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Coronamonomania Lives Forever, Part 42

By October 21, 2021Commentary

Big week with all kinds of news on breakthrus.  Unfortunately the newly released data is so bad that Dave Dixon and I are reluctant to release anything based on it until we get some clarification and see if we can have some obvious errors corrected by DOH.  This new data was basically worthless in terms of really understanding trends.

Here is the study I mentioned yesterday, I think.  The authors were looking at the effect of the combination of infection and vaccination, but other nuggets are in the paper.  They did single cell sorting of five people who were vaxed after infection and five who did not have a prior infection when vaxed.  The effectiveness of antibodies against different variants was assessed.  There did not appear to be lower neutralization against either Alpha or Delta.  Loss of neutralization was always higher in the people without prior infection.  The same appeared to be true for people infected after vaccination.  One specific type of cell seemed to account for the difference in response between these groups.  The researchers thought that a third dose of vaccine might prompt a response similar to the combination of vaccine and prior infection.  This might partly be the case because there is a longer time between infection and vaccination typically.  This brings into question whether the current time between does is optimal.  (Nature Article)

This paper from Scotland follows up on earlier research to look at vaccine effectiveness against death.  Somewhat short followup period.   But effectiveness against death was reported as in the 85% to 95% range depending on age and vaccine type.  (NEJM Letter)

Adolescents are at very, very low risk from CV-19, yet we seem determined to vaccinate them.  This study purports to study vaccine effectiveness in adolescents against the Dreaded Delta.  The study is from Israel again, and with a short follow-up period.  By 7 to 21 days after second dose, vaccine effectiveness was 90% against any documented infection and slightly higher against symptomatic infection.  That seems pretty high, but again limited follow-up.  Suggests same effectiveness against Delta as Alpha.  (NEJM Article)

Another study on meteorological factors in regard to transmission rates.  The authors again claim that lower temperature and humidity facilitate spread.  The researchers believe the factors favoring spread are similar to those for flu.  (Nature Article)

That is it for today, back to bed to nurse my chills and aches.

 

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