Three years on, experts warn we are still nowhere near to seeing the end of Covid-19. There is still much that is unknown about how the pandemic will develop but theipaper asked leading experts to give us their opinions 🔎 Big Read by BawdenTom
“If an old variant made a comeback, it would not look exactly the same as strains from that variant when it was dominant, but it would have evolved itself. The main scenarios for how an old variant could make a comeback would be through a long-term chronic infection or a spillback from an animal reservoir such as a white-tailed deer. I’m a bit worried about the return of Alpha or Delta because those lineages are intrinsically much nastier than Omicron,” he says.
So what needs to be done to bring Covid numbers as low as possible and prevent a nasty new variant from taking off? “Providing free tests and ensuring that people are financially able to take time off work to recover and not spread viruses and not soldier on is to me a good idea,” said Simon Williams, of Cardiff University, who led that study. He says that his research shows that “amongst older adults, intentions to take future boosters is high”.
Despite their promise, these sprays have a long way to go: funding and interest from pharmaceutical firms for human trials has been limited, in part because trials to determine efficacy for prophylactics are large and expensive, scientists say. And the sprays must achieve the difficult task of coating any surface to which a virus might attach, because once viral particles enter even a few cells, a full-scale infection can progress rapidly.
Steve Griffin, a virologist at Leeds University, is concerned that those vulnerable people, who are elderly or with underlying conditions, are increasingly being left behind as the bulk of the population increasingly returns to life as normal. “I think things will improve for the majority, but will generally get worse for vulnerable people as many people will continue as they are now, ‘living with’ – that is, ignoring – Covid,” he says.
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Efficacy of first dose of covid-19 vaccine versus no vaccination on symptoms of patients with long covid: target trial emulation based on ComPaRe e-cohortObjective To evaluate the effect of covid-19 vaccination on the severity of symptoms in patients with long covid. Design Target trial emulation based on ComPaRe e-cohort. Data source ComPaRe long covid cohort, a nationwide e-cohort (ie, a cohort where recruitment and follow-up are performed online) of patients with long covid, in France. Methods Adult patients (aged ≥18 years) enrolled in the ComPaRe cohort before 1 May 2021 were included in the study if they reported a confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection, symptoms persistent for |3 weeks after onset, and at least one symptom attributable to long covid at baseline. Patients who received a first covid-19 vaccine injection were matched with an unvaccinated control group in a 1:1 ratio according to their propensity scores. Number of long covid symptoms, rate of complete remission of long covid, and proportion of patients reporting an unacceptable symptom state at 120 days were recorded. Results 910 patients were included in the analyses (455 in the vaccinated group and 455 in the control group). By 120 days, vaccination had reduced the number of long covid symptoms (mean 13.0 (standard deviation 9.4) in the vaccinated group v 14.8 (9.8) in the control group; mean difference −1.8, 95% confidence interval −3.0 to −0.5) and doubled the rate of patients in remission (16.6% v 7.5%, hazard ratio 1.93, 95% confidence interval 1.18 to 3.14). Vaccination reduced the effect of long covid on patients' lives (mean score on the impact tool 24.3 (standard deviation 16.7) v 27.6 (16.7); mean difference −3.3, 95% confidence interval −5.7 to −1.0) and the proportion of patients with an unacceptable symptom state (38.9% v 46.4%, risk difference −7.4%, 95% confidence interval −14.5% to −0.3%). In the vaccinated group, two (0.4%) patients reported serious adverse events requiring admission to hospital. Conclusion In this study, covid-19 vaccination reduced the severity of symptoms and the effect of long covid on patients' social,
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