Research Publications (Food Safety)

As the COVID-19 situation worsens across Europe, many countries are considering vaccine mandates and reintroduction of interventions. Talha Burki reports.

Boris Revollo and colleagues reported that a combination of same-day screening with antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDT), wearing facemasks, and optimised air ventilation creates a safe indoor environment without the need for physical distancing.1 I commend the authors for planning and conducting a randomised controlled trial in this serious pandemic situation. However, I would like to voice a few concerns.

Only a small fraction of people living in low-income countries will have received at least one dose of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine by the end of 2021.

In a previous Correspondence,1 we demonstrated the appearance of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in pooled donor plasma and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) products from these pools over the period of May–December, 2020. In this update, we describe increasing levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pooled plasma and IVIG products up to September, 2021, and neutralising activity of these antibodies against wild-type virus and variants of concern (VOC).

The important analysis by Anika Singanayagam and colleagues1 demonstrated that individuals fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 with breakthrough infections have similar peak viral loads to unvaccinated people and might infect other fully vaccinated individuals within the same household.

With interest we read the paper by Anika Singanayagam and colleagues1 assessing the secondary attack rate (SAR) of SARS-CoV-2 in 204 vaccinated and unvaccinated household contacts exposed to 138 vaccinated and unvaccinated index cases. Here, we want to point out the importance of adjusting for age when comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

Vaccine effectiveness studies have conclusively demonstrated the benefit of COVID-19 vaccines in reducing individual symptomatic and severe disease, resulting in reduced hospitalisations and intensive care unit admissions.1 However, the impact of vaccination on transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 needs to be elucidated.

Point-of-care (lateral flow) assays with an antigen rapid test (ART) for SARS-CoV-2 became commercially available in November 2020 worldwide, as a supplement to real-time PCR (rtPCR).1 ARTs are self-administered and detect SARS-CoV-2 antigens from anterior nares swabs and return results within minutes.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is now better controlled in settings with access to fast and reliable testing and highly effective vaccination rollouts. Several studies have found that people who recovered from COVID-19 and tested seropositive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies have low rates of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection. There are still looming questions surrounding the strength and duration of such protection compared with that from vaccination.

In the past 100 days, more than 3 billion doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been administered globally.1 With 20 vaccines currently authorised in at least one country and 108 under clinical development as of July 20, 2021,2 there is ongoing public concern regarding the possible adverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 immunisation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deep inequalities of our times. Differences in behaviour, political will, and technological capacity between affected countries have contributed to distinct outcomes.1 18 months after the COVID-19 pandemic began in China, mortality is highest among vulnerable populations without access to vaccination and those ideologically opposed to vaccination, in a way confirming that vaccines save lives.

The SARS-CoV-2 delta (B.1.617.2) variant was first detected in India in December, 2020. Since then, the delta variant has rapidly become the main variant in some regions, including in the UK. As of July 27, 2021, the UK had reported the highest number of SARS-CoV-2 delta variant cases, with 167 856 patients.1

On Nov 24, South Africa alerted the world to the latest SARS-CoV-2 variant, omicron (B.1.1.529). The omicron variant distinguishes itself from previous variants by harbouring in its genomic sequence 49 mutations (30 of which occur within the spike protein)—a jump from the 13 mutations found within the delta variant (B.1.617.2).

We consider epidemiological modeling for the design of COVID-19 interventions in university populations, which have seen significant outbreaks during the pandemic. A central challenge is sensitivity of predictions to input parameters coupled with uncertainty about these parameters. Nearly 2 y into the pandemic, parameter uncertainty remains because of changes in...

Hemachromatosis (iron-overload) increases host susceptibility to siderophilic bacterial infections that cause serious complications, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. The present study demonstrates that oral infection with hyperyersiniabactin (Ybt) producing Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Δfur mutant (termed Δfur) results in severe systemic infection and acute mortality to hemochromatotic mice due to rapid...

COVID-19 remains a stark health threat worldwide, in part because of minimal levels of targeted vaccination outside high-income countries and highly transmissible variants causing infection in vaccinated individuals. Decades of theoretical and experimental data suggest that nonspecific effects of non–COVID-19 vaccines may help bolster population immunological resilience to new pathogens....

After binding to its cell surface receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) enters the host cell through directly fusing with plasma membrane (cell surface pathway) or undergoing endocytosis traveling to lysosome/late endosome for membrane fusion (endocytic pathway). However, the endocytic entry regulation by...

The emergence of new variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a major concern given their potential impact on the transmissibility and pathogenicity of the virus as well as the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. Here, we predict the mutability of all positions in SARS-CoV-2 protein domains to...

DksA is a conserved RNA polymerase-binding protein known to play a key role in the stringent response of proteobacteria species, including many gastrointestinal pathogens. Here, we used RNA-sequencing of Escherichia coli, Salmonella bongori and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, together with phenotypic comparison to study changes in the DksA regulon, during Salmonella evolution.