— IAS President Adeeba Kamarulzaman quoted in The Week

 

The AP (US) headline tells the story of where the world is with the COVID-19 pandemic: “Dispiriting setback: COVID deaths, cases rise again globally.” AP reports, “COVID-19 deaths and cases are on the rise again globally in a dispiriting setback that is triggering another round of restrictions and dampening hopes for a return to normal life…. Cases rose 10 percent last week to nearly 3 million, with the highest numbers recorded in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Britain, WHO said.”
 
The Nation (Nigeria) reports “Africa has recorded a 43 per cent week-on-week rise in COVID-19 deaths, as hospital admissions increase rapidly and countries face shortages in oxygen and intensive care beds, according to [WHO]…. The continent’s case fatality rate, which is the proportion of deaths among confirmed cases, currently stands at 2.6 per cent against the global average of 2.2 percent.”
 
AFP (France) reports, “Virus-wracked Indonesia posted record daily infections topping 54,000 on Wednesday as the highly infectious Delta variant rips across the archipelago, catapulting it ahead of India as Asia's COVID-19 epicentre. The Southeast Asian nation has been battered by a virus explosion that overwhelmed hospitals, leaving scores to die at home, while desperate relatives hunt for oxygen tanks to treat the sick.”

If You Are in a Hurry

• Read an editorial in the The Lancet that praises African solidarity in the response to COVID-19.
• And then read the full Chatham House report on global solidarity referenced in the editorial.
• Millions of children around the world have missed vaccine doses during the pandemic. Read about a new report from WHO/UNICEF at Reuters.
• Read about a “super antibody” that could protect wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants and other coronaviruses in Nature.
• Read Science on how COVID might change science.
• Read Newsday and The Week on new data from WHO about PLWHIV and the risk of severe COVID.
• Read Nature on the potential of children developing long COVID.
• Read Bhekisisa on the impact of violent protests and looting on COVID vaccinations and other health systems in South Africa.

 

COVID and HIV

 
Newsday (Zimbabwe) reports, “Health experts have called for prioritisation of people living with HIV in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout programme following revelations by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the group was at high risk of suffering severe illness as a result of the respiratory virus…. Previous evidence regarding the impact of HIV infection on the severity and mortality of COVID-19 has been limited and sometimes conflicting and most analyses have been based on relatively small cohorts of individuals in specific settings. Informed by these findings, the IAS called on countries to add people living with HIV to the list of groups prioritised in vaccine rollout efforts.”
 
Healio (US) reports, “HIV is independently associated with a higher risk for severe or critical COVID-19, according to a WHO analysis of more than 15,000 people living with HIV globally…. The WHO analysis also found that underlying conditions common among people with HIV—such as diabetes and hypertension—contribute to a higher mortality risk from COVID-19, highlighting the need for patients to stay healthy, prevent and manage their underlying conditions, and have regular access to ART, said Silvia Bertagnolio, MD, an HIV researcher at WHO.”
 
The Week (India) quotes IAS President Adeeba Kamarulzaman: “The global community must also do much more to bring COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world with high prevalence of HIV and other diseases. It is unacceptable that as of today, less than 3 percent of the entire African continent have received a single dose of the vaccine and less than 1.5 percent have received both doses…. There has been a lot of concern about the potential for COVID-19 lockdowns to fuel what UN Women has called the ‘shadow pandemic’ of increased gender-based violence and unintended pregnancy. This study confirms that HIV risk is also a major concern that should be taken into account when designing pandemic response plans.”
 
Arnau van Wyngaard and Alan Whiteside in African Journal of AIDS Research look at how the experiences with HIV in Southern Africa may be impacting the response to COVID-19, concluding, “This story is still evolving but there is no doubt that COVID-19 presents the worst health crisis of the century. However, ironically, it may be due to southern Africa’s experience with HIV and other related comorbidities that the region was better prepared for COVID-19 than many other countries with better health care systems.”
 

Africa Leads in Solidarity in the Pandemic Response

 
An editorial in The Lancet (UK) points to “a new report from Chatham House [that] explores the concept of solidarity in response to COVID-19. It highlights that international, regional, and within-country solidarity has been poor, but commends the alliance between the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the African Union, and the WHO Regional Office for Africa in galvanising cooperation in the region. Together, this alliance has launched initiatives ranging from the Africa Medical Supplies Platform, which pools orders for medical supplies, to the Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance, which aims to organise vaccine roll-out plans. Rarely for COVID-19 response leadership, women occupy key positions in these organisations. This progressive unity has been driven by local scientists and the health community and should be fully engaged with and amplified by all politicians of African Union member states.”
 

Booster Shots?

 
Contagion Live (US) reports US “Federal health officials have remained steadfast against the suggested necessity of a regulated booster dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2, according to reports following a meeting between the companies and US health authorities on Monday.”
 
The New York Times (US) reports, “Israel’s Ministry of Health on Monday issued guidelines for administering a third shot of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to people with compromised immune systems, citing the rising infection rate in recent weeks as well as growing evidence that such people do not develop sufficient antibodies after two doses. The ministry released a list of those now eligible for a third shot, prioritizing heart, lung and kidney transplant recipients followed by others with weak immune systems including cancer patients.”
 
US NIH Director Francis Collins writes in the NIH Director’s Blog about a new study of mRNA vaccines: “researchers monitored key immune cells in the lymph nodes of a group of people who received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine. The work consistently found hallmarks of a strong, persistent immune response against SARS-CoV-2 that could be protective for years to come. Though more research is needed, the findings add evidence that people who received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines may not need an additional ‘booster’ shot for quite some time, unless SARS-CoV-2 evolves into new forms, or variants, that can evade this vaccine-induced immunity.”
 

Vaccines and Pregnant People

 
A JAMA (US) study from Israel found, “Among pregnant women, receipt of the BNT162b2 [Pfizer] vaccine was associated with a lower risk of incident SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
 

Childhood Vaccines Missed

 
Reuters (UK) reports, “Nearly 23 million children missed out on routine vaccinations last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest number in more than a decade, fuelling outbreaks of measles, polio and other preventable diseases, UN agencies said on Thursday…. Ten countries, led by India and Nigeria, account for the bulk of the 22.7 million children left unvaccinated or under-vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP) in 2020—3.7million more than in 2019 and the most since 2009, it said regarding a key indicator of childhood vaccination rates.”
 
The WHO/UNICEF statement on the report notes, “Concerningly…up to 17 million children—likely did not receive a single vaccine during the year, widening already immense inequities in vaccine access. Most of these children live in communities affected by conflict, in under-served remote places, or in informal or slum settings where they face multiple deprivations including limited access to basic health and key social services.”
 
In The Lancet, (UK) a modelling study estimated major disruptions in vaccinations. The authors write, “Routine immunisation services faced stark challenges in 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing the most widespread and largest global disruption in recent history. Although the latest coverage trajectories point towards recovery in some regions, a combination of lagging catch-up immunisation services, continued SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and persistent gaps in vaccine coverage before the pandemic still left millions of children under-vaccinated or unvaccinated against preventable diseases at the end of 2020, and these gaps are likely to extend throughout 2021.”
 

COVID and Children

 
Nature (UK) reports, “As COVID-19 has ripped through communities, children have often been spared the worst of the disease’s impacts. But the spectre of long COVID developing in children is forcing researchers to reconsider the cost of the pandemic for younger people. The question is particularly relevant as the proportion of infections that are in young people rises in countries where many adults are now vaccinated—and as debates about the benefits of vaccinating children intensify…. Buonsenso says that one of the challenges in working out how many kids develop long COVID is that there are no set diagnostic criteria in adults, let alone in children. Surveys to detect symptoms usually cast a wide net, and are not yet specific enough to tease out long COVID from other conditions, he says. Nevertheless, he is convinced that some children—perhaps 5–10 percent of those with COVID-19—do develop the condition.”
 

The Olympics and COVID

 
Scientific American (US) looks at the concerns of many scientists about the Tokyo Olympics which begin later this month, quoting Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF: “It’s a perfect opening scene for a thrilling movie where everyone gets sick with Delta all over the world, and they trace it to the Olympics. The Olympics are not only just a local potential superspreading event in a poorly vaccinated country but [could perhaps become] a global superspreading event.”
 

COVID, Politics and Unrest

 
Politics remains a major driver of COVID in some places and the pandemic has heightened tensions and authoritarian moves in a number of countries.
 
The Wall Street Journal (US) reports that in Cuba, “the damage brought by the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted an economic disaster, slashing the flow of tourists and remittances from Cubans living abroad. About four of every 10 dollars in Cuba come from those two sources…. For the first time in Communist Cuba, protesters expressed their anger against the repression and the police state. Dissidents and activists say the pandemic played a determining role.” DW (Germany) reports Cuba approved a COVID vaccine developed in the country. “The Cuban health regulator, CECMED, approved the shot after the manufacturers announced last month that their vaccine was more than 92 percent effective against COVID-19 infections when three doses were given.”
 
Maverick Citizen (South Africa) reports, “Western Cape officials warned that the entire country’s healthcare system is at risk from the disruption of supply chains, as a result of this week’s looting and violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The concern comes as most provinces are gripped by a third wave of COVID-19 infections.” SABC (South Africa) reports, “The National Hospital Network (NHN), representing 241 public hospitals already under strain from Africa's worst COVID-19 epidemic, said it was running out of oxygen and drugs, most of which are imported through Durban, as well as food. Doctors and Nurses have been unable to travel in KZN and JHB.”
 
Bhekisisa (South Africa) reports, “The violent protests and looting in South Africa have led to the closing down of COVID vaccination sites in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. As a result, KwaZulu-Natal this week only administered a tenth of the daily doses it did last week. Gauteng’s doses have also gone down. 
Pharmacies, some of which were also vaccination sites, have also been looted and Cipla, a major manufacturer of generic medicine, had its factory in Durban burnt down. Many KwaZulu-Natal patients are now without chronic medication for conditions such as diabetes, HIV and hypertension, which make them more likely to fall severely ill with COVID and end up in hospital.”
 
MSN (US) reports, “Approximately 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, meaning it no longer was the only country in the Americas without any. But vaccine hesitancy, to say nothing of the recent violence and political unrest, could delay distribution for weeks.”
 
Axios (US) reports that in the US “State Republican lawmakers around the country are pushing bills—at least one of which has become law—that would give unvaccinated people the same protections as those surrounding race, gender and religion….On a national scale, well-known GOP figures have recently escalated their rhetoric about the vaccination effort, comparing it to Nazi Germany and apartheid.”
 

Racial Disparities Persist in UK

 
The Guardian (UK) reports, “Black communities are at risk of bearing the brunt of the UK’s third wave of Covid infections, according to senior doctors who said efforts to vaccinate the most vulnerable people in certain ethnic groups must be redoubled to improve their protection…. The latest tracking by researchers from the University of Oxford using the OpenSafely health records platform reveals vaccine coverage in black communities is at least 20 percentage points lower than in white groups. The disparity exists in the most vulnerable over-80s and appears to widen further in younger groups.”
 

Call for Mandatory Vaccinations for Health Workers

 
The Washington Post (US) reports, “A coalition of health-care organizations called on medical facilities Tuesday to mandate that their workers get vaccinated against the coronavirus, saying the strategy has worked to fight influenza and other infectious diseases and is necessary to contain the pandemic. ‘COVID-19 vaccination should be a condition of employment for all healthcare personnel,’ the coalition’s statement reads, warning that ‘a sufficient vaccination rate is unlikely to be achieved’ without a vaccine mandate.”
 

Monkey Shortage

 
Nature (UK) reports, “The US government is investing heavily to breed more monkeys at the national facilities that house primates for biomedical research, Nature has learnt. The goal is to offset an ongoing shortage of these animals, which grew worse in 2020 as scientists tested scores of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments on primates before trials began in people.”
 

Hopes for a “Super Antibody”

 
Nature (UK) reports, “Scientists have uncovered an antibody that can fight off not only a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants, but also closely related coronaviruses. The discovery could aid the quest to develop broad-ranging treatments and vaccines…. One antibody, S2H97, stood out for its capacity to adhere to the binding domains of all the sarbecoviruses that the researchers tested. S2H97, which the authors dub a pan-sarbecovirus antibody, was able to prevent a range of SARS-CoV-2 variants and other sarbecoviruses from spreading among cells growing in the laboratory. It was also powerful enough to protect hamsters against SARS-CoV-2 infection. ‘That’s the coolest antibody that we described,’ Starr says.”
 

Will COVID Change Science?

 
Science (US) looks at how the COVID pandemic might change science, based on what has happened with previous pandemics. “Past epidemics have spurred scientists and physicians to reconsider everything from their understanding of disease to their modes of communication. One of the most studied, the bubonic plague, tore through Europe in the late 1340s as the Black Death, then sporadically struck parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa over the next 500 years…. Until the Black Death, medical writers did not routinely categorize distinct diseases, and instead often presented illness as a generalized physical disequilibrium…. Plague and later epidemics also coincided with the rise of epidemiology and public health as disciplines…. In COVID-19's wake, will researchers refashion what they study and how they work, potentially accelerating changes already underway? Or will what Snowden calls ‘societal amnesia’ set in, fueled by the craving to leave a pandemic behind? The answers will come over decades. But scientists are beginning to shape them now.”