#omicron variant symptoms

[eeyes]

im still addicted to voice callign on character ai

[mrsmarlasinger]

Reblog for results and tell me more in the tags!! If you haven't had COVID, don't vote—just reblog it with a reference tag so you can see the results when it closes.

This is NOT a remotely scientific poll, so please don't take it too seriously or get too technical with it. I'm just curious whether smelling smoke/fire that isn't really there is a common symptom for COVID survivors. Since I had omicron in June 2022, it has happened to me several times.

(Also, please forgive me for making the poll USA-centric—I chose the timeline I was most familiar with as a US American myself. If you're not American, absolutely feel free to vote.)

[backfliips]

covid update my cough is basically entirely gone, all I really have left is a very sore throat (which is better than yesterday) and some mild congesion

[asthmabhawan-blog]

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[buindia]

What is Corona XE Variant, and is There Cause for Concern?

Compared to other Covid strains, the Corona XE variant is the most transmissible. Check out our article to know more about it.

Read More...

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

It's frustrating how this article admits that vaccination does not substantially stop spread, but it give the reader no further information. Mask up. Improve ventilation. Filter the air. Distance when you can. Those are actual, implementable advice that keeps covid from spreading, and it has to be done by the public at large to keep individuals safe. It's much less effective when the nebulous "high risk" are left to fend for themselves while everyone else pretends that it's 2019 forever.

By Kelly Ashmore

The XEC strain is 'just getting started' and is rapidly spreading throughout Europe and the rest of the world, experts have warned

Experts have issued a warning about a new, "stronger" Covid variant that is "just getting started" and spreading rapidly across Europe and the rest of the world. The XEC strain, first identified in Germany in June, has now been linked to 15 countries across three continents. As colder weather approaches, specialists anticipate this strain will become the dominant variant.

In California, Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said: "XEC is just getting started now around the world and here. And that's going to take many weeks, a couple of months, before it really takes hold and starts to cause a wave," according to the LA Times. He added, "XEC is definitely taking charge. That does appear to be the next variant. But it's months off from getting into high levels."

Experts have issued a warning about a new, "stronger" Covid variant that is "just getting started" and spreading rapidly across Europe and the rest of the world. The XEC strain, first identified in Germany in June, has now been linked to 15 countries across three continents. As colder weather approaches, specialists anticipate this strain will become the dominant variant.

In California, Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said: "XEC is just getting started now around the world and here. And that's going to take many weeks, a couple of months, before it really takes hold and starts to cause a wave," according to the LA Times. He added, "XEC is definitely taking charge. That does appear to be the next variant. But it's months off from getting into high levels."

What is Covid XEC? The Covid XEC is a recombinant variant of Covid-19, resulting from a combination of the BA. 1 and BA.

2 Omicron subvariants. While some Covid strains have proven more severe than others over the past years, it will take additional time for health professionals to determine the severity of symptoms associated with the XEC strain.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has not yet provided detailed information on the XEC variant.

However, recent statistics from the UKHSA have shown a 4.3 per cent increase in Covid-19 cases, but a decrease in virus-related deaths. The weekly figures revealed an increase of 1,587 Covid cases as of September 4.

Despite recording 102 deaths in the week ending August 30, this was a decrease of 20.9 per cent (27) from the previous week. Furthermore, hospital admissions due to the virus also fell by six per cent to 1,465, in the week up to August 29.

What are the symptoms of Covid XEC? The strain presents symptoms similar to those of a typical cold and flu. These include shortness of breath, high fever, persistent cough, loss of taste or smell, and feelings of fatigue or exhaustion.

Classic cold symptoms such as headache, sore throat, runny or blocked nose, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, and general malaise are also common. While most people will recover within a few weeks, some may require hospitalisation and others may need longer.

How to stay protected As with earlier Covid variants, the same precautions should be taken against the newest variant, including regular booster doses and vaccinations. Vaccines remain the best defence against serious illness, hospitalisation, and even death, even if they may not completely prevent infection.

If you're vulnerable to the virus or share a home with someone who is, donning a face mask can offer some protection, particularly in crowded or poorly ventilated indoor spaces. Boosting indoor ventilation where possible can further reduce the risk of falling ill.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hello! First of all, thank you for the wonderful content! It's a real joy, and an enrichment, food for both the brain and the heart! I was wondering if through your treasures, you could find some writing notes/words/concepts/vocabulary relating to genetic engineering? Like...creating a virus, and a vaccine for it, modifying the virus so it has certain specific effects.... Thank you in advance!

Writing Notes: Virus & Vaccine

References How Viruses Work; Replication Cycle; Mutation, Variants, Strains, Genetically Engineering Viruses; Writing Tips; Creating your Fictional Virus & Vaccine

Virus - an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat.

It is a tiny lifeform that is a collection of genes inside a protective shell. Viruses can invade body cells where they multiply, causing illnesses.

It cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself. Often, a virus ends up killing the host cell in the process, causing damage to the host organism.

Well-known examples of viruses causing human disease include AIDS, COVID-19, measles and smallpox. Examples of viruses:

Viruses are even smaller than bacteria and can invade living cells—including bacteria. They may interfere with the host genes, and when they move from host to host, they may take host genes with them.

Bacteriophages (also known as phages)—viruses that infect and kill bacteria.

Size differential between virus and bacterium

Viruses are measured in nanometers (nm).

They lack the cellular structure of bacteria, being just particles of protein and genetic material.

How Viruses Work

Viruses use an organism’s cells to survive and reproduce.

They travel from one organism to another.

Viruses can make themselves into a particle called a virion.

This allows the virus to survive temporarily outside of a host organism. When it enters the host, it attaches to a cell. A virus then takes over the cell’s reproductive mechanisms for its own use and creates more virions.

The virions destroy the cell as they burst out of it to infect more cells.

Viral shedding - when an infected person releases the virus into the environment by coughing, speaking, touching a surface, or shedding skin.

Viruses also can be shed through blood, feces, or bodily fluids.

Virus Replication Cycle

While the replication cycle of viruses can vary from virus to virus, there is a general pattern that can be described, consisting of 5 steps:

Attachment – the virion attaches to the correct host cell.

Penetration or Viral Entry – the virus or viral nucleic acid gains entrance into the cell.

Synthesis – the viral proteins and nucleic acid copies are manufactured by the cells’ machinery.

Assembly – viruses are produced from the viral components.

Release – newly formed virions are released from the cell.

Mutations, Variants, and Strains

Not all mutations cause variants and strains. Below are definitions that explain how mutations, variants, and strains differ.

Mutation - errors in the replication of the virus’s genetic code; can be beneficial to the virus, deleterious to the virus, or neutral

Variants - viruses with these mutations are called variants; the Delta and Omicron variants are examples of coronavirus mutations that cause different symptoms from the original infection

Strains - variants that have different physical properties are called strains; these strains may have different behaviors or mechanisms for infection or reproduction

Genetically Engineering Viruses

Using reverse genetics, the sequence of a viral genome can be identified, including that of its different strains and variants.

This enables scientists to identify sequences of the virus that enable it to bind to a receptor, as well as those regions that cause it to be so virulent.

Vaccine - a special preparation of substances that stimulate an immune response, used for inoculation

Vaccines & Fighting Viruses with Viruses

Common pathogenic viruses can be genetically modified to make them less pathogenic, such that their virulent properties are diminished but can still be recognized by the immune system to produce a robust immune response against. They are described as live attenuated.

This is the basis of many successful vaccines and is a better alternative than traditional vaccine development which typically includes heat-mediated disabling of viruses that tend to be poorer in terms of immunogenicity.

Viruses can also be genetically modified to ‘fight viruses’ by boosting immune cells to make more effective antibodies, especially where vaccines fail. Where vaccines fail, it is often due to the impaired antibody production by B-cells, even though antibodies can be raised against such viruses – including HIV, EBV, RSV & cold-viruses.

Related Articles: Modified virus used to kill cancer cells ⚜ Genetic Engineering ⚜ Engineering Bacterial Viruses ⚜ Benefits of Viruses

A Few Writing Tips

As more writers look to incorporate infectious diseases into their work, there are quite a few things writers should keep in mind:

Don’t anthropomorphize. Really easy to do, but scientifically wrong. Viruses don’t want to kill you; bacteria don’t want to infect you; parasites don’t want to make your blood curdle. None of these things are big enough to be sentient to want to do anything. They just do it (or don’t do it).

Personal protective equipment. This includes wearing gloves, lab coats, safety glasses, and tying your hair back if it’s long. It is the same as Edna Mode’s “no capes.” Flowing hair looks cool all the way to the explosive ball of flames that engulfs someone’s head.

Viruses are small. You can’t see viruses down a normal microscope—they need a special microscope called an electron microscope. These are highly specialized and take a long time to make the preparations to be able to see the virus. Normally viruses are detected by inference—measuring part of them using an assay that can amplify tiny amounts of material, for example PCR.

Viruses don’t really cause zombie apocalypses. 

Vaccines work. But they take time. The best vaccine in the world will still only prevent infections two weeks after it is given. Drugs are quicker, but still take some time. But the good news is an infection is not going to kill you (or turn you into a zombie) quickly, so they both have time to work.

Scientists use viruses as a vector to introduce healthy genes into a patient’s cells:

Your Fictional Virus & Vaccine

When creating your own fictional virus, research further on the topic and consider choosing a specific one as your basis/inspiration.

Here's one resource. For some of them, you'll need a subscription to access, but those that are available give you a good overview of the virus, as well as treatment options.

You can do the same for creating your fictional vaccine:

Here's one resource. And here's one on vaccine developments.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ⚜ Writing Notes & References

Lastly, here's an interesting article on how science fiction can be a valuable tool to communicate widely around pandemic, whilst also acting as a creative space in which to anticipate how we may handle similar future events.

Thanks so much for your kind words, you're so lovely! Hope this helps with your writing. Would love to read your work if it does :)

[ricisidro]

It's summer in the U.S., and RSV and flu have come and gone. But, as ever, COVID-19 is different. Even though the pandemic may be behind us, SARS-CoV-2 is surging again in this country.

#Omicron #FLIRTvariant #KP2 #KP3

Here's what to know about the current spike in COVID-19:

https://time.com/6996203/covid-19-symptoms-flirt-variants/

[tomorrowusa]

Just because the COVID-19 emergency ended doesn't mean the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

You’re not imagining it: Covid-19 cases are on the rise again. Fortunately, since a vast majority of Americans have some sort of immunity, either from vaccination or a prior infection, or both, most people who get infected now will have a mild illness. And while there are multiple strains circulating (nearly all of them descendants of the Omicron XBB variant), they are unlikely to cause the “wildfire spreading” that occurred with the Delta variant and the first Omicron variant, said Dr. David Boulware, a professor of medicine specializing in infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota Medical School. That includes EG.5, which was recently named a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization and currently accounts for about 17 percent of cases in the United States. “I’m not sure if it’s a surge, per se, or just uptick,” Dr. Boulware said of the current situation. Either way, he added, it’s a reminder “that, yes, Covid still exists.”

If you are fully vaccinated, including the booster, congratulate yourself. If not, this might be a good time to catch up. The new academic year starts soon and not all your classmates may be as conscientious as you.

A reminder of the symptoms – one of which is associated with a new strain.

Covid symptoms haven’t changed much since the start of the pandemic — sore throat, congestion, fatigue, fever and cough remain the most common, said Dr. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Some people may also experience gastrointestinal symptoms, and there are reports that the XBB.1.16 strain can cause pink eye. These generic symptoms mean it can be “extremely difficult to tell one virus from another,” Dr. Sax said. The easiest way to know if you have Covid or just a summer cold is to take a rapid test.

Not everybody with pink eye has the COVID XBB.1.16 strain, but it's a heads up if you also have any of the more classic symptoms.

Diseases don't go away just because people get bored with them. Hopefully there will soon be a yearly COVID shot just as there is a yearly flu shot.

If you need it, the CDC vaccine site is still available.

Find COVID‑19 Vaccines

[sataniccapitalist]

#thewaronyou

Another winter of death is now unfolding in the United States and across the Northern Hemisphere as the JN.1 variant of the coronavirus continues to surge globally. Wastewater data from the United States released Tuesday indicate that upwards of 2 million people are now being infected with COVID-19 each day, amid the second-biggest wave of mass infection since the pandemic began, eclipsed only by the initial wave of the Omicron variant during the winter of 2021-22.

There are now reports on social media of hospitals being slammed with COVID patients across the US, Canada and Europe. At a growing number of hospitals, waiting rooms are overflowing, emergency rooms and ICUs are at or near capacity, and ambulances are being turned away or forced to wait for hours to drop off their patients.

According to official figures, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Charlotte, North Carolina are now at their highest levels of the entire pandemic. In Toronto, Dr. Michael Howlett, president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, told City News, “I’ve worked in emergency departments since 1987, and it’s by far the worst it’s ever been. It’s not even close.” He added, “We’ve got people dying in waiting rooms because we don’t have a place to put them. People being resuscitated on an ambulance stretcher or a floor.”

Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, told the Today Show website: “The current strain right now seems to be packing a meaner punch than the prior strains. Some features of the current circulating strain probably (make it) a little bit more virulent and pathogenic, making people sicker than prior (variants).”

Indeed, two recent studies indicate that JN.1 more efficiently infects cells in the lower lung, a trait that existed in pre-Omicron strains which were considered more deadly. One study from researchers in Germany and France noted that BA.2.86, the variant nicknamed “Pirola” from which JN.1 evolved, “has regained a trait characteristic of early SARS-CoV-2 lineages: robust lung cell entry. The variant might constitute an elevated health threat as compared to previous Omicron sublineages.”https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/1MGIQxPf0Ig?rel=0An appeal from David North: Donate to the WSWS todayWatch the video message from WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North.DONATE TODAY

The toll on human life from the ongoing wave of mass infection is enormous. It is estimated that one-third of the American population, or over 100 million human beings, will contract COVID-19 during just the current wave. This will likely result in tens of thousands of deaths, many of which will not be properly logged due to the dismantling of COVID-19 testing and data reporting systems in the US. When The Economist last updated its tracker of excess deaths on November 18—before the JN.1 wave began—the cumulative death toll stood at 27.4 million, and nearly 5,000 people were continuing to die each day worldwide.

The current wave will also induce further mass suffering from Long COVID, which has been well known since 2020 to cause a multitude of lingering and often debilitating effects. Just last week, a pre-print study was published in Nature Portfolio showing that COVID-19 infection can cause brain damage akin to aging 20 years. The consequences are mental deficits that induce depression, reduced ability to handle intense emotions, lowered attention span, and impaired ability to retain information.

Other research indicates that the virus can attack the heart, the immune system, digestion and essentially every other critical bodily function. The initial symptoms of COVID-19 might resemble those of the flu, but the reality is that the virus can affect nearly every organ in the body and can do so for years after the initial infection. While vaccination slightly reduces the risks of Long COVID, the full impact of the virus will be felt for generations.

The latest winter wave of infections and hospitalizations takes place just eight months after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Biden administration ended their COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) declarations without any scientific justification. This initiated the wholesale scrapping of all official response to the pandemic, giving the virus free rein to infect the entire global population ad infinitum.

A virtual blackout of any mention of the coronavirus in the corporate media accompanied the swan song of official reporting. From then on, if illnesses at hospitals or among public figures were referenced at all, it was always with the euphemism “respiratory illness.” The words COVID, coronavirus and pandemic have been all but blacklisted, and the facts about the dangers of the disease have been actively suppressed.

Summarizing the cumulative results of this global assault on public health, the WSWS International Editorial Board wrote in its New Year 2024 statement:

All facts and data surrounding the present state of the pandemic are concealed from the global population, which has instead been subjected to unending lies, gaslighting and propaganda, now shrouded in a veil of silence. There is a systematic cover-up of the real gravity of the crisis, enforced by the government, the corporations, the media and the trade union bureaucracies. Official policy has devolved into simply ignoring, denying and falsifying the reality of the pandemic, no matter what the consequences, as millions are sickened and thousands die globally every day.

In response to the latest wastewater data, there have only been a handful of news articles, most of which have sought to downplay the severity of the current wave and largely ignored the deepening crisis in hospitals.

The official blackout has given rise to an extraordinary contradiction in social life. The reality of mass infection means that everyone knows a friend, neighbor, family member or coworker who is currently or was recently sick, or even hospitalized or killed, by COVID-19. Yet the unrelenting pressure to dismiss the danger of the pandemic means that shopping centers, supermarkets, workplaces and even doctor’s offices and hospitals are full of people not taking the basic and simple precaution of masking to protect themselves. Every visit outside one’s home carries the risk of being infected, with unknown long-term consequences.

As the pandemic enters its fifth year, it is critical to draw the lessons of this world historical experience. The past four years have demonstrated unequivocally that capitalist governments are both unwilling and incapable of fighting this disease. Their primary concern has always been to ensure the unabated accumulation of profits by corporations, no matter the cost in human lives and health.

The real solution to the coronavirus is not to ignore it, but to develop a campaign of elimination and eradication of the virus worldwide. To do so requires the implementation of mask mandates, mass testing and contact tracing, as well as the installation of updated ventilation systems and the safe deployment of Far-UVC technology to halt the spread of the virus. The resources for this global public health program must be expropriated from the banks and financial institutions, which are responsible for the mass suffering wrought by the pandemic.

All of these measures cut directly across the profit motive and the real disease of society: capitalism. As such, the struggle against the coronavirus is not primarily medical or scientific, but political and social. The international working class must be educated on the real dangers of the pandemic and mobilized to simultaneously stop the spread of the disease and put an end to the underlying social order that propagates mass death. This must be developed as a revolutionary struggle to establish world socialism.

[brightlotusmoon]

An incubation period is the length of time it takes someone to develop symptoms after exposure to a pathogen. The incubation period for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has shortened considerably since the virus first began circulating, recent data suggest. Incubation periods averaged about five days when the Alpha variant was dominant, about 4.5 days when Beta and Delta were dominant, and about 3.4 days once Omicron took over, according to a 2022 research review.

Newer research from various countries, including Japan, France, and Singapore, also suggests Omicron strains have incubation periods of about three days, or even a little less.

The virus' incubation period is likely shrinking for a few reasons, says Shane Crotty, chief scientific officer at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. The virus has evolved over time, becoming faster and more adept at infecting humans, Crotty says. Nearly everyone has also now had at least one brush with COVID-19, whether through vaccination or illness. Each encounter leaves behind instructions for the immune system, helping it recognize the virus faster the next time it appears.

“You having symptoms is all about your immune system being activated,” Crotty explains. “The whole pre-symptomatic period is bad news because your immune system has not managed to pull the fire alarm yet.” A shorter incubation period means that your body is “recognizing the virus faster and pulling those sprinkler systems faster.”

[figula]

what i think is going on wrt covid (basically a compilation of what people who actually know what they're talking about are saying) bc i think i need to write it all down for my own sanity

where we are generally

current worldwide dominant variant is either already or about to be jn.1 which is very immune-evasive (i.e. why it's suddenly winning)

symptoms can be pretty much anything, from asymptomatic, to something indistinguishable from mild allergies, to something indistinguishable from food poisoning, to (EXTREMELY rarely) death

no evidence that severity of disease is either better or worse than other omicron subtypes

at time of writing the UK is seeing an uptick in hospitalisations, which has generally a ~10 day lag on infection time, so we can surmise that covid is rampant atm

where we are w/ long covid

long covid rate per infection seems to have declined steadily since 2020. i like this piece on why the long covid problem has probably peaked already (well sourced, click around)

frustrating lack of cohesion with definition and diagnosis: the CDC defines it as problems going on for FOUR weeks; the WHO only calls it long covid after TWELVE weeks. (personally i think the CDC one is way too keen - it's really not uncommon to have a cough that lasts for 2-3 weeks post-virus and i dont think it necessarily indicates anything "wrong")

there urgently needs to be more clarity re: long covid subtypes: some people are suffering extremely badly with debilitating pain & fatigue, some people have a lingering cough, some people who were hospitalised have been severely deconditioned from lying in a bed for weeks - etc. all of these are conceivably diagnosable as long covid under the current guidelines, with extremely different needs. "long covid" currently comprises such an enormously broad range of symptomology that it seems almost impossible to tease out an individual risk from oft-yelled alarmist statistics like "1 in 10 infections result in long covid". like - ok - what kind of long covid are we talking? bc if you mean "1 in 10 people are still coughing at 4 weeks" i would believe it, but if you mean "1 in 10 people are severely debilitated for years" i would not.

reinfections probably dont incraese the long covid risk by very much, if at all. if you don't get it the first time you're very unlikely to get it the second time

not many (? i dont even think there are any really) treatments for long covid but the patient community is really really driving the research forward

anyway, the outlook for the UK for the next month i think is probably pretty bad on a population level thanks to the new variant jn.1 gaining global dominance, regular seasonal socialising, colder weather, + i wouldnt be surprised if the NHS cant cope (again). there's obviously only so much you can do but you really dont want to be in need of hospital treatment at the beginning of jan, when i suspect things will be worst, when there are no beds + the staff are all overworked hard to say anything about how bad the wave will be on an individual level bc we dont really know anything about jn.1's relative severity one way or the other but the sheer numbers of infected will presumably make it bad at scale if you're in the UK and have plans for christmas (or sooner) i would try and avoid mixing much until those plans happen to be honest, all the data is a week behind at least + even that data is showing large increases in covid activity so the actual picture will be worse by now

also, people whose analysis i generally trust and find helpful - a mixture of doctors / statisticians / biologists etc: paul mainwood oliver johnson prof. christina pagel eric topol jp weiland omicron data there are also a serious amount of covid alarmists on the internet and i find this frustrating at best + actively triggering at worst lol like just bc you're on "the right side" (i.e. you aren't in favour of mass deaths and/or disabling events) you cant just create misinformation + wilfully misinterpret studies lol. like it sucks still but where we are right now is completely different to 2020. if you see anyone comparing covid to "airborne aids" that is your cue to block

[quotesfrommyreading]

Beyond pinpointing the causes, one major concern is that it’s difficult to get an accurate count of how many COVID-19 patients have developed cognitive issues, in part because these symptoms don’t always manifest immediately after infection.

This was the case for Richard Newman, a U.S. Army veteran who is now an IT manager in Houston, Texas. He suffered a severe COVID-19 infection in June 2021 and spent two weeks in the ICU. But he didn’t experience cognitive problems, including trouble recognizing people, until a month after he was discharged from the hospital.

“I knew the face, I knew I was supposed to know them, but I couldn't remember their name,” says Newman. His symptoms have not improved much eight months after he was first diagnosed with COVID-19. “It is very horrible, it is very debilitating, and it really affects your quality of life,” he says.

At least one study shows that two-thirds of COVID-19 survivors seen at 59 hospitals in the U.S. were diagnosed with cognitive issues during a six-month follow-up. However, as the recent U.K.-based study shows, even mild cases can put people at risk, and tracking those patients will be a challenge if they don’t make the connection between mild COVID-19 and any neurological symptoms that pop up later. Other survivors may be reluctant to mention their experience with COVID-19 and subsequent neurological problems for fear of stigma and discrimination.

Experts also worry that between the wide availability of vaccines and the rise of the relatively milder Omicron variants, people are letting their guard down too soon because they’re not concerned about the possible cognitive damage from getting sick. Although COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in protecting against serious illness, they do not protect against "long COVID" in people who become infected despite vaccination.

“We need to move away from quantifying the impact of the disease only in terms of deaths and severe cases,” says the University of Oxford’s Douaud, “as evidence from studies on long COVID, and our study, show that even mild infection can be damaging.”

  —  Even mild COVID-19 can cause your brain to shrink

[pandemic-info]

In general, the coronavirus “remains a major threat,” the WHO said in an update, although the international public health emergency was declared May 5 to be officially over. “WHO continues to urge Member States to maintain, not dismantle, their established COVID-19 infrastructure. It is crucial to sustain surveillance and reporting, variant tracking, early clinical care provision,” it added. People are less likely to become hospitalized or die of covid-19 as they develop immunity because of prior infections and vaccination, but experts caution that elderly people and the severely immunocompromised are at elevated risk because their bodies have a tougher time fighting off the virus. Long covid, which can range from several weeks of mild symptoms to months of debilitation, continues to pose risk to otherwise healthy and vaccinated people. There is insufficient research on the best treatments. Studies have shown that 5 to 10 percent of people infected with coronavirus developed long covid symptoms, which have become less common with omicron variants. A Washington Post analysis of 5 million patients conducted in collaboration with research partners found that older adults and people with preexisting conditions including obesity and lung disease were more likely to report symptoms of long covid.

What to know about the new covid subvariant EG.5, nicknamed ‘Eris’ - The Washington Post

[meret118]

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, told HuffPost. You may also expect to see the other usual symptoms: fever, chills, cough and sore throat.

[theculturedmarxist]

Several years after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, researchers still face plenty of unanswered questions. For example, we know COVID is associated with a variety of neurological symptoms, both short- and long-term, but it still isn’t entirely clear whether these cognitive issues are the result of the virus directly infecting brain cells or simply due to a broader systemic inflammatory response.

Studies looking at human brain tissue have yielded contradictory results. Some have found direct traces of SARS-CoV-2, while others report only inflammatory damage. Animal models certainly demonstrate it is possible for the virus to infect the brain, but human tissue samples are obviously taken after a patient dies, meaning researchers can only hypothesize what happens during an acute infection.

In a new study, led by scientists from Institut Pasteur and Université Paris Cité, an animal model was used to investigate several questions yet to be resolved. How could the SARS-CoV-2 virus enter the brain through the olfactory system? Are different SARS-CoV-2 variants more or less likely to enter the brain? And is losing one’s sense of smell directly linked to the virus entering the brain?

Using a hamster model, the research compared infection with the original SARS-CoV-2 virus from 2020 to several subsequent variants including Gamma, Delta and Omicron/BA.1 variants. Interestingly, the findings confirmed epidemiological observations showing acute disease severity is reduced in Omicron infections, however, all variants demonstrated similar neuroinvasive capabilities. And most strikingly, all variants infected the brain’s olfactory regions regardless of whether symptoms of anosmia (loss of sense of smell) were present or not.

"This suggests that anosmia and neuronal infection are two unrelated phenomena," says first author Guilherme Dias de Melo. "If we follow this line of reasoning, it is quite possible that even an asymptomatic – and therefore clinically benign – infection is characterized by the spread of the virus in the nervous system."

To study exactly how SARS-CoV-2 could infect brain cells the researchers utilized a modeling system called microfluidic cell culture. This allowed a close-up look at how the virus could move from neuron to neuron. The findings revealed the virus was able to travel between neurons via tiny projections between the cells called axons.

"The virus seems to effectively exploit the physiological mechanisms of the neuron to move in both directions,” explained Dias de Melo. “The SARS-CoV-2 variants we studied – the ancestral Wuhan variant, Gamma, Delta and Omicron/BA.1 – infect neurons in vitro and are capable of moving along axons."

The researchers conclude this suggests all SARS-CoV-2 variants have the capacity to infect the brain, via the olfactory pathway, regardless of clinical disease presentations. This means it is possible even mild infections can lead to the virus infiltrating the brain.

Hervé Bourhy, another author on the study, says future work will need to explore the relationship between acute SARS-CoV-2 brain infections and persistent symptoms seen in long COVID.

"The next step will be to understand, from the animal model, whether the virus is able to persist in the brain beyond the acute phase of infection, and whether the presence of the virus can induce persistent inflammation and the symptoms described in cases of long COVID, such as anxiety, depression and brain fog,” said Bourhy.

The new study was published in Nature Communications.