The COVID Advisor

SHANGHAI, Oct 28, 2022 (Reuters) - In what is believed to be a world first, China's commerical capital of Shanghai this week introduced a new type of COVID-19 vaccine that is inhaled rather than administered via injection. Chinese regulators approved the vaccine, produced by Chinese pharmaceutical firm CanSino Biologics (6185.HK) , for use as a booster in September 2022. And now the first people are starting to receive the vaccine, which is inhaled via the mouth from a vessel that looks like a take-out coffee cup with a short mouthpiece. "Our body’s first line of defence is the mucus membrane of our respiratory system, we want that to be directly stimulated to improve immunity and using the inhaled vaccine does that," Dr Zhao Hui, chief medical officer at Shanghai United Family Hospital Pudong, told Reuters. His hospital is among those administering the new vaccine, which will be used as well as regular injected shots. Commenting on what he said was a first use of the tec...

Studies have confirmed that   eating habits   can help reduce the chance of a   COVID-19   infection turning into a severe case. A recent Taiwanese study found that elderly vegetarians have a lower chance of COVID-19 infection turning severe than non-vegetarians. As the pandemic continues to circulate worldwide, the elderly has always been a high-risk group, with a high rate of confirmed cases and mortality rate. According to a  survey  published in the BMC Public Health in 2020, patients over the age of 65 are 62 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those aged 54 or younger. According to the  data  from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of early October, 1.1 million people in America have died from COVID-19, of which about 790,000 are over 65 years old, 75 percent of people that have died are over the age of 65. However, eating habits may be expected to reduce the sever...

“When I first heard about it [HBOT] I thought, ‘this is goofy,’” said Dr. Paul Marik. Then he encountered a competitive cyclist patient who became bedridden after COVID vaccinations. “He was completely incapacitated. He went for hyperbaric oxygen [and] within about five or six sessions [he] was back on his bicycle.” Marik, co-founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), told The Epoch Times, that some patients who have spike protein injuries have responded particularly well to hyperbaric oxygen. Dr. Paul Marik, co-founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) and former Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, at the FLCCC conference “Understanding & Treating Spike Protein-Induced Diseases” in Kissimmee, Fla. on Oct. 14, 2022. (The Epoch Times) How Does HBOT Work? Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves patients breathing in 100 percent pure oxygen in a chamber at an atmospheric pre...

Melbourne, Australia; May 31 and New York, USA; May 30, 2022: Mesoblast Limited (ASX:MSB; Nasdaq:MESO), global leader in allogeneic cellular medicines for inflammatory diseases, today provided an update on survival outcomes from the randomized controlled trial of remestemcel-L in ventilator-dependent COVID-19 patients with moderate/severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and plans for a pivotal trial with collaborative investigators.  Through the initial 90 days, remestemcel-L reduced mortality by 48% compared to controls in a prespecified analysis of 123 patients below age 65 (26% vs 44%, p=0.038),(1,2) but not in 97 patients over age 65, as previously reported. In an exploratory analysis in patients under age 65 who also received dexamethasone as part of their standard of care, remestemcel-L reduced 90-day mortality by 77% compared to controls (14% vs 48%, p=0.0037).(1,2) These early survival outcomes in the remestemcelL group relative to controls were maintained at lat...

When the antiviral treatment Paxlovid came into wider use for Covid-19 infections earlier this year, doctors who prescribed it and patients who took it noticed that symptoms sometimes flared up again a few days after having gone away . Some people even tested negative before they experienced the rebound. But this puzzling phenomenon can occur whether you take Paxlovid or not, according to a new study . Researchers found that when patients received a placebo instead of treatment, a portion of them still experienced a rebound of their symptoms after they had initially improved. “Symptom return is common,” said Dr. Davey Smith, the chief of infectious diseases and global public health at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who led the study. “It doesn’t mean that things are going south. It’s just the natural way the disease goes.” What is surprising, however, is how many people may experience a rebound, he said. To understand the natural variability in coronavirus ...

The first COVID-19 vaccines were authorized in   December 2020 . Fast forward to almost 2 years later, there’s been a world of change. Four different COVID-19 vaccines are   authorized or approved   for use, vaccines are widely available at pharmacies across the U.S., and millions of doses have been administered.  Three of these vaccines, Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax, are also recommended as booster shots. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines initially targeted the original strain of the virus, but  updated versions  are now available. These updated (bivalent) booster shots target both the original SARS-CoV-2 virus  and  the Omicron BA.4/5 subvariants. They aim to offer more protection against  current variants  that are making people sick. The Novavax vaccine is a  monovalent vaccine  that targets the original virus strain. Still, with new information, data, and recommendations coming from many different sources, it’s hard to know ...