COVID Update March 21, 2023: More Young Adults Dying of Sudden or Unexplained Deaths
Protecting the immunocompromised protects all of us.
By removing protections without installing new systems to ventilate and filter the air, immunocompromised people are at a higher risk of infection, long-term suffering, and becoming hosts to viral evolution. It has exposed children to the risk of long-term immune system damage. It has resulted in the deaths of young adults from heart attacks, strokes, and other less common but deadly outcomes. COVID infection poses extraordinary short- and long-term risks to people of all ages. The risk of death is much higher for those over the age of 50, and it rises with each infection. Each infection is accelerating biological aging, shortening lifespans even if your body clears the virus and you don’t have any symptoms. We talk about living longer and being healthier but we aren’t taking the actions to make accomplishing it much easier.
Protecting the immunocompromised protects all of us. Our failure to recognize this is assisting COVID to evolve around treatments and vaccines. Every day that we do nothing to protect those who are most vulnerable increases the likelihood that we will face a more dangerous variant.
SARS-CoV-2 escape from cytotoxic T-cells during long-term COVID-19, published January 10, 2023 shows us how many mutations occurred in just one person. It also shows how good COVID is at evolving and evading-the immune system.
"Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in immunocompromised hosts may result in novel variants with changed properties. While escape from humoral immunity certainly contributes to intra-host evolution, escape from cellular immunity is poorly understood. Here, we report a case of long-term COVID-19 in an immunocompromised patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma who received treatment with rituximab and lacked neutralizing antibodies. Over the 318 days of the disease, the SARS-CoV-2 genome gained a total of 40 changes, 34 of which were present by the end of the study period. Among the acquired mutations, 12 reduced or prevented the binding of known immunogenic SARS-CoV-2 HLA class I antigens."
"Our results indicate that CD8 T cell escape represents a major underappreciated contributor to SARS-CoV-2 evolution in humans.”
Immunocompromised individuals that have remained COVID free through extraordinary efforts and sacrifice, are becoming infected everyday. The more people the virus persists in, the more likely they will get infected with another variant, providing COVID the opportunity to recombine inside one cell and produce a baby that takes the best from both variants, creating a more adapted COVID to infect the next person without being able to get stopped by the last persons treatments.
COVID’s strategy
Let’s look at things from COVID’s perspective. This may help you understand why it is so dangerous.
COVID's Life in 5 Steps
Step 1: Locate and infect a host.
Step 2: Suppress the immune response so the host doesn't know it's invading, weakening it for several weeks to many months and possibly for life.
Step 3: Infect areas of the body that the immune system can't reach, such as the pancreas, joints, testicles, brain, and central nervous system, and then relax in its new home.
Step 4: Adapt to new treatments by mutating. If lucky, it meets a new variant, and they can have children that make it to step 5.
Step 5: The mutated virus and/or their offspring will leave their home in search of new hosts, but many will remain. New treatments that do not kill the virus completely, or prevent new variants from infecting will help the virus to evolve around them.
When we use new treatments while letting COVID spread freely, it learns how to beat the treatments and our immune systems. Said another way, allowing unrestricted transmission while treating people, inadvertently trains COVID to be more effective at evading treatments and our immune system. Using this strategy, COVID will evolve around each new treatment we throw at it within six months to a year.
Reference studies on persistence and the evolution around treatments with quotes and links for your review.
"High number of SARS-CoV-2 persistent infections uncovered through genetic analysis of samples from a large community-based surveillance study"
'We estimate that more than nearly one in a thousand of all infections, and potentially as many as one in 200, may become persistent for at least two months'.Jan 26, 2023 "Identification of a molnupiravir-associated mutational signature in SARS-CoV-2 sequencing databases"
"Our data suggest a signature of molnupiravir mutagenesis can be seen in global sequencing databases, in some cases with onwards transmission.""In both our cases also carried P323L, an Omicron-defining mutation, in ORF1ab that has been associated with a modest increase in remdesivir EC50 [10]. The combined effect of these mutations may limit the clinical efficacy of remdesivir.
Paxlovid resistant SARS-CoV-2 viruses with mutations in the main protease have been identified from clinical isolates.
United States Deaths from COVID, COVID and Flu, COVID, Pneumonia and Flu by Age Group, 2020 - March 15, 2023
This graph is showing us that an unbelievable amount of people have died from something that was largely preventable. A stain on the history of the country that we must learn from.
More Young Adults Dying of Sudden or Unexplained Deaths
TikTok star, “Jehane Thomas was a 30-year-old mom of two boys when she suddenly passed away on 03/17/2023,”
Flight attendant, 24, died suddenly shortly after landing at Stansted
NHS worker, 24, dies suddenly at home.
Her death has rocked the local community, who described her as the "life and soul of the party" who "never had a smile off her face". - no cause of death listed
Peter Baddoo, an MIT instructor in the Department of Mathematics, passed away suddenly on Feb. 15 while playing basketball on campus. Baddoo joined the MIT Department of Mathematics in January 2021.
These young adults work in jobs that have them surrounded by lots of people, in spaces without proper ventilation and they very likely weren't taking precautions to prevent COVID infections.
COVID is overwhelmingly shown to be the underlying cause behind sudden deaths and the excess deaths in young and middle age adults. Coronaviruses have a history of causing vascular dysfunction and blood clotting that could lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Investing in clean air technology will save lives.
It's simple: by investing in clean air in schools, workplaces, restaurants, and other public places, we save lives while also preventing all of the associated health and economic problems that arise when an infection occurs, as well as long-term damage that may not be visible for years or decades. Consider how chickenpox goes dormant, only to reappear when the immune system is compromised, usually decades later as shingles. Many of the health problems we face as we age are caused by infections. Consider how many days children would stay in school instead of sitting at home sick, and how many days parents and other workers stay productive instead of dragging and making others sick or calling out to be with their children. This adds up to significant savings, making the decision to invest in improving air quality an easy one.
Belgium is Taking Clean Air More Seriously
This article reported, “Across Belgium public venues from restaurants to swimming pools are being fitted with sensors that display how much air customers are sharing with others in an attempt to combat further surges of Covid-19 into the autumn and winter.”
”The carbon dioxide monitors, which cost about €70, indicate whether windows or doors should be opened to increase the circulation of fresh air and prevent the transmission of coronavirus.”
Enforcement
“If the sensors show carbon dioxide levels of 900-1,200 parts per million (ppm), venues are required to take action to improve it, and anything above that level is a safety breach. It will be enforced by inspectors who will issue warnings if they find sensors are not displayed, and after a three-month phase-in period will begin issuing fines to businesses that do not comply.”
The threshold set at between 900 - 1200 ppm is to high to prevent infections with the latest variants of COVID but it will help limit exposure and will help prevent less contagious viruses and bacteria that are airborne. To be truly effective at limiting COVID transmission, the max CO2 threshold has to come down to between 550 ppm and 700 ppm. Limiting co-infections of multiple viruses also helps keep people out of the hospital. It is a very positive step in the right direction that needs to implemented everywhere.
Prevention Tip
Mouthwash helps prevent infection and lower viral load if infected but it has to be the correct mouthwash to work.
Scope has CPC but Listerine does not.....
This study concludes, “Mouthwashes containing cetylpyridinium chloride are effective against salivary viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in vivo. There is also the possibility that the use of mouthwash containing cetylpyridinium chloride in SARS-CoV-2 positive subjects could reduce transmissibility and severity of COVID-19.
COVID Accelerated Aging
How many years of life are we losing from infections?
Epigenetic Age is a measure of our age at the cellular & DNA level.
Everyone ages at different speeds based on the damage to our cells and DNA over time.
Damage occurs from viruses and can be more damaging if the virus persists.
(ex. EBV, HPV, Varicella, HIV, and COVID)
Viruses that evade antibodies can infect more cells with greater ease.
Virus-infected cells must be eliminated by CD8 T-cells so more cells are lost.
The more cells that are eliminated, the more cells have to divide to replace them.
Genetic mutations are changes to your DNA sequence that happen during cell division when your cells make copies of themselves.
COVID is accelerating aging on various epigenetic clocks, 5 to 10 years.
COVID causes massive cell loss and cell division which could increase DNA mutation, and together are accelerating biological aging.
Hypothesis: Taking pharmaceutical drugs while undergoing massive cell loss and cell division could increase DNA mutation, leading to increased accelerated aging.
American life expectancy is now at its lowest in nearly two decades "It's rare to see such big changes in life span year to year, but the pandemic claimed nearly 417,000 lives last year, making COVD the 3rd leading cause of death for the 2nd year."(6)
To take a deeper dive into how COVID and other infections are accelerating biological age follow the link below.
We have an opportunity to use the cumulative science, data, and technology to provide a healthier future for our children and future generations, but we must invest the resources necessary to make this happen. This won’t happen without advocacy.
T.A.C.T. is reporting the latest science, data, and analysis in order to achieve a sustainable path forward.
T.A.C.T. is a reader-supported publication. If you are not already a member of the T.A.C.T. community, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to receive the latest updates and help support this work.
Let us know what you're seeing or experiencing where you are or any other insights you may have.
