A New Accounting of COVID-19’s True Death Toll | Time

The Real Death Toll of Covid 19

More than 6 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide, according to official counts. But the more comprehensive toll, tallying deaths directly or indirectly attributable to COVID-19, may be three times higher, according to a new study published in the Lancet.“We can confidently say that the pandemic has killed an extra 18.2 million people,” says Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington and a co-author of theContinue…

Click here to continue!

Cerebrospinal Fluid Offers Clues to Post-COVID ‘Brain Fog’ | UC San Francisco

Some patients who develop new cognitive symptoms after a mild bout of COVID-19 have abnormalities in their cerebrospinal fluid similar to those found in people with other infectious diseases. The finding may provide insights into how SARS-CoV-2 impacts the brain.In a small study with 32 adults, comprising 22 with cognitive symptoms and 10 control participants without, researchers from UC San Francisco and Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, analyzed the cerebrospinal fluid of 17 of theContinue…

Click here to continue!

NIH study identifies features of Long COVID neurological symptoms | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NIH study identifies features of Long COVID neurological symptoms | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Twelve people with persistent neurological symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection were intensely studied at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and were found to have differences in their immune cell profiles and autonomic dysfunction. These data inform future studies to help explain persistent neurological symptoms in Long COVID. The findings, published in Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation(link is external), may lead to better diagnoses and new treatments. Source: NIH study identifies features of Long COVID neurological symptomsContinue…

Click here to continue!

Risk Factors Associated With Post−COVID-19 Condition: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | Infectious Diseases | JAMA Internal Medicine | JAMA Network

This meta-analysis of 41 studies that included a total of 860 783 patients demonstrates that there were certain epidemiologic and clinical risk factors that are associated with a higher risk of developing PCC. In particular, female sex, older age, higher BMI, and smoking were significantly associated with increased risk of persistent symptoms of 3 months or more after the acute phase of COVID-19 infection, ie, PCC. In addition, preexisting comorbidities, including anxiety and/or depression, asthma, COPD,Continue…

Click here to continue!

The neuroinvasiveness, neurotropism, and neurovirulence of SARS-CoV-2: Trends in Neurosciences

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been shown to be associated with a range of neurological complications during the acute and postacute phases.The pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2-associated CNS disease is complex and diverse, and cannot be explained by one sole mechanism.To understand the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2-associated CNS disease, it is important to gain deeper insights into the neuroinvasiveness, neurotropism, and neurovirulence of SARS-CoV-2. It is also imperative to consider the kinetics, since a viralContinue…

Click here to continue!

RFA-AI-23-028: Fundamental Research to Understand the Mechanisms of Neurotropic Virus-mediated Disease (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to promote basic research to better understand the mechanisms underlying viral invasion of the central nervous system (CNS), virus- and/or host immune-mediated neuropathogenesis, and the associated clinical manifestations for emerging and re-emerging neurotropic viruses. Source: RFA-AI-23-028: Fundamental Research to Understand the Mechanisms of Neurotropic Virus-mediated Disease (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Click here to continue!

Pragmatica-Lung Study opens for patient enrollment – NCI

The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has helped launch a phase 3 randomized clinical trial (NCT05633602) of a two-drug combination to treat patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Called the Pragmatica-Lung Study (or S2302), this is one of the first NCI-supported clinical trials to use a trial design that removes many of the barriers that prevent people from joining clinical trials. This “pragmatic” approach aims to increaseContinue…

Click here to continue!

This Questionable Study Caught Fire in Anti-Vaccine Circles. How Did It Get Through Peer Review?

Anti vaxxer study proven false

After two months of going viral, the study is set to be retracted by BMC Infectious Diseases, the author and the journal told The Chronicle. Three years into a pandemic that has killed more than 6.8 million people, the episode is the latest illustration of the pressure on scholarly journals to vet Covid research that may be built on falsehoods — a high-stakes job that they routinely botch, observers say. Source: This Questionable Study CaughtContinue…

Click here to continue!

Sharing Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Between People and Pets… Is There a Concern? | Worms & Germs Blog

An abstract in the upcoming European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) has gotten a fair bit of press and led to a lot of questions because of some sensational headlines. I’ll hopefully be able to check out all the details at ECCMID (I’ll be there for the Global Leaders Group on AMR meeting), but let’s take a quick look at what we know so far… Source: Sharing Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Between People andContinue…

Click here to continue!

Unearthed genetic sequences from China market may point to animal origin of COVID-19

French scientist finds previously undisclosed data from Chinese research team. 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. Several of the researchers presented their findings on Tuesday to the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), an expert group convened last year by the World HealthContinue…

Click here to continue!