Long COVID patients exhibit swelling in an area of the brain linked to memory problems, poor concentration and delayed responses during conversations, researchers have found.…
Comments closedTag: SARS-CoV-2
Topic: SaskatchewanView all posts for the topic: Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan government working on COVID vaccination plan after feds discontinue supply
With province[s] now responsible for purchasing COVID-19 vaccines, the Government of Saskatchewan says it’s figuring out what the coming flu season response will be.
The federal government announced in early January that it would stop funding COVID-19 vaccines this year, with provinces and territories now responsible for buying, determining the timing and rollout of the vaccinations.
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
Nasal COVID-19 vaccine based on WashU technology to enter U.S. clinical trials
A nasal vaccine for COVID-19 – based on technology developed at Washington University in St. Louis – is poised to enter a phase 1 clinical trial in the U.S. after an investigational new drug application from Ocugen, Inc. was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ocugen, a U.S.-based biotechnology company, licensed the innovative technology from WashU in 2022.
The trial will be sponsored and conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The FDA’s action is a critical first step toward initiation of the phase 1 trial, planned for this spring.
While cases of COVID-19 have fallen dramatically since the early years of the pandemic, the virus continues to circulate and still causes significant illnesses and deaths. The nasal vaccine technology is designed to induce strong immunity in the nose and upper respiratory tract, right where the virus enters the body, thereby potentially stopping transmission of the virus in addition to reducing serious illness and death. Most COVID-19 vaccines are injected into the arm or leg, and while they are effective at reducing illness and death, they do not halt transmission. The new trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine administered via two routes: inhaled into the lungs and sprayed into the nose.
Comments closedIn early February 2020, China locked down more than 50 million people, hoping to hinder the spread of a new coronavirus. No one knew at the time exactly how it was spreading, but Lidia Morawska, an expert on air quality at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, did not like the clues she managed to find.
It looked to her as if the coronavirus was spreading through the air, ferried by wafting droplets exhaled by the infected. If that were true, then standard measures such as disinfecting surfaces and staying a few feet away from people with symptoms would not be enough to avoid infection.
Dr. Morawska and her colleague, Junji Cao at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, drafted a dire warning. Ignoring the airborne spread of the virus, they wrote, would lead to many more infections. But when the scientists sent their commentary to medical journals, they were rejected over and over again.
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
A Canadian Province Released a COVID Report Full of Pseudoscience. Who Wrote It, and Why?
Last week the province of Alberta published a report on its pandemic-response calling for COVID vaccines to be restricted to “high-risk groups” and to stop “their use in healthy children and teenagers.” A mix of vaccine skeptics, fringe academics, and a Trump-appointee were behind it.
The report also recommends regulators, namely the province’s medical licensing body, be stripped of powers to discipline doctors who promote risky and ineffective off-label treatments.
The report has garnered nationwide criticism from the scientific and medical communities, with dozens of experts calling on the government to officially dismiss the report in an open letter. Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said the report was “an unfortunate use of public dollars” that funneled CAD$2,000,000 into furthering misinformation. She said it will cause harm globally, as it will be referenced in jurisdictions outside of Canada.
Comments closedTopic: Trump regimeView all posts for the topic: Trump regime
RFK Jr. kept asking to see the science that vaccines were safe. After he saw it, he dismissed it
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who hopes to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary repeatedly asked to see “data” or “science” showing vaccines are safe – but when an influential Republican senator showed him evidence, he dismissed it.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent two days this week insisting to senators that he’s not anti-vaccine. He said that he instead supports vaccinations and will follow the science in overseeing the $1.7 trillion Department of Health and Human Services, which, among other duties, oversees vaccine research, approval and recommendations.
But Kennedy repeatedly refused to acknowledge scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism and that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, and he falsely asserted the government has no good vaccine safety monitoring. While appearing to ignore mainstream science, he cited flawed or tangential research to make his points, such as suggesting Black people may need different vaccines than whites.
Comments closedTopic: researchView all posts for the topic: research
COVID-19 linked to increase in biomarkers for abnormal brain proteins
Researchers have uncovered a link between COVID-19 and blood markers linked to faulty proteins in the brain.
In an analysis led by researchers at Imperial College London and the UK Dementia Research Institute, scientists found that people who had previously had COVID-19 were more likely to have increased levels of biomarkers linked to faulty amyloid proteins – a known hallmark for Alzheimer’s disease.
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
‘Bad science’: Academics tear apart Alberta’s $2-million report on COVID
False narratives in a new $2-million report on COVID 19 in Alberta send Albertans the wrong signals, said a former chief medical officer of health for the province.
An adjunct professor at the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health, Dr. James Talbot said the 269-page report released late last Friday cherry-picks information and includes unproven ideas, including that the vaccine is ineffective and potentially harmful.
“We’ve given literally billions of doses of this vaccine around the world with the best surveillance we’ve ever had. This is one of the safest, most effective vaccines that we’ve ever had,” he said.
Comments closedTopic: SaskatchewanView all posts for the topic: Saskatchewan
VIDO funded $24M to help develop ‘holy grail’ coronavirus vaccine
The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan has been awarded a $24 million grant to help develop a vaccine to protect against wide-ranging strains of coronaviruses.
VIDO’s funding flows from Norwegian-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) into its ongoing development of its pan-sarbecovirus vaccine.
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
Alberta doctors push back on provincial COVID-19 task force report
Comments closedI think it was a waste of time. It was a waste of money. And under no circumstances should the recommendations be implemented until there’s been a full and expert public discussion of the report.
Topic: labour rightsView all posts for the topic: labour rights
This immunocompromised public servant says RTO could put their life at risk
Public Service Confidential is a workplace advice column for federal public servants. The following question has been edited for clarity and length.
I am an immunocompromised federal public servant with multiple chronic illnesses. I still work from home, but HR wants me back in the office three days a week the moment they can give me a private office beside the bathroom. My doctor wrote a letter to counter the accommodation, saying it’s not appropriate and even less beside a bathroom with the shared environment, and it could put my life at risk of getting sick with complications. So I am fighting to keep my full-time telework agreement.
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
Alberta task force recommends halt of COVID-19 vaccines in new report
An Alberta government task force has recommended that the use of COVID-19 vaccines be halted unless more information is provided about risk, in a report rife with suggestions that run counter to mainstream scientific consensus.
The $2-million task force’s final report, released Friday, touched on several points common with disinformation campaigns such as the effectiveness of public health restrictions and masking, while also recommending some government authority over media.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Revolutionary AI Blood Test Detects Long COVID in Children With 93% Accuracy
Researchers have discovered a molecular signature of Long Covid in children, detectable through a blood test and diagnosable with 93% accuracy using AI.
This breakthrough signifies a major advancement in pediatric healthcare, offering hope for early detection and tailored treatments.
Comments closedTopic: researchView all posts for the topic: research
Japanese researchers develop peptide preventing COVID-19 infections
Researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo and Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University said that they have developed a peptide that can bind to the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to prevent COVID-19 infections.
The peptide, which is a short chain of amino acids, has shown effectiveness in experiments involving various coronavirus strains attempting to infect human cell lines and hamsters.
Researchers hope to conduct a physician-led clinical trial for possible preventive and therapeutic treatment.
Comments closedTopic: SaskatchewanView all posts for the topic: Saskatchewan
Sask. has enough COVID-19 vaccines for spring, won’t confirm whether it plans to buy more
Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health has enough COVID-19 vaccine doses for the province’s high-risk population this spring, but would not confirm whether it plans to purchase more doses in the future.
The province has more than 100,000 doses, all of which were provided through the federal government’s procurement process.
Ottawa has been paying for the shots and distributing them across the country since they became available. Earlier this month, the Public Health Agency of Canada quietly announced that practice would come to an end.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Patients who have had multiple COVID infections appear prone to contracting long COVID
A new study that identified 475 patients with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), also known as long COVID, revealed that nearly 85% (403) of these patients had multiple COVID-19 infections over the course of a four-year period (March 2020 to February 2024). Additionally, vaccination independently reduced the risk of long COVID in patients who had received the vaccination prior to contracting the infection.
Comments closedTopic: ME/CFSView all posts for the topic: ME/CFS
1 in 20 COVID survivors may have condition characterized by extreme fatigue
New results from the National Institutes of Health’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER)-Adult Initiative suggest that 4.5% of COVID-19 survivors have myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), compared with less than 1% of their uninfected counterparts.
ME/CFS, which can be triggered by viral and non-viral infection, causes severe fatigue for at least 6 months and may entail impaired memory, brain fog, dizziness, and muscle or joint pain. Physical or mental activity exacerbates symptoms, which aren’t fully relieved by rest.
RECOVER-Adult is a longitudinal observational study conducted at 83 sites in 33 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC, to research post-COVID conditions such as ME/CFS and long COVID.
Comments closedTopic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta
Alberta government weighs future of COVID-19 vaccination as federal program winds down
No answer on whether COVID shots will continue to be free in Alberta once change takes effect
The future of Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccination program is unclear with federal funding set to end this summer.
Ottawa has been paying for the shots and distributing them across the country since they became available.
But the Public Health Agency of Canada quietly announced, last week, the provinces and territories will take over purchasing their own supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
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