Vaccines Novavax is having such trouble manufacturing that the US has paused funding. This study looked at mixing and matching AZ and Pfizer. It found that side effects were similar for all the combinations. It found that AZ first then Pfizer was about the same as Pfizer+Pfizer in terms of antibodies; it found that AZ+Pfizer… Continue reading 2021-08-06 General
Category: Vaccines
2021-08-05 General
Vaccines This study out of the Netherlandsfound that the vaccine effectiveness against transmission to household members was: 58% for AZ 70% for Pfizer 88% for Moderna 77% for J&J Moderna says their vaccine’s effectiveness does not wane in six months, only dropping from 94% to 93% effectiveness. According to the Moderna Q2 Investor’s Report, the… Continue reading 2021-08-05 General
2021-07-31/08-01/02 General
Okay, I’ve been gone for a few days. First there wasn’t much news, then I was busy. Some general trends in articles I have noticed recently: There have recently been a number of articles expressing frustration and/or sadness that we thought we had the pandemic licked, and now Delta comes to get us. I have… Continue reading 2021-07-31/08-01/02 General
2021-07-30 General
Variants The US CDC changed its advice about masks, advising people to wear them more, because of what they’ve found about Delta. They were particularly shook by info from a big outbreak (~900 people) in Providencetown, MA. The study looked at 469 cases in more detail. (Here is the US CDC’s report on it, if… Continue reading 2021-07-30 General
2021-07-29 General
Transmission This article says that, starting today, COVID-positive people (basically) in Alberta will need to stay in their home, but the household members will not be required to quarantine as well. Contact tracers also will not notify the contacts of the positive people: the infect are now responsible for telling them. Starting on 16 August,… Continue reading 2021-07-29 General
2021-07-28 General
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
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