News from the USA, United States of America

Harvard Gazette: 'Getting to the bottom of long COVID'

'A reservoir of virus in the body may explain why some people experience long COVID symptoms’

'The study analyzed 1,569 blood samples collected from 706 people, including 392 participants from the National Institutes of Health-supported Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative..’

“Another possible cause of long-COVID symptoms could be that the virus harms the immune system, causing immune dysfunction to continue after the virus is cleared.”- David Walt, a professor of pathology at BWH and principal investigator on the study"

“Other viruses are associated with similar post-acute syndromes" - Zoe Swank, Dept. of Pathology, BWH
 
Dakota15 said:
The Nevada Independent: 'At Vegas town hall, Harris faces questions from Latinos on immigration, health care'

'Harris touted the Biden administration’s efforts to have long COVID included as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act..'
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Of course, a purely administrative thing with zero real-life benefits in 99%+ of cases and an insignificant, and expensive and difficult to achieve, impact on the few who can manage it. Very fitting response. It symbolizes very aptly how chronic illness is systematically disrespected and discriminated against.

Any attempt at getting this enforced will be met with boilerplate "Long Covid is a new and mysterious condition" and a shrug of indifference about how they can't/won't do anything. Then you need to pay for expensive attorneys, which if you can afford you probably don't need its protections, and face years of wasted efforts for token gains.

Glad that the issue was raised, but every single country has failed miserably at this. Every single one. The problem is with the health care industry, and they are not affected by elections nor swayed by growing evidence that they enabled a mass disabling event, promising pretty much the opposite.
 
Brown Daily Herald: 'COVID-19 declared endemic in RI as students continue to grapple with virus'

“That’s not to minimize the risk of the suffering of people who already have long COVID..we’ve got to figure out how to take better care of them” - Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health and the Biden Administration’s former White House COVID-19 response coordinator.

"Votta contracted COVID-19 in February and was diagnosed with long COVID shortly after. “You just feel this level of exhaustion constantly that nothing alleviates,” Votta explained. “It doesn’t matter if you get a good night’s sleep. It doesn’t matter if you rest during the day. It never goes away.”

For Votta, the loosening of pandemic-era public health policies renders disabled and vulnerable communities invisible. The fact that COVID-19 might not be “killing people outright doesn’t mean that it’s not disabling (people) still, and further disabling people who are already living with pre-existing disability,” she said."
 
ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center): 'Sigma Theta Tau & ANCC Announce Winner of the 2024 Evidence-Based Practice Implementation Grant'

'Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) are excited to announce the 2024 recipient of the Sigma/ANCC Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Implementation Grant: an interprofessional team led by Nisha Mathews, PhD, MSN, RN, from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Their award-winning project, titled “Community Insight to Clinical Care: A Nursing-Led Evidence-Based Patient Education Program for ME/CFS,” aims to improve care for patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) through a patient-centered, evidence-based education program.'

Dr. Mathews is joined by an interprofessional team, including:
  • Jessica Ask, MSN, RN, Ambulatory Nurse Manager, Mayo Clinic
  • Stephanie Grach, MS, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic-Rochester
  • Jaime Seltzer, MS, Scientific Director, MEAction
'The winning team will be honored at the 2024 ANA Enterprise Research Symposium - Elevating Nursing Through Innovation and Research on October 29, 2024, in New Orleans, LA. This event is hosted by the ANA Enterprise Research Advisory Council and the ANA Enterprise Institute for Nursing Research & Quality Management.'

'Expected outcomes include improved patient engagement and enhanced quality of life for individuals with ME/CFS. This project will serve as a model for future patient-centered, evidence-based education programs in chronic disease management.'
 
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Fortune: 'COVID-19 raises the stakes for heart attacks, strokes, and even death long after infection, new study finds'

“These findings are undeniable and extremely troubling,” says David Putrino..

"How COVID-19 elevates the risk for cardiovascular problems is the subject of much study and conjecture. Research into long COVID has highlighted the disease’s deleterious effects on the body’s normal functions over time, and some of the same factors may well be at work here."

"COVID-19 may lead to inflammation of endothelial cells (that line blood vessels),” says Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at VA St. Louis Health Care, whose previous work foretold many of the results from the U.K. Biobank study."

Sandeep Das, co-chair of the American Heart Association’s COVID-19 CVD Registry committee and a director at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas: “I think this study should perhaps push some people out of complacency and into thinking about their longer-term risk.”

“You may have forgotten that you had COVID years ago, but it has not forgotten about you,” Al-Aly says, “Trivializing COVID as just a cold or an inconsequential nothing-burger is wishful thinking that does not align with scientific evidence.”
 
Contagion Live: 'Unmasking Long COVID Through Understanding Prevalence and Diagnosis'

'This Long COVID roundtable is a collaborative project from ContagionLive and NeurologyLive.'

'In this first episode, clinicians discuss the prevalence of Long COVID, its underestimation due to subclinical cases and recruitment challenges, and stress the importance of thorough history-taking for accurate diagnosis, especially regarding its overlap with ME/CFS..'

Our panel of clinicians includes:
  • Ravindra Ganesh, MD, MBBS, FACP, Dip ABOM, general medicine doctor at the Mayo Clinic and leader of their Long COVID clinic.
  • Svetlana Blitshteyn, MD, FAAN, clinical associate professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, director of the Dysautonomia Clinic.
  • Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, professor, and chair of rehabilitation medicine at UT Health, leader of the Long COVID clinic.
 
Mother Jones: 'Tens of Thousands of People Are Dying on the Disability Wait List'

'Three years ago, after developing Long Covid, 62-year-old Martha applied for Social Security Disability Insurance..on Thursday..she asked VP Kamala Harris about the issue..'

'Harris, starting off on track, highlighted her recent push for Long Covid to be included in the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the vice president didn’t acknowledge the issue of wait times for federal disability benefit determinations, talking instead about how medical debt impacted credit scores.'

'Harris’ push to incorporate Long Covid into the ADA is welcome; it’s about time. Latino people are the likeliest of any racial group to report having Long Covid, according to Census data; many also participate in SSDI, and her Univision non-answer on wait times was eyebrow-raising.'

'But a Long Covid–friendly ADA doesn’t mean any change in Social Security practices, which are separate. Securing disability income is a much more complex, demanding process than securing ADA accommodations (which can be hard enough). Separate action is needed on both—and within Harris’ grasp, should she land in the White House.'

'That’s not to say that Democrats have made no moves to address challenges around Long Covid and Social Security disability delays. In August, a Senate group including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Vir.), Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sen Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Ver.) sent O’Malley a letter asking a similar question: what was the Social Security Administration doing to address the barriers that applicants with Long Covid face? They have yet to receive a response—at least publicly.'
 
Dakota15 said:
Long COVID Rise Symposium at Univ. Washington today, a few screenshots from today. Recording should be up sometime next week

https://twitter.com/user/status/1845133527236395279
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2024 Long COVID RISE Symposium
https://sites.uw.edu/longcovidclinic/long-covid-rise-symposium/

Agenda
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.../2024/10/Final-2024-Rise-Symposium-Agenda.pdf

Slides
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites...24-Symposium-Slides-Print-Copy-with-Notes.pdf

This was a mask mandatory event. KN95 masks were available.

CME credits available.

Dr. Beth Unger, MD, PhD, 30 minute presentation, "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Context for Long COVID and other Post-Acute Infection Syndromes".
 
10/14/24, Stanford Medicine: "Unraveling the Heart of Long COVID"

'To explore how long COVID impacts heart health, researchers in this study used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) differentiated into heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs).’

"Emerging research about long COVID suggests that influence of the virus extends to the heart through an intricate interplay of immune response, inflammation, and endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction.”

"Endothelial cells have emerged as key players in cardiovascular complications of long COVID, and understanding how they contribute is crucial for developing treatments and preventative strategies.”

"These cells are important for maintaining healthy blood flow and heart function. In long COVID, endothelial cells become inflamed and dysfunctional. They also release too many CCLs, a chemokine that attracts immune cells and promotes inflammation.”

"This important study shows the potential of targeting endothelial dysfunction and the associated inflammatory responses for treatment of existing heart issues or to prevent further cardiovascular complications in long COVID patients.”

"The cutting-edge work presented in this manuscript highlights the importance of continued research to understand the full scope of the effect of long COVID on the body. As health challenges posed by long COVID continue to evolve, it becomes more important to move closer to finding ways to treat or prevent the long-term impact.”

Copied to the thread on the research:
CCL2-mediated endothelial injury drives cardiac dysfunction in long COVID, 2024, Dilip Thomas et al
 
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Boston Globe: 'What causes long COVID? For nearly half of cases, new research suggests an answer.'

'A study from researchers at Mass General Brigham may pave the way for effective treatments'

'Viruses hide, that’s what they do,” said David Putrino..

'Though others have detected the presence of viral fragments in long COVID patients before, Putrino said the new study is among the most comprehensive. The fact that it was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he added, is “very important,” suggesting that federal officials may finally be willing to listen to front line long COVID researchers and patient advocates.'

''The traditional medical establishment, including the NIH, Putrino said, has been slow to embrace the viral persistence theory, because it defies conventional medical thinking.'

'But Walt has high-hopes for the new study, which, unlike previous studies, will identify which patients have remnants of the virus present and extend the period of time they receive Paxlovid.'
 
I just came across an interview in Nature today with the director of NIAID - she discusses potential Long COVID drug trials:
This is also true of long COVID drug development. In August, the NIAID took over the clinical trial platform for this post-viral disease. Why the shift?

I mentioned before the ACTIV platform, which is how we got Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir studied immediately. And we used a similar platform approach to study a whole bunch of other treatments, like immune modulators and steroids, for COVID. We didn’t have to use any placebos and could do rapid assessments of drugs — quickly discarding agents that don’t work.

Many people have been asking for a similar approach for long COVID. The feeling in this community is that there hasn't been enough urgency to get a product here. If you talk to many people living with long COVID, you can really appreciate that a lot of people are suffering. We decided that it would make a lot of sense to apply a similar approach to long COVID under the NIAID. And in fact, we just opened the portal for people to submit ideas for drugs that can be tested, whether they're therapies or devices or other interventions. We really want people to submit ideas to us so that we can start getting some of these things into trials.

A challenge with long COVID is that there aren't a number of candidates that may work. There's no obvious treatment right now that screams ‘this needs to get studied immediately’. I think it's going to take some work. But we have to do it, and we have to do it quickly, because this is a really hard problem.

There is also uncertainty around long COVID pathobiology, appropriate endpoints and trial designs. In the case of HIV prophylaxis, it took decades to get from approved antivirals to effective PrEP. Any lessons from that experience for long COVID?

One thing we learned from COVID is that once we have good drug candidates, we can move really quickly. The challenge is that we don't have obvious candidates. But at a recent meeting about long COVID that we hosted, somebody reminded us that AZT [azidothymidine] was originally developed as a chemotherapeutic for cancer [in 1964] and was sitting on a shelf in the National Cancer Institute until somebody said we might want to look at it. Was AZT a game changer? In retrospect, not really; we learned pretty quickly that it wasn't going to be the full answer to AIDS. But, on the other hand, it opened the door to the possibility that we could actually treat this thing.

A lot of people were citing that as an example that we shouldn’t assume that we don't have something that might work for long COVID. We need to have an organized assessment of what we've got, and that's part of the reason we wanted to get that portal out there.
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