Vaccines
Pfizer is starting trials of really young children.
VOCs
This article remarks that SARS-CoV-2 actually is not mutating that much, and that the different VOCs seem to be coming up with the same mutations over and over again in convergent evolution. This suggests that there might not be that much more that the viruses can do to get worse.
Pandemic side effects
This story says that dentists are seeing a lot more stress-related dental issues, plus dry mouth from mouth-breathing when wearing a mask.
This paper found that people with periodontitis (which can be aggravated by dry mouth) have a higher risk of hospitalization, ventilation, and death from COVID-19.
Brazil
I don’t talk much in this blog about other countries, but Brazil had more than 100K cases TODAY. This is why we have measures, why we don’t just let it rip and wait for herd immunity. (This is also why, despite there being more deaths due to overdose than to COVID-19 in BC, much more attention has been paid to COVID-19: hard drug use is far less contagious.)
Genome sequencing
This article about genome sequencing is only partially related to COVID-19, but it is really interesting. Recommended.