When Covid-19 first emerged a little over two years ago, Nicholson’s first thought was to look at what was known about the most-similar existing disease, SARS-CoV-1, which caused the original Sars disease in the early 2000s.

He says of the roughly 1000 people who contracted that disease, 50 percent of those who survived were still suffering long-term effects 15 years on.

Covid-19, he says, appears to be behaving similarly.

“Other viral diseases can cause long-term effects … but Covid seems to be very good at doing it even when the disease is quite mild, and that’s what sets it apart.”

His team is working with multiple universities around the world – including Harvard and Cambridge – to try and understand the long term cardiometabolic and other systemic effects of Covid-19, as well as the impact of the disease in children.

Among their findings are a new set of biomarkers for increased risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with Covid-19 infections.

In fact, it was the discovery of these biomarkers that helped him to realise he had contracted Covid-19 himself.

Following a trip to Italy in February 2020, Nicholson believed the lingering fatigue he was experiencing upon his return to Australia was just jetlag.

When he continued to feel tired several weeks later he went to his GP and got “tested for everything”, though in early March 2020, no test for Covid-19 yet existed.

The tests revealed he had diabetes, some abnormal liver function and “a few other bits and pieces, but no infection of any sort that could be detected”.

It wasn’t until his team began building the diagnostic tests for Covid-19 biomarkers and he submitted to a test himself that he had any inkling he may have had the disease.

“My biochemistry was like [that of] a Covid patient and this was three or four months after I’d actually had the episode (of fatigue),” he says.

Subsequent antibody testing confirmed he had been exposed to Covid-19.

“We detected it in my own laboratory using our own tests and I wasn’t one of the controls, I was one of the patients!”

Nicholson’s experience gave him an early insight into the fact that people who contract Covid-19 could still be suffering biochemical abnormalities months after their initial infection with the disease.

Source: Prof Jeremy Nicholson: the link between Long Covid and heart disease | RNZ

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Almost 5 million people in the UK are now believed to have Covid-19, it was estimated last week – an all-time high figure for the disease which first struck the nation two years ago. Hospital admissions and deaths are also rising but not nearly so sharply, scientists added.

This sharp jump in case numbers is being driven by the virus variant BA.2 which is even more transmissible than the original Omicron version that swept the UK at the beginning of the year.

The latest wave comes just as the government has ended free testing for the virus and as the nation prepares to enjoy its Easter holidays. This prospect raises the fear that further increases in case numbers, followed by rises in hospital admissions and deaths, could afflict the UK.

But as other researchers have pointed out, spring has arrived and warmer weather will allow more and more people to mix out of doors where they are less likely to infect each other. The outcome is unclear, in short. So what is the likely trajectory of the disease for the rest of the year? And what key measures should be taken now to limit the spread of Covid-19?

Should mask-wearing regulations remain strict?

“I don’t think so, unless you are someone who is particularly vulnerable,” says Professor Paul Hunter, of the University of East Anglia. “The latest ONS characteristics survey doesn’t find much benefit of mask wearing any more – though that does not mean masks don’t work. It is probably just that people who haven’t been wearing masks are more likely to have had the infection already and so are less susceptible.”

This point was backed by Professor Rowland Kao, of Edinburgh University. “With all other restrictions pretty much removed, we have very little evidence that cloth masks, such as commonly worn, have much effectiveness against Omicron, due to its higher transmissibility.”

However, the vaccine expert Peter English argues that mask-wearing still has an important role to play in limiting the spread of Covid. “Masks are particular effective for source control – at preventing an infectious person from infecting others. And there are people who remain at high risk from Covid-19. They cannot protect themselves as well as they need to by wearing a mask themselves. They rely on others to protect them by masking up in enclosed public spaces.”

Source: Covid cases at an all-time high, free testing scrapped… so what will happen now? | Coronavirus | The Guardian

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