Coronavirus Newsletter – Times of India

When we started this newsletter on March 20, 2020there was more panic about Covid-19 than information about the virus and how it spreads.

As the crisis unfolded over the next couple of months, the role of accurate information became even more important. we deciphered the virusits options, vaccines, symptoms, new research and more, and yours feedback and suggestions helped us improve every day.

While the virus is still floating around, most of us fully vaccinated and more knowledgeable virus and what to expect. As the pandemic subsides, we have also decided to take a break. This latest edition of The Corona Letter in your mailbox.

Thank you for participating in our journey.

Corona Letter Team

PS On the health front, you can subscribe to our weekly Health+ newsletter here.

• India 176 Covid cases and 5 deaths were reported on Sunday. Cumulative caseload is 4.46 crore (3552 active cases) and 5.3 lakh deaths
• All over the world: More than 652 million cases and more than 6.6 million deaths
• Vaccination in India: more than 2.2 billion doses. Worldwide: over 13.1 billion doses

• What: China’s abrupt lifting of strict Covid-19 restrictions could lead to an explosion of cases and more than a million deaths by 2023, according to new projections from the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
• How: According to the group’s projections, cases in China will peak around April 1, when the death toll will reach 322,000. By then, about a third of China’s population will be infected, IHME director Christopher Murray said.
• But… China’s National Health Authority has not reported any official deaths from Covid since restrictions were lifted. The last official deaths were registered on December 3. The total number of victims of the pandemic is 5,235.
• Fears surge: China lifted some of the world’s toughest Covid restrictions in December after unprecedented public protests and is now experiencing a surge in infections, with fears that Covid could engulf its 1.4 billion people during the Lunar New Year holidays next month.
• New predictions: An independent modeling team at the University of Washington in Seattle, which has been relied upon by governments and companies throughout the pandemic, drew on provincial data and information from the recent Omicron outbreak in Hong Kong. “There have been virtually no deaths reported in China since the initial outbreak in Wuhan. That’s why we turned to Hong Kong to get an idea of ​​the death rate from the infection,” Murray said.
• Method: For its projections, IHME also uses information on vaccination rates provided by the Chinese government, as well as assumptions about how different provinces will respond to increased infection rates.
• Other models: Disease modelers at the University of Hong Kong predict that lifting Covid restrictions and simultaneously reopening all provinces from December 2022 to January 2023 would result in 684 deaths per million people over that time period, according to a paper published Wednesday on the preprint server Medrxiv, which has yet to undergo peer review. Based on China’s population of 1.41 billion and excluding measures such as the mass vaccination campaign, this amounts to 964,400 deaths.
• Another study published in July 2022 in Nature Medicine by researchers at the School of Public Health at Fudan University in Shanghai, predicted that no restrictions on the Omicron wave would result in 1.55 million deaths within six months, with peak demand in intensive care units 15.6 times the existing capacity.
• Vaccination: China’s National Health Commission said on Friday it was ramping up vaccinations and stockpiling ventilators and essential medicines.

• A medium level of anticoagulation (blood thinning) is 86% more likely to be beneficial than low or high doses of anticoagulants in patients with Covid-19, according to a new study. Hospitalized Covid-19 patients are at increased risk of blood clots (or thromboses), which in turn can contribute to organ failure.

significance

• The use of anticoagulants is recommended in all guidelines for the treatment of Covid-19, including in India, but the most effective and safe dose is still unknown. This trial was done to find out the dose that provides the most benefit with the least risk.

Research

• The study was based on a randomized clinical trial to test different levels of anticoagulants in more than 1,500 patients in India, Australia, New Zealand and Nepal. The Australian Covid-19 Trial (ASCOT) has identified the most effective blood thinners for Covid-19 patients in a study published in “New England Journal of Medicine‘. The study was presented at the American Society of Hematology conference.
• “Many treatment guidelines recommend the use of low doses, but are less certain in their recommendations about higher doses for the treatment of hospitalized non-critically ill adults with Covid-19 and recommend that more research be done to establish their safety and effectiveness,” said Vivekanand Jha, executive director of the George Institute for Global Health in India.

Findings

• The results show that intermediate anticoagulation is 86% more likely to be better than low-dose anticoagulation. A higher therapeutic dose showed no benefit. This discovery will likely lead to changes in treatment guidelines regarding optimal dosing.

• A mouse study by an international research team has shown that a mucosal DNA vaccine can effectively stop the spread of Covid-19.

What is a mucous vaccine

• Less well-known mucosal vaccination may offer effective protection against SARS-CoV-2 infections, according to the study. Immune cells in the nose and lungs are thought to be better equipped to recognize and neutralize the virus that causes Covid-19.

How it works

• This vaccine works similarly to commercially available RNA vaccines made using a vector created by a National Science Center (CNRS) researcher at the Laboratory of Immunology and New Concepts of Immunotherapy at the University of Nantes, France.
• The vector’s DNA enters target cells, triggering the production of the SARS-CoV-2 protein and prompting the immune system to produce antibodies and lymphocytes to fight the virus.
• A vector is a component used in medicinal chemistry to deliver a molecule to a specific area of ​​the body. The vector in this case is a synthetic nanoparticle, the characteristics of which allow it to pass through the mucous membranes and introduce DNA encoding a viral protein into the cells of the respiratory system.

A study on mice

• The study found that, unlike the virus, which kills 100% of unvaccinated mice, its slime DNA vaccine can guarantee the full survival of a group of mice infected with a variant that has been adapted to the species. Ten mice were tested in each group, news agency PTI reported.
• However, the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing mouse-to-mouse transmission was not evaluated in the study, titled “Vaccination of airway mucosa with paloxamine peptide-DNA nanoparticles provides complete protection against lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection,” which was published in the journal Biomaterials.
• But researchers hope that a vaccination approach based on this idea could improve upon the current plan, among other things, by offering better protection against transmission, PTI reported.