Covid-19 News and Discussions
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Data Analyst Reveals Where the COVID Vaccine Deaths Are Hiding - Media Blackout
Introducing the top ten stories they chose not to tell you this week.
vigilantfox.news
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COVID virus evolves more rapidly in the central nervous system than in the lungs, study finds
August 26, 2024
The coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic evolves more rapidly in the brain than in the lungs, according to new research from University of Illinois Chicago and Northwestern University.
New viral variants created in the brain and other parts of the nervous system could also travel back to the lungs, where they could become transmissible, the researchers report in Nature Microbiology. That could spread new, dangerous variants of the virus.
Justin Richner, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology. (Photo courtesy of Justin Richner)“Potentially, this could be a source of novel variants of concern,” said Justin Richner, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at UIC and co-lead author of the paper. “It could be that the virus is using these different tissue sites to evolve new mutations, and then those can traffic back into the respiratory tract and spread throughout the population.”
The study, conducted in mice, first tested how COVID-19 vaccination affects the mutation of viruses in the body. Five days after infection, researchers measured the number of viral variants present in different parts of the body. They were surprised to find more viral variation in the brain than in the lungs in both vaccinated and unvaccinated mice.
“The vaccination status didn’t really determine the virus evolution, but we observed differences in the virus sequence in the brain versus the lung,” Richner said. “That really set us on a totally unexpected trajectory.”
Most mutations were in the gene for the viral spike protein, which the virus uses to enter and infect cells. Most changes were found in a region of the spike protein called the furin cleavage site.
“This site is of high interest because it is linked to the outbreak and transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” Richner said. “It leads to more enhanced transmission of the virus and why it was able to much more easily transmit through the entire population.”
However, most variants found in the brain disrupted the function of this spike protein site, producing strains that were less virulent when tested in subsequent experiments. The researchers hypothesized that the virus uses an alternative mechanism to infect cells in the central nervous system, driving the mutation of the new variants.
Despite the reduced virulence, researchers were alarmed by the ability of these viral variants to migrate from the central nervous system back to the lungs, where they could then potentially spread through the air to other individuals. The ability of the virus to rapidly evolve in immune-protected areas of the body, such as the brain or the testes, could drive future dangerous variants.
That possibility underscores the importance of vaccination, Richner said.
“This finding suggests that the vaccines are still important because the only way the virus reaches these distal tissues is if it establishes an infection and is able to replicate in the body,” Richner said. “The vaccines are important to prevent the virus from reaching some of those distal tissues and undergo diversification.”
In future work, the researchers hope to study how viruses travel from the central nervous system back to the lungs. They will also investigate potential links between the viral variants found in the brain and the neurological symptoms, such as “brain fog” and memory loss, associated with both acute and long COVID.
The collaboration between Richner’s group and the research team of Judd Hultquist at Northwestern University highlights the close partnerships between Chicago research institutions established in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think that this research really speaks to the strength of the Chicago virology community,” Richner said. “It was a truly collaborative project that would not be possible without both parties.”
In addition to Richner, UIC co-authors on the paper include Jacob Class, Jazmin Galván Achi, Laura Cooper, Sarah Lutz and Lijun Rong.
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St. Joe's to shut down Parkwood long-COVID program due to lack of provincial funding
Current and waitlisted patients will still receive a treatment plan, hospital says
Kendra Seguin · CBC News · Posted: Aug 27, 2024 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
The Post-Acute COVID-19 Program at Parkwood Institute is closing at the end of 2024. (EXP)
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The Post-Acute COVID-19 Program at Parkwood will shut down by the end of the year and has stopped taking patients as of this month, St. Joseph's Health Care London confirmed in a statement.
The shutdown leaves Londoners who have long COVID without a dedicated space to get treatment.
"I think there's going to be a lot of people who are just going to struggle and either don't know where to look and what to do, or have to pay and find [a doctor] that knows what they're talking about," said Leanne Argoso, who is a current patient in the program.
"The clinic was nice because [doctors] could just refer people there."
Argoso, who first got COVID-19 in March 2022, has struggled with fatigue and brain fog ever since. These are common long COVID symptoms, alongside shortness of breath, trouble sleeping and memory loss, according to the federal government's website on the condition.
After being referred to the program, patients meet with a nurse practitioner to determine the support they need. Physiotherapists can help long COVID patients with simple exercises and teach them how to balance activity with rest, occupational therapists help with strategies to navigate cognitive challenges, and social workers assist people with going on disability support.
Leanne Argoso continues to experience symptoms of long COVID two years after contracting the disease. (Leanne Argoso)
When the program shuts down, Argoso expects that Londoners with long COVID will need to look harder to find these separate supports, which can be difficult due to the symptoms of the disease itself.
"It's a matter of finding someone who you trust and that kind of encompasses everything," Argoso said. "A lot of people don't have the energy to even look for that."
The hospital has been operating the program since January 2021. It received one-time funding from the province in the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 years but has not received a commitment for funding since then, St. Joseph's said.
"I get it: funding is funding and in our hospitals, it comes down to the funding and not necessarily the people," said Argoso, who used to work at Parkwood Institute as a physiotherapist before getting sick. "I think it's really unfortunate."
"I'm grateful to St. Joseph's that they did extend it so long," she said.
Patients to receive treatment plans
Argoso learned about the closure through internal communications at the hospital. Otherwise, patients have gradually been learning about the closure as they have come in for appointments.All patients currently in the program or on its waitlist will be assessed and given a treatment plan before the program ends, St. Joseph's said in a statement. No one was available for an interview, a spokesperson said.
The program stopped accepting referrals at the start of August.
Argoso said she has the tools she needs to continue her recovery, but has concerns about current and future COVID long-haulers who do not have the same resources.
"My hope for people is that they don't get lost in the system and don't spiral into the abyss of doom and gloom," said Argoso. "I just worry that people are going to get stuck and aren't going to know where to go."
CBC News has reached out to the province about the funding stoppage and will update this story when we get a response.
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