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 New York variant harbors a third worrisome mutation
The coronavirus variant on the rise in New York City contains the
same E484K mutation seen in variants in Brazil and South Africa
believed to make COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapies less
effective, as well as a mutation called S477N that helps it bind
more tightly to cells when it breaks into them. A report by New York
State Department of Health researchers posted on Monday on medRxiv
ahead of peer review adds new information. All versions of the
variant circulating in New York harbor a mutation called D235G that
might reduce the efficacy of neutralizing antibodies. The variant
"has increased in the circulating virus population in New York state
by almost 26-fold in a little over a month," the researchers said.
"The combination of E484K or S477N with a D253G mutation that might
confer immune escape, and the increased number of COVID-19 cases
associated with these variants, warrants further monitoring," they
said. (https://bit.ly/2ZYX0JM)
Vaccinating the elderly preserves the most years of life
Prioritizing elderly people for COVID-19 vaccinations saves not only
the most lives but also the most years of life, a new study
suggests. Taking age and health risks into account, the authors
calculated the number of lives potentially saved by COVID-19
vaccines in the United States, Germany and South Korea and
multiplied that number by the life expectancy of those vaccinated.
Patients' risk of death from COVID-19 rises faster with age - at a
rate of about 11% per year - than their remaining life expectancy
falls, said study leader Joshua Goldstein of the University of
California, Berkeley. Without vaccinations, the numbers of people
who would die of COVID-19 is so much higher in the oldest age groups
than in younger groups that protecting the older groups actually
saves more years of life, in total. "Before this study, it was
suspected that there would be some intermediate age - not too old
and not too young - which would maximize the benefit of a vaccine,
in terms of person years of life saved," Goldstein said in a
statement. Instead, vaccinating a 90-year-old in the United States
would save twice as many years as vaccinating a 75-year-old, and six
times as many as vaccinating a 50-year-old, his team reported on
Thursday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of
the USA. (https://bit.ly/2Pd0TZh)
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Full personal protective equipment can make wearers sick
Personal protective equipment (PPE) required in operating rooms and
intensive care units can make wearers sick, a small study confirms.
The findings help explain reports by clinicians of difficulty
breathing, headache, and mental impairment while wearing the full
protective suit that includes high quality mask, face shield and
gloves, researchers said. Among the eight surgeons who volunteered
for the study, PPE impaired breathing, resulting in high blood
levels of carbon dioxide and low levels of oxygen. "Air re-breathed
within the PPE mask after two hours was found to contain almost 8%
carbon dioxide - 260-fold more than atmospheric levels (0.03%),"
said Dr. Wyn Lewis of University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. The
changes were significantly greater than those seen with standard
operating room garments, his team reported on Saturday in the
British Journal of Surgery, and can cause fluctuations in brain
blood flow, shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness, nausea, mental
impairment, fatigue, and headache. Three of the surgeons experienced
headaches related to altered blood flow in a major brain artery.
"These findings were observed in young, fit, doctors, posing the
question of what might emerge in mature professionals with
co-existing medical issues, or anyone working beyond this study's
two-hour limit," Lewis said. (https://bit.ly/2MEd9kM)
Pandemic-waste plastics are threatening the planet
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unmanageable levels of
biomedical plastic wastes, researchers warn. Worldwide,
approximately 3.4 billion single-use facemasks are generated and
discarded daily. From those alone, the amount of pandemic-related
plastic waste generated during the past year is equivalent to about
1.6 million tons per day, according to a report in the journal
Heliyon. Plastic in masks, gloves, aprons, and bottles of sanitizers
are overwhelming the capacity of waste management facilities
worldwide, especially in developing nations, said study coauthor
Nsikak Benson of Covenant University in Nigeria. Studies have shown
that the new coronavirus can survive on plastic surfaces for days,
but "the overwhelming nonexistence of effective waste management
facilities in developing countries implies that a large percentage
of single-use plastic waste generated might end up in open dump
sites," Benson said. The report calls on governments and
policy-makers to prioritize effective waste management of these
contaminated plastics and to develop "robust" conservation
strategies for sterilization and disinfection of surgical gowns and
masks. (https://bit.ly/3bSijlO)
Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl in an external browser for a Reuters
graphic on vaccines in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Christine Soares; Editing by Bill
Berkrot)
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