cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15861618

> (USA) > > >Some lawmakers across the country are working to sidestep vaccine mandates, not just for COVID-19, but also for measles, polio and meningitis. Public health experts worry the renewed opposition to childhood immunizations will reverse state gains in vaccination rates. Meanwhile, cases of some diseases, including measles, have increased across the country. > > >>We’re against the government telling us what to do with our own bodies. > >– Louisiana Republican state Rep. Kathy Edmonston > > >“Conservatives have really moved towards that medical freedom position of where people need to be really educated about whatever vaccine that they are taking,” said Tennessee state Sen. Bo Watson, who sponsored his state’s legislation. > > > Picture unrelated to article: > > !

I'm in hospital for a surgery. Staffs don't wear masks. Many of them cough. In the recovery room there is free unlimited access for visitors and you're of course with other patients. Another patient here has three visitors. No masks. No distance. No barriers.

I am trying to discharge myself because I'm legitimately worried I'll catch something from someone else (if I haven't already).

Hospitals don't care about COVID. Why would anyone be surprised about the general population when the most medical institution there is doesn't?

I'm slowly realising that I probably have some mild #LongCovid

Since having covid (now had it twice since 2022): iron deficiencies, breathing problems, constant asthma, and now a sudden allergy to some foods apparently.

My partner and I have been careful throughout the pandemic but clearly not careful enough at times (twice each) since "opening up".

And though it could be far far worse, I feel pretty violated right now TBH.

@coronavirus @longcovid

From https://drsforchoice.org/ > BREAKING NEWS > >Freedom Coalition of Doctors for Choice is pleased to announce a significant win for transparency! United States District Court Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk has issued a thoughtful, insightful, and incredible 30-page decision that orders the CDC to release the 7.8 million free text fields from the Covid-19 v-safe program to the public! > > The CDC must release hundreds of thousands of these entries each month and all the entries must be released on or before January 15, 2025! CDC had argued that it never had to turn over the entries to the public because it was too burdensome to redact the entries. The Court vehemently disagreed and granted expedited processing, recognizing that “Predictably, the American public now seeks access to COVID-related papers to ensure that relevant government policies were — and still are — supported and justified by the available data.” > > The first production of at least 390,000 free text entries is required to be produced by February 15, 2024 and all data received will be posted on this site for the public’s use. The full decision is available here.

___ Court ruling: https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/texas/txndce/2:2023cv00102/378122/40/0.pdf

Excerpts:

> MEMORANDUM ORDER AND OPINION > > .. The Motion is GRANTED .. > > INTRODUCTION > > .. > > V-safe collected two types of data from millions of Americans: (1) check-the-box options and (2) free-text responses. > > Plaintiff seeks production of approximately 7.8 million freetext responses pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). > > .. > > C. Plaintiff’s FOIA Request > >While “Trust the Science” became something of a national slogan, 19 the American public’s trust in science and scientists are at an all-time low.20 It is with this background that Plaintiff aims to further the ideals pledged by the Biden-Harris administration: to “Promote trust, transparency, common purpose, and accountability in our government”21 by making available for public access — and particularly for independent scientific and medical research — all of the relevant health data collected through the V-safe program. As the check-the-box data has already been released, it is the free-text response data Plaintiff seeks. > > ...

Reposting here in case anyone missed the c/worldnews posting two days ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs#COVID-19 (emphasis mine) >In spring 2020, Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, appointed Sachs as chair of its COVID-19 Commission, whose goals were to provide recommendations for public health policy and improve the practice of medicine. Sachs set up a number of task forces, including one on the origins of the virus.

The race for next generation vaccines is steadily heating up now. And this month, we’ve passed a major milestone: The first data suggesting that an already-authorized nextgen vaccine could outperform the BNT/Pfizer vaccine – with its manufacturers ramping up production facilities for potentially wide distribution in the next year or so.

"This is what surrendering to the pandemic means around the edges of the statistics, where people live. It’s not just the broad strokes and the sudden deaths. It’s land mines lying silent beneath the surface of a loved one’s heart or brain or immune system, waiting to be stepped on in a biologically wrong footed moment. It’s whittling away at the already blurry space between functional and disabled [..]"

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/9825270

> Not the link in the post to the article: http://carlbergstrom.com/publications/pdfs/2023PNAS.pdf

Stories like this are why I donate my CPU/GPU time to SiDock/Rosetta/Folding@home. We all can make a difference, even if our contributions are small.

🚨 Reminder for folks in the USA

Today, November 14, is Long Covid Moonshot Day

Please call your member of congress today and ask them to support increased research funding for Long Covid.

Instructions for how to call are here: https://longcovidmoonshot.com/

If you can't call you can send email.

Article:

Now we know how COVID attacks your heart Even patients with mild COVID symptoms could face a higher risk of developing heart disease and stroke

By Sanjay Mishra

Nov 07, 2023 04:08 PM5 min. readView original Scientists have noticed that COVID-19 can trigger serious cardiovascular problems, especially among older people who have a buildup of fatty material in their blood vessels. But now a new study has revealed why and shown that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, directly infects the arteries of the heart.

The study also found that the virus can survive and grow inside the cells that form plaque—the buildup of fat-filled cells that narrow and stiffen the arteries leading to atherosclerosis. If the plaque breaks, it can block blood flow and cause a heart attack or a stroke. The SARS-CoV-2 infection makes the situation worse by inflaming the plaque and increasing the chance that it breaks free.

This can explain long-term cardiovascular effects seen in some, if not all, COVID-19 patients.

SARS-CoV-2 virus has already been found to infect many organs outside the respiratory system. But until now it hadn't been shown to attack the arteries.

"No one was really looking if there was a direct effect of the virus on the arterial wall," says Chiara Giannarelli, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Health, in New York, who led the study. Giannarelli noted that her team detected viral RNA—the genetic material in the virus—in the coronary arteries. “You would not expect to see [this] several months after recovering from COVID.”

Mounting evidence now shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not only a respiratory virus, but it can also affect the heart and many other organ systems, says Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Al-Aly's research has shown that the risk of developing heart and cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, stroke, irregular heart rhythms, cardiac arrest, and blood clots increases two to five times within a year of COVID-19, even when the person wasn't hospitalized.

"This important study links, for the first time, directly the SARS-CoV-2 virus with atherosclerotic plaque inflammation," says Charalambos Antoniades, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Virus triggers the inflammation in plaque

A recent study of more than 800,000 people led by Fabio Angeli, a cardiologist at University of Insubria in Varese, Italy, has shown that COVID-19 patients develop high blood pressure twice as often as others. More worrying is that the risk of cardiac diseases can also rise for patients who suffered only mild COVID symptoms.

"I saw a patient who now has a defibrillator, and she didn't even have a severe [COVID] illness," says Bernard Gersh, a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

Wondering whether the cardiovascular damage during COVID was due to the virus directly attacking the blood vessels, the NYU team analyzed autopsied tissue from the coronary arteries and plaque of older people who had died from COVID-19. They found the virus was present in the arteries regardless of whether the fatty plaques were big or small.

"The original finding in this study is that the virus was convincingly found in the plaque in the coronary artery," says Juan Carlos Kaski, a cardiovascular specialist at St George's, University of London, who was not involved in the study.

The NYU team found that in the arteries, the virus predominantly colonized the white blood cells called macrophages. Macrophages are immune cells that are mobilized to fight off an infection, but these same cells also absorb excess fats—including cholesterol from blood. When microphages load too much fat, they change into foam cells, which can increase plaque formation.

To confirm that the virus was indeed infecting and growing in the cells of the blood vessels, scientists obtained arterial and plaque cells—including macrophages and foam cells—from healthy volunteers. Then they grew these cells in the lab in petri dishes and infected them with SARS-CoV-2.

Giannarelli found that although virus infected macrophages at a higher rate than other arterial cells, it did not replicate in them to form new infectious particles. But when the macrophages had become loaded with cholesterol and transformed into foam cells, the virus could grow, replicate, and survive longer.

"We found that the virus tended to persist longer in foam cells," says Giannarelli. That suggests that foam cells might act as a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. Since more fatty buildup would mean a greater number of foam cells, plaque can increase the persistence of the virus or the severity of COVID-19.

Scientists found that when macrophages and foam cells were infected with SARS-CoV-2 they released a surge of small proteins known as cytokines, which signal the immune system to mount a response against a bacterial or viral infection. In arteries, however, cytokines boost inflammation and formation of even more plaque.

"We saw that there was a degree of inflammation [caused] by the virus that could aggravate atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events," says Giannarelli.

These findings also confirm previous reports that measuring inflammation in the blood vessel wall can diagnose the extent of long-term cardiovascular complications after COVID-19, says Antoniades.

"What this study has found is that plaque rupture can be accelerated and magnified by the presence of the virus," says Kaski.

Understanding heart diseases after COVID

While this new research clearly shows that SARS-CoV-2 can infect, grow, and persist in the macrophages of plaques and arterial cells, more studies are needed to fully understand the many ways COVID-19 can alter cardiac health.

"The NYU study identifies one potential mechanism, especially the viral reservoir, to explain the possible effects" says Gersh. "But It's not going to be the only mechanism."

This study only analyzed 27 samples from eight elderly deceased patients, all of whom already had coronary artery disease and were infected with the original strains of virus. So, the results of this study do not necessarily apply to younger people without coronary artery disease; or to new variants of the virus, which cause somewhat milder disease, says Angeli.

"We do not know if this will happen in people who have been vaccinated," says Kaski. "There are lots of unknowns."

It is also not clear whether and to what extent the high inflammatory reaction observed in the arteries of patients within six months after the infection, as shown in the new study, will last long-enough to trigger new plaque formation. "New studies are needed to show the time-course of the resolution of vascular inflammation after the infection," says Antoniades.

COVID patients should watch for any new incidence of shortness of breath with exertion, chest discomfort, usually with exertion, palpitations, loss of consciousness; and talk to their physician about possible heart disease.

Thank you to Reddit user u/spacelambhat for providing article content. https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/17qher4/comment/k8c8ila/

Edited to update title and info accordingly

Novavax’s updated Covid vaccine won the backing of the FDA and CDC.

Evolving peak SARS-CoV-2 loads relative to symptom onset may influence home-test timing

News brief

September 28, 2023

Mary Van Beusekom, MS

Topics COVID-19

In a group of adults in the state of Georgia tested for both COVID-19 and influenza A, most of whom were vaccinated and/or previously infected, median SARS-CoV-2 viral loads peaked on the fourth day of symptoms, while flu loads peaked soon after symptom onset.

The authors of the study, published today in Clinical Infectious Diseases, say the findings have implications for the use of rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 and flu.

The Emory University-led team evaluated SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A viral loads relative to symptom duration in symptomatic patients aged 16 years and older tested for COVID-19 from April 2022 to April 2023, a period of Omicron variant predominance.

Median age among the 348 COVID-positive patients was 39.2 years, 65.5% were women, and 91.1% were vaccinated, previously infected, or both. Among the 74 influenza A-positive patients, the median age was 35.0 years, and 55.4% were women.

The researchers noted that early in the pandemic, viral loads peaked at the same time as symptom onset and then steadily decreased. At that time, the Food and Drug Administration approved rapid antigen test instructions directing symptomatic people to test only once in the first week of symptoms. In November 2022, the FDA amended the instructions, recommending repeat testing within 48 hours of an initial negative result. Peak viral loads now peak days later

Median SARS-CoV-2 viral loads, as measured by polymerase chain reaction cycle threshold (Ct) and antigen concentrations, rose from symptom onset, peaking on the fourth or fifth day of symptoms. Estimated rapid antigen test sensitivity was 30.0% to 60.0% on the first day, 59.2% to 74.8% on the third, and 80.0% to 93.3% on the fourth.

Median influenza viral loads among the 74 flu-positive patients peaked on the second day of symptoms.

"Our data suggest that the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 Ct value distributions (as a well-established proxy for viral load distributions) and the timing of symptom onset in a highly immune population is very different than the relationship between these parameters observed early in the pandemic—a finding with major implications for testing practice going forward," the researchers wrote.

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) - In a groundbreaking development, Arizonans can now apply for worker's compensation if they contract COVID-19 while on the job. This landmark decision stems from a widow's determined fight to secure worker's compensation following her husband's tragic demise due to COVID-19.

Gabrielle Parish has all of the details after an Arizona woman won a lawsuit to receive workers comp benefits after her husband died after getting Covid-19 at work.

Court documents unequivocally state that if someone contracts COVID-19 at their workplace, they are entitled to file for worker's compensation. An essential detail to note is that if a worker succumbs to the virus, their next of kin will receive financial support.

We had the opportunity to speak with Attorney Dennis Kurth, who played a crucial role in this case. He shed light on how it all began: "She filed a work comp complaint with the Industrial Commission of Arizona to secure widow's benefits, and that claim was denied," Kurth explained.

This denial prompted the widow to take legal action against the company, marking the inception of this historic case. Kurth noted, "This is apparently the first case where an insurance company lost and then decided to take it to the court of appeals. They are arguing that COVID-19 should never be covered by workers' comp as a matter of law."

However, there is a catch. If an employee chooses to accept the compensation, they relinquish their right to sue the company, even if they can prove they contracted the virus on the job. Additionally, there's a time frame to keep in mind: workers must file their claims within a year after contracting COVID-19.

Kurth added, "Now that the court of appeals has published an opinion stating that COVID-19 is compensable if you meet the statutory and case law requirements, people may start looking back and thinking, 'Oh, I should have filed a claim.'"

It's essential to emphasize that the person filing for worker's compensation must have contracted the disease at work for this ruling to apply. Otherwise, these provisions do not come into play.

Posted at the top of the article: "We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply. "

Sorry about the sensationalist title; I just copy/pasted the original.

Original study this article is based on: "A computationally designed antigen eliciting broad humoral responses against SARS-CoV-2 and related sarbecoviruses" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-023-01094-2

U.S. Investigating Veterans Nursing Homes in New Jersey for Possibly Understating Covid Deaths https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-investigating-veterans-nursing-homes-in-new-jersey-for-possibly-understating-covid-deaths-11603900994 The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil-rights investigation into New Jersey veterans homes’ handling of deadly coronavirus outbreaks earlier this year, according to a letter from the department to the state’s governor, Phil Murphy.

Four preliminary laboratory studies released over the weekend found that antibodies from previous infections and vaccinations appear capable of neutralizing the variant, known as BA.2.86.

"It is reassuring," says Dr. Dan Barouch, who conducted one of the studies at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

When it was first spotted, BA.2.86 set off alarm bells. It contains more than 30 mutations on the spike protein the virus uses to infect cells. That's a level of mutation on par with the original Omicron variant, which caused a massive surge.

The concern was BA.2.86, while still rare, could sneak around the immunity people had built up and cause another huge, deadly wave.

TLDR:

As the number of problems that require mask wearing (including air pollution and COVID-19) grows, masks are increasingly important. Now that masks are all but required, the harmful chemicals that can be released from them must be evaluated. In this study, VOCs generated from various types of masks, including commonly used KF94 disposable masks, were assessed. The types and concentrations of VOCs that humans are likely to be exposed to from these masks under various conditions (i.e., emission time, temperature, and mask types) were calculated and compared. This study demonstrated that disposable masks (KF94) released higher concentrations of TVOCs in comparison to cotton masks, with values of 3730 ± 1331 µg m–3 for KF94 and 268 ± 51.6 µg m–3 for cotton masks. The concentrations of TVOCs in KF94 masks are high enough to pose a concern based on indoor air quality guidelines established by the German Federal Environment Agency. However, when KF94 masks were opened and left undisturbed for 30 min at room temperature, TVOC concentrations significantly decreased to 724 ± 5.86 µg m–3 (a 78.2 ± 9.45% reduction from levels measured immediately upon opening). It is clear that particular attention must be paid to the VOCs associated with the use of KF94 masks their effects on human health. Based on our findings, we suggest that prior to wearing a KF94 mask, each product should be opened and not worn for at least 30 min, thereby reducing TVOC concentrations to levels that will not impair human health.

There are still so many open questions about how the SARS-CoV-2 virus operates, and there are some international scientific collaborations working to answer them using massive amounts of computing power. They can be set to only run while your computer is idle, so they won't slow anything down. They work on Windows, Mac, and Linux. They also show you fun stats about how much computing power you have contributed.

I have been crunching these projects for years and would be glad to answer any questions people have about them, though don't expect me to be able to answer any thing about covalent bonds and binding receptors. 😅

BOINC Projects:

BOINC projects are great because you can participate in multiple projects at once through a single program. BOINC is based out of the University California (Berkeley). It is suggested to sign up for multiple projects as you will still have data to crunch even when projects go down for maintenance, etc.

Project #1: SiDock

Founded in 2020, this is an international open science collaboration working on an open source anti-viral for COVID and they have identified a number of good target sites. You can see some of their published papers here. Note on the registration form it asks for an "invite code" as an anti-spam measure which is Crunch\_4Science. It's listed on the main page of the site but easy to miss!

Project #2: World Community Grid

This project has been around since the 90's and puts computing resources towards various health research causes including childhood cancer and diabetes. Right now, they have a sub-project focusing on COVID-19. Currently based out of the Krembil Research Institute.

Project #3: Rosetta@home

Based out of the university of Washington and running for over a decade is Rosetta@home. They produced the first accurate 3D model of sars-cov-2 which was used by researchers around the world and was critical foundational science for the development of the vaccine. A vaccine made directly from this work produced many millions doses. Work units are sparsely produced here, so I'd suggest attaching to at least one other BOINC project as well.

Folding@home

Folding@home is probably the most well-known volunteer computing project and at the start of the pandemic was the largest supercomputer in the world. They focus on protein folding which has implications across health research and have several subprojects related to COVID.

DreamLab

DreamLab runs on Android devices and has various medical research projects it works on including some related to COVID. You can pick and choose which to contribute to, and it only runs while your phone is plugged in and charged, so it won't drain your battery.

FAQ:

Will running BOINC or Folding@home slow down my computer?

Each of these tools can be configured to run only while the computer is idle, so no, it will not slow anything down while you're using it.

Will running BOINC or Folding@home harm my computer?

The short answer for desktop computers is no. Crunching will not harm your computer, computers after all are designed to compute! While crunching does utilize your CPU/GPU heavily, every other component in your computer will likely fail first (your hard drive, OS, etc) or become obsolete before your CPU dies. Many computers crunch for a decade plus with no issues, at which point they make most sense to replace from an energy perspective alone.

However, if your machine has a pre-existing problem with heating (like if it's full of dust or running inside a cabinet), crunching can exacerbate this problem or make its symptoms more readily visible.

Laptops, on the other hand, are often built with insufficient heat exhaustion and can quickly overheat at full load. Heat will also shorten your battery life significantly. Setting your PC to only use 50% of your CPU power and not to use your GPU will keep heat manageable. With laptops, remember that warm is fine, hot is bad.

spoiler

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