Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Maladict]

Hungary reported over 300 deaths for yesterday alone, but because the number of first round vaccinations have reached Orban's target number of 2.5 million (it matches the number of old people - mind you, it doesn't mean all old people are vaccinated, it is just a matching number), they are starting to ease out of lockdown today. Madness.

The US has opened vaccinations to all adults from 18 April.

One thing I find slightly odd about this is they have a lower number of doses administered per head than the UK where we're mopping up the priority groups and then moving onto the under-50s. It's not clear to me if the US is just taking a far less regimented approach than the UK, or if take-up is just significantly lower? I get that there's more supply security so you can just roll it out.

From what I'm hearing from the in-laws it's basically a free for all in the US. You just randomly call vaccination locations and hope they happen to have an opening. Some even tried out of state, very Republican areas, and it worked like a charm 

[Maladict]

Just like the flu, then.

A third of Covid-19 survivors suffer 'brain disease,' study shows

(CNN)As many as one in three people infected with Covid-19 have longer term mental health or neurological symptoms, researchers reported Tuesday.
They found 34% of Covid-19 survivors received a diagnosis for a neurological or psychological condition within six months of their infection, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.
The most common diagnosis was anxiety, found in 17% of those treated for Covid-19, followed by mood disorders, found in 14% of patients.

And while the neurological effects are more severe in hospitalized patients, they are still common in those who were only treated in an outpatient setting, the researchers note.

"That rate increased progressively as the severity of the Covid-19 illness increased. If we look at patients who were hospitalized that rate increased to 39%," said Maxime Taquet, an academic clinical fellow in psychiatry at the University of Oxford, and a co-author of the new study.
The results help light the way for how the healthcare system ought to continue helping Covid-19 survivors, the researchers said.
"Our results indicate that brain diseases and psychiatric disorders are more common after Covid-19 than after flu or other respiratory infections, even when patients are matched for other risk factors. We now need to see what happens beyond six months," Taquet added.
Covid-19 as a 'brain disease'
It's the largest study of its kind yet and involved the electronic health records of more than 236,000 Covid-19 patients, mostly in the US. The researchers compared their records with those who experienced other respiratory tract infections during the same time frame.
They observed that those with Covid-19 had a 44% increased risk for neurological and psychiatric illness compared to people recvering from flu. And they were 16% more likely to experience those effects compared with people with other respiratory tract infections.
About one in 50 Covid-19 patients had an ischemic stroke, which is a blood clot that affects the brain.

However, Covid-19 didn't necessarily increase the risk for the full spectrum of neurological illness.
"Two important negative findings were related to parkinsonism and Guillain-Barré syndrome," Taquet said. "Both of those conditions are neurological conditions that we know are sometimes associated with viral infection. We did not find that they were more more common after Covid-19 and after the other respiratory tract infections that we looked at."
The study was important, in part, because of the sheer number of patient records the researchers were able to analyze, according to Dr. Musa Sami, a clinical associate professor in psychiatry at the University of Nottingham.
"This is a robust piece of work in a large cohort demonstrating the association between Covid-19 and psychiatric and neurological complications," he said in a statement. "This is a very important topic as there has been considerable consternation regarding Covid-19 as a 'brain disease.'"

Sami, who was not associated with the study, highlighted the need for further investigation into how, exactly, Covid-19 affects the brain and nervous system. "Psychological stress, longer stays in hospital, and characteristics of the illness itself may play a part," he said.
One clue: psychological symptoms are more common than severe neurological complications, according to Masud Husain, a professor of neurology and cognitive science at the University of Oxford, and a co-author of the study.
"It's really the people with very severe illness who are at higher risk of developing the neurological complications, unlike what we see with the mental health complications, which is much more across the board with severity," he said.
Other, smaller studies have pointed to the result. One study in February followed 381 patients treated for Covid-19 at a hospital in Rome, Italy and found that 30% of them experienced post-traumatic stress disorder after recovery.

A December study in the journal Neurology: Clinical Practice showed that Covid-19 could cause seizures and movement disorders, even in some moderate cases.

Covid-19's longer term burden on the health system
One limitation of the Lancet Psychiatry study is that it uses "routine healthcare data," rather than research data, according to Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, and the study's lead author.
That could mean that diagnoses are missing, they haven't been fully investigated, or that they are incorrect.
And just having been diagnosed might make a difference.
"Patients that had Covid-1919 might be more likely to have a neurological and psychiatric diagnosis, simply because they received more follow up, more medical attention, compared to patients with the respiratory tract infections. That might account for some of the differences that we've observed in the rates," Taquet told a news briefing.

But still, the study provides a sweeping view of the long term burden the pandemic will have on those it struck.
"Although the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect across the whole population may be substantial for health and social care systems due to the scale of the pandemic and that many of these conditions are chronic," Harrison said. "As a result, health care systems need to be resourced to deal with the anticipated need, both within primary and secondary care services."

Study here:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00084-5/fulltext

[Sheilbh]

From what I'm hearing from the in-laws it's basically a free for all in the US. You just randomly call vaccination locations and hope they happen to have an opening. Some even tried out of state, very Republican areas, and it worked like a charm 

It doesn't surprise me that it's far less regimented than here and there is something incredible in how much vaccine they're manufacturing and using. From what I can see they've used about 170 million doses plus the 30-50 million AZ they've made but not authorised and I've read reports that they're starting to reach the point where supply is outstripping demand. It's real Liberty Ship stuff and the chaos is probably part of that.

It does slightly worry me though that take-up is possibly too low for the US to get to the sort of figure they need for herd immunity.

[Sheilbh]

FT guy has updated the excess mortality figures:


I really don't think the coverage of this we've received in the UK, at least, give us a sense of how badly this has hit Latin America and, increasingly, CEE. Obviously we have a huge number of deaths here and that's where most of the media's attention will be (rightly). Brazil gets mentioned from time to time, but I don't think we've had nearly enough coverage of how awful this has been in Peru, Mexico, the CIS states etc - it's been very Western Europe and US-centric

Also I'm going to rein in my all of Europe has failed even though some countries, like Germany, have done far better than others, because based on that I think Denmark, Finland and Norway have done as well as many Asian countries which should get recognition.

[The Larch]

Over here in Spain we do have plenty of coverage of the situation in Latin America (it's only natural), and the dramatic situation in some of those countries was periodically highlighted. I seem to remember having published a news piece back in the day about Iquitos, the capital of Perú's Amazonian province, where they were terribly hit and health resources were rather poor.

[DGuller]

The only person from Ecuador I know had both her grandparents die from Covid last year.

[Sheilbh]

The only person from Ecuador I know had both her grandparents die from Covid last year.

God that's awful

I remember lots of coverage about Ecuador at the start of the pandemic because I think they were hit really hard, really early.

[Duque de Bragança]

Portugal has obviously lots of coverage about Brazil's dire situation due to Mijairzinho's posturing.

[Sheilbh]

From FT reporter on ethical concerns around Sputnik:

Henry Foy
@HenryJFoy
6h
SCOOP - EU drug regulator to launch probe into whether trials of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine broke clinical standards amid concerns that they were not ethical, sources tell @donatopmancini & me
https://ft.com/content/50031165-1f46-446b-be9a-36d553805fec
Russia used soldiers and employees of state companies in the trials. Proving that they were ethical and nobody was coerced into taking part - known as Good Clinical Practice (GCP) - is essential for the EMA to be able to approve Sputnik for use as a Covid-19 vaccine in the EU
The investigation is the latest stumbling block for Russia's state-developed jab as it seeks EU approval. Moscow has claimed Brussels is biased against the vaccine and it could save lives. Some EU officials fear it could be used as a propaganda tool by the Kremlin
.@sputnikvaccine's Kirill Dmitriev told @FinancialTimes: "We are not aware of any concerns from the EMA regarding GCP & leaks of such concerns are specific example of people trying to undermine EMA approval process which is supposed to be unbiased & without discrimination"

Sputnik have tweeted a response:

Sputnik V
@sputnikvaccine
In contrast to 59 countries that authorized #SputnikV, there is an organized media campaign in EU daily attacking Sputnik and politicizing EMA approval. The explanation is simple: big pharma and political lobbies are afraid, knowing Sputnik V is one of the world's best vaccines.

[Zanza]

Do the other vaccines also have Twitter accounts posting political commentary?

[Sheilbh]

Do the other vaccines also have Twitter accounts posting political commentary?

Not that I've seen and it is pretty extraordinary.

Unrelatedly MHRA are announcing update on AZ later today with a briefing for journalists to explain it at 3. Apparently talks between them and the JCVI all day yesterday and overnight on decisions - it's not clear which way it's going. It was reported yesterday that Downing Street was waiting for an update, given that it hasn't leaked yet I assume they've not had one.

[The Larch]

I've had the Sputnik Twitter account popping up recently in my recommendations as a sponsored account, so it feels like they're pushing it heavily as some kind of PR tool.

It recently came to light over here that representatives from the region of Madrid (who will do anything in their power to spite the central government) met on their own with Sputnik representatives that were offering it for buyers.

[DGuller]

There is something very Russiany about peddling vaccine all over the world while your own country is unvaccinated and excessively dying at alarming rates.

[The Brain]

I'm shocked that Sputnik tweets sound exactly like Donald Trump tweets.

[Sheilbh]

I'm shocked that Sputnik tweets sound exactly like Donald Trump tweets.

I did love the "Sputnik is one of the world's best vaccines", which is Trump trying to be humble.