From the Omnicron and siblings front, The Wall Street Journal reports
The BA.2 variant of Covid-19 is a relation of the original Omicron variant known as BA.1, according to Theodora Hatziioannou, an associate professor of virology at Rockefeller University.
The two variants arose around the same time and come from the same ancestor strain. They have many mutations in common, but around 20 mutations differ between the two variants. The differences between this variant and BA.1 can be seen in the spike protein of the virus, Dr. Hatziioannou said.
This was the first time that two competing variants emerged in parallel, according to Mark Zeller, a genomic epidemiologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, Calif.
Viruses mutate all the time and diversification within a variant is normal. The earlier Delta variant comprised more than 200 sublineages before it was replaced by Omicron, according to Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute.
Becker’s Hospital Review adds
The omicron subvariant BA.2 accounts for more than 1/3 of COVID-19 cases nationwide and more than half of cases in the Northeast, according to the latest variant proportion estimates from the CDC. * * *
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he would not be surprised to see an uptick in infections in the U.S., though a major surge is unlikely.
“The extent of it and the degree to which it impacts seriousness of disease like hospitalizations and death remains to be seen,” he told The Washington Post March 22. “I don’t really see, unless something changes dramatically, that there would be a major surge.”
The AMA Morning Rounds tells us
MedPage Today (3/22, Monaco) reports, “People with COVID-19 were more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes in the year following their infection, according to a cohort study using national Department of Veterans Affairs databases.” The study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology found that “among 181,280 veterans who tested positive for COVID-19, there was a 40% higher risk for incident diabetes during the post-acute phase of the disease compared with a contemporary control group.” Also, over 12 months, there was “a significantly higher excess burden of new diabetes among those with a positive COVID test…the researchers wrote.”
From the Covid vaccine front the Wall Street Journal informs us
For kids ages 5 to 11, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech released data in the fall showing the vaccine was 90.7% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19. The companies also said the vaccine was safe during the testing.
For 12-to-18-year-olds, the vaccine was shown to be 93% effective against hospitalization with Covid-19, CDC researchers reported in the fall.
A study published by the CDC in March showed that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were protective against Covid-19-related emergency department and urgent care visits among children and adolescents.
“The vaccine is very effective at protecting against serious disease, hospitalization and death,” said Tina Tan, a pediatric-infectious-disease physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
Moderna said a new study found that its vaccine’s efficacy against symptomatic infections was 43.7% in children ages 6 months to 2 years, and 37.5% in children ages 2 to 5.
STAT News adds
Moderna announced Wednesday that [based on the above-referenced study] it will ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in children aged 6 months to 6 years, a group for which there are currently no authorized Covid vaccines.
From the medical research front, STAT News tells us
One lesson [from Covid research] is to only trust the most rigorous studies, known as randomized controlled clinical trials. But an equally important one: We need to get much better at conducting these rigorous studies more quickly and cheaply — and that goes beyond the Covid pandemic. This is not just a problem of science, but of infrastructure.
Last week, a clinical trial called TOGETHER produced two potentially important conclusions: A little-discussed experimental drug called peginterferon lambda cut in half the number of Covid-19 patients who ended up going to the emergency room or hospital. And the much-discussed antiparasitic drug ivermectin failed to prevent hospitalization for Covid patients at all.
TOGETHER, like the RECOVERY study conducted in the United Kingdom and REMAP-CAP, conducted basically everywhere but the United States, was a platform study, a streamlined clinical trial that evaluated multiple medicines at once and that use a common placebo group. It’s from these platform studies that doctors have learned perhaps the most about Covid-19.
Another STAT News article explains
Pancreatic cancer has proved one of the most deadly forms of the disease, and the most difficult to crack. It shrugs off immunotherapy drugs and resists chemotherapy, and only about 10% of patients live longer than five years after diagnosis.
But Albert Einstein College of Medicine immunologist and microbiologist Claudia Gravekamp is trying a new, unconventional approach: using Listeria bacteria to develop an immunotherapy that makes pancreatic tumors vulnerable to immune attacks. The resultsfrom her experiments in mice, published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, found the therapy can extend survival by 40% — a figure that experts said was very promising, though preliminary, and warranted further research in humans.
“I’m extremely excited. [The result] feels terrific. We’re very close to a clinical trial,” Gravekamp said. She said the patent for the therapy has been licensed to the New York-based biotech company Loki Therapeutics, which plans to test the new therapy in humans.
From the healthcare business front
Forbes informs us
Fertility Tech: Alife Health, a startup using artificial intelligence to improve the in-vitro fertilization process, has raised a $22 million Series A round led by Lux Capital, Union Square Ventures and Maveron. The funding will help bring its first two products to market: an AI tool for clinicians to help retrieve mature eggs from the ovary and a patient-facing app. It is also working on an AI tool to help select embryos, which is in the investigational stage.
Heart Health: Recora Health emerged from stealth this week with $20 million in funding led by SignalFire for its cardiac care management program, which aims to engage patients at home with virtual tools and access to care teams. The company is currently serving 30,000 patients through partnerships with Geisinger and regional insurance plans.
Healthcare Dive reports
[Health insurer] Centene has appointed Sarah London as its new CEO, effective immediately. She succeeds longtime leader Michael Neidorff, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
London, 41, joined Centene in 2020 from Optum and has a focus on data and technology. She has quickly ascended the ranks at Centene and recently was named vice chairperson.
Neidorff remains on a medical leave of absence from his role as chairman of the company board.