Vaccination does not prevent long COVID, one study finds

Virus spread increasing in all 58 California counties

Each of California’s 58 counties is seeing a rising reproduction rate, which means the virus spread is likely increasing statewide. The effective reproduction number, representing the average number of people to whom each infected person spreads the coronavirus, is above 1 in every county, according to state data. In the Bay Area region, the estimated number is highest in Solano County (1.79); Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties (1.60); and Alameda, San Mateo and Sonoma (1.52) counties. Nearly all the counties fell below 0.05 following the winter omicron surge. Statewide, the highest rate is in Stanislaus County at 2.62, indicating that each infected person is spreading the virus to about three others; and lowest is in Humboldt County at 1.16, which is still above the baseline.

UCSF doc says “supercharged” variants, eased restrictions driving surge

With the number of coronavirus cases in the Bay Area surpassing the peaks of last year’s winter surge, many are wondering how the region that fared so well for most of the pandemic is now California’s COVID hot spot. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said during the school’s most recent town hall discussion there are a variety of factors at play. “Much of this is driven by less previous exposure to natural infection,” he said. “But there’s also supercharged transmissible variants now, at the time when people are going out like everyone else.” He said the BA.2 subvariant is 30% to 50% more transmissible than its parent omicron coronavirus variant and its BA.2.12.1 sublineage is another 25% more transmissible. He said it’s unlikely that increased testing is skewing the numbers — and they may be much higher because people are testing at home and not reporting their results. “Restrictions have been dropped in all areas,” he said. “And there’s the risk of everyone who’s visiting as well.” During the same discussion, Ralph Gonzales, chief innovation officer for UCSF Health, said cases are rising substantially on the medical center’s campus without any sign of relief, likely reflecting community spread in San Francisco. “It’s likely to go up for a couple of weeks,” he said.”I know that’s not good news but that’s what the data is pointing to.” He noted that UCSF hospitals are now back at “critical staffing” levels.

Vaccination does not prevent long COVID, new research finds

Currently available COVID vaccines may prevent hospitalization and death but they do not significantly cut the risk for long COVID, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Medicine. Using data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which included medical records of nearly 34,000 vaccinated people and more than 113,000 who were unvaccinated during the delta phase of the virus, the researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found that the shots made little difference in reducing persistent symptoms between the two groups. “Altogether, the findings suggest that vaccination before infection confers only partial protection in the post-acute phase of the disease; hence, reliance on it as a sole mitigation strategy may not optimally reduce long-term health consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the researchers wrote. Future vaccine formulations may be able to better address long COVID.

Fourth dose of Pfizer vaccine wanes faster than third, study confirms

A fourth dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine provides additional protection against coronavirus infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes compared with three vaccine doses, but its effectiveness wanes faster, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ. The 10-week study, conducted in Israel during the omicron wave of the virus, compared outcomes of 69,623 adults with three doses of the Pfizer vaccine against 27,876 adults who received the fourth dose. It found that the additional dose offered 65.1% protection at the third week, but that level fell to 22% by the end of the research period. The authors suggest vaccine developers work on improving their formulas. “A stabilization effect of additional doses on immune memory should be further investigated, as well as studies on mucosal vaccines,” they wrote.

CDC warns of rebound…