Note: It was hot again today, so today’s postings are going to be short. I’ll try to catch up in the next few days
Deaths
This report suggests that COVID-19 deaths in Canada were wickedly undercounted. NB: I haven’t had time to do a deep dive into it yet, but I would like to. So there might be more on this tomorrow.
Vaccines
It wasn’t clear if really old people (over 100) would be able to make persistent antibodies. This study of centenarians who had been infected with COVID-19 says that yes, they can.
This paper says that the longer the delay between dose 1 and dose 2 of AZ (up to ~44 weeks), the more antibodies you got. Also, a third dose of AZ gave you even more antibodies than two doses.
Yes, Moderna works against Delta.
Long COVID
I have been wondering if vaccination prevented Long COVID, i.e. can “breakthrough cases” get Long COVID. This Twitter thread reports on a survey among Survivor Corps (a Long COVID social media group) which shows that yes, it can. Note: if you look at the data, it looks like Long COVID is extremely common in breakthrough cases. Remember that there’s selection bias: the people who are going to see the Survivor Corps survey are much more likely to be people with Long COVID.
Recommended Reading
This article has an interesting discussion about getting people to get vaccinated, including ethics.
This Twitter thread discusses the Delta variant: what’s scary, what’s not.