Coronavirus and Avian Flu Tidbits #305, July 28, 2024
Announcements:
First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I'm getting.
Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don't be shy about that.
I've been having trouble w my website, as you likely noticed, and this week's Tidbits didn't go out on Sunday...or Monday...
If you are missing a post, you should be able to see it by scrolling down here:
https://www.drjudystone.com/politics-science-and-other-assorted-musings/
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New posts:
The Shortage Of Blood Culture Bottles Will Hurt Patients In Surprising Ways
We appear to have learned nothing about having stockpiles of critical supplies and not relying on a sole source. More here.
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Swimming In The Seine Isn’t The Only Health Risk For Paris Olympians And Fans
With 11+ million visitors from all over the world descending on Paris, you can look for Covid for sure, and perhaps measles, dengue, and waterborne infections. I wouldn't want to be there. See what is in Paris now.
News:
Covid levels in wastewater continue to rise nationally for the 12th week. Levels increased 13% between July 6 and July 13 per SCAN. We have to rely on wastewater and emergency room visits as the CDC has failed us, no longer collecting more detailed data.
And now WastewaterSCAN, a private group based at Stanford University in partnership with Emory University, has stopped gathering data from 43 wastewater facilities. WastewaterSCAN was founded in 2020 and is backed by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Verily, which processes samples for WastewaterSCAN, scored a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance contract late last year. - Stat
Walgreens cont to be valuable. DC has the highest testing rate since February 15, and had positivity over 50% around the July 4 holiday. As of July 20, the US positivity rate increased 39.6%.
California, especially San Francisco, has notably high levels.
Per JP Weiland, there are 760k-900,000 new Covid infections per day, with 1 in every 44 people in the US infected now. It's worse in some areas! 1 in 26 in the West, 1 in 29 in the South.
Per Sara Anne Willette's https://iowacovid19tracker.
KP.3 Variant is increasing, especially in Japan and India thus far. Typical symptoms of the KP. 3 variant include high fever, sore throat, loss of smell and taste, headaches, and fatigue.
Surge in KP.3.1.1 detections
In its latest variant proportion projections, the CDC reported a big jump in KP.3.1.1 viruses, an offshoot of KP.3 that scientists this week said is poised to become dominant because of its higher infectivity and immune evasion. KP.3 and its relative, KP.3.1.1, together make up more than 50% of variant sequences.
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Trial of Paxlovid for Prophylaxis fails
2736 people--5 vs 10 day prophylaxis vs placebo did NOT reduce risk of infection from a family member.
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Longer flights increase the risk of getting a COVID infection
- a 1 hour increase in flight length, there is a 53% increase in risk of getting infected.
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“We are Volunteers for Paris 2024 and we resign due to the lack of Covid-19 measures
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COVID increases risk of diabetes
The risk of type 2 diabetes remained high beyond the first year after SARS-CoV-2 infection. The authors estimate that, in England alone, the added burden of diabetes due to SARS-CoV-2 infection represents a 15% increase in new cases.
Diabetes carries substantial costs for individuals and societies. It is associated with devastating complications, decreased quality of life and early mortality.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(24)00159-1/fulltext
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Another study - Covid accelerates brain aging and reduces cognitive ability
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.22.24310790v2
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SARS-CoV-2 infection predisposes patients to coinfection with Staphylococcus aureus
Patients w Covid who develop a Staph aureus blood stream infection exhibit higher rates of mortality than those infected with either pathogen alone.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.01667-24
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Them: "If Covid were damaging people's abilities to fight other infections then we'd see a huge rise in illnesses right across the board"
— tern (@1goodtern) July 20, 2024
The Other Infections: <see picture>
Them: "No, not like that" pic.twitter.com/bwMvjtcfqS
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Review article on Lessons for Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp2241
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Review by @Zalaly: Long Covid:
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Avian Influenza:
Colorado has now reported nine cases among workers at the two layer farms. The state had earlier reported another case in a dairy farm worker, bringing its total to 10 in recent outbreaks. Colo Dept of Public Health has a new dashboard: https://cdphe.colorado.gov/animal-related-diseases/hpai-h5n1
Colorado is currently grappling with ongoing outbreaks affecting dairy cows, and the B13.3 genotype circulating in cows has been confirmed in at least one recent outbreak at a massive layer farm in Colorado, along with a worker on that farm.
Dept of Agriculture reported a third recent outbreak, this time at a layer pullet facility in Weld County that houses about 300,000 birds.
Officials also reported two more outbreaks on dairy farms, raising its total to 51. The avian flu outbreaks have affected nearly half of the states licensed dairy farms. In response to the ongoing escalation, Colorado's state veterinarian ordered mandatory weekly bulk milk testing.
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Colo Dept of Ag: Immediate, mandatory weekly testing of dairy bulk tanks. Done by state certified vets & sent to certified labs. Serious Leadership Note, also provide free PPE to farmworkers.
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Since H5N1 was first detected in US poultry in early 2022, more than 100 million bird losses have been reported across 48 states, according to APHIS.
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A new study provides evidence that a spillover of avian influenza from birds to dairy cattle across several U.S. states has now led to mammal-to-mammal transmission—between cows and from cows to cats and a raccoon.
"This is one of the first times that we are seeing evidence of efficient and sustained mammalian-to-mammalian transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1,"
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-
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New @Nature
The spillover of avian to cattle H5N1 flu, an investigation of outbreak in 9 farms nature.com/articles/s4158 —evidence for efficient and sustained mammal-to-mammal transmission is unprecedented —DNA sequences of transmission "underscoring the ability of the virus to cross species barriers"
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Hong Kong announced suspension of imports of poultry meat and products, including eggs, from specific regions in the US, following recent outbreaks of H5N1 Last year, Hong Kong imported ~37,770 tonnes of poultry meat and ~84 million eggs from the US. efeedlink.com/contents/07-27
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The @UKHSA United Kingdom's Health Security Agency (HSA) yesterday updated its risk assessment for H5N1 avian influenza B3.13 genotype from three to four on a six-tier scale. -- sustained or multispecies mammalian outbreak, incr human spread. What is the US waiting for???
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Other:
Oropouche virus
Brazil has recorded the world's first Oropouche virus deaths, the country's health ministry said Thursday, after two women died of the illness spread by infected flies and mosquitos. The women from the state of Bahia in northeast Brazil were "under 30 years old, with no comorbidities, but who had signs and symptoms similar to a severe case of dengue," the ministry said.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-brazil-world-oropouche-virus-deaths.html
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Database of studies on the health impacts of climate change.
Diagnostics:
still an incredible, negligent last of testing.
Drugs:
Devices:
Epidemiology/Infection control:
Tips, general reading for public:
Ventilate
Vaccinate
Mask
Politics:
It feels like a lifetime ago since Biden stepped aside and endorsed Kamala Harris. And Dems, thus far, aren't showing their expected disarray. Fingers crossed.
— mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) July 21, 2024
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Joe Biden waited until after the RNC so they would attack him and not Kamala, spending all of their money and research on him only. This, folks, is how you protect your VP and simultaneously level up to master troll
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Feds: - Good news!
FEC voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for decades.
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-caps-exorbitant-phone-video-call-rates-incarcerated-persons
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Universal basic income:
We are happy to release the first results of a RCT of a US program that provided $1,000/month unconditionally for 3 years to 1,000 individuals in the treatment group, with a group of 2,000 people receiving $50/month serving as the control. These are sizable transfers...
3) The transfers are substantial, representing a ~40% increase from total household income at baseline, and they are sustained over a relatively long period of time. Further, the sample size was large enough to enable us to detect fairly small effects.
4) The transfers were gifts from non-profit organizations and not taxable. Participants remained eligible for almost all other benefits. Further, the program was targeted at low-income individuals but, once enrolled, participants could earn a high income and still receive $.
6/ This matters because many programs are means-tested, creating a disincentive to work. In our study, any impacts we observe are due to the pure income effect of having more money. 7/...
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GOP/TFG:
Wannabe Dictator says the quiet part out loud:
Trump: You have to get out and vote. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four years, it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.. In four years, you won’t have to vote again. pic.twitter.com/DBGcBr3Wht
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 27, 2024
Trump: You have to get out and vote. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four years, it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.. In four years, you won’t have to vote again.
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San Francisco Chronicle:
Quite the headline — spot on!! #DropOutDonald pic.twitter.com/5TJsl5ZEDv
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) July 25, 2024
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Patrick Orlando, the former chief executive of the SPAC that took Trump Media public, has been charged with securities fraud over the deal - Hugo Lowell
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Jared Kushner’s grandparents relied on aid and shelter as refugees, documents show.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/07/22/jared-kushner-grandparents-refugees-aid-shelter/
Trump's hard-liner, Stephen Miller, is a descendent of asylum seekers, too.
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2011-13, TFG donated $6k to Kamala Harris. She said she donated it to charity.
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Vance:
Feel good du jour:
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) July 19, 2024
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This husky was lost and when his owners were looking for him, they found him being friends with a group of bears
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) July 22, 2024
https://t.co/RK0eJzJBVS
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https://twitter.com/Dalbodog/status/1814613094754123944
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Comic relief:
How an octopus named Otto caused an aquarium power outage by climbing to the edge of his tank and shooting a jet of water at a bright light that was annoying him.
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 22, 2024
The staff believed that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and… pic.twitter.com/AetouEKjiJ
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https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1816848114814218720
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https://twitter.com/Yoda4ever/status/1816158923633910090
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https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1816831011839197573
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https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1817191018502017094
Perspective/Poem:
It doesn’t need to be “it could always be worse” but rather “what can I be grateful for in this moment.” If we learn how to do that we become incredibly mentally strong. Plus our suffering does give us skills other people don’t have - so we should use them! -@broadwaybabyto
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Bits of beauty: