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 qualified healthcare experts over some person on Facebook.
This is also available as an email newsletter at https://lunchtimepandemic.substack.com if you prefer the update in your inbox.
You are welcome to share this.
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A peer-reviewed, randomized clinical trial demonstrates ivermectin has no clinical benefit. "In this randomized clinical trial that included 476 patients, the duration of symptoms was not significantly different for patients who received a 5-day course of ivermectin compared with placebo (median time to resolution of symptoms, 10 vs 12 days; hazard ratio for resolution of symptoms, 1.07).
The findings do not support the use of ivermectin for treatment of mild COVID-19, although larger trials may be needed to understand effects on other clinically relevant outcomes."
Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777389/
Commentary: You know what does work on COVID-19? Getting vaccinated.
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COVID-19 substantially impacts pregnancies. "Of 371,363 women aged 15–44 years with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, 1.5% (n = 5614) were reported as pregnant; among those, 2610 (46.5%) were considered a complete pregnancy for reporting purposes at the time of analysis. Hospitalisation (23.9%) and death (1.3%) occurred more frequently among pregnant symptomatic women compared to nonpregnant symptomatic women (2.9% and 0.3%, respectively). Compared to nonpregnant symptomatic women, pregnant symptomatic women were at increased risk of hospitalisation (adjusted risk ratio (RR) 2.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.07, 2.32) and death (RR 1.82, 95% CI 1.60, 2.07), after adjusting for age, type of health insurance and presence of certain underlying medical conditions. Among complete pregnancies, 55 (2.1%) were pregnancy losses, 72 (2.8%) resulted in term low birthweight infants and 375 (14.4%) were preterm deliveries.
Although pregnant women were infrequently reported with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, pregnant symptomatic women with COVID-19 were at increased risk for hospitalisation and death compared to nonpregnant symptomatic women. Almost all infections we reported on were third-trimester infections; ongoing follow-up is needed to determine pregnancy outcomes among women infected earlier in pregnancy. Healthcare providers should counsel pregnant women about preventive measures to protect from SARS-CoV-2 infection and when to seek care."
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ppe.12808
Commentary: COVID-19 is turning out to be FAR more dangerous to pregnant women than the very remote risks associated with the vaccines.
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C-sections in the ICU. "Multiple pregnant women died of COVID-19 in recent weeks at a single hospital, two Mississippi health leaders say.
“I know at one of the major hospitals here in Jackson, there have been several pregnant women die with COVID within the past couple of weeks,” Mississippi State Medical Association President Mark Horne said during a Mississippi State Medical Association discussion on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021.
Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who attended the meeting, confirmed the deaths. “And we’re talking c-sections in the ICU so you can get the baby out before the mom dies,” Dobbs said.
“The seasoned OBGYNs and critical-care specialists said this never happens. Never,” Horne replied, referring to the rarity of ICU c-section deliveries involving ventilated patients.
The men did not name the hospital, say how old the women were or mention their vaccination status. But Dr. Dobbs did provide information on the vaccination status of the age group that accounts for most pregnancies. He noted that about 900 Mississippians died of COVID-19 in August.
“In that number, 61 of those who died were between the ages of 18 and 39. Not a single one of them was vaccinated,” the state health officer said. “I feel confident, if they had been vaccinated, every single one of those people would be with us today. It’s a stark and painful truth, but it’s just what the reality shows.”"
Source: https://www.mississippifreepress.org/15565/multiple-pregnant-women-die-of-covid-in-mississippi-hospital-were-talking-c-sections-in-the-icu/
Commentary: What's terribly sad is that all these deaths and serious issues are 100% preventable. Almost anyone who is pregnant is also eligible for vaccination. These are all needless deaths and could be reduced 100x by people getting vaccinated.
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Combo time. "Today, we shared positive pre-clinical data demonstrating our ability to combine 6 mRNAs against 3 different respiratory viruses in 1 vaccine: COVID-19 booster + Flu booster + RSV booster. #mRNA"
Source:
Commentary: This is incredible and a portent of the future. Next year or the year after, we might just start getting combo vaccines for things like flu and COVID all in one shot.
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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.