Category: Long Covid
Israel: 11% of children who recover from coronavirus suffer from Long Covid
Image by Cheryl Holt from Pixabay
WHO: Vaccines won’t save us. We’ll have to learn to live with the virus
The World Health Organization has thrown in the towel and surrendered to Covid. The WHO have finally realised that Covid-19 vaccines aren’t going to save our asses, and they are now recommending that governments around the world learn to live with the virus. Yes, that’ll be the same virus that has already killed millions, disabled tens of millions, and infected hundreds of millions. Sars-CoV-2 is apparently something we can learn to live with though, just like the ebola virus, or polio, or smallpox, or the bubonic plague.
Welcome to the new normal!
Dr Hans Kluge: “I think it brings us to the point that the aim of a vaccination is first and foremost to prevent more serious disease, and that’s mortality. If we consider that Covid will continue to mutate and remain with us, the way influenza is, then we should anticipate how to gradually adapt our vaccination strategy to endemic transmission and gather really precious knowledge about the impact of additional jabs,” he added.
Hans Kluge quotes from The Straitstimes.com article
The Daily Mail has gone into meltdown over this one: “Covid vaccines won’t end pandemic and officials must now ‘gradually adapt strategy’ to cope with inevitable spread of virus, World Health Organization official warns“
** Just to be clear, there will be NO mild “endemic” phase of Sars-CoV-2. Throwing in the towel now will condemn hundreds of millions to die because we haven’t got the backbone to make the sacrifices necessary. **
Significant abnormalities found in the eyes of some patients with severe COVID-19
Researchers using MRI have found significant abnormalities in the eyes of some people with severe COVID-19. The French Society of Neuroradiology initiated a study of 129 patients with severe COVID-19 who underwent brain MRI.
Of the 129 patients, nine (7%) had abnormal MRI findings of the globe, or eyeball. The MRI scans showed one or more nodules in the back part, or posterior pole, of the eyeball. Eight of the nine patients had spent time in the intensive care unit (ICU) for COVID-19.
Image by Helmut Strasil from Pixabay
BMJ: Allowing mass infection of children is reckless
“Children have suffered significant harms from Covid-19. In just the past two months there have been over 2,300 hospitalisations of under 18s in England. There are an estimated 34,000 children living with long covid in the UK already, with 22,000 reporting significant impacts on their day to day activities, 7,000 of whom have had symptoms for more than a year. Up to one in seven of those infected are expected to have persisting symptoms at 12-15 weeks. Long Covid can be associated with multisystem disease in some children, including persistent cognitive symptoms. SARS-CoV-2 is a neurotrophic and pro-inflammatory virus with neuroinvasive potential that can infect the brain, with structural brain changes having been observed in adults, including those with mild infection. Allowing mass infection of children is therefore reckless. “
See also: Education Secretary Gavin Williamson could be in breach of the law
Schools are reopening and Government wants to pretend Covid is fixed. But this stance puts the lives of children, their families, and teaching staff at risk.
Even children and families with serious medical conditions that make them especially vulnerable to Covid are expected to return to school – without any protective measures. Government’s policy requires no contact tracing by schools, no bubbles, and tells families who are vulnerable to just “follow the same guidance as everyone else.”
Parents who are frightened of what this means for their kids or vulnerable family members face fines or prosecution if they keep their kids at home until schools are made safe. And some schools and local authorities are bullying families into deregistering children.
We don’t think this state of affairs is lawful – and it is certainly not right. We commissioned written legal advice from leading educational specialists Fiona Scolding QC and Yaaser Vanderman – and promised we would publish it. It can now be accessed here.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson could be in breach of the law
UK ONS: nearly one million people living with long covid symptoms
An estimated 970,000 people living in private households in the UK (1.5% of the population) were experiencing self-reported “long COVID” (symptoms persisting for more than four weeks after the first suspected COVID-19 infection that were not explained by something else) at 1 August 2021.
The estimates presented in this analysis relate to self-reported long COVID, as experienced by study participants who responded to a representative survey, rather than clinically diagnosed ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 or post-COVID-19 syndrome in the full population.
Of people with self-reported long COVID, 817,000 (84%) first had (or suspected they had) COVID-19 at least 12 weeks previously, and 384,000 (40%) first had (or suspected they had) COVID-19 at least one year previously.
Symptoms adversely affected the day-to-day activities of 643,000 people (66% of those with self-reported long COVID), with 188,000 (19%) reporting that their ability to undertake their day-to-day activities had been “limited a lot”.
UK Office of National Statistics report
An estimated 970,000 people experienced self-reported long COVID in the 4 weeks to 1 August (where symptoms persisted more than 4 weeks after the first suspected infection) https://t.co/r8YIm3ayel pic.twitter.com/ohhL1XJ7K5
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) September 2, 2021
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UK: 30% vaccine breakthrough rate reported by Covid App
According to ZOE COVID Study incidence figures, there are currently 51,961 new daily symptomatic cases of COVID in the UK on average, based on PCR and LFT test data from up to five days ago. This is up 19% from 43,693 new cases last week. It’s estimated there are currently 15,309 new daily symptomatic cases in fully vaccinated people in the UK, cases in this group have been rising steadily for the last week and now make up 29.4% of the total new daily cases
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
Long Covid: 49% of patients still have at least one symptom after 12 months
1276 COVID-19 survivors were studied. The proportion of patients with at least one sequelae symptom decreased from 68% at 6 months to 49% at 12 months. The proportion of patients with dyspnoea slightly increased from 26% at 6-month visit to 30% at 12-month visit. Additionally, more patients had anxiety or depression at 12-month visit. Matched COVID-19 survivors at 12 months had more problems with mobility, pain or discomfort, and anxiety or depression, and had more prevalent symptoms than did controls.
Lancet article: 1-year outcomes in hospital survivors with COVID-19: a longitudinal cohort study
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Boris Johnson ‘privately accepts’ up to 50,000 annual Covid deaths as an acceptable level
Downing Street has denied it has set any “acceptable level” of Covid deaths but one adviser, who has been close to the UK Government since coronavirus struck 18 months ago, told inews that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had privately accepted that there would be at least a further 30,000 deaths in the UK over the next year, and that the Prime Minister would “only consider imposing further restrictions if that figure looked like it could rise above 50,000”.
Perhaps someone should go and wake Boris Johnson up, because the UK is already nearing 40,000 deaths a year and the figure is rising. It’s summer, and the kids are still off school. You can probably work out the rest…
UK Covid figures, 28th August 2021:
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Iceland opts for herd immunity through infection
Iceland has vaccinated 76% of its population, but for several months the majority of new Covid infections have been amongst the fully vaccinated. Now, in a stunning turn U-turn, Iceland’s chief epidemiologist has declared that Iceland should pursue a new policy of herd immunity through Covid infection – the very same policy that vaccines were designed to prevent.
From Visir.is:
Herd immunity must be achieved by transmitting the virus
The epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason believes that it is now necessary to try to achieve herd immunity to the coronary virus by letting it continue, but to try to prevent serious illness by protecting vulnerable groups. He says the goal at this point cannot be to eradicate the virus from society.
One and a half months after the abolition of all domestic [restrictions], a record number of people have been diagnosed infected in recent weeks, despite the fact that the majority of the population has been vaccinated.
Þórólfur Guðnason said in Sprengisandur in Bylgjan this morning that it is disappointing that herd immunity has not been achieved with vaccination. He says that only one other way is able to achieve herd immunity, to allow the virus to spread throughout the community.
Some need to be revaccinated
Þórólfur says that the priority now is to give booster doses to those who have responded poorly to vaccination. “We need to try to vaccinate and better protect those who are vulnerable, but let us tolerate the infection,” he said.
“I think it is quite clear that Janssen’s (Johnson and Johnson vaccine) defence is weaker than that of other vaccines,” says Þórólfur. He says it is a priority to give those who received the Jansen vaccine a booster dose. Then, for example, teachers and the elderly need to be given a booster dose as soon as possible.
“It is not a priority now to vaccinate everyone with the third dose, as we also need to think: Maybe we should get a new variant? Do we need to be vaccinated with another vaccine? ”He says. Þórólfur says that the fight against the virus will be characterized by such uncertainty.
Will not suggest hard action
“We need to somehow navigate this way, and we are now in this, not to get too many serious illnesses so that the hospital system does not collapse, but still try to achieve this herd immunity by letting the virus somehow run.”
Þórólfur believes that the most important action now is to strengthen the hospital system and enable Landspítali to accept more people who need hospitalization.
He says the situation at Landspítali is not good, even though no emergency call has been received from there. “I do not think we have reached the point where we need to take tough action,” he said.
However, he says we need to be ready to take action if we are to see a lot of seriously infected people.
Þórólfur says that there will be discussions with specialists and those who work at Landspítali about improvements at the hospital. He does not intend to comment in detail on what needs to be done for the hospital to meet other demand.
Visir.is article (In Icelandic)
Iceland has continued to see the majority of Covid infections in fully vaccinated people:
Iceland infection data from Covid.is
Iceland: 70% vaccine breakthrough – 1,565 infections of which 1,091 are fully vaccinated
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
Britain surrenders to the coronavirus
“We can’t control the spread of the virus. The virus is doing what it’s doing and we have to react to that”.
Just yesterday…
Children to spearhead Britain’s winter offensive against the coronavirus
France: Brain damage found in paediatric long covid cases
For the first time, the cerebral reality of the long form of the Covid-19 is demonstrated in children. Seven young patients suffering from persistent symptoms were explored by functional imaging (PET-scan) in the nuclear medicine department of the Timone hospital, headed by Pr Guedj. “The complaints of these children can not simply be explained by psychological and psychiatric disorders”, believes the specialist who has already identified, identically, this brain damage in adult patients, and who today favors the ‘hypothesis of inflammation of the brain, at the time of infection with SARS-CoV-2, to explain, in a subgroup of patients, the very long-lasting symptoms: “There is real brain damage. We cannot sum it up to something purely functional. “
“During the first wave, 17% of children and Covid-positive adolescents have developed a long Covid”
Paris Match report (in French)
Preprint: Similar patterns of [18F]-FDG brain PET hypometabolism in paediatric and adult patients with long COVID: a paediatric case series
The future of Sars-CoV-2: Multiple vaccine breakthrough infections in one patient
The patient had three RT-PCR confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections. Two breakthrough infections occurred in quick succession with the first over 3 weeks after complete vaccination with COVISHIELD and despite post-vaccination seroconversion. The first breakthrough infection was due to the Alpha variant and the second due to the Delta variant. The Delta variant infection resulted in hypoxia, hospitalization, and illness lasting seven weeks. Serial serology, acute phase reactants, and chest imaging supported WGS in establishing distinct episodes of infection. WGS established a fully vaccinated family member as the index case.
Research article: Severe SARS-CoV-2 Breakthrough Reinfection With Delta Variant After Recovery From Breakthrough Infection by Alpha Variant in a Fully Vaccinated Health Worker
Preprint: Just three mutations for SARS-CoV-2 to escape from highly neutralizing convalescent plasma
Preprint: SARS-CoV-2 trafficking between brain and lung
“Autopsies showed normal gross brainstem anatomy. Histopathological examination demonstrated increased neuronal and CA damage in Covid-19 patients’ medulla oblongata. Immunohistochemistry disclosed SARS-CoV-2 NP in brainstem neurons and glial cells, and in cranial nerves. Glial elements also exhibited a widespread increase in Iba-1 expression. Sars-CoV-2 was immunohistochemically detected in the vagus nerve fibers.”
Brainstem neuropathology in two cases of COVID-19: SARS-CoV-2 trafficking between brain and lung
Photo by Albert Dehon on Unsplash
Blood clotting may be the root cause of Long COVID syndrome
New evidence shows that patients with Long COVID syndrome continue to have higher measures of blood clotting, which may help explain their persistent symptoms, such as reduced physical fitness and fatigue. The study, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in Opens in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
The researchers examined 50 patients with symptoms of Long COVID syndrome to better understand if abnormal blood clotting is involved.
They discovered that clotting markers were significantly elevated in the blood of patients with Long COVID syndrome compared with healthy controls. These clotting markers were higher in patients who required hospitalisation with their initial COVID-19 infection, but they also found that even those who were able to manage their illness at home still had persistently high clotting markers.
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay