🦘Cacatman's Personal Coronavirus COVID-19 Update Thread

[cacatman]

Protective - Metformin Use in Type 2 Diabetics
Metformin use substantially reducing risk (3 fold reduced mortality) of dying in Type 2s. ie. possibly reducing the effect of COVID-19.

Metformin Use Is Associated With Reduced Mortality in a Diverse Population With COVID-19 and Diabetes

BackgroundCoronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a growing pandemic with an increasing death toll that has been linked to various comorbidities as well as racial disparity. However, the specific characteristics of these at-risk populations are still not known and approaches to lower mortality...

www.frontiersin.org

There was an earlier French study also - Phenotypic characteristics and prognosis of inpatients with COVID-19 and diabetes: the CORONADO study

as well as one based in the US (looking at reduced risk in women)

Observational Study of Metformin and Risk of Mortality in Patients Hospitalized with Covid-19

Importance Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and obesity are significant risk factors for mortality in Covid19. Metformin has sex specific immunomodulatory effects which may elucidate treatment mechanisms in COVID-19. Objective: We sought to identify whether metformin reduced mortality from Covid19 and if...

www.medrxiv.org

 

[cacatman]

Merck to Discontinue Vaccine Development
Due to disappointing phase 1 results. But they will continue development of antiviral treatments.

The hope was that Merck’s vaccines, which were unique because they used viruses that could replicate once they were in the body, would be long-lasting, one-dose vaccines. The virus used for the vaccine being developed with IAVI is the one used in Merck’s successful vaccine against Ebola. The other vaccine used measles virus, a type of vaccine Merck has manufactured for decades.

Merck Discontinues Development of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates; Continues Development of Two Investigational Therapeutic Candidates - Merck.com

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced that the company is discontinuing development of its SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccine candidates, V590 and V591, and plans to focus its SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 research strategy and production capabilities on advancing...

www.merck.com

 

[cacatman]

1 in 2 Health Care Workers Find Life Has Worsened
46% of health care workers say their mental health has worsened during the pandemic, while 38% say there’s been no change.

Health care workers were most likely to say their relationship with a romantic partner has improved during the pandemic, at 26%, while 39% said there’s been no change.

About a third of health care workers say their personal financial situation has gotten worse.

‘We Are Burned Out:’ Nearly 1 in 2 Health Care Workers Say COVID-19 Has Harmed Their Mental Health

Health care workers are living the COVID-19 pandemic like no other group of people — and it’s taken a significant toll on their mental health.

morningconsult.com

 

[cacatman]

Vaccine Guidance from Mayo Clinic

Get the facts about COVID-19 vaccines

Find out about the COVID-19 vaccines, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination and the possible side effects.

www.mayoclinic.org

 

[cacatman]

Death Rates Per Age
One out of every 800 people entering early middle age at 45 will die from their COVID infection, 55-year-olds have a 1 in 240 risk of dying if they contract the coronavirus, and 65-year-olds have a 1 in 70 chance.

By comparison, people who are 25 have a 1 in 10,000 risk of dying from COVID, and 35-year-olds have a 1 in 2,700 chance.

The new numbers come from a systematic review of all available studies of COVID-19 incidence in countries with advanced economies, and are based specifically on data from 27 studies covering locations in the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe.

People between 45 and 55 die nearly 18 times more often from COVID-19 than from an auto wreck, according to the study, while those aged 55 to 64 are almost 58 times more likely to die from a COVID infection than a crash.

"If someone develops chronic lung disease at the age of 40 because they were exposed to this virus, their life for the next 20 to 30 years is going to be negatively impacted. So absolutely, we have to be very mindful that we're not reckless."

Assessing the age specificity of infection fatality rates for COVID-19: systematic review, meta-analysis, and public policy implications - European Journal of Epidemiology

Determine age-specific infection fatality rates for COVID-19 to inform public health policies and communications that help protect vulnerable age groups. Studies of COVID-19 prevalence were collected by conducting an online search of published articles, preprints, and government reports that...

link.springer.com

 

[cacatman]

New Advice From WHO
- low dose anticoagulation
- prone position

WHO issues new clinical advice on treating COVID-19 patients

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued fresh clinical advice on Tuesday for treating COVID-19 patients, including those displaying persistent symptoms after recovery, and also said it advised using low-dose anti-coagulants to prevent blood clots.

www.reuters.com

 

[cacatman]

Treatment - Tocilizumab Did Not Reduce Mortality
In hospitalized patients with Covid-19 pneumonia who were not receiving mechanical ventilation, tocilizumab reduced the likelihood of progression to the composite outcome of mechanical ventilation or death, but it did not improve survival.

Tocilizumab in Patients Hospitalized with Covid-19 Pneumonia - PubMed

In hospitalized patients with Covid-19 pneumonia who were not receiving mechanical ventilation, tocilizumab reduced the likelihood of progression to the composite outcome of mechanical ventilation or death, but it did not improve survival. No new safety signals were identified. (Funded by...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Results showed that treatment with tocilizumab plus remdesivir did not meet the primary end point of improvement in time to hospital discharge by day 28. Moreover, tocilizumab plus remdesivir did not meet key secondary end points, which included likelihood of death, likelihood of progression to mechanical ventilation or death, and clinical status. There were no new safety signals identified for tocilizumab.

ClinicalTrials.gov

clinicaltrials.gov

 

[cacatman]

Risk Factors - ?Barrett's Oesophagitis
Patients with Barrett’s esophagus — a condition caused by acid reflux — may be vulnerable to coronavirus infection from what they swallow, according to a study published online in the journal Gastroenterology by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis.

Esophagus May Be Entryway for COVID-19 Infection in Some Patients

Patients with Barrett's esophagus -- a condition caused by acid reflux -- may be vulnerable to coronavirus infection from what they swallow.

rtmagazine.com

 

[cacatman]

Long Covid - Virus Can Hide in Brains!!!
The coronavirus may remain in people's brains after infection and trigger relapses in patients who thought they had recovered

Neuroinvasion and Encephalitis Following Intranasal Inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 in K18-hACE2 Mice

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause neurological disease in humans, but little is known about the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the central nervous system (CNS). Herein, using K18-hACE2 mice, we demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 neuroinvasion and...

www.mdpi.com

COVID-19 May Hide in Brains and Cause Relapses, Study Says

The coronavirus may remain in people's brains after infection and trigger relapses in patients who thought they had recovered, according to a new study published in the journal Viruses.

www.medscape.com

 

[cacatman]

CRP in COVID-19
In patients with COVID-19, admission CRP correlated with disease severity and tended to be a good predictor of adverse outcome.
With a cutoff value of 41.4, CRP exhibited sensitivity of 90.5%, specificity of 77.6%, positive predictive value of 61.3%, and negative predictive value of 95.4%. CRP was also an independent discriminator of severe/critical illness on admission with an AUC (0.783) comparable to age (0.828) and neutrophil count (0.729) (both P > .05).

Prognostic Value of C-Reactive Protein in Patients With Coronavirus 2019 - PubMed

In patients with COVID-19, admission CRP correlated with disease severity and tended to be a good predictor of adverse outcome.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

At the early stage of COVID-19, CRP levels were positively correlated with lung lesions. CRP levels could reflect disease severity and should be used as a key indicator for disease monitoring.

C-reactive protein levels in the early stage of COVID-19

COVID-19 is a new infectious disease, for which there is currently no treatment. It is therefore necessary to explore biomarkers to determine the exte…

www.sciencedirect.com