Vaccines This study in Sweden of mix&match effectiveness against symptomatic infection found that a second dose of mRNA was better after a first of AZ than a second dose of AZ: 1st Dose 2nd Dose Effectiveness AZ AZ 50% AZ Pfizer 67% AZ Moderna 79% Pfizer Pfizer 78% Moderna Moderna 87% This article says that… Continue reading 2021-10-16/17/18 General
Category: Mitigation Measures
2021-10-15 General
A friend kept ragging on me about using the trade names for various vaccines. I held firm because it was more correct and accurate. He complained that nobody knew the names, but I pointed out that people got used to Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. I now give up. Nobody and I mean nobody but… Continue reading 2021-10-15 General
2021-10-13 General
Diagnosis / Equity This Twitter thread suggests that the reason darker-skinned people have higher fatality rates from COVID-19 is because, well, they have darker skin: pulse oximeters, which are used to judge how serious a case is, don’t work on dark-skinned people. Economic effects This video from January 2021 makes the economic case — not… Continue reading 2021-10-13 General
2021-10-08 General
Risk Factors This preprint says that having a bad mutation on the (X-linked) TLR7 gene is very very bad for your COVID-19 prospects. The authors think this accounts for about 1.8% of severe COVID-19 in male patients under 60. But here’s some good news on genes: this preprint says that a change in one nucleotide… Continue reading 2021-10-08 General
2021-10-06 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that the Government of Canada has come out with new vaccine mandates. All federal employees — including those who work from home or in a different country — have until 29 October to get vaccinated. Everyone over 12 must be vaccinated to take a plane or train inside Canada. Transmission… Continue reading 2021-10-06 General
2021-09-28 General
Treatments It’s been observed often that obesity raises the risk of COVID-19. This preprint looked into it more closely, and found that the anti-obesity drug orlistat blocks COVID-19 in mice. Mitigation Measures This report from England looked how behaviour correlated with risk of getting COVID-19. People who reported that never wore masks were slightly over… Continue reading 2021-09-28 General
2021-09-25/26/27 General
Pathology A paper last week said that the risk of heart inflammation in young men was one in a thousand. As this article reports, they were waaaaaay off in their count of the total number of vaccinations in Ontario; the correct figure turns out to be one in 1 in 25,000. I can’t for the… Continue reading 2021-09-25/26/27 General
2021-09-24 General
Mitigation Measures This US CDC report says that counties with school mask mandates had lower absolute pediatric case rates (16.32 per 100K/day vs. 34.85 per 100K/day) and a lower increase in cases after school started. This (different) US CDC report says that counties without a mask mandate in schools had a 3.5x higher chance of… Continue reading 2021-09-24 General
2021-09-21 General
Mitigation Measures The land border into the USA from Canada will remain closed to non-essential non-Americans until at least 21 October. Vaccines This preprint says that the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine has a vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 infection of 48% and 76% effectiveness against severe disease. I think this is huge news,… Continue reading 2021-09-21 General
2021-09-08 General
Vaccines This large study from Scotland from March 2020 to November 2020 found that household members of healthcare workers were less than half as likely to get an infection after the healthcare worker got vaccinated. (Note: don’t forget that some of the household members got infected in the community.) This study of Pfizer found that:… Continue reading 2021-09-08 General