Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for over 6 months after infection

Jennifer M Dan, Jose Mateus, View ORCID ProfileYu Kato, Kathryn M Hastie, Caterina Faliti, Sydney I Ramirez, April Frazier, Esther D Yu, Alba Grifoni, Stephen A Rawlings, Bjoern Peters, Florian Krammer, Viviana Simon, Erica O Saphire, Davey Smith, Daniela Weiskopf, Alessandro Sette, View ORCID ProfileShane Crotty

doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323

This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?].

PDF: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323v1.full.pdf

Abstract

Understanding immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 is critical for improving diagnostics and vaccines, and for assessing the likely future course of the pandemic. We analyzed multiple compartments of circulating immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 in 185 COVID-19 cases, including 41 cases at > 6 months post-infection. Spike IgG was relatively stable over 6+ months. Spike-specific memory B cells were more abundant at 6 months than at 1 month. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells declined with a half-life of 3-5 months. By studying antibody, memory B cell, CD4+ T cell, and CD8+ T cell memory to SARS-CoV-2 in an integrated manner, we observed that each component of SARS-CoV-2 immune memory exhibited distinct kinetics.

Competing Interest Statement

A.S. is a consultant for Gritstone, Flow Pharma, Merck, Epitogenesis, Gilead and Avalia. S.C. is a consultant for Avalia. LJI has filed for patent protection for various aspects of T cell epitope and vaccine design work. Mount Sinai has licensed serological assays to commercial entities and has filed for patent protection for serological assays. D.S., F.A., V.S. and F.K. are listed as inventors on the pending patent application (F.K., V.S.), and Newcastle disease virus (NDV)-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines that name F.K. as inventor. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323v1

Several NY counties will not enforce 10 people or fewer restriction

Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said Monday that his office will not be enforcing the 10 people or fewer restriction issued by Governor Cuomo. He said his office has always considered people’s homes sacrosanct and as always will respect this.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office: We will not be counting the number of people in your home

Sheriff Zurlo also said that his office believes how many people a resident decides to host for Thanksgiving is outside the realm of government oversight. He is asking people to use common sense and not to travel if they are COVID positive or suspect they may be.

Rensselaer County Sheriff says the department will not enforce 10 or fewer people rule for Thanksgiving

“I encourage everyone to act responsibly,” said Sheriff Zurlo. “On behalf of the men and women of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, I wish you the happiest Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.”

https://www.news10.com/news/saratoga-county-sheriffs-office-will-not-enforce-10-people-or-fewer-restriction/

Is Contact Tracing Doomed in the US?

Healthcare workers and state and local governments are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen a resurgence around the globe as we head into the winter months. But as the CDC notes, contact tracing is key to slowing the disease’s spread. Can Americans look past a distrust of big tech and the government to make contact tracing in the US effective?

Public perception is a major hurdle. A June survey from Avira found that 71 percent of Americans had no plans to download contact-tracing apps. “Of those who said they would not use the apps, the main reason was concerns that the technology won’t protect people’s digital privacy,” the company found.

More people distrust the government than big tech, however—”32% said they would trust technology by Google/Apple to keep their data secure and private. Just 14% said the same for contact tracing apps provided directly from the government,” according to Avira.

At the moment, government health agencies are working together with technology companies. Google and Apple updated their mobile operating systems earlier this year to support contact-tracing apps from a user’s local health authority. Those who opt in will receive push alerts if they come into contact with anyone who is later diagnosed with COVID-19, but details are anonymized, and the onus is on the patient to self-report their coronavirus diagnosis. Data is stored on the device itself, not on Google or Apple servers, and people can opt out at any time.

To get things fully under control, we’ll need contact-tracing participation rates up to 80 percent, according to data from Oxford University. While every little bit helps, stopping COVID-19 in its tracks will require more than uptake at the margins.

“For example, we estimate that in Washington state, a well-staffed manual contact tracing workforce combined with 15% uptake of an exposure notification system could reduce infections by 15% and deaths by 11%,” Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Medicine and Google Research said in September. But Professor Christophe Fraser, co-lead author, tells the BBC that to stop the outbreak completely, 56% of the UK population would to use the app, which is “a very ambitious target.”

In the US, Utah was one of the first states to release a contact-tracing app. Created by startup Twenty, Healthy Together debuted in April and saw uptake around 2%, but misinformation means contact tracing is slow-going, even as cases explode, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Adoption stood at about 5 percent last month.

“We’re battling misinformation and politicization of these issues, but there’s also just the kind of inherent problem of having a very large, diverse, heterogeneous country with a staggered epidemic that has hit different communities at different times,” Professor Caroline Buckee, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, said on September episode of the Ask a Harvard Professor podcast. 

In New York, which was hit hard at the outset of the pandemic, 740,000 people have downloaded the state’s contact-tracing app, COVID Alert NY, as of Oct. 1, according to Jonah Bruno, Director of Communications at NYS Department of Health.

“We understand how important privacy is to building public trust. The COVID Alert NY app was built with privacy and data security central to the design. All user data is anonymous, the app does not track your location, and explicit user consent is required every step of the way. Exposure Notification apps like COVID Alert NY are helpful tools to strengthen contact tracing programs and stop the spread of COVID-19,” Bruno says. 

“We continue to work with community partners across the state to raise awareness and encourage all New Yorkers over the age of 18 to download COVID Alert NY to protect themselves, their friends, families and neighbors.”

Professor Michelle Mello, a health law scholar for Stanford University suggests letting communities take the lead. “I think we’d be in a better place if folks could come together and create a public charter on how they want to run these apps in their communities. And different communities might make different choices. There’s been a lot of good thinking, but it’s thinking by elites,” she says.

Ultimately, contact-tracing efforts might have to get pushy. As Harvard’s Professor Buckee notes, “traditional contact tracing is quite intrusive. You learn everything about where that person’s been. You take names and phone numbers, that’s the whole point of it. And so, I think some of these apps are still really in the trial phase.” 

One thing that’s not in a trial phase: COVID-19. Daily cases recently topped 140,000 in the US, a new record.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/is-contact-tracing-doomed-in-the-us

CDC quietly removes guidance pushing for school reopenings

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has quietly removed controversial guidance from its website that pushed for schools to reopen in the fall and downplayed the transmission risks of COVID-19 to children and others.

The documents, one of which was reportedly written by political appointees outside of the CDC, stated that children appear to be at lower risk for contracting COVID-19 compared to adults and that children are unlikely to be major spreaders of the virus.

The CDC removed two guidance documents from its website in late October with no public announcement.

When reached for comment, a CDC spokesperson said, "Some of the prior content was outdated and as new scientific information has emerged the site has been updated to reflect current knowledge about COVID-19 and schools."

While kids are far less likely than adults to become seriously ill from COVID-19, less was known at the time about what role children play in spreading the virus to others including teachers and staff.

The Trump administration made a hard push for reopening schools this fall, citing the importance of in-person education to children and the boost parents going back to work would give the economy.

However, experts criticized the CDC’s guidance, which they say appeared to be politically motivated and light on evidence. 

Before the documents were removed, CDC Director Robert Redfield told Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, that the guidance was “out of date” and would be updated. 

“I am pleased that, in response to this request, CDC has now removed two guidance documents unsupported by science and has agreed to update two more that Director Redfield concedes are ‘out of date,’” Clyburn said in a statement. 

“With infections rising dramatically across the country, it is critical that schools, teachers, and families have accurate, trustworthy public health information on the coronavirus.”

Michael Beach, the CDC’s deputy incident manager for the COVID-19 response, told Clyburn’s committee in October the guidelines “reflect the data at the time they were posted and have not been updated.” 

“It does appear that children can become infected,” Beach said, and “clearly can transmit.”  

The CDC’s website now states that “the body of evidence is growing that children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and contrary to early reports might play a role in transmission.” 

The website also acknowledges that “teachers and students are in close contact for much of the day, and schools can become a place where respiratory diseases like COVID-19 can quickly spread.” 

However, data increasingly suggests schools are not hot spots for COVID-19 infection and while all kids can catch the virus, older children are more likely than younger children to spread it to others. 

Still, the World Health Organization notes on its website that few outbreaks involving children or schools have been reported and the “spread of COVID-19 within educational settings may be limited.”

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/526370-cdc-quietly-removes-guidance-pushing-for-school-reopenings