Cardiac MRI Shows Less Myocarditis in Athletes Post-COVID-19 Than Previously Reported

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New study, comparing recovered athletes to healthy controls, reveals a lower level of myocarditis that previously published research, but cardiac MRI is still important for safe return-to-play decisions. In a contradiction of research results published this past summer, cardiac MRI shows that heart muscle inflammation in athletes who have recovered from COVID-19 is not as common as previously believed. In a study published by the American Heart Association, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers found that only a small number of athletes among the 59 evaluated suffered lingering cardiac effects. The results will be published in the February Circulation. “The degree of myocarditis found by cardiac MRI in Vanderbilt athletes was only 3 percent, which is really good news,” said first author Dan Clark, M.D., MPH, a cardiovascular medicine instructor at Vanderbilt. “Since our first evaluation, we have screened almost double (more…)

Moderna Study: Vaccine Effective vs COVID Variants

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As mutated strains of the coronavirus represent new threats in the pandemic, vaccine makers are racing to respond. Moderna, whose two-dose vaccine has been authorized for use in the U.S. since Dec. 18, said Monday that it is now investigating whether a third dose of the vaccine will work to prevent the spread of a variant first seen in South Africa, while it also tests a new vaccine formula for the same purpose. “Out of an abundance of caution and leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are advancing an emerging variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa into the clinic to determine if it will be more effective … against this and potentially future variants,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. Moderna on Monday also said its COVID-19 vaccine (more…)

More Mask Wearing Could Save 130,000 US Lives by End of February

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A cumulative 511,000 lives could be lost from COVID-19 in the United States by the end of February 2021, a new prediction study reveals. However, if universal mask wearing is adopted — defined as 95% of Americans complying with the protective measure — along with social distancing mandates as warranted, nearly 130,000 of those lives could be saved. And if even 85% of Americans comply, an additional 95,800 lives would be spared before March of next year, researchers at the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) report. The study was published online October 23 in Nature Medicine. “We want policymakers to know what to expect in the coming winter — to better prepare for hospital needs,” study coauthor Ali H. Mokdad, PhD, told Medscape Medical News. He noted that this national study has some very real local implications. For (more…)

Fauci: Masks, Social Distancing Likely Until 2022

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With cases continuing to rise in many states and a vaccine yet to come, Americans should prepare to wear masks and social distance for quite a while. People will likely need to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines through the end of 2021 and into 2022, one of the nation’s top infectious disease experts said during a recent meeting, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer . Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke about the future of COVID-19 during a virtual meeting with doctors and students at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia last week. “I feel very strongly that we’re going to need to have some degree of public health measures to continue,” he said. “It’s not going to be the way it was with polio and measles, where you get a vaccine, (more…)

Fauci: Early COVID Vaccines Will Prevent Symptoms, Not the Virus

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3D render of a medical background with abstract virus cells Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. As people eagerly await new updates about potential coronavirus vaccines, questions still remain about how well they will work and what they will do to stem the pandemic. Importantly, the initial COVID-19 vaccines will prevent symptoms in those who become infected with the coronavirus rather than kill the virus itself, Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit on Monday. “The primary thing you want to do is that if people get infected, prevent them from getting sick, and if you prevent them from getting sick, you will ultimately prevent them from getting seriously ill,” he said. Preventing symptoms is a “primary endpoint” (more…)

Want to Know More About mRNA Before Your COVID Jab?

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Clinicians will start rolling up their sleeves in just a few weeks to get their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines, both of which use mRNA technology to induce an immune response. For those who want more information on the history and science of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics before getting their jab, here’s a primer. How It Works Biologically, messenger RNA is transcribed from DNA and travels into a cell’s cytoplasm where it’s translated by ribosomes into proteins. For the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the synthesized mRNA is cloaked in a lipid nanoparticle in order to evade the immune system when it’s injected. Once it’s inside a cell, the ribosomes will get to work pumping out the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. The immune system then mounts a response to that protein, conferring immunity to the virus without ever having been infected (more…)

Understanding Messenger RNA and Other SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines

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In mid-November, Pfizer/BioNTech were the first with surprising positive protection interim data for their coronavirus vaccine, BNT162b2. A week later, Moderna released interim efficacy results showing its coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273, also protected patients from developing SARS-CoV-2 infections. Both studies included mostly healthy adults. A diverse ethnic and racial vaccinated population was included. A reasonable number of persons aged over 65 years, and persons with stable compromising medical conditions were included. Adolescents aged 16 years and over were included. Younger adolescents have been vaccinated or such studies are in the planning or early implementation stage as 2020 came to a close. These are new and revolutionary vaccines, although the ability to inject mRNA into animals dates back to 1990, technological advances today make it a reality.1 Traditional vaccines typically involve injection with antigens such as purified proteins or polysaccharides or inactivated/attenuated (more…)

The Latest Info on COVID-19

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Here’s what medical experts currently know about the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19: It “[u]sually spreads from close person-to-person contact through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing.”[1) Wear your masks and gloves when shopping.  There are many good online videos about how to make a mask. It “[m]ay also spread through airborne transmission, when tiny droplets remain in the air even after the person with the virus leaves the area.”[2]  Viable coronavirus has been detected in the air up to three hours later.[3] “[P]eople may acquire the virus…after touching contaminated objects.”[4]  The novel coronavirus can live up to 72 hours on stainless steel and plastic, and up to 24 hours on cardboard.[5] Note: I just read on Medscape (medical news for physicians) they have detected the virus on surfaces in cruise ships up to 17 days later before they were disinfected. (more…)

Innate Immune Response Produces ‘Phenomenal’ Breast Cancer Control

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  Watch the Video Here: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/937996 Hi. It’s Dr Kathy Miller with Indiana University. There is another really important study from the science weekend at ESMO that I want to make sure you see because I fear it might be overlooked. It’s the PARADIGM analysis. This was a correlative analysis, not an individual clinical trial. The authors were interested in looking at the potential impact of our innate immune response, our body’s ability to recognize a triple-negative tumor and potentially to control it on outcome. To avoid the potential confounders of the effects of our treatment, the investigators looked at women who did not receive systemic therapy. This is a really unique cohort. All of these women were younger than age 40, had triple-negative or low ER–expressing tumors (ER and PR less than 10%), 50% of them were T1Cs (tumors (more…)

Coronavirus Kills More Hispanic & Black Children Than White Youths, CDC Study Finds

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The coronavirus is killing Hispanic, Black and American Indian children at much higher numbers than their White peers, according to federal statistics released Tuesday. The numbers — the most comprehensive U.S. accounting to date of pediatric infections and fatalities — show there have been 391,814 known cases and 121 deaths among people under the age of 21 from February to July. Of those killed by covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, more than 75 percent have been Hispanic, Black and American Indian children, even though they represent 41 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal agency collected data from health departments throughout the country. The disproportionate deaths among youths echo pandemic disparities well-documented among adults. Previous studies have found the virus’s death toll is twice as high among people of (more…)