Antivirals Work to Clear Persistent COVID Infections in HIV Patients but Untreated Can Give Rise to New Variants

"People with advanced HIV may also experience prolonged infection that may give rise to new epidemiologically significant variants, but
1/ Initiation or resumption of antiretroviral therapy (ART) can effectively clear
persistent infection." ⬅️
(Oct 2023)



#LongCovid #COVIDnature.com/articles/s4142…

H5N1 and Ice Cream Safety

Most milk or cream for ice cream goes through the normal pasteurization process, which is 165 degrees for 15 seconds, which may indeed be safe, but we are still waiting on more studies that ensure its enough to kill H5N1. For example, the CDC is testing 297 more samples. We are still awaiting results.
1/ The higher temps of ultra pasteurization kill more viruses and bacteria, extending the shelf life a couple of months. That extended shelf life of the higher temp milk and ice cream shows that the lower temperature pasteurization leaves a lot of bacteria, shortening the shelf life. 2/

Children 5 -17 yrs: U.S.
↗️ COVID Hospitalizations

While other age groups are seeing a decline in hospitalizations, school-age children's hospitalization levels are back up to late December/early January levels.

Why is this happening?
Due to the transmission in classrooms and homes.

Although we don't see the exponential growth resume after winter break by looking at wastewater and hospitalization data that encompasses all ages, we do see it in the
air sampling & PCR testing studies, and this hospitalization data. After the initial decline from winter break, by mid-January, the hospitalizations started increasing again.

Together, they show us that COVID is spreading in schools and that it leads to preventable acute illness, #LongCOVID, and hospitalizations.
/1

#LongCOVIDKids #COVIDisAirborne
#CovidIsntover #COVIDIsNotOver #COVID19

Source: CDC COVID is 3 x more likely to be the virus causing an illness in children than all the other respiratory viruses combined, according to a study published March 8, 2024.

When your child's doctor says it could be any virus and there is nothing we can do, like my child's doctor recently said, remind them that COVID causes significant long-term damage even when symptoms are mild in children.

Identifying each infection is very important in helping determine issues that may arise weeks or months after the initial infection period.
2/

🚨Breaking News: Sapporo, Japan, with a population of nearly 2 million people, sees record high wastewater prevalence, increasing for 4 consecutive weeks.

Sapporo is a city located on the west coast of Hokkaido, which is the northernmost of Japan's islands. Sapporo gained global recognition in 1972 as the first city in Asia to host the Winter Olympics.

In prior years, cases were declining to some of the lowest levels at the end of February, making this anomaly much more alarming.

H/T: @ejustin46, @Rrenzokutai Similarly, many places in the U.S. are seeing this happening.

"COVID Update: Uncharted Territory: Exploring the Surge of Infections Beyond Seasonal Norms and the Failure of the CDC's Vaccine Focused Approach"


This shows how badly world governments and public health agencies have underestimated COVID-19. They failed to put in place ventilation, air filtration and other mitigation measures to effectively prevent airborne transmission. It also shows how COVID continues to evolve to evade our immune system. (In case you haven't realized it yet, herd immunity theory failed)

If people don't wake up, we are going to destroy our childrens health, and our society is going to degrade as health and brain function degrade.

We must work Together Against COVID Transmission.

(Pic: U.S. wastewater prevalence is increasing when in prior years it was declining.)tactnowinfo.substack.com/p/covid-update…

🧵 Airborne Assault of Measles and COVID-19: A Ticking Time Bomb of Immune System Damage and Viral Evolution
(TACT-February 25, 2024)

The convergence of measles and COVID-19 poses a significant threat, especially with evidence showing declining immunity in some individuals vaccinated against measles and newborns awaiting MMR vaccination. Similar to COVID-19, heightened transmission rates of measles increase the risk of persistent infections aiding viral evolution, potentially leading to greater evasion of the existing immunity.

Both diseases harm the immune system, with measles even erasing immunity to other pathogens. This dangerous combination of highly contagious airborne viruses demands attention. 1/ COVID Variants Update
The latest COVID variants have remarkable immune escape and binding capabilities.

JN.1 and its many sub-variants make up over 97% of all the variants in circulation. We are going to look at the ones gaining the most momentum.

JN.1.4 has an estimated growth advantage of 32% over JN.1. JN.1.11.1 has an estimated 70% growth advantage over JN.1. JN.1.23 has an estimated 67% growth advantage over JN.1.

JN.1.23’s combination of increased immune escape and ACE-2 binding may make it more dangerous than JN.1.11.1 but not necessarily more transmissible. The evolutionary track towards greater immune escape and stronger binding is what should be most concerning to everyone.
2/

In May 2021, despite having clear indications that the vaccines wouldn't halt transmission, persistent infections, Long COVID, or COVID's evolution, the CDC revised its guidelines to permit increased transmission. At that time, Walensky, the CDC director, declared, “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing. If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment, when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”

This misleading statement relieved the burden carried by conscientious individuals who prioritized protecting themselves and others. Its impact is still being felt, lingering in the minds of those who received the vaccine despite years of mounting data showing that immunity wanes and the reduced risk of infection is very short-lived (less than 3 months). We also have many studies showing the risks of asymptomatic or mild infections.


1/cnbc.com/2021/05/13/cdc… (Published in Nature Medicine, May 17, 2021) "Modeling of the decay of the neutralization titer over the first 250 days after immunization predicts that a significant loss in protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection will occur, although protection from severe disease should be largely retained. Neutralization titers against some SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern are reduced compared with the vaccine strain, and our model predicts the relationship between neutralization and efficacy against viral variants."


2/nature.com/articles/s4159…

Just considering the removal of the 5-day isolation guidance shows a level of disregard for science that should trigger the firing or removal of the negligent people proposing it.

Every study shows that the vast majority of people remain infectious for at least 7 to 8 days, with many remaining infectious for 10 to 12 or more days. The peak infectious period is from 3 to 6 or 7 days. The guidance should have never been reduced from 10 days. 5 days is already anti-science and negligent. This potential guidance is absurd, and its implementation must be stopped.

Take notice of the people who support this. These people have no business being involved with public health. Their removal would serve all of society well.

reuters.com/world/us/us-cd… The CDC has failed to protect public health and has been moving further away from following the science and data.  The guidance and reporting, which was already insufficient, has gotten much worse over the past 2 years. The Biden administration and the CDC must do their job and protect public health and safety. They must work to prevent disease instead of aiding in its spread by minimizing the risk and weakening the guidance.

Evolution of COVID's Innate Immune Suppression and Evasion of Neutralizing Antibodies

A study published January 16, 2024 suggests that the virus's ability to evade our natural immune defenses, particularly the innate immune system, can continue to improve even after it has established itself in human populations. We have known that the herd immunity theory wasn’t true, but this is one more study showing us that the virus can continue to evolve to defeat our immune system. The direction the evolution is headed is very concerning. 1/ The researchers point out that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved a unique ability to infect various animal species, crossing species barriers. This highlights the virus's remarkable capability to overcome the specific immune responses of at least 34 different animal species. They point out that this adaptability is quite unusual and underscores the broader impact of the virus on various species. 2/

A good reminder..
The mouth is a viral 'factory' with levels of the virus in saliva reaching 100 million per ml. That's half a billion in a 5 ml teaspoon.

"Viral dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva from infected patients"

"When compared to the respiratory tract samples, the sensitivity and specificity of saliva were 86.4% (95% CI 82.8%−89.4%) and 97.0% (95% CI 95.0%−98.3%), respectively."

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P… (March 2021) "SARS-CoV-2 infection of the oral cavity and saliva"

"These data show that the oral cavity is an important site for SARS-CoV-2 infection and implicate saliva as a potential route of SARS-CoV-2 transmission."

nature.com/articles/s4159…

SARS-CoV-2 uses CD4 to infect T helper lymphocytes

Jul 31, 2023
COVID assembles viral factories, impairs cell function and may cause cell death. T helper cells express higher amounts of IL-10, which is associated with viral persistence & disease severity.
elifesciences.org/articles/84790 SARS-CoV-2 Dysregulates Neutrophil Degranulation and Reduces Lymphocyte Counts

"Infected neutrophils had a direct effect on peripheral blood lymphocyte counts, with decreasing numbers of CD19+ B cells, CD8+ T cells, and CD4+ T cells."

mdpi.com/2227-9059/10/2…

🧵The Cause of the Mysterious Pneumonia Surging in China, South Korea, France, Netherlands, Denmark and the U.S. is Revealed

We uncover what's behind the surge in respiratory illnesses. How concerning is it?
1/ Bacterial pneumonia is often secondary to viral infections. Bacteria like that causing mycoplasma pneumonia are usually opportunistic, in that they take advantage of an immune system that has been weakened by a virus.
2/

COVID's Life in 5 Steps
Step 1: Locate and infect a host.

Step 2: Suppress the immune response so the host doesn't know it's invading, weakening it for several weeks to many months and possibly for life. Step 3: Infect areas of the body that the immune system can't reach, such as the pancreas, joints, brain, and central nervous system, and then relax in its new home.

🧵Why hold on taking the XBB.1.5 targeted vaccines.  

1. We need to know if BA.2.86 is going to become dominant or not  because if it does, it could impact vaccines targeted against an antigenically distinct variant that studies show evade the XBB.1.5 immune response. 1/ “We found that BA.2.86 is antigenically distinct from XBB.1.5 and can escape XBB-induced neutralizing antibodies. The updated vaccine's efficacy against BA.2.86 should be closely monitored.”
2/

thelancet.com/journals/lanin…

T cell counts are reduced significantly in COVID patients, & the surviving T cells appear functionally exhausted. Non-ICU patients may still require urgent intervention, even in the immediate absence of severe symptoms due to a high risk for deterioration
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33… Brain Fog explained- "Thinner frontopolar and language cortex correlated with immune system deterioration measured through blood levels of CD4+ T lymphocytes. Prefrontal and parietal tissue loss correlated with cognitive/motor deficits."
1/

Deaths from pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19 (PIC) are up above the epidemic threshold and increasing. Flu is still very low, while COVID is widespread. COVID and/or pneumonia likely caused by COVID is increasing the number of deaths.

#CovidIsNotOver Flu cases are still very low. The map of the U.S. shows where outpatient respiratory visits are more prevalent.

#Maskswork." Especially respirator-style N95 masks."

"Amid an ongoing pandemic and outbreaks of influenza and RSV caused by airborne viruses, arguing over the virus-blocking power of masks remains one of the COVID era’s signature follies." 1/ "Disconcertingly, despite decades of evidence of their efficacy, some of the disagreement comes from a few in the medical field itself, misusing science and endangering lives."
2/

COVID's Life in 5 Steps

Step 1: Locate and infect a host.

Step 2: Suppress the immune response so the host doesn't know it's invading, weakening it for several weeks to many months and possibly for life. 1/ Step 3: Infect areas of the body that the immune system can't reach, such as the pancreas, joints, testicles, brain, and central nervous system, and then relax in its new home.

2/

In Japan, both EG.5.1 and EG.5.1.1 variants are showing an upward trend in prevalence as hospitalizations increase indicating the possibility that these variants might be associated with more severe symptoms.

https://t.co/Qdf9XJn2Kmtactnowinfo.substack.com/p/covid-update…


The major concern lies in the world's readiness to respond swiftly in case these variants or other emerging variants indeed prove to be more severe.

"Rise in new COVID-19 cases in Japan shows little sign of abating"

https://t.co/AntUVyThgUjapantimes.co.jp/news/2023/07/1…

Wastewater Data Unveils Concerning Trend: COVID Cases Increasing in the U.S., Some Areas Experiencing Sharp Rises

When examining the data regionally, it becomes evident that all areas are experiencing growth in COVID cases at a similar pace. Bristol and Middlesex counties in Massachusetts, with 280,000 people within the combined sewersheds, are seeing sharp increases.

🧵 COVID TESTS
"Extreme differences in SARS-CoV-2 viral loads among respiratory specimen types during presumed pre-infectious and infectious periods"

"Throat-swab and saliva viral loads began to rise as many as 7 days earlier than nasal-swab viral loads in most individuals"
1/ There is very low clinical sensitivity of nasal swabs during the first days of infection.

They found extreme differences among paired specimen types collected from a person at the same time point. 2/

⚠️ ➡️ "Ontario's long COVID strategy is 'insufficient' and 'unsustainable': ministry documents"

"Between 10 and 20 per cent of people who have had COVID-19 still experience symptoms 12 or more weeks post-infection, the documents note" 1/ "Researchers estimate 1.4 million Canadians are living with long COVID. The documents highlight possible effects on both the health-care system and the economy, with a survey suggesting more than 70 per cent of long COVID patients have had to take time off work." 2/