COVID can cause damage to organs and the vascular system. But can it also damage our immune systems, increasing our chances of getting sick with other infections?
New data show millions of Canadians have experienced symptoms of long COVID, with some still suffering from debilitating side effects a year or more after being infected.
In some cases, long COVID could be down to a “compromised” immune system, scientists say, which has other people asking whether COVID might be increasing our chances of getting sick with other infections.
About 3.5 million Canadians have experienced fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath and other lingering symptoms for three months or longer after a confirmed or suspected COVID infection “that could not be explained by anything else,” according to a national study.
As of this past June, more than half — 2.1 million people — were still experiencing symptoms, 11 months, on average, after their last known encounter with SARS-CoV-2.
“As of June 2023, about 100,000 Canadian adults have been unable to return to work or school because of their symptoms,” according to the survey by Statistics Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The findings fit with Dr. Manali Mukherjee’s personal and professional experience. It took 18 months for the McMaster University immunologist to recover from long COVID.
The problem has been pinned on rogue autoantibodies that turn on the body’s own tissues, attacking the “host,” or overactive cytokines, proteins that boost inflammation as part of the body’s natural immune response. “Cytokines give us an idea that there is still inflammation going on,” Mukherjee said.
The new study is an update to preliminary findings released last summer on the ongoing experiences of COVID in Canadian adults more than three years after the start of the pandemic.
The findings are consistent with other international studies, including a recent study published in Nature Medicine that found increased risks of cardiovascular issues, diabetes, lung problems, gut problems, blood clots and other conditions up to two years later, after even mild or moderate COVID infections.
“A lot of people think, ‘I got COVID, I got over it and I’m fine, and it’s a nothingburger for them. But that’s not everything,” the study’s senior author, Ziyad Al-Aly, a Washington University School of Medicine clinical epidemiologist told the Washington Post. For some people, “it’s still wreaking havoc in your body.”
The Nature Medicine study was based on the health records of U.S. military veterans (most of them men) who were infected before vaccines and drugs like Paxlovid, the antiviral pill used to treat COVID-19, became available.
COVID is known to cause damage to organs and the vascular system in some people. And some doctors have again raised the spectre, recently amplified on social media, that COVID “damages the immune system,” rendering people more susceptible to other respiratory viruses or pathogens, a claim several of Canada’s leading experts in virology and immunology say is speculative rhetoric that exaggerates COVID’s risks.
Like other respiratory bugs, COVID-19 can lead to “temporary perturbation” in the immune system, “but not what can be considered a truly immunocompromised state,” said Mark Loeb, a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University.
“It’s not that I don’t believe it is possible that COVID might, in some cases, cause immune deficiency — it’s simply that there is not currently sufficient evidence to conclude that it happens,” Miller said in an email.
“Is getting infected good for you? Of course not. Should we take steps to prevent infection? Absolutely!
“But rhetoric that overstates the current state of evidence related to COVID risks is no more valid than rhetoric that diminishes the seriousness of COVID-19.”
On X, formerly Twitter, Dr. Lisa Iannattone, an assistant professor of dermatology at McGill University, said COVID “immune damage” could be contributing to recent surges in RSV and other respiratory infections.
Iannattone cited a recent study that found a prior COVID infection was associated with a 40 per cent increased risk of an RSV infection needing medical attention in children during the 2021 and 2022 RSV seasons.
Another study this year reported a higher risk of shingles in the 12 months after a COVID infection, while an Israeli team reported a higher risk of streptococcal tonsilitis, among other conditions, a year after a mild case of COVID.
“It’s hard to make any firm conclusions,” Iannattone said in an interview with National Post. “My concern is that at least a subset of people do seem to be having this period, post infection, where their immune system is dysregulated.”
“It’s difficult to understand why we wouldn’t be throwing that in as one of the main hypotheses of things that could be contributing to what we’re seeing,” she said.
Loeb said the early RSV surges “had nothing to do with some sort of global immune dysfunction.” Rather, many children were seeing RSV for the first time, all at once, after being sheltered by lockdowns, physical distancing and other measures during the pandemic’s earlier waves.
It can take weeks to clear all infected cells from the body, said University of Ottawa molecular virologist Marc-André Langlois. Some cells might also contain bits of the viral genome that can trigger inflammation.
“As it stands, I would be cautious to make claims that these observations are unique to COVID, and I would at this time avoid using words such as ‘immune threat’ or ‘immune dysfunction’ until there is more evidence,” Langlois said in an email.
A subset of people with long COVID do appear to have immune systems that are “a little compromised,” leading to that malaise and fatigue, Mukherjee said.
While most symptoms clear within a year, “We’re still dealing with the aftermath of COVID,” she said.
About one in nine of all Canadian adults have experienced long-term symptoms from a COVID infection, reported the StatCan study.
Some people still question just how debilitating long COVID can be, or whether it’s a true phenomenon, said Mukherjee, who struggled with staggering fatigue, sudden plummeting blood pressure and phantosmia, where people smell “phantom” odours that aren’t there.
“I’ve been pacing myself,” she said. “That’s helped me not have a relapse, thus far.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
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Yuri Kageyama is on X:
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:SHOP)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:REI.UN)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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