Combined vaccine should be ready in time for winter infectious season in 2023, says drug firm’s chief executive
Moderna is aiming to launch a single booster vaccination that will protect against both Covid-19 and flu within two years, its chief executive has said.
Stéphane Bancel said that the combined vaccine – which will protect against Covid-19, influenza and RSV, a common respiratory virus – could be available before the winter infectious season in 2023.
Continue reading...It was October 2020 when I realised I was going to have to ask for help. I’ve always been anxious, but thanks to the pandemic, I developed debilitating health anxiety. A dire winter was coming and any respite we’d had over the summer felt like it was slipping away. I couldn’t get to sleep and when I finally did, I had nightmares. My stomach churned and my hands shook so badly I had to give up caffeine. I developed a chronic reflux cough and, on more than one occasion, got into such an irrational spiral about it being Covid that I had to book a PCR test just to be able to function.
“One of the most diabolical things about this pandemic is the on and on-ness of it all,” says Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why. “Humans can withstand a lot of turmoil and instability if they can recover.” Prior to Covid, Ripley studied people who survived tornadoes and terror attacks, emergencies for which the mental health consequences are much better understood than the long, slow-burn, seemingly endless one we find ourselves living through.
Continue reading...Exclusive: findings highlight importance of short-range Covid transmission
Coronavirus loses 90% of its ability to infect us within 20 minutes of becoming airborne – with most of the loss occurring within the first five minutes, the world’s first simulations of how the virus survives in exhaled air suggest.
The findings re-emphasise the importance of short-range Covid transmission, with physical distancing and mask-wearing likely to be the most effective means of preventing infection. Ventilation, though still worthwhile, is likely to have a lesser impact.
This article was amended on 11 January 2022. In an earlier version, we said Covid loses 90% of ability to infect within five minutes. It is actually within the first 20 minutes – with most of the loss occurring within the first 5 minutes. This has been corrected for clarity.
Analysis: As doctors monitor world’s first human recipient of pig heart, safety and ethical concerns remain
The world’s first transplant of a genetically altered pig heart into an ailing human is a landmark for medical science, but the operation, and the approach more broadly, raise substantial safety and ethical concerns.
Surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center spent eight hours on Friday evening transplanting the heart from the pig into 57-year-old David Bennett, who had been in hospital for more than a month with terminal heart failure.
Continue reading...Analysis: experts warn that viral evolution is not a one-way street and a continuing fall in virulence cannot be taken for granted
The pandemic has been awash with slogans, but in recent weeks, two have been repeated with increasing frequency: “Variants will evolve to be milder” and “Covid will become endemic”. Yet experts warn that neither of these things can be taken for granted.
Those stating that viruses become less deadly over time often cite influenza. Both of the flu viruses responsible for the 1918 Spanish flu and 2009 swine flu pandemics eventually evolved to become less dangerous. However, the 1918 virus is thought to have become more deadly before it became milder. And other viruses, such as Ebola, have become more dangerous over time.
Continue reading...Patient is doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery, doctors say, though it’s too soon to know if it is a success
In a medical first, doctors in Maryland have transplanted a modified pig’s heart into a human patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life.
Doctors at the University of Maryland medical center said Monday that the patient was doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery, though it is too soon to know if the operation has been a success.
Continue reading...Does the advent of machine learning mean the classic methodology of hypothesise, predict and test has had its day?
Isaac Newton apocryphally discovered his second law – the one about gravity – after an apple fell on his head. Much experimentation and data analysis later, he realised there was a fundamental relationship between force, mass and acceleration. He formulated a theory to describe that relationship – one that could be expressed as an equation, F=ma – and used it to predict the behaviour of objects other than apples. His predictions turned out to be right (if not always precise enough for those who came later).
Contrast how science is increasingly done today. Facebook’s machine learning tools predict your preferences better than any psychologist. AlphaFold, a program built by DeepMind, has produced the most accurate predictions yet of protein structures based on the amino acids they contain. Both are completely silent on why they work: why you prefer this or that information; why this sequence generates that structure.
Continue reading...New DNA research by London-based scientists hopes to find cure for rapidly spreading conditions
More and more people around the world are suffering because their immune systems can no longer tell the difference between healthy cells and invading micro-organisms. Disease defences that once protected them are instead attacking their tissue and organs.
Major international research efforts are being made to fight this trend – including an initiative at London’s Francis Crick Institute, where two world experts, James Lee and Carola Vinuesa, have set up separate research groups to help pinpoint the precise causes of autoimmune disease, as these conditions are known.
Continue reading...My lab has found significant microclot formation in long Covid patients. Unfortunately, these are missed in routine blood tests
One of the biggest failures during the Covid-19 pandemic is our slow response in diagnosing and treating long Covid. As many as 100 million people worldwide already suffer from long Covid. That staggering number will eventually be much higher, if we take into account that diagnoses are still inadequate, and that we still do not know what the impact of Omicron and future variants will be.
Patients with long Covid complain of numerous symptoms, the main ones being recurring fatigue and brain fog, muscle weakness, being out of breath and having low oxygen levels, sleep difficulties and anxiety or depression. Some patients are so sick that they cannot work or even walk a few steps. There is possibly also an elevated risk of stroke and heart attacks. One of the biggest sources of concern is that even mild and sometimes asymptomatic initial Covid-19 infection may lead to debilitating, long-term disability.
Continue reading...A new book outlines the mistakes and missteps that made UK pandemic worse
There was a distinctive moment, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, that neatly encapsulated the mistakes and confusion of Britain’s early efforts to tackle the disease, says Mark Woolhouse. At a No 10 briefing in March 2020, cabinet minister Michael Gove warned the virus did not discriminate. “Everyone is at risk,” he announced.
And nothing could be further from the truth, argues Professor Woolhouse, an expert on infectious diseases at Edinburgh University. “I am afraid Gove’s statement was simply not true,” he says. “In fact, this is a very discriminatory virus. Some people are much more at risk from it than others. People over 75 are an astonishing 10,000 times more at risk than those who are under 15.”
Continue reading...Six research groups’ findings all suggest variant multiplies more in throats and causes less serious disease
A growing body of evidence indicates that the Omicron Covid variant is more likely to infect the throat than the lungs, which scientists believe may explain why it appears to be more infectious but less deadly than other versions of the virus. Six studies – four published since Christmas Eve – have found that Omicron does not damage people’s lungs as much as the Delta and other previous variants of Covid. The studies have yet to be peer-reviewed by other scientists.
“The result of all the mutations that make Omicron different from previous variants is that it may have altered its ability to infect different sorts of cells,” said Deenan Pillay, professor of virology at University College London.
Continue reading...Messages may contain unhinged expletives, threatening tropes … or one of my interviews set to music
“You scaremongering ignorant fucking cunt, you and your retarded team made predictions that could have fucked this country for billions of pounds, fucked Christmas for a second time and cost thousands thier [sic] jobs only to have your most pessimistic ballshit [sic] now found to be just that. How fucks like you can sleep at night is beyond me and I hope you are fucking held to account for what you have done and could have done if there weren’t some people in the government with a brain.”
How would you like to get this in your inbox? As a senior scientist advising the government on Covid, I get this sort of email on a fairly regular basis. Indeed, (someone calling himself) Mr Roberts (who sent this) is a regular offender. What particularly upset me about this email was that it wasn’t sent to me, but to a junior member of my team. Awful, isn’t it?
Continue reading...The US has cut the self-isolation period to five days, while in England it is seven with negative tests
The US has announced it is cutting the recommended self-isolation time with Covid to five days. How long are people with Covid infectious for, and why do the rules vary between countries?
What are the rules for self-isolation in the UK?
Continue reading...Analysis: the Tories are arguing against further restrictions – but what do scientists think works best to prevent the spread of Covid?
They are questions that have cast a shadow over the festive season: will new Covid measures be needed, and if so, when and what form will they take?
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said peak admissions could be comparable with or even greater than previous highs without significant behaviour change or further interventions, but many Tory backbenchers have argued against legal restrictions, saying that the public should be trusted to make their own decisions on the risks they wish to take.
Continue reading...German city where early Covid vaccine was developed uses its new-found wealth to slash debt and attract other biotech firms
The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is having an unexpected side-effect on the German municipality where scientists first developed it: for the first time in three decades the city of Mainz expects to become debt-free thanks to the tax revenues generated by the company’s global success.
Mainz’s decision to use its financial windfall to also slash corporate tax rates in the hope of attracting industry, especially biotech companies, however, is drawing criticism from neighbouring cities and economists.
Continue reading...Scientists are often blamed for leading to excessive curbs on society. But they are cautious for a very good reason
The past week has seen tensions rising about scientific modelling during the pandemic. Projections cited by UK and devolved governments as they tightened Covid restrictions have led to strained exchanges. But modelling is essential because it tell us:
• What are the range of possible outcomes based on what we know?
Society can’t just wait for things to happen. We can and do save lives by being prepared for a range of things, only some of which happen. As information increases, the model improves, and the range of outcomes narrows as scenarios are eliminated.
The approval comes as reports of shortages in monoclonal antibody treatment arise and cases spike
People at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from Covid-19 will likely have more treatment options in January.
That’s the forecast in the wake of the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval this week of the first two antiviral pills used to treat Covid-19 and reports of shortages of a monoclonal antibody treatment used against the Omicron variant.
Continue reading...Analysis: smaller proportion of people hospitalised with Covid variant means little when rise in infections is so huge, warn experts
Evidence that infections caused by Omicron may be less severe than other Covid variants is good news but is likely to make little or no difference to the duration of the pandemic, according to experts.
Several pieces of research published this week suggest that people infected with Omicron are much less likely to require hospitalisation.
Continue reading...Scientists warn, however, that lower severity of cases is not fully understood and may not occur elsewhere
South Africa has reported data on Covid cases driven by the Omicron variant that appears to give added impetus to claims the country is experiencing a lower severity of disease.
“In South Africa, this is the epidemiology: Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe,” said Prof Cheryl Cohen of the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), one of the authors of the study.
Continue reading...We’re making progress in the arms race against the virus, but work in the lab must be supported by public health measures
It’s beginning to feel a lot like last Christmas. Case numbers of a new Covid variant are exploding across the UK, and the prime minister is cautioning that restrictions may be called for. But while the threat of Omicron likely surpasses that of previous variants, our tools to track and combat the virus have also advanced since last year.
The world was alerted to Omicron by the Botswanan and South African scientists who first sequenced the novel variant on 24 November, and it was designated as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization two days later. It was immediately obvious to them that they had something alarming on their hands when they saw the large number of mutations in the Omicron genome.
Dr Manon Ragonnet-Cronin is an MRC Fellow at Imperial College London and a member of the Imperial College Covid-19 response team
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