Reuters: A senior Defense Department official acknowledged the U.S. military engaged in secret propaganda to disparage China’s vaccine in the developing world, but the official declined to provide details. /1
reuters.com/investigates/s… To implement the anti-vax campaign, the Defense Department overrode strong objections from top U.S. diplomats in Southeast Asia at the time, Reuters found.

Phylogenetic data support mammal-to-mammal transmission of H5N1 & Adaptation

Massive outbreak of Influenza A H5N1 in elephant seals at Peninsula Valdes, Argentina: increased evidence for mammal-to-mammal transmission
biorxiv.org/content/10.110… SNPs specific to the marine mammal clade:
* Q591K and D701N in PB2
* L548F in PB1
* A20T, M86I, and M548I in PA
* R21Q and I226T in NS1

Influenza A H5N1 Puzzle. What do you think?

Left: Influenza A in waste water as of 5/4/2024

Right: Large slaughterhouses and meat processing plants that discharge directly to waterways

https://twitter.com/RolandBakerIII/status/1791150547564888522

(1/n) Risk assessment of a highly pathogenic H5N1 2.3.4.4b influenza virus from mink: H5N1 isolate derived from mink transmits by direct contact to 75% of exposed ferrets and, in airborne transmission studies, the virus transmits to 37.5% of contacts.
nature.com/articles/s4146… The H5N1 virus also has a low infectious dose and remains virulent at low doses. This isolate carries the adaptive mutation, PB2 T271A, and reversing this mutation reduces mortality and airborne transmission.

(1/n) Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses of the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in the urban environment in New York City positive:

* Red-tailed hawk 1/81
* Canada goose 3/222
* Peregrine falcon 1/12
* Chicken 1/302
* Total 6+ out of 1798 sampled

Next Symptoms =>

H/T @bollyweed

https://twitter.com/thelonevirologi/status/1790865158778044889

Red tailed hawk
* Neurologic symptoms
* loss of leg function
* torticollis
* glottis wide open.

(1/n) Marked endotheliotropism of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 following intestinal inoculation in cats:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22090101/
* Spread of HPAIV H5N1 from the lumen of the intestine to other organs took place via the blood and lymphatic vascular systems but not via neuronal transmission

/1 MRI reveals blood–brain barrier disruption of the temporal lobes and frontal lobes with enhanced BBB permeability unique to Long COVID cases with brain fog caused by sustained systemic inflammation. H/T @StevenMathern
nature.com/articles/s4159…


/2 BBB disruption in the temporal lobes was associated with anosmia. BBB disfunction & sustained systemic inflammation was associated with increased astrocytic protein S100β, IL-6, bFGF and IL-13.

Nature: Differential peripheral immune signatures elicited by vegan versus ketogenic diets in humans: 2 weeks of a a ketogenic diet was associated with a significant upregulation of pathways and enrichment in cells associated with the adaptive immune system. In contrast, a vegan diet had a significant impact on the innate immune system, including upregulation of pathways associated with antiviral immunity. Both diets significantly and differentially impacted the microbiome and host-associated amino acid metabolism, with a strong downregulation of most microbial pathways following ketogenic diet compared with baseline and vegan diet. Despite the diversity of participants, we also observed a tightly connected network between datasets driven by compounds associated with amino acids, lipids and the immune system.
nature.com/articles/s4159… These findings are aligned with the previously reported role of ketogenic diet in increasing γδ T cell responses in mice.

(1/3) Three immunizations with Novavax’s protein vaccines increase antibody breadth and provide durable protection from SARS-CoV-2: Two long threads on this paper linked below (H/T @StevenMathern)
nature.com/articles/s4154… (2/3) Link to thread 1 of 2

https://twitter.com/BagaiDr/status/1749239589884383574

Nature: The selection landscape and genetic legacy of ancient Eurasians: 1,600 imputed ancient genomes beginning around 12,000 years ago indicate rapid evolution far earlier than thought involving diet & selective pressure in FADS, LCT & HLA...
nature.com/articles/s4158… Using ancient individuals to infer local ancestry tracts in over 400,000 samples from the UK Biobank, the authors identify widespread differences in the distribution of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestries across Eurasia.

JAMA: Mental Morbidities and Chronic Fatigue in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome SurvivorsLong-term Follow-up (2009):
* 40% had "active psychiatric illness"
* 27% met diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome
* Health care workers at high risk
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamai… Hard to imagine what would have been the case had these study participants (average age was 43 years, and 70% were women) been reinfected repeatedly by SARS1.

Reuters report from 2009
reuters.com/article/idUSTR…

Ancient DNA reveals admixture history and endogamy in the prehistoric Aegean: newly generated genome-wide data from 102 ancient individuals from Crete, the Greek mainland and the Aegean Islands, spanning from the Neolithic to the Iron Age.
nature.com/articles/s4155… The early farmers from Crete shared the same ancestry as other contemporaneous Neolithic Aegeans. In contrast, the end of the Neolithic period and the following Early Bronze Age were marked by ‘eastern’ gene flow, which was predominantly of Anatolian origin in Crete.

(1/n) Eurosurveillance: Adverse events following first and second dose COVID-19 vaccination in England, October 2020 to September 2021: a national vaccine surveillance platform self-controlled case series study
eurosurveillance.org/content/10.280… (2/n) This study compares how frequently a selected list of adverse events occurred in the 7 days after people received their first and second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by brand compared to background levels, using real-world data from general practices in England.

(1/n) Victorian Department of Health: Associations between COVID‐19 and hospitalisation with respiratory and non‐respiratory conditions: a record linkage study: (prior to widespread vaccination rollout)
mja.com.au/journal/2023/2… (2/n) "A total of 20 594 COVID‐19 cases were notified; 2992 people (14.5%) were hospitalised with COVID‐19. The incidence of hospitalisation within 89 days of onset of COVID‐19 was higher than during the baseline period for several conditions, including

(1/n) Adverse Events Following the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine (Pfizer-BioNtech) in Aotearoa New Zealand: The IRR (95% CI) of myo/pericarditis following the first dose was 2.6 (2.2– 2.9)
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… (2/n) with a risk difference (95% CI) of 1.6 (1.1– 2.1) per 100,000 persons vaccinated and was 4.1 (3.7– 4.5) with a risk difference of 3.2 (2.6– 3.9) per 100,000 persons vaccinated following the second dose.

(1/n) Uncoupling of all-cause excess mortality from COVID-19 cases in a highly vaccinated state (Massachusetts)
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… /2 "Since March, 2020, excess mortality—the number of all-cause deaths exceeding the baseline number of expected deaths—has been observed in waves coinciding with COVID-19 outbreaks in the USA and worldwide."

(1/n) Oxford: Association of COVID-19 with short- and long-term risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality: a prospective cohort in UK Biobank
academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/… In the acute phase, patients with COVID-19 (n = 7584) were associated with:

* a significantly higher short-term risk of CVD {hazard ratio (HR): 4.3 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.6– 6.9]; HR: 5.0 (95% CI: 3.0–8.1)}

"No or mild disease clustered more in the region of spike-associated IgG4 while more severe disease courses (hospitalization, oxygen supplementation, ICU) assembled in the region of spike-associated IgG3 and the NC sub- and isotypes referred to above." /1
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

https://twitter.com/SabiVM/status/1607915944877211651

"The surprisingly higher prevalence of the IgG4 subtype might arise owing to repeated encounters with the antigen, which earlier studies on COVID-19 may not have captured. In this context, repeated infections have previously been described to elevate total IgG4 levels."

Nature: COVID-19 plasma exosomes promote proinflammatory immune responses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells:
nature.com/articles/s4159… Virus-infected cells release virus-associated exosomes, extracellular vesicles of endocytic origin, into the blood to deliver viral cargoes able to regulate immune responses.

Nature: Senescence atlas reveals an aged-like inflamed niche that blunts muscle regeneration: Reducing the burden of senescent cells, or reducing their inflammatory secretome through CD36 neutralization, accelerates regeneration in young and old mice.
nature.com/articles/s4158… By contrast, transplantation of senescent cells delays regeneration.

Senescent cells were practically absent (or in very low numbers) in unperturbed muscle tissues, even in old age, but emerged after injury.

Nature: Gut microbiota modulates lung fibrosis severity following acute lung injury in mice: “two-hits” are necessary to induce pulmonary fibrosis: acute lung injury (ALI) and presence of microorganisms capable of inducing profibrotic cytokine expression
nature.com/articles/s4200… Germ Free (GF) mice demonstrate minimal collagen deposition following acute lung injury. The significance of the gut microbiota to lung fibrosis progression was further supported by fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) into GF mice to recapitulate fibrotic lung disease severity.