Nancy Lapid

(Reuters.) – Here is a list of recent COVID-19 studies. There are some research results that require further analysis to verify the findings, and others that were not yet certified by peer review.

Booster increases the response of chemotherapy patients to vaccination

New research has quantified the increased protection against COVID-19 that was achieved by a third booster of the vaccine. Pfizer Inc (NYSE 🙂 and BioNTechSE (NASDAQ 🙂 are used in chemotherapy patients. Deepta Bhattacharya, coauthor of the Nature Medicine study and University of Arizona College of Medicine’s coauthor said that chemotherapy can make it more difficult for cancer patients to resist infections and respond to vaccinations. The team examined 53 solid tumor cancer patients who had received chemotherapy. They also administered two doses of vaccines. Nearly all the patients had an immune reaction after receiving two shots of vaccine. Bhattacharya explained that “the severity of these reactions was much worse than it was in individuals with cancer” in virtually every measurement. In all probability, this makes patients with cancer more likely to contract infection or COVID-19 than people who are healthy. To test if immunity would increase, researchers could bring 20 participants back to the trial for another dose of vaccine. Bhattacharya stated that antibodies levels improved in approximately 80% of cancer patients. “Our data about cancer patients confirms the CDC broad guidelines that immunocompromised people should get a third dose Pfizer vaccination.”

The treatment of post-COVID depression is very effective

The small Italian study suggested that COVID-19 patients with persistent depression may be very treatable. Doctors treated 58 people who suffered from post-COVID depression using a popular class of antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Pfizer sells sertraline under the brand names Zoloft and GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil. Eli Lilly (NYSE 🙂 and Co’s Prozac. Celexa (citalopram), and Allergan (NYSE 🙂 are also available from AbbVie. Usually, about 66% of patients see improvement with SSRIs, but among those with post-COVID-19 depression, 91% responded to treatment within four weeks, researchers reported this week at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology meeting in Lisbon. Researchers speculate that COVID-19-related depression may be due to inflammation from the coronavirus and note that SSRIs can have both anti-inflammatory as well as antiviral qualities. Although Dr. Livia Del Picker of Antwerp University in Belgium was not part of this study, she stated in a statement, that the results are especially relevant for Long COVID (also known as persistent depression) survivors. An additional study was also presented at this meeting and found that SSRIs did not reduce depression in COVID-19 patients, nor their anxiety.

Similar viral loads in unvaccinated and vaccinated patients

The results of a recent study show that vaccine-vaccinated persons should still wear masks to protect themselves from the virus. The viral level at diagnosis was determined in 869 cases, with 632 patients who had no symptoms. Many of these infections were due to the extremely contagious Delta virus of the coronavirus. According to Tuesday’s medRxiv report, there were no statistically significant differences between unvaccinated people and those who had symptoms. There was also no difference in viral loads among individuals with or without symptoms. Richard Michelmore of University of California Davis stated that “our study doesn’t provide information on infectiousness”. He added that viruses can spread through many variables, and not only vaccine status. It is wrong to believe that because someone has been vaccinated, they are immune from infection. The chances of getting infected and the severity of infections are reduced by COVID-19 vaccinations. Research suggests that COVID-19 vaccine recipients should wear masks to protect themselves from infection.

Click for a Reuters graphic https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl on vaccines in development.