From the Curator-in-Chief's Desk—June 18, 2021

This week marks 6 months since COVID-19 vaccines were administered outside a clinical trial in the U.S. In that time, over 300 million vaccine doses have been administered and more than 44% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, this week also marked over 600,000 COVID-19 related deaths in the U.S. and over 3.8 million deaths globally. This is a somber reminder that the pandemic is far from over.

The CDC classified the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) as a variant of concern this week. Currently, this variant makes up about 10% of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Sheikh, A., et al. reported the risk of hospitalization doubled for individuals infected with the Delta variant vs the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant. The authors also found that the AstraZeneca AZD1222 and Pfizer and BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccines were effective against the Delta variant at preventing infection and hospitalization. Novavax announced its NVX-CoV2373 nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine is over 93% effective against variants of concern and interest, with a 100% vaccine efficacy against moderate and severe COVID-19. For individuals hospitalized because of severe disease, Horby, P., et al. determined that the monoclonal antibody cocktail REGEN-COV (casirivimab and imdevimab) reduced 28-day mortality by 20% among seronegative patients. Additionally, Weinreich, D., et al. demonstrated administration of the REGEN-COV cocktail to outpatients significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 viral load and COVID-19 related hospital visits as compared to individuals who received a placebo.

This week’s commentary comes from Dr. Vito Martella, Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Universita degli studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy, on the article “Infection, recovery and re-infection of farmed mink with SARS-CoV-2.” Outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been observed in farmed minks. To understand the long-term impact of an outbreak, Ramussen, T., et al. analyzed minks from a mink farm over 2 months after an initial SARS-CoV-2 outbreak occurred. Over 75% of animals tested were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Based on sequencing, the viruses isolated during the initial outbreak and months later by Ramussen and colleagues were closely related, indicating seropositive minks were susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 reinfection less than 3 months after initial infection. Martella suggests these results will be important for developing mitigation measures for minks and other susceptible farmed animals. To continue this discussion, I invite you to join ASM’s new online member community platform, ASM Connect, where we will post the commentary as an opportunity to broaden the engagement with these articles.

Next week, World Microbe Forum is taking place from June 20-24. This global, online meeting is a collaboration with ASM, FEMS, ASLM and ASV and will bring together researchers, industry professionals, students, educators and leaders in the microbial sciences from across the world. The Registry will host the session “COVID-19 Research Registry: A Year of Progress” where some of our curators will provide an update on the advancement of SARS-CoV-2 research in the last year. Registration is open, and we hope you can join us at World Microbe Forum.

Lynn Enquist, Ph.D.

 

 

 

June 18, 2021

By Vito Martella, DVM, Ph.D., Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Universita degli studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy. Martella is one of the curators of the registry.
 
“Infection, recovery and re-infection of farmed mink with SARS-CoV-2” by Rasmussen, T., et al., published on bioRxiv on May 7, 2021.
 
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