Treatment
This paper says that a single infusion of a new-to-me polyclonal antibody — sotrovimab — is 85% effective at preventing hospitalization when given early to high-risk COVID-19 patients.
The FDA already gave an EUA to sotrovimab on 26 May; Canada gave interim approval on 30 July (and bought 10,000 doses on 4 October), so apparently I just missed that this happened then.
Which makes me wonder: if we in Canada already have access to a very effective antibody treatment, WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE STILL DYING????
Transmission/Vaccines
This preprint says that fully vaccinated people with breakthrough Delta infections spread infection to their household almost as easily as unvaccinated people. The viral load in fully vaccinated people dropped faster than it did in unvaccinated people, however. (And ofc, fully vaccinated people will not get sick as often.)
Note that this contradicts some earlier papers.
Long COVID
When you dream, normally your arms and legs paralyzed so that you don’t hurt yourself by thrashing about as you play out your dreams. This paper (from April 2021) says that some recovered COVID-19 patients do not have this protective paralyzation. In addition to thrashing about leading to injury, this is frequently a precursor to other neurodegenerative diseases, e.g. Parkinson’s.
This article says that Parkinson’s also frequently follows a loss of smell — often years after the loss of smell. Furthermore, this article (from 2005) says that influenza pandemics are linked to neurological-condition epidemics, like encephalitis lethargica after the 1918 flu pandemic.
Put together, it looks likely (or at least very possible) that we’re going to have a wave of neurological conditions in ten or fifteen years. 🙁
In this study (from 5 Oct 2021), they found SARS-CoV-2 in brains. I think other studies have found this as well, but I mention it to emphasize that it’s not just one person who found SARS-CoV-2 in the brain.
Recommended Reading
This article argues that we should treat COVID-19 infection as equivalent to one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Me, I think that getting a shot is so low-cost and the logistical/administrative work to verify infection — while not huge, are non-zero — that we should go ahead and jab everyone. This author of this article disagrees.
This article describes Massachusetts’ “test to stay” program, where all kids get tested every day with rapid antigen tests. Spoiler: results are mixed. It does seem to let kids be in school more, but is hella hella costly in school-nurse-time.