Showing posts with label ANTIBODIES. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2020

SF Chronicle: With coronavirus antibodies fading fast, vaccine hopes fade, too

The San Francisco Chronicle (7/17/20) reports that "infectious disease specialists around the world were surprised and discouraged"—though only one such expert is quoted expressing surprise and discouragement.

“With Coronavirus Antibodies Fading Fast, Vaccine Hopes Fade, Too,” read a recent headline in the San Francisco Chronicle (7/17/20). As of July 20, it was the most popular article on the paper's website—which isn't surprising, given that it stokes one of many people's greatest fears right now, which is that there will be no clear end in sight to their completely upended lives. But is it true? Or just clickbait?

The Chronicle wasn't alone in its doomsday reporting. At Fortune (7/13/20), under the headline "Vanishing Antibodies Could Doom the Race to Develop a One-and-Done Coronavirus Vaccine, Study Shows," Katherine Dunn's lead warned of "a potentially huge blow to the global pursuit of developing an effective COVID-19 cure." Forbes (7/15/20) ran the headline: "Study: Immunity to Coronavirus May Fade Away Within Weeks."

Leaning on recent studies, these articles seemed to offer hard scientific evidence to support their suggestions. The Chronicle article began with a dire pronouncement:

Disturbing new revelations that permanent immunity to the coronavirus may not be possible have jeopardized vaccine development and reinforced a decision by scientists at UCSF and affiliated laboratories to focus exclusively on treatments.

The paper's Peter Fimrite laid out the evidence, with the "latest bad news" coming in a study that found that only 17% of Covid patients in a small study still had "potent" antibodies a few months after the onset of symptoms.

In case you weren't convinced, Fimrite wrote: "The report is the latest in a growing chain of evidence that immunity to Covid-19 is short-lived," pointing to a study published in Nature (6/18/20) that came to similar conclusions. Fimrite summarized:

There is still hope that the remaining antibodies will bestow some immunity, but infectious disease specialists around the world were surprised and discouraged by the rapid reduction observed in the studies.

If you read to the end, though, you find that only one source is quoted who seems to take this stance—a molecular biologist whose work on treatments is referenced in the lead. The other expert who opined on the subject returned in paragraph 33 to note that the situation is "not hopeless," since the human immune system uses both B cells and T cells, and these studies only look at the B cell response: "It may be that a T cell response does not require as many antibodies to be effective, she said."

It's a very important point, but Fimrite buried it and explored it no further, leaving one little "not hopeless" to counter the foregrounded "disturbing," "bad news," "jeopardized" and "discouraged."

And Fimrite's main source certainly seems to be either an outlier or seriously misconstrued. On Twitter, respected public health experts called the Chronicle article "dangerously misleading," "garbage" and "alarmist kaka."

Granted, it's not easy being a journalist covering the pandemic. Scientific knowledge on the virus moves quickly, and experts don't always agree. But that makes it all the more important to tread carefully and not spread alarmist kaka.

And some journalists are certainly succeeding at that. In the New York Times, for instance, Apoorva Mandavilli (6/18/20) reported the Nature study's findings, but relayed experts' cautions that rapidly falling antibody levels "does not necessarily mean that these people can be infected a second time."

In fact, one of the experts she consulted argued that such studies "highlight the need to develop strong vaccines, because immunity that develops naturally during infection is suboptimal and short-lived in most people." In other words, it means a vaccination program is even more important.

Atlantic: How Long Does Covid-19 Immunity Last?

In the Atlantic (7/20/20), Derek Thompson called for "a bit of skepticism about the most apocalyptic headlines."

In the Atlantic (7/20/20), Derek Thompson directly worked to allay fears based on the recent reporting, interviewing several scientists to offer a more nuanced take on the research. The upshot—as also described by Mandavilli and other journalists, and hinted at by Fimrite at the end of his piece—is that the immune system is much more than its antibodies, so conclusions shouldn't be drawn based on those levels alone. As Thompson writes:

Evaluating an immune response without accounting for T cells is like inventorying a national air force but leaving out the bomber jets. And, in the case of COVID-19, those bomber jets could make the biggest difference.

There's evidence that people can have potent T-cell responses without detectable levels of antibodies.

There are also memory B cells that can be triggered by a second infection and begin producing antibodies, Mandavilli and Thompson both reported. Finally, finding fading antibodies is not even unusual; for some vaccines, antibodies drop dramatically some months after peak levels, but still protect people for decades.

In other words, while there is much that's uncertain about the search for a vaccine, these antibody studies are not cause for despair. But the problem of the clickbait headline and accompanying reporting goes beyond its impact on readers' mental health; this kind of story surely promotes a nihilistic outlook and undermines the efforts needed to convince a wary public to participate in a vaccination program—which really is something to panic about.

Saturday, July 11, 2020

Daily Kos Recommended: Study that shows COVID-19 antibodies rapidly decline has many concerned

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Sunday, May 24, 2020

Did a mink just give the coronavirus to a human? Here’s what we know.

There is no need to panic about the latest reports from the Netherlands.

nationalgeographic.com

Did a mink just give the coronavirus to a human? Here’s what we know.

There is no need to panic

PUBLISHED May 21, 2020

Dutch authorities announced this week that they suspect a mink has transmitted the coronavirus to a worker at a fur farm in the Netherlands. If confirmed, this would be the first concrete evidence of a specific species passing the virus to a human.

Analysis found strong similarities between the virus in the worker and in the minks, making it plausible that the virus jumped species. “Based on this comparison and the position of that form of the virus in the family tree, the researchers concluded that it is likely that one staff member at an infected farm has been infected by mink,” the Dutch government said in a statement.

Mink on at least three farms in the southern part of the country have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Lisa Gaster, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

“The take-home message now is we are still learning a lot about COVID-19, this coronavirus, and the animals it can infect,” says virologist Brian Bird, a veterinarian and associate director of the University of California Davis One Health Institute. Bird, who is not involved in the Dutch response, cautions against undue alarm. “The risk here is related to direct contact or proximity to farmed mink, and certainly the general population has very little contact with those animals at those settings.”

Domestic dogs, cats, tigers, and lions have also tested positive for the virus, though there is no evidence that those animals have transmitted the disease to humans.

Bats are widely believed to be the likely reservoir for the novel coronavirus, since the genome of a closely related virus found in horseshoe bats is 96 percent identical to the coronavirus now circulating in people. But scientists haven’t yet established that the virus jumped directly from bats to humans. That may be impossible to prove unless they discover SARS-CoV-2—the coronavirus that is circulating among people—in a bat in the wild. It also remains unknown whether an intermediary host, such as pangolins, may have transmitted the virus to humans. (Read more about the quest to find the next potential coronavirus animal host.)

There are more than 800,000 mink living on Dutch farms and, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, the industry brings in about $100 million dollars a year. In the wild, the weasel-like animals live in or near water. Their soft fur has long been coveted for clothing, particularly in China, the top importer of mink pelts.

In 2016, there were more than 150 fur farms in the Netherlands that produced six million mink pelts, according to Humane Society International, but those fur farms are being phased out. Starting in 2013, the government prohibited the opening of new mink farms, and all existing facilities are required to close by 2024. PJ Smith, director of fashion policy at Humane Society International, says this mink coronavirus development could hasten the closures. He describes mink farms throughout Europe as akin to factory farms for poultry and pigs. “They have rows and rows of cages kept in barns where thousands of mink are kept. Several animals are kept in each cage, and their waste falls through wire bars onto the ground.”

Even if the mink-to-human transmission is confirmed as the first known animal-to-human case, Dutch officials emphasize that there’s very little risk to the general public from this incident or from fur farms in general. Testing at mink farms by the Bilthoven-based Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has shown no evidence of the virus in dust or air molecules outside the sheds that house the animals.

Last month, after mink at some Dutch farms were found to have coronavirus, authorities banned removal of mink, manure, or any other animals from infected farms. Officials initially thought minks at the farms contracted the virus from humans, but based on genome analysis they now think a farm worker got sick from the mink.

This week, the government also reported that feral cats may be spreading the virus between fur farms, noting that the pathogen identified at two infected farms looked closely related and that three out of 11 cats that roam the grounds of one farm had antibodies to the coronavirus. “Pending further research, mink-farm owners are advised to ensure that cats cannot enter or exit the site,” the government said.

The farm worker who contracted the coronavirus has recovered. Meanwhile, authorities are introducing new health and safety regulations. Mink on all farms will now be tested for coronavirus antibodies to ascertain how prevalent the virus has been in those settings. At farms found to have infected animals, visitors aren’t allowed into mink sheds, and employees must use personal protective equipment. In addition, farms must report to the government any case of a mink showing symptoms of COVID-19.

Dutch researchers are now comparing genetic samples taken from the sick farm worker, from infected people in the area around that farm, and from infected mink in an effort to trace the family tree of the virus and better understand the chain of transmission.

The government is taking appropriate steps, but other species may also require monitoring in the future if we learn about other infected animals, virologist Brian Bird says. “We need to keep an open mind and keep our radar tuned high.”

LINK

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

RSN: Michael Moore and Cornel West | "Vote for Biden, but Don't Lie About Who He Really Is"

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Michael Moore and Cornel West | "Vote for Biden, but Don't Lie About Who He Really Is"

Joe Biden. (photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

Michael Moore and Cornel West, Rumble Podcast
Excerpt: "Dr. Cornel West is one of the great thinkers and public intellectuals of our time. In the wake of Bernie Sanders' exit from the Presidential race, and in the midst of the global pandemic, he joins Michael to discuss choosing sides between milquetoast neoliberals and vicious neofascists, Ludwin von Beethoven, Jim Clyburn and wrestling with despair."

Dr. Cornel West is one of the great thinkers and public intellectuals of our time. In the wake of Bernie Sanders' exit from the Presidential race, and in the midst of the global pandemic, he joins Michael to discuss choosing sides between milquetoast neoliberals and vicious neofascists, Ludwin von Beethoven, Jim Clyburn and wrestling with despair. [The following is an excerpt of the interview]

ello Everybody this is Rumble and I'm Michael Moore. Thank you for tuning into my podcast today. This is episode 70. 70 episodes since we began on December 17th, four months ago. So, thank you to all of you who have been with me from the beginning and to those of you who have just joined me, wellcome. We hit our eight-millionth listener, eight-millionth download this past weekend. Eight-million! In less than for months. Amazing. Thank you.

I have with me a very special guest, one of the great thinkers in this country and certainly one of the great activists for decades. Someone who has led many fights for all the good people, for all the good causes. He is a voice for many, many people. He is a professor of public philosophy at Harvard University. He is a professor emeritus at Princeton. Uh, that's a lot of ivy going on there. If you ever met him or seen him, ivy is not what runs through his veins. He has so much compassion and love, and fight in him for all the rest of us. I'm grateful to have him on my show. I'm going to ring him up on the phone. That is how we're going to have to do this today in the pandemic era of podcasts. [...]

Cornel West: You know the last time I was in Flint and I introduced myself I said I'm in the city of Dee Dee Bridgwater and Betty Carter. They are so much a part of me but I got some Michael Moore inside of me too. That's right on the tape. So I wanted to talk about Bernie coming out of the Jewish sections of Brooklyn and all of the wonderful ways in which he exemplifies so much of the best of that secular Jewish tradition. You know, my dear brother and uh, he's a human being so we criticize him and make him accountable like everybody else. But at the same time if you're honest about the deep love and respect that one has and I have for him and I have for you, and I have for others as well.

Michael Moore: No, thank you for that. That was so kind and generous of you to say that. And thank you for going to Flint by the way and mentioning those two great singers that are also from Flint. Cornell, Seriously ... we're in some deep shit.

Listen to podcast to hear full interview.

The Bridge of the Americas connects Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In New Extreme, Trump Says He Will Issue Order to Suspend Immigration to the US
Nick Miroff, Josh Dawsey and Teo Armus, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Trump announced in a tweet late Monday night that he plans to suspend immigration to the United States, a move he said is needed to safeguard American jobs and defend the country from coronavirus pandemic, which he called 'the Invisible Enemy.'"
READ MORE

On March 18, 2020, Project South and Hunger Coalition of Atlanta staff gathered to assemble personal care and hygiene kits for residents of Atlanta, a couple of days after schools and businesses closed in response to the novel coronavirus in Atlanta, Georgia. (photo: Project South)

Solidarity Not Charity: Mutual Aid and How to Organize in the Age of Coronavirus
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "The term 'mutual aid' basically just means when people band together to meet immediate survival needs, usually because of a shared understanding that the systems in place aren't coming to meet them, or certainly not fast enough, if at all, and that we can do it together right now."
READ MORE

A healthcare worker and a patient. (photo: ABC News)

WHO Warns That Few Have Developed Antibodies to Covid-19
Sarah Boseley, Guardian UK
Boseley writes: "Only a tiny proportion of the global population - maybe as few as 2% or 3% - appear to have antibodies in the blood showing they have been infected with Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization."
READ MORE

Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. (photo: Getty Images)

Furloughs Hit Trump's Mar-a-Lago
Jordan Hoffman, Vanity Fair
Hoffman writes: "Not even the so-called Southern White House can escape the economic sting of the coronavirus pandemic. Mar-a-Lago, the house that Grape Nuts built."
READ MORE

Indian paramilitary troopers stand alert in front of the shuttered shops in the city center, on September 24, 2019 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. (photo: Yawar Nazir/Getty Images)

In Kashmir, the Coronavirus Means Increased Police Powers
Umar, Rauf, Haroon, Jacobin
Excerpt: "The lockdown that coronavirus has imposed upon much of the world is nothing new for those living in Indian-controlled Kashmir."
READ MORE

The dramatic price drop in oil was caused because more oil is being produced than can be stored. Here, a field operator inspects the pipelines at the Federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve near Beaumont, Texas, Sept. 21, 2000. (photo: Joe Raedle/Newsmakers)

Oil Prices Fall Below Zero for First Time in History
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "The dramatic price drop, from $50 to around negative $30 for the lead U.S. oil benchmark, was caused because more oil is being produced than can be stored."

EXCERPTS:

il prices turned negative for the first time in history Monday as energy demand plummets in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The dramatic price drop, from $50 to around negative $30 for the lead U.S. oil benchmark, was caused because more oil is being produced than can be stored, so buyers had to pay traders to take their May supply, The New York Times explained. This isn't entirely unexpected. The gap between demand and supply has been such that news outlets including EcoWatch reported this could happen in early April. But for climate activists, the incident highlights the instability of fossil fuels as an energy source.

"We are experiencing an unparalleled upending in our economies," 350.org's associate director of Fossil Finance Campaigns Brett Fleishman said in a statement. "And it is time for the fossil fuel industry to recognize that, from now on, the cheapest and best place to store oil is in the ground."

But it is uncertain what this dip in prices will mean both for fossil fuels and renewable energy going forward. The New York Times explained that Monday's price fall was partly because of how oil is traded. Future contracts for May expired Tuesday, which means buyers would have had to take possession of any oil purchased for the month despite a lack of storage space.

"The May crude oil contract is going out not with a whimper, but a primal scream," Pulitzer Prize-winning oil historian and vice chairman of IHS Markit Ltd Daniel Yergin told the Los Angeles Times.

But contracts for June closed at a relatively normal price of $20.43 per barrel, and it is hard to know what the coronavirus-induced oil crisis will mean for the renewable energy transition once lockdown orders are lifted. Oil demand has fallen by a almost a third compared to April of last year, according to International Energy Agency figures reported by TIME, and coal-fired electricity generation in the U.S. is at an all-time low, the Los Angeles Times reported. Carbon dioxide emissions are also down, but could ramp up again when the economy reopens.

Whether the recovery is based on fossil fuels or clean energy will depend on political decisions, energy researcher Alex Gilbert, a fellow at the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, told the Los Angeles Times.

"The big question with clean energy is probably what happens on the policy side," he said. "How much do China, the U.S. and the European Union pursue clean energy technologies as a stimulus method?"

Jason Bordoff, founding director of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, cautioned that oil demand could bounce back if people are afraid of taking public transportation following the pandemic.

"I live in New York City," Bordoff told the Los Angeles Times. "I think a lot more people will want to take personal cars if they have them, or even Ubers, before they get back in the subway again. When economies are struggling and people are struggling, environmental ambition in government policy wanes."

But some analysts think the oil industry will never be the same and that the world will never use as much oil as it did last year, as TIME reported. Many smaller companies will likely go out of business, and the larger companies will have less political power and feel more pressure to respond to the climate crisis.

In this view,, the coronavirus has only accelerated a reckoning for an industry whose product is a key source of global warming. Even last year, energy performed the worst of any sector on the S&P 500 stock index.

"The basic model is in pieces, it's fallen apart," director of finance at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) Tom Sanzillo told TIME. "This is an industry in last place."

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Thursday, July 23, 2020

FAIR: Stories Dooming Vaccine Hopes Overlook Immunity's Complexity in Search of Easy Clicks

Stories Dooming Vaccine Hopes Overlook Immunity's Complexity in Search of Easy Clicks

Saturday, July 11, 2020

Daily Kos Recommended: Study that shows COVID-19 antibodies rapidly decline has many concerned

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Did a mink just give the coronavirus to a human? Here’s what we know.

Did a mink just give the coronavirus to a human? Here’s what we know.

There is no need to panic about the latest reports from the Netherlands.

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

RSN: Michael Moore and Cornel West | "Vote for Biden, but Don't Lie About Who He Really Is"

ICYMI: Democrats Are Crushing It. Here’s The Proof.

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