12/30/2020

First case of highly infectious coronavirus variant detected in Colorado

The variant has a higher attack rate, according to the UK report, which bolsters the hypothesis that the variant has outcompeted other versions of the coronavirus and is now the dominant variant across much of the United Kingdom. 

AND AN EVEN BETTER PEDI ARTICLE THAN YESTERDAY’S FROM S. KOREA WHERE THE GOV.  TESTS WHO AND WHAT THEY WANT — AND DO IT VERY WELL.

Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Viral Shedding in Pediatric Patients Infected With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

“Data from multiple affected countries have corroborated that children are clearly susceptible to infection and may develop severe primary and unique secondary inflammatory complications of infection,… However, the vast majority of infected children have mild or unrecognized disease, and this population may play important epidemiologic roles by potentiating spread of infection through communities and/or boosting herd immunity. …In this study, the authors estimate that 85 infected children (93%) would have been missed using a testing strategy focused on testing of symptomatic patients alone. A surveillance strategy that tests only symptomatic children will fail to identify children who are silently shedding virus while moving about their community and schools. In regions where use of face masks is not widely accepted or used by the general public, asymptomatic carriers may serve as an important reservoir that may facilitate silent spread through a community. 

The second  important take-home point from this study is that the duration of symptoms in symptomatic infected pediatric patients varies widely. The median (range) duration of symptoms for the full cohort was 11 (1-36) days.13 However, the group of children who were presymptomatic at the time of laboratory diagnosis had the shortest median (range) duration of symptoms (3.5 [1-21] days), which was significantly shorter than the median (range) duration of symptoms in children who had symptoms develop concomitant with diagnosis (6.5 [1-12] days) and those who were symptomatic preceding their diagnosis (13 [3-36] days). Although the majority of symptomatic children (41 of 71)….had upper respiratory tract disease, there was no difference in the duration of symptoms between those with upper vs mild or moderate lower respiratory tract infection. This suggests that even mild and moderately affected children remain symptomatic for long periods of time.

“The third and most important take-home point from this study relates to the duration of viral shedding in infected pediatric patients. Virus was detectable for a mean (SD) of 17.6 (6.7) days overall and was detectable for a prolonged period of time in all cohorts of children, whether symptoms were present or not.13 Asymptomatic children had detectable virus for a mean (SD) of 14.1 (7.7) days after their initial positive test result, and 4 asymptomatic children (20%) continued to have detectable virus 21 days after initial detection. The authors appropriately note that the duration of viral shedding in asymptomatic patients could have been even longer because the date of initial infection cannot be known with clarity….. Fully half of symptomatic children with both upper and lower tract disease were still shedding virus at 21 days. These are striking data, particularly since 86 of 88 diagnosed children (98%) either had no symptoms or mild or moderate disease.

“… Multiple studies have now demonstrated that virus is detectable from additional body fluids, including stool, for prolonged periods.”

Ivermectin

Current Recomendations for Covid treatment. 

DON’T USE
NOT AVAILABLE IN US 

BECKERS HOSP REVIEW

1. ‘More than 2 million Americans have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine,… Over the next week, another 7.7 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and 8 million doses of Moderna’s are set to be distributed in the U.S., according to the CDC. This supply is enough to vaccinate about three-fourths of healthcare workers and nursing home residents and staff…”

2.  Following holiday travel, the pandemic will likely worsen in January, Anthony Fauci …the U.S. is experiencing a surge that has gotten “out of control,” Dr. Fauci said, adding that those who traveled for the holidays should try not to gather with large groups.

3. Novavax has started a phase 3 clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the U.S., the drugmaker said Dec. 28. Novavax is the fifth drugmaker to enter phase 3 trials in the U.S. Its vaccine uses more traditional technology than Pfizer’s and Moderna’s, and doesn’t require ultra-cold storage, reports The Hill. 

 A backward poet writes inverse.

  If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you’d be in Seine

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12/29/2020

COPY OF MNM LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM SUNDAY, DEC. 27:

Merry Christmas, Marshall, Texas! I owe my deepest gratitude to friends and family here and throughout East Texas for their outpouring of support as I’ve dealt with recovery from a serious bout with COVID-19 pneumonia. It has brought me extreme comfort during this very difficult time to hear from you and receive your thoughts and prayers. My family and I thank you. Love is so powerful. I pray others going through this are getting support too. It’s a big deal to know others care and shows me our community’s true colors.

I’ve heard the anecdotal stories of COVID-19 not being that bad or being compared to the flu with younger people. That may be true in some cases and if so, it is fortunate. In my case, it was not true. This has been a terrible and frightening experience. It has not been simple.

One minute I felt a little difficulty breathing. Within a few hours, my lungs were closing in on me. I could no longer stand up and walk around without losing 20 points on my oximeter. The was no air to breathe because it was being blocked by heavy inflammation inside my lungs. I was beginning to cough out pink fluids and blood. Just moving my body to the side 12 inches caused a coughing fit so bad that I couldn’t breathe in or spit out the blockage. I was gasping for breath and trying not to choke on what were now vicious, bloody mucous plugs my lungs were becoming inflamed and infested with.

It was like breathing through a day-old banana milkshake or through a very wet batch of your kid’s homemade slime project. This continued for about 20 hours for me as I sat on an ER gurney bed in triage, fighting to breathe and waiting to get picked for a hospital bed. The beds were full, and the wait was what it was. There were and still are plenty of sicker priorities ahead of 40-something year-olds.

At times it felt like I was trying to breathe out of a 2-inch box. I would lose oxygen and then spend the next five frantic minutes trying to get it back to normal with concentrated breathing and attempts not to panic.

When you can’t breathe, your reactions go primal. Involuntarily you gasp to squeeze that last bit of oxygen into your system so you can live. Everything else around you is white noise.

Once I got that breath and several more, I created a mental picture of my Gaby, Grace, and Dinora to add resoluteness. They were standing in a line. My focus was to keep that line level and centered with balanced breathing. “Fight the good fight,” I heard the doctor say as she passed my curtained ER stall. Several hours later I heard a nurse excitedly say “We have a room for No. 26”.

The rest of the story was a five-day struggle with treatments including plasma, Remdesivir, steroids, blood thinners, IVs, breathing treatments, and an assortment of other meds and tests for my road to recovery. It was not easy, but I was treated by some of the finest healthcare workers I could ever ask for, many local and many from traveling nurse organizations. They saved me like they are saving people across our nation.

I pray you don’t ever experience this. If you are feeling thankful and giving this holiday, think about wearing a mask for the overextended healthcare workers who are putting themselves on the line for people like you and me. They fight for you. Fight for them! I would not have survived without them.

Be thankful for your loved ones. Think about their futures and the small calls to sacrifice we can make now to get through this as a community. If nothing else, be selfish! Wear a mask and think about yourself. If you don’t have to experience this disease, you’ll have a much merrier Christmas.

Rush Harris

         ………..

CORRECTION FROM YESTERDAY: I used the word “now” when I meant “not.” 

The paragraph should read ” Now, Monday, 28 December, we all know several people who have or have had Covid—or who have died of Covid. I must say that most of the more recent cases of which I have personal knowledge, probably came home with asymptomatic school-aged children.  Until this current peak runs its course, I would NOT let my children go back to school. The White House proved that frequent testing won’t prevent spread in institutions. Through no fault of their own, schools cannot protect teachers and students and adult employees from the disease.” 

J. Harris

Age-Related Differences in Nasopharyngeal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Levels in Patients With Mild to Moderate Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) 

(J. Harris: We looked at this article in July, 2020. I bring it back now to warn again that younger children can be dangerous carriers of Covid.)

“Our analyses suggest children younger than 5 years with mild to moderate COVID-19 have high amounts of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in their nasopharynx compared with older children and adults. Our study is limited to detection of viral nucleic acid, rather than infectious virus, although SARS-CoV-2 pediatric studies reported a correlation between higher nucleic acid levels and the ability to culture infectious virus.5 Thus, young children can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the general population, as has been demonstrated with respiratory syncytial virus, where children with high viral loads are more likely to transmit.6 Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and day care settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased. In addition to public health implications, this population will be important for targeting immunization efforts as SARS-CoV-2 vaccines become available.

TOMORROW WE WILL HAVE ANOTHER  PEDIATRIC ARTICLE OF IMPORTANCE.

WE WILL ALSO CONCENTRATE ON VACCINES FOR A WHILE IF WE CAN. 

Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

 No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

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12/27/2020

Letter to the Editor: COVID-19 has been frightening experience
From the Marshall News Messenger

Merry Christmas, Marshall, Texas! I owe my deepest gratitude to friends and family here and throughout East Texas for their outpouring of support as I’ve dealt with recovery from a serious bout with COVID-19 pneumonia. It has brought me extreme comfort during this very difficult time to hear from you and receive your thoughts and prayers. My family and I thank you. Love is so powerful. I pray others going through this are getting support too. It’s a big deal to know others care and shows me our community’s true colors.

I’ve heard the anecdotal stories of COVID-19 not being that bad or being comparable to the flu with younger people. That may be true in some cases and if so, it is fortunate. In my case, it is was not true. This has been a terrible and frightening experience. It has not been simple.

One minute I felt a little difficulty breathing. Within a few hours, my lungs were closing in on me. I could no longer stand up and walk around without losing 20 points on my oximeter. The was no air to breathe because it was being blocked by heavy inflammation inside my lungs. I was beginning to cough out pink fluids and blood. Just moving my body to the side 12 inches caused a coughing fit so bad that I couldn’t breathe in or spit out the blockage. I was gasping for breath and trying not to choke on what were now viscous bloody mucous plugs my lungs were becoming inflamed and infested with.

It was like breathing through a day-old banana milkshake or through a very wet batch of your kid’s homemade slime project. This continued for about 20 hours for me as I sat on an ER gurney bed in triage, fighting to breathe and waiting to get picked for a hospital bed. The beds were full, and the wait was what it was. There were and still are plenty of sicker priorities ahead of 40-something year-olds.

At times it felt like I was trying to breath out of a 2-inch box. I would lose oxygen and then spend the next five frantic minutes trying to get it back to normal with concentrated breathing and attempts not to panic.

When you can’t breathe, your reactions go primal. Involuntarily you gasp to squeeze that last bit of oxygen into your system so you can live. Everything else around you is white noise.

Once I got that breath and several more, I created a mental picture of my Gaby, Grace and Dinora to add resoluteness. They were standing on a line. My focus was to keep that line level and centered with balanced breathing. “Fight the good fight,” I heard the doctor say as she passed my curtained ER stall. Several hours later I heard a nurse excitedly say “We have a room for No. 26”.

The rest of the story was a five-day struggle with treatments including plasma, Remdesivir, steroids, blood thinners, IVs, breathing treatments and an assortment of other meds and tests for my road to recovery. It was not easy, but I was treated by some of the finest healthcare workers I could ever ask for, many local and many from traveling nurse organizations. They saved me like they are saving people across our nation.

I pray you don’t ever experience this. If you are feeling thankful and giving this holiday, think about wearing a mask for the overextended healthcare workers who are putting themselves on the line for people like you and me. They fight for you. Fight for them! I would not have survived without them.

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12/28/2020

The computers have taken a bit of a holiday and there are currently no new numbers. 

MESSAGE FROM A EXPERIENCED INTERNIST IN THE HOUSTON AREA: 

“My comments refer to 100% of people that meet criteria to be hospitalized–down here:  the “mildest” are at real risk of death or disability and all have in their body a sick pathophysiology. One of my patients went to a good ER with his O2 sat at 92%, bilateral pneumonia, and he felt terrible. They were not wrong, but they had to send this 63-year-old, otherwise healthy man, home because he was not yet ripe enough to admit.

Then, a couple of days later, his Oxygen level had fallen to 89%, and he met the stringent admission criteria and was admitted. They are ALL damnably sick when they meet admission criteria.”

…J. Harris: 

 This type of selective hospital admission criteria is currently necessary in Texas and in most of the US because of the epidemic number of sick folks. In addition, people still get sick with “normal” diseases that require hospitalization. Unless you own a hospital and have a chopper, don’t expect automatically to receive in-patient care in area hospitals. To be sure, sometimes, emergency room care can diagnose and start treatment if you get Covid. Unfortunately, there is still no “silver bullet” medicine that will cure every case of Covid that rolls in. (Most of these patients are too sick to walk in.) In addition, when Covid patients have received hospital treatment and various series of medications, they are discharged right away because the ER’s are full of new, very acutely ill Covid patients who need the beds. 

We will never be adequately able to thank our heroic health care workers for their months and months of services. The best thing we still fortunate citizens can do at this point is to STAY HEALTHY. We can help prevent a preventable disease. Stay home when you can and mask, distance, and wash when you can’t. Covid is now a personal disease. Ultimately, you alone can prevent yourself from becoming ill, 

Now, Monday, 28 December, we all know several people who have or have had Covid— or who have died of Covid. I must say that most of the more recent cases of which I have personal knowledge, probably came home with asymptomatic school-aged children.  Until this current peak runs its course, I would not let my children go back to school. The White House proved that frequent testing won’t prevent spread in institutions. Through no fault of their own, schools cannot protect teachers and students and adult employees from disease. 

J. Harris

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12/26/2020

COVID-19 data will wobble for next 10+ days: 5 considerations when reviewing numbers

Racial Bias in Pulse Oximetry Measurement

“…in two large cohorts, Black patients had nearly three times the frequency of occult hypoxemia (low oxygen) that was not detected by pulse oximetry as White patients. Given the widespread use of pulse oximetry for medical decision making, these findings have some major implications, especially during the current coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. Our results suggest that reliance on pulse oximetry to triage patients and adjust supplemental oxygen levels may place Black patients at increased risk for hypoxemia. It is important to note that not all Black patients who had a pulse oximetry value of 92 to 96% had occult hypoxemia. However, the variation in risk according to race necessitates the integration of pulse oximetry with other clinical and patient-reported data.

(J. Harris: “Bias” in this article means ” deviation of the expected value of a statistical estimate from the quantity it estimates.” This has nothing to do with personal racial biases on the part of the medical community. It means that measurement of oxygen saturation by means of a simple device on the patients finger MAY READ FALSELY LOW in some black patients. I suggest that my black readers might wish to check their personal oximeter and make sure it is reading correctly; then should you become ill, carry the oximeter that you know to be correct with you when you seek medical care. Obviously, this matter needs immediate attention by the medical community, both to verify and to correct the “bias.”

TEXAS OVERVIEW FOR HOPKINS

THIS  VIDEO (1 MIN) IS THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE SENT OUT; IT MADE MY CHRISTMAS. MY SISTER SENT IT TO ME.   Click here to see the video

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12/24/2020

(J. Harris: Area G has run out of Covid Beds; they are making more. Milder cases requiring isolation, O2,  nursing care, and medicine administration are and have been  handled Marshall in addition to most hospitals all over the state. However, staffed Covid hospital beds are very scarce EVERYWHERE. DON’T TAKE CHANCES. We are, all of us, responsible for our families and ourselves. We can no longer be  mindless and careless about Covid. COVID KILLS. Refrigerated trucks, not sleighs, are coming to town and Santa isn’t driving them. Nevertheless, “Merry Christmas.”)

Dallas is said to be out of Covid beds. Every hospital in Texas is short of beds. 

Watch out for COVID-19 vaccine scams

“Medicare covers the COVID-19 vaccine, so there will be no cost to yo

u. If anyone asks you to share your Medicare Number or pay for access to the vaccine, you can bet it’s a scam. Here’s what to know:

You can’t pay to put your name on a list to get the vaccine.

You can’t pay to get early access to a vaccine.

Don’t share your personal or financial information if someone calls, texts, or emails promising access to the vaccine for a fee.

Antibody Status and Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Health Care Workers

“…this study… suggests that previous infection resulting in antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 is associated with protection from reinfection for most people for at least 6 months.

AND WORD HAS COME FROM NEW ORLEANS: 

“Boudreaux was in an advanced Biology class at Harvard on the Bayou, (Nicholls State University) and was taking his midterm exam. The last question  was, ‘Name seven advantages of Mother’s Milk.’ The question was worth 70 points or none at all.    

Boudreaux was hard put to think of seven advantages However, he wrote:

1) It is perfect formula for the child.

2) It provides immunity against several diseases. 

3) It is always the right temperature. 

4) It is inexpensive. 

5) It bonds the child to mother, and vice versa. 

6) It is always available as needed.

And then Boudreaux was stuck. Finally, in desperation, just before the bell rang indicating the end of the test, he wrote:

7) It comes in two attractive containers and it’s high enough off the ground where the cat can’t get it.

He got an A. ” 

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12/23/2020

County judge announces occupancy restrictions due to COVID-19 hospitalization rate (FROM THE MNM)

J Harris Comment: If you feel ill in any way, for example have a headache, feel very tired, achey, coughing, short of breath, diarrhea, nausea—if you feel ill or even a little different IN ANY WAY, you should quarantine yourself. Then get tested when you can. If you have school children in the house, remember that over half the time, they can be infected with Covid and have no symptoms. So, when you get tested, get them tested. They most often do know feel sick. And above all, don’t go visit Grandma, or anyone. 

WHAT UK SCIENTISTS SAY ABOUT MUTATIONS, according to the Atlantic:

“… there’s no reason to worry about broad swaths of people getting reinfected or our new vaccines becoming ineffective. When a person gets sick or vaccinated, the immune system learns to recognize many parts of the virus. A mutation is like an acquaintance changing her outfit or her hair. If the virus accumulates a lot of mutations—over years, for example—we might need to update the vaccines, which is what we do with the flu all the time. But it’s not a concern right now.”

Pfizer, Moderna testing COVID-19 vaccines against UK variant

J. Harris: Let’s see how the vaccine works against the  mutants anyway. 

FROM JOHHS HOPKINS:

1. Readmission and Death After Initial Hospital Discharge Among Patients With COVID-19 in a Large Multihospital System (JAMA) In this national cohort of VA patients, 27% of survivors of COVID-19 hospitalization were readmitted or died by 60 days after discharge, and this rate was lower than matched survivors of pneumonia or heart failure.

“… rates of readmission or death were higher than pneumonia or heart failure during the first 10 days after discharge following COVID-19 hospitalization, suggesting a period of heightened risk of clinical deterioration.”

2. Postmortem Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasopharyngeal Mucosa (Emerging Infectious Diseases) Analyses of infection chains have demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is highly transmissive. However, data on postmortem stability and infectivity are lacking. Our finding of nasopharyngeal viral RNA stability in 79 corpses showed no time-dependent decrease. Maintained infectivity is supported by virus isolation up to 35 hours postmortem.

3.Taiwan Snaps World’s Longest Covid-free Streak After Pilot Infects Local Resident (Washington Post) The reports of a single new case and its particulars — the pilot, a New Zealander, was said to have been coughing during his last flight but did not wear a mask at all times — immediately sparked public consternation as they snapped the island’s record without a domestic transmission. The 253-day streak had been a point of pride for Taiwan’s 23 million people and its leaders.

4.Antibody Responses 8 Months after Asymptomatic or Mild SARS-CoV-2 Infection (Emerging Infectious Diseases) Waning humoral immunity in coronavirus disease patients has raised concern over usefulness of serologic testing. We investigated antibody responses of 58 persons 8 months after asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. For 3 of 4 immunoassays used, seropositivity rates were high (69.0%–91.4%).

(J. Harris: Persistent seropositivity likely means immunity to Covid may persist for many months. We will follow this up

5. Mexico Misled Citizens About the Severity of Coronavirus in its Capital (New York Times) The federal government had data that should have prompted an immediate lockdown in early December. Instead, it kept the city open for another two weeks.

The Washington Post mentions: 1. Mexico’s coastal Riviera Maya is attracting even more American tourists than it did before the pandemic — and some of them are bringing the coronavirus back to the United States with them. 2. The conservative group Turning Point USA packed thousands of largely maskless students into event centers in Florida this weekend, including Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

“How do you know if you’re dining with a Vegan?”

“How?”

“Don’t worry, they’ll tell you”

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12/22/2020

Message from FB Judge Sims:

December 21, 2020 – Weekly report for the past 7 days: 182 new cases (that’s an average of 26 new cases per day) and 3 additional fatalities. The state has consolidated some of the numbers so the format below isn’t exactly like what we’ve seen in the past. It does appear that we will exceed 15% hospitalizations for the past 7 days. That will mean that businesses will have to reduce capacity from 75% to 50%. There will be more details about that probably tomorrow. Please continue to be cautious. Wear a mask, avoid crowds and wash your hands. The vaccine is coming but it will take some time to slow down the spread. In the mean-time, it’s up to us. Join me in continuing to pray for those who have the virus and those who have lost friends and family members.

Confirmed Cases – 1,362

Probable Cases – 903

Total New Cases – 182

New Fatalities – 3

Total Fatalities – 58

Recoveries – 1,927

J. Harris: Get the Kiddies off the streets! Our new case counts locally are the highest that they have been — ever. This comes at a time when the general beds in East Texas are mostly full. No count of staffed, non ICU  beds available to Covid patients is known to me. We have plenty of empty hospital beds, but WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF STAFF. Waits in the ER for an available bed are running over 24 hours, and if things continue to deteriorate, the bed wait will soon take place  in the parking lot or the morgue. Lately, in Trauma agea G, we have had about 25 ICU beds available most of the time. Since there is now effective therapies, and since Oxygen but rarely respirators are necessary for life support, general hospital beds for Covid patients are at a premium and will remain so. I am frightened; most of my readers likely are frightened. People who have tried to be vigilant are sometimes getting sick. The folks in the big cities are no better off. The death rates will take about 3 more weeks to boom. 

Our heroic health care workers can save more patients than ever before. However, success ties up hospital beds longer now. Please try to stay well; prevention is no longer a local problem. It’s a family and PERSONAL problem. Young working families with children will have to take chances. 

It doesn’t take much imagination to guess what I’d do if I had any stroke, but a significant Texas  shut down including the schools won’t happen until things get even worse, which they are likely to do.  Good luck. 

CDC issues guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination after allergic reactions

J. Harris: Short quick read concerning allergies with some disagreement. I will probably recommend to to my Norwegian housekeeper that she get the vaccination despite a history of two anaphylactic reactions to oysters. I’ll probably take along an Epi injection. 

“…The CDC said people with severe allergies to food, pets, latex or environmental conditions as well as people with allergies to oral medication or a family history of severe allergic reactions could still get vaccinated.

“On Friday, the FDA said that the Moderna Inc vaccine, which received emergency use authorization, should not be given to individuals with a known history of a severe allergic reaction to any components of the shot…

“Britain’s medical regulator has said that anyone with a history of anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reactions to a medicine or food, should not be given the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.”

A girl said she recognized me from her vegetarian club but I’d never met herbivore.

Dad, are we pyromaniacs? Yes, we arson.

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CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS – 12/21/2020

12/21/2020

Safety and Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273 Vaccine in Older Adults

J. Harris: Good news. No real problems in this small study of the new vaccine in older folks. I plan to take it if and when I can. 

CONCLUSIONS

In this small study involving older adults, adverse events associated with the mRNA-1273 vaccine were mainly mild or moderate. The 100-μg dose induced higher binding- and neutralizing-antibody titers than the 25-μg dose, which supports the use of the 100-μg dose in a phase 3 vaccine trial. 

Covid-19 Vaccine: How Do They Work?

J. Harris:  This is a good, simple, understandable, accurate, quick look at vaccines. By the way, Dr. Fauchi said that the vaccine he planned to take was the one that  was available when it was his turn to get one. He had no preference which vaccine to take.

The Coronavirus Is Mutating. What Does That Mean for Us?

By Apoorva Mandavilli

Dec. 20, 2020

J. Harris: If you woke up this morning worrying about mutating viruses, as did I, read this article. It’s reassuring, and, I believe, accurate. As time goes by, we will have to redesign our vaccines to address mutations, but the new vaccines are easier and quicker to reformulate than ever before. Hopefully, we’ll never be caught almost completely unprepared again. CHEER UP; we can handle this virus. Play it safe and take the vaccine when your time comes. 

“…The good news is that the technology used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is much easier to adjust and update than conventional vaccines. The new vaccines also generate a massive immune response, so the coronavirus may need many mutations over years before the vaccines must be tweaked…”.

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12/20/2020

FROM HOPKINS:

1. People Thought Covid-19 Was Relatively Harmless for Younger Adults. They Were Wrong. (New York Times) Young adults are dying at historic rates. In research published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, we found that among U.S. adults ages 25 to 44, from March through the end of July, there were almost 12,000 more deaths than were expected based on historical norms.

2. How Do Home Tests for Coronavirus Work? Where Can I get One? (Washington Post) The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized another rapid coronavirus test for home use, this one called Abbott BinaxNOW — the third such test to be authorized in recent weeks. And more home tests are coming, with at least two dozen companies racing to develop versions. These rapid tests allow people to test themselves at home and know within minutes whether they have the novel coronavirus, which causes the illness covid-19. 

3. REGN-COV2, a Neutralizing Antibody Cocktail, in Outpatients with Covid-19 (NEJM) In this ongoing, double-blind, phase 1–3 trial involving nonhospitalized patients with Covid-19, we investigated two fully human, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein, used in a combined cocktail (REGN-COV2) to reduce the risk of the emergence of treatment-resistant mutant virus.

“…Our analysis suggests that an antibody cocktail against SARS-CoV-2 can also be an effective antiviral therapy, enhancing viral clearance and thus leading to improved outcomes, particularly in patients whose own immune response to the virus is slow to initiate. Further studies, including the continuing phase 3 portion of this trial, are needed to confirm these effects.”

(J. Harris: New treatments for Covid infection are coming.)

4. Texas Doctors in Rural Hotspots Left Out in Cold On Vaccine (Reuters) Running in between patients, Dr. Eileen Sprys pauses to catch her breath, tries to gather herself, but cannot mask her frustration: The health care workers in her COVID-besieged West Texas hospital were left out of the first shipment of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, and they have no idea when they may get it

J. Harris: Christus has vaccine arriving very soon for their health care workers. 

POTENTIAL PARTIAL SHUTDOWN TRAUMA AREA G ?

(This is a fabulous East Texas web site. Harrison County routine data is not included at this site, but Harrison County is in Trauma Area G along with most of these counties.)

“The ‘COVID-19 Community Spread Levels’ infographic is a visual overview of the 7-Day Rolling Rate of COVID-19.

Positive cases of COVID-19 include rapid tests and PCR tests (Probable and Confirmed cases) among persons who physically live within the NET Health Disease Surveillance Division.

Recent media coverage has expanded public awareness of the Trauma Service Area G (TSA-G), operated by the Piney Woods Regional Advisory Council, aka RAC-G.

These include Anderson, Camp, Cherokee, Franklin, Freestone, Gregg, Harrison, Henderson, Houston, Marion, Panola, Rains, Rusk, Shelby, Smith, Trinity, Upshur, Van Zandt. and Wood counties.

Decreased customer capacity of businesses within the RAC-G area will occur if there are 7 consecutive days in which the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients as a percentage of hospital capacity goes above 15 percent. Below are calculations from recent days:

• Sunday December 13th – 14.72% (431 COVID patients in hospitals within RAC-G / 3132 available hospital beds)
• Monday December 14th – 14.26% (440 COVID patients in hospitals within RAC-G / 3086 available hospital beds)
• Tuesday December 15th – 15.28% (474 COVID patients in hospitals within RAC-G / 3103 available hospital beds)
• Wednesday December 16th – 15.16% (478 COVID patients in hospitals within RAC-G / 3153 available hospital beds)
• Thursday December 17th – 15.16% (478 COVID patients in hospitals within RAC-G / 3153 available hospital beds)
•  Friday December 18th – 16.5%
• Saturday December 19 -16.7

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