Vaccines There are lots of papers which look at antibodies — because antibodies (made by B cells) are comparatively easy to measure. Over and over, I’ve seen papers saying that some specific vax does not generate as many antibodies against some specific variant than against COVID Classic. By contrast, this paper looks at T-cells in… Continue reading 2021-05-13 General
Category: General
2021-05-13/17 General
NB: I hurt a tendon in my hand, so took a few days off from typing. It will probably take me a few days to catch up on all that has happened. Treatments A big study in the UK found that giving people in hospital convalescent plasma (i.e. a source of antibodies) did absolutely no… Continue reading 2021-05-13/17 General
2021-05-12 General
Variants There is a somewhat worrying report from Qatar saying that the efficacy of only one dose of Pfizer is only 29.5% against infection from B.1.1.7 and 54% against hospitalization. If you only have one dose, maybe don’t go licking doorknobs just yet. However, this report, also out today, from the UK from December to… Continue reading 2021-05-12 General
2021-05-11 General
Secondary Effects A study in the UK says that diabetes diagnosis, management, and mortality have been impacted pretty badly during the pandemic. 🙁 Vaccinations Today, Canada passed the 40% mark in what percentage of its population has gotten at least one dose, and it doesn’t look like the vaccination rate is slowing down at all!… Continue reading 2021-05-11 General
2021-05-10 General
Vaccines This preprint says that scientists have seen good results of a multi-coronavirus vaccine, working against SARS-CoV-1, COVID Classic, B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and bat coronaviruses! Disease From this preprint, 2% of the people with COVID-19 carry 90% of the virions! This preprint is from August, but I just noticed it. It says that COVID-19 cases go… Continue reading 2021-05-10 General
2021-05-08 General
Immunity A huuuge study in Denmark looked for reinfections and from that, figured out the efficacy of getting sick in preventing later infections and found that it was 80·5%, 47·1% for those aged 65 years and older. And yes, mRNA vaccines are like 95% efficient, so yes, the mRNA vaccines are higher efficacy than actually… Continue reading 2021-05-08 General
2021-05-07 General
Drug interactions Apparently some people were worried that Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) would make a COVID infection worse. Not so, says this study. Variants Remember yesterday when I said that B.1.617.2 was not of concern? I was too fast. While it does not seem to have unusually good immunity/vaccine evasion, it does seem to be… Continue reading 2021-05-07 General
2021-05-06 General
My computer is in the shop, and working with my other computers is extremely painful, so these posts are likely to be shorter in the next six days. I particularly am likely to skip posting many “oh look, vaccines again show that they are really effective!” unless it is against a VOC. Variants There was… Continue reading 2021-05-06 General
2021-05-05 General
Vaccines Pfizer has been approved down to age 12, yay!! Moderna has been doing a clinical trial with a booster made to mimic the spike proteins of B.1.351 instead of COVID Classic, and their press release says it works better against B.1.351 and P.1 than a third shot of Moderna Classic. (Note: it “works better”… Continue reading 2021-05-05 General
2021-05-04 General
Vaccines Good news — we should expect immunity to COVID-19 to last a long time. This preprint says that COVID immunity lasts for at least eight months, yay! This paper found antibodies to MERS six years after infection, and this paper found antibodies to SARS after SEVENTEEN years! (SARS and MERS are both closely related… Continue reading 2021-05-04 General