2021-03-03 General

Vaccines The Novavax vaccine — which had ~90% efficacy against B.1.1.7 — had only 60% efficacy against HIV-negative patients, most of whom had B.1.351. As a side effect, the study showed that having had COVID Classic didn’t give you any protection against B.1.351. Yikes. There is a report that, while rare, some delayed (5 days… Continue reading 2021-03-03 General

2021-03-02 General

Variants The New York Times has an article talking about the naming of variants. Basically, it’s hard to make strain names memorable while also avoiding place names, people’s names, and names of animals. 🙁 There are a few ways that scientists figure out how resistant a variant is to a vaccine. One is to look… Continue reading 2021-03-02 General

2021-03-02 BC

Local company in the news! I found out that AbCellera, a Vancouver company, was involved in making Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody COVID treatment! AbCellera makes a machine that can screen blood looking for useful antibodies. Press Briefing of 2021-03-02 Data NOTICE!! Dr. Henry said that they had some problems with their data systems and that… Continue reading 2021-03-02 BC

2021-03-01 General

Vaccines An article in the New York Times reports on studies which show that one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine gives good protection. An article in the Washington Post says that the Israeli vaccine rollout — which has now reached 50% of its citizens and almost 90 percent of people over 50 — shows that… Continue reading 2021-03-01 General

2021-03-01 BC

The big news was an immunization briefing, which I covered in a post of its own. AZ vaccine Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended against using the AstraZeneca vaccine in individuals aged 65 years and older, due to insufficient data. Weekend Statistics From today’s press release: Fri/Sat: +532 casesSat/Sun: +508 casesSun/Mon: +438 cases Over… Continue reading 2021-03-01 BC