The Most Common Symptoms Of The XBB Covid Variant In Children

Posted on 14/01/2023 by Boris Clair

You’ve likely heard talk in the news about XBB1.5, an Omicron variant that has become a dominant strain of the Covid-19 virus in the US and that experts warn could soon become so in the UK, too.

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, XBB1.5 accounted for 27.6% of overall US infections in the first week of January, inching closer to overtaking BQ.1.1 as the most common variant.

While for the most part this Omicron variant is similar to previous ones, there are a few things to know about XBB1.5, especially if you believe that it may have hit your household.

What symptoms of XBB1.5 are common in children?

Experts agree that symptoms tend to be the same as those we’ve seen before.

“I have not seen any evidence to suggest the main symptoms of XBB variant are different from previous variants,” Dr. Ruth Kanthula, a paediatric infectious diseases specialist at MedStar Health, tells HuffPost.

Common symptoms in children can include:

Fever
Fatigue
Achiness
Sore throat
Cough
Nasal congestion or runny nose
Headache
Lost sense of smell or taste
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
GI symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea

“It’s hard to tell about loss of taste and smell in young kids,” says Dr. Tanya Altman, a paediatrician and author of Baby and Toddler Basics.

Altman says she has noticed that kids tend to be less interested in eating while they are sick, and ask for “more flavourful or spicy foods after they recover, which to me suggests their taste may not have fully recovered yet.”

Altman describes the majority of Covid infections that she is seeing now as mild – with kids having less serious symptoms than adults, such as shortness of breath. She adds that children seem to be recovering quickly after testing positive.

“This could be due to the fact that most of the population has some sort of immunity from previous infections or vaccines, or the virus is now weaker, and I think it’s likely a combination of both,” she continues.

It’s important to note, however, that a child can have two respiratory viruses at the same time, which may cause their symptoms to be more severe. Other viruses in heavy circulation right now include RSV and the flu, which some have dubbed, along with Covid-19, the “tripledemic”.

How contagious is XBB1.5?

The “main difference that has been observed with XBB variant compared to other Covid-19 variants is that XBB variant spreads quickly,” says Kanthula.

Because the XBB1.5 variant has quickly come to account for a large portion of infections, scientists think that it may be more highly transmissible than other variants.

mother having video call with a pediatrician while holding ill daughter in her lap.

“The XBB.1.5 variant has a mutation virologists believe is helping the virus better bind to cells and thus be more transmissible,” Johns Hopkins professor of molecular microbiology and immunology Andy Pekosz explained in a Q&A on the university’s website.

Practically, this means that the virus could infect many members of a household, or a school classroom, in a short amount of time.

In addition to being more highly transmissible, XBB1.5 also seems to be “immune-evasive,” according to Pekosz, meaning that there may be a lot of breakthrough infections in people who have previously had Covid, are immunised, or both.

What should I do if I think my child has XBB1.5?

If your child has any of the symptoms listed above, it makes sense to give them a Covid-19 test. Note that these tests will only tell you whether your child is positive for Covid-19, not which viral strain they have.

Treat your child’s symptoms just as you would any other respiratory virus, with rest, fluids and acetaminophen/ibuprofen for fever or aches. As always, says Altman, if your child has a fever for more than four days, isn’t keeping fluids down, has trouble breathing or looks really sick, call your doctor.

For infants under three months, you should contact your doctor if they have a fever of 38°C or higher or miss two feeds, as young infants can become very sick with different respiratory viruses.

Does my child need to quarantine if they are infected?

As the NHS website explains, you have Covid-19, you can pass on the virus to other people for up to 10 days from when your infection starts. Many people will no longer be infectious to others after five days.

Anyone with Covid is currently advised by the NHS to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days, and avoid meeting people at higher risk from Covid-19 for 10 days, even if those people have had a Covid-19 vaccine.

“If a child or young person aged 18 or under tests positive for Covid-19, they should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days. This starts from the day after they did the test,” the guidance continues.

“Children and young people tend to be infectious to others for less time than adults. If they’re well and do not have a temperature after 3 days, there’s a much lower risk that they’ll pass on Covid-19 to others.”

While it’s frustrating to have to keep your child home from school, particularly if they’re not feeling ill, Altman says: “Covid is one that you really don’t want to spread to others, especially those who are high risk, so please keep your kids home when sick, mask if you need to leave your house with sick kids and keep them away from others as much as possible.”

How can I prevent my child from getting XBB1.5?

“I think the goal now is to learn to live with Covid, just as we live with flu, RSV and other contagious respiratory illnesses,” says Altman.

Stay home when sick, wash hands, disinfect surfaces, teach kids to cover their faces when they cough or sneeze, and mask when appropriate (such as days six to 10 of a Covid-19 infection.)

Even though XBB1.5 is known to evade immunity, “based on past experience we know that vaccination can protect against developing severe disease,” says Kanthula, so you should make sure your children have been vaccinated and had boosters.

Altman says she believes that the hybrid immunity of three doses of vaccination and one illness seems to offer the most protection against reinfection.

Experts are still learning about Covid-19. The information in this story is what was known or available at the time of publication, but guidance could change as scientists discover more about the virus. To keep up to date with health advice and cases in your area, visit gov.uk/coronavirus and nhs.uk

The Most Common Symptoms Of XBB Covid Variant, According To Doctors

Posted on 07/01/2023 by Boris Clair

If you’ve been following Covid news, then you’re likely well aware there’s a new variant in town that’s concerning the scientific community.

Known as XBB, the variant is believed to be the most immune-evasive to date and currently accounts for over 40% of infections in the United States, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s been called the “kraken variant” by some, and according to the World Health Organisation, it has now been identified in at least 28 other countries.

As the BBC reported, some cases of XBB.1.5 variant, which evolved from XBB, have already been recorded in the UK – the mutation helped it beat the body’s immune defences, but has also reduced its ability to infect human cells, the report said.

Because XBB is relatively new, scientists are still working to figure out if and how the variant behaves differently from other recent variants. Though XBB’s symptoms are expected to be on par with past omicron infections, doctors say they are seeing some issues becoming more prevalent than others.

“Viruses typically mutate to become more contagious and less severe; it appears that this is happening with this strain of the coronavirus,” Dr. Henry Redel, the chief of infectious disease at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, tells HuffPost US.

We asked infectious disease experts what they’re seeing in US hospitals right now. Here’s what they said.

The most common XBB Covid symptoms appear to be congestion and body aches.

There’s limited data on XBB, but experts suspect the symptoms associated with XBB infections will be similar to the symptoms people experienced with Covid throughout 2022.

That said, evidence has shown that the symptom profile has shifted a bit with each variant. Omicron caused more cold-like symptoms (like fatigue, runny nose, sneezing and muscle aches), for example, whereas delta and alpha more commonly triggered anosmia (loss of smell) and ageusia (loss of taste).

So, what is on the docket for XBB? “In general, I think people are more achy and still have congestion and headache,” Dr Julie Parsonnet, an infectious diseases specialist with Stanford Health Care, tells HuffPost. You may also expect to see the other usual symptoms: fever, chills, cough and sore throat.

Less common symptoms include loss of taste and smell and shortness of breath.

Anosmia and ageusia appear, anecdotally, to be less common with XBB. Experts don’t expect ageusia and anosmia to make a comeback just yet.

“Since XBB is part of the Omicron group, I expect that loss of taste and smell will not be common, but I have not seen data yet,” says Dr. Thomas Campbell, a professor in the department of infectious disease at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

One thing doctors on the front lines are seeing less of: severe shortness of breath, Redel says. Rarely have recent patients needed supplemental oxygen, he added. Redel notes he’s seeing many more Covid patients come in with classic upper respiratory symptoms – like runny nose, congestion and sore throats – along with fever and muscle aches.

Common symptoms have changed since the original iteration of the coronavirus.

What causes symptoms to change between subvariants?

Because so many people have been infected – in some cases, multiple times — it’s tough to pin down exactly how the symptomatology is influenced by the host versus specific traits of the virus. Parsonnet suspects that immunity plays a pretty big role.

“There is likely a strong element of underlying immunity, but there may also be differences in the virus’s ability to cause symptoms,” Parsonnet tells HuffPost.

According to Dr. Martin Krsak, an infectious disease expert at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, people’s genetics and underlying health – i.e. whether they have a chronic disease or prior injury – also influence the type of symptoms they develop.

Like Parsonnet, Krsak says that each variant and the way it infects our cells likely impacts symptoms as well. “Variants have a different capacity to evade prior immunity and also a different capacity to bind to the main target on human cells,” he says.

Does the current Covid booster prevent you from getting infected with XBB?

A pre-print study from Japan determined that XBB came to be during the summer of 2022 when two sub-variants of the BA.2 omicron lineage combined. Scientists believe that, in this process, XBB picked up mutations that help it better evade immunity conferred by both vaccination and previous infections.

XBB’s mutations also let it attach to our cells more easily, enabling it to spread more efficiently than other versions of omicron.

“It binds tighter, appears more transmissible, and is also immune-evasive,” says Dr. Eric M. Poeschla, the head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. It’s unknown whether those mutations alter the virus’ clinical profile and the symptoms it causes, Parsonnet says.

The updated Covid booster, which was tweaked in 2022 to target newer variants of Omicron, doesn’t work super well at preventing infections of XBB, considering there are so many new infections in the community, Parsonnet says.

But the fact that there hasn’t been a rapid increase in deaths shows that the shots, combined with the immense amount of immunity gained from past infections, continue to protect many people from severe outcomes. Together, that immunity will help blunt the XBB wave, according to Poeschla.

Of course, there’s always the very real risk of long Covid, which is a debilitating condition that can follow even a mild case of the coronavirus. Long Covid can cause lasting fatigue, brain fog, respiratory issues and more. There’s still a lot for us to learn about XBB and the symptoms or potential complications it may cause.

But there’s one thing we know for sure: There’s a benefit to being vaccinated rather than not. “The bivalent booster offers some protection against all omicron-based variants and is highly recommended, especially for those over 65 or with serious other risks,” Poeschla says.

Experts are still learning about Covid-19. The information in this story is what was known or available at the time of publication, but guidance could change as scientists discover more about the virus. To keep up to date with health advice and cases in your area, visit gov.uk/coronavirus and nhs.uk.

There Are Two New Covid Variants In England, Here’s What We Know

Posted on 28/10/2022 by Boris Clair

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has identified two new Covid-19 variants circulating in England, named BQ.1 and XBB. Both appear to come from the Omicron variant.

“A number of Omicron variants are currently circulating in England, many of which have acquired mutations which may produce a degree of immune escape,” the agency said. “Omicron sublineages BQ.1 and XBB have been given UKHSA variant designations to facilitate continued studies.”

BQ.1 is a sub-lineage of the previous Omicron variant, BA.5. It has been “designated on the basis of rapid growth”, the UKHSA said.

XBB, meanwhile, is what’s known as a “recombinant lineage”, meaning it derives from two previous Omicron sublineages. It has been already been found in 17 countries.

The variant may be a factor in the recent spike in cases in Singapore. So far, it has successfully evaded drug therapies and vaccines by working around the body’s immune system – potentially making it a more potent strain than its predecessors.

But, the most damaging element of this sub-variant is that scientists expect it will be just one of many which could emerge at the same time this winter.

XBB is causing concern among scientists after being detected in Europe, Asia and Australia.

XBB is spreading rapidly in Singapore in particular, having pushed Covid cases from 4,719 on October 9, to 11,732 on October 10, according to data from Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Centre.

However, the country expects this wave to be “short and sharp”, averaging at around 15,000 daily cases by mid-November – although it could peak at around 20,000 on some days.

Previously BA.5 was the dominant variant in the UK, nearly 78.7% of confirmed cases in England were BA.5 which was first identified in April and was designated as a Variant of Concern on May 18.

Both new variants are not a cause for concern for some scientists. “It is not unexpected to see new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge. Neither BQ.1 nor XBB have been designated as Variants of Concern and UKHSA is monitoring the situation closely, as always,” Dr Meera Chand, Director of Clinical and Emerging Infection at UKHSA said.

Chand continued: “Vaccination remains our best defence against future COVID-19 waves, so it is still as important as ever that people come take up all the doses for which they are eligible as soon as possible.”

While early signs suggest it is more resistant to antibody treatments, the world is starting to create more boosters which broader protection, by producing vaccines with half the original vaccine and half protection against the dominant strains BA.4 and BA.5.

Lead respiratory virus immunology specialist Natalie Thornburg at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in a webinar this week: “XBB is a chimera. I think there have been a couple of sequences identified in the US. But it’s way, way, way, way below that 1% threshold. I mean, it’s really like a handful of sequences.”

Concern Over Covid Boosters And Baby Scans Cancelled For Queen’s Funeral

Posted on 13/09/2022 by Boris Clair

Patients are expressing concern that some Covid booster jabs, flu vaccinations, as well as key hospital appointments, are being cancelled ahead of the Queen’s funeral on September 19 since it was made a last-minute Bank Holiday.

Kate Brodie, 62, a retired NHS GP who is about to start a second round of chemotherapy for breast cancer, had specifically timed the date of her Covid booster so it fell before her hospital treatment started.

The vaccine was booked for September 19. However Brodie, who lives in south Devon, says she received a text message on September 12 saying the appointment had been cancelled due to the unexpected bank holiday.

“Having cancer is a huge stress with all the worry about survival, the process of going through gruesome treatment and hoping to continue to avoid Covid 19 while my immune system is down,” she tells HuffPost UK.

“The death of the Queen is very sad, but the reaction by NHSE [NHS England] to cancel delivery of much-needed services at short notice will cause harm and hardship to many.”

Many GP practices across England will be closed for the Bank Holiday, which has been given to allow individuals, businesses and other organisations to pay their respects to the Queen on the day of her state funeral.

A letter from Dr Ursula Montgomery, director of primary care at NHS England, said that out-of-hours services will be in place during the day to meet patients’ urgent primary medical care needs.

The funeral has come at a busy time for the NHS, as it implements its Covid booster and flu vaccination programmes ahead of the winter.

A text message from one GP surgery on the outskirts of London, seen by HuffPost UK, said flu vaccine appointments scheduled for this week would need to be rescheduled by a few days because of “the unfortunate news the nation is facing at the moment”.

Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP and medical educator from Oxford, explained on Twitter how a last minute bank holiday can be a “nightmare” for those trying to run health services, especially with lots of patients already booked in.

“What to do?” she tweeted. “Implore staff to work and pay extra? Reschedule and delay all the appointments?”

A bank holiday at short notice is a nightmare for those of us trying to run health services.
Loads of patients booked in do what to do? Implore staff to work and pay extra? Reschedule and delay all the appointments?

— Dr Helen Salisbury (@HelenRSalisbury) September 11, 2022

Other staff working in general practice responded to say that even when they do open on Bank Holidays, they often aren’t busy. Some added that they suspect lots of patients won’t turn up because they’ll be watching the funeral.

I worked GP OOH the Saturday of Princess Diana’s Funeral and it was deserted. No one phoned us and we didn’t see anyone despite being there waiting and available.
It’s like GP surgeries being open on Sundays or bank holidays during the pandemic when no one wants to come then.

— Sarah MacHale (@99Stickling) September 11, 2022

How many of those patients will choose to stay home to watch the televised events? Bank holidays are a nightmare in healthcare, short notice or not.

— Stephen Warner (@stephenwwarner1) September 11, 2022

Scheduled Covid boosters are still going ahead in care homes, said NHS England, which has also issued guidance urging clinics to stay open to deliver the boosters “where there is a high population need”.

But a report by openDemocracy found thousands of non-urgent hospital appointments – for issues such as hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, maternity checks and some cancer treatments – are being postponed.

One pregnant woman revealed how her foetal scan had been cancelled, leaving her anxious about her baby’s health.

“I’m really disappointed,” she told openDemocracy. “Yes, it’s a routine scan, but that’s another week or two until I’m seen and wondering whether my baby is healthy – which means quite a lot of anxiety, sitting and waiting.”

Hospital appointment I’ve had booked for 6 months cancelled because it’s on the day of the funeral. What a weird little island we live on

— Harry Kelly (@Harry__Kelly) September 13, 2022

Kate Brodie has since tried to rebook her Covid booster for the next cycle, but was told there were no dates free near to where she lives.

“Thankfully I have found a centre 15 miles away that I can attend on Sunday instead,” she says. “I am lucky I am mobile and have transport to reach the further venue.”

Meanwhile, Greg Hadfield, 66, from Brighton, also found out his Covid booster vaccine appointment on September 19 has been cancelled and is now having to travel nearly 40 minutes by car to get another one.

The 66-year-old was originally invited to have the booster at his local Waitrose. However because the store will now be closed for the Bank Holiday – as many supermarkets will be – his appointment won’t go ahead.

“When I tried to re-book for another day at the same centre, the system offered only dates that were 14 days-plus ahead, by which time I will be abroad for a month,” he tells HuffPost UK.

He has managed to book an appointment 40 minutes away for the same date, September 19, which hasn’t been cancelled – so far.

“I am just relieved to get the booster before leaving for Turkey and Greece later this month,” he says.

Stillbirths Increased Last Year. Why Is Nobody Talking About It?

Posted on 10/08/2022 by Boris Clair

After years of progress, the number of stillbirths increased across England and Wales in 2021 – but it’s not the story you’ll read about elsewhere.

When the new ONS data was released this week, most newspapers focused on a jolly little fact: last year, more babies were born out of wedlock than among married couples for the first time since records began.

But the figures also show there were 2,597 stillbirths in 2021, an increase of 226 from 2020.

These statistics were barely a footnote in most national newspapers, something the baby loss charity, Tommy’s, was disappointed by.

Kath Abrahams, chief executive at the charity says the latest figures are “unacceptable”. She believes they reflect the “direct and indirect” impact Covid-19 had on pregnant women and people in 2021.

“Indirectly, the pandemic had a significant impact on maternity services, putting them under greater pressure,” she tells HuffPost UK. “There were higher rates of stillbirth in January 2021, which coincided with the peak of the second wave of Covid-19.”

Throughout the pandemic, HuffPost UK reported on the disproportionate impact on maternity services, with pregnant women saying they felt “forgotten” as lockdown restrictions eased. While pubs reopened, mums-to-be reported having routine antenatal appointments cancelled or conducted over the phone.

Though there’s no research to link these practices directly to stillbirth rates, the individual stories paint a picture of incomplete care, at a time of high-anxiety for pregnant women.

Pregnant women also faced misinformation regarding vaccine safety, with some even mistakingly told not to take the jab at vaccine centres. Data from October 2021 found just 15% of pregnant women were fully vaccinated amidst the fear and confusion.

Because of this, Tommy’s says Covid-19 infection is likely to have had a direct impact on the 2021 stillbirth rate.

“Our research has shown that getting Covid-19 during pregnancy could cause problems in the placenta, increasing the risk of pregnancy complications, which is why it’s important pregnant women and people get vaccinated if they can,” Abrahams says.

“Rates of stillbirth had been following a consistent decline over recent years, and we believe 2021’s increase is unacceptable. It highlights exactly why we need to increase efforts to meet NHS England’s aim of reducing stillbirth rates by 50% by 2025.”

The data also uncovered that stillbirth rates differed across the country last year, with more deprived areas, including the North East and Yorkshire, experiencing higher rates than the most affluent regions.

“It is unacceptable that who you are and where you live continues to have an impact on whether your baby is born healthy – and it’s vital that our government and health services continue to focus on tackling these inequalities,” Abrahams adds.

“Action to reduce stillbirth must be a national priority as health services recover following the Covid-19 pandemic, and more work must be done to understand the reasons for the increase in stillbirths and help improve care for pregnant women and people at risk.”

Commenting on the latest figures, Professor Asma Khalil, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said every stillbirth “is a tragedy for the families affected as well as the maternity staff involved”.

“Stillbirth rates are still higher in the UK than many other high-income countries and vary widely across the UK,” she said. “We continue to advise women who have concerns or worries about their or their baby’s health – including the baby’s movements – to seek medical advice from their midwife or hospital as soon as possible. We also advise pregnant women to ensure they are fully vaccinated against Covid as this can increase the risk of stillbirth.”

HuffPost UK contacted the Department of Health and Social Care about the increased stillbirth rates, sharing the concerns raised by Tommy’s about stretched maternity services.

In response, a DHSC spokesperson told us: “We are committed to making the NHS the best place in the world to give birth through personalised, high-quality support.

“Since 2010, the rate of stillbirths has reduced by 20.9%, the rate of neonatal mortality for babies born over 24 weeks has reduced by 36% and maternal mortality has reduced by 17%.

“The NHS is investing £127m into the maternity system in the next year to support the workforce and improve neonatal care – which is on top of £95m to recruit 1,200 more midwives and 100 more consultant obstetricians.”

Tories Accused Of Squandering ‘Astronomical’ Amounts Of Taxpayer Money

Posted on 10/06/2022 by Boris Clair

The Tory government has been accused of “astronomical” waste as it emerged that £15bn worth of taxpayers’ money has been lost on faulty PPE and servicing government debt.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) is under fire after it was revealed that £4bn worth of unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) left over from the Covid-19 pandemic will be burned “to generate power”.

A report by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) claimed that DHSC lost 75 per cent of the £12bn it spent on PPE in the first year of the pandemic due to inflated prices and kit that did not meet the required standards — including £4bn going to waste.

A DHSC spokesperson said a number of claims in the PAC report were “misleading” and that they made “no apology for procuring too much PPE rather than too little”.

“The story of PPE purchasing is perhaps the most shameful episode in the UK Government response to the pandemic.”

– Dame Meg Hillier

Meanwhile, chancellor Rishi Sunak also stands accused of losing £11bn of taxpayers’ money by paying too much interest on UK debt, according to the Financial Times.

The losses were said to exceed the amount that the Conservatives have accused Labour former chancellor Gordon Brown of losing when he sold some of the UK’s gold reserves at rock bottom prices.

It comes as people struggle with the mounting cost of living crisis which has seen the average cost of filling up a typical family car reach the £100 mark for the first time.

Labour’s Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC, said the purchasing of PPE was “perhaps the most shameful episode the UK government response to the pandemic”.

“At the start of the pandemic health service and social care staff were left to risk their own and their families’ lives due to the lack of basic PPE,” she said.

“In a desperate bid to catch up the government splurged huge amounts of money, paying obscenely inflated prices and payments to middlemen in a chaotic rush during which they chucked out even the most cursory due diligence.

“This has left us with massive public contracts now under investigation by the National Crime Agency or in dispute because of allegations of modern slavery in the supply chain.

“Add to that a series of inappropriate, unauthorised severance payoffs made by clinical commissioning groups in the first year of the pandemic and the impression given falls even further from what we expect.

“DHSC singularly failed to manage this crisis, despite years of clear and known risk of a pandemic, and the challenges facing it now are vast, from getting the NHS back on its feet to preparing for the next major crisis. There are frankly too few signs that it is putting its house in order or knows how to.”

In the FT article, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) attributed the £11bn loss to the chancellor’s failure to insure against interest rate rises.

NIESR’s Professor Jagjit Chadha told the Financial Times Sunak had left the country with “an enormous bill and heavy continuing exposure to interest rate risk”.

In response, Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, accused the chancellor of “severe wastefulness”.

“These are astronomical sums for the chancellor to lose, and leaves working people picking up the cheque for his severe wastefulness while he hikes their taxes in the middle of a cost of living crisis,” she said.

“This government has played fast and loose with taxpayers’ money, failing to recover money lost to fraud and handing covid contracts to their friends.

“Britain deserves a government that respects public money and delivers for people across the country.”

A DHSC spokesperson said: “A number of these claims are misleading, including the claims that we are burning £4bn of unusable PPE and that there is no clear disposal strategy for excess PPE.

“In the face of an unpredictable and dangerous virus, we make no apology for procuring too much PPE rather than too little, and only 3 per cent of the PPE we procured was unusable in any context.

“At the height of the pandemic, there was unprecedented global demand for and massive inflation in prices of PPE. But despite these global challenges, we delivered over 19.8 billion items of PPE to frontline staff to keep them safe.

“Now we are confident we have sufficient PPE to cover any future Covid demands, we are taking decisive action and have reduced storage costs by 82 per cent since October 2020.”

A HM Treasury spokesperson said: “Proposals such as this risk undermining the independence of the Bank of England and forcing commercial banks to swap reserves for gilts would be an act of financial repression. This would be hugely damaging to the credibility of the UK’s macroeconomic framework and weaken the wider economy.

“The £11bn figure is based on the implausible assumption that it would be possible to undertake action of this scale in a single transaction.”

This Is How Covid Impacts Your Heart, Lungs And Kidneys After Infection

Posted on 24/05/2022 by Boris Clair

Covid affects the heart, lungs and kidneys, according to two new studies, and the impacts could last long after the initial infection has passed.

The first study was carried out in 10 intensive care units across Scotland and examined 121 critically ill patients who were receiving treatment on ventilators due to the impact of coronavirus on their system.

One in three of the patients in the study showed evidence of abnormalities in the right side of the heart – the area that pumps blood to the lungs, researchers found.

Nearly half (47%) of ventilated patients in the study died because of Covid-19, a figure comparable to national and international death rates.

“A combination of factors create the perfect storm for Covid-19 to damage the right side of your heart, which ultimately can cause death,” Dr Philip McCall, lead author of the study and consultant in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at NHS Golden Jubilee, said.

Experts at the NHS Golden Jubilee University National Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, said that the findings could play a vital role in not only saving the lives of Covid-19 patients, but for the care of potentially fatal heart and lung issues generally, as well as helping prepare for any possible future pandemic.

Dr Ben Shelley, chief investigator of the study and consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the NHS Golden Jubilee, said: “The study has revealed that there is no doubt Covid-19 affects the heart and has a major impact on outcomes for the patient.

“However, now that we know this actually happens, and have a better understanding of how it affects people, we can plan for the future and put in place new care plans and treatments to help combat this.”

In another study published in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers analysed the outcomes of 159 people hospitalised with Covid between May 2020 and March 2021.

“Our study provides objective evidence of abnormalities at one to two months post-Covid and these findings tie in with persisting symptoms at that time and the likelihood of ongoing health needs one year later,” Prof Colin Berry, of the University of Glasgow, which led the CISCO-19 (Cardiac imaging in Sars coronavirus disease-19) study said.

People who had been hospitalised with Covid showed several abnormalities, including in results from imaging of the heart, lungs and kidneys, the study found.

One in eight of those who were hospitalised for Covid were most likely to have myocarditis, or heart inflammation, experts said. Healthcare workers with acute kidney injury was more likely to have myocarditis as well as those with more severe disease requiring invasive ventilation.

Additionally, people who have been hospitalised with Covid were more likely to need outpatient secondary care or be referred for long Covid, with death and re-hospitalisations also much higher in this group.

Although both studies focussed on patients who experienced severe Covid infection, the results have helped scientists learn about the wide ranging impacts of the virus. Researchers say the findings also serve as a reminder for the general population to stay vigilant about Covid.

Prof Berry added: “Even fit, healthy individuals can suffer severe Covid-19 illness and to avoid this, members of the public should take up the offer of vaccination.”

Experts Predict If And When Covid Will Become A Seasonal Illness

Posted on 14/05/2022 by Boris Clair

The vast majority of respiratory viruses that spread within our population ebb and flow with the seasons.

Influenza spikes in the winter months, as do infections caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenoviruses and other coronaviruses. Earlier this year, Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said she expects Covid to also become a seasonal illness – but whether or not that will come to be remains to be seen.

Most scientists agree that Covid isn’t going anywhere, and that we’ll be living with SARS-CoV-2 for decades, if not forever. Though we tend to see the biggest waves in the winter and early spring, Covid isn’t seasonal yet. It doesn’t retreat in the spring-to-summer off-season – it is smoldering throughout the year.

“Covid is steadily burning through the population as we speak. But it is also able to piggy back on top of our ebbs and flows of the typical cold and flu season, so it’s a double whammy,” Mark Cameron, an infectious disease researcher at Case Western Reserve, tells HuffPost.

Will Covid ever become a seasonal illness?

Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and demographer who studies infectious diseases at University of California, Irvine, expects Covid to become winter-dominant, like the flu, in the long run. SARS-CoV-2 is already somewhat seasonal and predictable in nature.

“In the United States, all of the largest spikes have been in the winter, so it is kind of seasonal in that respect,” Noymer says.

But, even between those peaks, the virus spreads at pretty significant levels. It hasn’t totally settled into a seasonality. Many epidemiologists thought Covid would have already fallen into much more of a seasonal pattern by now – but it hasn’t.

“A seasonal infectious disease is something that pops up predictably at the start of the cold and flu season and persists throughout that period of time,” Cameron says.

Keep in mind, this is only our third 12-month period with Covid. The illness is still relatively new. Even though over half of the US population and seven in 10 people in the UK have likely already had Covid, others have not and remain susceptible. We’re all antsy for the virus to become predictable, but the virus is still just getting started, Noymer says. He suspects that one day – maybe 10, 15 years from now – we’ll be looking at a very seasonal phenomenon.

There's a chance Covid may not become seasonal for years to come. — There’s a chance Covid may not become seasonal for years to come.

Is there a chance Covid may never sync up with the flu and cold season and become a winter-dominant illness? Of course, Noymer says. “I can’t absolutely rule out that it never will – that it will be the one exception that disproves the rule.”

The fact that, one, people can get Covid multiple times, and two, that even vaccinated people can catch and spread Covid, makes the epidemiology of this respiratory infection chaotic. Population-level immunity influences when waves occur. After people recover from Covid, they are typically protected from infection for a few months. As time passes, those recently recovered people can become susceptible again. And, on a greater scale, a population can become susceptible to a wave again.

This isn’t an exact science – people get infected and recover at different times. Their immunity wanes at different speeds. “There’s a lot of wheels turning and it’s very hard to predict,” Noymer says.

Here’s what causes respiratory viruses to become seasonal

It’s not entirely clear why respiratory viruses tend to get more active in the wintertime – but they do. Flu activity surges in the winter as do the common cold coronaviruses. Even measles was winter-dominant when it circulated at higher levels in the US, according to Noymer.

“We see this with respiratory virus after respiratory virus after respiratory virus,” Noymer says.

There are a few hypotheses as to why this happens. The first theory is atmospheric conditions – viruses, including influenza, tend to spread more easily when there’s less humidity. Viruses do better in drier conditions.

Another contributing factor is our behaviour. In winter months, when it’s cold outside, we gather indoors together and create plenty of opportunities for viruses to spread from person to person.

Incidentally, this is also believed to be why the US South experiences summer spikes. Contrary to those in the northeast, people living in southern states head indoors during the summer months when the temperature soars and humidity becomes wet and sticky. Schools are thought to contribute to the seasonal spread of respiratory viruses like flu and RSV, Noymer adds.

The behaviour of the virus plays a role, too. The flu, for example, tends to shoot through the population then burn itself out by “mutating to its demise,” Cameron said. Covid, on the other hand, is evolving to become more fit and more transmissible – it’s not acting like a typical respiratory virus that infects people and goes away before bursting back into the population in a different form months later.

If we look to other circulating coronaviruses that cause the common cold, we can reasonably expect Covid to eventually become endemic and more seasonal in nature, according to Cameron. But we don’t know when those coronaviruses settled in their seasonality. How long that will take with Covid is a mystery. This is wide-open territory that has yet to be studied.

“How can we understand how long Covid will take to become just another garden-variety coronavirus that is circulating and causing sporadic disease?” Cameron said. “It certainly isn’t now.”

The Pandemic Warped Our Sense Of Time. Here’s How To Gain It Back.

Posted on 01/05/2022 by Boris Clair

At this point of the pandemic, it still feels like we’re stuck in a bit of a time warp.

Yes, offices are opening back up and many people are carrying on with their events and travel plans. But there’s still a layer of uncertainty about what might happen next with Covid and when the pandemic will truly end — especially as more variants pop up.

Life doesn’t exactly feel normal yet, and as a result, time drags by. Here’s why, and how you can “gain” some of it back:

1. We lost our routines.

According to Ruth Ogden, an experimental psychologist at Liverpool John Moores University who studies how humans process time, this sensation that time is warped has been a global phenomenon. Through her research, she’s found that people across the globe have experienced distorted time during the pandemic.

The biggest culprit of the time warp: the loss of our routines.

“All the things in our day that helped us know what time it was ― they were gone. That meant it became easy for time to slip and slide around,” Ogden said.

During the pandemic, time stood still for many of us. We canceled our activities and we distanced from friends. People did everything — sleep, eat, work, socialise, parent, exercise — from their homes.

“We’re all heavily routinised creatures, but this routine is important because it keeps us in time,” Ogden said.

Our day-to-day activities help us perceive time — if we are commuting, we know it’s morning, if we’re running out for lunch, it’s midday, and so on and so forth. Without daily routines, which act as markers of time, it becomes easy to get lost in time. The things that made your Saturday a Saturday, or your Tuesday a Tuesday, may no longer be there.

Research also suggests that emotions significantly impact our perception of time. When we’re happy and physiologically aroused, time feels like it’s flying by; conversely, depression can make time feel sluggish.

Furthermore, our expectations of how things will occur (i.e., the pandemic is over!) versus the reality of how things play out (there’s a new variant coming for us) can make time feel faster or slower, depending on if the actual outcome was better or worse than our predictions.

2. Memories help us process time, and our memories are different from the last few years.

Think back to the beginning of the pandemic, when news of Covid spreading around China first leaked. How long ago does that feel to you? Months? Years? It’s probably hard to tell.

Ogden and her research team have been studying how people feel about the length of the pandemic and have discovered that the brain processes length of time through memories.

“If we’ve got loads of memories, then it says, ‘Oh, it must have been a long time,’ but if it has very few memories, then we think it must have been a short period of time,” Ogden said.

In theory, most of us should remember the pandemic as being short — because we didn’t do a lot, Ogden said. But she’s found the opposite: most people feel like we’ve been stuck in the pandemic for much longer than we have been.

The reason, it seems, is that while we didn’t necessarily form a ton of fun, new memories for a period of time, we still formed memories. We learned how to bake bread, we got into puzzles and crafts and packed our days with Zoom meetings. We navigated life through restrictions, masking and distancing; we developed new skills and fell into new routines. Time moved forward.

A loss of routine is the main reason why time seems to drag by.

3. People process time differently.

Just how distorted time feels varies from person to person. It ultimately depends each person’s personal experience with Covid and how much the pandemic has influenced or changed their daily activities, said Nicole Dudukovic, the director of the neuroscience major at the University of Oregon.

Ogden’s research, for example, has found that social satisfaction is one of the biggest factors behind how people process time.

“The more socially satisfied you were, the ‘quicker’ the pandemic went,” Ogden said, noting that this didn’t just involve being around people, like family in your household, but seeking out and enjoying social connections.

People who have engaged in “normal life” again, and are traveling and commuting to the office and engaged in activities, are probably going to have a more normal sense of time right now. People who are at-risk and are hunkering down, along with those who are stressed about returning to pre-pandemic activities, may continue to feel disoriented about time.

“For some people, this experience will continue for a long time and that will continue to cause distortion to their experience of time,” Ogden said.

4. We’re more aware of time now.

Ultimately, the pandemic has made people much more aware of time. We’ve had more time on our hands, which has caused us to become hyper aware of time and how it’s passing, Ogden said.

At the same time, we often don’t remember time accurately. It’s very hard for people to remember how we felt about things, like time, in the past — it’s largely influenced by how we feel about things now. Memories of how time once passed can be very inaccurate, according to Dudukovic. While it may feel like time is passing differently now, it’s totally plausible that we’re just misremembering how time felt pre-pandemic.

“It’s possible that if you’d asked me in 2019 about how fast time was going that maybe it would be not that different from how I’m feeling about it now,” Dudukovic said.

Here’s how to overcome the time warp.

Ogden said it’s important to recognise that we are not going to return to life before the pandemic.

“So much in the world has changed as a result of the pandemic,” she said. We’ve carried on and adapted to new ways of work and socialising.

One of the best ways to mitigate the feeling that we’re stuck in a time warp is to create new routines.

“There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that your routine, and also the number of activities that you’re engaged in, that that’s going to influence how you’re perceiving time,” Dudukovic said.

Changing your environments — stepping out of the house, going on walks, or even switching up the room you work in — can trick your brain into thinking more is happening, so that time passes more regularly.

If your days blend together, save certain activities and routines for specific days of the week.

“Make your Tuesday a Tuesday because of the things you do in it,” Ogden said.

Finally, try to keep busy. The busier we are, the less we tend to focus on how time is passing.

Exercising With Long Covid Is Tough. This Gentle 5-Minute Workout Can Ease You In

Posted on 27/04/2022 by Boris Clair

You’re reading Move, the nudge we need to get active, however makes us happiest and healthiest.

Re-establishing your fitness routine after having Covid can have major benefits for your physical and mental health, but it needs to be approached cautiously if you’re still experiencing long Covid symptoms.

The NHS advises those experiencing long Covid to ease themselves back into exercise slowly. “Exercise is very important for regaining your muscle strength and endurance but this needs to be safe and managed alongside other long Covid symptoms,” it says. You can read further information about exercising after Covid infection on the NHS website.

Jeannie Di Bon, founder of the Moovlite app, is a movement therapist specialising in working with people experiencing chronic fatigue and chronic pain. More recently, she’s been designing workouts for those experiencing long Covid.

“You may find that your energy levels have dropped post-Covid and you may experience fatigue and post-exertion malaise (PEM),” she explains. “With this in mind, I recommend taking it gently and slowly. We need to keep the nervous system calm to allow the body to repair and we need to start moving without causing a fatigue flare-up.

“Listen to your body and try not to push yourself to pre-Covid fitness too soon. The more you fight the impact of long Covid, the harder it may be to recover.”

Below, Di Bon has shared a gentle, five-minute workout created for those who feel ready to start moving again.

But remember, always speak to a healthcare professional about resuming physical activity if you’re experiencing chest pain or severe breathlessness, or if physical activity is worsening your long Covid symptoms.

Exercise 1: Belly breathing

Start with some gentle belly breathing, allowing the lower ribs to expand. For many people, Covid causes a cough and cold so we want to start moving the lung tissue in the right way. Try to breathe quietly in through the nose and out through the nose. Lying on your back does not require strong inhales so take it very gently, allowing the breath to come to you.

Exercise 2: Arm rolls

Staying supine (lying on your back) is a good way to start moving – especially as some people experience dizziness with long Covid. You may find you don’t want to be standing for too long or doing exercises that involve inversions or squats. Keep it simple. This arm roll exercise can help stretch into the thorax and open the chest.

Start with your arms by your side. Try to keep the back heavy as you move the arms above your head and gently stretch. Let your breath settle the spine into the floor and allow the tissues to relax. You can add arm circles to this for a beautiful stretch across the chest.

Exercise 3: Ankle roll

To help with the dizziness that can happen, some simple leg exercises like calf pumps or ankle circles are recommended. You can do these lying on your back: hold on to one leg and try to circle to the ankle without the rest of the leg moving. Gently lower it back to the ground and repeat on the other leg.

Exercise 4: Resistance training

To build leg strength further, you can add a band for resistance work that is also gentle. This is another great exercise for circulation and helps prevent dizziness. Take a band and place it around your foot with the knee bent. Focus on gentle rolling the back of the thigh along the mat until the leg straightens.

Try not to lock the knee or hang into the band. Keep the energy flowing down the leg into the band. The back stays heavy into the mat – if your back is arching, raise the leg higher. Once the leg is straight, press the balls of the feet into the band and start to point and flex the foot. This is a brilliant way to utilise the calf pump.

Exercise 5: Seated twist

A seated twist is great to help circulation and digestion. Many people do experience stomach cramps and pain with Covid. Find a comfortable seated position and cross one leg over the other straight leg. Use your arms to guide yourself around to look over the opposite shoulder. Try to lift the spine up as you twist, rather than compress the spine. It’s also important to go gentle and not force into the twist. Stay in the position and breathe softly allowing tight muscles to release. You can then repeat on the other side.

Move celebrates exercise in all its forms, with accessible features encouraging you to add movement into your day – because it’s not just good for the body, but the mind, too. We get it: workouts can be a bit of a slog, but there are ways you can move more without dreading it. Whether you love hikes, bike rides, YouTube workouts or hula hoop routines, exercise should be something to enjoy.

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