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Respiratory illnesses are MODERATE across the country as levels of COVID decrease. Influenza is still HIGH and is causing many hospitalizations, but cases are just starting to decrease as well. I recommend wearing a KN95 or N95 mask when going out to the store to protect yourself from the Flu, COVID and even the Measles in some locations.
From: https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data/index.html
COVID
Regarding COVID, per JP Weiland, there are about 370,000 new COVID infections per day in the United States and about 1 in 89 people is currently infected with COVID. Infections and Emergency Department visits for COVID are declining despite some growth of variant LP.8.1 and Weiland predicts COVID infections will continue to decrease through March.
SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater has decreased to MODERATE in the Midwest per the CDC and is LOW in the West. Sara Anne Willette’s composite map using data from both CDC NWSS data and WastewaterSCAN through February 24 shows that Kentucky and Mississippi are “Excessively High” on her scale (light blue on map below).
From: https://iowacovid19tracker.org/
COVID and the Heart
A new study in Nature used single-cell sequencing of heart muscle cells in myocarditis caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection versus rare cases after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, revealing distinct immune pathways. Post-COVID-19 myocarditis showed increased cytotoxic immune activity and interferon-γ activity, while post-vaccine myocarditis had higher IL16 and IL18 expression with a stronger CD4+ T cell response, generally leading to milder inflammation.
Pediatrics
A case-control study of 622 US children found that mRNA COVID vaccination was associated with a reduced likelihood of Long COVID with a 57% reduction of 1 Long COVID symptoms and 73% reduction of 2 or more symptoms. COVID vaccines protect against COVID infection and they reduce the risk of Long COVID in children.
Pulmonary function tests and echocardiography in kids with Long COVID often come back as normal. A new study published in Radiology found that children and teens with Long COVID actually have significant lung injury detected using PREFUL MRI, a radiation-free imaging technique. The findings suggest that lung perfusion abnormalities correlate with chronic fatigue and heart rate changes, highlighting the potential of PREFUL MRI as a diagnostic tool for assessing disease severity and monitoring recovery in pediatric Long COVID patients.
Antiviral treatments
SA55 is a monoclonal antibody that protects against SARS-CoV-2. It was chosen from a library of 13,000 antibodies and protects against all SARS-CoV-2 variants to date. A new study looked at the pharmacokinetics of SA55 showing that an injection of SA55 has a half life of 103 days. Because of its long duration, SA55 may be used in the future to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in people who cannot be vaccinated.
Pemgarda is a monoclonal antibody for preexposure prophylaxis from SARS-CoV-2 given to immunocompromised people. This week, the FDA declined Invivyd’s request to expand the EUA for Pemgarda to treat mild to moderate COVID infections in immunocompromised patients.
Long COVID
Pandemic Grief: “One of the hardest parts of pandemic grief, and pandemic trauma, is that it is ongoing.” Therapists Olivia Belknap and Liz Fitzgerald will be hosting a community event on Tuesday March 25th at 5:15-6:45 PST “to collectively grieve the losses associated with the ongoing pandemic. All are invited.
Researchers from Cambridge found that patients with Long COVID have persistently high levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) released by CD8+ T cells, which remains elevated long after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. This immune response is linked to antigen presentation by CD14+ cells and does not return to normal like in individuals who fully recover from COVID-19. The study suggests that IFN-γ could be a potential biomarker for Long COVID, as its levels decrease when symptoms improve, including after vaccination. These findings may help develop new diagnostic tools and treatments for Long COVID.
A study of 175 people with Long COVID symptoms from Cardiff, UK shows that Long COVID risk may vary by season and by differences in IL-6 genes. In their summer cohort, patients with the IL-6R AA genotype had a higher risk of Long COVID, but this was not found in the winter cohort. Independent of season, Long COVID sufferers had higher IL-6 levels than people who had recovered.
From: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1043466625000316
Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) was tested in a clinical trial of 50 Long COVID patients in Spain. TPE was found to be safe, but it did not improve Long COVID symptoms including cognitive function, or quality of life.
H5N1
This week, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina did a deep dive into H5N1 bird flu. While the typical risk of a new pandemic is about 2% per year, given recent spillovers of H5N1 from birds to mammals, the risk of a H5N1 pandemic is about 8% this year. Currently, the CDC has said that H5N1 has a “medium” risk of becoming a pandemic. But according to Dr. Jetelina, “But overall, bird flu isn’t something that should be taking up too much head space right now given (*waves hands around*) everything else.”
Dr. Jetelina wrote, “I mapped the scenarios below for you. The orange and red scenarios below are when my sensors will be going off (and would have the most implications for you).”
From: https://buff.ly/4ieXLnS
A cluster of cats in New Jersey was found to be infected with H5N1 this week.
Moderna was given funds from the Biden administration to make a H5N1 Bird flu mRNA vaccine for humans. The Trump administration may pull these funds now according to Bloomberg Law. “The US is in the midst of a record-breaking bird flu outbreak that’s affected dozens of cattle herds along with poultry flocks nationwide, sending egg prices soaring. While human cases have been relatively rare, the virus has caused deaths in the past, and experts are concerned.”
Measles
As of Friday, 146 people in Texas have been infected with Measles, most of them children. Twenty children have been hospitalized for pneumonia or other measles complications, not for quarantine like RFK Jr incorrectly said, and one unvaccinated school-age child died of measles this week in Texas. Vaccination is the best way to protect against the Measles.
If an adult is uncertain if they have immunity to the Measles, they can request that their doctor check a Measles IgG antibody test to see if they are still immune. Adults who are uncertain of their vaccination status or who received only one dose of vaccine between 1968 and 1989, may need another MMR vaccine dose. According to the CDC, adults who do not have written evidence of immunity should get at least one dose of the MMR vaccine. People in high risk situations including college students, healthcare personnel, and international travelers may need 2 doses of the MMR vaccine if they do not have evidence of immunity. See the CDC’s recommendations here: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html
Other news:
Flu vaccines
The US FDA canceled its upcoming March 13 advisory committee meeting to select flu strains for the 2025-2026 flu season raising concerns about potential delays in vaccine production. The decision comes amid a severe flu season, sparking fears of broader federal efforts to undermine vaccine policies. However, some CDC officials did attend the WHO’s advisory committee’s meeting this week where flu vaccine components were decided for both the northern and southern hemispheres.
Thursday, CDC staff were told that they “should not be co-authors on manuscripts/abstracts with WHO staff,” and should not author publications related to work “funded by WHO.”
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) “postponed” key meetings on vaccines that were scheduled for February 26 to 28, and the CDC has halted certain vaccine awareness campaigns, raising concerns among public health experts about potential declines in vaccination rates and increased disease risks.
NIH
An article in The Atlantic titled “Inside the Collapse at the NIH” discusses that since January, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been minimally funding medical research due to a Trump administration freeze on federal grants, despite multiple court orders to resume funding. Under acting director Matthew Memoli, NIH officials have been pressured to follow administration directives rather than legal rulings, leading to a backlog in research funding, staff layoffs, and fears that the agency’s role in advancing medical breakthroughs may be permanently diminished.
HPV vaccine
Since the HPV vaccine was introduced in America in 2006, young women that were vaccinated are now old enough for cervical cancer screening. A new CDC MMWR report shows that from 2008 to 2022, cases of cervical precancer dropped by 79% in screened US women aged 20–24, showing that the vaccine is working and supporting recommendations to vaccinate children at ages 11–12.
Pancreatic Cancer Advancements
Eric Topol posted on 3/1/25 about good news in the fight against pancreatic cancer:
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers. A group from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center made adjuvant mRNA–lipoplex neoantigen cancer vaccines that generate long-lasting T cells that specifically target tumor antigens. The researchers found that RNA neoantigen vaccines can prime durable CD8+ T cells to attack pancreatic cancer.
Congo
A mysterious febrile illness killed more than 50 people in the DR Congo this week. Ebola and Marburg viruses were ruled out, and it appears that the illness is actually the result of a poison in the local water supply.
Cell Atlas
The Arc Institute announced the Arc Virtual Cell Atlas which is “a collection of high quality, curated, open datasets assembled for the purpose of accelerating the creation of virtual cell models. The Atlas includes both observational and perturbational [by drugs or chemicals] data from over 300 million cells (and growing).” The first datasets released are Vevo’s Tahoe-100M which is a single-cell atlas with 100M cells, that measures cellular responses across 50 cancer lines to 1,200 drug perturbations and Arc’s AI agent-curated scBaseCamp dataset.
The Moon
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander touched down on the moon today, a first for a private company. Blue Ghost is sending back views from the moon and will also be collecting data and samples for NASA.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
Have a good week,
Ruth Ann Crystal MD
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