by either Chinese authorities or WHO.

In the recording, WHOs top animal virus expert, Peter Ben Embarek, mentioned the earlier date, describing it as an interesting detail. He told colleagues that officials were looking at what was on sale in the market, whether all the vendors have licenses (and) if there was any illegal (wildlife) trade happening in the market.

A colleague asked Ben Embarek, who is no longer with WHO, if that seemed unusual. He responded that it was not routine, and that the Chinese must have had some reason to investigate the market. Well try to figure out what happened and why they did that.

Ben Embarek declined to comment. Another WHO staffer at the Geneva meeting in late January 2020 confirmed Ben Embareks comments.

The Associated Press could not confirm the search independently. It remains a mystery if it took place, what inspectors discovered, or whether they sampled live animals that might point to how COVID-19 emerged.

A Dec. 25, 2019, inspection would have come when Wuhan authorities were aware of the mysterious disease. The day before, a local doctor sent a sample from an ill market vendor to get sequenced that turned out to contain COVID-19. Chatter about the unknown pneumonia was spreading in Wuhans medical circles, according to one doctor and a relative of another who declined to be identified, fearing repercussions.

A scientist in China when the outbreak occurred said they heard of a Dec. 25 inspection from collaborating virologists in the country. They declined to be named out of fear of retribution.

WHO said in an email that it was not aware of the Dec. 25 investigation. It is not included in the U.N. health agencys official COVID-19 timeline.

When health officials from Beijing arrived in Wuhan on Dec. 31, they decided to disinfect the market before collecting samples, destroying critical information about the virus. Gao Fu, head of the China CDC, mentioned it to an American collaborator.

His complaint when I met him was that all the animals were gone, said Columbia University epidemiologist Ian Lipkin.

Robert Garry, who studies viruses at Tulane University, said a Dec. 25 probe would be hugely significant, given what is known about the virus and its spread.

Being able to swab it directly from the animal itself would be pretty convincing and nobody would be arguing about the origins of COVID-19, he said.

But perhaps local officials simply feared for their jobs, with memories of firings after the 2003 SARS outbreak still vivid, said Ray Yip, the founding head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outpost in China.

They were trying to save their skin, hide the evidence, Yip said.

The Wuhan government did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

Another early victim was Zhang Yongzhen, the first scientist to publish a sequence of the virus. A day after he wrote a memo urging health authorities to action, Chinas top health official ordered Zhangs lab closed.

They used their official power against me and our colleagues, Zhang wrote in an email provided to AP by Edward Holmes, an Australian virologist.

On Jan. 20, 2020, a WHO delegation arrived in Wuhan for a two-day mission. China did not approve a visit to the market, but they stopped by a China CDC lab to examine infection prevention and controlprocedures, according to an internal WHO travel report. WHOs then-China representative, Dr. Gauden Galea, told colleagues in a private meeting that inquiries about COVID-19s origins went unanswered.

There are a few cadres who have performed poorly, President Xi Jinping said in unusually harsh comments in February. Some dare not take responsibility, wait timidly for orders from above, and dont move without being pushed.

The government opened investigations into top health officials, according to two former and current China CDC staff and three others familiar with the matter. Health officials were encouraged to report colleagues who mishandled the outbreak to Communist Party disciplinary bodies, according to two of the people.

Some people both inside and outside China speculated about a laboratory leak. Those suspicious included right-wing American politicians, but also researchers close to WHO.

The focus turned to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a high-level lab that experimented with some of the worlds most dangerous viruses.

In early February 2020, some of the Wests leading scientists, headed by Dr. Jeremy Farrar, then at Britains Wellcome Trust, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, then director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, banded together to assess the origins of the virus in calls, a Slack channel and emails.

They drafted a paper suggesting a natural evolution, but even among themselves, they could not agree on the likeliest scenario. Some were alarmed by features they thought might indicate tinkering.

There have (been) suggestions that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, Holmes, the Australian virologist, who believed the virus originated in nature, wrote in a Feb. 7, 2020, email. I do a lot of work in China, and I can (assure) you that a lot of people there believe they are being lied to.

American scientists close to researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology warned counterparts there to prepare.

James DeLuc, head of a Texas lab, emailed his Wuhan colleague on Feb. 9, 2020, saying hed already been approached by U.S. officials. Clearly addressing this will be essential, with any kind of documentation you might have, he wrote.

The Chinese government was conducting its own secret investigation into the Wuhan Institute. Gao, the head of the China CDC, and another Chinese health expert revealed its existence in interviews months and years later. Both said the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, which Holmes, the Australian virologist, also heard from another contact in China. But Gao said even he hadn't seen further details, and some experts suspect they may never be released.

WHO started negotiations with China for a second visit with the virus origins in mind, but it was Chinas Foreign Ministry that decided the terms.

Scientists were sidelined and politicians took control. China refused a visa for Ben Embarek, then WHOs top animal virus expert. The itinerary dropped nearly all items linked to an origins search, according to draft agendas for the trip obtained by the AP. And Gao, the China CDC head who is also a respected scientist tasked with investigating the origins, was left off the schedule.

Instead, Liang Wannian, a politician in the Communist Party hierarchy, took charge of the international delegation. Liang is an epidemiologist close to top Chinese officials and China's Foreign Ministry who is widely seen as pushing the party line, not science-backed policies, according to nine people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified to speak on a sensitive subject.

Most of the WHO delegation was not allowed to go to Wuhan, which was under lockdown. The few who did learned little. They again had no access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the wildlife market and obtained only scant details about China CDC efforts to trace the coronavirus there.

On the train, Liang lobbied the visiting WHO scientists to praise Chinas health response in their public report. Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saw it as the best way to meet Chinas need for a strong assessment of its response.

The new section was so flattering that colleagues emailed Aylward to suggest he dial it back a bit.

It is remarkable how much knowledge about a new virus has been gained in such a short time, read the final report, which was reviewed by Chinas top health official before it went to Tedros.

As criticism of China grew, the Chinese government deflected blame. Instead of firing health officials, they declared their virus response a success and closed investigations into the officials with few job losses.

There were no real reforms, because doing reforms means admitting fault, said a public health expert in contact with Chinese health officials who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

In late February 2020, the internationally respected doctor Zhong Nanshan appeared at a news conference and said that the epidemic first appeared in China, but it did not necessarily originate in China.

Chinese officials told WHO that blood tests on lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were negative, suggesting they hadnt been previously infected with bat coronaviruses. But when WHO pressed for an independent audit, Chinese officials balked and demanded WHO investigate the U.S. and other countries as well.

By the time WHO led a third visit to Wuhan in January 2021, a year into the pandemic, the atmosphere was toxic.

Liang, the Chinese health official in charge of the first two WHO visits, continued to promote the questionable theory that the virus was shipped into China on frozen food. He suppressed information suggesting it could have come from animals at the Wuhan market, organizing market workers to tell WHO experts no live wildlife was sold and cutting recent photos of wildlife at the market from the final report. There was heavy political scrutiny, with numerous Chinese officials who werent scientists or health officers present at meetings.

Despite a lack of direct access, the WHO team concluded that a lab leak was extremely unlikely. So it came as an infuriating surprise to Chinese officials when, months later, WHO chief Tedros said all origins hypotheses, including the lab leak theory, remained on the table.

China told WHO any future missions to find COVID-19 origins should be elsewhere, according to a letter obtained by AP. Since then, global cooperation on the issue has ground to a halt; an independent group convened by WHO to investigate the origins of COVID-19 in 2021 has been stymied by the lack of cooperation from China and other issues.

Chinese scientists are still under heavy pressure, according to 10 researchers and healthofficials. Researchers who published papers on the coronavirus ran into trouble with Chinese authorities. Others were barred from travel abroad for conferences and WHO meetings. Gao, the China CDC director, was investigated after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a review of COVID-19 data, and again after giving interviews on the virus origins.

New evidence is treated with suspicion. In March 2023, scientists announced that genetic material collected from the market showed raccoon dog DNA mixed with COVID-19 in early 2020, data that WHO said should have been publicly shared years before. The findings were posted, then removed by Chinese researchers with little explanation.

The head of the China CDC Institute of Viral Disease was forced to retire over the release of the market data, according to a former China CDC official who declined to be named to speak on a sensitive topic.

It has to do with the origins, so theyre still worried, the former official said. If you try and get to the bottom of it, what if it turns out to be from China?

Other scientists note that any animal from which the virus may have originally jumped has long since disappeared.

There was a chance for China to cooperate with WHO and do some animal sampling studies that might have answered the question, said Tulane Universitys Garry. The trail to find the source has now gone cold.

Cheng reported from Geneva.

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With inflation up again, Trump says U.S. was better off 4 years ago. Well, except for that pandemic. – Palm Beach Post

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The Longest Case of COVID-19 Lasted 613 Days – Healthnews.com

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

For most, COVID-19 symptoms last for a few weeks before passing. New research from the Netherlands finds a patient suffered from the respiratory virus for nearly two years before his death.

A Dutch man with a poor immune system lived with a high-mutated novel variant of COVID-19 for 613 days, according to the University of Amsterdams Centre for Experimental and Molecular Medicine (CEMM). The case is known as the longest bout of COVID-19.

Healthy patients diagnosed with COVID-19 typically recover from mild cases of the virus within a few weeks. However, immunocompromised individuals may develop a persistent infection with increased adverse effects that can evolve such as the Omicron variant, which originated in a patient with a weakened immune system.

A European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases release says the study led by Magda Vergouwe of the CEMM describes a male patient who was admitted to the Amsterdam University Medical Center in February 2022 due to COVID-19. He was infected with the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.1.17.

The patient suffered from myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative overlap syndrome due to a stem cell transplant. In myelodysplastic diseases, immature blood cells in bone barrow do not mature and become healthy blood cells. Meanwhile, myeloproliferative diseases result in a total number of blood cells slow increasing.

This case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals as unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge due to extensive intra-host evolution, study authors said. We emphasise the importance of continuing genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 evolution in immunocompromised individuals with persistent infections given the potential public health threat of possibly introducing viral escape variants into the community.

The 72-year-old patient had previously received multiple COVID-19 vaccinations. He was treated with multiple antibody medications without any response and within 21 days, the man developed a mutation that resisted sotrovimab, one of the antibody medications. In the full genome sequencing of the virus that persisted for 613 days, researchers uncovered it had undergone 50 genetic code mutations.

The ESCMID Global release says study authors note there must be a balance between protecting the masses from new variants and providing care for these terminally ill patients. Also, scientists emphasize while there is an increased chance of novel variants in those with weakened immune systems, it is not the case for each patient.

The duration of SARS-CoV-2 infection in this described case is extreme, but prolonged infections in immunocompromised patients are much more common compared to the general community. Further work by our team includes describing a cohort of prolonged infections in immunocompromised patients from our hospital with infection durations varying between 1 month and 2 years.

The complete research of this unique COVID-19 case will be presented at the ESCMID Global Congress in Barcelona which runs from April 27-30.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its COVID-19 guidelines in March, no longer recommending isolation following a positive test. Those who are infected should wear a high-quality mask or respirator when around others, monitor symptoms, and contact a healthcare provider for possible treatments. The CDC reported 6,406 COVID-19 hospitalizations last week, a 13.8% drop.

However, COVID-19 can still be a threat to those with weak immune systems like the 72-year-old Dutch man. The CDC highlights those who are immunocompromised have lesser defenses against infections. Those six months and older who are moderately to severely immunocompromised are recommended to receive at least one dose of the updated 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine.

The CDC says people with weakened immune symptoms may reach out to their healthcare provider for possible antiviral medications. Recovering from COVID-19 for immunocompromised patients may take longer than the normal few weeks

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Takeaways from AP report on how the search for the coronavirus origins turned toxic – goskagit.com

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COVID-19 Virus Outbreak Hong Kong | | smdailyjournal.com – San Mateo Daily Journal

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, despite publicly declaring that it supported an open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation has found. The AP drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents, leaked recordings and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known in the first weeks of the outbreak and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.

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NATIONAL VIEW: Measles is more contagious than the coronavirus, and it’s back – Odessa American

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

This year is not yet one-third over, yet measles cases in the United States are on track to be the worst since a massive outbreak in 2019. At the same time, anti-vaccine activists are recklessly sowing doubts and encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Parents who leave their children unvaccinated are risking not only their health but also the well-being of those around them.

Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses more so than the coronavirus and is spread through direct or airborne contact when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The virus can hang in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left an area. It can cause serious complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis and death, especially in unvaccinated people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one person infected with measles can infect 9 out of 10 unvaccinated individuals with whom they come in close contact.

But measles can be prevented with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; two doses are 97 percent effective. When 95 percent or more of a community is vaccinated, herd immunity protects the whole. Unfortunately, vaccination rates are falling. The global vaccine coverage rate of the first dose, at 83 percent, and second dose, at 74 percent, are well under the 95 percent level. Vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners has slipped from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the CDC, leaving approximately 250,000 kindergartners at risk each year over the past three years.

The virus is slipping through the gaps. According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, 37 countries experienced large or disruptive measles outbreaks compared with 22 countries in 2021. In the United States, there have been seven outbreaks so far this year, with 121 cases in 18 jurisdictions. Most are children. Many of the outbreaks in the United States appear to have been triggered by international travel or contact with a traveler. Disturbingly, 82 percent of those infected were unvaccinated or their status unknown.

The largest toll has been in Illinois, followed by Florida. But when an outbreak hit the Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County in early March, Floridas top public health official, state Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo, did not follow the standard recommendation that parents of unvaccinated children keep them home for 21 days to avoid getting the disease. Instead, Dr. Ladapo said, Florida would be deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance. This means allowing children without protection to go to school. Dr. Ladapos letter was an unnecessarily reckless act of pandering to an anti-vaccine movement with increasing political influence.

Vaccine hesitancy is being encouraged by activists who warn of government coercion, using social media to amplify irresponsible claims. An article published March 20 on the website of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s Childrens Health Defense organization is headlined, Be Very Afraid? CDC, Big Media Drum Up Fear of Deadly Measles Outbreaks. The author, Alan Cassels, claims that the news media is advancing a a fear-mongering narrative, and adds, Those of us born before 1970 with personal experience pretty much all agree that measles is a big meh. We all had it ourselves and so did our brothers, sisters and school friends. We also had chicken pox and mumps and typically got a few days off school. The only side effect of those diseases was that my mom sighed heavily and called work to say she had to stay home to look after a kid with spots.

Today, he adds, Big media and government overhyping the nature of an illness, which history has shown us can be a precursor to some very bad public health policies such as mandatory vaccination programs and other coercive measures.

This is just wrong. The CDC reports that, in the decade before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, the disease killed 400 to 500 people, hospitalized 48,000 and gave 1,000 people encephalitis in the United States every year and that was just among reported cases.

The elimination of measles in the United States in 2000, driven by a safe and effective vaccine, was a major public health success. Although the elimination status still holds, the U.S. situation has deteriorated. The nation has been below 95 percent two-dose coverage for three consecutive years, and 12 states and the District below 90 percent. At the same time, the rest of the world must also strive to boost childhood vaccination rates, which slid backward during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the WHO, low-income countries with the highest risk of death from measles continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, only 66 percent.

The battle against measles requires a big not a meh effort.

The Washington Post

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NATIONAL VIEW: Measles is more contagious than the coronavirus, and it's back - Odessa American

Measles is more contagious than the coronavirus. And it’s back. – Columbia Missourian

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Measles is more contagious than the coronavirus. And it's back. - Columbia Missourian

Dutchman had coronavirus for 613 days; Virus mutated over 50 times in his body – NL Times

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

A Dutch man was infected with the coronavirus for 613 days, researchers from the Amsterdam UMC report. To the authors' knowledge, it is the longest SARS-CoV-2 infection duration to date. The virus muted over 50 times in his body.

The 72-year-old immunocompromised man continuously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 from his admission to an Amsterdam clinic in February 2022 until he died of an underlying condition in October 2023. He initially became infected with the Omnicron variant of the coronavirus, but the virus mutated over 50 times in his body. As far as the researchers know, he did not infect anyone else with his mutated form of the virus.

Such persistent coronavirus infections are rare, but several cases of infections lasting hundreds of days in immunocompromised patients have been reported. Researchers worry that these persistent infections could lead to more mutations in the coronavirus. For instance, it is thought that the initial emergence of the Omicron variant originated in an immunocompromised individual, highlighting the importance of close genomic surveillance in this patient population. Not all mutations may be as manageable as the Omicron variant.

We emphasize the importance of continuing genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 evolution in immunocompromised individuals with persistent infections given the potential public health threat of possibly introducing viral escape variants into the community, the researchers said. They stressed that there must be a balance between this surveillance and human supportive care for the patients involved.

The researchers also stressed that from the viewpoint of the general public, prolonged infections remain rare as the immunocompromised population is only a very small percentage of the total population.

The Amsterdam researchers will present their findings at the ESCMID medical congress in Barcelona between April 27 and 31.

Europe’s A.I. ‘Champion’ Sets Sights on Tech Giants in U.S. – The New York Times

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dook Domini

Arthur Mensch, tall and lean with a flop of unkempt hair, arrived for a speech last month at a sprawling tech hub in Paris wearing jeans and carrying a bicycle helmet. He had an unassuming look for a person European officials are counting on to help propel the region into a high-stakes match with the United States and China over artificial intelligence.

Mr. Mensch, 31, is the chief executive and a founder of Mistral, considered by many to be one of the most promising challengers to OpenAI and Google. You have become the poster child for A.I. in France, Matt Clifford, a British investor, told him onstage.

A lot is riding on Mr. Mensch, whose company has shot into the spotlight just a year after he founded it in Paris with two college friends. As Europe scrambles to get a foothold in the A.I. revolution, the French government has singled out Mistral as its best hope to create a standard-bearer, and has lobbied European Union policymakers to help ensure the firms success.

Artificial intelligence will be built rapidly into the global economy in the coming decade, and policymakers and business leaders in Europe fear that growth and competitiveness will suffer if the region does not keep up. Behind their worries is a conviction that A.I. should not be dominated by tech giants, like Microsoft and Google, that might forge global standards at odds with the culture and politics of other countries. At stake is the bigger question of which artificial intelligence models will wind up influencing the world, and how they should be regulated.

The issue with not having a European champion is that the road map gets set by the United States, said Mr. Mensch, who just 18 months ago was working as an engineer at Googles DeepMind lab in Paris, building A.I. models. His co-founders, Timothe Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, also in their 30s, held similar positions at Meta.

In an interview at Mistrals spartan, whitewashed offices facing the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, Mr. Mensch said it wasnt safe to trust U.S. tech giants to set ground rules for a powerful new technology that would affect millions of lives.

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