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Symptom tracker app reveals six distinct types of COVID-19 infection

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists analysing data from a widely-used COVID-19 symptom-tracking app have found there are six distinct types of the disease, each distinguished by a cluster of symptoms.LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists analysing data from a widely-used COVID-19 symptom-tracking app have found there are six distinct types of the disease, each distinguished by a cluster of symptoms.

7 warning signs of prediabetes - You need to know7 warning signs of prediabetes - You need to knowRead about the specific symptoms of prediabetes, risk factorsAdaltatbiqat.comA King's College London team found that the six types also correlated with levels of severity of infection, and with the likelihood of a patient needing help with breathing - such as oxygen or ventilator treatment - if they are hospitalised.

The findings could help doctors to predict which COVID-19 patients are most at risk and likely to need hospital care in future waves of the epidemic."If you can predict who these people are at Day Five, you have time to give them support and early interventions such as monitoring blood oxygen and sugar levels, and ensuring they are properly hydrated," said Claire Steves, a doctor who co-led the study.

Besides cough, fever and loss of smell - often highlighted as three key symptoms of COVID-19 - the app data showed others including headaches, muscle pains, fatigue, diarrhoea, confusion, loss of appetite and shortness of breath.
The outcomes also varied significantly; some got mild, flu-like symptoms or a rash and others suffered acute symptoms or died.

The study, released online on Friday but not peer-reviewed by independent scientists, described the six COVID-19 types as: 1 'Flu-like' with no fever: Headache, loss of smell, muscle pains, cough, sore throat, chest pain, no fever.
2 'Flu-like' with fever: Headache, loss of smell, cough, sore throat, hoarseness, fever, loss of appetite.

3 Gastrointestinal: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, sore throat, chest pain, no cough. 4 Severe level one, fatigue: Headache, loss of smell, cough, fever, hoarseness, chest pain, fatigue. 5 Severe level two, confusion: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, confusion, muscle pain.

6 Severe level three, abdominal and respiratory: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, confusion, muscle pain, shortness of breath, diarrhoea, abdominal pain. ents with level 4,5 and 6 types were more likely to be admitted to hospital and more likely to need respiratory support, the researchers said.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Kevin Liffey) 17th July 2020

How Russian hackers went after the world’s coronavirus vaccine secrets

Britain has accused the Russian government of trying to steal information from researchers working on coronavirus vaccines in the UK, the US and Canada.Britain has accused the Russian government of trying to steal information from researchers working on coronavirus vaccines in the UK, the US and Canada.

The three nations claim that state-linked hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, is “attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions” involved in vaccine development programmes, Al Jazeera reports. It remains unclear whether the alleged attempts to access research data have been successful.

What is the evidence?Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued a 16-page “advisory” yesterday setting out details of the alleged attack and giving laboratories, universities and research centres instructions on how to protect themselves.

“The NCSC gave a large amount of detail,” The Telegraph reports, “even releasing the ‘digital fingerprints’ of the tools used by the Cozy Bear hackers in an attempt to help institutions update their cyber defences to protect themselves against similar attacks.”

Cozy Bear hackers have also “been linked to attacks on the US Democratic party in the run-up to 2016 elections”, as well as “orchestrated attacks on Norwegian foreign and defence ministries” in 2017, says The Guardian.  “It has previously been alleged that the group is controlled by the Russian FSB spy agency or its SVR foreign intelligence agency,” the newspaper adds.

In the most recent attacks, the hackers have allegedly used a technique called “spear fishing”, in which people who work in labs are targeted with personalised messages using information gleaned from LinkedIn and other social networks.

The goal is to trick the recipient into entering passwords into websites that mimic legitimate professional software. The new NCSC dossier includes “the IP addresses of servers used by the Russian hackers to control their software, as well as other snippets of code which cybersecurity experts can use to update their networks to automatically scan for and remove the malware”, according to The Telegraph.

What is Russia saying?The Russian government has rejected the accusations out of hand. “This statement is so vague and contradictory that it’s actually impossible to comprehend,” said a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, was also unequivocal in his denial. “We can say one thing,” Peskov told Russian media. “Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts.” But his predecessor as presidential spokesperson, Sergey Markov, had a different take.

“Every nation has an intelligence service,” Markov told The Times. “Their working is illegal, but legitimate anyways. Russia sort of denies these activities. It’s also normal - it’s all games. All nations, they deny they’re doing it because it’s illegal.”

Why does it matter?At first glance, the reported attacks against research institutions are puzzling. “For the most part, the vaccines are not secret,” says MIT Technology Review. “They’re described in scientific reports, and their make-up is known - although details of their manufacture, and supply agreements, could be valuable secrets to steal.”

The medical response to Covid-19 has generated huge geopolitical competition, points out Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russian security services. The disease “suddenly became such a big political factor, it affects everybody in every possible way, so there’s a big temptation to use this as an opportunity”, he told The Guardian.

Although stealing details of a life-saving vaccine may seem like a victimless crime, “one of the main concerns” of both of the UK teams leading the research, at Oxford University and Imperial College London, is that “potentially dangerous pirate versions of their vaccines could be made by rogue producers”, The Times reports.

“Many of their efforts to guard intellectual property have been structured to thwart counterfeiting.”

Reference: The Week: Holden Frith 9 hrs ago: 17th July 2020 

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine shows promise in first published results

An experimental COVID-19 vaccine from the biotech company Moderna showed promising results in an early trial of 45 participants, according to the first trial data from the company to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.An experimental COVID-19 vaccine from the biotech company Moderna showed promising results in an early trial of 45 participants, according to the first trial data from the company to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

After receiving two doses of the vaccine, called mRNA-1273, all participants developed so-called neutralizing antibodies, which can block the new coronavirus from infecting cells. The levels of these antibodies in participants' blood were above the average levels seen in recovered COVID-19 patients, according to the study, published Tuesday (July 14) in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The findings from this early Phase 1 trial back up results that the company released in May, which were not published in a peer-reviewed journal at the time.Related: COVID-19 vaccines are on the fast-track to approval. How will we know they're safe?

The vaccine, which is being developed in partnership with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was the first to be tested in humans in the United States. The company has already started a more advanced trial of the vaccine, known as a Phase 2 trial, and plans to start a large Phase 3 trial with 30,000 participants on July 27, according to The New York Times.

— 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history . —The 12 deadliest viruses on Earth. —11 (sometimes) deadly diseases that hopped across species. 

The current study involved healthy participants ages 18 to 55 who were vaccinated at sites in Seattle and Atlanta. Participants were divided into three groups (with 15 participants each) and were given a low (25 micrograms or µg), middle (100 µg) or high dose (250 µg) of the shot.

The vaccine appeared safe and generally well-tolerated by participants, although more than half of participants experienced some side effects, including fatigue, chills, headache, muscle aches and pain at the injection site. (To put this in perspective, many of these side effects are also seen with the annual flu shot.) Some participants in the middle and high dose groups experienced a fever after the second injection. (Fever can also be a side effect of the flu shot, albeit a rare one.) 

One of the participants in the high dose group developed a "severe" fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius). This participant also experienced nausea, lightheadedness and an episode of fainting, but felt better after a day and a half, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Data on the side effects and immune response seen in this study helped researchers refine the vaccine dose to be used in the Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials. The Phase 2 trial will examine doses of 50 µg to 100 µg, and the Phase 3 trial is expected to examine the 100-µg dose, the authors said.

The Phase 3 study is expected to be completed by October, but more time may be needed to show that the vaccine is safe and effective, according to The New York Times. Ideally, researchers want to show that people who received the vaccine were less likely to develop COVID-19, and the fastest way to do this may be to test the vaccine in COVID-19 "hot spots," the Times reported.

Originally published on Live Science.: Rachael Rettner 6 hrs ago 15th  July 2020

Spain forced to shut 55 beaches in Costa Del Sol and turn away British tourists amid social distancing fears

Scores of popular tourist beaches were forced to turn away visitors over the weekend after crowds defied social distancing rules.Scores of popular tourist beaches were forced to turn away visitors over the weekend after crowds defied social distancing rules.

Some 29 beaches reached full capacity in Malaga, Costa del Sol - just as thousands of Brits were planning to jet out for long-awaited holidays.

Another 26 beaches had to restrict access elsewhere in Andalusia, in the districts of Cádiz, Huelva, Almería and Granada, local newspaper Sur reported.

Around 55 Spanish beaches were reportedly shut due to overcrowding at some point on Sunday.

It came as 280,000 Spanairds were plunged back into full lockdown at the weekend after a surge in coronavirus cases.Flights to Andalusia resumed late last month and hotels, restaurants and bars have gradually welcomed back tourists.

However, five of the eight provinces of Andalusia have reported new Covid-19 outbreaks since Spain lifted its state of emergency on June 21. Malaga has seen 90 new confirmed infections in the past week.
Catalan authorities in El Segria, around the city of Lleida, a region with a population of about 210,000 west of Barcelona, imposed a new lockdown in response to a spike in cases.

Residents were given until 4pm on Saturday to enter the area and are not allowed to leave, unless they are essential workers. Non-residents were allowed to escape before the sweeping rules returned.

Travel is now heavily limited in the region and police have set up checkpoints.Regional health authorities said on Friday that they had registered a jump in 60 cases in 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to over 4,000 in the county.

On Sunday, more than 70,000 people in La Marina, north of Lugo in Galicia, were too told they would be barred from leaving the area from midnight, except in exceptional circumstances.

As part of the extra Covid-19 measures, residents will be required to wear face masks at all times apart from when they are eating, drinking or swimming.

The fresh outbreaks in Spain have raised doubts about the UK’s “air bridge” with the country, announced by the Government on Friday, which allows Brits to travel to there without having to quarantine at either end.The travel corridors to 73 nations will open for England from July 10 and also include France, Germany and Italy, but exclude Portugal, Canada and the United States.

Reference: Evening Standard: Ewan Somerville: 0th July 2020