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US

Oklahoma governor signs into law strictest abortion ban in the U.S.

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May 25 (Reuters) – Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into law the strictest abortion ban in the United States, one that prohibits abortions from fertilization and allows private citizens to sue those who help women terminate their pregnancies.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise today,” Stitt said in a statement.

The Republican-backed legislation, which takes effect immediately, makes exceptions only in cases of medical emergency, rape or incest.

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Oklahoma is among the country’s Republican-led states rushing to pass anti-abortion laws this year, anticipating that the U.S. Supreme Court will soon overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established the constitutional right to abortion.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, a global advocacy group based in New York, said it would “imminently file a challenge to the ban and seek to block it in court.”

Medical instruments are sterilized following a surgical abortion in Oklahoma City, U.S., December 6, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

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“Oklahoma is now the only state in the United States to successfully outlaw abortion while Roe v. Wade still stands,” the center said in a statement.

A draft Supreme Court opinion leaked on May 2 showed the court’s conservative majority intends to overhaul federal abortion rights and send the issue of legalization back to individual states.

Oklahoma’s four abortion clinics have already stopped providing abortion services in anticipation of the ban.

Earlier this month, Oklahoma enacted another bill that banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, as opposed to fertilization. Like the latest measure, it relies on civil lawsuits for enforcement.

The enforcement provision in both bills was modeled after Texas legislation that took effect in September and stopped clinics from performing nearly all abortions in that state.

Before the passage of the Oklahoma laws, it had become a destination for Texas women seeking abortions after six weeks. The restrictions in Oklahoma have now expanded a region of the country where there is little to no legal abortion access, forcing patients to travel to states such as Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado to end their pregnancies.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Sandra Maler and Tom Hogue

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Health

Blood marker identified for babies at risk of SIDS hailed as ‘breakthrough’

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A newborn baby holds on a nurse’s finger at the maternity ward of the children hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan October 24, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/

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NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) – A team of Australian researchers have identified a biochemical marker in the blood that could help identify newborn babies at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a breakthrough they said creates an avenue to future tragedy-preventing interventions.

In their study, babies who died of SIDS had lower levels of an enzyme called butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) shortly after birth, the researchers said. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, and low levels would reduce a sleeping infant’s ability to wake up or respond to its environment.

The findings are game changing and not only offer hope for the future, but answers for the past, study leader Dr. Carmel Harrington of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Australia said in a statement.

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“An apparently healthy baby going to sleep and not waking up is every parent’s nightmare and until now there was absolutely no way of knowing which infant would succumb,” Harrington said. “But that’s not the case anymore. We have found the first marker to indicate vulnerability prior to death.”

Using dried blood spots taken at birth as part of a newborn screening program, Harrington’s team compared BChE levels in 26 babies who later died of SIDS, 41 infants who died of other causes, and 655 surviving infants.

The fact that levels of the enzyme were significantly lower in the infants who subsequently died of SIDS suggests the SIDS babies were inherently vulnerable to dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, which controls unconscious and involuntary functions in the body, the researchers said.

The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network in Australia called the discovery “a world-first breakthrough.”

A failure to wake up when appropriate “has long been considered a key component of an infant’s vulnerability” to SIDS, the research team said in The Lancet’s eBio Medicine.

SIDS is the unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant while asleep. Harrington lost her own child to SIDS 29 years ago and has dedicated her career to researching the condition, according to the statement.

Further research “needs to be undertaken with urgency” to determine whether routine measurement of BChE could potentially help prevent future SIDS deaths, the investigators said.

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Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Health

Pandemic may affect infants’ brain development; coronavirus can trigger kidney scarring

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Medical workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) check temperature of an infant, whose mother is suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside a care centre at an indoor sports complex, amidst the spread of the disease, in New Delhi, India, January 5, 2022. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

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Jan 5 (Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.

Pandemic may be affecting infants’ brains

Coronavirus infection during pregnancy does not appear to affect infants’ brain function, but the pandemic itself may be having an impact, a study published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics suggests.

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Researchers in New York City tracked 255 full-term infants born during the pandemic, including 114 whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy. When the babies were six months old, the researchers saw “absolutely no effect of maternal infection with SARS-CoV-2” on neurodevelopment, said Dr. Dani Dumitriu of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute. But overall, compared with 62 infants born before the pandemic, the babies born during the health crisis had slightly lower scores on tasks involving large muscles, tasks requiring small muscle movements, and personal interactions. The findings do not necessarily mean these infants will suffer long-term consequences, Dumitriu said. Assessments at six months are poor predictors of long-term outcomes, she added.

If additional research confirms that birth during the pandemic negatively impacts neurodevelopment, she said, “because this is such an early time point there are lots of opportunities to intervene and get these babies onto the right developmental trajectory.”

Coronavirus can trigger kidney scarring

The coronavirus can directly damage the kidneys by initiating a cascade of molecular events that leads to scarring, new laboratory research found. The resulting scar tissue could have long-term impacts on survivors’ kidney function, according to a report published in Cell Stem Cell.

The researchers exposed tiny replicas of kidneys to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in test tubes. They found the virus could infect multiple types of kidney cells and trigger “a molecular switch” that starts the scarring process. The findings suggest that high rates of kidney function decline seen in a separate study of more than 90,000 COVID-19 survivors might be due to scarring of the kidney by the virus, the researchers said.

Jitske Jansen of Radboud University Medical Center in The Netherlands said in a statement that her team had found another “piece of the puzzle showing the deleterious effects the virus can have in the body.”

Lower COVID-19 risks seen after weight-loss surgery

Weight-loss surgery may reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 even if the infected person is still obese after losing weight, according to a report in JAMA Surgery.

Researchers studied 20,212 obese adults, including 5,053 who had undergone bariatric surgery before the pandemic and lost a substantial amount of weight. On average, the people in the surgery group, while still technically obese, weighed about 44 pounds (20 kg) less than study participants who had not undergone the surgery. Although the two groups had similar rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection at about 9%, infected patients with prior weight-loss surgery had a 49% lower risk of hospitalization, a 63% lower risk of need for supplemental oxygen, and a 60% lower risk of becoming critically ill or dying compared to the non-surgery group. Obesity is well known to be a risk factor for poor COVID-19 outcomes, but as the study was not a randomized trial it cannot prove weight-loss surgery caused the better outcomes. Still, the authors said, patients who underwent weight-loss surgery were likely healthier when they became infected.

The results “support the reversibility of the health consequences of obesity” for patients with COVID-19, coauthor Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic said in a statement. “This study suggests that an emphasis on weight loss as a public health strategy can improve outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic… That is a very important finding considering that 40% of Americans have obesity. “

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Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Health

Brain problems found in 1% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients; real-world data shows Moderna vaccine highly effective

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A health care worker fills up a syringe with a dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for a booster shot at the vaccination reference center at the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI) in Zurich, Switzerland November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

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Dec 1 (Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.

Brain problems seen in 1% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Roughly one in every 100 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 will likely have central nervous system complications, researchers reported on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Among nearly 38,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States and Europe, symptoms led doctors to suspect brain complications in about 11%. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) exams confirmed central nervous system abnormalities that were most likely associated with the virus in 10% of those patients, for an overall incidence of 1.2%. The most common finding was stroke due to clogged arteries, but the researchers also saw bleeding in the brain, inflammation of the brain, and other potentially fatal complications. Study leader Dr. Scott Faro of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia said in a statement that while the lung problems related to COVID-19 are well recognized, “Our study shows that central nervous system complications represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in this devastating pandemic.”

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Moderna vaccine effectiveness not limited to clinical trials

Moderna’s (MRNA.O) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is proving effective in the real world, according to doctors at Kaiser Permanente in California who have been tracking nearly 706,000 adults, half of whom had received the vaccine. Five months after the second dose, the vaccine was still 87% effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection, 96% effective against COVID-19 hospitalization, and 98% effective against COVID-19 death, researchers reported in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas. Despite a wide range of chronic diseases among those in the study, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection ranged from 83% to 92% across age, sex, racial, and ethnic subgroups, researchers said. Immunologist E. John Wherry of the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the Kaiser study, said it is “highly unlikely” that the Omicron variant of the virus can completely evade all of the immune defenses induced by the vaccines and that current boosters will likely “provide increased protection against this variant.”

COVID-19 at childbirth linked with higher risks; antibody drugs appear to be safe

Pregnant women with COVID-19 face higher risks of childbirth complications than those who are not infected by the coronavirus, a new study found. A separate study suggests mildly or moderately ill pregnant women with COVID-19 can safely be treated with monoclonal antibody drugs such as those from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN.O). The analysis of childbirth complications included 244,645 births, 874 of which were in infected women. Researchers reported on Tuesday in PLOS Medicine that miscarriage and stillbirth rates did not differ between the groups. But after accounting for women’s risk factors, researchers found that those with COVID-19 had 80% higher odds of having too much amniotic fluid, doubled odds of dangerously high blood pressure, more than doubled odds of amniotic infection, nearly tripled odds of hemorrhage during delivery, and nearly doubled odds of hemorrhage afterward. They were also at higher risk for preterm delivery. “Pregnant women and those who plan to conceive… are strongly encouraged to be vaccinated,” said study leader Dr. Sylvie Epelboin of the University of Paris. Meanwhile, doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota treated 51 pregnant patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 with one of several monoclonal antibody treatments. “No adverse effects were reported, and no patient required COVID-19 related hospitalization,” they reported on Sunday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. So far, 29 of the women have delivered healthy babies. There was one miscarriage due to a congenital defect not related to the medication. The investigators note that while the infusions were well tolerated, the study was a small one. Further research is recommended to fully assess safety and efficacy in pregnancy, they said.

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Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Health

Sleep apnea linked to COVID-19 outcomes

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The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 29, 2020. Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM/CDC/Handout via REUTERS.

Nov 10 (Reuters) – (This Nov. 10 story corrects headline and first item to show that sleep apnea, regardless of severity, was a risk factor for severe COVID-19)

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Sleep apnea tied to severe COVID-19

The risk of severe illness from COVID-19 is higher in people with obstructive sleep apnea and other breathing problems that cause oxygen levels to drop during sleep, researchers say. They tracked 5,402 adults with these problems and found that roughly a third of them eventually tested posted for the coronavirus. While periodic episodes of not-breathing while asleep – leading to low oxygen levels, or hypoxia – did not increase people’s chances of being infected, sleep-related hypoxia did increase infected patients’ odds of needing to be hospitalized or dying from COVID-19, Drs. Cinthya Pena Orbea and Reena Mehra of the Cleveland Clinic and colleagues reported on Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. It is not clear if treatments that improve sleep apnea, such as CPAP machines that push air into patients’ airways during sleep, would also reduce the risk of severe COVID-19, said Pena Orbea and Mehra.

Body’s coronavirus memory may abort new infections

Healthcare workers who did not test positive for COVID-19, despite heavy exposure to infected patients, had T cells that attacked a part of the virus that lets it make copies of itself, according to a report published Wednesday in Nature. Researchers who studied the 58 healthcare workers found their T cells responded more strongly to a part of the virus, called the RTC, that is very similar on all human and animal coronaviruses, including all variants of SARS-CoV-2. They suspect the T cells recognized the RTC because they had “seen” it on other viruses during other infections. That makes the RTC a potentially good target for vaccines if more research confirms these findings, study leaders Mala Maini and Leo Swadling, both of University College London, said in a joint email to Reuters. These data were collected during the first wave of the pandemic, they added. “We don’t know if this sort of control happens for more infectious variants currently circulating.”

Vaccines induce neutralizing antibodies in breast milk

Infants might benefit from COVID-19 antibodies in breast milk regardless of whether mothers acquired the antibodies from being infected with SARS-CoV-2 or from vaccines, according to new findings reported on Wednesday in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers studied antibodies in breast milk samples from 47 mothers who had been infected with the virus and 30 healthy mothers who had received the vaccines from Moderna(MRNA.O) or Pfizer/BioNTech(PFE.N)(22UAy.DE). Antibodies from both groups were able to neutralize active SARS-CoV-2 virus, and while antibodies from infection were evident in milk for longer periods, antibody levels from vaccination “were much more uniform,” said study leader Bridget Young of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. Thus, there is likely benefit to getting vaccinated even after a COVID-19 infection because breast milk would then contain a diverse variety of antibodies, she said. The researchers did not study the effect of the antibodies on the babies who consumed the milk.

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Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Tiffany Wu

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Business

Merck COVID-19 pill success slams Moderna shares, shakes up healthcare sector

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Oct 1 (Reuters) – Positive clinical trial results for Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) experimental antiviral COVID-19 pill reverberated through the healthcare sector on Friday, sending the drugmaker’s stock price soaring while denting high-flying shares of vaccine companies and makers of other coronavirus therapies.

Merck shares jumped as much as 12.3% and hit their highest level since February 2020 after data showed the company’s pill molnupiravir could halve the chances of dying or being hospitalized for those most at risk of contracting severe COVID-19. Experts hailed the news as potentially a huge advance in the fight against COVID-19.

At the same time, shares of vaccine makers such as Moderna Inc (MRNA.O), Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and partner BioNTech SE were hit, with some analysts saying the promise of an oral drug that can be taken at home could change the public perception of risks associated with COVID-19.

“We see modest perceived headwind to vaccine stocks such as MRNA (Moderna) if the market thinks people will be less afraid of COVID-19 and less inclined to get vaccines, if there is a simple pill that can treat COVID-19,” Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a client note.

Moderna shares tumbled 13% in midday trading, while Pfizer, which is developing a COVID-19 pill of its own, fell 1.3%. U.S. shares of BioNTech dropped 11%.

For Moderna investors, the Merck news presented an opportunity to lock in gains after an already stunning run. Shares of Moderna, which were added to the S&P 500 in mid July, remain up some 220% in 2021 despite Friday’s declines. BioNTech’s shares were also still up about 200% for the year, even with Friday’s fall.

The Merck news is a “great reason for folks to be taking profits off the table” in Moderna and BioNTech shares, said Sahak Manuelian, head of equity trading at Wedbush Securities. “These moves can get exacerbated to the downside given the momentum they have had to the upside.”

FILE PHOTO: Vials of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are seen in the town of Ricany near Prague, Czech Republic, February 25, 2021. REUTERS/David W Cerny

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Shares of other companies with COVID-19 vaccines also fell, with AstraZeneca (AZN.L) down 2% and Novavax (NVAX.O) falling 16%.

Companies with other COVID-19 therapies that are administered intravenously or through injection also traded lower, with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals In (REGN.O) down nearly 5% and Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) off about 2%.

Healthcare (.SPXHC) was the only one of the 11 S&P 500 sectors in negative territory in mid-day trading, falling 0.5%.

“We see molnupiravir, with its oral format as a clear game changer that is likely to meaningfully impact not just the treatment paradigm for COVID-19 but also has potential utility in the prevention setting,” Piper Sandler analyst Christopher Raymond said in a research note.

Merck is conducting a late-stage trial to see if its antiviral pill can prevent COVID-19 infection, in addition to the study that showed it can significantly cut hospitalization and death in those already infected.

Merck, whose shares were last up about 9%, leads the race in developing the first oral antiviral medication for COVID-19. Rivals such as Pfizer and Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG (ROG.S) with partner Atea Pharmaceuticals Inc (AVIR.O) are running late-stage trials of their pills. Atea shares were up 19%. read more

Merck, which discontinued its own COVID-19 vaccineprogram, had seen its shares fall about 4% for the year through Thursday, before they moved into positive territory for 2021 on Friday.

“Merck has kind of been dead in the water to investors for the past couple of quarters,” said Kevin Gade, portfolio manager with Bahl & Gaynor, which owns Merck shares. “This shows their R&D engine is not dead and they were first … in what could be a multi-billion dollar opportunity.”

Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York and Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Bill Berkrot

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World

Merkel prods Germans to get COVID-19 vaccine as 4th wave worries mount

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  • Chancellor urges Germans again to get vaccinated
  • Government to stop offering free tests from Oct. 11
  • Agrees measures aimed at increasing vaccination rate

BERLIN, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Germany’s coronavirus vaccination drive has slowed and those people who have not taken up the opportunity to have shots will have to take COVID-19 tests to take a full part in public life, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.

To nudge more people to get vaccinated amid concerns about a rise in new cases, Merkel said the government will stop offering free tests from Oct. 11, except for those for whom vaccination is not recommended, such as children and pregnant women.

The government will also require people to be either vaccinated, test negative or have a recovery certificate to enter indoor restaurants, participate in religious ceremonies and do indoor sport.

Less than seven weeks before a federal election, Merkel and leaders of Germany’s 16 states met to discuss measures to dampen a new spate of infections, driven by the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant, and avert unpopular restrictions.

“The bad news is that the vaccination rate has lost pace substantially,” Merkel told a news conference after the meeting.

“I hope it will pick up pace again after the (summer) holidays,” the conservative leader said, but added: “On vaccinations, we are not where we need to be.”

Germany had made the tests free for all in March to help make a gradual return to normal life possible after months of lockdown. Although around 55% of Germans are fully vaccinated, the pace of inoculations has slowed.

In neighbouring France, vaccinations jumped after President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a plan for citizens to have to show a health pass for many daily activities, although the plan has also triggered mass protests. read more

Merkel said she would like to see around 75% of Germans fully vaccinated. Bavarian leader Markus Soeder, who joined her at the news conference, warned of a fourth wave of infections.

“What is clear is that this fourth wave is coming, and definitely in the autumn,” said Soeder. “The current infection rates are not sufficient to be carefree.”

The Bavarian premier added that “there won’t be another lockdown – in any case not for double vaccinated people. Why? Because then it is unconstitutional.”

Merkel agreed that so long as the vaccines work, any further restrictions must be different to previous lockdowns.

Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate to succeed Merkel after the Sept. 26 election, said Germany needed to increase testing and boost vaccinations.

“We want to and will test more to avoid a new lockdown,” Laschet told the North Rhine-Westphalia state assembly.

Laschet is desperate to avoid new restrictions to avoid handicapping his chances to become chancellor.

Germany has recorded more than 3,000 cases a day in the last week, bringing the total to 3.79 million. Germany’s death toll is 91,803. The nationwide seven-day incidence rose on Tuesday to 23.5 per 100,000 people, up from 23.1 on Monday.

The federal government also agreed at Tuesday’s meeting to extend financial assistance to businesses affected by restrictions beyond September, when they are supposed to expire.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the aid would run until the end of the year. “We are thus continuing to stand firmly by our companies and workers,” he said.

Reporting by Matthias Inverardi, Andreas Rinke, Holger Hansen, Christian Kraemer, Joseph Nasr, and Paul Carrel
Writing by Madeline Chambers, Emma Thomasson and Paul Carrel
Editing by Alistair Bell and Mark Heinrich

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