8,703 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2021
    1. Art Poon. (2021, November 28). Our first https://filogeneti.ca/CoVizu update with B.1.1.529. As expected, number of mutations is well over molecular clock prediction (~13 diffs). Relatively low numbers of identical genomes implies large number of unsampled infections. We update every two days from GISAID. https://t.co/m8w2CjL1c0 [Tweet]. @art_poon. https://twitter.com/art_poon/status/1465001066194481162

    1. Eric Feigl-Ding. (2021, December 2). A rise in possible #Omicron in England—Tripling (0.1 to 0.3) of S-Gene dropout PCR signal, which is a proxy for Omicron (before 🧬 sequencing confirms). @_nickdavies estimates this represents around ~60 cases in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. Still early—But it displacing #DeltaVariant is not good sign. 🧵 https://t.co/4aIiqiVsqH [Tweet]. @DrEricDing. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1466234026843205637

    1. nference. (2021, November 27). Here is how B.1.1.529 (#Omicron #B11529) compares to Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta variants. Omicron has highest novel Spike mutations including striking cluster on the “crown” suggesting significant selection pressure & antigenic distinction from prior strains (Credits: Nference) https://t.co/4oZQbjhbG8 [Tweet]. @_nference. https://twitter.com/_nference/status/1464404770098229250

    1. Thiruvengadam, R., Awasthi, A., Medigeshi, G., Bhattacharya, S., Mani, S., Sivasubbu, S., Shrivastava, T., Samal, S., Rathna Murugesan, D., Koundinya Desiraju, B., Kshetrapal, P., Pandey, R., Scaria, V., Kumar Malik, P., Taneja, J., Binayke, A., Vohra, T., Zaheer, A., Rathore, D., … Garg, P. K. (2021). Effectiveness of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection during the delta (B.1.617.2) variant surge in India: A test-negative, case-control study and a mechanistic study of post-vaccination immune responses. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, S1473309921006800. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00680-0

  2. Nov 2021
    1. Thiruvengadam, R., Awasthi, A., Medigeshi, G., Bhattacharya, S., Mani, S., Sivasubbu, S., Shrivastava, T., Samal, S., Murugesan, D. R., Desiraju, B. K., Kshetrapal, P., Pandey, R., Scaria, V., Malik, P. K., Taneja, J., Binayke, A., Vohra, T., Zaheer, A., Rathore, D., … Garg, P. K. (2021). Effectiveness of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection during the delta (B.1.617.2) variant surge in India: A test-negative, case-control study and a mechanistic study of post-vaccination immune responses. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00680-0

    1. Stephen Reicher. (2021, November 26). 55.1% of the worlds population has had one dose of Covid vaccine. 29% in South Africa 10.1% in Africa as a whole Only 6% of Africans are fully vaccinated So is it any surprise new variants are arising from Africa? What doesn’t go around (as vaccine) Comes around (as Covid). Https://t.co/0X0vZ6flmc [Tweet]. @ReicherStephen. https://twitter.com/ReicherStephen/status/1464202267196858380

    1. trying to counter the antivaccine movement predicted that antivaxxers would publicize and weaponize reports of death and adverse events after COVID-19 vaccines to give the impression that the vaccines are dangerous

      That's ironic. That's exactly what the vaccine-pushers are doing: over-reporting the danger of the Covid virus.

    1. contrasting 00:28:28 climate change against uh the kobe 19 pandemic is very revealing while both of them are now considered to be a crisis and they are very different in nature 00:28:40 the pandemic is an immediate threat and the government failure to respond to the the kubernetes pandemic is in the eyes of the constituencies 00:28:54 a real failure and and they will uh lose their future votes and because of this failure for these politicians while climate change is more of a 00:29:07 creeping uh risks it's coming slowly it is a crisis and uh and it's also everybody's crisis right then this is a a typical 00:29:21 collective action problem failure to come up with the funding for addressing climate change in the eyes of the local and domestic 00:29:33 constituencies is not considered to be such a bad thing so uh and then a lot of politicians will choose to be a free writer on this then 00:29:45 uh you know what happens and we all understand this too well will be the tragedy of the comments i think the it's really the nature of the this uh two problems to crisis are very different 00:29:58 and this is really really the talent the i think the ultimate talent for the human beings to when it comes to solve this collective action problem

      The speaker points out that covid-19 is perceived as a more immediate threat, while climate change is less directly perceivable as a immediate threat. It takes place graduallyl over time. Climate change is a tragedy of the commons because a lot of individual leaders choose to free-ride.

    1. It remains unclear whether the reduction in the neutralization sensitivity of the N501Y.V2 strain to vaccine-induced antibodies is enough to seriously reduce vaccine efficacy. First, mRNA vaccines also induce virus-specific helper T cells and cytotoxic T cells, both of which might be involved in protection against challenge. Also, the mRNA vaccines, in particular, induce such a strong NAb response that there could be enough “spare capacity” to deal with reductions in the sensitivity of the variant to NAbs. In other words, N501Y.V2 (and the related virus from Brazil) may be less sensitive to NAbs, but not to an extent that will cause widespread vaccine failure.

      Variants that show reduced sensitivity to NAbs don't necessarily mean mRNA vaccine failure

      New variants may emerge that show reduced sensitivity to NAbs.

      This may not result in vaccine failure because:

      1. The mRNA vaccines induce such a strong NAb response, there will be enough spare capacity to deal with the virus.
      2. The mRNA vaccines also induce other virus specific protection such as helper T cells and cytotoxic T cells, which may not be affected by the reduction in NAb sensitivity.
    1. ReconfigBehSci. (2021, November 23). query: Https://unherd.com/2021/11/the-lefts-covid-failure/ “Is there really no progressive criticism to be made about the quarantining of healthy individuals, when the latest research suggests there is a vanishingly small difference in terms of transmission between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated?” 1/2 [Tweet]. @SciBeh. https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1463146737804140558

    1. The study demonstrated the capacity of a third dose to broaden antibody-based immunity and boost protection against circulating variants of concern. However, it is interesting that neutralizing responses against the Beta variant, known to markedly escape vaccine-elicited antibody responses4, were only fractionally better in those receiving a Beta-specific booster immunization.

      Choi et al. showed that a Beta-targeted booster shot broadened antibody-based immunity and boosted protection against circulating variants, the neutralizing response against the Beta variant was only slightly better.

      @gerdosi thinks this points to Original Antigenic Sin.

    1. Tania Bubela. (2021, November 17). New resources on #COVID19vaccines & #pregnancy from the fantastic group @CDCofBC Indigenous Knowledge Translation Working Group. @HarlanPruden working to meet knowledge needs of Indigenous communities in ways that are meaningful. @ScienceUpFirst take note! @SFU_FHS @CaulfieldTim https://t.co/oK3WJUj9p6 [Tweet]. @bubela_tania. https://twitter.com/bubela_tania/status/1460776956379557889

    1. Jeffrey Barrett. (2021, October 19). Proportion of AY.4.2 (now on http://covid19.sanger.ac.uk) has been steadily increasing in England, which is a pattern that is quite different from other AY lineages. Several of them rose when there was still Alpha to displace, but none has had a consistent advantage vs other Delta. Https://t.co/mD5gQzKxgV [Tweet]. @jcbarret. https://twitter.com/jcbarret/status/1450408485829718039

    1. Walter, E. B., Talaat, K. R., Sabharwal, C., Gurtman, A., Lockhart, S., Paulsen, G. C., Barnett, E. D., Muñoz, F. M., Maldonado, Y., Pahud, B. A., Domachowske, J. B., Simões, E. A. F., Sarwar, U. N., Kitchin, N., Cunliffe, L., Rojo, P., Kuchar, E., Rämet, M., Munjal, I., … Gruber, W. C. (2021). Evaluation of the BNT162b2 Covid-19 Vaccine in Children 5 to 11 Years of Age. New England Journal of Medicine, NEJMoa2116298. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2116298

    1. our fourth point is that for something like eukaryotes and others where there is no immediate major system 00:25:30 transition we're really sort of saying is that they perhaps are critical to such a transition but not at the time necessarily that they have evolved so in essence we want to amp we want to bring in a new 00:25:43 term which we call facilitating evolutionary transition so it makes it is part of a major system transition but it clearly needs other 00:25:55 evolutionary events to go along with it and the final sort of point is that there are perhaps catalysts that are involved in this process and one of the major catalysts that may 00:26:12 have had effects throughout evolutionary history are viruses so viruses may have been key actors to help the transition from 00:26:23 rna to dna they may have uh produced or helped produce the nucleus in eukaryotes and we'll talk about a little bit later about the key role that viral genes play 00:26:36 in making sexual reproduction possible and even in placental mammals the evolution of a placenta so without viral genes being moved across 00:26:47 horizontally species some of these major transitions could never have happened so now we have sort of the complete integrated process of of our diagram and again the question 00:27:02 that we're really focusing on oftentimes is that last one yes when how and why do we get to a major system transition and how do nets mechs uh 00:27:15 fets and catalysts all play a role in these various transitions

      Viruses have played a key role in a number of different METs. This is an important insight that can contextualize the covid-19 pandemic.

    1. Dhar, M. S., Marwal, R., VS, R., Ponnusamy, K., Jolly, B., Bhoyar, R. C., Sardana, V., Naushin, S., Rophina, M., Mellan, T. A., Mishra, S., Whittaker, C., Fatihi, S., Datta, M., Singh, P., Sharma, U., Ujjainiya, R., Bhatheja, N., Divakar, M. K., … Rakshit, P. (n.d.). Genomic characterization and epidemiology of an emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant in Delhi, India. Science, 0(0), eabj9932. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj9932

    1. Vaccine effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed symptomatic infection is never higher than 50 to 60%, and in some years it is much lower.

      Vaccine effectiveness for influenza vaccines for symptomatic infection is never higher than 50-60% and some years it is much slower.

    2. The effect on asymptomatic infections was a welcome surprise, because it has been thought that most vaccines for respiratory illnesses, including influenza, are “leaky” — that is, they allow some degree of asymptomatic infection and are better at preventing symptomatic infection.

      Most vaccines for respiratory illnesses are leaky.

      The efficacy the mRNA vaccines showed in preventing asymptomatic transmission was therefore a welcome surprise.

    1. Dr Nisreen Alwan 🌻. (2021, October 30). Mass infection of kids with a virus less than 2 years old is not ethical, not moral, not scientifically evidenced, not socially just & medically risky. There’s no good argument for this. And no, boosting population immunity to protect the adults is not a valid argument. #Childism [Tweet]. @Dr2NisreenAlwan. https://twitter.com/Dr2NisreenAlwan/status/1454498829403922440

    1. McNamara, L. A., Wiegand, R. E., Burke, R. M., Sharma, A. J., Sheppard, M., Adjemian, J., Ahmad, F. B., Anderson, R. N., Barbour, K. E., Binder, A. M., Dasgupta, S., Dee, D. L., Jones, E. S., Kriss, J. L., Lyons, B. C., McMorrow, M., Payne, D. C., Reses, H. E., Rodgers, L. E., … Schrag, S. J. (2021). Estimating the early impact of the US COVID-19 vaccination programme on COVID-19 cases, emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and deaths among adults aged 65 years and older: An ecological analysis of national surveillance data. The Lancet, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02226-1