Lunchtime pandemic reading.
Standard disclaimer: this is a roundup of informative pieces I've read that interest me on the severity of the crisis and how to manage it. I am not a qualified medical expert in ANY sense; at best I am reasonably well-read laity. ALWAYS prioritize advice from a qualified healthcare provider who knows your specific medical situation over advice from people on the Internet.
This is also available as an email newsletter at https://lunchtimepandemic.substack.com if you prefer the update in your inbox.
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Today, we're waiting for the final decisions about 5-11 year old vaccination from the ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. You can tune in live until 5 PM Eastern Time:
https://video.ibm.com/channel/VWBXKBR8af4
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Some days... "PSA: the Moderna vaccine doesn’t contain luciferase. And luciferase isn’t named after Lucifer Smiling face with horns…it’s a common biological reporter that produces light which can be measured. Lucifer is Latin for “light bearer”. Luciferase is a natural enzyme that makes fireflies’ asses light up."
Source:
Commentary: Apparently the latest crazy conspiracy theory is about a chemical in firefly asses. To be clear, none of the vaccines use it.
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Wealthy countries have given more boosters than poorer countries have given any vaccinations. "One of the most startling Covid charts I’ve made in a long time, on vaccine inequality:
Rich countries have given out more booster shots in the last 3 months, than poor countries have given out total doses all year."
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/35a3d40a-f71f-4fca-893d-884fec5633d8
Commentary: The pandemic ends when transmission slows to endemic levels and new mutations are rare because of it. The more poorer countries can vaccinate, the fewer cases they'll have that can create new strains.
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Vaccines equally protect both genders. "We found that mRNA vaccination also induced CD4+ and CD8+ TSCM, which were stable throughout the 6-month period of this study. TSCM cells provide a memory reservoir with multipotent capacity, and have been shown to persist for decades (74–77). The detection of TSCM in vaccinated individuals is thus suggestive of the establishment of long-lived immunity. The number of TSCM induced after priming predicted future T cell responses, and the stability of this memory population may point in the direction of durable immunity against SARS-CoV2.
Finally, immune responses to vaccines have been shown to be higher in females (44, 78). Moreover, the male sex is associated with severe COVID-19 and death (79). Thus, we searched for a sex-bias in the immunological parameters investigated. Importantly, we did not find differences in vaccine-induced immune responses between males and females."
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.abl5344
Commentary: People with Y chromosomes are more likely to have severe outcomes from COVID-19, so the news that the vaccines are effective at mitigating severe effects regardless of gender is a welcome one.
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A reminder of the simple daily habits we should all be taking.
1. Wear the best mask available to you when you'll be around people you don't live with, even after you've been vaccinated. Respirators are back in stock at online retailers, too. Wear an N95/FFP2/KN95 that's NIOSH-approved or better mask if you can obtain it. If you can't get an N95 mask, wear a surgical mask with a cloth mask over it.
2. Verify your mask's NIOSH certification here: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/usernotices/counterfeitResp.html
3. Get vaccinated as soon as you're able to, and fulfill the full vaccine regimen. Remember that you are not vaccinated until everyone you live with is vaccinated. If you received an adenovirus vaccine (J&J/AstraZeneca), consider getting an mRNA single shot booster (Pfizer/Moderna) if permitted.
4. Wash/sanitize your hands every time you are in or out of your home.
5. Stay out of indoor spaces that aren't your home and away from people you don't live with as much as practical. Minimize your contact with others and avoid indoor places as much as you can; indoor spaces spread the disease through aerosols and distance is less effective at mitigating your risks.
6. Aim to have 3-6 months of living expenses on hand in case the pandemic gives another crazy plot twist to the economy.
7. Replenish your supplies as you use them. Avoid reducing your stores to pre-pandemic levels in case an outbreak causes unexpected supply chain disruptions.
8. Ventilate your home as frequently as weather and circumstances permit, except when you share close airspaces with other residences (like a window less than a meter away from a neighboring window).
9. Masks must fit properly to work. Here's how to properly fit a mask:
10. If you think you may have been exposed to COVID-19, purchase a rapid antigen test. This will detect COVID-19 only when you're contagious, so follow the directions clearly. https://amzn.to/3fLAoor
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Common misinformation debunked!
There is no basis in fact that COVID-19 vaccines can shed or otherwise harm people around you.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-covid19vaccine-reproductivepro-idUSL1N2MG256
There is no mercury or other heavy metals in the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.
Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/09/1013538/what-are-the-ingredients-of-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine/
There is no basis in fact that COVID-19 vaccines pose additional risks to pregnant women.
Source: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2104983
There is no genomic evidence at all that COVID-19 arrived before 2020 in the United States and therefore no hidden herd immunity:
Source:
There is no evidence SARS-CoV-2 was engineered, nor that it escaped a lab somewhere.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/01/29/experts-debunk-fringe-theory-linking-chinas-coronavirus-weapons-research/
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/05/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd/
Source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/are-we-ignoring-the-hard-truths-about-the-most-likely-cause-of-covid-19-20210601-p57x4r.html
There is no evidence a flu shot increases your COVID-19 risk.
Source: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/no-evidence-that-flu-shot-increases-risk-of-covid-19/
Source: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa626/5842161
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Disclosures and Disclaimers
I declare no competing interests on anything I share related to COVID-19. I am employed by and am a co-owner in TrustInsights.ai, an analytics and management consulting firm. I have no clients and no business interests in anything related to COVID-19, nor do I financially benefit in any way from sharing information about COVID-19.
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A common request I'm asked is who I follow. Here's a public Twitter list of many of the sources I read.
https://twitter.com/i/lists/1260956929205112834
This list is biased by design. It is limited to authors who predominantly post in the English language. It is heavily biased towards individual researchers and away from institutions. It is biased towards those who publish or share research, data, papers, etc. I have made an attempt to follow researchers from different countries, and also to make the list reasonably gender-balanced, because multiple, diverse perspectives on research data are essential.
This is also available as an email newsletter at https://lunchtimepandemic.substack.com if you prefer the update in your inbox.