Lunchtime pandemic reading.
Standard disclaimer: this is a roundup of informative pieces I've read that interest me on the severity of the crises and how to manage them. 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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Commentary:
I've just spent the last week in a hot zone. THE hot zone - my elderly parents both tested COVID positive. I'm headed home today, and I've tested negative every single day.
How? How do you test negative when you're surrounded by COVID in the air from people who are in close proximity to you? The answer is simple and straightforward:
First, be vaxxed to the max. Vaccine plus boosters, the latest booster. That's the last line of defense, but it sure does help to have as much protection there as you can.
Second, be masked to the max. For me, that means wearing a P100 mask during the 6 hours each day I was in my parents' house.
Here's the catch, the secret: do not remove your mask indoors for any reason. Got an itch? Got to blow your nose? Want a snack? Need a drink? Step fully outside first, into clean air, before removing your mask.
Never, ever remove your mask for any reason inside a hot zone.
Third, clean and sanitize. At the end of each day, I retired to my hotel room (because I can't sleep at my parents). On the drive back, I opened the windows in my car all the way, removing any stale air. Once I set foot in my hotel room, my clothing and my mask went into a plastic box with a UV-C light and an ozone generator for 30 minutes to kill off anything on my clothing. Any exposed skin I wiped down with drugstore hydrogen peroxide and water, 50/50 mix.
Fourth, daily testing. This was my barometer for the effectiveness of my efforts. So far, I'm negative every day for almost a week, and I'll continue to test for 7 days after exiting the hot zone and heading home.
Following these practices has kept me safe thus far in a known hostile environment. You can keep COVID at bay if you're disciplined and follow sensible precautions.
As for my parents? COVID hits hard. They're 80 years old, and COVID has depleted their energy levels. In my father's case, it sent him to the hospital for three days. They're both recovering well, but you do not want this disease in you. Do everything you can to avoid it.
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COVID affects the fetus. "The effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy on fetal lung development have been largely understudied throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. To our knowledge, this is the first study showing reduced fetal lung volume in otherwise healthy pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection. This reduction was dependent on the timepoint of infection, indicating that the most significant results occurred in the third trimester, thereby overlapping with the saccular stage of lung development dedicated to the expansion of (future) air spaces.5 Despite equivocal findings on placental transmission,6 predominant viral transmission in the third trimester,1 and the significant correlation between positive maternal PCR test and amniotic presence of SARS-CoV-2 near term7 might enhance exposure of the developing lung parenchyma to the virus, facilitated through increased fetal breathing in the third trimester. Specifically, the high affinity of the virus to alveolar epithelial cells3 could affect the so-called developmental sprint of these cells. The absence of postnatal respiratory distress in this cohort points to an important, subclinical phenotype related to prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 that should be functionally and structurally addressed in follow-up studies under consideration of exposure to environmental hazards, including infections and toxins. Furthermore, recommendations of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination during pregnancy might be supported by our data."
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8926408/
Commentary: COVID causes smaller lungs in fetuses while still in the womb. That's quite a surprising finding.
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COVID causes Alzheimer's-style inflammation. "Infection with the etiological agent of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, appears capable of impacting cognition, which some patients with Post-acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC). To evaluate neuro-pathophysiological consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection, we examine transcriptional and cellular signatures in the Broadman area 9 (BA9) of the frontal cortex and the hippocampal formation (HF) in SARS-CoV-2, Alzheimers disease (AD) and SARS-CoV-2 infected AD individuals, compared to age- and gender-matched neurological cases. Here we show similar alterations of neuroinflammation and blood-brain barrier integrity in SARS-CoV-2, AD, and SARS-CoV-2 infected AD individuals. Distribution of microglial changes reflected by the increase of Iba-1 reveal nodular morphological alterations in SARS-CoV-2 infected AD individuals. Similarly, HIF-1α is significantly upregulated in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the same brain regions regardless of AD status. The finding may help to inform decision-making regarding therapeutic treatments in patients with neuro-PASC, especially those at increased risk of developing AD."
Source: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.517706v1
Commentary: COVID is a vascular inflammatory disease that spreads through respiration. It's no surprise that it has symptoms which look like other inflammatory diseases.
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COVID vaccines do not increase RSV risk. "Social media posts claim Pfizer and Moderna's clinical trial results show their Covid-19 shots put children at greater risk of contracting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This is false; experts say the allegation is a misinterpretation of the data, no such risk has been identified at a population level, and infant and toddler vaccination rates are too low to correlate with the uptick of RSV cases in Canada and the US.
The same claim was published October 29, 2022 in a Substack post. The blog attributes the information to The Highwire, an online program hosted by Del Bigtree, CEO of one of the best-funded anti-vaccine organizations in the United States.
"There's no data whatsoever to prove or to show that Covid vaccination makes kids more susceptible to RSV," said Alon Vaisman, an infectious disease expert with the University Health Network in Toronto, on November 9. "If that were true -- that Covid vaccination puts you at higher risk of infection -- then we would have seen this impact a long time ago on all age groups, but we didn't.""
Source: https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32NB2CM
Commentary: The anti-vax folks are at it again. The reality is that a vaccine for COVID should have no impact on either flu or RSV because the mechanisms are fundamentally different. COVID vaccine antigens are like keys that fit in specific locks. You can't just go over to your neighbor's house and unlock their front door, even if your locks are the same brand as theirs.
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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. P100 respirators are back in stock at online retailers, too and start around US$40 for a reusable respirator. 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 eligible to, and fulfill the full vaccine regimen, including boosters. Remember that you are not vaccinated until everyone you live with is vaccinated. For COVID, if you received an adenovirus vaccine (J&J/AstraZeneca), consider getting an mRNA single shot booster (Pfizer/Moderna) if available. If it's available, choose Moderna as your first choice for both vaccine and booster, Pfizer as your second choice. However, remember that any vaccine is better than no vaccine.
4. Wash/sanitize your hands every time you are in or out of your home. Sanitize the bottom of your shoes with a simple peroxide spray using ordinary drugstore/supermarket peroxide in a spray bottle. If you've come in close contact with others (rubbing or brushing up against them, hugging, etc.) consider showering and washing your clothes as well.
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 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 pandemics give another crazy plot twist to the economy, or you know, a global war breaks out.
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 several rapid antigen tests and/or acquire them from your healthcare provider or government. This will detect COVID-19 only when you're contagious, so follow the directions clearly. https://amzn.to/3fLAoor
If you think you may have been exposed to monkeypox, contact your healthcare provider about available testing.
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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 or monkeypox. 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 or monkeypox, nor do I financially benefit in any way from sharing information about COVID-19 or monkeypox.
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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.