MASKS:
1 – A 9/10/21 update to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s guidance on mask-wearing to protect against SARS-CoV-2 encourages the use of N95 masks by the general public. A tweet by Virginia Tech aerosols researcher Linsey Marr, who quoted the news in a tweet by Alexander Tin at CBS News, alerted me to the change. The key language in the guidance reads: “When supplies are available, individuals may choose to use a basic disposable N95 respirator for personal use, instead of a mask, in some situations.” The CDC states that its guidance on N95s was updated because they have become more available in recent months: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html.
2 - The results of a large, randomized, controlled study of mask-wearing during the pandemic are drawing some media attention. The research, not yet reviewed by experts for flaws but considered to be scientifically rigorous (according to 9/9/21 coverage in Nature by Lynne Peeples), is one of strongest studies to date that demonstrates the effectiveness of surgical masks in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections on a group level. A similar effect, though smaller, was found with cloth masks, according to a 9/8/21 post at Dear Pandemic. The randomization was applied at the level of villages in Bangladesh, not individuals; some villages received support for wearing surgical masks, some for wearing cloth masks, and some were just observed but not given masks. Mask-wearing was particularly protective for people over age 60, per study details conveyed graphically at Dear Pandemic:
KIDS:
3 - Two leading U.S. health officials have now made statements indicating that COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be available for kids under 12 in this country until “mid- to late fall” or “early winter” or near the end of 2021, reports Tara Parker-Pope at The New York Times. The officials are Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the meantime, “studies show schools have not been a major cause of Covid spreading events, particularly when a number of prevention methods are in place.” These studies mostly took place before the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 predominated, but most teachers, staffers and parents were unvaccinated at the time, as well, Parker-Pope writes. “So public health experts are hopeful that the same precautions will work well this fall,” the story states (8/26/21): https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/well/live/covid-vaccine-kids-time.html.
4 - A recent shift in the pandemic’s impact on U.S. children is complicated—both the absolute number of COVID-19 deaths among children (about 400), as well as the percentage of children reported as infected, sickened, or hospitalized for the disease compared with adults, remain relatively low. However, COVID-19 trends this summer among children have been concerning and downplayed by some, this 9/6/21 post by the Unbiased SciPod suggests. For this Instagram post, immunologist Andrea Love and public health researcher Jess Steier write that a data analysis reveals that the COVID-19 hospitalization rate among children under 18 has increased five-fold this summer. And the “hospitalization rate was over 10-times higher among unvaccinated adolescents compared to whose who were fully vaccinated (12-17 years of age), all of whom are eligible for the vaccine,” the post states:
5 - The increased COVID-19 hospitalization rate for U.S. children this summer is not due to the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 affecting kids more severely, a study published 9/3/21 suggests. Katelyn Jetelina at Your Local Epidemiologist summarized the results, based on an analysis of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations in 99 counties in 14 U.S. states. The increase in pediatric hospitalizations is “because we are transmitting delta in the community and our kids aren’t protected. Your decision not to get a vaccine or implement public health measures in schools or the community is directly impacting the health of kids,” Jetelina writes:
6 - As noted in the Unbiased SciPod post above, masks remain key for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 illness among children, especially for those who are not yet eligible for vaccination. That is, “masks are a must-have to go back to school during the delta variant surge,” as the headline in Emily Willingham’s 8/19/21 story for Scientific American puts it. Vaccines are not authorized yet for U.S. children under 12, as you probably know. But “even students who are eligible are not being vaccinated at very high rates,” the story describes University of Texas Health Science Center epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina as saying: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/masks-are-a-must-have-to-go-back-to-school-during-the-delta-variant-surge1/.
7 - Children accounted for about 22% of all SARS-CoV-2 infections for the week ending August 26 in the U.S., and some U.S. children’s hospitals are running out of beds. But why are children still less likely to get sick from COVID-19? In a 9/2/21 piece for Knowable, Sara Reardon reports that it’s partly because children are less likely to have obesity and other conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19. And they have fewer of the type of receptors in their nasal passages where SARS-CoV-2 is thought to get into cells, the story states. Also, with less developed immune systems, children are less likely to mount the inflammatory overreaction that leads to severe COVID-19. See Reardon’s story for more reasons having to do immune-system cells as well as an explanation for why it is taking a while for regulators to decide on authorizing COVID-12 vaccines for kids under 12: https://knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2021/why-dont-kids-tend-get-sick-covid19.
8 - Chemist and editor Lars Fischer tackled the same question in a piece for Spektrum der Wissenschaft (republished by Scientific American on 8/26/21). The piece dives immediately into children’s immune systems to explain why kids are better protected against severe COVID-19 than adults are. The piece focuses on the role of the non-disease-specific branch of the immune system that we are all born with, called the innate immune system. “In the mucous membranes of [children’s] airways, it is much more active than that of adults,” Fischer writes. Children’s innate systems generate more or faster-responding signaling proteins, killer cells, neutrophils (a type of white blood cell), and “immune receptors that recognize viruses and trigger the immune response,” the story states. In sum, children can react more effectively to a virus they’ve never encountered than adults can, according to findings in a recent study in Nature Biotechnology and other material that Fischer reports. “Adults have to rely on the adaptive immune response—the specific protection provided by antibodies and T cells for individual pathogens [bacteria, viruses, and the like] that only develops a while after contact with the virus,” Fischer writes: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unraveling-the-mystery-of-why-children-are-better-protected-from-covid-than-adults/.
VACCINES:
9 - There’s no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines harm fertility or sexual function, reports Emily Willingham for Scientific American (8/24/21). But there is growing evidence that the vaccines are safe and effective during pregnancy, as well as evidence that catching SARS-CoV-2 and/or progressing to COVID-19 can “involve problems” in fertility and/or sexual function in unvaccinated men and unvaccinated women, the story states. The story debunks some sex- and reproduction-related falsehoods that have been circulating about the vaccines. On 8/11/21, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control strengthened its recommendation for vaccination against COVID-19 in people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. “People should take the opportunity to get vaccinated before conceiving, but the vaccine is safe across all three trimesters of pregnancy,” the story describes a Columbia University Irving Medical Center ob/gyn director as saying: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-vaccines-show-no-signs-of-harming-fertility-or-sexual-function/.
10 - This 8/30/21 piece by Michaeleen Doucleff at NPR includes cartoons, audio and an accessible story full of battle metaphors to explain why the protection from COVID-19 vaccines likely lasts a long time, despite concerns raised by this summer’s COVID-19 surge in Israel. Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 do drop off about a month after vaccination, research shows, as the piece explains. “This happens with every vaccine,” Doucleff describes a University of Arizona bioimmunologist as explaining. “If you get a big dose of delta, as the variant often gives, the virus can slip past the initial wall of antibodies,” he is quoted as saying. However, “the quality of antibody improves over time. It takes far fewer of those antibodies to protect you,” he says. And the cells (called long-lived plasma cells) that generate these more powerful antibodies make a home in our bone marrow, where they can produce these antibodies possibly indefinitely, the story suggests. The piece then explains how the immune system goes on to create memory B cells and memory T cells that help stop infections after they initially occur: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/08/30/1032520934/immunity-to-covid-19-could-last-longer-than-youd-think.
PUBLIC HEALTH:
11 - Some schools and workplaces are struggling to take strong measures to improve building ventilation that could prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, suggests a 9/7/21 story for The Atlantic by Sarah Zhang. Such interventions also could reduce other illnesses that spread in the air, ranging from the flu to common colds to “the next unknown pathogen,” the story states. The open windows, portable air cleaners and disinfecting UV lights in some schools and workplaces are quick fixes or “a ‘Band-Aid’ in poorly designed or ventilated buildings,” the story describes an architectural engineer at Penn State University as saying. Mechanical improvements to buildings’ ventilation systems are costlier than air cleaners, opening windows and UV lights. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE) sets U.S. building codes, including indoor air-quality standards, the story states. ASHRAE could update these codes on the basis of more detailed studies “to understand how specific ventilation levels and strategies will actually reduce disease transmission among people,” the story states: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/09/coronavirus-pandemic-ventilation-rethinking-air/620000/.
ENTERTAINMENT:
12 - “A short quiz for my students in lieu of asking about their vaccine status or requesting that they wear masks,” by Victor Ray for McSweeney’s (9/7/21): https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-short-quiz-for-my-students-in-lieu-of-asking-about-their-vaccine-status-or-requesting-that-they-wear-masks.
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Love/In friendship, Robin