I cannot comment on the study methodology since I am too cheap to buy a subscription to The Economist https://www.economist.com/.
Scary Chart for Sunday 01.23.22
Infectious Diseases
CDC COVID Rules Are a Dumpster Fire
If you’re confused by the CDC’s new isolation guidelines, you’re not the only one.
America’s COVID Rules Are a Dumpster Fire — https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/cdc-new-isolation-guidelines-confusing/621192/
Great title, good article. Just don’t expect any confusion on the topic to clear up after reading the full article.
Dumpster fire!
A Patent-Free Covid Vaccine for the World
While Big Pharma corporations took billions of dollars in public funding to help develop vaccines from which they then reaped enormous profits while often charging exorbitant prices, Hotez and Battazzi created Cobervax with $7 million, mostly from private investors. One of these, Austin vodka distiller Tito’s, contributed $1 million to the effort.
Texas Team Applauded for Giving What Big Pharma Refuses: A Patent-Free Vaccine to the World — https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/30/texas-team-applauded-giving-what-big-pharma-refuses-patent-free-vaccine-world
And for whatever reason everyone seems to be out of stock for an at home rapid Covid-19 antigen test.
If I drank vodka I would only buy Tito’s for the rest of my life.
Diet Quality and Covid-19 Risk/Severity
Poor metabolic health and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors have been associated with higher risk and severity of COVID-19.
A dietary pattern characterized by healthy plant-based foods was associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19.
We found evidence of a synergistic association of poor diet and increased socioeconomic deprivation with COVID-19 risk that was higher than the sum of the risk associated with each factor alone.
Merino J, Joshi AD, Nguyen LH, et al
Diet quality and risk and severity of COVID-19: a prospective cohort study
Gut 2021;70:2096-2104. — https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/11/2096
In six countries, plant-based diets or pescatarian diets were associated with lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19. These dietary patterns may be considered for protection against severe COVID-19 In 2884 front-line healthcare workers from six countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, USA), individuals who reported following plant-based diets and plant-based diets or pescatarian diets that were higher in vegetables, legumes and nuts, and lower in poultry and red and processed meats, had 73% and 59% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19, respectively.
Kim H, Rebholz CM, Hegde S, et al. Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case–control study in six countries
BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2021;4:doi: 10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000272 — https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/4/1/257
Eat your vegetables!
Are You Still Thinking About a Booster Shot?
What worries me is that what we now know in the United States is even if you’ve been vaccinated against Covid, you can incubate and replicate these variants, or even perhaps the native virus, in your nose, because we have incomplete immunity in the nose in someone who’s been vaccinated fully against Covid.
Corey Casper is the CEO of the Infectious Disease Research Institute and a professor of medicine and global health at the University of Washington.
The science behind booster shots – https://www.opb.org/article/2021/08/24/the-science-behind-booster-shots/
Experts say “waning immunity” is concerning, but it isn’t as scary as it sounds. The vaccines still work, and for most people, still provide a high level of protection against severe disease. “It’s been a challenge,” says Mark Slifka, an immunologist at Oregon Health and Science University. “because some people will say, ‘well the vaccines aren’t working.’ And that’s a misconception. Vaccines are still providing 90 percent protection against mortality and hospitalization.” Breakthrough infections have increased but infections are still three times more likely in unvaccinated than vaccinated individuals. Of those infections, only 3.9 percent have led to hospitalization in vaccinated patients compared to 9 percent in those who remain unvaccinated.
Six Questions About Waning Immunity to Covid-19 Answered — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/six-questions-about-waning-immunity-to-covid-19-answered-180979135/
No political agenda here, no conspiracy theories. I’m just sharing some informative articles and hope you find them helpful as you navigate the Never Ending Pandemic.
Still Thinking About a Booster Shot?
When someone who has had a mild case of COVID is vaccinated, the antibody level in their blood doubles compared to an unvaccinated person who has been infected by the virus. Their antibodies are also better able to prevent spike-ACE-2 interaction.
Université de Montréal. “COVID-19: The older you are, the more antibodies you have, study finds.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211108081455.htm (accessed November 9, 2021).
A very small study with very interesting findings.
Also see Thinking About a Booster Shot?
Thinking About a Booster Shot?
The graph shows increases in the numbers of daily severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and new cases of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), on different scales, during the delta variant wave among persons who had received two doses of vaccine.
Waning Immunity after the BNT162b2 Vaccine in Israel – https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2114228?af=R&rss=currentIssue
It may be real nerdy but I like to do my research.
Molnupiravir 3.0
This post is updated to include a link to the http://www.nature.com article on this drug’s development history.
A planned interim analysis of 775 patients in Merck’s study found that 7.3% of those given molnupiravir were either hospitalized or had died by 29 days after treatment, compared with 14.1% of placebo patients. There were no deaths in the molnupiravir group, but there were eight deaths of placebo patients.
Merck to Seek FDA OK for Its COVID Pill After Trial Stopped Early — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/960089?src=rss#vp_2
What we know — and don’t know — about Merck’s new Covid-19 pill
https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/04/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-mercks-new-covid-19-pill/?utm_campaign=rss
Molnupiravir, on the other hand, gets incorporated into burgeoning RNA strands and, once inside, wreaks havoc. The compound can shift its configuration, sometimes mimicking the nucleoside cytidine and sometimes mimicking uridine. Those RNA strands become faulty blueprints for the next round of viral genomes. Anywhere the compound gets inserted and that conformational shift happens, a point mutation occurs, Plemper says. When enough mutations accumulate, the viral population collapses. “That is what we term lethal mutagenesis,” he adds. “The virus essentially mutates itself to death.” And because the mutations accumulate randomly, it’s difficult for viruses to evolve resistance to molnupiravir — another plus for the compound. But the compound’s mutagenic potential in human cells — the possibility that it could incorporate itself into DNA — does raise safety concerns, some researchers say.
How antiviral pill molnupiravir shot ahead in the COVID drug hunt — https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02783-1
HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) Filters and Covid-19 – Updated 10.10.21
Research at a hospital swamped by people with COVID-19 has confirmed that portable air filters effectively remove SARS-CoV-2 particles from the air — the first such evidence in a real-world setting1. The results suggest that air filters could be used to reduce the risk of patients and medical staff contracting SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals, the study’s authors say.
Real-world data show that filters clean COVID-causing virus from air — https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02669-2
We have several HEPA filters in the house to remove allergens for the allergy sufferer and now…
We have several HEPA filters in the house to remove SARS-CoV-2 virus from the house
The study findings have not been peer reviewed. But this won’t stop me from picking up one or two more HEPA’s for the house.
Update 10.10.21
Here’s a link to the http://www.nature.com podcast, same topic plus the Bangladesh mask study findings. Ten minute listen for those without the time to read the full article. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02785-z
Molnupiravir 2.0
A planned interim analysis of 775 patients in Merck’s study found that 7.3% of those given molnupiravir were either hospitalized or had died by 29 days after treatment, compared with 14.1% of placebo patients. There were no deaths in the molnupiravir group, but there were eight deaths of placebo patients.
Merck to Seek FDA OK for Its COVID Pill After Trial Stopped Early — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/960089?src=rss#vp_2
What we know — and don’t know — about Merck’s new Covid-19 pill
https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/04/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-mercks-new-covid-19-pill/?utm_campaign=rss
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