The biology of coronavirus COVID-19 - including research and treatments

New Covid variant sparks fear as India sees huge surge of infections

New Covid variant sparks fear as India sees huge surge of infections (msn.com)

 

So what pans out for kids in the next 5-20 years after multiple infections ?

 

A new variant of Covid-19 named “Arcturus” is behind a fresh surge of infections in India.

"The Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16 strain is on the verge of devastating the country where cases have soared 13-fold in the last month." - interesting use of 'devastation' as it apparently means slightly higher rates of acute disease in children for who the main symptom is 'itchy eyes'.

Virological characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.16 variant

XBB.1.16 is on the WHO's current 'variants under monitoring', but it is not on the 'variants of interest', and is one of now 600+ recorded variants.

 

Not sure where to post this, so mods feel free to move to any more appropriate thread

I don't know the veracity if this twitter post, but it suggestions should be looked into

https://twitter.com/user/status/1649127432320872458

 

Retraction: Physio-metabolic and clinical consequences of wearing face masks -Systematic review with meta-analysis and comprehensive evaluation

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1221666/full

Original article abstract had concluded —

 

Performance of Rapid Antigen Tests to Detect Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection (2023, Annals of Internal Medicine)

 

Physicochemical Nature of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Binding to Human Vimentin (2023, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces)

 

Post moved from
Anomalies in the review process and interpretation of the evidence in the NICE guideline for (CFS & ME), 2023, White et al

There's a similar dynamic happening right now between some of the major minimizers, the Great Barrington Declaration, and a physician who wrote a book documenting the effort to push herd immunity. The book quotes them plenty, I haven't seen enough excerpts to know how much of it is simply quoting them directly, but there are a lot, he simply uses their word against them. It's indisputable.

And they are behaving exactly the same as the ideologues behind this letter, defending the indefensible when most of the criticism consists of their own words and actions. They can't refute a single point. Never do, only bleat and whine with juvenile quips such as "no one is buying your book", which I find equivalent to one response made by Glasziou, dismissing a letter by Tuller because it wasn't published, as if it negates its substance.

I don't think the issue of being unable to defend evidence is limited to our corner, sadly. The self-entitled behavior is the same. It's really not a good look. This guy is really putting himself out there, doesn't back down despite openly criticizing people with huge influence.

The book is "We want them infected" and the title really speaks for itself. The people who pushed herd immunity were not shy about saying they want people infected. And they still think it's a good thing, but somehow don't like it to be pointed out. Really weird stuff.

This is an example of whiny response from one of the herd immunity pushers (too long to quote, of course he's a Twitter Blue subscriber):

And this is the author of the book:

 

Since I'm seeing this again, I've seen since more excerpts from his book and it really is mostly quoting their own words. Pages and pages of their own claims. Like the title says: they want them infected. They really did, and still do.

So the pushers of herd immunity are mad at their own words. Well, mad at the idea of being accountable to them.

 

Covid Eris symptoms: All we know about new variant driving surge in cases

Covid Eris symptoms: All we know about new variant driving surge in cases (msn.com)

 

The USA, and northern California (locally) is having an uptick of covid hospitalizations and increased PCR positive tests ratio to negative ones. Wastewater analysis confirms the uptick.

Advice for various at risk groups is to again mask in crowded indoor places. I would not eat at an indoor restaurant.

I've been to a small grocery store twice without a mask since 2020. I no longer care "socially" what I'm wearing.

 

Mods please move if better thread .

Interesting very long thread in X re SARS evolution
https://twitter.com/user/status/1772329032287404326





Can cryptic lineages tell us anything about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 (SC2)?

The answer may surprise you, it surprised the hell out of me.

This is amazing.

1/Can cryptic lineages tell us anything about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 (SC2)?

The answer may surprise you, it surprised the hell out of me.

Cryptic lineages are unique, evolutionarily advanced SC2 lineages detected in wastewater from an unknown source.

We are pretty certain that these are coming from people with persistent infections, and they are likely gut infections.

2/

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…


I had a pet theory that SC2 was derived from a persistent infection of a person infected with a bat Sarbecovirus.

I now think this theory is completely wrong, but I learned some surprising things while exploring the idea.

3/
When looking at the evolutionary history of a lineage there are 3 main things I pay attention to.

1. What kinds of nt changes occur.
2. How many of the mutations are silent (don’t change the protein sequence).
3. What protein changes occur.

4/
When you look at the kind of nt changes that occur, you usually find that the changes are not ‘random’.

There are 25 posts

This one is interesting


Here is the surprising part, the actual amino acid changes. When I looked at the list I was floored. It looked like a cryptic lineage played backwards.

There are not many changes, and cryptic lineages are trying desperately to turn back into a bat (gut) virus.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1773676758882988331


Foreword:

“We live immersed in an ocean of air, yet we hardly ever notice its presence. However, without air we would simply not be able to survive.”

“We must reshape & redesign the building environment, while focusing on optimizing indoor ventilation and the air we breathe.”

 

Maybe nitpicky again but dammit people feel the wind most days, there's no need to make things more mysterious than they are

 

Nirmatrelvir for Vaccinated or Unvaccinated Adult Outpatients with Covid-19
Jennifer Hammond; Robert J. Fountaine; Carla Yunis; Dona Fleishaker; Mary Almas; Weihang Bao; Wayne Wisemandle; Mary Lynn Baniecki; Victoria M. Hendrick; Veselin Kalfov; J. Abraham Simón-Campos; Rienk Pypstra; James M. Rusnak

BACKGROUND
Nirmatrelvir in combination with ritonavir is an antiviral treatment for mild-tomoderate coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). The efficacy of this treatment in patients who are at standard risk for severe Covid-19 or who are fully vaccinated and have at least one risk factor for severe Covid-19 has not been established.

METHODS
In this phase 2–3 trial, we randomly assigned adults who had confirmed Covid-19 with symptom onset within the past 5 days in a 1:1 ratio to receive nirmatrelvirritonavir or placebo every 12 hours for 5 days. Patients who were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and who had at least one risk factor for severe disease, as well as patients without such risk factors who had never been vaccinated against Covid-19 or had not been vaccinated within the previous year, were eligible for participation. Participants logged the presence and severity of prespecified Covid-19 signs and symptoms daily from day 1 through day 28. The primary end point was the time to sustained alleviation of all targeted Covid-19 signs and symptoms. Covid-19–related hospitalization and death from any cause were also assessed through day 28.

RESULTS
Among the 1296 participants who underwent randomization and were included in the full analysis population, 1288 received at least one dose of nirmatrelvir–ritonavir (654 participants) or placebo (634 participants) and had at least one postbaseline visit. The median time to sustained alleviation of all targeted signs and symptoms of Covid-19 was 12 days in the nirmatrelvir–ritonavir group and 13 days in the placebo group (P = 0.60). Five participants (0.8%) in the nirmatrelvir–ritonavir group and 10 (1.6%) in the placebo group were hospitalized for Covid-19 or died from any cause (difference, −0.8 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, −2.0 to 0.4). The percentages of participants with adverse events were similar in the two groups (25.8% with nirmatrelvir–ritonavir and 24.1% with placebo). In the nirmatrelvir–ritonavir group, the most commonly reported treatment-related adverse events were dysgeusia (in 5.8% of the participants) and diarrhea (in 2.1%).

CONCLUSIONS
The time to sustained alleviation of all signs and symptoms of Covid-19 did not differ significantly between participants who received nirmatrelvir–ritonavir and those who received placebo.

(Supported by Pfizer; EPIC-SR ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT05011513.)

Link | PDF (New England Journal of Medicine) [Open Access]

 

Why the new FLiRT group of variants is expected to bring a new wave of Covid (msn.com)

 

FLiRT Covid variant: Everything we know so far about the coronavirus strain sweeping the US

FLiRT Covid variant: Everything we know so far about the coronavirus strain sweeping the US (msn.com)