Long COVID There’s a preprint showing that getting a COVID vax helped long haulers a little bit: decrease in worsening symptoms (5.6% vaxed vs 14.2% unvaxed) increase in symptom resolution (23.2% v. 15.4%) They didn’t see any difference in response was between the three different types of vaccines. That’s great, but note that this was… Continue reading 2021-03-14 General
Category: Variants
2021-03-12 General
Long COVID Respected COVID journalist Zeynep Tufekci points out problems with the claims that a very large percentage of the people who have Long COVID had very mild symptoms originally. She points out that the most commonly cited study has real problems with confirmation bias, definitions of “asymptomatic”, and missing baselines. Vaccines Novavax announced that… Continue reading 2021-03-12 General
2021-03-10 General
It really seems to me like there is less COVID news than there used to be, even a month ago. There could be several contributing factors to the slowdown: Fewer massive screwups (especially in the US, especially compared to under the Trump administration). Less anxiety about the future. The vaccines have arrived, they are going… Continue reading 2021-03-10 General
2021-03-08 General
VOC A preprint says that people who had B.1.351 had antibodies that worked well against COVID Classic and also against P.1. This is outstanding news — it means that the counter-B.1.351 boosters being developed will work against the scaries! There is yet another study which says that, while the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines (Pfizer in… Continue reading 2021-03-08 General
2021-03-06 General
Treatments Fluvoxamine — an old anti-depressant — is being tested as a treatment for COVID. VOCs Yet another paper says that our vaccines (in this case, Moderna and Novavax) work against B.1.1.7.
2021-03-05 General
VOCs They found a variant of the B.1.1.7 in Oregon which developed a the same mutation as one they have found in scary variants elsewhere, the E484K mutation. Yes, this is a variant of a variant. I would like it if we came up with a different naming scheme. There’s a leaked story (hint: perhaps… Continue reading 2021-03-05 General
2021-03-04 General
Vaccines Canada is probably going to approve the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in the next few days. That will make four vaccines, five if you count the Serum Institute of India’s vaccine as different from AstraZeneca. There is an article in the Economist which says that the differences in reported vaccine efficacy is really… Continue reading 2021-03-04 General
2021-03-03 General
Vaccines The Novavax vaccine — which had ~90% efficacy against B.1.1.7 — had only 60% efficacy against HIV-negative patients, most of whom had B.1.351. As a side effect, the study showed that having had COVID Classic didn’t give you any protection against B.1.351. Yikes. There is a report that, while rare, some delayed (5 days… Continue reading 2021-03-03 General
2021-03-02 General
Variants The New York Times has an article talking about the naming of variants. Basically, it’s hard to make strain names memorable while also avoiding place names, people’s names, and names of animals. 🙁 There are a few ways that scientists figure out how resistant a variant is to a vaccine. One is to look… Continue reading 2021-03-02 General