It means we have environmental sampling data that can place the spillover event precisely in the southwestern corner of the Huanan market, and genetic testing of virus samples from the first patients to give us a date: around November 18, 2019, for the introduction of Lineage B, with Lineage A following a week or so later. After that, though, the trail runs cold.

The researchers know which animals were being sold in the market in late 2019, and which ones were susceptible to coronaviruses, but they dont have the smoking gun. They dont have samples from animals that had the virus. Thats what theyd like to have, and theyd like to be able to trace those animals back to the farms from which they came and see whether people in those farms had been exposed to the virus or viruses, says Jonathan Stoye, a virologist at the Francis Crick Institute in the UK, who was not involved in the research.

Thats unlikely to be possible. There are theories on how infected animals may have reached the market: Wuhan is in Hubei province, and to the west of the region there are caves that are home to horseshoe bats, close to farms that once housed millions of raccoon dogs and civets. The most likely course of events is something like: A bat infected with a novel coronavirus flies over a farm where animals are being reared for meat. It poops, and viral particles infect one of the animals below, sparking an unseen wave of infections at the farm. Maybe the virus crosses over to the farmworkers but fizzles out because theres not enough population density to sustain a human epidemic. Days or weeks later, in November 2019, some of the infected animals are shipped to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where theyre sold at stalls in the southwestern corner. The virus crosses over to humans at least eight times, maybe more. The majority of those infections fizzle out without spreading to anyone else, but two take hold, start to spread. Not long after that, dozens of people in the area start to come down with a mysterious viral pneumonia.

But the animal or animals that carried coronavirus are almost certainly long dead: shipped off and sold for meat, or killed in one of the mass culls that took place in early 2020 as the Chinese authorities clamped down on the live animal trade. It is very possible that we will never have that sample, that we may have missed our opportunity, says Worobey.

But there are still leads to follow: tracing the supply chains for the stalls in the southwestern corner of Huanan market and finding out which farms supplied them; poring over the paperwork from the culls to find out where the animals from that farm were buried; exhuming the animals and sequencing their DNA to look for remnants of a coronavirus that looks almost identical to SARS-CoV-2.

It will need patient work and international cooperation in a difficult environmentbut it could be the only way to stop the next pandemic. These things are not impossible, Worobey says. So lets look at all the options. Lets connect every single possible dot that we can.

Image updated on 8/4/22 at 11:17AM PST to include the Wuhan Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market.

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The Origins of Covid-19 Are More Complicated Than Once Thought - WIRED

By the time a cell senses that its been infected by a virus, it generally knows it is doomed. Soon, it will be busted up by the bodys immunological patrol or detonated by the invader itself. So the moribund cell plays its trump card: It bleats out microscopic shrieks that danger is nigh.

These intercellular messages, ferried about by molecules called interferons, serve as a warning signal to nearby cellsYou are about to be infected; its time for you to set up an antiviral state, says Juliet Morrison, an immunologist at UC Riverside. Recipient cells start battening down the hatches, switching on hundreds of genes that help them pump out suites of defensive proteins. Strong, punchy interferon responses are essential to early viral control, acting as a first line of defense that comes online within minutes or hours, says Mario Santiago, an immunologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. At their best, interferons can contain the infection so quickly that the rest of the immune system hardly needs to get involved.

Viruses, of course, arent content to let that happen. Pretty much all of them, SARS-CoV-2 included, are darn good at impairing interferon signaling, or finding their way around the virus-blocking shields that cells raise after heeding those molecular calls. And as new coronavirus variants arise, they may be steadily improving their ability to resist interferons punchmaking it easier, perhaps, for the microbes to spread within and between bodies, or spark more serious disease.

Read: How long can the coronavirus keep reinfecting us?

This development may sound kind of familiar: As the coronavirus has evolved, one of its main moves has been to repeatedly dodge the antibodies that vaccines and past infections raise. But theres a key difference. Although antibodies are powerful, most are able to recognize and latch onto only a super-specific sliver of a single pathogens physique. Interferons, meanwhile, are the ultimate generalists, a set of catch-all burglar alarms. Even if the body has never seen a particular pathogen before and no relevant antibodies are present, cells will make interferons as soon as they realize a virus is aroundany and all viruses, says Eleanor Fish, an immunologist at the University of Toronto. It doesnt matter what the virus is, it doesnt matter where it comes in.

Once warned, interferon-ized cells leap into action. They will reinforce their exteriors; sharpen molecular scissors that can hack the microbe to bits, should it get inside; and conjure up sticky substances that can stop the viruss progeny from exiting. All that buys the immune system time to rouse, again with interferons help, more precise fighters, such as B cells and T cells.

But this system isnt foolproof. Some viruses will cloak their innards from cellular sensors, so the relevant alarm wires never get tripped. Others destroy the gears that get the interferon system cranking, so the warning signals never get sent. Particularly resilient viruses may not even mind if interferon messages go out, because theyre able to steel themselves against the many defenses that the molecules marshal in other cells. Strategies such as these are pretty much ubiquitous because theyre so crucial to pathogen success. I defy you to identify any virus that doesnt have in its genome factors to block the interferon response, Fish told me.

This, from our perspective, is not ideal. Derail these early responses, and theres a domino effect, says Vineet Menachery, a coronavirologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch. More cells get infected; antibody and T-cell responses hang back, even as viral particles continue to spread. Eventually, the body may get wise and try to catch up. But by then, it may be too late. The brunt of viral replication might be over, leaving the immune frenzy to misdirect much of its havoc onto our own tissues instead.

Interferons, then, can make or break a hosts fate. Researchers have found that people whose interferons are weak or laggy after catching the coronavirus are far more likely to get very seriously sick. Others experience similar problems when their immune system churns out misguided antibodies that attack and destroy interferons as they try to ferry messages among cells. Interferons also play a very dramatic role in counteracting the viruses that cause dengue and yellow fever. Those pathogens are rapidly wrangled by rodent interferons and never make those animals sick, Morrison told me. In people, though, the microbes have cooked up ways to muffle the moleculesa big reason they cause such debilitating and deadly disease.

Read: Could genetics be the key to never getting the coronavirus?

Coronaviruses in general are pros at interferon sabotage. Among the most powerful is MERS, which just shuts down everything in the interferon assembly line, says Susan Weiss, a coronavirologist at the University of Pennsylvania. That essentially ensures that almost no interferons are released, even when gobs of virus are roiling about, a dismantling of defenses that likely contributes to MERS substantial fatality rate. Weiss doesnt think SARS-CoV-2 is likely to copy its cousin in that respect anytime soon. The virus does have some ability to gum up interferon production, but it would take a lot more, she told me, to silence the system as MERS has.

Still, SARS-CoV-2 seems to be taking its own small, tentative steps toward interferon censorship. For months, several groups of researchers, CU Anschutzs Santiago among them, have been studying how well the virus can invade and replicate inside of cells that have been exposed to interferons. Recent variants such as Delta and Omicron, theyve found, seem to be better at infiltrating those reinforced cells compared with some versions that preceded thema hint that this resistance might be helping new iterations of the virus sweep the globe and cause repeated rounds of disease.

The bump in SARS-CoV-2s resilience doesnt appear to be massivemore at the margins of enhancing infective success, Menachery told me. Antibody evasion, for instance, might be playing the more dominant role in helping the virus spread and sicken more people. Still, the pattern thats unfolding raises a discomfiting question, Santiago told me. Interferons potency against the virus already seems to be getting slowly but surely undermined; what if at some point in the future, the virus becomes a lot more resistant? The challenge of managing COVID, whether through vaccines or antivirals, might disproportionately balloon. And unlike antibody evasion, with interferon resistance, theres not anything we can do to vaccinate against this, Menachery told me.

Read: The BA.5 wave is what COVID normal looks like

Still, theres probably a ceiling to how interferon-resistant the coronavirus can become. Eventually, repeated attempts to disarm our alarm systems may come at a cost to the viruss infective potential, or the speed at which it spreads, Morrison told me. Interferons are also extremely diverse, and have redundancies among them. Should one flavor get flummoxed by a pathogen, another would likely help fill in the gaps.

Many researchers, such as Fish, are also testing interferon-based treatments in people who have very recently been infected by or exposed to the coronavirus. Several of these trials have produced mixed or disappointing results. Even so, I think theres every reason to think that interferons are still going to be effective in some form, once scientists nail the timing, recipe, and dose, says Eric Poeschla, Santiagos collaborator at CU Anschutz. The molecules are, after all, natures DIY antivirals.

For a gamble like that to pay off, though, viral evolutionand thus, viral transmissionwill need to be kept in some check. SARS-CoV-2 has immense wiggle room in its genome; giving it less practice at infecting us is one of the most straightforward ways to halt its self-improvement kick. Every replication cycle is an opportunity, Menachery told me, for the virus to further fine-tune its MO.

Read more:

Another Way the Coronavirus Is Outsmarting Us - The Atlantic

Since early July, Virginias COVID-19 case counts have remained relatively stable, with an average of around 3,000 new infections reported every day. But over the same time period, hospitalizations have risen, with more than 800 inpatients as of Wednesday, according to data from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

The discrepancy, experts say, can be chalked up to data limitations. In a recent report, researchers with the University of Virginias Biocomplexity Institute wrote that the states current case rates are similar to those seen during last falls delta wave, which threatened to overwhelm local hospital systems. Detecting those cases, however, has become much more challenging.

In some ways, we might be revisiting early stages of the pandemic where all were observing is severe COVID, said Bryan Lewis, a computational epidemiologist on the Biocomplexity Institutes research team. People who end up going to the hospital are the only ones who end up getting confirmed.

Thats largely because testing, once in extremely limited supply, has become easily accessible to most Virginians. Rather than seeking out more sensitive PCR tests from pharmacies and local health department events, most patients with symptoms are relying on at-home antigen tests, whose results typically arent reported back to the Virginia Department of Health. And as pandemic fatigue sets in for more and more people, many arent testing at all, said Dr. Akira Shishido, an infectious disease specialist for VCU Health.

Like other public health experts, he said the lack of clarity around rising case rates has made it more challenging to offer guidance as the pandemic approaches its third year. Currently, the Biocomplexity Institute estimates that there are roughly 16 coronavirus infections for every reported case in Virginia, given the rise of highly infectious subvariants and the decline in test results reported to VDH. If thats true, it would put the states current infection rate closer to levels seen during the winter omicron surge.

Unlike this past winter, though, most Virginians arent taking the same health precautions. The states COVID-19 state of emergency expired last summer along with previous requirements for indoor masking and social distancing in public spaces. And after Gov. Glenn Youngkins successful push to repeal mandatory masking policies in schools, students and parents are expecting a mixed approach to face coverings at the start of the year. With community transmission already high in 55 of the states 133 localities and cases rising in most local health districts some providers say theyre worried about the coming fall and winter.

We still have circulating COVID, and I think well still see some people being admitted with severe COVID pneumonia, said Dr. Kyle Enfield, the medical director of UVA Healths medical intensive care unit. People are making the choice to not get vaccinated and not wear masks. And I think that will be compounded by a larger spread of other respiratory viruses that seemed to have decreased back when masks and social distancing were common.

Thats not to say there isnt a bright side to the current stage of the pandemic. Enfield emphasized that if hospitals do feel strained over the colder months, it will likely be due to a combination of cases that includes flu and possibly even monkeypox, an emerging virus thats spreading in Virginia and across the country. And theres evidence that omicron subvariants, while highly transmissible, are causing less severe disease, bolstered by growing population immunity.

Even as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations rise across the state, Lewis pointed out that ICU admissions have remained relatively low, indicating that fewer people are developing severe illness from the virus. COVID-19 deaths have also sharply declined since mid-January, and theres evidence that vaccines and previous infections convey lasting protection against the worst outcomes.

At this point, so many Virginians have some degree of immunity against COVID-19 that its unlikely the state will experience the same rates of hospitalizations and deaths that occurred during last winters omicron surge, according to Lewis. Still, he said its unnerving to see hundreds of patients admitted for the virus every week.

Its pretty incredible were still generating a fair number of hospitalizations, Lewis added. Yeah, its not as horrible as the catastrophes that have happened a couple of times during this pandemic, but you just dont see that with other infectious agents, even during the worst flu seasons.

Thats why public health experts are still encouraging caution, especially in anticipation of cooler weather and more indoor gatherings. Shishido said the chance of reinfection is substantial even for those who have been vaccinated, boosted and previously infected with COVID, largely thanks to the antibody-evading capabilities of omicron subvariants.

Luckily, he said, vaccines still generate a type of protection known as cell-mediated immunity, which provides strong protection against hospitalization and death even in the case of breakthrough infections. But while severe outcomes are unlikely for immunized Virginians, Lewis cautioned theres limited information on the effect of repeated COVID-19 infections or long-lasting symptoms.

Long COVID is something we dont fully understand and is messing people up pretty badly, he said. Were finding a lot of studies out there where a fair portion of people were talking 20 or 30% of people, even young people were still reporting symptoms like shortness of breath, the loss of taste and smell, even six to nine months out.

Enfield said that unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Virginians are still driving hospital admissions at UVA, a trend borne out by national data (the Virginia Department of Health no longer reports cases and deaths by vaccination status). But he also warned that high community transmission increases the risk of spreading COVID-19 to more vulnerable populations including immunocompromised and elderly patients, who are still at risk of worse outcomes even if theyre fully vaccinated.

High infection rates also mean the virus will continue to mutate, and public health experts still worry an even more dangerous variant could emerge in the future. Thats unlikely, according to Shishido, given that the most successful viruses are typically highly infectious without killing their hosts. But like other doctors, he encouraged Virginians to avoid unnecessary risks.

The hard thing is, the public health measures we were pushing a year ago are the same things we want people to be doing now.

Dr. Kyle Enfield, medical director of UVA Healths medical intensive care unit

For Shishido, that means masking indoors and making use of COVID-19 therapies including Paxlovid, an antiviral pill for high-risk patients, and Evusheld, an experimental medication that can lower the risk of infection for immunocompromised patients. Enfield said people should continue to limit the size and number of social gatherings they attend, particularly if theyre regularly in contact with more vulnerable groups.

He also encouraged anyone with COVID-19 symptoms to seek confirmatory PCR testing if their antigen test results are negative given the lower sensitivity of most at-home tests. And like Shishido and Lewis, Enfield strongly encouraged Virginians to take advantage of upcoming COVID-19 boosters, which will be reformulated to offer better protection against omicron subvariants.

We know people can get reinfected with COVID even after a natural infection, and that immunity wanes over time and might not be as good as some of the vaccines, he said. So I would stress that vaccines are still in everyones best interest.

The hard thing is, the public health measures we were pushing a year ago are the same things we want people to be doing now, Enfield added. I know were at a point where people want to fully relax, but were really just not at a point where thats the right thing to do.

The rest is here:

Data limitations are making it harder to detect when COVID-19 is surging in Virginia - Virginia Mercury

Pregnancy is a really exciting time, to be sure. But lets be real: It can also be stressful especially during this era of COVID-19.

Pregnant people are one of several groups at a higher risk of becoming very ill from COVID-19. COVID-19 can also lead to serious pregnancy complications as well.

The good news is that the COVID-19 vaccine can protect against severe illness and complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that anyone who is pregnant, breastfeeding, or plans to become pregnant get a COVID-19 vaccine and booster.

Getting vaccinated during pregnancy may feel intimidating, but were here to help. Keep reading as we go over eight facts about the COVID-19 vaccine that are backed by research.

According to the CDC, if youre pregnant, you have a higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19. This can include things like:

Thats not all, though: COVID-19 can also have serious consequences for your pregnancy. Thats because if you get COVID-19 while pregnant, you have a higher risk of pregnancy complications.

A March 2022 review of research notes that various studies have found that getting COVID-19 while pregnant is associated with an increased risk of:

Vaccination can go a long way in helping prevent these complications.

Lets get a big concern out of the way next: COVID-19 vaccines are indeed safe and effective during pregnancy.

Since the COVID-19 vaccines have been available, many studies have supported this. Were not going to cover each one of them here (that would take all day), but lets explore what some of them say.

Researchers in a 2021 study looked at the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant women. They compared 7,530 vaccinated pregnant women and 7,530 unvaccinated pregnant women.

Overall, researchers found vaccinated women had a significantly lower risk of contracting the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 than their unvaccinated counterparts.

Further, none of the vaccinated women reported serious side effects from vaccination. The most common side effects were similar to those seen in the general population and included:

Vaccines work by introducing your immune system to a germ. Your immune system crafts a response, which includes antibodies, to the vaccine. Your immune system can then call upon this response to protect you from the actual germ in the future.

Another bit of good news is that pregnant people appear to make the same immune response to COVID-19 vaccination as nonpregnant people.

In a 2021 study, researchers compared immune responses in 131 pregnant, lactating, or nonpregnant women. They found the levels of antibodies made in response to vaccination were similar between all three groups. Side effects were also similar in all groups.

And theres more: Antibody levels made in response to vaccination during pregnancy were higher than the antibodies made from infection during pregnancy.

Despite the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, vaccination in this group is still low compared with the general population.

For example, a January 2022 study in Scotland found that in October 2021, only 32.3% of women giving birth had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 77.4% of the total female population.

A 2021 study found that out of a group of 1,328 pregnant women, less than one-third got the COVID-19 vaccine when it was offered to them. Vaccinated women still had similar pregnancy outcomes to those who were not vaccinated.

Raising vaccine coverage is vital for preventing severe illness and complications during pregnancy. However, concerns about the vaccine and its potential effects have made people hesitant. Lets explore some of these concerns next.

One concern about the COVID-19 vaccine is whether it increases the risk of miscarriage. Research says this isnt the case.

A 2021 research letter outlines a study on this topic. For the study, researchers used the Vaccine Safety Datalink database to analyze COVID-19 vaccines and miscarriage rates. Data from about 3% of the U.S. population is included in this database.

Researchers found 105,446 unique pregnancies, 92,286 of which were ongoing and 13,160 of which resulted in miscarriage. All three COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States were represented within this large group.

Researchers wanted to see whether COVID-19 vaccines were linked with miscarriage. They were specifically looking to see whether people who had a miscarriage were more likely to have received a COVID-19 vaccine in the past 28 days.

This isnt what they found. Instead, researchers saw that, compared with those with ongoing pregnancies, women who had a miscarriage were not more likely to have received a COVID-19 vaccine in the previous 28 days.

COVID-19 vaccination is also not associated with birth and delivery complications.

Researchers in a March 2022 study reviewed data from a population-based survey. Among a group of 97,590 pregnant people, 22,660 (23%) had gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during their pregnancy.

Researchers compared people who were vaccinated during their pregnancy to those who got vaccinated after their pregnancy. They found that vaccination during pregnancy did not lead to a significantly increased risk of:

Another large March 2022 study also supports these findings. This study used data from 157,521 deliveries of single babies (no twins, triplets, etc.) in Sweden and Norway.

Within this group, 28,506 pregnancies (18%) included COVID-19 vaccination at some point during pregnancy. Compared with pregnancies in which no COVID-19 vaccine was given, researchers found that among the pregnancies with vaccination, there was no increased risk of:

If youre not yet pregnant but plan to be in the near future, you may wonder whether the COVID-19 vaccine could affect your fertility. According to the CDC, theres currently no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility issues.

Research supports this statement. A January 2022 study included 2,126 self-identified female participants ages 21 through 45 who were trying to get pregnant. Participants completed surveys every 8 weeks about:

After analyzing the data, researchers concluded that COVID-19 vaccination was not associated with long-term decreased fertility in either females or males.

But researchers did find that getting COVID-19 itself was associated with a potential temporary decline in male fertility for about 60 days.

Now that weve debunked the main concerns about COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, lets take a look at some of the benefits that vaccination may give your baby.

Antibodies that your body makes after vaccination can be passed to your baby through the placenta. These antibodies can go on to protect them when theyre particularly vulnerable to germs in the months after birth.

A June 2022 study included 21,643 babies, 9,739 (45%) of whom were born to mothers who had gotten their second or third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy.

Researchers found these babies had a lower risk of having a positive COVID-19 test within 4 months of birth. This finding persisted during both the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variant waves, although protection was stronger against Delta.

A February 2022 study included 379 hospitalized babies; 176 of them had COVID-19 and the other 203 babies were hospitalized for other reasons.

Researchers wanted to see how effective maternal vaccination was at preventing COVID-19 hospitalization of a baby within their first 6 months of life. Using this parameter, researchers found that vaccine effectiveness was:

How long does this protection last, though? Researchers aimed to find this out.

According to a February 2022 research letter, experts compared antibody levels in babies whose mothers had either been vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy or who had actually had COVID-19 during pregnancy.

Overall, researchers found that antibody levels in babies whose mothers had been vaccinated against COVID-19 while pregnant stuck around for longer.

Six months after birth, 57% of babies born to vaccinated mothers still had detectable antibodies. Only 8% of babies whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy had detectable antibodies.

Its known that breastfeeding parents pass antibodies to their babies through breast milk. These antibodies can help protect a baby from various germs.

Antibodies made in response to COVID-19 vaccination have been detected in breast milk. Lets look at a research letter about a 2021 study that discussed this.

The study included 84 breastfeeding mothers who provided 504 breast milk samples over the course of the study. After getting the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, participants were followed up weekly for 6 weeks.

Researchers looked for two types of antibodies to COVID-19 called IgA and IgG. IgA is found earlier in the immune response. IgG appears later.

They found the amount of breast milk samples with IgA rose early after vaccination. They peaked at week 4 (1 week after the second dose) before beginning to drop at week 6.

Few breast milk samples contained IgG after the first vaccine dose. However, by weeks 4 and 6, more than 90% of breast milk samples had detectable IgG.

This all sounds great, right? There are some caveats: The number of participants was small, and its unknown how long these antibodies last or the strength of protection they provide to a baby. More research will help find these things out, though.

The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective during pregnancy. Its vital for preventing serious illness and pregnancy complications from COVID-19.

The COVID-19 vaccine has not been associated with an increased risk of infertility, miscarriage, or other pregnancy and delivery complications.

In fact, vaccinated pregnant people can pass antibodies to their baby both through the placenta and breast milk. These antibodies can continue to protect babies after theyre born.

The COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for all people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to get pregnant. If you ever have questions or concerns about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, be sure to raise them with your doctor or another healthcare professional.

Excerpt from:

8 Facts You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Vaccine & Pregnancy - Healthline

Researchers estimated the prevalence of long covid using survey data from the Netherlands in the early stages of the pandemic

By Jason Arunn Murugesu

A man recovering from covid-19 at a hospital in The Hague, the Netherlands, in April 2020

REMKO DE WAAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

One in 8 adults who had a covid-19 infection during the early stages of the pandemic developed long covid symptoms, according to survey data from the Netherlands.

Long covid is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an illness that usually occurs within three months from the onset of covid-19, with symptoms that last for at least two months. These cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis and can include chest pain, loss of smell and painful muscles.

The symptoms have many causes, so it is hard to determine how many people experience these long-term effects resulting from covid-19 infection.

Aranka Ballering at the University of Groningen and her colleagues surveyed more than 76,000 adults between 31 March 2020 and 2 August 2021 in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen in the north of the Netherlands.

The researchers initially surveyed people weekly about their health. They then surveyed participants every two weeks from June 2020 and then just once a month from August 2020.

During the study period, 4251 people were diagnosed with covid-19 for the first time. The team matched each of these people to two others of the same age and sex who didnt get infected.

By comparing the people who had covid-19 with the matched controls on the same dates, the researchers could better determine which symptoms experienced three to five months after infection were caused by long covid.

They defined long covid as a condition in which at least one symptom increased to moderate severity three to five months after a person developed covid-19. According to this definition, 1 in 8 people in the study who got covid-19 developed long covid. Loss of smell and taste, painful muscles and general tiredness were the most prevalent long covid symptoms.

The team also found that it took longer for long covid symptom severity to return to baseline levels in women compared with men. Some studies suggest that women face greater barriers to healthcare and so seek out help for symptoms later, and this may affect the severity of long covid, says Ballering.

The researchers couldnt say whether these symptoms lasted beyond five months, nor could they say how badly they interfered with daily life.

The ancestral and alpha SARS-CoV-2 variants were most prevalent during the study period, so the findings may not extend to people infected with other variants. The study also doesnt show what effect vaccines may have had on long covid. Just 10 per cent of the participants had been fully vaccinated by the end of the study, as most of the data was collected before vaccines were available.

About 98 per cent of those studied were white and they were all in the Netherlands, so these results may not extend to other ethnic and national groups. It is also unclear how long covid risk changes when people are infected with the virus multiple times, says Ballering.

I think these figures are an underestimate, says Danny Altmann at Imperial College London. What I can say from my research is that I think were undercounting long covid, not overcounting it.

He says this study highlights the gaps in our knowledge regarding long covid. What were not good at yet is working out the nuances of long covid after different variants, such as delta.

Journal reference: The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01214-4

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Long covid: One in 8 have symptoms months after coronavirus infection - New Scientist

Good evening. Were Corinne Purtill and Karen Kaplan, and its Tuesday, Aug. 2. Heres the latest on whats happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.

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Perhaps nothing has come to symbolize this pandemic as succinctly as the humble face mask.

Be it pleated blue polypropylene, colorful fabric or the bulbous shell of an N95, its an accessory you probably never wore in public before the coronavirus arrived, and odds are you cant wait to be rid of it.

In the early weeks of the COVID-19 era, when new infections were rising like crazy, we were asked to don face masks to flatten the curve. As schools began to welcome students back to campus, masks were an essential accessory to make communal learning safe. After scientists began to recognize that the coronavirus spread mainly through the air, masking was deemed necessary to protect those who were older or medically vulnerable.

Despite all these virtues, the mask has also been vilified as a symbol of unthinking obedience to authority and a tool to muzzle children and stifle dissent.

Its been a wordless signal of community resolve, and a noisy touchstone of struggle against government strictures, our colleague Melissa Healy writes.

Even people who have worn them when asked over the last 2 years are running out of patience for the face coverings. They havent made the coronavirus go away yet, and with each new variant more transmissible than the last, it seems unlikely they ever will.

Isnt the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

Regardless, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer had planned to reinstate L.A.s indoor mask mandate if the county met the criteria set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for having a high COVID-19 community level and maintained that status for two weeks. She later hinted that she might press pause on the unpopular mandate if there were sustained decreases in cases, or the rate of hospital admissions moves closer to the threshold of medium.

In the end, Ferrer didnt have to decide whether to follow through with her original plan.

When the latest figures came out Thursday, the countys level had dropped to medium. Using its own data, the county calculated new weekly coronavirus-positive hospital admissions as 9.7 for every 100,000 residents just under the threshold to trigger the mask mandate. The CDC calculated a rate of 10.7, but Ferrer said the federal agencys data were older than the countys.

The news was celebrated by people like Michael Matteo Rossi. The 35-year-old filmmaker from Los Feliz wore his mask without complaint for more than two years. But even hes hit his limit. He told Healy that his mask was lost somewhere in his car, and he hopes he doesnt have to dig it out.

Fed-up folks like Rossi werent the only ones pleased that they could continue going about their lives mask-free. Some medical and public health professionals have softened their support for mask mandates as well.

The reason for their change of heart is not that masks (if used properly) have become less effective at preventing coronavirus transmission. Its that the value of widespread masking just isnt what it used to be.

Thats due to progress in other parts of the pandemic fight. With COVID-19 vaccines and past infections, the U.S. population has substantial coronavirus immunity. Those who get sick anyway have an array of effective treatments at their disposal. It also looks like infections caused by Omicron subvariants arent as dangerous as ones caused by earlier coronavirus strains.

Put that all together and the potential benefit of a mask mandate isnt substantial enough to justify the inconvenience, public backlash and other costs that come with it, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chief health officer of Seattle and King County.

The threat has decreased, Duchin said. And for that reason, taking steps that are seen as inconvenient or costly or philosophically objectionable is less palatable and less desirable.

Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor who conducts public health research at UC San Francisco, agrees with that assessment though she can understand why some health officials are still inclined toward mask mandates.

When new infections rise, that feels scary to a public health officer, she said, and a mask mandate feels like something they can do.

But just because you can do something doesnt mean you should, she added.

Were in a very different place in the pandemic, Gandhi said. At this point, I do not think that widespread masking is necessary.

California cases and deaths as of 4:20 p.m. Tuesday:

Track Californias coronavirus spread and vaccination efforts including the latest numbers and how they break down with our graphics.

Box fans, four high-quality filters and duct tape. Those are the components of a Corsi-Rosenthal box, an inexpensive DIY device that pulls coronavirus and other contaminants from indoor air as effectively as many commercial air filters do, at a fraction of the cost.

Researchers have found that changing the air in an indoor space just five times an hour can cut the risk of COVID transmission in half, The Times Emily Alpert Reyes reports. One study in Italy saw that benefit grow to an 80% reduction in COVID transmission in schools when indoor air was changed six times an hour.

Yet indoor air quality is often neglected. A June report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most U.S. public schools had not made any major investments to improve indoor air quality since the pandemic began. When asked what steps theyd taken to improve ventilation in their classrooms, most schools reported simply opening windows or moving indoor activities outside. Fewer than 40% said they had replaced or upgraded their HVAC systems.

But theres no need to wait until the next major capital improvement project to start cleaning up indoor air, engineers say. Theres no time, either.

There are things we could be doing immediately and not waiting to spend millions of dollars to retrofit ventilation systems, said UC Davis College of Engineering dean Richard L. Corsi, who helped develop the low-cost air filters that now bear his name.

It doesnt help that the definition of clean indoor air is nebulous. Theres no federal standard or guidelines for what constitutes a well-ventilated room. The Environmental Protection Agency only has regulatory authority over the air we breathe outside buildings, not in them.

That has left many institutions to manage air on their own. In Los Angeles, the county Department of Public Health told Reyes it had connected schools with state grants to improve their ventilation systems and provided diagrams on the best places to put fans in school gyms. The county has also distributed HEPA air purifiers to more than 100 shelters for homeless people and other interim housing sites.

Some residents are taking the challenge up themselves. Reyes interviewed Alex LeVine, a cannabis company executive who has tricked out his own Studio City house with homemade air filters that pull contaminants from the air and, in one case, pulse colored lights in time to Phil Collins In the Air Tonight.

Who says filtration cant be fun?

See the latest on Californias vaccination progress with our tracker.

The hyper-transmissible Omicron variants have sent case numbers skyrocketing in recent months.

But health officials fear that they are also a harbinger of a devastating number of long COVID cases, our colleagues Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money report.

Thus far in the pandemic, infection with COVID has appeared to offer a grace period of protection against subsequent infections. But the most recent variants appear to have altered that timeline, speeding up the rate at which people can become reinfected. Thats particularly worrisome, as each individual infection carries the risk not only for acute illness but also the possibility of developing long COVID.

Reinfection absolutely adds risk, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Healthcare System.

Al-Aly is the lead author of a preprint study on U.S. veterans that found that the risk of developing heart or lung disease, blood clotting issues and other serious health problems including death rose with each subsequent infection.

The additive risk is really not trivial, not insignificant, Al-Aly said. Its really substantial.

One of the most troubling risks of repeated infection is long COVID, in which symptoms persist for months or even years after the initial infection. Part of the maddening quality of the condition is that there are no clear indicators of who is most at risk. The condition has plagued people of all ages, including those whose initial COVID infections were mild or asymptomatic.

Its repercussions are already being felt in California. As Lin and Money have reported, an estimated 1 in 13 adults nationwide and 1 in 14 in California had current long COVID symptoms in early July, according to data collected by the Census Bureau and analyzed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That study defined the condition as having symptoms lasting three months or longer that werent experienced prior to infection.

Dr. Anne Foster, vice president and chief clinical strategy officer for the University of California Health system, has a different name for it: a mass disabling event.

The good news is that most long COVID will resolve, lets say, after a year, Foster said. But theres going to be some smaller subset that will have lifelong disability and impact to their health.

A study from USC published last month found that 23% of people who had coronavirus infections between March 2020 and March 2021 were still reporting symptoms up to 12 weeks later.

The most common lingering symptoms reported in that study were headache, nasal congestion, abdominal pain, fatigue and diarrhea. But many long COVID sufferers describe severe ongoing heart, respiratory and neurological problems that in some cases have made it impossible to return to normal life.

Hannah Davis, a co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, was diagnosed with COVID in March 2020 and still has difficulty driving, reading and walking, she told the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis during a recent hearing.

Long COVID, she said, has already impacted our workforce. Many people with long COVID cant work or need reduced hours and struggle to apply for disability benefits. The financial impact is devastating and cannot be overstated.

And finally: Just three days after testing negative and getting the all-clear to leave isolation, President Biden tested positive for the coronavirus once again on Saturday.

Biden, 79, first tested positive for the virus on July 21. He was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid, and was cleared to exit isolation July 27 after receiving negative tests. But rebound infections like Bidens are not unheard of, particularly among patients treated with Paxlovid, an antiviral recommended for patients at risk of developing more severe disease. Most rebound cases dont merit additional treatment, the CDC advised in May. The White House says Biden does not have further symptoms, and will resume working from home.

Im feeling fine, everythings good, Biden said in a video posted to Twitter, gesturing to his nearby dog. Commander and I got a little work to do.

Todays question comes from readers who want to know: Should I wait to get a booster until the one that targets Omicron comes out?

Considering how many people are becoming infected despite being fully vaccinated and even boosted, its no wonder this question keeps coming up. After all, the CDC estimates that 85.5% of the coronaviruses on the loose in the U.S. right now are of the BA.5 variety, and another 11.8% are BA.4 types. Those are the two subvariants that the new crop of boosters will be designed to recognize, along with the original coronavirus strain.

The Food and Drug Administration expects the updated shots to be ready this fall, but if you are eligible to get a booster right now, the advice of experts is unequivocal: Dont wait.

Definitely get it now! Paula Cannon, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at USCs Keck School of Medicine, told our colleague Jon Healey. The other vaccine experts he spoke to emphatically agreed with Cannons assessment.

Everyone who is at least 5 years old is eligible for one or two booster shots, depending on their age and the state of their immune system. Yet fewer than half of Americans who are booster-eligible have gotten even one extra shot, according to the CDC.

More than 17,600 Californians have been getting infected each day over the last week, including more than 5,600 per day in Los Angeles County alone. Those numbers are all the reason you need to get up to date on your vaccinations, said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious diseases expert at UCLAs David Geffen School of Medicine.

Here are two more: The booster you can get right away remains extremely good at keeping people from getting extremely ill or dying, he said. Plus, its not clear that the Omicron-specific shots will offer a huge advantage.

Data from the companies developing the shots show that targeted boosters were only modestly better than the current ones in terms of antibody activity against Omicron, Yang told Healey.

And who knows whether BA.5 and BA.4 will still be dominant by the time the new shots are ready?

We could be looking at a completely new variant by then, Cannon said. So rather than trying to second-guess anything, we should stick with what we know, which is that boosters work well now, to top up peoples immunity.

We want to hear from you. Email us your coronavirus questions, and well do our best to answer them. Wondering if your questions already been answered? Check out our archive here.

(Rachel Bluth / Kaiser Health News)

My body, my choice. For the last half a century, this slogan has been associated with the fight for abortion access. Yet since the outbreak of the pandemic, and the proliferation of public health measures to control the virus spread, this former rallying cry for reproductive rights has been increasingly co-opted by opponents of mask and vaccine mandates.

The sign above (carried by Steve Bova of Maryland) was one of many on display at an April anti-vaccine mandate rally in downtown Los Angeles. Women say they can have an abortion because its their body, said Tom Blodget, a retired Spanish-language teacher from Chico who wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan. Blodget opposes abortion, he said. But if thats a valid thing for a lot of people, why should I have to take an injection of some concoction?

The enthusiasm with which vaccine and mask opponents have embraced the expression has led many reproductive rights advocates to distance themselves from it. In the wake of the June 24 Supreme Court decision that reversed the federal right to abortion, advocates for reproductive rights have retooled their language, opting for terms like Bans off our bodies and Say abortion, said Jodi Hicks, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

In this moment, Hicks said, to co-opt that messaging and distract from the work that were doing and using it to spread misinformation is frustrating, and its disappointing.

Rachel Bluth of Kaiser Health News has more on the story here.

Resources

Need a vaccine? Heres where to go: City of Los Angeles | Los Angeles County | Kern County | Orange County | Riverside County | San Bernardino County | San Diego County | San Luis Obispo County | Santa Barbara County | Ventura County

Practice social distancing using these tips, and wear a mask or two.

Watch for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell. Heres what to look for and when.

Need to get a test? Testing in California is free, and you can find a site online or call (833) 422-4255.

Americans are hurting in various ways. We have advice for helping kids cope, as well as resources for people experiencing domestic abuse.

Weve answered hundreds of readers questions. Explore them in our archive here.

For our most up-to-date coverage, visit our homepage and our Health section, get our breaking news alerts, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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Coronavirus Today: Experts are taking a softer stance on masking; it's a different pandemic - Los Angeles Times

By the numbers

Q3 revenue: $4.64B

0.7% year-over-year increase on a reported basis

Base revenue: $4.57B

6% year-over-year increase

COVID-19 testing revenue: $76M

75% year-over-year decrease

Q3 trends: Becton Dickinsons third quarter revenue was relatively flat compared to 2021 as growth in its base business was offset by a 75% year-over-year drop in COVID-19 testing sales. CEO Tom Polen said on a Thursday earnings call that the company was affected by many of the same challenges the industry is managing inflation, supply chain constraints, healthcare staff shortages and rising labor costs, China slowdown but its base business was still able to grow over last years quarter.

Stifel analysts wrote in a Thursday note that BDs $4.64 billion in revenue last quarter beat the investment firms estimate by about $170 million driven in part by incremental Covid testing sales, but also strong all-around performance from nearly every other business line.

COVID-19 testing: While coronavirus testing revenue declined year over year by about $224 million last quarter, sales still beat analyst expectations, according to J.P. Morgan. The analysts wrote in a Thursday note that BDs $76 million of sales came in ahead by about $44 million. The company expects stronger COVID-19 sales for the full year, increasing its forecast by about $50 million to a total of $500 million.

Still, the testing demand slowdown is expected to continue for the remainder of its fiscal year and into 2023. CFO Christopher DelOrefice said that the COVID-19 testing revenue will drop to $25 million next quarter, and the business in BDs fiscal year 2023 will be significantly below 2022. DelOrefice said that approximately $25 million in quarterly sales is likely to be where future quarters fall. So far this year, COVID-19 testing revenue totals about $475 million.

2022 revenue forecast: BD increased its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $18.75 billion to $18.83 billion compared to $18.5 billion to $18.7 billion previously announced. The base business forecast was increased by $215 million at the midpoint.

The companys stock price was up over 2% to $250.15 Thursday morning.

China recovery: Polen told investors that a slowdown in China due to restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus continued into BDs third quarter, but the market rebounded faster than expected, with a strong recovery in June. Beyond the recovery of hospital patient flow, we initiated several actions to continue manufacturing and keep warehousing largely operational by working closely with our stakeholders in China, Polen said.

2023 trends: DelOrefice said that macroeconomic challenges are expected to continue in its fiscal year 2023, which typically begins in October. But the CFO added that the economic challenges are not expected to get worse next year and some may improve in the second half, such as the current complexity and challenges with the supply chain.

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BD's base business growth in Q3 offset by drop in COVID-19 testing - MedTech Dive