Vaccines
This study in Israel of people over 60 found that the risk of infection dropped in half after their fourth dose of vaccine; the risk of severe illness dropped by a fourth.
Note that this sounds really good, but the study was only in people over 60, and there’s no information on waning.
Pathology
This preprint says that SARS-CoV-2 infects neurons and gives rise to a disease progression that looks very similar to that of Alzheimer’s.
I do see a silver lining in that news: maybe we will learn more about Alzheimer’s as a result.
Transmission
Reality check: this article says that Omicron has caused 90M cases since it was discovered TEN WEEKS AGO — more than in all of 2020.
Recommended Reading
This article looks at “endemic” and the various different meanings of the word, most of which carry assumptions which are not true.
This article looks at the question of whether to switch to vaccines which are based on Omicron instead of COVID Classic.
Hilda Bastian should be given International Treasure status for the great work she does keeping comprehensive track of the vaccines. It’s difficult to get information on some of the obscure ones (like, no joke, from Chinese military academies!), but she does an amazing job. Anyway, she recently put out an update on boosters and mixed vax schedules, plus an update of non-profit vaccines (and why it’s so hard), plus an update of five vaccines which have recently finished Phase 3 trials.