Covid 19 C&P

South Africa will pause its rollout of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after a small study suggested it offers minimal protection against mild and moderate infection from the South African coronavirus strain known as B.1.351.

The analysis is yet to be peer reviewed or published.

Work is already underway at the University of Oxford and in conjunction with partners to produce a second generation of the vaccine which has been adapted to target variants of the coronavirus with mutations similar to B.1.351, if it should prove necessary to do so.




South Africa has paused AstraZeneca COVID vaccine rollout but it's too early to say Australia should follow suit (theconversation.com)

Why the UK strain hasn't wreaked havoc in Aus.-Yet.

Professor William Rawlinson, a senior medical virologist at UNSW, said the new strain was more infectious, but “it’s not wildfire”.
“It has replaced other strains in other countries, but I think it needs to be put in perspective,” he said.
“It’s more infectious, not a super-virus.”
Professor Rawlinson added the increased transmissibility of a virus was just one important way the virus jumps from person to person.
There are lots of other contributing factors, like whether or not people were socially distancing.
“In Australia, we’re not seeing it spread because we’re getting very, very little community spread of virus. Once you stop that spread, you stop the spread of whatever the most recent strain is.”



UK coronavirus strain hasn't wreaked havoc in Australia – yet (thenewdaily.com.au)

NZ to start vaccinations next week.
New Zealand's COVID-19 inoculation program will begin on February 20, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, bringing forward the schedule after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was received earlier than anticipated.

New Zealand to start coronavirus vaccinations on February 20 - ABC News

NSW residents told to isolate after Vic virus exposure. 7,000 people being contacted.

'You are at risk': NSW residents told to isolate after Vic virus exposure (thenewdaily.com.au)

Another 'Rona variant emerges in Uganda.

A coronavirus variant has been detected in Uganda that has a mutation similar to the fast-spreading variant in the UK, and has quickly become the most common coronavirus in Uganda's capital city Kampala, a pre-print study reported Thursday.


The newly emerged coronavirus variant has evolved separately from the variant in the UK, which is from the "B lineage" and called B.1.1.7. The variant in Uganda is from the "A lineage," and referred to as A.23.1 in the study. This thing is mutating quicker now.

If you are asked to go into lock down, just do it. Save the complaints until afterwards.

In the UK, A.23.1 is being formally investigated by Public Health England because it has the E484K mutation â€" the mutation that is found in the variant in South Africa, that scientists believe helps it evade antibodies.
There are 43 reported cases ofA.23.1in the UK, according to Public Health England (PHE). The A.23.1 variant with E484K is different to the variant in UK, B.1.1.7, which also appears to have evolved into a E484K mutation and has been designated a "variant of concern" by PHE. There have been 22 people in the UK infected with the B.1.1.7 variant that has a E484K mutation, according to PHE.




A coronavirus variant with a 'similar change' to the fast-spreading variant in the UK and US, has emerged in Uganda (msn.com)

New allegations of a cover up in New York nursing homes over Covid virus toll;

The revelation, which came from a leaked conversation, added to a cascading series of reports and court orders that have nearly doubled the state’s official toll of nursing home deaths in the last two weeks.



New Allegations of Cover-Up by Cuomo Over Nursing Home Virus Toll - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

COVID is living proof of Charles Darwin's converging evolution theory.

Charles Darwin first recognized convergent evolution by studying living animals. In recent years, virologists have found that viruses can evolve convergently, too. H.I.V., for example, arose when several species of viruses shifted from monkeys and apes to humans. Many of those lineages of H.I.V. gained the same mutations as they adapted to our species.
As the coronavirus now branches into new variants, researchers are observing Darwin’s theory of evolution in action, day in and day out.

Dr. Kamil stumbled across some of the new variants while he was sequencing samples from coronavirus tests in Louisiana. At the end of January, he observed an unfamiliar mutation in a number of samples.
The scientists wondered whether the lineage they had discovered was the only one to have a 677 mutation. Probing the database, Dr. Kamil and his colleagues found six other lineages that independently gained the same mutation on their own.

Still, scientists are worried because the mutation could plausibly affect how easily the virus gets into human cells.
Convergent evolution has transformed a few other spots on the spike protein as well. The 501st amino acid has mutated in a number of lineages, for example, including the contagious variants first observed in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Experiments have revealed that the 501 mutation alters the very tip of the spike. That change allows the virus to latch onto cells more tightly, and infect them more effectively.
Scientists anticipate that coronaviruses will converge on more mutations that give them an advantage — against not only other viruses but also our own immune system.



7 Virus Variants Found in U.S. Carrying the Same Mutation - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

An interview with a W.H.O. researcher on his trip to China, seeking the origins of the coronavirus.


An interview with Peter Daszak, an animal disease specialist, just after his return from an investigative research mission to Wuhan, the site of the original Covid outbreak, and surrounding areas.


W.H.O. Researcher Seeking Coronavirus Origins on His Trip to China - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Testing vaccines for teenagers, From the N.Y.Times.

Testing vaccines in teenagers

When it comes to reaching herd immunity, vaccinated teenagers are crucial. But that doesn’t mean developing a vaccine that works for teens is easy.

While teenagers don’t fall as severely ill as often as adults, they become infected at almost twice the rate of younger children. Research also suggests that they can spread the virus widely — to each other and to older family members — because they are often asymptomatic and casual about social distancing.

So far, the vaccines authorized in the U.S. are only for adults, and enrolling teenagers in clinical trials has presented its own challenges. Adolescents can struggle to comply with the strict rules of a clinical study, which requires keeping a symptom diary and showing up to multiple appointments. And smaller studies, to minimize the potential risk to minors, can result in slower turnaround times.

Researchers must also obtain a parent’s consent or permission. Information sessions for each can be protracted and painstaking. Objection by either child or parent terminates the application. And researchers often caution young subjects to keep their participation off social media, because vaccine disinformation and online personal attacks are so widespread.

Pfizer’s trial for children ages 12 through 15 is fully enrolled, and the company expects results in the first quarter of this year, which it will then submit to the Food and Drug Administration for review. Moderna is still recruiting for its adolescent trials, with data anticipated sometime this summer.

The pandemic has upended life for many teens — shutting down in-person school, sports and socializing — and experts are warning of a “mental health pandemic” among young adults in isolation that has pushed many to despair. Some children say signing up for trials is a way to fight back.

Sam, 12, who entered the Pfizer trial at Cincinnati Children’s hospital, said he wanted to participate “because it would be helping science and beat the pandemic.”

He added, “And it was my way of saying thank you to the frontline workers who are keeping us healthy.”

It wasn’t a painless decision. After his second shot, Sam had a throbbing headache, chills and a low-grade fever. His mother said she felt guilty for letting him participate, and she apologized to him. Sam was mystified by her reaction. “I’m so happy,” he replied. “This means I got the real thing!”

A deadly syndrome: About 2,060 children have also contracted a dangerous rare condition related to the coronavirus, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, which can shut down the heart and other organs. Doctors across the country say they are seeing a striking increase in the condition with more children falling seriously ill than during the first wave of cases in the spring.

My teens are the coronavirus guinea pigs. Sheila Mulrooney Eldred, a health journalist in Minneapolis, wrote about her front-row seat to one of the most-anticipated pediatric trials in history.

An important message from Madonna King, on vaccinations.


Madonna King: Time to end the dangerous anti-vaccination conspiracy theories






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What do vaccines actually do?

Vaccines help to prevent disease by stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies, which help to identify and tackle invaders such as viruses and bacteria. Millions of deaths are prevented every year through immunization for more than 20 life-threatening diseases. Many children in the United States die from preventable diseases, partly because of the rise of the anti-vaccination or anti-vaxxer...

OPINION

https://1v1d1e1lmiki1lgcvx32p49h8fe-...rent-96x96.pngMadonna King

The silver lining in the COVID-19 cloud is how communities across our nation have bonded.
Families are looking after aged-care residents they’d never met – until they discovered they had no one visiting them.
Neighbours are routinely grocery shopping for those worried about the daily threat of infection.

Psychologists are staying open, late at night, to listen to anxious children tearfully explain their inability to sleep.
Nurses and police, and paramedics, and teachers, and scientists are fronting up to work, worn out, in a bid to bring certainty back to our lives.

• Related: Facebook news shutdown on eve of vaccine rollout ‘bad idea’

It’s a unique brand of ‘COVID Kindness’ that should headline this tumultuous time in history.
But the theme – in policy and practice – has been to look out for someone else. Whether that’s in helping out or social distancing, in our work practices or at home.
And that makes the false and fanciful arguments about the vaccine rollout, currently being spread by a merry band of ignorant anti-vaxxers, particularly foul.

Do they genuinely believe that those receiving the jab are being secretly injected with a chip to allow Bill Gates to track our every move?

Or that our chances of having children are doomed by a *****, that has been tried and tested across the globe?

Do they really, genuinely, think that vaccines – which have killed off smallpox, polio and dozens of other diseases – turn into mutant murderers in some people?

In journalism, you meet a lifetime of conspiracy theorists. Often it makes good dinner party talk, and that’s where it ends.

But when the conspiracy arguments threaten the health – and lives – of others, the joke loses its punchline.

• Related: Australia vaccine rollout plan announced

Yes, we’ve played at the periphery in dealing with those trading in mistruths. “No jab, no play. No jab, no pay”. But that’s not enough any more.
Those thousands and thousands of Australians who refuse to immunise their children – and risk spreading disease to others – need to be held to account in a stronger way.
Inciting violence is a crime. So is hate speech. Why isn’t the refusal to vaccinate against those diseases that can spread to others? Like COVID?
https://1v1d1e1lmiki1lgcvx32p49h8fe-...5/anti-vax.pngProtesters who believe vaccines are poison and 5G networks spread COVID-19 take to the streets in Sydney.COVID-19 has brought this issue into sharp focus.
The anti-vaccination gang are already preying on the vulnerable, and those anxious about a vaccine that’s come, via science, to the market quickly.
Surveys in some areas overseas have shown the numbers of those lining up for the jab are not high enough to immunise local communities.
The reach of those promoting anti-vaccine messages is also rising sharply on social media. On Instagram, for example, a UK study showed big anti-vaccination accounts grew almost five-fold last year.

But in good news, vaccination rates are also rising as more doses become available.

That cannot afford to be stopped by the risk of what many are calling ‘a vaccine hesitancy’; a risk the World Health Organisation nominated in 2019 as one of the top-10 threats to global health.
Vaccine priorities

This week, debate has revolved around the priority list for early vaccination in Australia.

Front-line workers. Those manning quarantine and borders. The ill. The vulnerable. The aged. It all makes perfect sense. And we cannot allow it to be undermined by the ignorant, brash, and bizarre claims of those now letterboxing homes, calling talkback radio or promoting rants on Facebook.

(Truly, if Facebook wanted to do something to make itself relevant again, it could perhaps bring back news of the pandemic and remove the fake news around it!)

Our politicians have handled this pandemic in wildly different ways; but each of them – despite their politician affiliation – has done what they think is best to stop its spread.
It’s time they turned their attention to a small, loud and ignorant group that is working to kill the kindness so many others are growing in our communities