Featured Headlines
Texas and Mississippi to lift mask mandates and roll back Covid restrictions – NBC News
Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas would be back open “100 percent” by March 10, and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said his state’s mask mandate would end Wednesday. The governors of Texas and Mississippi both announced on Tuesday they would be lifting their states’ mask mandates and rolling back many of their Covid-19 health mandates, just one day after the CDC warned against complacency in the face of emerging coronavirus variants.
The Mexican state of Quintana Roo is softening its coronavirus restrictions following a decrease in confirmed covid-19 cases in the area, officials announced Thursday on Twitter.
One Medical’s Coronavirus Vaccine Practices Spark Congressional Investigation – NPR
The consequences are deepening for concierge health care provider One Medical following an NPR investigation that found the company administered COVID-19 vaccinations to those with connections to leadership, as well as ineligible patients.
We may not have to wear masks on planes forever. But should we? – Washington Post
Experts say that even after the pandemic is over, masking up on a plane is a smart idea — and for some, it should be common practice
Superspreading drives the COVID pandemic — and could help to tame it – Nature
On 5 December last year — the eve of traditional Christmas gift-giving in Belgium — residents of the Hemelrijck care home near Antwerp were treated to a visit by Sinterklaas, or Santa. But the festive event, intended to spread cheer, turned tragic. Forty staff members and more than 100 residents — at least 26 of whom have since died — were unintentionally infected with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 by the costumed volunteer, who also subsequently tested positive.
New York Covid-19 Variant Expands Reach in U.S. With 735 Cases – Bloomberg
About 735 cases of a coronavirus variant that emerged in New York City in November have now been identified in the U.S., including 585 in the last two weeks, a federal health official said.
Household Air Contamination: When SARS-CoV-2 Makes Itself at Home – NEJM
Exposure to a household contact with COVID-19 is a significant risk factor for acquiring SARS-CoV-2. Given the concern that such transmission is mediated by aerosolized virus, investigators at a U.S. academic medical center assessed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in air samples from 15 hospital inpatient rooms (14 in COVID units) compared with 5 households having at least one member with symptomatic COVID-19. All hospital rooms had ≥6 air changes hourly, and 1000 to 4000 L of air was sampled 0.3 to 1.8 m from the patient’s head. In households, 1000 to 2000 L of air was sampled whether or not the patient was present.
Vaccine Headlines
Johnson & Johnson’s CEO on the Newest Vaccine – Bloomberg
Now that Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine has been cleared by regulators, the company needs to ramp up doses fast. J and J is looking for manufacturing partnerships to increase supply. Riley Griffin spoke to the company’s chief executive officer, Alex Gorsky about his plan to immunize 20 million Americans by the end of the month, and 100 million by the end of June.
Whole towns are refusing Covid-19 vaccines in Mexico – CNN
For Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, vaccinating all Mexicans is a matter of responsible national health policy as well as social justice.
According to the new data released by Public Health England (PHE) in the United Kingdom, both the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections among adults aged 70 years and older.
With COVID vaccine maker pact, Biden vows wide vaccine access by May – CIDRAP
Today President Joe Biden announced the partnership of two pharmaceutical giants—Johnson & Johnson and Merck—who will work together to increase the supply of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, which received emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this past weekend.
Pfizer, AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines may offer high efficacy in elderly – CIDRAP
Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduce severe illness, hospitalization, and death in older adults and offer protection against the B117 variant, suggests a real-world, observational, non–peer-reviewed study from the United Kingdom.
Clinical Considerations
NIH effort seeks to understand MIS-C, range of SARS-CoV-2 effects on children – NIH
The National Institutes of Health has launched a new research effort to understand how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, affects children, who account for roughly 13%(link is external) of the total cases of COVID-19 in the United States. The effort is called the Collaboration to Assess Risk and Identify Long-term Outcomes for Children with COVID (CARING for Children with COVID). This research program is developing and funding studies to investigate why some children are at greater risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection than others, why symptoms vary among children who are infected, and how to identify children at risk for severe illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Research on the latter question is focused particularly on multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a life-threatening condition marked by severe inflammation of one or more parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs.
Bamlanivimab and etesevimab are neutralizing monoclonal antibodies that bind to different but overlapping epitopes in the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The bamlanivimab plus etesevimab combination blocks SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells and is being evaluated for the treatment of COVID-19.
Official Reporting for March 3, 2021
World Health Organization
Weekly Epi Update March 1, 2020
Confirmed Cases: 113 820 168
Deaths: 2 527 891
Johns Hopkins
Confirmed Cases: 114,417,054
Deaths: 2,537,563
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Total cases: 28,405,925 (+50,505 New Cases)
Total deaths: 511,839 (+1,062 New Deaths)
Science and Tech
What brains could teach scientists about the lasting effects of Covid-19 – NBC News
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health hope to shed light on why some people can’t seem to recover.
Cytokine Effects Set SARS-CoV-2 Apart From Other Respiratory Viruses – Technology Networks
Respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (causing COVID-19) can often catalyse an overactive immune response that leads to a life-threatening cycle, known as a cytokine storm. Analysing cytokine responses from patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and similar common respiratory viruses has unearthed glaringly important differences in how SARS-CoV-2 affects cytokines compared to other common respiratory viruses.
The search for animals harbouring coronavirus — and why it matters – Nature
Scientists are monitoring pets, livestock and wildlife to work out where SARS-CoV-2 could hide, and whether it could resurge.
First Test for All Known Human Coronaviruses, Including New COVID-19 Mutations – Sci Tech Daily
Scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and SunYat-Sen University in China have set the stage for the development of highly sensitive antibody tests for infection with all known human coronaviruses, including new variants of SARS-CoV-2. These tests should also allow differentiation of immune responses due to infection and vaccination. The research is published in Communications Biology, a Nature journal.
Psychological and Sociological Impact
What Will Offices, Homes Look Like Post-Pandemic? – NBC
To understand how the coronavirus is redefining modern-day architecture, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit spoke with top architects whose clients are some of the most recognizable companies in the world including Google, Apple, Nike, Gucci, and more.
Published Research
SARS-CoV-2 Causes a Different Cytokine Response Compared to Other Cytokine Storm-Causing Respiratory Viruses in Severely Ill Patients – Frontiers in Immunology
Comparison of Respiratory Specimens for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 – Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science
Immunoreactive peptide maps of SARS-CoV-2 – Nature
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
None today
Coping in 2020 (and probably most of 2021)
It’s the one year anniversary of “15 days to crush the curve.”
