Scot CI wonder how effective these guys would be against ticks...
#lyme #lymedisease #tick #ticks #lonestartick #ehrlichiosis #tularemia #alphagal #alpha-galsyndrome #tickborne #ixodes #borrelia
YouTube
Giuseppe MichieliA New #Orthonairovirus Associated with #Human Febrile #Illness, N Engl J Med.: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2313722?query=TOC&cid=DM2358870_Non_Subscriber&bid=-1779089862
WELV is a member of the orthonairovirus genus in the #Nairoviridae family and is most closely related to the #tickborne #Hazara orthonairovirus genogroup. Acute WELV infection was identified in 17 patients from Inner Mongolia, #Heilongjiang, #Jilin, and #Liaoning, #China, by means of reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction assay.
Kiki BuberBeen feeling pretty much like I got another mRNA booster since Monday. That's the only symptom. While I had had at least ten minutes breathing shared indoor air with COVID normalizers* the week before, I think it's more likely a tick bite — having seen one on my pants leg and one on the phone I put down on the ground next to me at the eclipse. #Tickborne illnesses are not necessarily better than COVID 😬 , but here's hoping these antibiotics kick in soon if that's what this is.
*everybody
Science ScholarA new study has found that many more people have been infected by the TBE virus than previously thought. The virus is transmitted by ticks and can cause severe neurological symptoms
Concerning Findings – Many More Infected by TBE Virus Than Previously Thought
A new study conducted by Uppsala University and the University Hospital in Uppsala reveals that the actual number of infections caused by the tick-borne TBE virus is significantly higher than previously estimated. This study, which examined Swedish blood donors, has been published in the journal Eur
Michael HeadNew article from me, in The Conversation – ‘Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever – why this tick-borne virus could become more common in richer countries’
https://theconversation.com/crimean-congo-haemorrhagic-fever-why-this-tick-borne-virus-could-become-more-common-in-richer-countries-207996
#publichealth #globalhealth #crimeancongo #viralhemorrhagic #virus #emerginginfections #ticks #tickborne
drjudystoneNew #Coronavirus Tidbits news is up https://drjudystone.com/coronavirus-tidbits-237-march-19-2023/ w clips about #Boosters #RaccoonDog #tickborne infections #airborne #MECFS #BookBanning #PEPFAR #fascism
and by @ahandvanish @Rschooley @jodipicoult
@ErinInTheMorn @georgemporter
@GovTimWalz @TanjaBueltmann and more
and by @ahandvanish @Rschooley @jodipicoult
@ErinInTheMorn @georgemporter
@GovTimWalz @TanjaBueltmann and more
Coronavirus Tidbits #237 March 19, 2023 - Dr. Judy Stone
Quick links News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty 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. Reminder, Resilience: One Family’s Story… is increasingly pertinent, as some of our politicians shift rightward. All proceeds go to Holocaust education. Available here. My Op-Ed w Dr. Gregg Gonsalves on 2/14/23 is now freely available: You can’t mandate the end of a pandemic | GUEST COMMENTARY By Judy Stone and Gregg Gonsalves Recently, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser urged an end to telework, citing the empty offices downtown, the economic engine of the district. The Washington Post soon followed, shortsightedly declaring that it is time federal employees return to the office. Then President Biden decided to go bigger, declaring that he was ending the pandemic emergency protections on May 11 for the entire U.S. After more than three long years, everyone is tired of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it clearly has not yet run its course. Still, politicians and business owners are beating the drum of getting “back to normal,” even if normal doesn’t make sense. The rationale for this back-to-the-office, virus-be-damned movement is based on a specious logic. Case in point: Rep. James Comer’s “Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems” Act (H.R. 139), also known as the SHOW UP Act. But the Kentucky Republican’s argument that on-site employees are more productive is wrong, and ignores data showing that employees working remotely can be, and often are, more productive than commuters. They tend to work longer hours, enjoy a better work-life balance and report being better able to concentrate. Forcing employees to return to work will put their health at risk. There are currently about 450 deaths from COVID daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The reported daily new cases hover around 40,400, but those case estimates are vastly undercounted since most people test at home now and that data is not collected. Furthermore, CDC estimated that 20% of people infected with SARSCOV2 may develop long COVID. Recent data from Kaiser Family Foundation suggest 15% of Adult Americans have reported long COVID symptoms at some point, and 6% are actively experiencing it. That 6% represents over 12 million Americans. Harvard University economist David Cutler estimated the costs of long COVID at $3.7 trillion, $11,000 per person, or 17% of the 2019 gross domestic product. Even if you think the prevalence of long COVID is overstated, cutting these numbers in half, or to a quarter points toward a staggering human and economic toll. If politicians feel an imperative to get people back into the office, they have to make it safer to do so for both those working at home now and the millions who never had any choice – the front line workers in grocery stores, Amazon warehouses, meatpacking plants, health care, and elsewhere, who had to show up or lose their jobs. We know how to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection. At the World Economic Forum (WEF) recently held in Davos, Switzerland, we saw vaccinations required for attendees, free PCR testing before the meeting, the ready availability of free high quality (FFP2-94%) masks and rapid tests, and good ventilation and HEPA filters throughout the meeting spaces. If we want employees to return to face-to-face work in the office, we should offer them the “Davos standard” of protection. Mandating a return to the office, without mandating protection on public transport or in workplaces, means we get to play Russian roulette with the virus, for ourselves, our families at home, and our communities. This becomes more important with President Biden’s intention to end the pandemic public health emergency (PHE). The end of the PHE means that insurance may not cover these interventions and cost-sharing is certain to be put in place. With Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID vaccine prices going up 400%, these costs are likely to be forwarded to patients. Telemedicine will likely be severely curtailed, making it difficult for those with transportation difficulties to receive care. All of this will pose a disproportionate burden on the poor, elderly, rural and people of color, who have less access to medical care. Only those with resources will be able to afford rapid tests, the latest vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. Forcing people back to work without public transit and workplace protections, just as the PHE is lifted, depriving millions of access to key interventions against the disease, may be good politics for some officials, but there is only one clear winner to their proposals and decisions: the virus, which is still very much with us, whether we care to acknowledge it or not. Baltimore Sun News FDA offers radio silence on question of spring Covid boosters, as other countries push ahead By Helen Branswell The FDA declined a request to interview Marks for this article. In an email, the agency sidestepped most of STAT’s questions, saying only on the issue of spring boosters that “We continue to closely monitor the emerging data… the U.K.’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization have both issued recommendations that high-risk individuals should be offered the opportunity to get a Covid booster shot this spring. In the U.K., where an astonishing 82.5% of people aged 75 and older received a bivalent booster last fall, the recommendation is that people who are 75 and older, or who live in a care home for older adults, or who are 5 years and older and are immunocompromised should be offered a spring booster, as long as it has been six months since their last shot. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, would go further, saying people who are 50 and older in the U.S. should be offered the chance to get a second booster. He noted that in the second half of 2022, 97.3% of people who died from Covid in this country were aged 50 and older. U.S.: Doctors’ offices and pharmacies would not face a tsunami of people seeking a spring booster, if one were allowed. Only 16.3% of people eligible for the updated jab have received one; even among the highest-risk population, people aged 65 and older, fewer than half of those eligible – 41.6% – have gotten the shot. With no clearance from FDA for a spring booster, ACIP is not able to recommend one. [fwiw, I think immunocompromised or those over 65 should have the boosters freely available 6 months after their last vax. The FDA seems to be penny-wise and pound foolish on this.] https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/16/fda-offers-radio-silence-on-question-of-spring-covid-boosters-as-other-countries-push-ahead/? ~ ~ ~ Paxlovid update The FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted Thursday to support the approval of Paxlovid for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults at high risk for severe disease, hospitalization or death. In July 2022, the FDA expanded the EUA to allow pharmacists to prescribe the drug to qualifying people immediately after testing positive for the virus. During Thursday’s meeting, the FDA said it is looking at widening the number of people eligible for a prescription, and recommending those prescriptions be made earlier after infection. https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20230316/fda-committee-supports-approval-of-covid19-treatment-paxlovid-for-highrisk-adults ~ ~ ~ @AP Mar 17 Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab, international experts say. ~ ~ ~ Unearthed genetic sequences from China market may point to animal origin of COVID-19 Science BYJON COHEN 16 MAR 2023 A scientific sleuth in France has identified previously undisclosed genetic data from a food market in Wuhan, China, that she and colleagues say support the theory that coronavirus-infected animals there triggered the COVID-19 pandemic… “The data does point even further to a market origin,” says Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary biologist at Scripps Research who attended the meeting and is one of the scientists analyzing the new data. If so, the findings weaken the view of a vocal minority that a virology lab in Wuhan was the likely origin of SARS-CoV-2, perhaps when the coronavirus infected a lab worker, who spread it further. Florence Débarre, a theoretician who specializes in evolutionary biology and works at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, unearthed the data, which consists of genetic sequences posted in GISAID, a virology database, by Chinese researchers. The Chinese team had collected environmental samples from the Huanan Seafood Market, which was connected to a cluster of early COVID-19 cases and despite its name also sold a variety of mammals for food. Since Débarre spotted the sequences, GISAID has removed them, noting that this was at the request of the submitter. Given that the mystery of SARS-CoV-2’s origin has been a matter of intense global interest and divisive debate, the data’s discovery and subsequent disappearance will certainly raise questions about why the Chinese team-which includes the former head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), George Gao–did not make the sequences public earlier. Contacted by Science, Gao said the sequences are “[n]othing new. It had been known there was illegal animal dealing and this is why the market was immediately shut down.”… https://www.science.org/content/article/covid-19-origins-missing-sequences ~ ~ ~ Did Covid-19 originate w raccoon dogs in the Wuhan food market? A new analysis of genetic samples from China appears to link the origin of COVID-19 to raccoon dogs. (The Atlantic) The common raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), also called the Chinese or Asian raccoon dog to distinguish it from the Japanese raccoon dog, is a small, heavy-set, fox-like canid native to East Asia. Named for its raccoon-like face markings, it is most closely related to foxes. Common raccoon dogs feed on many animals and plant matter, and are unusual among canids (dogs, foxes, and other members of the family Canidae) for climbing trees and for hibernating in cold winters. –Wikipedia ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Do COVID-19 vaccine mandates still make sense? COVID-19 vaccines clearly prevent severe disease, but they worry maintaining the mandates could undermine future public health efforts. “Having to show these old vaccination proofs or certificates really doesn’t make sense, and it could cause harm, because people might lose trust in the competence of the organization,” says University of Konstanz psychologist Katrin Schmelz, whose research has found that institutional trust is crucial for health policy acceptance. https://www.science.org/content/article/do-covid-19-vaccine-mandates-still-make-sense ~ ~ ~ Other: West Nile, Lyme, and other diseases are on the rise with climate change. Experts warn the U.S. is not prepared STAT By Sara Van Note Even before Covid-19 arrived, the public health response to diseases transmitted to humans by vectors like fleas, ticks and mosquitoes – including West Nile, Zika, dengue fever, Lyme disease, and others – was muted, perhaps because the number of reported cases has been relatively low, and the public largely unaware of the health risks such diseases pose. With climate change accelerating, however, shifting the ranges of many disease-carrying species and sharply increasing infections, scientists and others warn that the nation’s public officials, as well as hospitals and doctors, are underprepared for a potentially devastating surge in infections. Research on vector-borne diseases and disease surveillance, they note, are underfunded by federal and local governments, leaving the country vulnerable to outbreaks. In the United States, cases of 17 different vector-borne diseases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and nine pathogens new to the country have been identified since 2004, according to a 2020 report by the agency, which noted that the data for 2019 and 2020 might be incomplete due to underreporting during the Covid-19 pandemic. Reported cases of vector-borne diseases more than doubled from 2004-2019, to more than 800,000 cases. But those figures are almost certainly an undercount, CDC officials said in a presentation to Congress last year. statnews.com/2023/03/15/climate-change-diseases-west-nile-dengue-lyme/ ~ ~ ~ Tick-borne babesiosis in New England The prevalence of babesiosis is increasing in certain states, including Maine, New...
Scientific FrontlineThe #Alongshan #virus was discovered in China only five years ago. Now researchers at the University of Zurich have found the novel virus for the first time in Swiss #ticks. It appears to be at least as widespread as the #tickborne #encephalitis virus and causes similar symptoms.
#Virology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2022/12/vi12072201.html
#Virology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2022/12/vi12072201.html
