The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx
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 1,449th day.
In other news we cover today, a New York man violated the federal anti-kickback statute by referring people for Covid tests in exchange for a fee, researchers in Virginia are trying to build a pocket-size air tester that will detect SARS-CoV-2, and New Zealand researchers cast doubt on the efficacy of vaccine mandates when vaccine uptake is already quite high.
LONG COVID
In Switzerland, scientists have identified abnormalities in the immune systems of patients with Long Covid that could unlock some mysteries of the condition.
The researchers tested for 6,500 blood proteins in 300 Long Covid patients. They found important differences between those who had fully recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and those who had Long Covid and these differences potentially could be used as biomarkers to diagnose Long Covid.
The study, Persistent Complement Dysregulation with Signs of Thromboinflammation in Active Long Covid, was published in the journal Science and led by Carlo Cervia-Hasler from the University of Zürich, whose research interests include immunology, biomarker discovery, data analysis, and Long Covid. It found that dysfunctional complement system proteins might be able to explain the fatigue and inflammation that Long Covid patients experience.
UNITED STATES
Researchers at Virginia Tech are working on the development of a device that would let people sample air for the presence of SARS-CoV-2, before deciding whether to enter a business, shop, restaurant, or other facility open to the public.
The leader of the project, Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the school, said in a statement that the goal is “to make it possible that someone could walk into a space, and within 15 minutes, do something like a rapid test of the air, to find out if there’s virus in the air.”
Current equipment capable of this type of testing is bulky results in a sample that must be taken to a lab in order to learn the results.
David Weathers, a Bronx, New York, man who marketed the use of a specific medical laboratory for coronavirus tests in exchange for kickbacks, violated the federal anti-kickback statute by doing so and pled guilty this week in court.
Weather was one of four people indicted in connection with the $3.5 million scheme, which involved a testing lab in Parsippany, New Jersey, called MetPath Laboratories. Two men, Abid Syed and Tariq Din operated the lab and paid kickbacks to such marketers for sending patients. They were indicted in December 2022. Weathers will be sentenced this summer and faces up to five years in prison and a fine.
“The defendant in this case has admitted to seeking payments for sending COVID-19 tests to a particular lab for processing,” said U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said in a statement this week. “There is no place in our health care system for illegal payments made in attempt to influence medical decisions.”
In New York City, the Department of Health awarded Neochromosome, a biological engineering company in Long Island City, a $57 million contract for whole-genome sequencing on Covid-19 patient blood samples in order to provide the city with as much information as possible about how SARS-CoV-2 is changing in the city.
GLOBAL COVID NEWS
Research published by the New Zealand Work Research Institute at the Auckland University of Technology this week suggests that, in New Zealand, the mandates had a limited effect on increasing vaccine uptake, given the already high uptake there was at the time mandates were implemented. However, the researchers found that the mandates had a substantive negative effect on the employment, earnings and well-being of unvaccinated health workers.
The study, Workforce Vaccine Mandates: The Effect on Vaccine Uptake and Healthcare Workers’ Labour Market Outcome, was led by Lisa Meehan, Livvy Mitchell, and Gail Pacheco, all of the Work Research Institute.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
Medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx had something to cheer about after hearing a speech by the college’s chairman of the board of trustees on Tuesday, after it was revealed that the medical school had received a $1 billion donation to make it tuition free. The donation came from the speaker herself, Ruth Gottesman, widow of David Gottesman, a banker and businessman who was the founder of First Manhattan, a wealth management firm. This was not the first gift from the Gottesman family to Albert Einstein, however. In 2008, they gave $25 million to establish the Ruth L. and David S. Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.
Meanwhile, new research shows that omalizumab, a widely used drug in the treatment of chronic severe asthma, also significantly reduces reactions to many common food allergies.
The study, Omalizumab for the Treatment of Multiple Food Allergies, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Sunday. The drug, marketed as Xolair, is the first preventive treatment that can protect users from accidentally life-threatening episodes. It is composed of antibodies that bind and deactivate immuglobulin E, which would otherwise trigger the immune system when certain allergens are present.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, February 27.
As of Tuesday, at press time, the world has recorded 703.76 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.9 million in the last 24 hours, and 6.99 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 674.54 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.13 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 Tuesday at press time is 22,234,690, a decrease of 43,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,199,071, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,619, 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 Tuesday, recorded 111.48 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 533,484.
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, 709,963, has recorded 38.45 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 23.98 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 Tuesday, 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 3,867 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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