By Maayan
Lubell , Ari Rabinovitch
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The first big
real-world study of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be independently reviewed
shows the shot is highly effective at preventing COVID-19, in a potentially
landmark moment for countries desperate to end lockdowns and reopen economies.
Up until now, most data on the
efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines has come under controlled conditions in clinical
trials, leaving an element of uncertainty over how results would translate into
the real world with its unpredictable variables.
The research in Israel - two months
into one of the world’s fastest rollouts, providing a rich source of data -
showed two doses of the Pfizer shot cut symptomatic COVID-19 cases by 94%
across all age groups, and severe illnesses by nearly as much.
The study of about 1.2 million
people also showed a single shot was 57% effective in protecting against
symptomatic infections after two weeks, according to the data published and
peer-reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
The results of the study for the
Clalit Research Institute were close to those in clinical trials last year
which found two doses were found to be 95% effective.
“We were surprised because we
expected that in the real-world setting, where cold chain is not maintained
perfectly and the population is older and sicker, that you will not get as good
results as you got in the controlled clinical trials,” senior study author Ran
Balicer told Reuters. “But we did and the vaccine worked as well in the real
world.”
“We have shown the vaccine to be as
effective in very different sub-groups, in the young and in the old in those
with no co-morbidities and in those with few co-morbidities,” he added.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel-vaccine/in-boost-for-covid-19-battle-pfizer-vaccine-found-94-effective-in-real-world-idUSKBN2AO2UA
India warns of worsening COVID-19
situation, vaccinations to expand February
24, 2021 8:18 AM
By Krishna
N. Das , Neha Arora
NEW
DELHI (Reuters) - India announced an expansion of its vaccination programme on
Wednesday but warned that breaches of coronavirus protocols could worsen an
infection surge in many states.
Nearly a month after the health
minister declared that COVID-19 had been contained, states such as Maharashtra
in the west and Kerala in the south have reported a surge in cases, as
reluctance grows over mask-wearing and social distancing.
India’s infections are the second
highest in the world at 11.03 million, swelled in the past 24 hours by 13,742,
health ministry data shows. Deaths rose by a two-week high of 104 to 156,567.
“Any laxity in implementing
stringent measures to curb the spread, especially in view of new strains of
virus ... could compound the situation,” the ministry said in a statement
singling out nine states and a federal territory.
India has confirmed the long-time
presence of two mutant variants - N440K and E484Q - in addition to those first
detected in Brazil, Britain and South Africa.
The ministry said that while cases
in the states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and
Punjab, as well as the federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir, were rising, the
proportion of high-accuracy RT-PCR tests in those places was falling. Cases
have also risen in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
In the past week, a third of India’s
36 states and union territories have reported an average of more than 100 new
cases each day, with Kerala and Maharashtra both reporting more than 4,000, in
a trend experts link to the reopening of schools and suburban train services.
The
government has also asked states to speed vaccinations for healthcare and
frontline workers. Just about 11 million people have received one or two doses
in a campaign that began on Jan. 16, versus a target of 300 million by August.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india-cases/india-warns-of-worsening-covid-19-situation-vaccinations-to-expand-idUSKBN2AO0TG
California's coronavirus strain
looks increasingly dangerous: 'The devil is already here' Melissa Healy Tue, February 23, 2021, 1:00 PM
A coronavirus variant that probably emerged in May and
surged to become the dominant strain in California not only spreads more
readily than its predecessors but also evades antibodies generated by COVID-19
vaccines or prior infection and is associated with severe illness and death,
researchers said.
In a study that helps explain the state’s dramatic holiday
surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths — and portends further trouble ahead —
scientists at UC San Francisco said the cluster of mutations that characterizes
the homegrown strain should mark it as a “variant of
concern” on par with those from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.
Californians, along with the rest of the country, have been
bracing
for an onslaught of the more transmissible strain from the U.K. known as B.1.1.7.
But they should know that a rival strain that is probably just as worrisome has
already settled in, and will probably account for 90% of the state’s infections
by the end of next month, said Dr. Charles Chiu , an infectious diseases researcher and
physician at UCSF.
“The devil is already here,” said Chiu, who led a team of
geneticists, epidemiologists, statisticians and other scientists in a
wide-ranging analysis of the new variant, which they call B.1.427/B.1.429. “I
wish it were different. But the science is the science.”
The U.K. and California variants are each armed with
enhanced capabilities, and the likelihood that they could circulate in the same
population raises the specter of a return to spiking infections and deaths,
Chiu said. It also opens the door to a “nightmare scenario”: That the two
viruses will meet in a single person, swap their mutations and create an even
more dangerous strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The new evidence that the California variant could make
people sicker, and vaccines less effective, should spur more intensive efforts
to drive down infections, Chiu said
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the
nation's top infectious diseases expert, raised a further concern in an
interview with The Times. A survival-of-the-fittest contest between the U.K.
and California variants could accelerate the spread of the strain that's best
able to elude the effects of COVID-19 vaccines, he said. The best way to
prevent this, he added, is to stop the spread of either variant by getting
vaccinated, wearing masks and limiting exposure to others.
The
new analysis is currently under review by the public health departments of San
Francisco County and the state, which collaborated in the new research. It is
expected to post late this week to MedRxiv, a website that allows new research
to be shared before its formal publication.
----
Samples collected from a range of counties, and using a variety of collection
methods, suggest the variant is 19% to 24% more transmissible. But in some
circumstances, its advantage was much greater: In one nursing home outbreak,
B.1.427/B.1.429 spread at a rate that was six times higher than that of its
predecessors.
---- I n a UCSF lab, scientists found that the L452R
mutation alone made the California strain more damaging as well. A coronavirus
engineered to have only that mutation was able to infect human lung tissue at
least 40% more readily than were circulating variants that lacked the mutation.
Compared with those so-called wild-type strains, the engineered virus was more
than three times more infectious.
In the lab, the California strain
also revealed itself to be more resistant to neutralizing antibodies generated
in response to COVID-19 vaccines as well as by a previous coronavirus
infection.
More
https://news.yahoo.com/californias-coronavirus-strain-looks-increasingly-130055544.html
New COVID-19 variants may force
tweaks to tests, vaccines, FDA says Feb. 23, 2021 / 3:05 AM
The emergence of new coronavirus variants could require a
quick pivot on the part of pharmaceutical and medical device companies, to help
stay one step ahead of COVID-19 .
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued
guidelines Monday encouraging drug and test developers to pay attention to new
coronavirus variants and be prepared to make that pivot if necessary.
The guidance provides recommendations for companies seeking
to tweak already-approved vaccines, medicines and tests so that they will
remain effective against any new variants that emerge.
"Many of these products might be impacted by changes
to the virus, particularly their efficacy or their performance," acting
FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said during a media briefing Monday.
"We recognize we are in a pandemic situation and we
need to make sure that health care providers have the best available
diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to fight the virus. These may need to be
modified over time to remain maximally effective," Woodcock added.
The emergence of highly infectious new COVID-19 variants
out of Britain, South Africa and Brazil have raised concerns that mutations
might weaken the effectiveness of vaccines and drugs now used to treat the
disease.
Studies have shown that the two vaccines now on the market
remain effective in thwarting the U.K. and South African variants of the virus
that causes COVID-19, but experts are worried that monoclonal antibody
treatments might not work as well.
"Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins
that mimic the immune system in fighting off harmful pathogens such as
viruses," Woodcock said. "We know that some of the monoclonal
antibodies that are currently authorized are less active against some of the
[COVID-19] variants that have emerged and are prevalent in some parts of the
world."
More
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/02/23/New-COVID-19-variants-may-force-tweaks-to-tests-vaccines-FDA-says/8621614036296/
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Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported.
Polymer film protects from
electromagnetic radiation, signal interference The breakthrough
combines excellent electromagnetic shielding with ease of manufacture and
electrical isolation Date: February 22, 2021
Source: University of California - Riverside
Summary: Engineers describe a flexible film using a
quasi-one-dimensional nanomaterial filler that combines excellent electromagnetic
shielding with ease of manufacture.
As electronic devices saturate all
corners of public and personal life, engineers are scrambling to find
lightweight, mechanically stable, flexible, and easily manufactured materials
that can shield humans from excessive electromagnetic radiation as well as
prevent electronic devices from interfering with each other.
In a breakthrough report published
in Advanced Materials -- the top journal in the field -- engineers at
the University of California, Riverside describe a flexible film using a
quasi-one-dimensional nanomaterial filler that combines excellent
electromagnetic shielding with ease of manufacture.
"These novel films are
promising for high-frequency communication technologies, which require
electromagnetic interference shielding films that are flexible, lightweight,
corrosion resistant, inexpensive, and electrically insulating," said
senior author Alexander A. Balandin, a distinguished professor of electrical
and computer engineering at UC Riverside's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College
of Engineering. "They couple strongly to high-frequency radiofrequency
radiation while remaining electrically insulating in direct current
measurements."
Electromagnetic interference, or
EMI, occurs when signals from different electronic devices cross each other,
affecting performance. The signal from a cell phone or laptop WiFi, or even a
kitchen blender, might cause static to appear on a TV screen, for example.
Likewise, airlines instruct passengers to turn off cellphones during landing
and takeoff because their signals can disrupt navigation signals.
Engineers long ago learned that any
electrical device could possibly influence the functioning of a nearby device
and developed materials to shield electronics from interfering signals. But now
that electronic devices have become ubiquitous, small, wirelessly connected,
and critical to innumerable essential services, the opportunities for and risks
of EMI-caused malfunctions have proliferated, and conventional EMI shielding
materials are often insufficient. More electronic devices mean humans are also
exposed to greater electromagnetic radiation than in the past. New shielding
materials will be needed for the next generation of electronics.
Balandin led a team that developed
the scalable synthesis of composites with unusual fillers -- chemically
exfoliated bundles of quasi-one-dimensional van der Waals materials. The
composites demonstrated exceptional EMI shielding materials in the gigahertz
and sub-terahertz frequency ranges, important for current and future
communication technologies, while remaining electrically insulating.
Graphene is the most famous van der
Waals material. It is two-dimensional because it is a plane of strongly bound
atoms. Many planes of graphene, weakly coupled by van der Waals forces, make up
a bulk graphite crystal. For many years, research was focused specifically on
two-dimensional layered van der Waals materials, which exfoliate into planes of
atoms.
---- "In the end, I got them right, prepared
a composite and measured the EMI properties. The results were amazing: no
electric conductivity but more than 99.99% of EMI shielding for micrometer
thick films," Barani added.
The quasi-1D van der Waals metallic
fillers can be produced inexpensively and in large quantities. Balandin said
that research on atomic bundles of quasi-1D van der Waals materials as
individual conductors, and composites with such materials is just beginning.
"I am sure we will soon see a
lot of progress with quasi-1D van der Waals materials, as happened with
quasi-2D materials," he said.
More
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210222164141.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other
cases observe it.
Julius Caesar.
