Tag Archives: COVID-19 patients

disease, Health

Super-infection cases

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Super-infection cases, in which a huge number of individuals are concurrently contaminated, are already a typical occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The spread of a single super-spread event—a two-day international business conference held in Boston in February 2020—generated more than 90 additional investigations. Control mechanisms are important for super-spreading incidents to continue as they are.

Reference

Superspreading drives the COVID pandemic — and could help to tame it. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00460-x

disease, drugs, medications, Pharmaceuticals

4,400 Modern Doses of Vaccine Not Kept Cool

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4,400 Modern Doses of Vaccine Not Kept Cool Enough Might be Unusable. Maine health officials noticed that during transport, several Moderna vaccine shipments were not kept sufficiently cool. According to the CDC, Moderna’s vaccine vials must stay at freezing temperatures between -25°C and -15°C. Whether the doses of the vaccine would have to be tossed away or even be used is uncertain. The vaccine was shipped from the manufacturer’s processing plant in Massachusetts to 50 locations throughout the state, health officials said. Processes are to guarantee that the doses are held cool, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

Resource
4,400 Moderna Vaccine Doses Not Kept Cold Enough May Be Unusable. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/958539556/4-400-moderna-vaccine-doses-not-kept-cold-enough-may-be-unusable

disease, drugs, Health, medications

The latest Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna

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The latest Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna tend to be exceptionally effective at avoiding severe illness. Scientists are worried that if vaccinated people are silent spreaders of the virus, they could keep it circulating in their populations, putting unvaccinated people in danger. In certain respiratory infections, like the current coronavirus, the nose is the primary access stage. Vaccines are inserted directly into the tissues to activate the immune system to generate antibodies. This seems to be ample security to discourage the individual from being vaccinated from being sick.


Next-generation coronavirus vaccines can trigger immunity in the nose and the rest of the respiratory tract. Mucosal vaccinations are safer than intramuscular procedures to keep respiratory viruses from arising. The lungs are far more open than the nose or mouth to circulating antibodies. Vaccine studies did not produce results about how many patients became afflicted with the infection but showed no effects. The amount of the virus that you replicate in the nose can be decreased if one gets sick, says the immunologist. An informed guide to the global epidemic can be found at com/Heroes.


Coronavirus vaccinations demonstrate robust safety from being ill. Life can return to normal only when civilization as a whole has an inadequate defense against coronavirus. For the time being, even vaccinated citizens would continue to use masks to prevent indoor crowds. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines are given as an injection through the arm, as most traditional vaccines. The injection will not be any different from that one had previously, and there are no significant side effects. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines utilize a genetic molecule to activate the immune response. The enzyme, known as mRNA, is ultimately killed by the body. The mRNA is wrapped in an oily bubble that can fuse into a cell, enabling the molecule to slide in. The cell uses mRNA to produce coronavirus proteins that may activate the immune system. The mRNA will only survive for at most a few days until it is lost.

Reference
Here’s Why Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear a Mask. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/health/covid-vaccine-mask.html

disease, Health

4,000 active cases among inmates and 1,430 more among workers in California

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More than 4,000 active cases among inmates and 1,430 more among workers in California. These are the highest numbers reported since the beginning of the pandemic. California’s cumulative number of prisoner illnesses is now more than 22,300, including 90 deaths. Hospitalizations are also at record high levels, with more than 9,900 patients throughout the state. Increasing figures are coming as local and state governments are also seeking to monitor the spread across California communities. The state governor declared a stringent regional home stay order for ICU patients this week. The state governor declared a stringent regional home stay order for ICU patients this week.
Reference
Covid-19 is raging through overcrowded California prisons. https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-12-05-20-intl/index.html

disease, Health

More than 100,000 Americans are in COVID-19 hospital

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More than 100,000 Americans are in COVID-19 hospital, while the nation has recorded its one-worst daily death toll since the pandemic began.

COVID Tracking Project data show 100,226 people hospitalized on Wednesday with coronavirus disease — a figure that has been steadily rising for weeks. Meanwhile, 3,157 new deaths were recorded on Wednesday, surpassing April 15’s previous peak of 2,607 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The number of hospital beds in COVID-19 patients far outstrips peaks of around 59,000 in mid-April and July. Early last month, the number of hospitalizations again reached that mark and has been increasing ever since.

About 273,000 people have died from COVID-19 since the first cases were identified in January.

Record-breaking numbers news hits the same day. Announced a major step in the development of coronavirus immunizations, formally approving Pfizer and BioNTech’s emergency vaccine.

Reference

U.S. Hits 100,000 COVID-19 Hospitalizations; More Than 3,100 Deaths. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/02/941902471/u-s-hits-100-000-covid-19-hospitalizations

disease, Health

The CDC has updated its guidelines on the spread of COVID-19

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The CDC has updated its guidelines on the spread of COVID-19. The CDC describes near contact as being within six feet of the person infected for 15 minutes or more during a 24-hour span. It is difficult to identify the current guidelines on which the health departments depend to perform touch tracing. The signs of the infection vary from minor symptoms to extreme illness, according to the CDC. It is not clear if the public has undergone proper instruction on proper selection and use of respiratory PPE, such as N95, for close interaction with an infectious person wearing a respiratory mask. Symptoms of the disease include: fever, chills, shortness of breath, trouble breathing, sore throat, and muscle aches, the CDC says. The disease can last 2-14 days after exposure to the virus and can be serious or moderate in some cases, it says. It is not clear if an affected person has signs for more than two days after being exposed to coronavirus, the Agency states.

Reference

CDC revises “close contact” definition. https://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=23565&z=58

disease, drugs, Health, medications

Public health authorities and drug manufacturers need to be open regarding the side effects of coronavirus vaccine

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Public health authorities and drug manufacturers need to be open regarding the side effects of coronavirus vaccines, doctors say. Doctors met with CDC advisers as states plan to administer doses as early as next month. Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines need two doses at different intervals. Participants in the trials registered high fever, body aches, extreme headaches, day-long fatigue after the shots. “We need to make patients aware that this will not be a walk in the park,” says Dr. Sandra Fryhofer. Nurse practitioners recommend that drug manufacturers should use terms such as “response” instead of “adverse reaction” to explain side effects. “If this proves to work, people are going to toughen up,” says the nurse practitioner.

“These are immune responses,” says Stinchfield, a former member of the committee who voted. “If you feel something after vaccination, expect to feel that” Pfizer and its partner BioNTech applied for an emergency license for their coronavirus vac.

Reference

Doctors say CDC should warn people the side effects from Covid vaccine shots won’t be ‘a walk in the park’. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/23/covid-vaccine-cdc-should-warn-people-the-side-effects-from-shots-wont-be-walk-in-the-park-.html

disease, drugs, Health, medications, mental health

Fluvoxamine antidepressant avoids the deterioration of COVID-19 infections

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In a clinical trial performed by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, fluvoxamine was associated with a placebo in 152 adult outpatients afflicted with coronavirus. They are hoping to start a more significant trial in the next few weeks.

After 15 days, none of the 80 subjects who got fluvoxamine were critically ill, although six patients who received the placebo did. Of the six, four were hospitalized for periods ranging from four to 21 days. All of them were on the ventilator for ten days.

Although the sample size was limited, the researchers say the findings are statistically significant and that fluvoxamine merits further study as a COVID-19 therapy. They are hoping to start a more significant trial in the next few weeks.

“Patients who take fluvoxamine did not experience severe respiratory issues or need hospitalization for complications with lung function,” said Eric J. Lenze, MD, of the Washington University School of Medicine. “Most of the investigational therapies for COVID-19 have been focused on very ill patients, but it is often necessary to identify treatments that keep patients from being sick enough to need extra oxygen or to have to go to the hospital. Our analysis shows that fluvoxamine can help fill that niche.”

Reference

Antidepressant may prevent severe COVID-19, U.Va. research finds. https://wtop.com/virginia/2020/11/antidepressant-may-prevent-severe-covid-19-u-va-research-finds/

disease, Health

COVID-19 assaults our immune system

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In an isolated laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, East Harlem, virologist Benjamin never has been able to decipher how the virus that causes COVID-19 assaults our immune system, wreaking havoc like no other virus he has ever examined.

Every cell of our body shares the same DNA and single-strand RNA, which functions like a machine programming the cell to generate proteins, according to New Yorker. SARS-CoV-2 disrupts programming by replacing 60 percent of this software in every cell it infects. Just 1% of the RNA in each cell is replaced by a normal virus.

The novel coronavirus shuts down just one arm of our immune system — the one that alerts other cells to protect themselves from viral spread — while leaving the other arm to run wild. In comparison to other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 does not modulate the second immune response that sends cytokines across the body to summon white blood cells.

Reference
Researchers Discover How COVID-19 Attacks Our Immune …. https://www.newsmax.com/health/headline/immune-system-cytokine-storm-viral-spread/2020/11/03/id/995070/.

disease, Health

It has been more than 300 days since Chinese authorities first told the World Health Organisation

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It has been more than 300 days since Chinese authorities first told the World Health Organisation that Wuhan residents were sick with a mysterious virus. Scientists discovered soon what the virus was (a coronavirus) and what it did (make people ill with a disease called COVID-19), and it spread across the globe like flames.

More than 1 million people have died worldwide, hundreds of thousands get sick every day, and the United States is the world’s most significant disease.

Researchers were still unsure how the virus spread, why people were infectious, or whether one could get it twice when we released our first guide to the coronavirus. These questions may have some residual confusion, but scientists have made some remarkable strides in responses.

Reference
The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 1 million – CNET. https://www.cnet.com/health/global-death-toll-from-covid-19-surpasses-1-million/