It’s all a question of perspective. The World Health Organization noted Wednesday that COVID deaths have fallen by 90% this year. But 9,400 people per week are still dying, which the global agency says is “too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.” State officials anticipating a winter rise in cases have issued a public service video urging voluntary steps to minimize risk. And CDC director Rochelle Walensky has reappeared in public after taking Paxlovid and suffering a rebound infection, raising questions about whether the agency’s five-day isolation guidelines for COVID patients are sufficient to protect others.
Lifting universal masking in schools led to an uptick in cases, Harvard study finds
Lifting of masking requirements led to about 5 excess COVID-19 cases per 100 students and staff among school districts in the greater Boston area during the 15 weeks after the statewide policy was rescinded, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Harvard researchers analyzed data from 72 public and non-charter school districts, which comprised 294,084 students and 46,530 staff during the study period between February and June, to determine that after the statewide masking policy was rescinded trends in the incidence of COVID-19 became substantially higher in school districts that lifted masking requirements compared to the school districts that kept the requirement in place. “Overall, this estimate corresponded to nearly 12,000 additional Covid-19 cases among students and staff, which accounted for one-third of the cases in school districts that lifted masking requirements during that time and most likely translated to substantial loss of in-person school days.”
Their findings also highlight the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on underserved communities, since the districts that chose to sustain masking requirements longer tended to have more students per classroom and higher percentages of low-income students, students with disabilities, and Black and Latinx students and staff.
“Our results support that universal masking with high-quality masks or respirators during periods of high community transmission is an important strategy for minimizing SARS-CoV-2 spread and loss of in-person school days,” they wrote.
Wash your hands and wear a mask to avoid viruses, say state officials
State health officials rolled out a new public service video on Thursday, offering five steps for Californians to take in order to avoid a spate of respiratory viruses currently in circulation. Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, advises people to get vaccinated, stay home when sick, wash their hands frequently, cover their coughs, and wear a mask inside public spaces. She adds that families with young children should be on the lookout for RSV symptoms such as shortness of breath, decreased activity, and irritability. “With your help, we can reduce the spread of illness,” Pan says.
In a separate message, State Public Health Officer and CDPH Director Dr. Tomás Aragón said the winter virus season in California arrived early.“We are seeing stress on our clinics and hospitals that care for kids, especially infants and kids under 12,” he said in a release. “It’s important to remember that kids get infected from other kids and adults, so everyone needs to do their part.”
ACLU joins fight against medical misinformation bill
A California law that would punish doctors who give patients false information about COVID-19 has already been challenged by two anti-vaccine physicians. Now it’s being contested by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the legislation suppresses free speech and isn’t needed to protect patients from medical misinformation or mistreatment. “Rather than employ the existing tools at its disposal, the state has taken a blunt instrument to the entire profession,” ACLU attorneys said in a filing Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, where the doctors’ lawsuit is awaiting judicial review. Read more about why the ACLU argues that existing laws adequately protect patients from potentially harmful conduct without interfering with physicians’ right to state their opinions.
WHO reports 90% drop in deaths since beginning of year
The head of the World Health Organization chief on Wednesday said COVID-19 deaths have dropped nearly 90% since the beginning of the year, which is a “cause for optimism,” but he urged continued vigilance as newer immune-evasive coronavirus variants continue to emerge. The federal health agency recorded just over 9,400 deaths linked to the coronavirus last week, compared to 75,000 weekly fatalities reported in February. “We have come a long way, and this is definitely cause for optimism. But we continue to call on all governments, communities and individuals to remain vigilant,” he said at a virtual news conference from the WHO’s Geneva headquarters. “Almost 10,000 deaths a week is 10,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.”
Researchers identify protein in virus that damages heart
People who test positive for the coronavirus are at a substantially higher risk for developing cardiac issues that could lead to abnormal heart rhythms, blood clots, stroke, heart attacks, and heart failure a year after a mild COVID-19 infection, compared to those who have not been infected. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine recently identified a specific protein in the coronavirus, Nsp6, that damages heart tissue. In findings published in , based on research with fruit flies and mouse heart cells, they found that the protein hijacked cells in the heart to turn on the glycolysis process, which disrupts cardiac mitochondrial function, leading to heart failure. The team is hopeful that an inexpensive cancer drug called 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) can reduce the heart and mitochondria damage caused by the Nsp6 viral protein.
“We know that some viruses hijack the infected animal’s cell machinery to change its metabolism to steal the cell’s energy source, so we suspect SARS-CoV-2 does something similar. The viruses can also use the by-products of sugar metabolism as building blocks to make more viruses,” said senior author of the study Zhe “Zion” Han, an associate professor of medicine, in a statement. “So, we predict this drug that changes the metabolism in the heart back to what it was before infection would be bad for the virus, by both cutting off its energy supply and eliminating the pieces it needs to replicate.”
CDC director recovers from second bout of infection
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made her first public post on Tuesday since testing positive for the coronavirus on Oct. 21, and experiencing a rebound infection on Oct. 31 after completing a course of Paxlovid. “Thank you to my family and CDC staff for support while I recovered from COVID-19. I am fortunate to have only had mild symptoms, which I credit to being up to date on my COVID-19 vaccines,” she said in a tweet. “COVID-19 vaccines may not prevent every infection, but they do provide us important protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. My updated #COVID19 vaccine helped ensure my immune system was equipped to protect me against severe illness.” As The Chronicle noted on Monday, Walensky’s long absence raised questions about her health and the reliability of her agency’s advice that says says five days of isolation is sufficient for clearing an infection.
