Dr. Boarhead’s Summary of Global Updates on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus: 28 February 2021
1.
Lancet
:
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 1/2 clinical trial of CoronaVac in healthy adults aged 60 years and older, all adverse reactions were mild or moderate in severity, and injection site pain (9%) was the most frequently reported event.
<3 Feb.>
[key info]
CoronaVac is safe for the elderly.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30987-7/fulltext
2.
Scientist
:
A new SARS-CoV-2 variant, B.1.525 was identified in the UK that could allow it to dodge the immune system. B.1.525 sports a handful of mutations, including one on the spike protein called E484K, and has similarities to the highly transmissible VOC-202012/01 that also emerged in the UK. <
16 Feb.>
[key info]
Another potentially immunity-evading variant has been detected.
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/another-potentially-immunity-evading-sars-cov-2-variant-detected-68456
3.
Science
:
Researchers have designed lipopeptide fusion inhibitors that block membrane fusion between the viral and host cell membranes, which is the critical first step of infection. It was found that daily intranasal administration to ferrets completely prevented SARS-CoV-2 direct-contact transmission during 24-hour co-housing with infected animals, while the infection rate was 100% among untreated animals.
<17 Feb.>
[key info]
Intranasal fusion inhibitory lipopeptide prevents direct-contact SARS-CoV-2 transmission in ferrets.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/02/16/science.abf4896
4.
Lancet
:
The Israeli government approved the BNT162b2 vaccine and initiated a national immunization campaign prioritizing healthcare workers (HCWs). Of the 170 HCWs who became infected, 89 (52%) were unvaccinated, 78 (46%) tested positive after the first dose, and 3 (2%) tested positive after the second dose.
<18 Feb.>
[key info]
Two doses of BNT162b2 prove high efficacy.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00448-7/fulltext
5.
New England Journal of Medicine
:
As there were more COVID-19 shots in some US healthcare organizations than high-risk employees to be vaccinated, some organizations chose to vaccinate low-risk employees, which might violate the duty to promote public health and contributed to the narrative that powerful people in the healthcare system were willing to serve their own interests ahead of society’s.
<19 Feb.>
[key info]
The US healthcare system is criticized for inequal distribution of vaccines.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMpv2101203?query=featured_coronavirus
6.
Nature
:
Preliminary analyses suggest that at least some vaccines are likely to have a transmission-blocking effect. But confirming that effect–and how strong it will be–is tricky because a drop in infections in a given region might be explained by other factors, and the virus can spread from asymptomatic carriers, which makes it hard to detect those infections.
<19 Feb.>
[key info]
The effect of vaccines in preventing viral spread is difficult to measure.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00450-z
7. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health:
Preliminary findings suggest that VOC-202012/01 might be more transmissible because it spends more time inside its host than earlier variants do. In people infected with VOC-202012/01, infections lasted an average of 13.3 days, compared with 8.2 days in people with other variants. There was little difference in the peak concentrations of the virus between the two groups.
<19 Feb.>
[key info]
Longer infections could fuel the variant’s quick spread.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37366884
8. US FDA:
Guidance for medical product developers, specifically covering vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics products, was issued to address the emergence and potential future emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2. It is said that modified COVID-19 vaccines against new, emerging variants may be authorized without the need for lengthy clinical trials.
<22 Feb.>
[key info]
COVID-19 vaccines that target new variants do not need large clinical trials to win approval.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-issues-policies-guide-medical-product-developers-addressing-virus
9.
Journal of the American Medical Association
:
Of 1,116 patients (median age 9.7 years) in a case series, 539 were diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and 577 with COVID-19. Compared with patients with COVID-19, those with MIS-C were more likely to be 6 to 12 years old, non-Hispanic Black, and with severe cardiovascular or mucocutaneous involvement and more extreme inflammation.
<24 Feb.>
[key info]
For children aged 6 to 12, COVID-19 causes less severe inflammation than MIS-C.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777026
This is issue three,
edited on the basis of information from the official websites including but not limited to those of
The World Health Organization,
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control,
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States of America, &
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy of the University of Minnesota
and from the forums of FluTrackers.com.
This issue is edited by Alex Sun, Dorothy Fang, Dora Zhang, Moyan Lu, and
Fred Wong,
under the supervision of Dr. Jason Chu and Conch Zhang.
2020 © The Chung Kwong Wui
