VACCINES:
1) The latest on a COVID-19 vaccine for teens: Pfizer and BioNTech issued a press release 4/9/21 stating that based on data from recent safety and effectiveness studies in adolescents, the companies have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to extend authorization of their COVID-19 vaccine for use in children ages 12 to 15. The FDA already has authorized the vaccine for use in people as young as 16 years old. The companies state they soon will request similar authorizations for adolescents from international regulators. According to Pfizer, “side effects of the shots were consistent with those seen in study participants aged 16 to 25. The vaccines generated robust antibody responses 1 month after the second dose,” writes Brenda Goodman at Medscape (4/9/21). Studies in teens of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine are under way, the story states: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/949071.
2) “The end of the pandemic is in sight” [in the U.S], writes Tara Haelle for National Geographic (4/2/21), but we won’t get there without vaccinating children. “Even if the U.S. reached [70% to 90% immunity in the population] without children, the disease would continue spreading because it’s herd immunity at the local, not national level that matters,” the story describes an epidemiologist as saying. It’s likely that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for 12 to 15 year olds “before school starts” this fall, the story states, but results from Pfizer and other vaccine makers studies of their COVID-19 vaccines in teens and younger children “aren’t likely until at least fall of 2021.” Kids who seek health care nowadays have symptoms of social isolation far more often than they do symptoms of COVID-19, the story suggests. Kids who cannot return to school are suffering from mental health problems and negative effects on their socialization and development. Communities need to balance the benefits of in-person school with the risk of community infection, a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine pediatrician is described as saying. “Until widespread vaccination in kids returns them to normal classrooms, the rest of the country won’t be returning to true normal either,” the story concludes: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/what-we-know-so-far-about-the-effort-to-vaccinate-children. [Tip: If a web site requires you to provide your email address before allowing you to read, feel free to search online for “disposable email.” Several services at web sites generate a temporary or throw-away email addresses, like this one.]
3) U.S. states are struggling to distribute COVID-19 vaccines equitably by race and income. This month, Vermont started giving COVID-19 vaccine priority to Black adults and people from other minority communities, reports Phil Galewitz at Kaiser Health News (4/5/21). Officials say “they hope the change will lower the risk for people of color, who are nearly twice as likely as whites to end up in the hospital with COVID-19,” Galewitz reports. In January, Montana announced that it was giving priority status for COVID-19 vaccines to Native Americans and other people of color. To get COVID-19 vaccines to minority communities, states should set up vaccination sites in Black neighborhoods and in churches, says the American Public Health Association’s executive director, the story states: https://khn.org/news/article/vermont-gives-blacks-and-other-minority-residents-vaccine-priority/.
PUBLIC HEALTH:
4) Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. Center for Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, says he still will not travel, dine indoors at restaurants, go to the movies, or spend time with unmasked crowds indoors despite being vaccinated, reports Aylin Woodward at Insider (4/8/21). The only relaxation of SARS-CoV-2 precautions for Fauci is that he now is comfortable with small, unmasked, indoor gatherings at home, with what sounds like hugs allowed, the story suggests. Fauci’s concern reportedly is the uncertainty about whether vaccinated people can spread the virus if they get infected. “Fauci’s behavior aligns with [U.S. Centers for Disease Control] guidelines, which say that vaccinated Americans should continue to wear a mask in public at all times and avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings,” writes Woodward. But Dr. Leana Wen, a Baltimore emergency physician, says the CDC guidelines for vaccinated people are overly cautious: https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-how-behavior-activities-changed-after-covid-19-vaccination-2021-4.
5) Public health officials disagree as to whether the U.S. is entering a fourth wave of the pandemic, reports Reis Thebult at The Washington Post (4/4/21). A surge is under way in the Upper Midwest, particularly Michigan, the story cites Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota as saying. But former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on CBS’s Face the Nation 4/4/21 that case spikes in various regions of the U.S. will not amount to a true fourth wave, in part because many people in the U.S. have immunity from past infections or vaccination, the story states. Dr. Anthony Fauci also thinks vaccination could stave off “another national surge,” Thebult writes, citing an interview Fauci gave to NPR: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/04/covid-fourth-wave/.
6) U.S. stores are expected to soon start selling over-the-counter rapid tests of varying accuracy for SARS-CoV-2 at prices ranging from $10 to $110, reports Hannah Norman at Kaiser Health News (4/1/21). Some of these tests are already in use by Google, sports leagues, and the federal government, the story states. The federal government requires health insurance plans, in most cases, to cover the cost of coronavirus tests that have been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the story states. The availability of such tests are important to coronavirus safety efforts as more people return to work and school, the story suggests, because almost half of people (44%) with active SARS-CoV-2 infections feel no symptoms, according to a July 2020 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control: https://khn.org/news/article/rapid-covid-tests-over-the-counter-marketing-public-private-investment/.
7) New cases of U.S. children testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 dropped slightly in the week ending April 1, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, reports Richard Franki at Medscape (4/7/21). For that week, “children represented 18.1% of all new cases reported in the United States, down from a pandemic-high 19.1% the week before,” Franki writes. A total of 284 children have died of COVID-19 in the “43 states, along with New York City, Puerto Rico, and Guam, that are sharing age-distribution data on mortality,” the story states: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/948924.
8) Christina Caron has written a helpful guide for parents who wish to travel safely this summer with their unvaccinated children (4/9/21). The safest choice re: COVID-19 would be not to travel, but for those who choose to, here are some of the story’s suggestions, from leading epidemiologists: think about the risks-benefits trade-offs to both the health and development of your children for trips such as visits with extended family; avoid crowds; consider camping or renting a house with a private pool; wear masks, "stay six feet from people outside your household, avoid crowds and wash your hands frequently,” Caron writes; unvaccinated people should get a SARS-CoV-2 test one to three days before traveling and three to five days after returning home, per U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendations; if you must fly, choose a shorter duration flight that will expose you to unmasked travelers for less time; skip international travel for now; be aware of the risks of a “kids club” at resorts — one expert quoted in the piece suggests that these are too risky; it’s a good idea for adults, even if vaccinated, and kids to wear masks outdoors in crowds if you cannot stay six feet from people outside your household; and be prepared to dial back travel plans and exposure risks if the virus surges regionally (New York Times): https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/well/family/covid-vaccine-kids-vacation.html.
9) Surveys suggest that many of us are experiencing “behavioral anhedonia” in response to the prolonged stress and monotony of the pandemic, reports Sarah Lyall at The New York Times (4/3/21). Sources in the story describe fatigue, low productivity, diminished enthusiasm for life tasks, difficulty focusing one’s mind, and general burn-out. “Stress is OK in small amounts, but when it extends over time it’s very dangerous. It disrupts our cycles of sleep and our regular routines in things like exercise and physical activity — all these things make it very difficult for the body to be resilient,” according to a University of California, Irvine, neuroscientist who is quoted in the piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/business/pandemic-burnout-productivity.html.
10) U.S. colleges and universities are planning for a “kind of normal” fall semester, reports Mark Kreidler at Kaiser Health News (4/6/21). By normal, administrators mean a campus that is open, with students in residence halls and attending classes in person. Some schools plan to stagger student attendance in class, and “all plan to have vaccines and plenty of testing available,” the story states. Most administrators are not requiring students and staff to get vaccinated because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only authorized the use of the COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use so far. Full approval could come later and change things. Schools likely can keep students safe from the novel coronavirus in dorms so long as community infection rates remain low, according to the University of Southern California’s chief health officer, the story states: https://khn.org/news/article/colleges-and-universities-plan-for-normal-ish-campus-life-in-the-fall/.
SCIENCE:
11) Sarah Zhang at The Atlantic explores the somewhat mysterious phenomenon of viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, MERS, flu, Ebola, West Nile, Epstein-Barr, polio, dengue, yellow fever, and “original SARS," that infect many of us without making us sick, aka asymptomatic infection (4/7/21). “Scientists now think that for viruses, a wide range of disease severity is the norm rather than the exception,” she adds. It’s difficult to study asymptomatic viral infections because people who don’t feel sick usually don’t go to the doctor, hospital or testing sites. But one recently published finding among 478 workers in Singapore found more “specific and coordinated” T-cells among infected people without symptoms than among infected people with symptoms. The researchers conclude in their study abstract, “…asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 individuals are not characterized by weak antiviral immunity; on the contrary, they mount a highly functional virus-specific cellular immune response.” Another interesting T-cell item in Zhang’s piece pertains to “cross-reactivity": “Depending on where in the world you look, some 28 to 50 percent of people have T cells that predate the pandemic but nevertheless react to the new virus. These T cells may be remnants of infections with related coronaviruses.” Zhang concludes by noting that as SARS-CoV-2 continues to infect humans, both the virus and our immune systems will "learn new ways” to change in response to one another. “We’re at the very beginning of our relationship with this coronavirus”: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/04/why-coronavirus-can-infect-us-without-making-us-sick/618530/.
ENTERTAINMENT:
12) SOUND ON:
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16) Top 25 muppets: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/02/983005703/a-ruthless-ranking-of-the-25-best-muppets-according-to-listeners
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COVID-19 VACCINE COMPARISON TABLE: Here’s the latest such table by Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina (4/2/21): https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/vaccine-table-updated.
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