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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There were 5 severe adverse events in the Pfizer 5-11 clinical trial, none of which were vaccine related.
"During the clinical trial, the most common adverse events (AEs) was fatigue (39%), followed by headache (28%) and muscle pain (12%).
Most AEs were mild or moderate and resolved 1-2 days after
Interestingly, fever and chills was less frequent compared to older kids/adults
Adverse reactions was higher for dose 2 compared to dose 1
There are two other adverse events linked to the vaccine:
Lymphadenopathy (swelling of lymph nodes): 13 vaccine participants vs. 1 placebo participant. We saw this in adult clinical trials too.
Hypersensitivity: Such as rash and dermatitis after the vaccine compared to the placebo
There were 5 severe adverse events. None were linked to the vaccine:
Ingestion of a penny (1 person in the vaccine group)
Fractures (2 people in the vaccine group and 1 in the placebo)
Infective arthritis (one person in vaccine group)
There were no cases of myocarditis (heart inflammation), anaphylaxis or deaths among ages 5-11 in the clinical trials."
Source: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/vaccines-for-5-11-year-olds-fda-meeting
Commentary: It should go without saying that you should not eat a penny while or after getting vaccinated. But in all seriousness, these are great results demonstrating the safety of the Pfizer vaccine.
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Something's going on in the UK. "Thousands of people across the UK are coming down with the "worst cold ever" as the country reopens from coronavirus lockdowns.
Stories about the "super cold" have dominated British media in recent weeks and there have been tens of thousands of internet searches for "worst cold ever".
Many have taken to Twitter, Facebook and TikTok to complain that they're unable to shake the bug.
Reported symptoms include "sandpaper throat", head and body aches, runny nose and fatigue, sometimes lasting weeks.
"Day eight I think of super cold. Losing track of time. Grim as hell," CNN producer Luke McGee wrote on Twitter.
Benjamin Butterworth from The i newspaper said, "Every bit of my body aches. Feel like I've run a marathon just from being awake. Seems 'the worst cold ever' might have got me."
While the symptoms overlap with Covid-19, "super cold" sufferers report testing negative for the virus."
Source: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/super-cold-thousands-across-uk-come-down-with-worst-cold-ever/TMYJMDRD2A6ZBDY7R3AALKTYEU/
Commentary: What works against the super cold? Funny enough, the same thing that works for COVID-19. Wear the best mask available to you. Minimize time with from larger groups of people and indoor spaces. Wash your hands.
But mostly, wear the mask. It's effective against way more than just COVID-19.
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You reap what you sow. "A systematic disinformation campaign in Russian media to foster doubts and misgivings about COVID-19 vaccines in the West has backfired as the death toll in Russia rises to record daily tolls, a European Union report said on Thursday.
Facing a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections and deaths and a widespread reluctance among Russians to get inoculated, President Vladimir Putin approved a government proposal on Wednesday for a week-long workplace shutdown in Russia at the start of November to curb the spread of the virus. read more
The EU study said Russian state broadcaster RT and other media outlets had sown mistrust about the efficacy and safety of vaccines on their European websites in a number of languages, including Russian.
"Disinformation can kill. That should be kept in mind when we see Kremlin media continue spreading lies on COVID-19 and the vaccines, even as the death tolls in Russia are surging," said the EU study, entitled "Disinformation Review".
The Kremlin denies all disinformation allegations by the EU, which produces regular reports and seeks to work with Google (GOOGL.O), Facebook (FB.O), Twitter (TWTR.N) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) to limit the spread of fake news.
The EU has documented what it says is Russian disinformation since early on in the pandemic in January 2020, via the bloc's foreign service EEAS. It is part of what the EU says is a broader Russian effort to weaken and divide Western societies."
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/covid-19-disinformation-backfires-russian-deaths-climb-eu-says-2021-10-21/
Commentary: Lies are like disease. They don't recognize boundaries, economic status, or race. Disinformation kills. To be clear, Russia committed biological warfare against many nations including the EU and the USA. It may not have created a biological agent, but it undermined public trust in health systems, achieving the same outcome. And as with other biological weapons (the reason why they're banned), it has come home to roost, to attack its own population as well.
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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.