The Worst of the Omicron Wave Could Still Be Coming – The Atlantic
A long descent from a peak in cases could exact a larger toll than even Omicron’s blistering ascent. Just weeks into its staggering ascent in the United States, Omicron appears to maybe, maybe, be taking its leave of a few big urban centers up and down the East Coast. Documented coronavirus infections seem to be leveling off, even falling, in cities such as Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.—a possible preview of what the country’s been waiting on tenterhooks for: the beginning of the end of the Omicron wave.
COVID-19: endemic doesn’t mean harmless – Nature
The word ‘endemic’ has become one of the most misused of the pandemic. And many of the errant assumptions made encourage a misplaced complacency. It doesn’t mean that COVID-19 will come to a natural end. To an epidemiologist, an endemic infection is one in which overall rates are static — not rising, not falling. More precisely, it means that the proportion of people who can get sick balances out the ‘basic reproduction number’ of the virus, the number of individuals that an infected individual would infect, assuming a population in which everyone could get sick. Yes, common colds are endemic. So are Lassa fever, malaria and polio. So was smallpox, until vaccines stamped it out.
Omicron’s Radical Evolution – NYT
Thirteen of Omicron’s mutations should have hurt the variant’s chances of survival. Instead, they worked together to make it thrive. As nurses and doctors struggle with a record-breaking wave of Omicron cases, evolutionary biologists are engaged in a struggle of their own: figuring out how this world-dominating variant came to be.
COVID-19 ebbs, but US hospital cases, deaths stay high – CIDRAP
Across the country new daily case counts for COVID-19 are declining, but cities and states are still struggling with high demands for hospital services, and Los Angeles late last week reported its most deaths in a single day since Mar 10, 2021.
Japan’s So Overloaded by Omicron It’s Starting to Confirm Cases Without Testing – Bloomberg
A Covid test may not be needed to be counted as infected in Japan, as an omicron surge quickly overtakes the country’s health-care resources and forces the government to find workarounds.
The Omicron COVID-19 variant can survive longer than earlier strains of the virus on plastic surfaces and human skin, new research by Japanese scientists has found. The study by a team from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, which is not yet peer reviewed, found that the variants survived much longer than the original strain following a series of laboratory tests.
Free N95 masks now available at some U.S. pharmacies; wider rollout expected soon – Washington Post
Free N95 masks are now available at some U.S. stores as part of the White House’s plan to hand out 400 million of them from the Strategic National Stockpile.
A coronavirus outbreak is reported aboard an aid ship bound for Tonga – New York Times
A coronavirus outbreak aboard an Australian aid ship headed for Tonga, which was devastated by a volcanic eruption and a tsunami almost two weeks ago, has prompted concerns about the spread of the virus to the remote Pacific nation, which reported its first and only case in October.
I Had Breakthrough Covid. Can I Start Living Like It’s 2019? – NYT
As Omicron cases skyrocket, more vaccinated people may get “hybrid” immunity after a breakthrough infection. But experts still encourage precautions. Like many New Yorkers, Domenica D’Ottavio contracted Covid-19 over the Christmas holidays. Her head clogged with congestion, her body ached; she coughed and spiked a fever.
Will Omicron Leave Most of Us Immune? – The Atlantic
The variant is spreading widely, but won’t necessarily give us strong protection from new infections. Even before Omicron hit the United States in full force, most of our bodies had already wised up to SARS-CoV-2’s insidious spike—through infection, injection, or both. By the end of October 2021, some 86.2 percent of American immune systems may have glimpsed the virus’s most infamous protein, according to one estimate; now, as Omicron adds roughly 800,000 known cases to the national roster each day, the cohort of spike-zero Americans, the truly immunologically naive, is shrinking fast. Virginia Pitzer, an epidemiologist at Yale’s School of Public Health and one of the scientists who arrived at the 86.2 percent estimate, has a guess for what fraction of the U.S. population will have had some experience with the spike protein when the Omicron wave subsides: 90 to 95 percent.
Omicron Is a Warning. Will We Listen? – PedPageToday
The narrative around Omicron is full of resignation. Be cautious, but don’t panic. Get vaccinated, test often, reschedule what you’re willing to, but don’t aim for zero risk. That resignation carries into how we discuss life after Omicron. COVID-19 could become endemic but mild. We might need vaccinations periodically. New variants will come, but life will go on.
Vaccine Headlines
Pfizer and BioNTech today announced the initiation of a clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of an Omicron-based vaccine candidate in healthy adults 18 through 55 years of age. The study will have three cohorts examining different regimens of the current Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine or an Omicron-based vaccine. The study will draw upon some participants from the companies’ Phase 3 COVID-19 booster study and is part of their ongoing efforts to address Omicron and determine the potential need for variant-based vaccines.
Israeli expert panel advises 4th vaccine dose for adults – AP
An expert panel on Tuesday advised the Israeli government to begin offering a fourth vaccine dose to everyone over the age of 18, citing research showing it helps prevent COVID-19 infection and severe illness.
Clinical Considerations
A study demonstrated that participants hospitalized with COVID-19 experiencing neurological complications had higher levels of blood proteins or biomarkers associated with neurological damage than people with Alzheimer’s. Increased biomarker levels correlated with COVID-19 severity, mortality risk, and the presence of neurological disorder. Long-term follow-up is necessary to determine if biomarker elevation is associated with an increased risk of developing subsequent neurodegenerative disorders.
Does Omicron Pose as Much of a Blood Clot Threat? – MedPageToday
The first wave of the pandemic brought a sharp, unexpected rise in fatal blood clot complications in COVID-19 patients, such as pulmonary embolism, breakthrough clots clogging dialysis lines, and even emergent strokes in the young and healthy.
Unlocking the Key to COVID-19 and the Brain – MedPageToday
How can a respiratory pathogen like SARS-CoV-2 cause the nervous system to go haywire? That’s a question yet to be answered, observed Serena Spudich, MD, MA, of Yale University, and Avindra Nath, MD, of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,
Official Reporting for January 25, 2022
World Health Organization
Weekly Epi Update January 25th (latest release)
New Cases: 2,158,785
Confirmed Cases: 352,796,704
Deaths: 5,600,434
Johns Hopkins
Confirmed Cases: 357,200,094
Deaths: 5,610,990
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Total cases: 70,641,725 (+768,190 New Cases)
Total deaths: 864,203 (+545 New Deaths)
Science and Tech
Alpha’s mutations provide insight into Omicron – MedNewsToday
Scientists do not yet fully understand how individual mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants influence contagiousness or disease severity.
To enter a human cell, the SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein must be activated. This happens following cleavage by an enzyme called furin.
Scientists have theorized that mutations at the furin cleavage site might play an important role in a variant’s ability to infect or replicate in human cells.
Contrary to expectations, the authors of a new study found that this mutation did not influence the ability of the virus to enter or spread between cells.
Some variants of concern, such as Delta and Omicron, also have mutations at the same furin cleavage site, and this study may help understand the changes in their contagiousness and ability to produce disease.
FDA Halts Use of Most Monoclonal Antibodies for COVID Treatment – MedPageToday
The monoclonal antibody combinations bamlanivimab/etesevimab and casirivimab/imdevimab (REGEN-COV) should only be used for COVID-19 patients exposed to variants other than Omicron, the FDA said on Monday.
Thousands needed to try a new Covid antiviral treatment – BBC
The study is open to those who test positive for Covid and had symptoms develop in the previous five days. Volunteers will be given pills to take at home.
The study will help decide how antiviral drugs will be used, Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said.
Psychological and Sociological Impact
Association of Major Depressive Symptoms With Endorsement of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Among US Adults – JAMA
COVID-19 Forever Cancels the Old Normal – Infection Control Today
The concept that we must live with COVID-19 is slowly becoming accepted, even most coronavirus deniers have come to realize that herd immunity is not possible. Unfortunately, this pandemic has become a political issue with one side advocating that COVID-19 is a mild illness and questioning the need for control measures, and the other side trying to vaccinate their way out of the pandemic and lessening the need for other control measures. What is not accepted by either side, is that living with COVID-19 means not going back to normal.
Published Research
Comparison of serum neurodegenerative biomarkers among hospitalized COVID-19 patients versus non-COVID subjects with normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, or Alzheimer’s dementia – Alzheimers Journal
Nervous system consequences of COVID-19 – Science
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
As Robert Malone stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before thousands of anti-vaccine and anti-mandate demonstrators Sunday, the medical doctor and infectious-disease researcher repeated the falsehoods that have garnered him legions of followers.
Eric Clapton Claims People Who Receive COVID-19 Vaccines Are Under ‘Mass Hypnosis’ – NYT
Eric Clapton is doubling down on his criticisms of COVID-19 safety protocols, arguing that those who are getting vaccinated are victims of “subliminal advertising” by pharmaceutical companies on social media.
Coping with COVID
Although Wuhan is a province, still an excellent reply to the tweet from Delta Airlines.
