Meanwhile in Israel…

In Israel, people who are 60 years and older were prioritized to get the vaccine first. When we analyze that group, we see that since the peak in mid-January, there’s now a 55% reduction in cases, 40% reduction in hospitalizations, 35% reduction in critically ill patients, and also now even a 35% reduction in mortality in that age group.

‘The Impact of the Vaccine Has Been Tremendous’ Medscape – Feb 17, 2021. — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/945680#vp_2

How to make COVID vaccines more effective: give people vitamin and mineral supplements

For the immune system to fight off infection or generate good protection against a disease following vaccination, it needs a variety of micronutrients. This is likely to be just as true for COVID-19 as for other diseases. Given that malnutrition is common among elderly people, raising their vitamin and mineral levels before they get vaccinated could be a way of boosting the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

How to make COVID vaccines more effective: give people vitamin and mineral supplementshttps://theconversation.com/how-to-make-covid-vaccines-more-effective-give-people-vitamin-and-mineral-supplements-154974

Follow the link above to read the entire article. And take your multivitamin.

Vitamin D Treatment and Covid-19 Related Outcomes – Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

In patients hospitalized with COVID-19, calcifediol treatment at the time of hospitalization significantly reduced ICU admission and mortality.

Nogués, Xavier and Ovejero, Diana and Quesada-Gomez, J. M. and Bouillon, Roger and Arenas, Dolores and Pascual, Julio and Villar-Garcia, Judith and Rial, Abora and Gimenez-Argente, Carme and Cos, ML. and Rodriguez-Morera, Jaime and Campodarve, Isabel and Guerri-Fernandez, Robert and Pineda-Moncusí, Marta and García-Giralt, Natalia, Calcifediol Treatment and COVID-19-Related Outcomes. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3771318 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3771318

Preprints are early stage research papers that have not been peer-reviewed. I am not a medical doctor nor a scientist and any comments I have on this topic should not be considered a peer review or medical advice.

Take Vitamin D supplements. Let the experts debate this until the end of time. See Does Vitamin D Deficiency Raise COVID-19 Risk? – JAMA. And as the debate rages, take your vitamins.

Vaccination Lessons from Chick-fil-A

What if we partnered with this restaurant chain and opened drive-thru vaccination sites on Sundays leasing locations and staff?

A Ph.D. microbiologist and immunologist, Bauman understands the best experiments don’t start from scratch. So, he decided to emulate the most efficient, customer-focused operation he knew. He went to the Chick-fil-A drive-through in Norman and recorded the entire process. Then, he did his best to duplicate it (minus the waffle fries and dipping sauce).

“Once you come in, you should never stop in line — just like Chick-fil-A,” Bauman said. IMMY staff walked alongside each person who entered, checking them in with iPads as they guided them toward the ballroom where nurses gave shots. “The only time you should stop is when you put your butt in the seat to get the vaccine.”

Vaccination lessons from Chick-fil-A (hold the fries) – https://oklahoman.com/article/5682352/vaccination-lessons-from-chick-fil-a-hold-the-fries

Just Another SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Chart – Updated 02.11.21

Doctors keep making cool graphics. I keep finding them. Note Column six from the left in yellow has been updated.

Vaccine table produced by Monica Gandhi MD MPH. Downloaded from Twitter 02.11.21

Monica Gandhi MD, MPH is Professor of Medicine and Associate Division Chief (Clinical Operations/ Education) of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF/ San Francisco General Hospital. She also serves as the Director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the Medical director of the HIV Clinic at SFGH (“Ward 86”). Dr. Gandhi completed her M.D. at Harvard Medical School and then came to UCSF in 1996 for residency training in Internal Medicine. After her residency, Dr. Gandhi completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, both at UCSF. She also obtained a Masters in Public Health from Berkeley in 2001 with a focus on Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.gandhi