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A long-term perspective on immunity to COVID

Determining the duration of protective immunity to infection by SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for understanding and predicting the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical studies now indicate that immunity will be long-lasting.

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Marcel Kuttab first sensed something was awry while brushing her teeth a year ago, several months after recovering from COVID-19.

Her toothbrush tasted dirty, so she threw it out and got a new one. Then she realized the toothpaste was at fault. Onions and garlic and meat tasted putrid, and coffee smelled like gasoline — all symptoms of the once little-known condition called parosmia that distorts the senses of smell and taste.

Kuttab, 28, who has a pharmacy doctoral degree and works for a drug company in Massachusetts, experimented to figure out what foods she could tolerate. “You can spend a lot of money in grocery stores and land up not using any of it,” she said.

The pandemic has put a spotlight on parosmia, spurring research and a host of articles in medical journals.

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Manatee County leaders have asked state health officials to investigate whether a more contagious and virulent strain of the coronavirus caused the deaths of two county workers and left three others in the hospital.

The two workers died of COVID-19 within a four day period last week. All five infected employees worked in the county’s information technology department on the seventh floor of the Manatee County Administration Building in downtown Bradenton.

None of the workers who tested positive were vaccinated, said County Administrator Scott Hopes. He said Monday that a sixth county employee has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as well as three workers at Port Manatee.

The holder of a master’s degree in epidemiology, Hopes said the spread of the disease and the death of two of the five initial cases suggests a COVID-19 variant. He has asked the Florida Department of Health to confirm that.

“As an epidemiologist, I don’t believe what we saw is the same SARS-CoV-2 virus we were dealing with a year ago,” he said. “It appears to be very contagious and has a high mortality rate, at least from what we’ve seen.”

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The 3 Simple Rules That Underscore the Danger of Delta

Vaccines are still beating the variants, but the unvaccinated world is being pummeled.

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Originally posted by wtg:

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Manatee County leaders have asked state health officials to investigate whether a more contagious and virulent strain of the coronavirus caused the deaths of two county workers and left three others in the hospital.

The two workers died of COVID-19 within a four day period last week. All five infected employees worked in the county’s information technology department on the seventh floor of the Manatee County Administration Building in downtown Bradenton.

None of the workers who tested positive were vaccinated, said County Administrator Scott Hopes. He said Monday that a sixth county employee has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as well as three workers at Port Manatee.

The holder of a master’s degree in epidemiology, Hopes said the spread of the disease and the death of two of the five initial cases suggests a COVID-19 variant. He has asked the Florida Department of Health to confirm that.

“As an epidemiologist, I don’t believe what we saw is the same SARS-CoV-2 virus we were dealing with a year ago,” he said. “It appears to be very contagious and has a high mortality rate, at least from what we’ve seen.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/...ind-deadly-outbreak/

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After months of data collection, scientists agree: The delta variant is the most contagious version of the coronavirus worldwide. It spreads about 225% faster than the original version of the virus, and it's currently dominating the outbreak in the United States.

A new study, published online Wednesday, sheds light on why. It finds that the variant grows more rapidly inside people's respiratory tracts and to much higher levels, researchers at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

On average, people infected with the delta variant had about 1,000 times more copies of the virus in their respiratory tracts than those infected with the original strain of the coronavirus, the study reported.

In addition, after someone catches the delta variant, the person likely becomes infectious sooner. On average, it took about four days for the delta variant to reach detectable levels inside a person, compared with six days for the original coronavirus variant.

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More than 1 million people in France made vaccine appointments in less than a day, according to figures released Tuesday, after the president cranked up pressure on everyone to get vaccinated to save the summer vacation season and the French economy.

Some bristled at President Emmanuel Macron’s admonition to “get vaccinated!” immediately, but many people signed up for shots, accepting that getting injected was the only way to return to some semblance of pre-pandemic life.

French government spokesman Gabriel Attal, noting the latest virus surges from South Africa to South Korea, and vaccine shortages in many poorer countries, appealed to his compatriots Tuesday to “look at what’s happening in the world.”

Macron also announced that special COVID-19 passes will be required starting in early August to enter restaurants and shopping malls and to get on trains and planes. The announcement raised questions and worries among foreign tourists and as residents of France planning vacations.

An app that centralizes France’s vaccine appointments, Doctolib, said Tuesday that 1.3 million people signed up for injections after Macron gave a televised address Monday night. It was a daily record since France rolled out coronavirus vaccines in December. People under age 35 made up most of the new appointments, Doctolib said.

Macron said vaccination would be obligatory for all health care workers by Sept. 15, and he held out the possibility of extending the requirement to others. Around 41% of the French population has been fully vaccinated, though the pace of shots being delivered has waned as summer vacations approached.

Government spokesman Attal insisted the vaccine mandate wasn’t meant to “stigmatize” reluctant health workers but to limit risks to the vulnerable populations they care for.