COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

[Blackhawk]

It's been a long, long time since I was an animist (or any form of religious), but I still get an urge to wonder if COVID is just nature's way of saying that it's sick of our shit.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I wouldn't describe myself as religious (or even spiritual) but I do kinda loosely subscribe to the Gaia hypothesis and could believe a much larger system is trying to deal with a smaller subsystem that is out of control and wrecking the place.

Maybe Agent Smith was right?

[Isgrimnur]

Yeah, that would be a big deal. I thought the medical establishment had concluded that Covid is a circulatory disease. If it's traveling via the vagus nerve, that's worse.

Gee, Officer Krupke…

[Isgrimnur]

Maybe Agent Smith was right?

Always has been.

[Smoove_B]

Not a treatment or a vaccine, but I would like one:

A new proof-of-concept device from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis monitors air samples for COVID-19 virus variant detection in about 5 minutes, according to a study today in Nature Communications.

The work is based on an inter-disciplinary team's previous construction of a micro-immunoelectrode (MIE) biosensor that detects amyloid beta as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers exchanged the antibody that recognizes amyloid beta for a nanobody from a llama that recognizes the spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Using wet cyclone technology, the biosensor allows air samples to mix at high velocities creating a surface vortex trapping the virus aerosols. This allows the biosensor to detect virus particles in collected fluids.

More details:

The device is compact, standing at 12 inches wide and 10 inches tall, and has a flow rate of 1,000 liters per minute. The authors of the study said the device could be used by schools, hospitals, and public places to detect SARS-CoV-2, as well as other airborne viruses including RSV and influenza. It lights up when a virus is detected, alerting its operators to increase air flow in the room.

"If you are in a room with 100 people, you don't want to find out five days later whether you could be sick or not. The idea with this device is that you can know essentially in real time, or every 5 minutes, if there is a live virus," said co-senior author John Cirrito, PhD.

I'll be wearing one around my neck like Flavor Flav.

[Zaxxon]

I've always wondered why we don't have devices like that. Not everywhere, but in high-risk environments at the least.

[Smoove_B]

Shortly after the anthrax attacks in 2001, biological "sniffers" were added to some postal facilities and then (I believe) put into use nationwide at specific distribution centers to try and prevent something like that from happening ever again. I don't think that's a secret any more, and if it is still a a secret I'm totally joking.

But seriously, it is a thing.

A device like this would transform nursing homes, cancer treatment centers, local medical offices (like the dentist). It would be something that after a year, we'd wonder how we existed without them. Well, except for all the angry people that would be told they can't do [X] because apparently they're carrying COVID-19 into a shared, sensitive space.

[Blackhawk]

Why do you want to live in fear? It's just a cold.

[Victoria Raverna]

Why do you want to know that in the crowd of maybe 1000, there is a few of them has COVID-19? Maybe 100 of them are going to get COVID-19, but the odd of that being you is just 1 in 10. Better deal with it when you get it instead of worrying about it when it is only 1 in 10 chance.

[Daehawk]

It's been a long, long time since I was an animist (or any form of religious), but I still get an urge to wonder if COVID is just nature's way of saying that it's sick of our shit.

Sorta like that movie with Mark Wahlberg .....The Happening.

[em2nought]

I ate in some pretty full restaurants today, I was kind of wondering why I was doing that, kind of feels uncomfortable to be around all those yucky people. Cars should start having better dining options. I tried to buy a tray that hooks on my steering wheel but it failed miserably. I think I could make a better one. It's under my laptop serving to aid in cooling instead.

Oh, looks like I need the fat boy version on etsy.

[Kraken]

Oh dear...

Humans transmitted the coronavirus to white-tailed deer more than 100 times in late 2021 and early 2022, according to new research led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The research also suggests that the virus probably spread widely among deer, that it mutated in the animals and that they may have passed these altered versions of the virus back to people at least three times.

The findings, some of which were also published in the journal Nature Communications, add to concerns that deer, which are ubiquitous in the United States, might become a long-term animal reservoir for the virus and a potential source of new variants.

Maybe stop hanging out with deer in crowded venues.

[em2nought]

Wouldn't want people eating any of that free venison. Well, not really free once you've got a few thousand rounds of ammo and a rifle with a good minute of angle, and some camo, and a truck, and an atv, a tree stand, corn

[Max Peck]

I still can't grok why and how it is so common for people to be in "close contact" with wild deer. How does that work? Are people hanging out with Bambi in crowded restaurants and bars?

[Unagi]

I think most people’s instincts when they see a deer, would be to fawn all over them.

[Max Peck]

[Kraken]

I still can't grok why and how it is so common for people to be in "close contact" with wild deer. How does that work? Are people hanging out with Bambi in crowded restaurants and bars?

“Deer regularly interact with humans and are commonly found in human environments — near our homes, pets, wastewater and trash,” Xiu-Feng Wan, an expert on zoonotic disease at the University of Missouri and an author of the new paper, said in a statement.

...which sort of negates the idea of respiratory spread.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, this one has been a mystery to me as well. I actually haven't seen any type of environmental sampling studies done to suggest exactly what's happening either but I need to believe the virus is being aerosolized somehow and that the deer are breathing it in. What makes it extra strange is that you'd presume these are all outdoor encounters, which broadly should have lower risk.

Overall I think it still just points to things we still don't know or understand 3+ years later.

[LawBeefaroni]

Deer are the most common/popular of the even-toed ungulate found in the furry fandom, regardless of gender. The best known deer artists include SusanDeer, Dustmeat, Jack Cavanaugh, Bucky Boy, and Tor, among others.

Just sayin'.

[Blackhawk]

In high-deer rural areas, deer often end up in your yard. It doesn't take much for them to be exposed to wastewater, and it doesn't take much for our environments to be exposed to their waste (just a single misplaced step in the grass...) They also (occasionally) get into peoples' trash, if they raccoons have left any for them. This is just a few miles from here in Bloomington:

[ImLawBoy]

Even in urban areas! We have a forest preserve a couple of miles from our house, and the last time we took a walk there we saw plenty of deer about. It was after Halloween and a lot of people apparently dump their old pumpkins in the forest preserve for the animals to snack on, which drew out quite a few deer.

[Max Peck]

But waste water and poop aren't how SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted, last I heard.

[Smoove_B]

But waste water and poop aren't how SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted, last I heard.

Exactly. It's been 3+ years and my mom keeps telling me how whenever she leaves the grocery store she is using hand sanitizer. It's not a bad idea, but it's not helping prevent COVID-19 transmission.

Unless something else is going on, there has to be aeresolization of the virus (somehow) in such a way that it's persisting enough to allow deer to be exposed when people (presumably) aren't around. Of course, we also don't know if there are specific individuals in private neighborhoods that have "pet" deer they come into close contact with (because they're feeding them in their back yards) and those people gave the deer COVID-19 and then the deer spread it widely amongst themselves.

I'd love to see studies and know more.

[ImLawBoy]

Yeah, I know it doesn't explain things. I'm just adding my two cents about the prevalence of deer in some areas - particularly the Midwest US. You wouldn't think I'd be worried about hitting a deer living in the third largest city in the country, but I've had to dodge them. My dad once hit one on an expressway overpass in the suburbs while I was riding shotgun.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, I know it doesn't explain things. I'm just adding my two cents about the prevalence of deer in some areas - particularly the Midwest US. You wouldn't think I'd be worried about hitting a deer living in the third largest city in the country, but I've had to dodge them.

I was just reading an article in NatGeo about the huge coyote population in said city.

My dad once hit one on an expressway overpass in the suburbs while I was riding shotgun.

Well, then, somebody wasn't doing their job. That thing ain't just for show, boy! Clear the road!

[ImLawBoy]

Yeah, I know it doesn't explain things. I'm just adding my two cents about the prevalence of deer in some areas - particularly the Midwest US. You wouldn't think I'd be worried about hitting a deer living in the third largest city in the country, but I've had to dodge them.

I was just reading an article in NatGeo about the huge coyote population in said city.

We had a coyote just trotting down the middle of my street a couple of months ago. Pretty cool, actually, especially since I don't have any small pets.

My dad once hit one on an expressway overpass in the suburbs while I was riding shotgun.

Well, then, somebody wasn't doing their job. That thing ain't just for show, boy! Clear the road!

Unfortunately I was aiming backwards at the marauding, heavily armed gangs that the media tells you are overrunning the area. They're worse than the deer and coyotes!

[em2nought]

I think it's just an end run around the 2nd. Get rid of deer hunting and the gun lobby shrinks big time.

[Pyperkub]

Why do you want to live in fear? It's just a cold.

Covid is still the 4th leading cause of death in the US, FWIW...

[Blackhawk]

Why do you want to live in fear? It's just a cold.

Covid is still the 4th leading cause of death in the US, FWIW...

I'm guessing that you know, but just in case - that was bitter sarcasm, not my actual view.

[Isgrimnur]

Nature

[Smoove_B]

Science, man. Every time.

Evolutionary analyses showed these white-tailed deer viruses originated from at least 109 independent spillovers from humans, which resulted in 39 cases of subsequent local deer-to-deer transmission and three cases of potential spillover from white-tailed deer back to humans.

[Blackhawk]

Human-Deer, Human-Deer-Deer, and Human-Deer-Human.

Nobody seems to be into Deer-Human-Deer anymore. Oh, well.

[Isgrimnur]

I could probably find a subreddit for you, but I will refrain from that search at the present time.

[Smoove_B]

Noted COVID-19 minimizer Dr. Bob Wachter is going through some things

https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/ ... 1003033600

Until this week, I remained a NoVid, which I chalked up to being fairly cautious, fully vaxxed & a bit lucky. This week my luck ran out. My case is a cautionary tale, particularly for the “just a cold” folks. Mine definitely was not...I literally have scars to show for it.

I'm posting mainly because after everything he is still trying to pass this off like it was NBD and in the end he says it won't change or influence his future decisions; this could have ended much differently, quite frankly. I'm going to humbly suggest he's re-evaluated for brain damage.

[Isgrimnur]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1679 ... 33600.html

[LordMortis]

’ve got my 2nd bivalent in April,

Wait, we can do that now?

[Smoove_B]

AFAIK it's only for people in a narrow category - mainly 65+, but possibly immunocompromised w/ doctor's order.

In more positive (yuk yuk) news, the latest on the nasal vaccine:

In a study published last month in the Lancet, Prof Jing-Xin Li, Ph.D., from the National Health Commission Key Laboratory of Enteric Pathogenic Microbiology in China, and coauthors investigated the world’s first licensed nasal vaccine, Ad5-nCoV, on a field of over 10,000 patients. Here we analyze their findings and discuss the potential impact of the nasal vaccine on the future of the pandemic.

The Chinese Ad5-nCoV nasal vaccine acts as a booster dose similar to the bivalent mRNA booster in the United States. In China, a majority of citizens received two doses of inactivated virus vaccine, a common method of vaccination for other pathogens, though not as effective for Covid-19 as the mRNA vaccines.

Over a two-month span in 2022, over 10,000 patients received the nasal booster. Of these, 210 were monitored for immunogenicity follow-ups as compared to 210 who received a control of inactivated virus booster.

The researchers first note a clear negative about their vaccine. Adverse reactions to the nasal vaccine were increased (13%) as compared to the inactivated vaccine control group (7%). These reactions range from mild, such as sore throat, coughing, sneezing and headache, to much less common (fewer than 1%) moderate symptoms, such as muscular weakness and myelopathy, or compression-related spinal injury. This is to be expected with a vaccine taken through the respiratory tract as compared to intravenously.

...

While antibody responses are much higher in the nasal vaccine group, this does not mean that infections are completely prevented. Only 35.1% were protected from infection at their 12-month follow-up. The primary outcome of Covid vaccines is not to prevent infection, but to prevent progression to severe disease. In this realm, the nasal vaccine is very successful, limiting infected patients to only mild symptoms 98.1% of the time.

Furthermore, T cell responses in the nasal vaccine group were far higher than the control, suggesting the new vaccine more strongly enables adaptive immune clearance of the virus post-infection.

Of note:

The Ad5-nCoV nasal vaccine is an encouraging alternative to intramuscular vaccination, joining intradermal and inhaled administration, the latter of which may expose the oral and tracheal mucosa to antibodies. The nasal vaccine could accomplish a similar feat, adding to its value as an alternative vaccine.

Were Ad5-nCoV to become available to American citizens in the future, considering the available safety and efficacy data, we highly encourage the regular administration of the vaccine. We would also encourage stateside vaccine developers to consider a similar approach to vaccine development, as nasal vaccines may be the next great tool to fight the ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2.

[Isgrimnur]

"How did you end up with a compression-related spinal injury?"

"Nasal vaccine."

[Blackhawk]

Noted COVID-19 minimizer Dr. Bob Wachter is going through some things

https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/ ... 1003033600

Until this week, I remained a NoVid, which I chalked up to being fairly cautious, fully vaxxed & a bit lucky. This week my luck ran out. My case is a cautionary tale, particularly for the “just a cold” folks. Mine definitely was not...I literally have scars to show for it.

I'm posting mainly because after everything he is still trying to pass this off like it was NBD and in the end he says it won't change or influence his future decisions; this could have ended much differently, quite frankly. I'm going to humbly suggest he's re-evaluated for brain damage.

He's lucky he fell outside of the tub.

[Smoove_B]

I have to believe violent sneezing was involved, but I would like to know more.

In yet more news, another study on "Post Covid Condition", aka Long COVID or PASC:

Background: At least 5-10% of subjects surviving COVID-19 develop the post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) or “Long COVID”. The clinical presentation of PCC is heterogeneous, its pathogenesis is being deciphered, and objective, validated biomarkers are lacking. It is unknown if PCC is a single entity or a heterogeneous syndrome with overlapping pathophysiological basis.

...

The study included 548 individuals, 341 with PCC, followed for a median of 23 months (IQR 16·5 – 23·5), and 207 subjects fully recovered.

...

Only 26 subjects (7·6%) recovered from PCC during follow-up; almost all of them (n=24) belonged to the less symptomatic cluster A, dominated mainly by fatigue. Recovery from PCC was more likely in subjects who were male, required ICU admission, or had cardiovascular comorbidities, hyporexia and/or smell/taste alterations during acute COVID-19. Subjects presenting with muscle pain, impaired attention, dyspnea, or tachycardia, conversely, were less likely to recover from PCC.

Interpretation: Preexisting medical and socioeconomic factors, as well as acute COVID-19 symptoms, predict the development of and recovery from the PCC. Recovery is extremely rare during the first 2 years, posing a major challenge to healthcare systems.