COVID-19

Flaming Lips Play the World’s First Space Bubble Concerts in OKC

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“It does prevent that thing where people start to get drunk and the music is loud and they start screaming into each other’s face, which is the way that the COVID-19 is most spread. … Not screaming bad, but that’s just how conversations are when you’re at big gatherings,” Wayne Coyne said. “You can be in a Space Bubble with your friends that came to the show with you who you’ve been with your whole time and you know aren’t sick.”

In response to COVID, Flaming Lips on the verge of playing ‘the World’s First Space Bubble Concerts’ in OKC — https://oklahoman.com/article/5680749/in-response-to-covid-flaming-lips-on-the-verge-of-playing-the-worlds-first-space-bubble-concerts-in-okc

Two sold out shows this weekend. The video is from the “test” concert October 2020.

Watch the video and your opinion about Oklahoma will forever be changed.

Update on Severe Allergic or Anaphylactic Reactions to Initial Dose of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine — The Skeptical Cardiologist

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A report from two CDC scientists was published online today in JAMA Insights which describes in detail 21 cases of anaphylaxis that were reported to the US Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System between December 14-23, 2020. This corresponds to a very low rate of 11.1 cases of anaphylaxis per million doses administered. 17 of these…

I continue to urge all my patients to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Benefits far outweigh the risk.

Update on Severe Allergic or Anaphylactic Reactions to Initial Dose of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine — The Skeptical Cardiologist

What Scientists Are Learning About Covid-19 Using the Nation’s Blood Supply — Smithsonian Magazine

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Labs and blood banks collect millions of blood samples each month, offering a distinctive source of data on the disease…

Their data so far suggest that a lot of people have had Covid-19 without ever receiving a diagnosis. Confirmed case counts suggest that almost 7 percent of people in the U.S. have had the virus. Data from the arm of the study looking at blood from clinical laboratory tests from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico found rates of antibody positivity that at times ranged from under 1 percent in some states to 23 percent in New York…

Some experts have reservations about the use of blood donation data to estimate the prevalence of Covid-19. “The problem with blood donors — and this is also supported by evidence from other epidemics like HIV, and previous pandemics — is that blood donors are weird people” from a statistical point of view, said Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist at the University of Wollongong. “And blood donors who give blood during a pandemic, when the country is in lockdown in particular, are very weird people.”

What Scientists Are Learning About Covid-19 Using the Nation’s Blood Supply — Science | Smithsonian Magazine

A long but interesting article from Smithsonian Magazine.

“Blood donors are weird people”.

ACE2-interacting domain of SARS-CoV-2

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In a study published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, mouse models with COVID-19 showed positive results when a small peptide was introduced nasally. The peptide proved effective in reducing fever, protecting the lungs, improving heart function and reversing cytokine storm — a condition in which an infection triggers the immune system to flood the bloodstream with inflammatory proteins. The researchers also report success in preventing the disease from progression.

Rush University Medical Center. “Potential COVID-19 drug is successful in lab study: Peptide reduced COVID-19 symptoms in mice.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210119194322.htm (accessed January 20, 2021).

Journal Reference – Ramesh K. Paidi, Malabendu Jana, Rama K. Mishra, Debashis Dutta, Sumita Raha, Kalipada Pahan. ACE-2-interacting Domain of SARS-CoV-2 (AIDS) Peptide Suppresses Inflammation to Reduce Fever and Protect Lungs and Heart in Mice: Implications for COVID-19 Therapy. Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, 2021; DOI: 10.1007/s11481-020-09979-8

Our neighbor Dr. Arlan Richardson at https://nathanshockcenters.org/oklahoma part of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center knows a lot about mice. I’ll have to ask him what he thinks of the potential of this peptide for human use.

Poor gut health is Associated With Severe COVID-19

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In a review published this week in mBio, microbiologist Heenam Stanley Kim, Ph.D, from Korea University’s Laboratory for Human-Microbial Interactions, in Seoul, examined emerging evidence suggesting that poor gut health adversely affects COVID-19 prognosis. Based on his analysis, Kim proposed that gut dysfunction — and its associated leaky gut — may exacerbate the severity of infection by enabling the virus to access the surface of the digestive tract and internal organs. These organs are vulnerable to infection because they have widespread ACE2 — a protein target of SARS-CoV-2 — on the surface.”There seems to be a clear connection between the altered gut microbiome and severe COVID-19,” Kim said.

American Society for Microbiology. “Poor gut health connected to severe COVID-19, new review shows.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210112085347.htm (accessed January 15, 2021).

Journal Reference: Heenam Stanley Kim. Do an Altered Gut Microbiota and an Associated Leaky Gut Affect COVID-19 Severity? mBio, 2021; 12 (1) DOI: 10.1128/mBio.03022-20

Eat more legumes, plants and other sources of dietary fiber.

Eat less meat, dairy, and eggs.

J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Appears to be Safe

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A total of 800 adults aged 18 to 55 or aged 65 and up were randomized to various combinations of low-dose or high-dose vaccines or placebo, given 56 days apart.

Adverse events were common, with fatigue, headache, myalgia, and injection-site pain reported most often. At day 29 after the first dose, the seroconversion rate was 99% or more in the younger cohort across dosing groups. Older vaccine recipients had a 96% seroconversion rate. At 57 days after the first dose, antibody titers had increased further.

COVID-19: Single Dose of J&J Vaccine / Plasma / New Testing Requirement — https://www.jwatch.org/fw117413/2021/01/13/covid-19-single-dose-j-j-vaccine-plasma-new-testing

The J&J vaccine is in a multi-center, placebo-controlled, phase 1–2a trial. Here’s the link to the NEJM article https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034201

From Stat Phase 3 results are coming soon.

There are two Phase 3 studies running. A 40,000-volunteer study of the one-dose vaccine, conducted in the U.S., is set to read out in the next two weeks. A second, equally big study is being conducted using the same vaccine given as two doses, each administered 57 days apart, in case the vaccine does not prove effective in a one-dose regimen or there are other advantages, such as the durability of the vaccine, to giving a second dose.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/13/data-fuel-debate-over-whether-jjs-one-dose-covid-vaccine-will-measure-up/ — Data fuel debate over whether J&J’s one-dose Covid vaccine will measure up

And from the Medscape article.

Unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna messenger RNA vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson product is a recombinant, replication-incompetent adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vector encoding a full-length and stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein.

The Next Likely COVID-19 Vaccine Has Its Advantages — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/944151?src=rss

Why PTSD May Plague Many Hospitalized Covid-19 Survivors — Smithsonian Magazine

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Scientists warn about the likelihood of post-traumatic stress disorder for patients discharged from the intensive care unit.

Covid-19 isn’t the first epidemic to cause a domino effect of persisting psychiatric health problems across a population. The current pandemic has been compared to the severe adult respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2014 in Saudi Arabia—both diseases caused by coronaviruses. In an analysis of international studies from the SARS and MERS outbreaks, researchers found that among recovered patients, the prevalence of PTSD was 32.2 percent, depression was 14.9 percent and anxiety disorders was 14.8 percent.

Why PTSD May Plague Many Hospitalized Covid-19 Survivors — Science | Smithsonian Magazine

The entire article is worth reading. And from The BMJ probable PTSD in hospital workers too.

Nearly half of intensive care unit (ICU) and anaesthetic staff surveyed for a study reported symptoms consistent with a probable diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), severe depression, anxiety, or problem drinking.1

The preprint, produced by researchers at King’s College London, aimed to get a picture of the rates of probable mental health disorders in ICU and anaesthetic staff in six English hospitals during June and July 2020.

BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n108 (Published 13 January 2021) BMJ 2021;372:n108

Every Day is an Emergency – Psychiatric Bed Shortages Nationwide

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The pandemic and the parallel economic crisis have fueled new concern about access to mental health care. An estimated 40% of American adults are have a condition involving mental illness or substance abuse. In June, federal health officials reported nearly 11% percent of adults surveyed seriously considered suicide during the past 30 days.

‘Every day is an emergency’: The pandemic is worsening psychiatric bed shortages nationwide — https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/23/mental-health-covid19-psychiatric-beds/?utm_campaign=rss

We are just ten months into the Great Pandemic and I fear conditions will get worse before they get better.

Movie Theaters Got Annihilated in 2020

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Through 2019, the way movie theaters tried to deal with this structural decline in moviegoers was by raising ticket prices, offering big comfortable chairs to justify those ticket prices, installing bars with overpriced beer and food, and cranking up prices for popcorn and sodas. Fewer people paying a lot more money was the trick to maintain revenue growth.

And because going to the movies got so expensive and because much cheaper options have increasingly been available on the big screen at home, the number of tickets sold continued to drop. Go figure.

After 17 Years of Falling Ticket Sales, Movie Theaters Got Annihilated in 2020 — https://wolfstreet.com/2021/01/10/movie-theater-ticket-sales-after-falling-for-years-got-annihilated-in-2020/

The local movie theater which closed in March 2020 has yet to reopen. I doubt they ever will.

Vitamin D Deficiency Is Inversely Associated with COVID-19 Incidence and Disease Severity in Chinese People

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In the general linear model adjusted for age, sex, comorbidities, and BMI, serum 25(OH)D concentrations were significantly lower among COVID-19 patients than the 2018–2019 controls [ln transformed values of 3.32 ± 0.04 vs. 3.46 ± 0.022 ln (nmol/L), P = 0.014]. Multivariable logistic regression showed that male sex (OR: 2.26; 95% CI: 1.06, 4.82), advanced age (≥65 y) (OR: 4.93; 95% CI: 1.44, 16.9), and vitamin D deficiency (<30 nmol/L) (OR: 2.72; 95% CI: 1.23, 6.01) were significantly associated with COVID-19 severity (all P < 0.05).

These findings suggested that vitamin D deficiency impacts COVID-19 hospitalization and severity in the Chinese population.

Vitamin D Deficiency Is Inversely Associated with COVID-19 Incidence and Disease Severity in Chinese People — The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 151, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 98–103, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxaa332

More links are in my last post Vitamin D – What’s Your Level?

I am hoping all of my Chinese relatives read this.