By LAURAN NEERGAARD Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Pfizer announced Saturday that tweaking its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and works—just days before regulators debate whether to offer Americans updated booster shots this fall. The vaccines currently used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death—especially if people...
by Jacqueline Mitchell, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Omicron Subvariant Mutations and Neutralizing Antibody Responses. Panel A shows the lineage of mutations that have been identified in the omicron BA.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1, and BA.4 or BA.5 subvariants of SARS-CoV-2, as compared with the reference WA1/2020 isolate. BA.4 and BA.5 have identical sequences of the spike protein...
by Mayo Clinic Credit: CC0 Public Domain Mayo Clinic researchers studied the outcomes of 483 high-risk patients treated for COVID-19 with a five-day oral regimen of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, together marketed as Paxlovid. Only a handful developed COVID-19 rebound symptoms, and the researchers say more studies are needed to determine why. Overall, the treatment benefited...
by German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Reports Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100652 Recovery from severe COVID-19 is characterized by a reduction of certain white blood cells and changes in the molecular regulation of the immune system. This is the conclusion of an international research team coordinated by DZNE, which reports on this in the...
THE MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL / MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE Heart failure patients who are unvaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, are three times more likely to die if infected with the virus compared to fully boosted heart failure patients, according to new research out of Mount Sinai Heart. The study, published June...
by University of Otago Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The past two years have caused widespread disruption, anxiety, loss and grief worldwide—but a new University of Otago, Christchurch, study has identified a concerning link between ongoing COVID‑19 disruption and worsening mental health for those most at risk. The international study, involving hundreds of New Zealanders, has...
by Molly Rosbach, Oregon State University Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A recent Oregon State University study found that COVID-19 patients had a roughly 25% increased risk of developing a psychiatric disorder in the four months following their infection, compared with people who had other types of respiratory tract infections. The findings support previous research on psychiatric...
by University of Glasgow Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain One in eight people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 between May 2020 and March 2021 were later diagnosed with myocarditis, or heart inflammation, according to major new research into the clinical long-term effects of COVID-19. The largest study of its kind to date was led by the...
by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Getting the COVID-19 vaccination strengthened one type of immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients even though they were taking immunosuppressant medication, according to investigators at Cedars-Sinai. The findings of two studies focused on this topic have been published in the journals IBD, of...
by University of Oxford Cumulative incidence of venous thromboembolism, arterial thromboembolism, and death in COVID-19 cases Data are stratified by age and sex. Estimates (solid lines) are presented with 95% CIs (dashed lines). Index date refers to the date of first COVID-19 diagnosis or positive RT-PCR test result. CPRD Aurum=Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum database....
