Pfizer And Oxford Covid-19 Shots 'Highly Effective' Against India Variant, Study Shows

▫️The Covid-19 Vaccines Developed By Pfizer-BioNTech And Oxford-AstraZeneca Are "Highly Effective" Against The Indian Variant, A New Study Has Found.
▫️Two Jabs of Either Vaccine Give A Similar Level of Protection Against Symptomatic Disease from The Indian Variant As They do for The B.1.1.7 “Kent" Strain.
- However, Both Vaccines Were Only 33% Effective Against The Indian Variant Three Weeks After The First dose.
▫️The Study Involved 1,054 People Confirmed Through Genomic Sequencing To Have Contracted The B.1.617.2 Variant Between Early April And Mid-May.
▫️A Study by Public Health England found The Pfizer Vaccine Was 88% Effective Against Symptomatic Disease from The B.1.617.2 Variant Two Weeks After The Second dose.
- That Compared With 93% Effectiveness Against The B.1.1.7 “Kent” Strain Which Is Britain’s Dominant Covid-19 Variant.
▫️Two doses of The Oxford Vaccine Were 60% Effective Against Symptomatic Disease from The Indian Variant Compared With 66% Effectiveness Against The Kent Variant, PHE Said.

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U.S. CDC Looking Into Heart Inflammation In Some Young Adults Who Received mRNA Covid-19 Vaccines

▫️Some Teenagers And Young Adults Who Received mRNA Covid-19 Vaccines Experienced Heart Inflammation, A U.S. Centers for Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) Advisory Group Said, Recommending Further Study of The Rare condition.
▫️The CDC Said The Cases Typically Occurred Within Four Days After Receiving The mRNA Vaccines. The United States Has Given Emergency Authorization To Two mRNA Vaccines, from Moderna And Pfizer-BioNTech.
▫️The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices In A Statement Dated May 17 Said It Had Looked Into Reports That A Few Young Vaccine Recipients, Predominantly Adolescents And Young Adults, And Predominantly Male, Developed Myocarditis, An Inflammation of The Heart Muscle.
▫️Israel's Health Ministry In April Said It Was Examining A Small Number of Cases of Heart Inflammation In People Who Had Received Pfizer's Vaccine.

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Study Indicates That Certain Anti-Cancer Therapies May Hasten Cellular Aging

▫️New Research Indicates That Certain Anti-Cancer Therapies May Hasten Cellular Aging, Where Changes In The DNA of Patients May Contribute To Greater Inflammation And Fatigue.
▫️The Findings Are Published by Wiley Early Online In Cancer, A Peer-Reviewed Journal of The American Cancer Society.
▫️Some Individuals May Experience Epigenetic Age Acceleration (EAA) That Puts Them At A Higher Risk of Age-Related Conditions Than Other Individuals of The Same Chronological Age.
▫️In The Study of 133 Patients With Head And Neck Cancer (HNC), Half of The Patients Experienced Severe Fatigue At Some Point.
▫️EAA Was Most Prominent Immediately After Radiation Therapy, When The Average Epigenetic Age Was Accelerated by 4.9 Years.
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Little Evidence for mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine-Associated Thrombocytopenia, Suggests New FDA Study

▫️A New Study In The Journal Vaccine Reports The Results of An Evaluation of Reported Cases of This Condition, Using Data from The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
▫️The FDA-Designed VAERS System Envisages The Monitoring of Adverse Events of Special Interest Like Thrombocytopenia That Are Passively Reported. Soon After The Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), Several Reports of Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) Came In.
▫️Of The Approximately 19 Million And 16 Million doses of Pfizer And Moderna Vaccine Administered In The USA, Respectively, These Careful Selection Criteria Identified 15 And 13 Cases of Thrombocytopenia, Corresponding To Less Than One Reported Case Per Million doses of Either Vaccine.
- No Sex Difference Was Observed, And The Median Age Was 49 Years, Though The Condition Was Reported From 22 To 82 years.
▫️The Median Duration from Vaccination To Onset of Thrombocytopenia Was 5.5 Days, With A Range of 1-23 Days. Earlier Reports on ITP In Covid-19 Cases Indicated A Median Time of Onset At 13 Days.
- Typically, However, The Presentation Occurred at 2-3 Weeks from Symptom Onset, With Only One In five Patients Presenting Within A Week Or Less.
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Repurposed Gout Medication "Probenecid' Shows Potent Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 Replication

▫️New Research by A Team of Scientists In The USA Describes The Potential Utility of A Drug Called Probenecid, Commonly Used To Treat Gout, To Treat This Devastating Viral illness Caused by The SARS-CoV-2 - The Causative Virus of Covid-19.
▫️A Preprint Version of The Study Is Available on The bioRxiv Server, While The Article Undergoes Peer-Review.
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Study Confirms Longer-Term Lung Damage After Covid-19

▫️In A Paper Published In Radiology, The World's Leading Radiology Journal, The Researchers from The University of Oxford And University of Sheffield Said That Hyperpolarised Xenon MRI (XeMRI) Scans Had found Abnormalities In The Lungs of Some Covid-19 Patients More Than Three Months - And In Some Cases, Nine Months - After Leaving Hospital, When Other Clinical Measurements Were Normal.
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Methotrexate Users Have A Reduced Immune Response To mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine

▫️Up To A Third of Patients Taking Methotrexate - A Common Treatment for Immune Mediated Inflammatory Conditions Such As Rheumatoid Arthritis And Psoriasis/Psoriatic Arthritis - Failed To Achieve An Adequate Immune Response To mRNA Covid-19 Vaccines In A Small Study Accepted for Publication In The Journal Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.
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The Viruses In Our Genes: When Activated, They Damage Brain Development

▫️New Research Shows That Activation of Distinct Human Endogenous Retroviruses, Which Are Part of Our Genome, Impair Brain Development Dramatically. The Finding Could Help To Advance Research Into Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
▫️In Fact, Humans Possess Five Times More "Human Endogenous Retroviruses, Or HERVs" In Non-Coding Parts Than Coding Genes. So far, Strong focus Has Been Devoted To The Correlation of HERVs And The Onset Or Progression of Diseases.
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Immune System May Never Forget Mild Covid-19

▫️Months After Recovery from Mild Covid-19, When Antibody Levels In The Blood Have Declined, Immune Cells In Bone Marrow Remain Ready To Pump Out New Antibodies Against The Coronavirus, Researchers Reported on Monday In Nature.
▫️Months After Recovering from Mild Cases of Covid-19, People Still Have Immune Cells In Their Body Pumping Out Antibodies Against The Virus That Causes Covid-19, According To A Study from Researchers At Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
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Covid-19 Virus Variants Seen More Often In Young U.S. Children

▫️Young Children Appear To Be Significant Carriers of More Contagious Variants of The New Coronavirus, Such As The Ones Identified In The UK And In California, According To A New U.S. Study.
▫️From March 2020 To April 2021, Researchers At Nine Children's Hospitals Tested A Total of 2,119 Covid-19 Patients Age 18 Or Younger for So-Called Variants of Concern, Along With Key Mutations That Help The Variants Become More Contagious Or Hide From The Patient's Immune System.
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Belgium Halts Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 Vaccine for Under 41s After First EU Death

▫️Belgium Said on Wednesday It Was Suspending Vaccinations With Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Covid-19 Vaccine for People Under The Age of 41 Following The First Death In Europe from Severe Side-Effects Associated With The Shot.
▫️The Woman Died on May 21 After Being Admitted To Hospital With Severe Thrombosis And Platelet deficiency.
- She Was Vaccinated Through Her Employer, Outside of The Official Belgian Vaccination Campaign.
▫️“The Inter-Ministerial Conference Has Decided To Temporarily Administer Janssen’s Vaccine To The General Population from The Age of 41 Years, Pending A More Detailed Benefit-Risk Analysis by The European Medicines Agency (EMA),” Belgium’s Health Minister Said In A Statement.
▫️Belgium Has So Far Administered About 40,000 J&J Shots, With 80% of Those To People Over 45 Years Old, The Statement Said.
▫️The EMA Said More Than 1.34 Million J&J doses Had Been Administered Within The EU.

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European Medicines Agency Reviewing Woman's Death In Belgium After Getting Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 Vaccine

▫️The European Union’s Drug Regulator Said on Wednesday It Is Reviewing The Death of A Woman In Belgium Who Suffered A Blood Clot And Low Platelets After Receiving Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 Vaccine.
▫️The European Medicines Agency (EMA) Said It Has Asked The U.S. Drugmaker To Carry Out A Series of Additional Studies To Help Assess A Possible Link Between The Shot And A Rare Clotting Condition Known As Thrombosis With Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS).
▫️It Said It Is Reviewing The Case In Belgium With Other Reports of Blood Clots With The Belgian And Slovenian Medicines Agencies.

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No Link Between Milk And Increased Cholesterol According To New Study of 2 Million People

▫️Regular Consumption of Milk Is Not Associated With Increased Levels of Cholesterol, According To Study Published In The International Journal of Obesity.
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US FDA Gives Emergency Use Approval To GSK-Vir Covid-19 Antibody Drug

▫️The U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) On Wednesday Gave An Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) To The Covid-19 Antibody Treatment Developed by Vir Biotechnology Inc And GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
▫️The EUA Was For The Treatment of Mild-To-Moderate Covid-19 In People Aged 12 Years And Older, The US Health Regulator Said.
▫️Sotrovimab, The Antibody Treatment, Is Not Authorized For Patients Who Are Hospitalized Due To Covid-19 Or Require Oxygen Therapy, According To The Agency.
▫️The European Union’s Drug Regulator Last Week Backed The Use of The Drug for Patients Who Are At Risk of Severe Disease And Do Not Need Supplemental Oxygen.

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CRP Level May Help Guide Use of Tocilizumab In Covidd-19 Pneumonia

▫️It's Worth Considering Tocilizumab In Patients With Moderate-To-Severe Covid-19-Associated Pneumonia And High C-Reactive Protein (CRP) Levels, According To Follow-up Data from A Randomized Controlled Trial.
▫️The Study Published In JAMA Internal Medicine.
▫️They Found A Statistical Interaction Between Baseline CRP Level And The Primary Composite Endpoint At Day 14 (Need for Noninvasive or Invasive Ventilation or Death) And Survival At Day 90, With A Benefit of Tocilizumab In Patients With CRP Levels Above 15.0 mg/dL But Not In Those With CRP Levels At Or Below 15.0 mg/dL.

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Many Solid Organ Transplant Patients Make No Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 After mRNA Vaccination

▫️Solid Organ Transplant Patients May Not Mount An Immune Response To SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccines, A New Study in France Suggests.
▫️Data from 367 Solid Organ Patients Who Received Two Shots of The Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA Vaccines Revealed That The Vaccine Was Well-Tolerated But In Two Out of Three Patients Followed For Four Weeks, Vaccination Did Not Lead To Production of Antibodies To The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein, According To The Report Published In The Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Researchers Uncover Mechanism Related To Severe Post-Covid-19 Disease In Children

▫️Researchers Have Determined That Viral Particles Remaining in The Gut Long After An Initial Covid-19 Infection Can Travel Into The Bloodstream, Instigating The Condition Called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children (MIS-C).
▫️The Syndrome Can Occur Several Weeks After An Initial Infection; Symptoms Include High Fever, Abdominal Pain, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Rash And Extreme Fatigue. The Hyperinflammatory Response And "Cytokine Storm" Seen in MIS-C Can Lead To Extensive Damage In The Heart, Liver And Other Organs.
▫️Eighty Percent of Children Hospitalized With MIS-C Develop Severe Cardiac Pathology And Face A Prolonged Hospital Stay And Extensive Recovery Period.
▫️The Study Published In The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Study Found Safe, Effective In Adolescents

▫️Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Was Shown To Be Effective In Adolescents Aged 12-17 And Showed No New Or Major Safety Problems In A Clinical Trial, The Developer Said on Tuesday, Potentially Setting The Stage for A Second Vaccine for School-Aged Children To Be Authorized In July.
▫️The Company Said That The Vaccine Efficacy Was 100% Beginning 14 Days Following The Second dose. Meanwhile, A 93% Vaccine Efficacy Was Observed In Seronegative Subjects Beginning 14 Days After The First dose.
▫️The Phase II/III TeenCOVE Study of Its Covid-19 Vaccine (mRNA-1273), Enrolled About 3,732 Subjects Aged Between 12 And 18 Years in The US.
▫️Co-developed With The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center Researchers, The Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine Encodes for A Prefusion Stabilised form of The Spike Protein.

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For Men, Low Testosterone Means High Risk of Severe Covid-19, Study Suggests

▫️A New Study Suggests That, Among Men, Low Testosterone Levels In The Blood Are Linked To More Severe Covid-19.
▫️The Study Could Not Prove That Low Testosterone Is A Cause of Severe Covid-19; Low Levels Could Simply Serve As A Marker of Some Other Causal Factors.
▫️Still, The Researchers Urge Caution With Ongoing Clinical Trials Investigating Hormonal Therapies That Block Or Lower Testosterone Or Increase Estrogen As A Treatment for Men With Covid-19.
▫️The Study Appears Online May 25 In JAMA Network Open.

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Study: Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccines Appear Safe, Effective

▫️Two Covid-19 Vaccines from China's Sinopharm Showed More Than 70% Efficacy Against Symptomatic Cases, But It Remains Unclear How Much Protection They Provide Against Severe Or Asymptomatic Cases, According To The First Detailed Result of A Large Late-Stage Study Published To The Public.
▫️A Vaccine Developed by A Wuhan-Based Subsidiary of Sinopharm Was 72.8% Effective Against Symptomatic Covid-19 At Least Two Weeks After Second Injection, Based on Interim Results, The Peer-Reviewed Study Published In The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Showed on Wednesday.
- This Is Slightly Better Than The 72.5% Rate Announced In A Company Statement In February.
▫️Another Vaccine Developed by A Beijing-Based Institute Linked To Sinopharm, Which This Month Obtained Emergency Use Approval by The World Health Organization (WHO), Showed a 78.1% Efficacy, The Paper Said.
▫️Researchers from Sinopharm And Its Local Partners In The Middle East Say The Trial Involved Around 40,380 Participants.

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DNA Vaccines for Covid-19 Effective In Mice, Hamsters

▫️Currently Available Covid-19 Vaccines Rely on mRNA Strands to Teach The Human Immune System To Recognize The SARS-CoV-2 Virus.
▫️Now, Researchers Reporting In PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Have Reported The Successful Development of A Vaccine That Instead Uses DNA Encoding The Virus' Spike Protein.
▫️The Researchers Showed That Mice And Hamsters Immunized with The New DNA Vaccine Developed Long-Lasting Antibodies Against The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein.
▫️Those Antibodies Peaked At 8 Weeks Post-Immunization But Levels Remained Relatively High At Week 20.
▫️Hamsters That Received Two Immunizations At A 3-Week Interval And Were Exposed To Covid-19 After 7 Weeks Were Protected from The Virus, Showing No Loss of Body Weight And Less Viral RNA In Their Lungs Compared To Animals That Were Not Immunized.
▫️Recent Clinical Trials Have Indicated That DNA Vaccines Are Safe And Effective in Treating Infections Including HIV-1, Zika virus, Ebola Virus And Influenza Viruses.
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