Monkey studies encouraging for coronavirus vaccine; virus travels
further on breezy days
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[May 22, 2020]
By Nancy Lapid
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The following is a
brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel
coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19,
the illness caused by the virus.
Monkeys who survive coronavirus infection immune to reinfection
Two studies in monkeys offer some of the first scientific evidence that
surviving COVID-19 may result in immunity from reinfection, as well as a
positive sign that vaccines under development may succeed. In one of the
new studies, researchers infected nine monkeys with the new coronavirus.
After they recovered, the team exposed them to the virus again and the
animals did not get sick. In the second study, the same researchers
treated 25 monkeys with experimental vaccines and then exposed them to
the coronavirus. In the vaccinated animals, "we saw a substantial degree
of protection," Dr. Dan Barouch told Reuters. Barouch, a researcher at
the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Harvard's Beth Israel
Deaconness Medical Center in Boston, and his colleagues published both
studies on Wednesday in the journal Science.
Saliva droplets travel more than six feet on a breezy day
On breezy days, staying six feet (two meters) away from other people may
not be enough to avoid saliva droplets containing the new coronavirus,
according to two papers published on Tuesday. In one study, reported in
the journal AIP Physics of Fluids, researchers who simulated breezes and
winds calculated that under the right conditions, some saliva droplets
could travel as far as 18 feet (six meters) from a coughing or sneezing
person. The other report, in the Journal of Aerosol Science, also
concludes that the current six-feet social-distancing policy "is not
sufficient to protect people" against coronavirus exposure from coughs
when it is breezy or windy. It is not known exactly how much virus it
takes for a person to become infected. While studies like these are
"important thought experiments," they may not reflect what is happening
in the real world, Dr. Amesh Adalja, from the Johns Hopkins Center for
Health Security in Baltimore told Reuters. "What we see in the real
world is transmission when there is prolonged close contact, such as
when people are living in the same household. I don't think this is a
cause to change the public health practices regarding six feet being the
distance you want to be separated from another individual."
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Older noses may be more welcoming to coronavirus
New studies show that the nose may hold the answers to why children
seem less vulnerable to infection with the new coronavirus, and why
loss of smell is a COVID-19 symptom. One study, published on
Wednesday in JAMA, found that in older people, the cells that line
the inside of the nose produce more of the cell-surface protein the
virus uses to enter the body, called angiotensin converting enzyme
II (ACE2). A second study, conducted in mice, found that not only
did nasal cells in older mice make more ACE2, but they also made
more of the enzyme TMPRSS2, which the virus also needs to break into
cells. Moreover, the researchers said on Wednesday in the journal
ACS Chemical Neuroscience, ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are produced by the same
nasal cavity cells that contribute to odor detection, which could
explain why partial or total loss of the sense of smell is often an
early COVID-19 symptom.
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Where have all the heart and stroke patients gone?
Fewer patients are showing up at hospitals with heart attacks and
strokes, and doctors worry people are staying away from emergency
rooms because they fear COVID-19. In a report on Tuesday in The New
England Journal of Medicine, doctors at a large health system in
northern California said that since early March, weekly rates of
hospitalization for heart attacks have been down by nearly half.
Earlier this month, researchers who looked at U.S. national stroke
data reported in the Journal that in late March and early April,
emergency radiology tests to evaluate stroke patients were down by
nearly 40% from prior to the pandemic. Even an excruciatingly
painful condition known as aortic dissection is being seen less
often. At 11 New York City hospitals, rates of aortic dissection
were down 76% in March and April compared to the previous two years,
researchers reported in the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology. When patients delay care for heart attacks and strokes,
they have more complications. With strokes in particular, timely
treatment is essential. "We need to get the message out. Hospitals
are fully prepared to care of people without COVID-19, and can do so
safely," Dr. Harlan Krumholz of Yale University in New Haven,
Connecticut, told Reuters. "It would be tragic for people to die at
home when they could have been helped."
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid, Julie Steenhuysen, Linda Carroll and Will
Boggs; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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