Brandon Bro Makes My Day!

Tested positive again. What can be more positive than that!

“Biden tests positive for COVID again — days after initial recovery” (NY Post, 2022.07.30):

White House Physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a letter on Saturday that Biden was among “a small percentage” of Paxlovid recipients who saw their symptoms “rebound.”

A small percentage, like most of them? Didn’t we know that back in May already?

“Virologic characterization of symptom rebound following nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (paxlovid) treatment for COVID-19“ (BMJ Yale, 2022.05.24):

In summary, recurrent clinical disease after nirmatrelvir-ritonavir therapy for COVID-19 is associated with high viral load and, in some cases, culturable virus. Culturable virus was present for up to two weeks after completion of therapy. Consideration should be given to revising public health guidelines to specifically recommend repeat testing and isolation in these cases. Future work is needed to better understand the causes, clinical significance, and public health consequences of symptomatic relapse after nirmatrelvir-ritonavir.

“Here’s What Scientists Know About Paxlovid Rebound“ (TIME, 2022.05.26):

Ho decided to study the phenomenon further when he learned that a colleague, Dr. Michael Charness at the VA Boston Healthcare System, had a similar experience. The scientists (who are both vaccinated and boosted) teamed up and conducted what is probably the most comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon to date, because they were able to conduct daily testing and track the flip from negative to positive and also perform genetic sequencing of the virus to confirm that the infection was caused by the same virus rebounding back, rather than a new infection. No antiviral drugs—whether against SARS-CoV-2 or HIV—actually kill any virus present in an infected person; they work by blocking certain steps in the virus’ replication cycle, freezing them in time so the virus cannot continue to churn out more copies of itself. Paxlovid specifically interrupts the step involving the protease enzyme, which splices the long string of polypeptides that the virus makes once it infects a cell. That lengthy protein needs to be cut into its component proteins, which then play roles in making a new virus. By inhibiting that step, Paxlovid leaves the virus in a suspended state—and depending on when the drug was started, an infected person could have thousands of these long polypeptide strings already made and floating around in the body, creating a latent reservoir of viral product that could become active again. The drug prevents these intermediary forms from getting cut and infecting cells, but once the drug stops after day 5, the enzyme is no longer inhibited and can go back to splicing and making viral proteins. That could lead to a rebound, because more virus is being made that can infect cells again.

“Is Pfizer’s New Antiviral Drug Dangerous for the Vaccinated?“ (Darby Shaw, 2022.04.26):

…what both Pfizer and CNN failed to note is that Pfizer excluded Covid-vaccinated patients from its clinical trial of the drug: “Inclusion/exclusion criteria specified that subjects had to have at least one of the following risk factors for progression to severe disease: ≥60 years of age; BMI >25; current smoker; immunosuppressive disease or immunosuppressive treatment; chronic lung disease; hypertension; cardiovascular disease; diabetes; chronic kidney disease; sickle cell disease; neurodevelopmental disorders; active cancer; medical related technological dependence. Individuals who had a history of prior COVID-19 infection or vaccine were excluded. [2]

What can I say? Didn’t Uncle Tony told ya: