the no-nonsense, nothing-but-the-facts-m'am C19 thread

[bambam1729]

This just out from JAMA Internal Medicine - answers a question someone was asking recently which I said I didn't know the exact #s. This doesn't answer the ? exactly but is still reassuring:

"Meanwhile, the odds of hospitalisation after 14 days among those who received a booster dose were 92% to 97% lower than those who had received just 2 doses."

[SoCal45]

and another vicious anti-vaxxer Christian televangelist has died of Covid: Marcus Lamb of Daystar Network.

[Halfmiler2]

Sorry but no weekly update of COVID numbers this week - too busy at the USATF Annual Meeting.

[bad hammy]

From the NFL thread:

As DrJay, schigh, Pego, and the other MDs on this board will surely confirm, most people who claim to have an "allergy" to some obscure medicine or treatment, really do not have an allergy. They may not like the side effects of the treatment, but that is a not a true "allergic" reaction. A true allergic reaction, termed anaphylaxis, can be a life-threatening situation.

A friend of mine had a pair of particularly unpleasant reactions (but not anaphylaxis) to a component of the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer & Moderna): PEG - Polyethylene Glycol.

The experiences were particularly unpleasant because PEG is also a common ingredient in many bowel-cleansing colonoscopy prep meds. They couldn't figure out the problem after his first (aborted) c-scope rodeo so round two had similar results. They figured it out before his third trip to the colonoscopy plate – welcome to the age 50 club, dude! After that it was not surprising that he had no desire to give PEG another go with the mRNA vaccines, and waited for non-mRNA J&J.

[Conor Dary]

#COVID19 deaths in Europe generally worse in the East, with Bulgaria in terrible shape, 1 in 250 of entire population have died.

[polevaultpower]

Did any of the 4 staff members have symptoms, severe or not?

Yes, I know two had symptoms (and one of those two is in their early 20s), I didn't hear about the other two. No one has been hospitalized.

[18.99s]

I am on the board of our local preschool/daycare. One child with no symptoms managed to infect five other children (most of their close contacts) and four fully vaccinated and masked staff members (100% of the adult close contacts).

Did any of the 4 staff members have symptoms, severe or not?

[polevaultpower]

I am on the board of our local preschool/daycare. One child with no symptoms managed to infect five other children (most of their close contacts) and four fully vaccinated and masked staff members (100% of the adult close contacts). Most likely several of the children who tested negative on a rapid test did have it, as some of their household contacts later developed symptoms and tested positive.

The outbreak continues to spread because the CDC and local health department do not require vaccinated close contacts to stay home, so we have a lot of breakthrough cases that keep spreading it to others.

We have only had one other outbreak on our island to date, the rest of the cases have just been random cases here and there from either mainland travel or mainland visitors.

Unfortunately, this hit right before any large booster clinics on our island, and the ferries being such a mess made people less likely to leave to get one. Plus there was apparently little to no communication from the state to childcare directors to let them know all of their staff were eligible for boosters.

There was a large booster clinic one week ago, and the elementary kids are starting to get vaccinated, but I worry that Thanksgiving will cause quite a few new cases.

[jeremyp]

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt...frica-81404239

The DOW loved hearing this.Also bad news from Merck and it's Covid pill

From NYT

The pharmaceutical company Merck said on Friday that in a final analysis of a clinical trial, its antiviral pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death among high-risk Covid patients by 30 percent, down from an earlier estimate of 50 percent.

Go Pfizer

[18.99s]

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt...frica-81404239

South African scientists have identified a new version of the coronavirus this week that they say is behind a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province. It's unclear where the new variant actually arose, but it was first detected by scientists in South Africa and has also been seen in travelers to Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.

...

WHY ARE SCIENTISTS WORRIED ABOUT THIS NEW VARIANT?

It appears to have a high number of mutations — about 30 — in the coronavirus’ spike protein, which could affect how easily it spreads to people.

Sharon Peacock, who has led genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in Britain at the University of Cambridge, said the data so far suggest the new variant has mutations “consistent with enhanced transmissibility,” but said that “the significance of many of the mutations is still not known.”

[Halfmiler2]

The USA, sitting somewhere outside the top 50. I was surprised to see that as many as 10% already got a booster.

USAvax.png

New Jersey has done over a million boosters out of 9.2 million people.

[18.99s]

https://www.discovermagazine.com/hea...r-the-pandemic

To scientists' surprise, more than 80 percent of Iowa's wild and captive white-tailed deer population tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans) between late November 2020 and January of this year.

This revelation comes from a study posted to the pre-print server bioRxiv earlier this month. The percentage of positive samples increased throughout the course of the study, and one-third of the 283 samples ultimately tested positive.

“Our studies show that while we were distracted with the pandemic in human populations during the winter months of 2020 and 2021, an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 was silently spreading amongst the deer herd quite unbeknownst to us,” says Suresh Kuchipudi, a co-author of the article and a clinical professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences at Pennsylvania State University.

[jeremyp]

Russia (1826) has now passed France (1812) in deaths per million, and will soon pass Spain (1878). In the last seven days, Russia lost 60 per million to 2 for Spain. At this rate, they may also pass UK (2108), who lost 15 per million in the last seven days.

Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is at least 723,000.

Reports by Russia’s statistical service, Rosstat, that tally coronavirus-linked deaths retroactively reveal much higher mortality. They say about 462,000 people with COVID-19 died between April 2020 and September of this year.

Deaths per million probably closer to 3400.

[Conor Dary]

We know the COVID vaccines are effective but these numbers still surprised me. Get vaxxed. via @nytimes

[TN1965]

On another note, Germany became the 14th country to record 100,000+ official deaths from Covid.