The Perfect Enemy | COVID in California: Risk of long COVID less likely with omicron - San Francisco Chronicle
May 12, 2024

COVID in California: Risk of long COVID less likely with omicron – San Francisco Chronicle

COVID in California: Risk of long COVID less likely with omicron  San Francisco Chronicle

Were the strict lockdowns in the spring of 2020 worth it in the fight against COVID-19? New research says they halved the spread of the disease and boosted the use of face masks, but at a cost to the U.S. economy of nearly $28,000 per infection prevented. A new study finds that 26% of Americans don’t trust health recommendations issued by the CDC. The WHO fired its Asia director amid allegations of racism. And a small group of anti-vaccine protesters forced the closure of a school clinic in the town of Sonoma when they “became unruly.”

Stanford to shut down community testing sites

In a message to the university community, Stanford health officials said that the campus-wide testing program will come to an end in the spring. For faculty, staff, and postdoctoral scholars, Color testing will cease on March 24, at the conclusion of the winter quarter. For students, the program will end on June 18, at the conclusion of the spring quarter. The decision to close the campus test sites was based on recommendations from the Public Health Steering Committee, the university said. Free at-home rapid tests will still be provided to those who need them, along with PCR laboratory tests “in specific circumstances and situations,” according to the memo. Stanford asks that positive results are reported to the school’s health databases. Health officials also reemphasized a “strong recommendation” for masking while in crowded settings.

Risk of long COVID less likely with omicron, study finds

People who were infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus had substantially lower odds of reporting long COVID symptoms than those infected with the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, according to a study that will be presented in April at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Swiss researchers found that people who tested positive for COVID-19 during waves of omicron predominance were no more likely to report lingering symptoms after recovering from their infection than people who never contracted COVID-19, reports the journal Infectious Diseases, which got a preview of the study. By comparison, those who were infected with the original wild strain of the virus were 67% more likely to report symptoms up to 18 months after their recovery.

The findings support results from previous studies that suggest omicron infections are less likely to cause long COVID than those from earlier variants.

The study included 1,200 health care workers who tested positive anytime between February 2020 to January 2021, and then got infected again during the omicron wave from January to June 2022. At the end of the study period, the participants answered an online questionnaire about indicators of long COVID such as fatigue, loss of smell or taste, and shortness of breath. Those who tested positive during the omicron wave after being positive with the original virus did not report increased long COVID symptoms compared to people who were infected only with the original virus.

“We can only speculate as to why this was. It’s probably due to a combination of the omicron variant being less likely to cause severe illness than the wild-type virus — we know that long COVID is more common after severe illness — and immunity acquired through previous exposure to the virus through, for example, a subclinical infection without seroconversion,” said co-author Carol Strahm, an infectious disease specialist at Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen in Switzerland.

The researchers also found that vaccine boosters did not appear to cut the risk of long COVID symptoms. “We don’t see that the booster adds much more benefit, at least in terms of long COVID, in our population,” said Kohler.

Mental health impact of pandemic “not statistically significant,” new study claims

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s mental health may not be as bad as originally thought, according to new research. In a review of 137 studies from around the world published in the British Medical Journal, researchers at McGill University in Canada found a “minimal” uptick in symptoms among the general population. “Most symptom change estimates for general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression…were close to zero and not statistically significant, and significant changes were of minimal to small magnitudes,” they concluded.

The research found that women, older people, and university students saw a small increase in depression symptoms. The review mostly focused on studies conducted in high-income European and Asian countries. It did not include children or marginalized communities. “At a population level, there has been a high level of resilience during COVID-19,” the authors wrote. “And changes in general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms have been minimal to small.”

Other studies, such as one from the Royal College of Psychiatrists have contradicted those findings, noting increases in anxiety, depression, and psychosis related to the pandemic. In a survey of 223,000 students across 20 states, San Francisco organization YouthTruth found that during the 2021-22 school year, nearly 80% of bisexual, gay and lesbian middle schoolers reported depression, stress and anxiety as an obstacle to learning, double the rate of straight students.

The authors of the latest study acknowledged that some symptoms may be coming to the surface now. “The pandemic has affected the lives of many people — and some are now experiencing mental-health difficulties for the first time,” the researchers said. “Governments should continue to ensure that mental health supports are available and respond to population needs.”

In a first, zoo lion infects its keepers

According to a new study, an Indiana zoo lion likely transmitted COVID-19 to its zookeepers, marking the first documented case of animal-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a zoo setting. In December 2021, the unidentified African lion, who was 20 years old and required hand feeding by zoo employees at Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend due to its physical limitations, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 after developing a cough and showing signs of difficulty breathing. Three of the 10 zookeepers in close contact with the animal tested positive within a week. They did not have contact with any other infected humans, and two of the keepers shared a genetically identical strain of the virus with the lion, according to the findings which were published on the preprint database medRxiv.The researchers from the Indiana Department of Health and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that while the risk of transmission from animals is extremely low, it can happen on rare occasions. “Although SARS-CoV-2 is primarily transmitted from person to person, it is considered zoonotic based on natural infections in a range of mammalian species,” the authors wrote.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom tests positive for COVID-19 — again

Gavin Newsom has COVID again. The California governor tested positive for the virus on Wednesday after coming down with mild symptoms, his office said. This is the second time Newsom, a Democrat, has contracted the virus. He first tested positive last May. In 2020, he quarantined twice after being exposed to a staffer and two of his children who had tested positive for the virus. Read more about the governor’s latest diagnosis.

A quarter of Americans do not trust the CDC, survey finds

More than one-quarter of Americans say they do not trust health recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a new survey. The findings, published in the journal Health Affairs from a survey by researchers at the agency and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted in February 2022, showed that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, 16% of respondents said they have “not very much” trust in its recommendations, and 10% said “not at all.” Only 37% said they have a “great deal” of trust in the CDC’s guidance. Advice from doctors scored substantially higher, with 54% of respondents saying they trust their recommendations “a great deal.”

“Although trust in public health agencies was not especially high, few respondents indicated that they had no trust,” the authors wrote. “Lower trust was related primarily to respondents’ beliefs that health recommendations were politically influenced and inconsistent. The least trusting respondents also endorsed concerns about private-sector influence and excessive restrictions and had low trust in government overall.”

Protesters force closure of vaccine clinic at Sonoma school

A small group of anti-vaccine protesters forced the closure of a COVID-19 vaccine clinic last Thursday at Sassarini Elementary School in the town of Sonoma, police said Tuesday. Three people “became unruly” at the site, Police Sgt. Scott McKinnon said, according to The Sonoma Index-Tribune. “Our decision to shut down the clinic was based on a desire to avoid escalation and perceived threat to staff, students, parents and community,” Dr. Elizabeth Kaufman, acting superintendent of Sonoma Valley Unified School District, said in a statement Tuesday. The protesters were not detained. “If it happens again within the city, they will be arrested,” McKinnon said.

FDA issues rare statement about at-home COVID and flu test fracas

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday issued a rare statement over the blowback it received for granting emergency use authorization for the first over-the-counter at-home test capable of detecting both the flu and COVID-19 days after the manufacturer filed for bankruptcy protection. The Emeryville-based medical technology company Lucira Health Inc., which makes the test kit, said in its bankruptcy filing last month that the drawn out FDA approval process for the test was one of the reasons for its financial problems. Lucira said it anticipated approval of the test in August 2022 but claimed instead that the process “became protracted, resulting in high expenditures without new revenue from the combined test kit during the 2022-2023 flu season.”

The FDA said it issued its response out of “a commitment to address misinformation.” In an unprecedented public disclosure of Lucira’s submission information, the agency claimed “the test posed a risk to consumers due to a toxic substance identified in one of the test components,” and that the samples provided were “insufficient to adequately determine test performance and support authorization.” Despite its reservations, the FDA authorized Lucira’s test kit with fewer samples than it previously said it would require for approval, according to the statement from Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

Lockdowns reduced virus spread by 56% but at steep economic cost, study finds

The lockdown orders issued at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic helped reduce the spread of the disease by an estimated 56%, according to a new study from researchers at USC, UC Riverside and other schools. But the lockdowns also took a heavy toll on the economy.

The study, published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, found that if governors had waited just one more month to issue stay-at-home orders, until April 23, 2020, the number of coronavirus cases would have been five times higher by April 30, 2020. The lockdowns also increased usage of face masks by 18%.

On the other hand, lockdowns reduced U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, by 5.4% in the second quarter of 2020, while employment fell by 2% and consumer spending by 7.5%. These impacts, on average, translated to a cost to the economy of $27,567 for every COVID infection prevented.

“Understanding the true costs and benefits of COVID-19 policies helps policymakers assess the payoff of past decisions and prepares them to navigate future large-scale health crises,” said co-author Ashish Sood, a marketing professor at Riverside, in a statement.

CDC confirms it will lift test requirement for travelers from China

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that it plans to end mandatory pre-departure COVID-19 testing for travelers arriving in the U.S. from China on Friday. The requirement, which was already dropped by a majority of other countries, was put in place in December when coronavirus cases and deaths were rising at a rapid pace in China. Reuters reports that on Wednesday, the U.S. health agency said “public health measure was put in place to protect U.S. citizens and communities as we worked to both identify the size of the surge and gain better insights into the variants that were circulating.” U.S. officials now have evidence that COVID-19 trends have improved in China, allowing it to reverse the rule.

WHO fires director in Asia accused of racist misconduct

The World Health Organization has fired its top official in the Western Pacific after the Associated Press reported last year that dozens of staff members accused him of racist, abusive and unethical behavior that may have compromised the U.N. health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. In an email sent to employees on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Dr. Takeshi Kasai’s appointment had been “terminated” after an internal investigation found “findings of misconduct.” It is the first time in WHO’s history that a regional director has been dismissed.

Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomic level.” Several WHO staffers working under Kasai said he improperly shared sensitive COVID vaccine information to help Japan, his home country, score political points with targeted donations. Kasai is a Japanese doctor who worked in his country’s public health system before moving to WHO, where he has been for more than 15 years.

Next pandemic will be “harder to fight,” says UCSF’s Wachter

The heavy politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic will make the next pandemic “even harder to fight,” according to Dr. Bob Wachter. The UCSF chair of medicine, who has large Twitter following for his COVID analysis and risk calculations, told the Jewish News of Northern California that the pandemic has opened the floodgates for misinformation. “I think when there’s a pandemic next time, the misinformation will start on Day One. And the pushback against anything that relates to public health will be tremendous and make it even harder to fight than it was for this one,” he said. Noting the experts’ predictions of more, potentially deadlier, infectious disease outbreaks to come, he said, “Imagine something that is this infectious, or maybe even more so, but is as deadly as Ebola. Not 1 in 100 or 200 people die, but 1 in 5. We got lucky with COVID that it was not that kind of case-fatality rate,” he said.

Wachter reiterated he intends to remain COVID-free by any reasonable means, primarily because of long COVID risks. He estimated that there is between a 5% and 10% chance of an infected person having prolonged symptoms that will disrupt their life, and bring higher risk for heart attacks, strokes and diabetes. “You can make different choices. But at least do it with your eyes open,” he said. Wachter added, “It’s so easy to forget the fact that over a million people have died. The numbers are so staggering that our brains almost want to push it away. The extent of the tragedy is unfathomable, and I think in our effort to get on with our life, we’ve collectively forgotten that.”