Vaccines Pfizer is starting trials of really young children. VOCs This article remarks that SARS-CoV-2 actually is not mutating that much, and that the different VOCs seem to be coming up with the same mutations over and over again in convergent evolution. This suggests that there might not be that much more that the viruses… Continue reading 2021-03-25 General
Category: General
2021-03-23/4 General
Special double-issue today, and I spent all day yesterday doing my taxes. Vaccines Canada might be facing another vaccine drought. First, the European Union said yesterday they would embargo all vaccines from leaving the EU. Note that the EU is mad at AstraZeneca Inc. — the EU says that AZ has been sending vax to… Continue reading 2021-03-23/4 General
2021-03-22 General
Vaccines A big Phase 3 trial of AZ in the US just finished. While their previous trials has some ah irregularities, this one seemed to be done well.. Fortunately, this trial showed good results in the general population and in old people. (And no blood clotting issues.) Except… there was a highly unusual announcement from… Continue reading 2021-03-22 General
2021-03-21 General
Vitamins A study done on patients in Chicago found that black patients with low vitamin D levels were 2.64 times higher than those with higher levels. Folks, take your D! A different study found that patients who got Vitamin D supplements had a lower risk of dying or needing mechanical ventilation. Yet another study found… Continue reading 2021-03-21 General
2021-03-20 General
VOCs There has been some research lately which pegs the P.1 transmissibility at 2.5x more than COVID Classic. Ulp. The good news is that everything I have seen is that the vaccines work well against it. Scientists have found that mice — just your regular standard lab mice — can get the P.1 and B.1.351… Continue reading 2021-03-20 General
2021-03-19 General
Vaccines Well, that’s depressing. A paper in The Lancet reports on a mathematical model which says that vaccination without pharmaceutical measures (e.g. masking, keeping 2m apart, etc) is likely to only bring R down to 1.58. Translation: vaccination alone won’t get rid of the virus. However, this smells off to me. Measles has an R0… Continue reading 2021-03-19 General
2021-03-08 General
Pandemic Positives There’s a great article by Zeynep Tufekci in The Atlantic which talks about three things which have been positive side effects of the pandemic: mRNA vaccines synchronous video communication really fast scientific communication / informal peer review It’s worth a read, to remind yourself, “oh yeah, that did happen”.
2021-03-17 General
Vaccines As more information is discovered, it looks like maybe the blood clotting problems soon after vaccination is causal and not coincidence. Research has shown that the spike protein can lead to an attack on blood vessels, and the common vaccines right now flood the body with spike proteins. This has made several countries concerned… Continue reading 2021-03-17 General
2021-03-16 General
Vaccines There’s yet another paper which says that AZ is crap against B.1.351 — 10.5%. There is some suggestion that AZ is um crap against B.1.351 because it doesn’t have the 2-proline stabilizer (unlike the mRNAs and J&J). The 2-proline stabilizer is a little tweak to the spike protein to keep it in its prefusion… Continue reading 2021-03-16 General
2021-03-15 General
Vaccines Moderna has registered to do a small Ph2/3 trials on children. A preprint says that the first vax dose for cancer patients is not very effective, but that the second dose gives them good protection. Zeynep Tufekci has an essay arguing that the language of “we should vaccinate them over there so they don’t… Continue reading 2021-03-15 General