https://mobile.twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1519818152976293895
The Economist
@TheEconomist
When will CRISPR gene-editing treatments go to market?
@natashaloder
explains the obstacles that will need to be overcome, on “Babbage”, our podcast on science and technology
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2022/04/26/how-crispr-cas9-gene-editing-is-transforming-healthcare-and-agriculture-a-decade-after-its-discovery
How CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is transforming healthcare and agriculture, a decade after its discovery
IN 2012, THE discovery of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 revolutionised scientists’ ability to modify DNA. Ten years on, host Alok Jha speaks to Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel laureate who pioneered the technology. She explains how CRISPR could transform healthcare and the food supply—and help with the fight against climate change. Plus, how does she grapple with the ethical questions raised by the technology she helped to invent? Runtime: 41 min
Babbage from the Economist
Babbage:Editing the code of life
https://stitcher2.acast.com/livestitches/b6dd99497c38c791e9fa0c806922de0b.mp3
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10928-z
Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave
Christopher L. F. Sun, Eli Jaffe & Retsef Levi
Scientific Reports volume 12, Article number: 6978 (2022)
Abstract
Cardiovascular adverse conditions are caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections and reported as side-effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. Enriching current vaccine safety surveillance systems with additional data sources may improve the understanding of COVID-19 vaccine safety. Using a unique dataset from Israel National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) from 2019 to 2021, the study aims to evaluate the association between the volume of cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndrome EMS calls in the 16–39-year-old population with potential factors including COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates. An increase of over 25% was detected in both call types during January–May 2021, compared with the years 2019–2020. Using Negative Binomial regression models, the weekly emergency call counts were significantly associated with the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group but were not with COVID-19 infection rates. While not establishing causal relationships, the findings raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side-effects and underscore the already established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, a frequent cause of unexpected cardiac arrest in young individuals. Surveillance of potential vaccine side-effects and COVID-19 outcomes should incorporate EMS and other health data to identify public health trends (e.g., increased in EMS calls), and promptly investigate potential underlying causes.
The main finding of this study concerns with increases of over 25% in both the number of CA calls and ACS calls of people in the 16–39 age group during the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in Israel (January–May, 2021), compared with the same period of time in prior years (2019 and 2020), as shown in Table 1. Moreover, there is a robust and statistically significant association between the weekly CA and ACS call counts, and the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group. At the same time there is no observed statistically significant association between COVID-19 infection rates and the CA and ACS call counts. This result is aligned with previous findings which show increases in overall CA incidence were not always associated with higher COVID-19 infections rates at a population level35,49,50, as well as the stability of hospitalization rates related to myocardial infarction throughout the initial COVID-19 wave compared to pre-pandemic baselines in Israel51. These results also are mirrored by a report of increased emergency department visits with cardiovascular complaints during the vaccination rollout in Germany52 as well as increased EMS calls for cardiac incidents in Scotland53.
The large increase in the incidence of CA and ACS events in the population of age 16–39 parallel to the vaccination rollout and its association with the vaccination rates could be consistent with the known causal relationship between the mRNA vaccines and incidents of myocarditis in young people14,17,19,56, as well as the fact that myocarditis is often misdiagnosed as ACS28,29,30, and that asymptomatic myocarditis is a frequent cause for unexplained sudden death among young adults from CA26,31,32,33. This is further supported by more anecdotal reports describing sudden cardiac death following COVID-19 vaccination16,57. While vaccine-induced myocarditis was predominantly reported in males14,19 it is interesting to note that the relative increases of CA and ACS events (Table 1) was larger in females. This may suggest the potential underdiagnosis or under-self-reporting of myocarditis in females, or other unique patterns, which is consistent with the ongoing challenge of gender-related differences related to cardiovascular disease diagnosis and care15,58.
"The Israel Ministry of Health and the large HMOs have access to such data, which should be investigated in detail."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10928-z.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10928-z
Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave
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