Vaccines
This preprint from the UK found that boosters help against symptomatic infection, but also wane:
| dose1&2 | dose3 | VE at 2-4 weeks | VE at 5-9 weeks | VE at >10 weeks |
| AZ+AZ | Pfizer | 62-65% | 48% | 32% |
| AZ+AZ | Moderna | 62-65% | 56% | N/A |
| Pfizer+Pfizer | Pfizer | 65% | 49% | 31% |
| Pfizer+Pfizer | Moderna | 70% | 57% | N/A |
However, protection against severe disease remains strong:
Transmission
This paper comes up with a single number to encapsulate all the risk factors and more importantly, shows that a virus being airborne leads to superspreader events, i.e. high dispersal.
Mitigation Measures
This Twitter thread (and others I’ve seen, btw) say that you can re-use your mask a surprising number of time. Have a few and rotate among them, though.
Long COVID
This preprint says that vaccination makes you about 50-60% as likely to develop Long COVID symptoms.
Recommended Reading
This article talks about how the Omicron wave is already more deadly in the USA than it was in South Africa, UK, or Denmark. It makes interesting comparisons between the UK and USA.
This article talks about a novel kind of test, which looks at a person’s genetic changes in response to a pathogen, instead of trying to look for evidence of the pathogen itself.
This article talks about overloaded US hospitals.