1/13/21 - smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19
VACCINES:
1) Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine, currently approved for use in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Singapore, is effective against the new strain of SARS-CoV-2 first identified as circulating in the UK, according to findings covered 1/8/21 by Andrew Joseph at STAT. The findings have not yet been evaluated by outside experts for flaws. “The concern is that mutations in particular spots of the RNA genome of the virus could change the appearance of certain areas on the virus, making them less recognizable to antibodies elicited by the vaccines,” Joseph writes. The so-called N501Y mutation in the strain first identified in the UK is also present in a different variant that first was reported in South Africa, the story states. “…Both the variants contain other mutations as well,” Joseph writes, so scientists want to test whether vaccines remain effective "against the full variants.” Moderna, maker of the other SARS-CoV-2 vaccine currently being distributed in the U.S., is also looking into this issue, Joseph reports: https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/08/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-mutation-contagious/.
2) Repeat entry from 1/8/21 issue of this newsletter, with corrected url: Research shows that successful strategies for building trust in vaccines involve an empathetic approach not one that aims to correct misperceptions, reports Claudia Wallis for Scientific American (1/7/21). For instance, strategies can include “acknowledging historical reasons for medical distrust among people of color and working with leaders within their communities,” Wallis writes. Among Republican skeptics, strategies might include noting that a vaccination effort helps to boost the economy, the story suggests. Wallis describes a 2010 finding that telling people that a vaccine was ready for them at a specified appointment day and time "boosted their vaccination rate by 36 percent, compared with a control group” that just received an email with a link to schedule their own appointment. “Relentless reminders” also help, according to research described in the piece: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-best-evidence-for-how-to-overcome-covid-vaccine-fears1/.
SCIENCE:
3) Most people who recover from COVID-19 still have at least one symptom six months later, according to a study published (1/8/21) in The Lancet and covered the same day by Elizabeth Cooney at STAT. The study is based on interviews with about 1,700 COVID-19 patients discharged from a hospital in Wuhan between January and May 2020. Some subjects also underwent tests of their lungs, blood, and overall health. Nearly two-thirds of the patients said they still had fatigue and muscle weakness, Cooney reports: https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/08/most-patients-hospitalized-for-covid19-still-have-symptoms-six-months-later/.
4) A few small studies are finding that most if not all pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 in their third trimester pass neither the virus nor antibodies to it to their newborn infants. Ariel H. Kim and Lauren L. Zhang covered two of the studies (one published 12/22/20 in JAMA Network Open and one in Cell the same day) for The Harvard Crimson (1/8/21): https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/1/8/hms-covid-pregnancy-studies/.
5) I haven’t found any coverage yet but I suspect that some people on immune-suppressing drugs, which are often prescribed for people with transplanted organs or to treat an autoimmune disease, could be encouraged by results described in this 1/7/21 press release from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The release describes research published 1/5/21 in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggesting that when hospitalized for COVID-19, people on these drugs fare no worse on average than do people not taking them. The researchers now are studying whether outcomes vary for people on specific types of these drugs, the release states. Thanks to a reader for alerting me to this press release: https://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2021/covid-19-outcomes-for-patients-on-immunosuppressive-drugs-on-par-with-non-immunosuppressed-patients.html.
PUBLIC HEALTH:
6) Beyond N95 “respirator” masks for use in high-risk medical settings, here are the most effective types of face coverings that protect the wearer and others from particles about the size of SARS-CoV-2, writes airborne transmission researcher Linsey Marr of Virginia Tech: 1) a surgical mask, 2) a two-layer mask with tightly woven fabric, 3) a tightly woven fabric mask over a surgical mask, or 4) a filter between two tightly woven fabric layers. That conclusion is based on a summary of her team’s test results and those of others, Marr and a colleague write in Cell Press’s Med (dated 1/15/21). See Figure 1 on the third page here for illustrations of these four types of masks: https://www.cell.com/med/pdf/S2666-6340(20)30072-6.pdf.
7) Double-masking, such as wearing a “face-hugging” cloth mask over a looser but “filter-friendly” surgical mask, is not “necessary for everyone,” writes Katherine J. Wu at The New York Times in a 1/12/21 story about the Linsey Marr piece above and other recent publications. But double-masking does block more viruses from our airways, Marr is described as saying. The trade-off is increased difficulty in breathing. The goal of public masking is to create an obstacle course for air and the microbes it carries, Marr is described as saying, not to create an airtight seal. Other approaches for deterring microbes include inserting a filter into cloth masks with pockets, masks with nose bridges, and masks that can be tied behind the head rather than looping over ears, Wu writes. She adds, “No mask is perfect, and wearing one does not obviate other public health measures like physical distancing and good hygiene”: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/health/coronavirus-masks-transmission.html.
8) The pandemic has set back progress made by some people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) related to a fear of germs, reports Gabrielle Glaser for STAT (1/6/21). For people with this specific type of OCD, “the virus is the encapsulation of every fear they had ever experienced,” Glaser writes. OCD affects about 1.2 percent of people in the U.S., the story states. OCD is treated with a combination of drugs and behavioral therapies, such as "exposure and response prevention therapy,” the story states. The story relates the experience of a woman who learned ways to cope with her amplified fears during the pandemic: https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/06/for-people-with-ocd-and-fearful-of-germs-the-pandemic-is-upending-years-of-therapy/.
HEALTH CARE:
9) Overwhelmed and short-staffed U.S. hospitals, logistics, and effectiveness questions are limiting the use of monoclonal antibody treatments for people with mild to moderate COVID-19, reports freelance writer Brian Owens for Medscape (1/12/21). Based on small-sample findings that such drugs made by Eli Lilly (bamlanivimab) and by Regeneron (casirivimab with imdevimab) keep people with COVID-19 from requiring hospitalization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given emergency authorization for the use of these drugs in COVID-19 patients over 12 who have not been hospitalized, the story states. More than 50 such drugs that target the new coronavirus are in the development pipeline, the story states. The Regeneron and Lilly drugs bind to SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein (the complex molecule that enables docking with our cells) and then block its action or flag it for other parts of the immune system to address, the story states. “Most COVID-19 patients are outpatients, so we need something to keep them from getting worse,” an infectious disease physician at Harvard Medical School is quoted as saying. Supply and distribution issues for these expensive treatments could be a problem over time, the story suggests. “Currently, 80% of monoclonal antibodies are sold in Canada, Europe, and the United States,” Owens writes: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/943977#vp_1.
ENTERTAINMENT:
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