Monthly Archives: February 2022

In November 2020, Covid-19 cases in Iowa surged to 32,081 cases in a single week at the time, a record high. And that was only among the humans. As scientists would learn, an epidemic was also beginning to rage among the states many white-tailed deer.

A shockingly high number of deer 80 out of 97 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in a seven-week survey that followed the Iowa surge. We were gobsmacked, completely bowled over, says Vivek Kapur, a Penn State veterinary microbiologist who recently, with co-authors, published an analysis of the shadow deer epidemic in PNAS. We had no clue.

Its not just in Iowa. Evidence is mounting that deer infections have been widespread across the country. A separate study in Nature found infections in a third of deer surveyed in Ohio, and the USDA has reported coronavirus antibodies in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania deer. Tens of millions of deer live across the United States. Its unknown how many total have been infected, but these studies suggest the numbers are high.

The deer themselves dont appear to get very sick from the virus lab studies show them developing asymptomatic infections when exposed but thats not the top concern here. Veterinary infectious disease experts are describing these outbreaks in deer as a possible Pandoras box and now that its open, theres a small but real chance it could lead to future variants that infect humans, or spread to other wildlife that could get sick.

Before starting the study, Kapur and his colleagues thought that deer would be highly unlikely to test positive for Covid-19. We thought it would be a long shot, Kapur says, to find even one positive test in a survey of deer that were killed by hunters or road accidents.

Theres only a limited window of time when a deers infection would show up on a PCR test before it clears their system. Thats what made the results so shocking: Our studies suggest that there were more deer, in terms of percentage of their population, than humans infected with this virus.

Despite the potential risks to animals and humans, the future of the coronavirus in animals may be largely outside of our control. We cant even control it in people, Sarah Olson, an epidemiologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, says. Theres hardly a chance were going to be able to control it in the wild. It creates a hugely chaotic space. And we dont have a lot of eyes on that space.

How the virus spreads among wildlife is a black box that scientists try to peer into through the tiniest of pinpricks. But what they do know is that when the coronavirus establishes itself in wildlife, it creates for itself a sort of insurance policy. We may be able to get the pandemic among humans under control, but the virus is likely to lurk in other species, making it that much harder to monitor and defeat.

The spread of SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife is not the most pressing issue of the pandemic right now. Humans are still catching the virus from each other and dying from it. Still, these wildlife risks, if they are realized, could have serious consequences. Scientists want to be vigilant about dangers that could emerge from the wilderness.

The fact that SARS-CoV-2 can infect animals is not new. The virus probably originated in an animal species and then jumped to humans, a process that scientists call spillover. Since the pandemic began, there have been documented cases of many animals getting the virus, with various degrees of illness.

Infections have turned up in cats, dogs, lions, tigers, pumas, ferrets, mink, certain rodents, snow leopards, and others. The CDC even has guidelines to protect pets from Covid-19. When a virus jumps from animals to humans and then back to animals, scientists call that spillback.

Most of these infections in animals appeared to be self-contained. An infected house cat presumably stays in the house when infected it doesnt start a chain of transmission. They were all isolated cases, Suresh Kuchipudi, a Penn State infectious disease researcher who collaborated with Kapur, says of known cases in animals.

The deer infections were different. This is first time that a completely free-living animal species in the wild has been found to be infected, and that infection is widespread, Kuchipudi says.

How the deer got infected in the first place remains a mystery, but researchers believe the outbreak came from humans. The virus circulating in the deer had similar genetic sequences to the virus circulating in humans at the time that they got it.

I dont believe that theres much direct human-to-deer interaction, says Andrew Bowman, a professor of veterinary preventive medicine at the Ohio State University. He co-authored a separate study of infections in deer in Ohio, which also found widespread infection. Its not like deer and people are hanging out in bars and restaurants together. Instead, Bowman suspects the deer might be picking it up from some source of environmental contamination, like garbage or sewage.

Whatever happened to start the deer outbreaks, it appears to have happened many times. The genetic analysis in the PNAS paper finds evidence of several separate jumps from humans into animals. Further research needs to be done to identify the exact pathway, and hopefully to prevent the next leap.

Once the virus jumps into the deer, they are also spreading it to each other, the studies find. There was not just human-to-deer spillover, but there was also deer-to-deer transmission, as evidenced by genomic changes that would confirm that, Kuchipudi says.

There are two main reasons to be concerned about deer that spread the virus among themselves.

As viruses copy themselves in the human body, they slowly acquire genetic changes, which can lead to variants such as alpha and delta. Now imagine that a similar parallel trajectory was also happening in some animal populations, Kuchipudi says. When the virus becomes established in a new species, the evolution of the virus becomes twice as complicated.

This is the viruss so-called insurance policy. In theory, its possible that long after the pandemic dies down in humans maybe even 10 years from now deer could reinfect humans with a new variant that our immune system isnt as good at fighting off. (Theres even some speculation that the omicron variant emerged from an animal population.)

Then it comes back, and were fighting a whole new battle, Olson says.

So far, the scientists dont have any indication that a new dangerous variant is brewing within deer. Also reassuring: Right now, we dont have any evidence that any of these animals are transmitting back to people, says Angela Bosco-Lauth, who studies infectious disease and veterinary medicine at Colorado State University. I dont really see that as much of a threat.

But if a person were to catch the virus from an animal, it would be hard to prove it, Bosco-Lauth says. Scientists have only tested several hundred of the roughly 25 million deer in the United States, and many other species havent been studied.

If you had a group of animals that all had the same virus, that had the same genetic sequence, and then you found people downstream from that who had interacted with those animals and had the same sequence as the animal, that, to me, would be pretty solid proof that thats where it came from, she says. But that solid proof would be really hard to get. Scientists just dont do a lot of testing in animals.

The next concern is that the outbreak may not stop at the deer. Olson says the deer could potentially spread the virus to other animals.

Lets say a deer infected with the coronavirus comes into contact with other mammals for example, a predator like a mountain lion that kills a deer, or a scavenger like an ermine that nibbles away at a deers carcass. Olson says shes not aware of any documented cases of SARS-CoV-2 spreading from one species remains to a new species. But she says its plausible.

If those other species pick up the virus and start an outbreak among their kind, many different species could perhaps end up with Covid-19. Then you can think about almost like a complex network of animals passing the virus back and forth, right? Kuchipudi says. What is unsettling is that we have absolutely no clue if its happening or not.

All of this is hypothetical. But if it were to happen, we wouldnt necessarily find out. Contact tracing is hard enough in humans its even more daunting when you consider the size and scope of the animal kingdom. We have to approach this with humility, Kuchipudi says.

While researchers dont have evidence that Covid-19 is killing deer, it can be lethal for mustelids think measles, mink, and ferrets and endangered snow leopards. Considering how much the coronavirus has evolved in people, it could potentially evolve in a way that hurts some animals. Theres conservation threats there, Olson says.

The pandemic in humans is much more urgent than Covid-19 in animals. All of the scientists I spoke to agreed about that. The coronavirus is still killing thousands of people every day, and thats the problem that should get the bulk of our attention and resources.

Humans are doing such a great job at spreading Covid between each other, Bosco-Lauth says. I dont particularly worry about any animals maintaining this pandemic I think were going to do that just fine on our own.

On the other hand, the scientists say they want more visibility into whats happening in the animal world. We need wildlife surveillance, Olson says, meaning more testing of animals for coronavirus antibodies a sign they have been exposed or active infections. We just dont have the tools to begin to understand the system, to even start mapping whats going to happen here, because our ability to see it is so opaque right now.

Scientists still have a lot to learn about how viruses jump between species, Olson says, and what factors make these jumps more or less likely.

Could scientists vaccinate deer or other wildlife? Not really. Theres nothing to be done, Olson says. While some vaccines are formulated for animals and routinely administered to pets, we dont know enough about the immune system of the deer to know how it would respond to vaccines made for humans. Then come the logistical problems: Inoculations would need to be mixed with bait somehow, delivered via dart, or administered directly to captured animals. To top it off, one dose might not be enough.

How are you going to capture the same animal four times? Olson says. Theres just no toolbox for this.

For all these reasons, Covid-19 outbreaks in animals are not situations we can plausibly control. Rather, theyre something to monitor in case they start to look like pressing problems.

We have been focusing predominantly on humans because there is a global pandemic going, Kuchipudi says. But at the same time, we cant be ignoring this problem. The danger is then if we dont address it, we could be completely blindsided and caught by surprise when a new variant emerges.

The course of the pandemic continues to be impossible to predict, even in humans. The addition of it spreading in wildlife just makes it even harder. If theres a lesson here, its this: This virus never ceases to surprise us, Kapur says.

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Covid-19 in animals: Coronavirus spillover to deer could affect humans - Vox.com

Feb 5th 2022

SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING moves slowly. Depending on the academic field, it can take years for a single paper to get published in a well-regarded journal. In that time, a paper might undergo several rounds of peer-review by academic volunteers, followed by correctionsand possibly rejectionsbefore a new scientific result sees the light of day.

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This rigmarole is meant to ensure that the research that enters the scientific record is reputable, rigorous and trustworthy. That is admirableand the system generally works wellbut it also introduces a bottleneck, delaying the circulation of new scientific results. To get around this, scientists can release a preprint: a manuscript of a paper posted to a public server online before it has completed a formal peer-review process.

Preprints are commonplace in physics and mathematics. During the covid-19 pandemic, these publications took off in bio logy, genomics and medicine too, reflecting the urgency of communicating corona virus-related findings to other scientists, government officials, and the public.

Some have expressed concerns over the quality of preprints, however, arguing that publishing research prematurely risks undermining the integrity of science if conclusions may later need to be revised, after comments from peer-reviewers, say. Fortunately, a study published in the journal PLOS Biology this week suggests that they have little to worry about.

A team of researchers led by Jonathon Coates, a biologist at Queen Mary University in London, decided to analyse how reliable preprints were early in the covid-19 pandemic. They compiled a set of 184 research papers in the life sciences that had initially been posted as preprints on bio Rxiv and medRxivtwo large preprint serversand later published in one of 23 major scientific journals in the first four months of the pandemic.

They compared each preprint with its more polished version that had later appeared in a journal. They looked for content that had been added or removed from the body of the manuscript, tables or figures that had been rearranged, and when key wording had been changed.

Dr Coatess analysis found that 82.8% of coronavirus-related preprints and 92.8% of non-coronavirus-related preprints saw no material change to their conclusions upon journal publication. Of the changes that were made, most involved only strengthening or weakening of conclusions. Only one paper out of 184 saw one of its conclusions reversed. This is a welcome finding, says Dr Coates. Ultimately, scientists share preprints because they think the work is ready, not simply to rush it outthe results of our study reflect that.

That more coronavirus-related papers saw changes upon publication than non-coronavirus papers could reflect two factors, suggests Dr Coates. The first is that scientists were moving as quickly as possible to make coronavirus-related results public to aid the early pandemic response, meaning that the language in early covid-19 preprints was more likely to require a final edit. Dr Coates adds that, in his experience, journal editors were also being more rigorous in their treatment of early covid-19 research, precisely because the stakes were so high.

These findings support arguments made by advocates of open science, who say that new scientific results should be made available to other researchers and the public freely and quickly. Dr Coatess work suggests that the usual gatekeepers of the research, scientific journals, may add little scientific value to the original research manuscripts. Their large subscription fees, therefore, look increasingly at odds with the value they provide.

Dr Coates also discovered an annoying wrinkle in the publishing and sharing of data in the life sciences. Whenever his team tried to gain access to the supplementary data for a journal-published version of an article, all too often the links were dead or did not lead to the data they were looking for. That seems troubling, not least during a public-health crisis in which access to timely data has been critical in working out what to do and when.

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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Handsome prints"

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Preprints on the coronavirus have been impressively reliable - The Economist

Washington, DC The Districts reported data for February 1, 2022 includes144new confirmed positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing the Districts overall confirmed positive case total to 131,093.The District also reports 28new probable tests, bringing the overall positive probable tests since October 15, 2021to 9,023.

The District reportednoadditionallives lost related toCOVID-19.

Tragically, 1,290 District residents have lost their lives due toCOVID-19.

Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/data for interactive data dashboards or to download COVID-19 data.

Below is the Districts current Key Metrics Summary Table.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by age and gender.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by ward of residence.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by neighborhood of residence.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by race.

Below is the Districts Hospital Census and hospital bed availability at District hospitals.

Below is the ventilator use and availability at District hospitals.

The District currently has 51 intensive care unit (ICU) beds available in hospitals out of 345 total ICU beds.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by race.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by sex.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by age.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by ward of residence.

Guidance has been published for healthcare providers, employers and the public to provide information on what to do if you have been diagnosed with or are a contact of someone who has COVID-19. Residents are encouraged to get vaccinated at one of our free walk-up vaccination sites located throughout the District. For more information, please visit vaccines.gov.

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Coronavirus Data for February 1, 2022 | mayormb - Executive Office of the Mayor

The U.S. Army is developing a vaccine capable of protecting against multiple coronaviruses, but Dr. Fauci said it will be years before one is potentially available.

The discovery of the COVID-19 virus in 2020 prompted a global race for an effective vaccine. Scientists have now developed several vaccines to fight COVID-19. While the vaccines authorized for use in the United States still significantly reduce rates of hospitalization and death, concerns of vaccine efficacy have grown as variants such as omicron appear to evade some vaccine protections.

At a White House press briefing on Jan. 26, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that now there is an urgent need for a universal vaccine that could protect people from multiple COVID-19 variants, as well as other coronaviruses such as SARS. And some news outlets tweeted that the Army was developing a universal coronavirus vaccine.

THE QUESTION

Is the Army working on a universal vaccine that would protect people from multiple coronaviruses?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Yes, researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research are working to develop a universal vaccine that would protect people against multiple COVID-19 variants and other coronaviruses. But the vaccine likely wont be available to the general public for several years.

WHAT WE FOUND

According to a U.S. Army press release, researchers at the The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research began work on the universal coronavirus vaccine in early 2020, when they were given the first DNA sequencing of the COVID-19 virus.

This vaccine would protect against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and may provide broad protection against variants associated with the alpha strain. It would also provide protection against other coronaviruses like SARS-origin viruses. The development of this vaccine could provide researchers with the tools they need to prevent another pandemic, the release said, by acting as the first line of defense against variants of concern and similar viruses that could emerge in the future.

DefenseOne reported the Army-developed vaccine uses a soccer ball-shaped protein with 24 faces for its vaccine, which allows scientists to attach the spikes of multiple coronavirus strains on different faces of the protein. This would allow the virus to attack multiple coronaviruses at the same time, because different strains could be built into the vaccine.

The first phase of clinical trials in humans began in April 2021. Prior to that, primates were used as test subjects. According to results of the animal testing phase, the antibody responses exceed those observed for other major vaccines and rapidly protects against respiratory infection and disease in the upper and lower airways and lung tissue of nonhuman primates.

The initial vaccine trials did not include the omicron variant, because the omicron variant did not exist at the time. The delta variant was included in initial testing.

Even though the Army is working on developing a universal coronavirus vaccine, that doesnt mean it will be available to the general public any time soon, if at all. For now, its still in the development and research phase in the U.S.

Dr. David Morens, senior advisor to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told VERIFY to make a universal vaccine is a challenge because if you try to broaden the recipe to add different viruses or variants, like the Army is working to do, your chance of success diminishes."

To make a mostly-universal or fully-universal vaccine is at the moment beyond our technical capacities for any virus group I know of, but that doesnt mean that basic science research wont in the future give us clues to go further, Morens said.

Its not only a question of mutations and bat emergences, its the whole question of breadth of coverage. How do you get a vaccine to do a hundred different jobs when it is barely possible to get it to do one? How do you get the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback to play all 22+ positions on the team at the same level? Morens added.

During a White House press briefing, Fauci also said it could be years before the vaccine would be available in the U.S.

I dont want anyone to think that pan-coronavirus vaccines are literally around the corner in a month or two. Its going to take years to develop in an incremental fashion. Some of these are already in phase one clinical trials. Dont forget, however, that our current vaccine regimens do provide strong protection, particularly when used with a booster, against severe coronavirus disease and death, Fauci said. So, do not wait to receive your primary vaccine regimen. And if you are vaccine [vaccinated], please get your booster if you are eligible.

The Armys universal coronavirus vaccine effort is not the only universal vaccine in development. Scientists are also working on a universal flu vaccine, which, according to the National Academy of Sciences, could be available within the next ten years.

The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter, text alerts and our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Learn More

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Yes, the Army is working on a universal coronavirus vaccine - 12news.com KPNX

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 378.5 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.67 million. More than 10.08 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

More than half of Tokyo's hospital beds set aside for COVID-19 patients were occupied on Tuesday, a level that officials have previously flagged as a criterion for requesting a state of emergency. The capital and most of Japan are now under curbs to contain record coronavirus cases driven by the contagious Omicron variant.

The COVID-19 situation at the Beijing Winter Olympics is within the "expected controllable range", despite increasing positive cases being detected, a senior official at China's Olympics Pandemic Prevention and Control Office said on Tuesday. The Organizing Committee has reported 200 COVID cases since 23 January.

The British government said on Monday it planned to revoke mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for health workers in England after warnings that an already-stretched service could face crippling staff shortages. Health minister Sajid Javid said the government would launch a consulation into whether the policy announced in November was still needed.

Russia reported a record daily number of COVID-19 cases on Tuesday as the Omicron variant of coronavirus spread across the country, authorities said. New daily cases jumped to 125,836, up from 124,070 a day earlier. The government coronavirus task force also reported 663 deaths in the past 24 hours.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave full approval to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for people age 18 and older, making it the second fully approved vaccine for the virus. The Moderna vaccine has been authorized for emergency use in the United States since December 2020.

South Africa no longer requires those who test positive for COVID-19 without symptoms to isolate and has also reduced the isolation period for those with symptoms by three days, as the country exits its fourth wave of the coronavirus, a government statement said on Monday.

Indonesia's holiday island of Bali will start welcoming back travellers from all countries later this week, officials said on Monday, more than three months after announcing it was open to selected nationalities.

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.

Image: Our World in Data

The study, which analyzed coronavirus infections in more than 8,500 Danish households between December and January, found that people infected with the BA.2 subvariant were roughly 33% more likely to infect others, compared to those infected with BA.1.

Worldwide, the "original" BA.1 subvariant accounts for more than 98% of Omicron cases, but its close cousin BA.2 has quickly become the dominant strain in Denmark, dethroning BA.1 in the second week of January.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was conducted by researchers at Statens Serum Institut (SSI), Copenhagen University, Statistics Denmark and Technical University of Denmark.

BA.2 cases have also been registered in the United States, Britain, Sweden and Norway, but to a much lesser extent than in Denmark, where it accounts for roughly 82% of cases.

The first global pandemic in more than 100 years, COVID-19 has spread throughout the world at an unprecedented speed. At the time of writing, 4.5 million cases have been confirmed and more than 300,000 people have died due to the virus.

As countries seek to recover, some of the more long-term economic, business, environmental, societal and technological challenges and opportunities are just beginning to become visible.

To help all stakeholders communities, governments, businesses and individuals understand the emerging risks and follow-on effects generated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, has launched its COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications - a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forums annual Global Risks Report.

Companies are invited to join the Forums work to help manage the identified emerging risks of COVID-19 across industries to shape a better future. Read the full COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications report here, and our impact story with further information.

Discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles from the COVID-19 pandemic have piled up to create tens of thousands of tonnes of medical waste, threatening human health and the environment, a World Health Organization report said on Tuesday.

The material, a portion of which could be infectious since coronavirus can survive on surfaces, potentially exposes health workers to burns, needle-stick injuries and disease-causing germs, the report said.

Communities close to poorly managed landfills can also be affected through contaminated air from burning waste, poor water quality or disease-carrying pests, it added.

The report calls for reform and investment including through the reduction in the use of packaging that has caused a rush for plastic and the use of protective gear made from reusable and recyclable materials.

It estimates that some 87,000 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE), or the equivalent of the weight of several hundred blue whales, has been ordered via a UN portal up until November 2021 - most of which is thought to have ended up as waste.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 1 February - World Economic Forum