2022-02-26/27/28 General

Transmission

This preprint looked at COVID-19 in some white-tailed deer killed by hunters in Ontario. It found COVID-19 in ~6% of the deer, and the whole-genome sequencing found that the viruses have mutated a lot. (“Highly divergent” was the language in the preprint.) Furthermore, they found one human from the same geographic area with known contact with deer who COVID-19 with a somewhat similar genotype. (It was not a perfect match for any of the deer genotypes, but there was wide variation in the deer genotypes.) They didn’t see that genotype in other humans, but this was during Omicron and not every case got whole-genome sequencing.

Vaccines

This preprint found that Pfizer vaccines were less protective for children, especially ones who got the lower pediatric dose (30µg for the under-12 vs. 30µg for adolescents and adults), in late January 2022 than they were in mid December 2021.

Age rangeAgainstMid DecEnd Jan
12-17infection66%51%
5-11infection68%12%
11infection11%
12infection67%
12-17hospitalization85%73%
5-11hospitalization100%48%

Origins

This preprint and this preprint gives pretty convincing evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic started at the Wuhan wet market, not at the Wuhan virology lab. This preprint says that there were two different introductions from animals to humans at the wet market.

Side effects

One strange thing about the pandemic is that, even though traffic went down, fatalities per mile went up. This article (from the US, but probably applicable to Canada) reports something which might explain it: the least experienced (and riskiest drivers) made up a bigger proportion of miles driven.