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Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,444th day.
In other news we cover today, Baltimore finds itself with hundreds of millions in pandemic funds from the feds, a new report suggests that researchers may have uncovered the likely mechanism behind brain fog in Long Covid patients, and a near-decade long study of ME/CFS patients may give researchers a better understanding of Long Covid.
LONG COVID
A new study may have uncovered the likely mechanisms behind so-called “brain fog” in Long Covid patients, a team of Irish researchers reported.
The study, entitled Blood–Brain Barrier Disruption and Sustained Systemic Inflammation in Individuals with Long Covid-Associated Cognitive Impairment and published in the journal Nature Neuroscience on Friday, suggests that blood–brain barrier disruption and sustained systemic inflammation are to blame in individuals with this cognitive impairment.
The researchers found that individuals who reported brain fog had higher levels of a protein, S100β, produced by brain cells and one that is not normally found in the blood. This hinted at a leaky blood-brain barrier. In addition, the group also found that Long Covid patients with brain fog had increased levels of clotting markers in their blood.
A newly-published study whose research commenced seven years ago found notable physiological differences in the immune system, cardio-respiratory function, gut microbiome, and brain activity of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS, compared with a control group of 21 healthy study participants.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, may shed light on Long Covid and Long Covid research. That condition often includes symptoms that are similar or identical to those of ME/CFS.
All of the study participants with ME/CFS had the type that is preceded by an infection, similar to how Long Covid is preceded by a coronavirus infection.
The study was led by Dr. Avindra Nath, the chief of infections of the nervous system at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Nath told multiple media outlets that, “[W]hatever we learn from ME/CFS will benefit long Covid patients, and whatever we learn from long Covid will benefit ME/CFS patients, I think.”
UNITED STATES
The city of Baltimore is in a race against time to spend the $641 million it received in federal covid relief funds. The one-time grant from the federal government must be obligated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026 – or lose the funds entirely.
In New York City, the comptroller’s office filed a lawsuit on Thursday claiming that two contractors working for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority underpaid workers hired to clean subway cars and stations in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
The suit, filed in the city Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, claims the companies, Fleetwash and Ln Pro Services, paid wages to 394 workers that were less than what is legally required by city rules, despite being awarded top-dollar contracts by the MTA.
The MTA is a public benefit corporation that is responsible for public transit in the New York metropolitan area.
GLOBAL NEWS
A new peer-reviewed study found that coronavirus vaccines from drug makers including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca were linked to rare occurrences of heart, brain, and blood disorders. However, the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 greatly outweighed the risk of getting inoculated.
In what appears to be the largest Covid vaccine-related study to date, researchers from the Global Vaccine Data Network, a research arm of the World Health Organization, looked at observed rates of 13 medical conditions that were considered to be “adverse events of special interest” from vaccines in a study population of 99 million vaccinated people from eight countries.
While conspiracy theorists will likely take this news as vindication, they would be wrong: The study showed that the risk of developing a neurological problem from SARS-CoV-2 was more than 600 times higher than from the vaccine.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
In Florida, state health officials confirmed six cases of measles at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County. Florida is now one of a dozen areas reporting measles cases and clusters. The others are Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York City, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
What’s unusual is that, while the Florida Department of Health put out an alert about the measles cases this week, emphasizing how contagious the virus is, its controversial surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, said that the cases did not merit emergency action to prevent unvaccinated students from attending class. Temporary exclusions of that kind while an outbreak is ongoing are part of the normal and typical public-health responses to measles clusters.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The United States achieved its first moon landing in over half century, albeit with a private spacecraft.
The Odysseus, a six-legged robot lander built and flown by Texas-based Intuitive Machines, landed at 6:23 p.m. EST. Odysseus landed not near the Sea of Tranquility, where the world’s first manned space mission to the moon, Apollo 11, landed in 1969, but near a crater named Malapert A near the moon’s south pole.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson hailed the feat as a “triumph,” saying, “Odysseus has taken the moon.”
The last manned mission to the moon, Apollo 17, visited the satellite in 1972. To date, just four other countries have ever landed on the moon, but the United States is the only country that has placed a man on the moon. The list of countries who have landed on the lunar surface include the former Soviet Union, China, India, and, most recently, just last month, Japan.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Friday, February 23.
As of Friday, at press time, the world has recorded 703.6 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.4 million in the last 24 hours, and 6.99 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 674.36 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.01 million in the past 24 hours.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls as well as the occasional downward or upward adjustment as corrections to case figures warrant.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Friday at press time is 22,247,180, an increase of 175 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,211,489, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,691, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 18 months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Friday, recorded 111.4 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.2 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.03 million, and a reported death toll of 533,476.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July 2022, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat last reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July 2022, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.82 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 709,765, has recorded 38.41 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 26.72 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.9 million, and Russia, with 23.96 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending February 10, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on February 16, 2024 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 1.1%, and the trend in test positivity is -1.3% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1.7%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -12.4%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 18,977, a figure that is down 5.7% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2.4%, a figure that is down 11.1% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Friday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 4,413 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.7% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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