Covid News Watch
Possible Links Between COVID Shots and Tinnitus Emerge + More
Possible Links Between COVID Shots and Tinnitus Emerge
Thousands of people say they’ve developed tinnitus after they were vaccinated against COVID. While there is no proof yet that the vaccines caused the condition, theories for a possible link have surfaced among researchers.
Shaowen Bao, an associate professor in the physiology department of the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona, Tucson, believes that ongoing inflammation, especially in the brain or spinal cord, may be to blame. Bao, a longtime tinnitus sufferer and a representative of the American Tinnitus Association’s scientific advisory board, has studied tinnitus for more than a decade.
A Facebook group of people who developed tinnitus after getting a COVID vaccine convinced Bao to look into the possible link. He ultimately surveyed 398 of the group’s participants. Along with ringing in their ears, participants reported a range of other symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, vertigo, ear pain, anxiety and depression. Significantly more people first developed tinnitus after the first dose of the vaccine, compared with the second.
As of Sunday, at least 16,183 people had filed complaints with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they’d developed tinnitus, or ringing in their ears, after receiving a COVID vaccine. The CDC has not, however, made those reviews public, as it did after looking into other possible vaccine side effects, such as inflammation of the heart or myocarditis — frustrating leading vaccine expert Dr. Gregory Poland, founder and director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota.
“Why has the CDC not done all of the research that they should do on this and published it?” Poland said. Poland, who was stricken with tinnitus after he received his COVID vaccines two years ago, suggested that the CDC remains “unconcerned” about these reports of tinnitus.
Dentists: Unexplained Pain, Tooth Loss and Bone Problems May Be Linked to COVID Vaccine
Before business owner and busy mom Alana Parker experienced severe oral pain and facial swelling after receiving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, she had good dental health with never so much as a cavity. When her symptoms progressed and an ulcer had grown to the point where the bone was protruding, causing her to lose large fragments of her jawbone, Parker knew she was in serious trouble.
Dr. Amy Hartsfield, a private practice dentist in Homewood, Alabama, obtained her specialization from the American Board of Orofacial Pain and the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine after practicing 14 years of general dentistry.
Parker isn’t the only patient she’s seen with severe facial pain issues. Since the vaccines were rolled out, Hartsfield has seen an exponential increase in patients with head and facial neurovascular and myofascial pain, including headaches, toothaches not caused by the tooth, osteonecrosis of the jaw, sleep issues, tinnitus, and oral and facial autoimmune conditions.
In her research, Hartsfield discovered an array of health issues the COVID-19 vaccine spike protein can cause, many of which are related to immunity and blood microclots.
Lawmakers Push Back on Chinese Efforts to �?Interfere’ in COVID Investigation
House lawmakers investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday called for the Chinese government to make available scientists and military officials to testify in Washington, pushing back on what they said are efforts by China’s embassy to interfere in their probe.
The request was made in a letter exclusively obtained by The Hill. The letter was sent by the chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Qin Gang.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the chair, criticized the embassy as seeking to “interfere” in the investigation, in a letter to committee members sent on April 14 by Li Xiang, a counselor with China’s embassy.
Wenstrup, in his letter, said China’s “interference is unacceptable and will not impede the Select Subcommittee’s efforts. We encourage you to cease and, instead, cooperate with the numerous international investigations into the origins of COVID-19.” He also said China should make at least five Chinese officials connected to the state’s health administration, military and the Wuhan Institute of Virology available to the probe.
Disability Denied: Unable to Work, COVID Long Haulers Face Barriers to Benefits
Marie, who left a corporate job in Missouri after contracting COVID-19 in the first wave and then developing what came to be known as long COVID, received five months of short-term disability through her employer. It was “a lifesaver,” she said. But in 2022, she caught COVID again, and this time it’s taken much longer to recover from the long COVID that followed.
Not knowing when or if she’ll be able to go back to work, Marie (who asked that only her middle name be used for fear of reprisal from the Social Security Administration) began pursuing long-term disability coverage and is also applying for disability coverage through Social Security.
Marie and other COVID “long haulers” must navigate a disability claims system that was already difficult before the pandemic, with sometimes years-long wait times and no clear guidance on how to prove their disability. Long COVID has supercharged those problems for many by adding additional hurdles.
Although the federal government has said that long COVID can be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the healthcare system doesn’t have a clear way to diagnose it. There is no single test to identify long COVID, and not having a positive test of the initial COVID infection can be a barrier to qualifying for disability, long haulers say.
WHO Watching XBB.1.16, Dubbed Arcturus on Social Media, as a Coronavirus Variant of Interest
The World Health Organization has elevated the fast-growing Omicron sublineage XBB.1.16 as a new variant of interest and says it is out-competing the previously dominant XBB.1.5 in many regions.
XBB.1.16 is a descendant of the recombinant XBB, which is a mashup of two BA.2 sublineages. On social media, the variant has been nicknamed Arcturus, like the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. Currently, it is the dominant variant in India, where it is causing a wave of mostly mild illnesses. But it has been spotted in 32 other countries, including the United States.
WHO says that while this variant seems to be spreading faster than previous variants, and escapes immunity — even in people who’ve recently had the XBB.1.5 strain — it does not seem to be causing more severe illness. Therefore, the WHO says the risk from this variant is low.
Last week in the United States, XBB.1.16 accounted for an estimated 10% of COVID-19 cases nationally, up from about 6% the week prior. The XBB.1.5 variant continues to be the dominant cause of new infections in the United States, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pinkeye Cases Rise in Allergy Season. It Might Be a COVID Symptom, Too.
Pinkeye — an inflamed, itchy and painful eye — is common during allergy season. But now some doctors are concerned the ailment may also be associated with a new coronavirus subvariant.
Health experts say they have not conclusively linked the condition, formally called conjunctivitis, to the subvariant Arcturus. But anecdotal reports suggest the subvariant may produce fever and conjunctivitis, mainly among children.
Pinkeye can be caused by allergies, injury, bacterial infections or viral infections (not just COVID), and can occur in both children and adults.
Medical professionals say although people who are diagnosed with covid do sometimes present with conjunctivitis, it is too early to tell whether there’s a greater chance of pinkeye associated with the new subvariant.
Virtual Communication Left Seniors Feeling Anxious, Depressed During Pandemic, According to Brigham and Women’s Study
Older adults who frequently used technology to connect with friends, family, and healthcare providers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic reported feeling more anxious and depressed than those who sought in-person visits, according to a new study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Among Americans over 65, virtual interactions — e-mail, phone, and video calls — were associated with increased mental health concerns, according to the study, which analyzed national survey data and was released earlier this month.
“What we found that makes this a little bit interesting is those that were able to maintain face-to-face connections actually reported less risk,” said Rebecca Robbins, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard and associate scientist at Brigham and Women’s Division of Sleep and Circadian disorders.
Robbins, the study’s lead author, said that while communications technology was heralded as a “panacea” for loneliness during the pandemic, it failed to meet the needs of some older adults unfamiliar with digital platforms. Robbins and other researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, an annual home survey of Medicare beneficiaries. The study included a supplemental COVID-19 survey between June and October 2020, from which her team pulled data.
About 20% of those surveyed reported feeling depressed, and 25% reported feeling anxious about the pandemic, according to the study.
Vaccine Uptake Among Children in England Has Fallen Since Start of Pandemic
Vaccination rates have fallen among schoolchildren in England since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials have said, amid a global crisis of confidence in vaccines.
“In recent years, we have seen vaccine uptake fall due to the challenges posed by the pandemic,” said Dr. Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Uptake of the jab that protects against the bacteria which lead to meningitis fell significantly last year, the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. The number of youngsters given a shot against polio, diphtheria and tetanus, also known as the three-in-one jab, also fell, it added.
Researchers Detect 2 New SARS-CoV-2 Strains on Polish Mink Farms
Researchers identify two novel SARS-CoV-2 strains most closely related to variants circulating in humans more than 2 years earlier on two mink farms in Poland, the possible result of long-term, undetected circulation in the animals.
SARS-CoV-2 monitoring on Polish mink farms began in May 2020. Starting in December 2021, all Polish mink farms were monitored when mink showed signs of disease or died in higher-than-expected numbers.
On two farms, the researchers uncovered two novel SARS-CoV-2 variants most closely related to the B.1.1.307 strain that circulated in humans in late 2020 and early 2021. The new variants, however, had at least 40 polymorphisms, which the authors said suggests that they originated in an unknown or undetected animal reservoir. The mink did not show symptoms.
The researchers noted that the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in humans and susceptible wildlife at farms carries the risk of viral spillover and the establishment of novel wildlife reservoirs. “It seems that relying only on passive surveillance in response to symptomatic outbreaks could result in many cases being overlooked,” they wrote.
Doctor Died From Rare Reaction to AstraZeneca COVID Jab, U.K. Coroner Rules + More
Doctor Died From Rare Reaction to AstraZeneca COVID Jab, U.K. Coroner Rules
A doctor died from a rare reaction to the AstraZeneca COVID jab in one of the first rounds of vaccinations, a coroner has ruled. Dr. Stephen Wright, 32, an NHS clinical psychologist and frontline health worker, suffered from a combination of a brainstem infarction, bleed on the brain and vaccine-induced thrombosis, an inquest at London’s Southwark coroner’s court heard.
He was in one of the earliest groups of people to be given the jab and died 10 days after it was administered. The coroner Andrew Harris said it was a “very unusual and deeply tragic case,” but noted that the inquest’s conclusion was not “blaming AstraZeneca.”
The MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) is currently investigating the small group of people who had a severe reaction to the jab to understand what causes it, though no government decision has been taken based on their findings yet.
Dr. Mark Howard, a consultant pathologist and medical examiner at King’s College Hospital, said scientists and medical experts were not aware of the vaccine’s possible deadly side effects when Wright received the jab as it was so early in its rollout, but even at later stages there would have been no way of predicting this “rare and unintended consequence.”
Moderna Teams Up With IBM to Put AI, Quantum Computing to Work on mRNA Technology Used in Vaccines
Moderna and IBM are teaming up to use generative artificial intelligence and quantum computing to advance mRNA technology, the development at the core of the company’s blockbuster COVID vaccine, the companies announced Thursday.
“We are excited to partner with IBM to develop novel AI models to advance mRNA science, prepare ourselves for the era of quantum computing, and ready our business for these game-changing technologies,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.
The companies said they signed an agreement for Moderna to access IBM’s quantum computing systems. Those systems could help accelerate Moderna’s discovery and creation of new messenger RNA vaccines and therapies, according to Dr. Dario Gil, director of IBM research.
Under the deal, Moderna’s scientists will also have access to IBM’s generative AI model known as MoLFormer. Generative AI describes algorithms that can be used to create new content based on the data they have been trained on.
The companies said Moderna will use IBM’s model to understand “the characteristics of potential mRNA medicines” and design a new class of vaccines and therapies. The agreement comes as Moderna navigates its post-pandemic boom driven by its mRNA COVID vaccine.
The NIH Has Poured $1 Billion Into Long COVID Research — With Little to Show for It
The federal government has burned through more than $1 billion to study long COVID, an effort to help the millions of Americans who experience brain fog, fatigue and other symptoms after recovering from a coronavirus infection. There’s basically nothing to show for it.
The National Institutes of Health hasn’t signed up a single patient to test any potential treatments — despite a clear mandate from Congress to study them. And the few trials it is planning have already drawn a firestorm of criticism, especially one intervention that experts and advocates say may actually make some patients’ long COVID symptoms worse.
Instead, the NIH spent the majority of its money on broader, observational research that won’t directly bring relief to patients. But it still hasn’t published any findings from the patients who joined that study, almost two years after it started.
There’s no sense of urgency to do more or to speed things up, either. The agency isn’t asking Congress for any more funding for long COVID research, and STAT and MuckRock obtained documents showing the NIH refuses to use its own money to change course.
Patients and researchers have already raised alarms about the glacial pace of the NIH’s early long COVID efforts. But a new investigation from STAT and the nonprofit news organization MuckRock, based on interviews with nearly two dozen government officials, experts, patients, and advocates, and internal NIH correspondence, letters, and public documents, underscores that the NIH hasn’t picked up the pace — instead, the delays have compounded.
People Lost Faith in Childhood Vaccines During COVID Pandemic, UNICEF Says
People all over the world lost confidence in the importance of routine childhood vaccines against killer diseases like measles and polio during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from UNICEF.
In 52 of the 55 countries surveyed, the public perception of vaccines for children declined between 2019 and 2021, the UN agency said.
The data was a “worrying warning signal” of rising vaccine hesitancy amid misinformation, dwindling trust in governments and political polarization, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, said.
In countries including Papua New Guinea and South Korea, agreement with the statement “vaccines are important for children” declined by 44%, and by more than a third in Ghana, Senegal and Japan. In the United States, it declined by 13.6 percentage points. In India, China and Mexico, confidence remained broadly the same or increased, the report added.
CDC Signs Off on Additional COVID Booster Doses for Certain People
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its recommendations on the COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday to allow another dose of the bivalent booster for people who are 65 and older or who have weakened immune systems and who “want the option of added protection” against the coronavirus.
The move aligns with Tuesday’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration actions to allow these groups to get additional booster doses ahead of the fall vaccination campaign. On Wednesday, members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices met to discuss the changes and expressed their support for them, although the committee did not vote.
Monovalent mRNA vaccines, which protect only against the original strain of the coronavirus, will no longer be recommended in the United States, the CDC says. The updated bivalent shots from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech protect against the original strain as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the Omicron variant.
Why Reports of Period Weirdness After COVID Shots Were Ignored
One day in early 2021, Katie Lee, a former student of mine who is now a professor at Tulane University, sent a message asking if I’d heard anything about heavier or breakthrough bleeding with the coronavirus vaccines. I hadn’t and put her message out of my mind. Two weeks later, I received my first dose, and soon afterward I got my period. I bled so heavily that I was swapping out overnight-strength pads every hour.
I decided to tweet out a query: Has anyone else had changes in their periods since receiving the vaccine? The response was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced on social media. I was bombarded with similar stories. Within a few hours, Lee and I were furiously messaging each other, and soon we developed a survey seeking to explore further whether coronavirus vaccine side effects might extend to changes in periods.
We expected about 500 people to participate — and ended up with more than 165,000 responses. Menstrual changes matter to millions of people, and pharmaceutical companies, medical professionals and politicians need to invest in research and provide incentives for redesigning research so that it accommodates menstruation.
Medical treatments and vaccine trials — for coronavirus and other maladies — will continue to disserve those bodily systems about which they ask no questions. We deserve better than to be surprised when a new treatment makes us bleed on our office chair.
Abbott Labs Shares Pop as Revenue, Earnings Defy Steep Drop in COVID Test Sales
Shares of Abbott Laboratories popped Wednesday after the company’s earnings and revenue topped Wall Street’s expectations, defying a dramatic slowdown in sales of its COVID-19 tests.
The medical-products company posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.03. That’s above the average estimate of 99 cents per share, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv. Shares jumped over 7%.
Abbott reported revenue of $9.7 billion for the first quarter, slightly surpassing the Refinitiv estimate of $9.64 billion due to recovery in its medical devices business. But the Chicago-based company noted that revenue decreased by 18.1% from the same period last year, largely driven by a steep decline in global sales of its rapid COVID test.
But Abbott and other drugmakers like Pfizer and Moderna have been bracing for a drop-off in COVID-related sales this year as the world emerges from the pandemic amid slowing demand for blockbuster vaccines and treatments.
Scientists Get Closer to a ‘Universal’ Flu Vaccine
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Researchers are reporting progress on the path to a “universal” flu vaccine — one that would battle all strains of the virus and give the world a weapon against future flu pandemics.
In an early clinical trial, U.S. government scientists found that their experimental flu vaccine was able to coax recipients’ immune systems to produce “cross-reactive” antibodies. That is, they made antibodies against many strains of influenza type A — one of the two major groups of the virus. Experts called the findings promising, in that the vaccine did exactly what you’d want in this early phase of testing.
However, it has not yet been shown to actually protect people from the flu, stressed researcher Sarah Andrews of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center.
She estimated that it could take five to 10 more years of development before if all goes well, the vaccine is ready for the real world. Right now, the available flu vaccines prime the body to fight four flu strains: two type A influenza strains, and two type B.
New White House Plan Aims to Provide Uninsured With Free COVID Vaccines
The Biden administration unveiled Tuesday a $1.1 billion program aimed at providing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to the uninsured at no cost after the federal supply is exhausted.
The two-part initiative would utilize pharmacies, local health departments and federally supported health centers to provide COVID-19 care, according to a fact sheet distributed by the White House. The funds should support the program through December 2024.
One prong of the new program calls for creating a public-private partnership with local and national pharmacies, which administer the majority of adult COVID-19 vaccinations. The federal government will provide a per-dose payment to the pharmacies to cover the cost of administrating the vaccines and treatments, including the antiviral medications Paxlovid and Lagevrio. Pharmacies can also receive one-time payments for each site that targets areas with low rates of access and vaccination.
Orthopedic Surgeon Sounds Off on COVID Vaccine After Developing Career-Ending Condition: I’ve Been �?Abandoned’ + More
Orthopedic Surgeon Sounds Off on COVID Vaccine After Developing Career-Ending Condition: I’ve Been �?Abandoned’
One orthopedic surgeon had his career ripped away from him by developing a career-ending condition just seven days after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
During an appearance on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Dr. Joel Wallskog shared the chilling details of how he contracted Transverse Myelitis, going from a “completely healthy 50-year-old” to a crippled, unemployed orthopedic surgeon, in a matter of a week.
“I was a completely healthy 50-year-old person with really no medical problems until about seven days after my first — or I should say one and only Moderna shot — that I received on December 30 of 2020. So, I was completely otherwise healthy until seven days after the shot,” Dr. Wallskog shared with co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy.
Campos-Duffy shared her sympathies with Dr. Wallskog, asking the surgeon, “What happens next? Who takes responsibility for this?” Dr. Wallskog replied, “What happens is you’re abandoned.”
Campos-Duffy bolstered Dr. Wallskog’s claim, arguing that Big Pharma has not only evaded the “brunt” of alleged vaccine injuries but made “billions of dollars.” Recognizing that victims are provided no financial support, Dr. Wallskog founded an advocacy organization in an effort to spark change.
There’s New Light — and Lingering Questions — in the Mystery of Wuhan
More than three years into the coronavirus pandemic, the question has yet to be answered: How and why did it begin? On April 8, officials in China gave a news conference at which they insisted they had done everything possible to discover the answers about the global outbreak that began there. Zhou Lei, of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Chinese scientists “shared all the data we had” and “adhered to principles of openness, objectivity and transparency.”
They have done neither. A new Post report and a forthcoming Senate investigation once again raise questions that still demand answers from China about what happened in Wuhan in late 2019.
The latest report on what happened in Wuhan came in an examination by Post reporters Joby Warrick and David Willman of China’s spotty biosafety record. They found that China embarked on a significant expansion of the country’s biotechnology sector, pumping billions of dollars into building dozens of laboratories and encouraging cutting-edge research in fields including genetic engineering, experimental vaccines and therapeutics, all part of a government-mandated drive to rival or surpass the United States and other Western powers. But safety practices failed to keep pace.
The Post reporters noted that lab accidents happen everywhere, including in the United States. But Chinese government reports and officials described ongoing equipment problems and inadequate safety training that in some cases resulted in lab animals being illegally sold after being used in experiments, and contaminated lab waste getting flushed into sewers. The problems were exacerbated, they reported, “by a secretive, top-down bureaucracy that sets demanding goals while reflexively covering up accidents and discouraging any public acknowledgment of shortcomings.”
What really happened in Wuhan? The mystery remains. China holds — and should provide — some of the answers.
Ashland County Health Dept. Targeting Amish, ‘Isolated Populations’ With $230K Mobile Vaccination Clinic
The Ashland County Health Department plans to purchase a van outfitted as a mobile health clinic to bring vaccinations to Amish and “isolated populations” across the county.
The health department received the green light from the Ohio Department of Health on Monday to use leftover funds from federal COVID-19 stimulus money, according to Jill Hartson, a community health educator for Ashland County Health Department.
“The van will be ready to use immediately. We will need to do some training on using the items provided in the van and ensure the refrigeration is at temperature before we use it for COVID vaccines,” Vickie Taylor, the health commissioner, said.
The health department has been looking into getting a mobile vaccine unit since October, according to its cover letter dated March 31 to ODH asking for permission to spend up to $300,000 of leftover grant money received from the pandemic.
SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Accumulates in the Skull and Brain — Whether Findings Have Implications for Long COVID Is Unclear
SARS-CoV-2 spike protein persisted in the skull and brain, mouse and human autopsy data showed. In mouse models and human postmortem samples, SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was found in the skull marrow, meninges, and parenchyma, according to Ali Ertürk, Ph.D., of the Helmholtz Center Munich in Neuherberg, Germany, and co-authors.
Injecting spike protein into skull marrow niches of healthy mice triggered proteome changes and cell death in the brain parenchyma, the researchers reported in a preprint paper on bioRxiv, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The findings suggest that spike protein in the skull-meninges-brain axis may be a molecular mechanism or therapeutic target for neurologic long COVID, Ertürk and colleagues proposed.
The clinical relevance of the findings is not clear, added Avindra Nath, MD, of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who also wasn’t part of the study.
XBB.1.16 �?Arcturus’ Is New COVID Variant Under Monitoring by the WHO
Guess what? There’s yet another COVID-19 coronavirus variant spreading around the world and in the U.S. This one has the oh-so-easy-to-remember name XBB.1.16 because when has the name of another Omicron subvariant started with the letters XBB, right?
On March 22, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the XBB.1.16 as a new variant under monitoring (VUM), which isn’t as serious as a variant of interest (VOI) which isn’t as serious as a variant of concern (VOC).
But the spread of the XBB.1.16 seems to have fueled what’s been called by the India-based media publication Business Today a “massive surge” of COVID-19 cases in India and sparked the return of face mask mandates there. These days the term “massive surge” isn’t great to hear unless you are talking about chocolate or sex. So the big question is how concerned should you be about this new subvariant that some have unofficially dubbed the “Arcturus” subvariant?
Well, “Acturus-lly,” the XBB.1.16 has gone from being about 0.21% of all COVID-19 cases worldwide in late February to an estimated 3.96% a month later. In the U.S., the XBB.1.16 accounted for an estimated 7.2% of all COVID-19 samples from April 9 to April 15, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s up from 3.9% the week before and 2.1% the week prior to that.
She Died 4 Days After Getting Her COVID Booster Jab. Singapore Paid Her Family in the Philippines U.S. $169,000
South China Morning Post reported:
The family of a woman who died about four days after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine booster jab was given S$225,000 (U.S. $169,000) under Singapore’s Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme, the Health Ministry said.
Ontal Charlene Vargas, from the Philippines, died on December 13, 2021. The cause of her death was myocarditis or inflammation of the heart, a coroner’s court heard on Friday. State Coroner Adam Nakhoda found that on the balance of probabilities, it was likely to be related to COVID-19 vaccination.
COVID and Aspergillus Are Dangerous Bedfellows — Attention Must Be Paid to This New, Sometimes Deadly Duo
In the Fall of 2022, a World Health Organization (WHO) report named 19 key fungal threats, thus creating the agency’s first-ever “fungal priority pathogens” list. WHO also called for better diagnostics and monitoring of antifungal drug resistance, as well as further research, innovation, and public health measures to control invasive fungal pathogens.
I believe the message was overdue. While some people equate “superbugs” solely with bacteria, specialists who care for immunocompromised patients have long dealt with life-threatening and drug-resistant fungi. Today, experts also worry that environmental factors, including climate change, will nurture scary new species.
Aspergillus is no stranger to Ashrit Multani, MD, my UCLA infectious diseases colleague who’s an expert in pathogenic fungi, especially in patients with compromised immune systems. So, I recently asked whether he was surprised when he started seeing severely ill patients with COVID suffer aspergillosis.
“No, it didn’t surprise me too much,” Multani said. “I think it was just a matter of time before we started to see more and more cases. We’ve seen similar issues with viral infections…for example, there’s been plenty reported in the literature about aspergillosis following flu.”
Queensland Health Report Suggests Long COVID No More Severe Than Lingering Influenza
Queenslanders with long COVID may experience no more severe symptoms than those of lingering influenza, according to a study by the state’s health officials.
But while the Queensland government has held up the study as evidence its handling of the early stages of the pandemic was “textbook”, medical experts treating patients for long COVID say it is only a “first step” towards understanding a condition that has been debilitating for many.
Woman Died of Myocarditis That Was Likely Linked to COVID Vaccine Booster: Coroner + More
Woman Died of Myocarditis That Was Likely Linked to COVID Vaccine Booster She Received 4 Days Earlier: Coroner
A 43-year-old woman who received a COVID-19 vaccine booster died about four days later, a coroner’s court heard on Friday (Apr. 14). The cause of Madam Ontal Charlene Vargas’ death was determined to be myocarditis or inflammation of the heart.
State Coroner Adam Nakhoda said on Friday it was likely that the myocarditis was related to the COVID-19 booster vaccine that Mdm Vargas had received, and ruled that her death was a medical misadventure.
Mdm Vargas, a Filipina maid, received her Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty booster shot on Dec 9, 2021. During the 42 minutes of observation at the clinic, she did not exhibit any adverse effects. However, she grew unwell the next morning, feeling tired and breathless. She called her husband and told him she found it difficult to breathe.
Her condition worsened on Dec 12, 2021, and she suddenly became unresponsive. Despite receiving appropriate medical care, her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died on Dec 13, 2021.
She developed symptoms soon after receiving the vaccine, the court heard. It is reported in the medical literature that myocarditis is a known adverse side effect of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, said the coroner.
The Biden Administration Will Hang On to Some COVID Pandemic Emergency Powers
Even though the Biden administration is ending its highest-profile COVID-19 emergency declaration next month, it’s still going to hold on to some pandemic-era powers. The Department of Health and Human Services gave governors a heads-up on Friday that it is planning to keep pharmacists’ ability to administer COVID-19 and flu vaccines past the end of the public health emergency.
The legal definition of the COVID-19 emergency is a complex web of different laws that control different areas of the pandemic response. The White House and HHS are in the process of winding those powers down, but they all operate separately from one another.
While the COVID-19 public health emergency will end on May 11, HHS is choosing to extend some powers related to a separate law called the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, which offers extra protections to companies and providers making, distributing, and administering medicines and vaccines in times of emergency.
The rules that let pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy interns give COVID-19 vaccines and tests and seasonal flu vaccines will stay in place through December 2024, the letter says. The White House’s “Test to Treat” program that allows pharmacists to test people for COVID-19 and prescribe the antiviral Paxlovid will also continue.
World Has 28% Risk of New COVID-Like Pandemic Within 10 Years
There’s a 27.5% chance a pandemic as deadly as COVID-19 could take place in the next decade as viruses emerge more frequently, with rapid vaccine rollout the key to reducing fatalities, according to a predictive health analytics firm.
Climate change, growth in international travel, increasing populations and the threat posed by zoonotic diseases contribute to the risk, according to London-based Airfinity Ltd. But if effective vaccines are rolled out 100 days after the discovery of a new pathogen, the likelihood of a deadly pandemic drops to 8.1%, according to the firm’s modeling.
In a worst-case scenario, a bird flu-type virus that mutates to allow human-to-human transmission could kill as many as 15,000 people in the U.K. in a single day, Airfinity said.
The rapid spread of the H5N1 bird flu strain is already stoking concerns. While so far just a small number of people have been infected and there are no signs of it having made the jump to human-to-human transmission, skyrocketing rates in birds and increasing incursions in mammals have led to concern among scientists and governments that the virus may be mutating in ways that could make it easier to spread.
Study Shows 4.2% of Pfizer COVID Vaccine Batches Made Up Most Adverse Events, Raising Serious Concerns
In Denmark, 4.2% of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine batches accounted for 71% of suspected adverse events (SAEs), according to Danish researchers in a recent study published in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation on March 30.
The study has raised serious concerns about the inconsistencies in the quality of different vaccine batches and the implications for vaccine recipients. Danish researchers studied the rates of SAEs between different batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, BNT162b2, which was administered in Denmark from December 27, 2020–January 11, 2022.
There were approximately 7.8 million doses administered to 3.7 million people from 52 different Pfizer vaccine batches during that time period. “Unexpectedly, rates of SAEs per 1000 doses varied considerably between vaccine batches,” the researchers wrote in the publication.
“These are critically important results,” said Dr. Peter McCullough on Substack. McCullough is a renowned internist, cardiologist and epidemiologist, as well as a contributor to The Epoch Times.
Women Vaccinated for COVID Have Higher Risk for Heavier Menstrual Flow
News Medical Life Sciences reported:
A new international study finds that women vaccinated for COVID-19 have a slightly higher risk for a heavier period after vaccination.
The study, led by Oregon Health & Science University reproductive health services researcher Blair Darney, Ph.D., M.P.H., and physician-scientist Alison Edelman, M.D., M.P.H., was published today in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. These findings build on prior work from the same research team that first identified an association between COVID-19 vaccines and menstrual cycle changes.
While there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that COVID-19 vaccination is associated with a small increase in cycle length, other disturbances such as bleeding quantity are less well known. This study aimed to estimate the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on menstrual bleeding quantity among individuals with normal menstrual cycles.
Cases of Vision-Threatening Clots Rare After COVID Shot, Study Finds — Incidence of Retinal Vascular Occlusion Similar Compared With Influenza, Tdap Vaccines
Retinal vascular occlusion (RVO) did not occur more frequently in the 3 weeks following administration of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine compared with influenza and tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) vaccines, a retrospective study showed.
In a propensity score-matched analysis using 3 million electronic health records (EHRs), a new diagnosis of RVO, a serious, potentially vision-threatening condition, occurred in 0.003% of patients within 21 days of COVID vaccination, reported Rishi P. Singh, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute in Ohio, and colleagues.
Of note, the relative risk for a new RVO diagnosis after the first dose of COVID vaccination was greater when compared with the second dose of COVID vaccine (RR 2.25, 95% CI 1.33-3.81).
They said that evaluating the incidence of RVO after COVID vaccination is difficult, and having done so through a comparison with the incidence after influenza and Tdap vaccination is “an ingenious approach.” However, they pointed out that this approach “does not provide a comparison with a group of people who did not receive any recent vaccination or especially those who did not receive COVID-19 vaccination.”
“Without a comparable group of people without mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, it is difficult to rule out an association,” Jampol and Maguire wrote, adding that “we should acknowledge that our understanding of retinal complications after any vaccination is incomplete.”
No Evidence yet Showing Which Animal COVID May Have Come From, Says Former Head of China CDC
There is no evidence yet showing which animal the COVID-causing virus may have come from, the former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday.
George Gao, who was speaking at a London summit on preparing for pandemics, was the head of the agency when COVID first emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.
The origins of the COVID-19 pandemic remain unknown, with criticism that China has thwarted efforts to find out more. The Chinese government has said it has always supported all efforts to investigate the source.
The World Health Organization has said that all hypotheses for the origins of COVID-19 remain on the table, including that the virus is linked to a high-security laboratory for the study of dangerous pathogens in Wuhan. China denies any such link.
About 100k Nurses Left Workforce Amid COVID Burnout, Stress: Survey
About 100,000 nurses quit due to stress and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic and another 800,000 said they intend to leave by 2027, according to a new survey from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
There are about 6.2 million registered nurses total in the U.S. according to the survey. One in five of those surveyed said they plan to leave the industry or retire in the next five years, it found.
A majority of nurses, 62%, said their workload increased during the pandemic and about 50% said they felt emotionally drained at work. Just under half said they felt fatigued or burnt out, 49 and 45%, respectively.
Long COVID Is Sticking Around. What’s Causing It?
U.S. News & World Report reported:
At least 65 million people across the world are suffering from long COVID. At this stage in the pandemic, health officials have mostly shifted their attention away from preventing coronavirus infections, instead focusing on stopping hospitalizations and deaths. The strategy means that people will continue to get infected and reinfected with the coronavirus as long as it is circulating.
Knowing the causes of long COVID would likely make both diagnosing and treating long COVID significantly easier, experts say. But the research into what causes long COVID also has another, possibly loftier goal: to help prevent the condition altogether.
There are some leading theories. One is that at least some of the virus lingers in the body post-infection. These so-called “viral reservoirs” could hide in tissue and later cause problems.
Studies have shown that the virus can linger in various parts of the human body, but research is underway to see if it can be directly tied to the symptoms of long COVID.
Another theory is that COVID-19 could reactivate other viruses that were dormant in people’s bodies, bringing new symptoms with it. Additionally, the coronavirus triggers inflammation in the body that for whatever reason persists in some people, causing an array of health problems.
