VACCINES:
1) Katelyn Jetelina most recently updated her COVID-19 comparisons table on 4/27/21 at her site Your Local Epidemiologist. Highlights include the latest data on how long each vaccine protects you and the effectiveness of the various vaccines against variants of SARS-CoV-2. As for COVID-19 vaccines for teens, Jetelina, who works at the University of Texas Health Science Center, writes: “My best guess is we should have a [data] update [from Pfizer’s study of its vaccine in teens] by mid-May? Then the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] meeting [to examine the Pfizer study results] needs to be scheduled, they have to meet, and then it has to be authorized by the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control]: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/vaccine-table-update-april-27-2021.
2) Don’t assume that a plateau in the U.S. demand for COVID-19 vaccines is due to “vaccine hesitance,” writes public-health communications researcher and content strategist Stefanie Friedhoff in a 4/27/21 essay at STAT. The piece includes survey results that undermine past forecasts for attitudes about COVID-19 vaccines. The essay advises that we “retire the term ‘vaccine hesitancy’” because it can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. She adds that “vaccine confidence is not a fixed mindset.” And it should not be minimized that vaccines are not "easily and equally available to all Americans,” she writes. Friedhoff cites survey results from a research partnership between her team at Brown University School of Public Health and the Rockefeller Foundation: “Even though a majority of Black and Latino Americans want to get vaccinated — 72% in this survey — a surprising 63% said they didn’t have enough information about where to get the shot.” More work needs to be done in “making vaccines ubiquitous and available without complex sign-up procedures” and learning the most effective communication approaches for gaining trust in public-health messages about vaccination: https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/27/vaccinations-are-plateauing-dont-blame-it-on-resistance/.
3) In support of Friedhoff’s essay, see this 4/29/21 Washington Post story by Mary Claire Molloy, Lenny Bernstein, Frances Stead Sellers and Nick Anderson about people who want the Johnson & Johnson “one-and-done” COVID-19 vaccine, not the two-shot COVID-19 vaccine, now that the U.S. government has lifted a 10-day J&J COVID-19 vaccine pause over concerns about extremely rare blood clots. The J&J vaccine, which is easier to store than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and is stored in smaller vials, could be particularly helpful in reaching homeless people, seasonal workers, and college and university students, the story suggests: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine-preference/2021/04/28/75ee6662-a770-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html.
4) Researchers are initiating large-scale studies to look more deeply into how effective COVID-19 vaccines are at protecting people with suppressed immune systems, reports Jennifer Couzin-Frankel at Science (4/27/21). The research could also reveal “ways to help patients whose weakened immune systems make protection against COVID-19 all the more urgent,” Couzin-Frankel writes. The research problem is complex because people’s immune systems can be suppressed in different ways by the variety of drugs used to treat people with cancer, autoimmune diseases, immunologic diseases, or organ transplants. The condition you have matters too, the story states. A lot of the findings so far on how people with suppressed immune systems respond to COVID-19 vaccines focus on antibody production, not T-cell production, (and many have not been vetted yet by experts for flaws). It’s harder to measure T-cell responses, but they "play an important role in protection from disease,” the story states. The story includes extensive detail about the results of early research on people with various conditions and on various classes of drugs: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/covid-19-vaccines-may-protect-many-not-all-people-suppressed-immune-systems.
5) Are you vaccinated but still behaving as if you are not, such as continuing to avoid all social contact even with other vaccinated people? A 4/29/21 piece by Katherine J. Wu at The Atlantic reveals that you are not alone. “Readjusting our ideas about what’s safe is going to take time,” the piece states. The anxiety that helped to keep some of us from getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 cannot just be turned off, says an Emory University psychologist quoted in the piece. “It’s got to power down,” he adds. Also, people in “mixed vaccination households,” such as those with children — most of whom are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. — still have to make a tricky “risk calculus,” Wu writes. And current public health guidance is “splintering” as some of us are vaccinated and others are not. “That punts a lot of the work to us, as individuals, to tailor the rules to our particular lives through ad hoc risk-benefit analyses,” Wu writes. If you do choose to socialize and mingle with others, make sure to communicate what you need and your own comfort limits re: coronavirus risks, the story suggests: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/04/post-vaccination-inertia/618751/.
6) An interactive story at The New York Times shows how raw material, primarily small rings of DNA each containing a gene for SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein, is transformed into Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. A two-month process that integrates material from Pfizer facilities in three U.S. states yields millions of frozen doses of the vaccine, ready to ship, states the story by Emma Cott, Elliot deBruyn, and Jonathan Corum (4/28/21). Steps include: 1) taking DNA out of cold storage, thawing the gene-carrying DNA and modifying “a batch” of E. coli bacteria to take in the DNA; 2) getting the bacteria to multiply/grow in a warm, sterile environment; 3) harvesting and purifying the DNA from the now multiplied bacteria; 4) testing the DNA for purity; 5) cutting and filtering the DNA; 6) freezing, packing and shipping bottles of the DNA “with a small monitor that will record its temperature in transit” and ensure that containers are kept at negative 4 degrees F (negative 20 degrees C). At their destinations, in Germany and in Massachusetts, the DNA is transformed into messenger RNA, “the active ingredient of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.” More steps follow before vaccine doses are tested further and make it into washed and heat sterilized vials. ”Some 141 million people in the United States — more than half of the nation’s adults — have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. More than a billion doses have been administered worldwide,” states the story, which ends with info on how Pfizer and BioNTech are developing new versions of their vaccine that could target SARS-CoV-2 variants: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine.html.
PUBLIC HEALTH:
7) “Public bathrooms may present a higher COVID-19 risk than some other public spaces,” write the “Nerdy Girls” at Dear Pandemic (4/23/21), mainly due to poor ventilation and the small size of restrooms. Safety tips in the post include: 1) look for restrooms with fewer people in them, 2) visit restrooms at uncrowded times of the day, 3) wait outside if there’s a line or the restroom is busy, 4) “wear a well-fitted mask (or two) as you enter the restroom, and don’t touch your mask or take it off until you are in a low-risk environment,” and 5) “keep your visit short.” And of course, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. Use paper towels to dry your hands, not the hot-air blowers, the post advises: https://dearpandemic.org/public-restrooms-during-the-pandemic/.
8) A 4/19/21 essay by Jason Diamond at The New York Times underscores the importance of setting and maintaining routines during times of uncertainty as well as the importance of routines in keeping us calm and giving us a feeling of control. His tips include not only setting a schedule for waking, eating, going to bed, and working out. He also advises “writing down the next day’s schedule” — I find this one helps me too — and rewards for having stuck with more onerous aspects of a routine, such as pizza for a week of workouts or a cold beverage after cleaning the house. The writer states that the pandemic and working from home initially destroyed his routines, but he eventually was prompted to restore them when he listened to Brian Eno’s “Ambient 1/Music for Airports.” (<— yes, do listen to that). His routines even helped him quickly cope with the shock of being laid off last fall: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/health/routines-pandemic-schedules.html.
9) On 4/27/21, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released new guidance on mask-wearing outdoors for fully vaccinated people and for unvaccinated people. The guidance is illustrated here with a graphic. Whether you’re vaccinated or not, it’s now considered safe by the CDC to "walk, run, roll or bike outdoors" with members of your household unmasked. Same goes for attending a small, outdoor gathering with fully vaccinated family and friends. But in small gatherings that include non-family or non-friends, who could be vaccinated or not, the CDC advises people who haven’t got their shot(s) yet to stay masked. And in crowded outdoor settings, like a parade, live show, or sporting event, the CDC advises us to wear a mask whether we are vaccinated or not. And these gatherings are not very safe for people who are unvaccinated, even wearing a mask, the guidance indicates: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/participate-in-activities.html.
10) Reporting by Tanya Lewis at Scientific American shows, however, that the mask-wearing guidance in the context of more U.S. people being vaccinated is still confusing (4/28/21). This comes despite the general agreement among experts that the risk of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 outdoors is “a lot lower outdoors than indoors. Vaccination reduces that risk even more,” Lewis writes. The story quotes Virginia Tech aerosols researcher Linsey Marr who seems to indicate that the guidance is confusing for people who are unvaccinated, which is still the majority of the U.S. Marr recommends, even for vaccinated people, that we should wear a mask if we have an extended face-to-face conversation outdoors that is longer than a quick greeting, the story states. The story clearly explains Marr’s “two-out-of-three rule,” which pertains to being outdoors, masking, and physically distancing from others. It holds for people who are unvaccinated, people who are partially vaccinated, and vaccinated people who are In a vulnerable group.” So if you’re outdoors and distanced from others, no mask is needed. But if you are indoors, both wear a mask and keep distant from others: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cdc-drops-some-outdoor-mask-advice-for-vaccinated-people-based-on-this-science/.
11) Don’t skip that second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, advises a 4/29/21 story by Tara Parker-Pope at The New York Times, even if you already have had COVID-19. With new variants evolving and some of them spreading around the globe, and to get all the protection possible from your vaccination, it does matter whether you get your second dose, the story states. And down the road, “missing the second shot could create problems…if workplaces, college campuses, airlines and border patrol agents require proof of full vaccination,” Parker-Pope writes. The story cites a 4/28/21 report in The New England Journal of Medicine of a survey which found that 20% of respondents thought they were strongly protected from SARS-CoV-2 after just one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccines. Countries such as the UK and Canada that are delaying administration of 2nd doses of these vaccines are adding to the confusion, the story states. “The second dose of mRNA vaccines [Pfizer’s and Moderna’s] induces a level of virus neutralizing antibodies about 10-fold greater than the first dose,” Dr. Paul Offit of the University of Pennsylvania is quoted saying. And Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested recently that variants that are more contagious could “partially evade” antibodies formed in response to just one dose, the story states. It is never too late to get your second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the story states. Try going back to the place you got your first shot, and bring along the white vaccination record card you got with your first shot, Parker-Pope writes: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/well/live/skipping-second-dose-coronavirus-vaccine.html.
ENTERTAINMENT:
12) SOUND ON:
13) SOUND ON, VIDEO ROTATES AFTER YOU CLICK:
14) SOUND ON:
15) SOUND ON IS NICE:
16) “The self-checkout machine at CVS gaslights you,” by McKayley Gourley: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-self-checkout-machine-at-cvs-gaslights-you.
————
TEA SUPPLY GOOD: Thanks to my patrons! I am no longer asking for donations to support this newsletter. Feel free to cancel Patreon commitments for this newsletter.
CHECK OUT THESE CORONAVIRUS NEWSLETTERS: Patrice Peck’s “Coronavirus News for Black Folks;” Betsy Ladyzhets’ “Covid-19 Data Dispatch.”
THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY: A lot of online media content is free during the pandemic, as a public service, but publishing, like many industries, is struggling. If you have the means, please subscribe to or purchase worthy publications.
TAG ME: Please reply to this email to send feedback and/or good SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 science coverage that you’ve read, written, or produced in English, Spanish, French, etc.
Love/In friendship, Robin