Category: Vaccine Breakthrough
WHO: BA.5 now dominant globally
As of epidemiological week 24, BA.5 represents 43% of global sequences at Gisaid, BA.2 represents 25%, BA.4 represents 12%, and BA.2.12.1 represents 11%.… ...More...
Preprint: BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5 substantially escape neutralizing antibodies
These data show that the BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5 subvariants substantially escape neutralizing antibodies induced by both vaccination and infection.… ...More...
France: BA.5 at 41% of sequences in week 24, 2022
“Progressive replacement of BA.2 by BA.5 with a strong increase in detection (41%), increased presence of the mutation at position L452 in screening (64% in week 24 vs 47% in week 23), linked to the increase of certain Omicron sub-lineages including BA.4 and BA.5.”… ...More...
UK ONS: Large increase in re-infections since Omicron
ONS: “There has been a large increase in the rates for all re-infections and re-infections with a high viral load since the Omicron variants became most common.”… ...More...
UK: Vaccine derived polio outbreak in London *1 update*
The Guardian newspaper is reporting the discovery of vaccine derived Polio in wastewater from London today:
“UK Public health officials have declared a national incident after routine surveillance of wastewater in north and east London found evidence of community transmission of poliovirus for the first time.… ...More...
Portugal: 20% of all Covid-19 pandemic infections have occurred since BA.5 was first reported
The almost 990,000 confirmed cases in April and May 2022 represent 21% of infections since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the 1,455 deaths constitute about 6% of total deaths.… ...More...
Denmark: BA.5 up 135% in a month
The latest weekly epidemiological file for Denmark has just been published.… ...More...
Long Covid risk falls only slightly after vaccination
“Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 lowers the risk of long COVID after infection by only about 15%”
Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 lowers the risk of long COVID after infection by only about 15%, according to a study of more than 13 million people1.… ...More...
France: Nearly one million Covid reinfections in a year
961,550 possible cases of Covid reinfection were identified in France between March 2, 2021 and April 24, 2022, of which 96.7% were since December 6, 2021.… ...More...
Preprint: Rates of COVID-19 among unvaccinated adults with prior infection
Prior COVID-19 (in the unvaccinated) was associated with protection of 85% against any recurrent COVID-19, 88% against hospitalization for COVID-19, and 83% against COVID-19 not requiring hospitalization.… ...More...
Spain: Fully boosted healthcare worker reinfected with SARs-CoV-2 after just 20 days
A fully boosted 31-year-old Spanish woman has contracted two different SARS-CoV-2 variants within three weeks.… ...More...
Thailand: Record deaths for the Omicron phase of pandemic
In Thailand, despite a levelling off of daily Covid-19 cases, new fatalities rose to 128, a record during the Omicron phase of the pandemic. … ...More...
Research: 90% of SARS-CoV-2 viral transmission is cell-to-cell
“The results indicated that around 90 percent of viral transmission was cell-to-cell, possibly via fusion between neighboring infected and uninfected cells, Liu says.… ...More...
EMA: “Too early to consider using a fourth dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines”
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and EMA’s COVID-19 task force (ETF) have concluded that it is too early to consider using a fourth dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax) in the general population.… ...More...