Today's Must-Reads - 17 February 2022

A selection of studies, reports and articles

I spend a lot of time each day gathering together new information and interesting articles. I then pick one or two of the most interesting topics and write about them. However, that leaves a lot of missed out information that I’m not sharing.

Below is a summary of all the latest articles and information that I’ve found over the past few days.

Covid

Israel Nation News - Mild illness? Omicron causing more neurological issues than previous variants.

Nature - Bat coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 and infectious for human cells.

bioRxiv - Virological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2 variant. BA.2 variant seems to be more contagious and pathogenic than BA.1 variant.

Mia Malan - Thread - How fast is BA.2 (a subvariant of the Omicron variant) spreading in SA and is it making people sicker than BA.1 (the original form of Omicron)?

Cell - Immune imprinting, breadth of variant recognition and germinal center response in human SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination.

Science Direct - The Pandemic Brain: neuroinflammation in non-infected individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NIH - Antigenic drift: Understanding COVID-19. “Antigenic drift can substantially limit the duration of immunity conferred by infection and vaccination”.

Frontiers in Immunology - Persistence of SARS CoV-2 S1 Protein in CD16+ Monocytes in Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) up to 15 Months Post-Infection.

The Guardian - Next Covid strain could kill many more, warn scientists ahead of England restrictions ending.

Cell Reports - Mutations that adapt SARS-CoV-2 to mink or ferret do not increase fitness in the human airway.

medRxiv - Novel risk factors for Coronavirus disease-associated mucormycosis (CAM): a case control study during the outbreak in India.

Frontiers in Medicine - Assessment of Sequelae of COVID-19 Nearly 1 Year After Diagnosis. One year after infection, over 25% of people had lung diffusion issues.

Thailand Medical News - Omicron BA.1 And BA.2 Variants Spawning Newer Sub-Lineages! Denmark Reports New BA.2 Sub-Lineage With H78Y Mutation in ORF3a.

NICD - Trends in SARS-CoV-2 cases and admission trends in the Omicron-dominated fourth wave from the government employees medical scheme.

College of American Pathologists - Placental Tissue Destruction and Insufficiency from COVID-19 Causes Stillbirth and Neonatal Death from Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury: A Study of 68 Cases with SARS-CoV-2 Placentitis from 12 Countries.

Covid Mandates

Mislav Kolakusic MEP - Covid passes around the world were introduced by the dumbest generation of politicians in history. Driven by a desire for unlimited power and herd instinct, they decided to trample on facts, evidence and science and repeat idiotic theses that do not pass even basic logical tests.

Bloomberg - Trudeau Anti-Protest Law Sweeps Across Canada Finance Sector.

Bitcoin Magazine - Canadian Federal Police blacklists truckers’ Bitcoin addresses.

BBC - Evidence on face masks in schools 'inconclusive'.

Mislav Kolakusic MEP - In my speech in the EP, I warned about the emergence of a powerful, unscrupulous mafia-pandemic profiteers who, with the help of the media and inaccurate data, want to sell tens of billions of their products. They are organized, spread fear and have an impact on decision makers.

Bloomberg - Mask Mandates Didn't Make Much of a Difference Anyway.

Infezmed.it - Pilot study on burden of fungal contamination in face masks: need for better mask hygiene in the COVID-19 era.

Persuasion - Jonathan Sumption on the Limits of State Power - discussing the danger of eroding political norms.

Economy

Telegraph - How the National Grid could pay you power from your electric car. Operator would draw energy from vehicles overnight to ensure Britain’s power supply always meet demand.

Lockdowns

Forbes - Meet The 40 New Billionaires Who Got Rich Fighting Covid-19.

Telegraph - Lockdown debate skewed because sceptical scientists were shunned on social media.

Telegraph - Was Sweden right about Covid all along? The land of common sense seems to be thriving while Britain is counting the cost of harsh lockdown restrictions.

Politics

Washington Post - CIA has secret program that collects American data.

Vaccines

Paine.tv - EXCLUSIVE: Pfizer Vax Trial Manager Tells All; Blows Whistle on Data & Medical Integrity, Alleged Fraud During Covid-19 Clinical Trial; Brook Jackson’s Shocking Revelations During Her First Sit Down w/ Paine & Former Blackrock’s Ed Dowd

bioRxiv - mRNA-1273 or mRNA-Omicron boost in vaccinated macaques elicits comparable B cell expansion, neutralizing antibodies and protection against Omicron.

Authorea - Innate Immune Suppression by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccinations: The role of G-quadruplexes, exosomes and microRNAs.

Rintrah - Suppression of the innate immune system: The main cause of the pandemic of the fully vaccinated.

medRxiv - Fourth Dose COVID mRNA Vaccines' Immunogenicity & Efficacy Against Omicron VOC.

The Times - BBC to challenge antivaxers in reality show.

Telegraph - £200m Covid vaccine factory put up for sale after failing to produce a single dose.

NotontheBeeb - UK Lab Report released - Graphene Oxide present in all C19 vaccines tested.

Reuters - Pfizer drops India vaccine application after regulator seeks local trial.

UKCitizen - Case Briefing Document - Halt the roll-out of experimental treatments known as “COVID-19 Vaccines” immediately pending Police forensic examination.

The Vaccine Reaction - Spain’s First Study on Omicron Finds Vaccinated People Spread COVID at Same Rate as Unvaccinated.

Israel National News - New study: 133x risk of myocarditis after COVID vaccination.

Viruses

Radio Iowa - U.S.D.A monitoring discovery of African Swine Fever in Caribbean.

Reuters - Netherlands reports new bird flu infection at chicken farm.

Euro Weekly News - Concern grows over multiple avian flu outbreaks in Spain.

FT - Health experts braced for flu surge after Covid curbs suppress infections.