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      First state-level look at long COVID reveals the seven hardest-hit states

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 15 February - 19:29 · 1 minute

    A woman with Long COVID who is completely bedridden, requiring the use of a wheelchair to move between rooms of her home.

    Enlarge / A woman with Long COVID who is completely bedridden, requiring the use of a wheelchair to move between rooms of her home. (credit: Getty | Rhiannon Adam )

    Over four years after SARS-CoV-2's debut, researchers still struggle to understand long COVID, including the ostensibly simple question of how many people have it. Estimates for its prevalence vary widely, based on different study methods and definitions of the condition. Now, for the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has attempted to estimate its prevalence among adults in each US state and territory. The results again show a wide range of prevalence estimates while revealing the states that were hardest hit as well as those that seem relatively spared.

    Overall, the CDC found that seven states in the South, West, and Midwest had the highest prevalence of long COVID in the country, between 8.9 percent and 10.6 percent: Alabama, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wyoming, and, the state with the highest prevalence of 10.6 percent, West Virginia. The results are published today in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report .

    On the other end of the spectrum, New England states, Washington, and Oregon had lower prevalence rates, between 3.7 percent and 5.3 percent. The lowest rate was seen in the US Virgin Islands with 1.9 percent. Washington, DC, and Guam had ranges between 1.9 percent and 3.6 percent.

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      After being demoted and forced to retire, mRNA researcher wins Nobel

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 2 October - 19:06 · 1 minute

    After being demoted and forced to retire, mRNA researcher wins Nobel

    Enlarge (credit: Mark Makela / Stringer )

    Biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Monday for their foundational research showing that chemical modifications to the molecular building blocks of messenger RNA (mRNA) could enable its use for therapeutics and vaccines—a realization crucial to the rapid development of the life-saving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines during the deadly pandemic.

    The pair's prize-winning and tenacious work on different types of RNA culminated in a 2005 breakthrough study showing that chemical modifications of mRNA bases (nucleosides)—adenine (A), cytosine (C), uracil (U), and guanine (G)—could keep them from igniting innate immune responses and inflammation reactions, which had foiled previous efforts to use mRNA for therapeutics.

    In our cells, mRNA is an intermediate molecule, a single-stranded copy of coding from the genes in our DNA blueprints that is then translated into functional proteins. (DNA uses bases A, C, G, and thymine (T), which is structurally similar to RNA's U.) The mRNA is copied (aka transcribed) from DNA in a cell's nucleus and then moves to the cytoplasm for its code-deciphering translation into proteins. Thus, mRNA is critical for protein production and is more accessible than DNA—features that made it an appealing target for developing therapeutics.

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      COVID outbreak at CDC gathering infects 181 disease detectives

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 30 May, 2023 - 17:03

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters stands in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 14, 2020.

    Enlarge / The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters stands in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 14, 2020. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg )

    The tally of COVID-19 cases linked to a conference of disease detectives hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April has reached at least 181, the agency reported .

    Roughly 1,800 gathered in person for this year's annual Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference, which was held on April 24 to 27 in a hotel conference facility in Atlanta where the CDC's headquarters are located. It was the first time the 70-year-old conference had in-person attendees since 2019. The CDC agency estimates an additional 400 attended virtually this year.

    By the last day of the event, a number of in-person attendees had reported testing positive for COVID-19, causing conference organizers to warn attendees and make changes to reduce the chance of further spread. That reportedly included canceling an in-person training and offering to extend the hotel stays of sick attendees who needed to isolate.

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      Florida surgeon general fudged data for dubious COVID analysis, tipster says

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 23 February, 2023 - 17:26 · 1 minute

    Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks during a press conference at Neo City Academy in Kissimmee, Florida.

    Enlarge / Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks during a press conference at Neo City Academy in Kissimmee, Florida. (credit: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

    Florida's health department opened and then closed an investigation into the state's polarizing surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo , after a tipster claiming to have insider knowledge alleged that Ladapo "manipulated data" and committed "scientific fraud" in his final edits to what became a contentious, widely panned analysis on COVID-19 vaccine safety in young men.

    That's all according to a report by Politico , which reviewed state documents on the investigation, including the original complaint from the tipster. Those documents appear to raise more questions than answers regarding the accusations and the health department's investigation. According to the documents, the Florida Department of Health’s inspector general opened an investigation in November of last year but closed it at an undisclosed time because the anonymous complainant didn't respond to follow-up questions.

    “Batshit study”

    The dubious analysis at the center of the controversy was posted online last October by the health department. Oddly, though, it did not list any authors or bear the health department's letterhead or other identifiers. Ladapo used the analysis as the basis for the state's concerning recommendation that males aged 18 to 39 should not receive an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine. That recommendation goes against the recommendations of all other major health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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      Unvaccinated more likely to have heart attack, stroke after COVID, study finds

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 21 February, 2023 - 22:33 · 1 minute

    A medical director in Germany sits in front of a monitor showing the real-time data of a patient with a heart attack.

    Enlarge / A medical director in Germany sits in front of a monitor showing the real-time data of a patient with a heart attack. (credit: Getty | Arne Dedert )

    A bout of COVID-19 is known to increase a person's long-term risks of having a major cardiovascular event , such as a heart attack or stroke. But being fully vaccinated or even partially vaccinated appears to bring that risk down, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology .

    The study, led by researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, drew on medical records from over 1.9 million patients who were infected with COVID-19 between March 2020 and February 2022. Of those 1.9 million patients, a "major adverse cardiac event," namely a heart attack, stroke, or another cardiac event, was identified in 13,948 patients, and 3,175 died following the event.

    Overall, the researchers found that being vaccinated—fully or partially—was linked to fewer cardiac events in the six months following a case of COVID-19. After adjusting for demographics, comorbidities, and time since the pandemic began, the researchers found that being fully vaccinated reduced the risk of having a major cardiac event by about 41 percent, while being partially vaccinated reduced the risk by about 24 percent.

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      Annual? Bivalent? For all? Future of COVID shots murky after FDA deliberations

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 27 January, 2023 - 23:12 · 1 minute

    Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in March 2021, in Washington, DC.

    Enlarge / Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in March 2021, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | Pool )

    The US Food and Drug Administration's committee of independent vaccine experts gathered Thursday to discuss the future of COVID-19 shots. The meeting seemed primed for explosive debate. Earlier in the week, the FDA released documents that made clear the agency is holding steadfast to its idea that COVID vaccines will fit the mold of annual flu shots —with reformulations decided in the first half of each year, followed by fall rollouts in anticipation of winter waves.

    But outside experts, including some on the FDA's advisory committee, have questioned almost every aspect of that plan—from the uncertain seasonality of COVID-19 so far, to the futility of chasing fast-moving variants (or subvariants, as the case may be). Some have even questioned whether there's a need to boost the young and healthy so frequently when current vaccines offer protection against severe disease, but only short-lived protection against infection.

    One particularly outspoken member of FDA's committee, Paul Offit, a pediatrician and infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has publicly assailed the bivalent booster, writing a commentary piece in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month titled: Bivalent Covid-19 Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale . (The FDA's advisory committee voted 19-2 in support of the bivalent boosters last year, with Offit being one of the two votes against.)

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      Over a million could die as China’s COVID wave crashes into huge holiday

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 5 January, 2023 - 18:14 · 1 minute

    An elderly female patient with COVID-19 is treated at No. 2 People's Hospital of Fuyang City in China.

    Enlarge / An elderly female patient with COVID-19 is treated at No. 2 People's Hospital of Fuyang City in China. (credit: Getty | Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocke )

    With China's zero-COVID policy abruptly scrapped last month, the pandemic virus is now ripping through the country's population, and health experts are bracing for a wave of devastation as peak transmission shifts from urban centers to more vulnerable rural communities. The dire situation is expected to be "dramatically enhanced" by mass travel later this month for celebrations of the Lunar New Year on January 22.

    Multiple modeling studies have suggested that China could see around 1 million deaths in the coming weeks as the country reopens amid a raging outbreak. Last month, modeling by The Economist estimated that 96 percent of China's 1.4 billion people could catch the virus within the next three months, resulting in 1.5 million deaths . Of those deaths, 90 percent would be among people aged 60 and over.  Another modeling study, partly funded by China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also estimated that 957,600 would die in the coming weeks if the country doesn't swiftly roll out fourth-dose COVID-19 vaccines.

    Because China was previously able to keep COVID-19 waves at bay with its zero-tolerance policies, most of the country's immune protection derives from vaccination rather than prior infection or hybrid protection. Around 90 percent of China's population has had two shots of COVID-19 vaccines, but fewer than 60 percent have received a third shot as a booster dose. And even for those who have gotten a third dose, many of those doses were taken months ago, and peak protection has passed. Vaccination coverage among the elderly is particularly worrying. About 30 percent of people aged 60 and over have not gotten a third dose, and for people aged 80 and over, a startling 60 percent have not gotten a third dose.

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      Amid pathetic uptake, FDA green lights confusing COVID vaccine update for kids

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 9 December, 2022 - 23:08

    Reisa Lancaster RN, left, administers the Covid-19 vaccine to 14 month old Ada Hedge, center, being comforted by mom Sarah Close and dad Chinmay Hedge, right at  Children's National Research and Innovation Campus, in Washington, DC.

    Enlarge / Reisa Lancaster RN, left, administers the Covid-19 vaccine to 14 month old Ada Hedge, center, being comforted by mom Sarah Close and dad Chinmay Hedge, right at Children's National Research and Innovation Campus, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | The Washington Post, Bill O'Leary )

    The Food and Drug Administration has greenlit updated COVID-19 vaccine doses for children under the age of 5, but the change to the authorized vaccination regimens is far from straightforward. This may further hamstring efforts to vaccinate the youngest Americans, which are already off to an abysmal start.

    After months of availability, only about 3 percent of infants and toddlers 6 months to 2 years old have completed a primary series. Just 6.5 percent have gotten at least one shot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . For those aged 2 to 4 years, just under 5 percent have completed a primary series, with 9 percent having gotten at least one dose.

    It was back in June when the FDA authorized—and the CDC endorsed—small doses of both Moderna's and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old.

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      Doc who thinks vaccinated people are magnetic is in big trouble with med board

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 28 October, 2022 - 17:09

    Clevland doctor Sherri Tenpenny gives false testimony on June 8, 2021, saying COVID-19 vaccines magnetize people.

    Enlarge / Clevland doctor Sherri Tenpenny gives false testimony on June 8, 2021, saying COVID-19 vaccines magnetize people. (credit: The Ohio Channel )

    The State Medical Board of Ohio is threatening to limit, suspend, or even permanently revoke the medical license of Sherri Tenpenny, the infamous anti-vaccine doctor who made headlines last year for falsely testifying to state lawmakers that COVID-19 vaccinations make people magnetic—among espousing other nonsensical anti-vaccine-related conspiracy theories.

    "I'm sure you've seen the pictures all over the Internet of people who have had these shots and now they're magnetized," Tenpenny said in her viral testimony. "You can put a key on their forehead—it sticks. You can put spoons and forks all over and they can stick because now we think there is a metal piece to that."

    She went on to suggest that there may be an "interface—yet to be defined" between the components of life-saving vaccines and "all of the 5G towers." She added that the connection is "not proven yet" but that "we're trying to figure [it] out."

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