COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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malchior
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by malchior »

Smoove_B wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 2:17 pmWell, that's...something. Basically - you're on your own. Here's some info you might find helpful in your solo journey.
Pleasantly vague and somewhat unhelpful info to boot.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

Public health Twitter is going to be lit this weekend, that's for sure.
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LordMortis
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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Actually it is helpful. They have one simple recommendation with regard to vaccination for immunnocompromised. Stay up date.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... mmuno.html

Up to date just means.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... -date.html

Additionally they suggest extra caution.... You know the caution everyone had before we gave up in late 2021.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/ ... mm7205e3_w
Among persons with immunocompromise and their household members and close contacts, prevention measures¶ including wearing a high-quality and well-fitting mask,** maintaining physical distance from others (≥6 ft [1.8 m]), improving indoor ventilation,†† practicing frequent handwashing, and developing a care plan,§§ should be considered in addition to receipt of a bivalent booster dose. It is important to wear a mask and maintain physical distance from others if it is not possible to avoid crowded indoor spaces. In addition, simple interventions should be used to improve ventilation in buildings and decrease SARS-CoV-2 transmission by improving air flow. CDC has developed interactive tools¶¶ to help identify ways to improve ventilation in the home. In-duct ultraviolet germicidal irradiation lights can also be added to home heating ventilation and air conditioning systems to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 as air passes through the system.*** Frequent handwashing with soap and water is the best way to eliminate germs in most situations. If soap and water are not readily available, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing ≥60% alcohol is a good alternative. Also, it is important for persons who are immunocompromised to develop a care plan in consultation with their physician, in the event that they develop COVID-19.

Persons with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 who 1) are aged ≥50 years, 2) have an underlying health condition††† (especially moderate to severe immunosuppression), or 3) are unvaccinated are at risk for severe COVID-19–associated outcomes. Irrespective of vaccination status, symptomatic persons who are immunocompromised, their household members, and their close contacts should be tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection as soon as possible and receive treatment within 5–7 days of symptom onset. Early outpatient treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 with a recommended first-line therapy, ritonavir-boosted nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid) or remdesivir (Veklury), or the second-line therapy, molnupiravir (Lagevrio), have been shown to reduce the risk for severe COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.§§§ These medications are expected to retain activity against the currently circulating Omicron sublineages (6) and are widely available.¶¶¶ Available COVID-19 treatment does not supplant the need for persons to stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations, which are highly effective at preventing COVID-19–related morbidity and mortality.

This is at least real guidance with the recognition that things are fluid.
malchior
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by malchior »

LordMortis wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 2:31 pmActually it is helpful. They have one simple recommendation with regard to vaccination for immunnocompromised. Stay up date.
Well that's why I qualified my statement. For example I think 'increase ventilation and go outdoors' is pretty vague and unhelpful. It's sounds like a good idea in the abstract but what does good look like there? Plus immunocompromised workers? Good luck if your boss thinks you need to be constantly chained to a desk.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

That's exactly correct. Mask around groups of people. and spend indoor time in well-ventilated spaces. For how long? Forever. This is what you do now because collectively we've all moved on. Hope your office or workplace understands. Also, make sure you have someone on retainer that can respond quickly for when you eventually get COVID-19 while doing things essential to maintaining your existence.

But everyone else? Y'all are fine. No worries. Try to ignore the few people that are opening windows and still wearing masks.

It's grim.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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I'd get another covid booster every three months if they were continuously updating them. I'm such a sheep.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by The Meal »

Smoove_B wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:51 pm I think it's pretty clear no one gives a f about the immunocompromised or people with chronic conditions, so sadly I'm not really sure what's going to happen here.
What about those of us who not only care about those immunocompromised people, but also live with them and don't want to be responsible for bringing this virus into their homes? (Likely not an issue for me, exactly, as I'm pretty sure I can wiggle my way into the chronic condition bucket.)
Kraken wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 4:11 pm I'd get another covid booster every three months if they were continuously updating them. I'm such a sheep.
I'd get one every Saturday morning, if I could. Other than a sore arm for up to 0-96 hours afterwards, my primary side effect is the best 4-hour nap one could ever dream of. (Especially dreamy because I can't nap in the most optimal of times.)
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

I know, I know. This messaging is just...horrible. Their message for you is the same. Wear a mask everywhere there's crowds of people and maintain existence in well-ventilated places. It's beyond depressing to read and the circles I frequent online are despondent. There really is no other way to interpret this other than, "You're on your own" and it makes me uncomfortable.
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Max Peck
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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Quebec-based COVID-19 vaccine maker Medicago to shut down
Mitsubishi Chemical Group is shutting down Medicago Inc., a COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer with headquarters in Quebec City.

A year ago, Medicago's plant-based COVID-19 vaccine, Covifenz, was approved by Health Canada, and it was touted as a homegrown shot against SARS-CoV-2.

Then in March, the World Health Organization decided not to accept Medicago's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, citing the company's ties to big tobacco. Marlboro cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris International was once a shareholder of Medicago, but divested all of its shares in late 2022.

Medicago Inc., which was founded in 1997, is now 100 per cent owned by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation.

On Thursday, Medicago owner Mitsubishi Chemical Group issued a statement saying there have been "significant changes" to the vaccine market and, following a comprehensive analysis of the current global demand, the group decided to discontinue marketing Covifenz.

"Furthermore, the group judged that it was not viable to continue to invest in the commercialization of Medicago's development products and therefore chose to terminate all its activities with Medicago and proceed with an orderly dissolution of its business affairs and activities," the statement said.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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Max Peck wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 4:12 pm Quebec-based COVID-19 vaccine maker Medicago to shut down
Mitsubishi Chemical Group is shutting down Medicago Inc., a COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer with headquarters in Quebec City.

A year ago, Medicago's plant-based COVID-19 vaccine, Covifenz, was approved by Health Canada, and it was touted as a homegrown shot against SARS-CoV-2.

Then in March, the World Health Organization decided not to accept Medicago's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, citing the company's ties to big tobacco. Marlboro cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris International was once a shareholder of Medicago, but divested all of its shares in late 2022.

Medicago Inc., which was founded in 1997, is now 100 per cent owned by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation.

On Thursday, Medicago owner Mitsubishi Chemical Group issued a statement saying there have been "significant changes" to the vaccine market and, following a comprehensive analysis of the current global demand, the group decided to discontinue marketing Covifenz.

"Furthermore, the group judged that it was not viable to continue to invest in the commercialization of Medicago's development products and therefore chose to terminate all its activities with Medicago and proceed with an orderly dissolution of its business affairs and activities," the statement said.
Oh well that pisses me off; wonder if we are seizing their plant and going after them for all the grants?
Quebec, October 23, 2020 – Medicago, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Quebec City, is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement to supply the Government of Canada with up to 76 million doses of its vaccine against COVID-19, subject to Health Canada approval. Medicago will also receive $173M in funding support from the Government of Canada for its vaccine research and development, and for the construction of its Quebec City manufacturing facility.
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Max Peck
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Max Peck »

They were probably screwed from the point when the WHO rejected their vaccine because "Big Tobacco." :roll:

They were never going to get much market share here in Canada once Pfizer/Moderna became the default options, although they might have had a chance for the stem cell averse niche market. I'd guess the vast majority of the doses that would have been purchased by Canada would have been donated to other countries, but the WHO blocked that from happening.
Last edited by Max Peck on Wed Feb 08, 2023 11:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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A couple days ago there was an Ontario story titled, "Masking alone wouldn't have eased respiratory virus surge in the fall: PHO document". I assume this was widely misread as "masking wouldn't have eased...", as I myself first read it. The takeaway for those who didn't read the article, I assume, is that "masking doesn't make a difference". Now with scientific proof!

I waded into an Ontario subreddit thread (stupid, I know) about another article discussing the decline of vaccinations, and the ignorance, selfishness, and callousness on display is just astounding. I can't believe I'm still fucking hearing, "I got vaccinated but I still got sick. I guess it didn't work." (So many times in my life have I heard this as the excuse for not getting the flu shot. "I never get sick!") For the majority of people (in urban Ontario, anyway), finding a shot is simple (and free!) and the process only takes about half an hour. Similarly, masking is a mild inconvenience that's proven to reduce risk. I'm not perfect... I pull down my mask when I get hot. (And I get hot when I think about moving.) I still haven't found N95s that fit. But how can so many people give no shits whatsoever?

Being in the minority, I can't help but wonder if my reasoning is flawed. I've always been distrustful of humanity. I mean, the writing's been on the wall for our entire history. And recently it's become all too apparent that we're not nearly as evolved as many of us thought we were. I've become painfully aware of this as it applies just to me. But I honestly thought society could be counted on to do the obvious logical thing when faced with such an overwhelming but mitigable threat. I really don't know where this leaves us. Cabin in the woods doesn't really work for me, but in terms of social interaction it's where I've found myself for most of my life anyway. Even more so now.

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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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:coffee:
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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Meanwhile, in other frustrating Covid news: Promising new Covid drug effective against all variants but regulatory hurdles mean it likely won't be available in the U.S. for years

"The results, demonstrated in a clinical trial of nearly 2,000 patients, rivaled those achieved by Paxlovid. And the interferon shots hold even bigger promise, scientists said. By fortifying the body’s own mechanisms for quashing an invading virus, they can potentially help defend against not only COVID but also the flu and other viruses with the potential to kindle future pandemics.

“It doesn’t matter if the next pandemic is a coronavirus, an influenza virus or another respiratory virus,” said Eleanor Fish, an immunologist at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the new study. “For all the viruses we’re seeing that are circulating now, there’s utility to using interferon.”

For all of its promise, though, the drug — called pegylated interferon lambda — faces an uncertain road to the commercial market. Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration late last year told the drug’s maker, Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, that they were not prepared to authorize it for emergency use. Eiger executives said part of the problem seemed to be that the clinical trial did not include a U.S. site, but rather only sites in Brazil and Canada, and that it was initiated and run by academic researchers rather than the company itself."
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by LordMortis »

:hand: Should I ever come down with COVID, I'll volunteer for Interferon treatment.

In related news, I took a big step today. I had two hour lunch in public indoors with about a dozen people and this could be the launching time of my going out to see a show or two by the end of the month.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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Wife and I just wrapped up Covid again; it was mostly a non-event for me (I had a mild runny nose for a day or two). Not surprised, I've been on 3 round trip flights in January - and likely was the vector (or my kids, being that they are in school and there's no masks - lots of kids out with Covid). My wife had a harder time, pretty severe cold symptoms for a week and a bit - otherwise OK. With the push to return to office though it's pretty much inevitable I guess - so far as long as we stay up on vaccines we seem to avoid the worst of it (and apparently hospitalization rates are down in relation to the amount of spread). For that matter most people give me a weird look when they hear we still test - so I guess that's where we are at now.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

Forgot to post that the CDC quietly added the COVID-19 vaccination to the recommended childhood vaccination schedule earlier this week:
"This means COVID-19 vaccine is now presented as any other routinely recommended vaccine and is no longer presented in a special "call out" box as in previous years. This, in a sense, helps 'normalize' this vaccine and sends a powerful message to both healthcare providers and the general public that everyone ages 6 months and older should stay up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccines (including a booster, when eligible), just as they would with any other routinely recommended vaccine," Dr. Neil Murthy and Dr. A. Patricia Wodi said in a statement.
But remember:
However, including Covid-19 vaccines on the routine schedule does not mean vaccination will be required by schools. School-entry vaccination requirements are determined by state or local jurisdictions, and not by CDC.
This is not new by any means. I'd expect there to be more news items (that I'll likely post on the other side of the fence) as states decide whether or not to take these recommendations into account and modify their existing state-level policies.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Kraken »

NEWS FLASH!!! The pandemic isn't over! Least ways, not for the olds.
About three-quarters of Covid deaths have occurred in people over 65, with the greatest losses concentrated among those over 75.

In January, the number of Covid-related deaths fell after a holiday spike but nevertheless numbered about 2,100 among those ages 65 to 74, more than 3,500 among 75- to 84-year-olds and nearly 5,000 among those over 85. Those three groups accounted for about 90 percent of the nation’s Covid deaths last month.
...
Three years in, the societal answer seems clear: With mask and vaccination mandates mostly ended, testing centers and vaccination clinics closed and the federal public health emergency scheduled to expire in May, older adults are on their own.

“Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others, whether it’s from a virus or gun violence,” Dr. Berlinger said.

Only 40.8 percent of seniors have received a bivalent booster. Some who have not believe they have strong protection against infection, a C.D.C. survey reported last month (though the data indicated otherwise).
I'm mildly chuffed that the article's focus reinforces the idea that the pandemic IS over for everyone else, but the youngers have decided that's so anyways.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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“Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others, whether it’s from a virus or gun violence,”
Talk about encapsulated "American exceptionalism." This is us. :cry: I saw this quote from James Baldwin the other day WRT MLK and it really stuck as I walk around my neighborhood and I see the trash in the streets and sheer volume of people who treat no sort recycling like garbage, contaminating every single recycling pickup. Why do we bother paying taxes and making the extra effort for the additional work of sorting and cleaning recycling only to just dump the entire thing into landfills. For vanity? I suppose at least I don't have kids who have to face the future we leave them. Any how
"Incontestably, alas, most people are not, in action, worth very much; and yet, every human being is an unprecedented miracle. One tries to treat them as the miracles they are, while trying to protect oneself against the disasters they’ve become"
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It's sig worthy for my general disposition in the last I dunno how many years. I used to have such faith in people. I wonder what I did with it?
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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It didn’t survive contact with the enemy.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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LordMortis wrote: Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:52 am
“Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others, whether it’s from a virus or gun violence,”
Talk about encapsulated "American exceptionalism." This is us. :cry: I saw this quote from James Baldwin the other day WRT MLK and it really stuck as I walk around my neighborhood and I see the trash in the streets and sheer volume of people who treat no sort recycling like garbage, contaminating every single recycling pickup. Why do we bother paying taxes and making the extra effort for the additional work of sorting and cleaning recycling only to just dump the entire thing into landfills. For vanity? I suppose at least I don't have kids who have to face the future we leave them. Any how
"Incontestably, alas, most people are not, in action, worth very much; and yet, every human being is an unprecedented miracle. One tries to treat them as the miracles they are, while trying to protect oneself against the disasters they’ve become"
-James Baldwin

It's sig worthy for my general disposition in the last I dunno how many years. I used to have such faith in people. I wonder what I did with it?
We are on the same page, paragraph, and word.
I’ve come so far from how I felt only like 10-15 years (is that right?) ago. My ‘faith in people’ still drives my ‘lib’ feelings on faceless people like refugees or ‘the hungry’ , but I’m now almost awestruck at just how horrible people can be. How horrible they are. And how many there are. And that they now are celebrated.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Pyperkub »

MHS wrote:Meanwhile, in other frustrating Covid news: Promising new Covid drug effective against all variants but regulatory hurdles mean it likely won't be available in the U.S. for years

"The results, demonstrated in a clinical trial of nearly 2,000 patients, rivaled those achieved by Paxlovid. And the interferon shots hold even bigger promise, scientists said. By fortifying the body’s own mechanisms for quashing an invading virus, they can potentially help defend against not only COVID but also the flu and other viruses with the potential to kindle future pandemics.

“It doesn’t matter if the next pandemic is a coronavirus, an influenza virus or another respiratory virus,” said Eleanor Fish, an immunologist at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the new study. “For all the viruses we’re seeing that are circulating now, there’s utility to using interferon.”

For all of its promise, though, the drug — called pegylated interferon lambda — faces an uncertain road to the commercial market. Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration late last year told the drug’s maker, Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, that they were not prepared to authorize it for emergency use. Eiger executives said part of the problem seemed to be that the clinical trial did not include a U.S. site, but rather only sites in Brazil and Canada, and that it was initiated and run by academic researchers rather than the company itself."
One suspects the makers of Paxlovid (not mentioned in the article), may have found a way to influence this decision...

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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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Unagi wrote: Sun Feb 12, 2023 2:49 pm
We are on the same page, paragraph, and word.
I’ve come so far from how I felt only like 10-15 years (is that right?) ago. My ‘faith in people’ still drives my ‘lib’ feelings on faceless people like refugees or ‘the hungry’ , but I’m now almost awestruck at just how horrible people can be. How horrible they are. And how many there are. And that they now are celebrated.
This is where I am as well - I'm gobsmacked at the amount of polarized rhetoric that the average person whom I know is a smart person listens to and buys into. I've really pared back my social circle (there's only a few people left that I bother investing time and energy into anymore outside of my immediate family) since the pandemic put a spotlight on true colours. The level of selfishness and entitlement is off the charts in the general population, and for some reason I'd never noticed it to the extent I did with Covid.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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A University of Washington study finds that
A past COVID-19 infection offers “durable,” temporary protection against getting severely sick with the coronavirus — no matter the variant, a new study has found.

Though natural immunity against COVID offers protections, the findings don’t discourage vaccination, which is still the top method of preventing serious illness, experts involved in the research say.

University of Washington researchers are calling their study published Feb. 16 in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet the most comprehensive to date when it comes to showing evidence of natural immunity protection against COVID.

The protection offered by natural immunity against COVID hospitalization and death lasts for nearly a year, the study found. Specifically, a person’s risk of needing hospital treatment for the virus or dying from it was 88% lower for at least 10 months.
Cool! So should we start holding Covid parties?
“Vaccination is the safest way to acquire immunity, whereas acquiring natural immunity must be weighed against the risks of severe illness and death associated with the initial infection,” Stephen Lim, lead study author and a professor at the University of Washington’s Department of Health Metrics Sciences, said in a statement.
Ah, we're holding Covid parties anyway.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Jeff V »

I guess the definition of "temporarily durable" could use some clarification. Wife got it last May when son brought it home. She caught it again last week when it plundered the nursing home where she works (she commented yesterday, "so many deaths...it makes me sad.") So that's about 9 months.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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Enlarge Image
Spoiler:
This plan may sound appealing to people who know a little about the immune system, but the drawbacks are clear to people who know a lot about the immune system and also to people who don't know anything about it.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by LordMortis »

For those still inclined to care about such things, I stopped by CVS on my walk today. They had signs out that differed from the previous contact of "Free COVID testing ends on May 11". The current signage states "Free COVID test through at least April 11." Knowing I have no more refills between now and then and that I swear to Pete, I am going to start going out very soon, I picked up my free tests (with proof of insurance).

(Note: Most of the pharmacist area wasn't masked and they seemed to want me to know it was such a bother to get those tests for me)
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

Waiting for additional info, but your local epidemiologist is reporting from today's ACIP meeting:
Older adults who were vaccinated in September are coming up on 6 months post-vaccine. Do they need another vaccine? Or do they wait until fall like everyone else?

Data on protection against infection by age was presented. It’s clear that this protection wanes and more so among older adults.

But bivalent vaccines continue to be very protective against hospitalizations. (There has not been enough time to see waning).

CDC further clarified the goal of the vaccine program: Prevention of severe disease.

Because of this, ACIP decided there was “insufficient evidence” to suggest older adults need another bivalent dose at this time. They did say this could change in the future based on three things:

Hospitalization rates among those who got the bivalent start to increase

Other signals of waning vaccine effectiveness of bivalent vaccines

SARS-CoV-2 significantly mutates

They did a similar evaluation for immunocompromised. And came to the same conclusion.

So, as of now, everyone will be eligible for one shot a year. We will need to be flexible, as this may change. Is this the right call? Time will tell.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

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The latest chapter in the story of 'Murica: Let 'er rip.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Max Peck »

Not just 'Murica. As best I can make out, we're charting a course for a maximum of one booster per year here too. It looks like if you've had one booster this "respiratory season" (starting at the beginning of Sept 2022), then no further boosters are required, which I'm guessing actually means no further boosters are allowed.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by LordMortis »

Max Peck wrote: Fri Feb 24, 2023 8:00 pm Not just 'Murica. As best I can make out, we're charting a course for a maximum of one booster per year here too. It looks like if you've had one booster this "respiratory season" (starting at the beginning of Sept 2022), then no further boosters are required, which I'm guessing actually means no further boosters are allowed.
It's weird, my CVS says I have one allowed but I'd not take that chance because 1) I don't have enough understanding to go against recommendations and 2) what happens if insurance rejects the claim after CVS poke me?
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

Oh how times are different, as I dig down to page three for an update:

FDA May Authorize Additional Covid-19 Booster Shots
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is close to making a decision on authorization of a second dose of updated COVID-19 vaccine boosters for high-risk people, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources.

FDA officials could make the decision within a few weeks, the WSJ said, adding that the regulator is considering authorizing second jabs of Omicron-targeted shots for people who are 65 years and older or those who have weakened immune systems, although officials are yet to reach a final decision.

The agency continues to closely monitor the emerging data in the United States and globally, and that data will dictate any decision on additional updated boosters, the FDA said in a statement.
Of note:
The decision comes at a time when the FDA plans to shift to an annual COVID booster campaign with an updated strain, similar to the way Americans get their flu shots.

Updated boosters have helped prevent symptomatic infections against the new XBB-related subvariants, according to data released by the CDC in January.

The FDA authorized the so-called bivalent COVID boosters in August that target the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, along with the original strain of the coronavirus. Rollout of the updated boosters in the United States started the following month.
I genuinely think this is the holdup:
As of March 15, around 54 million bivalent vaccine doses were administered, accounting for 16.4% of the U.S. population, according to government data.
More specifically, hospitals and morgues were not overwhelmed during the Winter of 2023 with only ~16% of the population current on vaccinations, so why are we rushing to get another booster? That's my cynical speculation.
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LordMortis
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by LordMortis »

Thanks for watching out for me. :D Would have been nice for them to have gotten their shit together by the end of February. Still, I'll hop in line when they open up another jab to the immunocompromised.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

I've been part of public health for 26 years now and I've never heard "medium risk" used before today:
The World Health Organization said Tuesday it is no longer recommending additional Covid-19 vaccine booster doses for regular, medium-risk adults as the benefit was marginal.

For such people who have received their primary vaccination course and one booster dose, there is no risk in having further jabs but the returns are slight, the WHO’s vaccine experts said.

...

SAGE recommended additional booster shots after the first one only for people at the highest risk of developing severe Covid-19 disease.

They include older adults; younger adults with comorbidities such as diabetes, people with immunocompromising conditions like HIV, pregnant women, and frontline health workers.

The medium priority group includes healthy adults, usually under 60, and children and adolescents with comorbidities.

SAGE recomends a primary series and a first booster dose.

“When it comes to the medium-risk group, additional booster doses… are no longer recommended,” said SAGE chair Hanna Nohynek.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Zaxxon »

#cavejohnson
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Sudy
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Sudy »

Wow, really?? Is vaccine efficacy so minor at this point? It obviously wasn't always. Does COVID vaccination actually have less effect than yearly flu vaccination? If vaccines are less effective against current COVID strains, shouldn't we be developing new ones? Even if you're low or "medium" risk, doesn't getting vaccinated potentially protect those who are high risk?

I saw a commercial on late night TV. It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were. -- Mitch Hedberg
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

I've been reading quite a bit over the last week or so and the general consensus seems to be that the bivalent shot offered in the fall wasn't worth the effort - that the protective benefits just didn't manifest (statistically significantly).

Additionally, when you look at the embarrassing uptake (~16%), there wasn't a surge of hospitalizations and deaths like there was in January of 2022 suggesting the mixed state of immunity (aka "hybrid immunity") is now helping to control things.

Remember, it's been repeatedly communicated that the vaccine's intention is not to stop illness or even to prevent Long Covid. The vaccine's goal is to stop hospitalizations and death and if the bivalent booster didn't move the needle (ha!) on those rates, there's not going to be a push to get more people vaccinated - unless they're in those high risk groups where having additional vaccinations does offer increased protections.

I've seen more than one voice that I respect saying they're no longer recommending any additional vaccinations for most people under 60; there is no benefit (i.e. in protection against hospitalization and death). To clarify, this means that if you've completed a series and then received your bivalent "booster", you're done.

Of course remember this argument works when SARS-CoV-2 is a stable actor. Mutations and changes to the viral genome that could change how it impacts human health would then change recommendations for vaccination (potentially). It also doesn't in any way address Long Covid, but we probably have another 3-5 years before we figure out if that will amount to anything so why worry now?

Strange, strange times.
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Sudy
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Sudy »

What the fuck.

Thanks for your insights, they're always so meaningful.

I saw a commercial on late night TV. It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were. -- Mitch Hedberg
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Smoove_B »

Happy to share. I will continue to monitor, as I am wired to do.

Not sure how the WHO's recommendations will impact things at a local level, but I guess we'll see.
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Re: COVID-19 treatment and vaccine update thread

Post by Max Peck »

So we gave up on NPIs because we were vaccinating our way out of it. Now we're giving up on vaccinating our way out of it? We're magical-thinking our way out of it now?
"What? What? What?" -- The 14th Doctor

It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
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