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August 8, 2022

VSS Scientific Updates During Pandemic Times #32

1.    Is COVID Prematurely Aging our Immune Systems?

“The concern is that people will be less able to hold off future bugs and pathogens like influenza, or that unsettled immune systems could lead to an increase in diabetes and other auto-immune diseases.”

https://nationalpost.com/health/is-covid-prematurely-aging-our-immune-systems

2.    Comparative Pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariants Including BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5

“Although in vitro growth kinetics of BA.5 is comparable among the Omicron subvariants, BA.5 become much more fusogenic than BA.1 and BA.2. The airway-on-a-chip analysis showed that the ability of BA.5 to disrupt the respiratory epithelial and endothelial barriers is enhanced among Omicron subvariants.”

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.05.502758v1

3.    NorthShore Reaches $10.3M Settlement in Vaccine Mandate Case

“As part of the agreement, Liberty Counsel said NorthShore will change its policy to allow unvaccinated employees to work if they have an approved religious exemption. Religious exemptions must now be considered on a case-by-case basis, rather than denied to all employees. In addition, unvaccinated employees who were let go because they claimed religious exemptions are now eligible to be brought back.”

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/northshore-reaches-10-3m-settlement-in-vaccine-mandate-case.html

4.    US Rules out Summer COVID Boosters to Focus on Fall Campaign

“Pfizer and Moderna expect to have updated versions of their shots available as early as September, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. That would set the stage for a fall booster campaign to strengthen protection against the latest versions of omicron.”

https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-government-and-politics-8474cb7c84ef5cec85ea1029269acfc6

5.    It May Be Too Late to Stop Monkeypox Becoming Endemic in the U.S. and Europe

“If the pox finds a home in some animal species in North America or Europe—say, squirrels, rats or prairie dogs—it’ll be all but impossible to eradicate regionally. “Game over,” Lawler said. The pox will be all around us, probably forever, just waiting for opportunities to spread from animals to people. Outbreaks will be frequent and big, just like they are now in West and Central Africa.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/it-may-be-too-late-to-stop-monkeypox-becoming-endemic-in-the-u-s-and-europe/ar-AA10a63d

6.    More People are Catching Coronavirus a Second Time, Heightening Long COVID Risk

“According to a preprint study examining U.S. veterans, of which Al-Aly was the lead author, getting infected twice or more "contributes to additional risks of all-cause mortality, hospitalization and adverse health outcomes" in various organ systems, and can additionally worsen risk for diabetes, fatigue and mental health disorders.”

https://news.yahoo.com/more-people-catching-coronavirus-second-120005892.html

7.    Immune Boosting by B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Depends on Previous SARS-CoV-2 Exposure

“Immune protection is boosted by B.1.1.529 (Omicron) infection in the triple-vaccinated, previously infection-naïve individuals, but this boosting is lost with prior Wuhan Hu-1 imprinting. This “hybrid immune damping” indicates substantial subversion of immune recognition and differential modulation through immune imprinting and may be the reason why the B.1.1.529 (Omicron) wave has been characterized by breakthrough infection and frequent reinfection with relatively preserved protection against severe disease in triple-vaccinated individuals.”

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq1841

8.    2022 Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Wild Birds

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-wild-birds

9.    Hundreds of New Yorkers May Already be Infected with Polio

“New York officials are warning that hundreds of Empire state residents may already be infected with the devastating polio virus after it was detected in wastewater of a second county in the state.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11084629/Hundreds-New-Yorkers-infected-polio-Empire-state-health-chief-warns.html

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Geert Vanden Bossche received his DVM from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and his PhD degree in Virology from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. He held adjunct faculty appointments at universities in Belgium and Germany. After his career in Academia, Geert joined several vaccine companies (GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Solvay Biologicals) to serve various roles in vaccine R&D as well as in late vaccine development.

Geert then moved on to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Discovery team in Seattle (USA) as Senior Program Officer; he then worked with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in Geneva as Senior Ebola Program Manager. At GAVI he tracked efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. He also represented GAVI in fora with other partners, including WHO, to review progress on the fight against Ebola and to build plans for global pandemic preparedness.

Back in 2015, Geert scrutinized and questioned the safety of the Ebola vaccine that was used in ring vaccination trials conducted by WHO in Guinea. His critical scientific analysis and report on the data published by WHO in the Lancet in 2015 was sent to all international health and regulatory authorities involved in the Ebola vaccination program. After working for GAVI, Geert joined the German Center for Infection Research in Cologne as Head of the Vaccine Development Office. He is at present primarily serving as a Biotech / Vaccine consultant while also conducting his own research on Natural Killer cell-based vaccines.

Email: info@voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org

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