Vaccines On 21 July’s General blog post, I reported a study which suggested that vaccine effectiveness waned over time. This tweet thread (by one of the original authors) says they don’t think that’s accurate: that they got the denominator wrong. The vaccines still work well. Pfizer has released six-month data. Tl;dr: the vaccine works really… Continue reading 2021-07-28 General
Category: Vaccines
2021-07-27 General
Mitigation Measures This article says that the Canadian border guards are close to striking. Supply This article says that Canada now has enough vaccine for two doses for every person over 12. Vaccines This study found way more of a certain kind of impurities in AZ than in J&J, and those impurities sure look like… Continue reading 2021-07-27 General
2021-07-24/25/26 General
Vaccines If someone you know says that mRNA vaccines are too new and/or got rushed into production, point them at this article from 2018 which shows that there were five mRNA vaccines which had already completed trials, with five more in progress: — This is a really nice graphic showing the value of vaccinations (from… Continue reading 2021-07-24/25/26 General
2021-07-23 General
Vaccines This article says that data from Israel shows that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against infection (not against severe disease!) might be waning. Take that with a big grain of salt, however. There are a number of reasons why this should not be scary to you, even if you got the Pfizer vax.… Continue reading 2021-07-23 General
2021-07-22 General
Variants This article suggests that one reason why Quebec is seeing so few Delta cases compared to other provinces is because they’ve got more of something else: A.2.5, first seen in Central America. It’s not a VOC yet, but they are keeping their eye on it. Vaccines This study of Pfizer found that neutralizing antibodies… Continue reading 2021-07-22 General
2021-07-21 General
Mitigation Measures This article reports that the land borders to the US will stay closed to non-essential travel until at least 21 August. American tourists will be able to come here, but Canadian tourists won’t be able to go there by land. (Canadians can still fly to the US with a negative test. The US… Continue reading 2021-07-21 General
2021-07-20 General
Vaccines This article had this stunning graphic of the difference in mortality in the UK due to vaccines: This article reports that vaccines might re-activate dormant chickenpox, leading to shingles. If you are over 50, get a shingles shot! Mitigation Measures This article says that some restrictions in long-term care homes have been lifted. Visits… Continue reading 2021-07-20 General
2021-07-17/18 General
Vaccines Canada has passed the USA in percentage of population that is fully vaxxed. This is bittersweet. I mean, yay us, but also it is so sad that hesitancy is so high in the US. Transmission This study found that hospitalized patients caught COVID-19 from infected roommates 39% of the time. However, they also found… Continue reading 2021-07-17/18 General
2021-07-16 General
Vaccines This preprint found that antibody levels wane over time, moreso for AZ than Pfizer, and less so in women. (BNT162b2 is Pfizer; ChAdOx1 is AZ.) Reminder: antibodies are only one element of protection, and the body should be able make more if the B-cells are well-trained. This article says that vaccines for kids 6… Continue reading 2021-07-16 General
2021-07-14 General
Vaccines This study shows that Pfizer gives really good protection to pregnant women (66%/97% against symptomatic infection with one/two doses). This small study (129 participants) from Hannover, Germany and this other even smaller study (59 participants) from Kiel Germany, showed that in test tubes, AZ+Pfizer is better than AZ+AZ (especially against Beta), and has basically… Continue reading 2021-07-14 General