CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS – 03/19/2021
LOCAL VACCINATIONS FROM JENNIFER HANCOCK, HEALTH DEPT:
We have COVID 19 vaccine appointments available in our office next week. Please go to https://mhchd.org/ to sign up for an appointment. To see who is eligible for the vaccine you can visit https://www.dshs.texas.gov/covidvaccine/ .
Britain’s “one-jab” strategy is working, offering lessons for the world.
In Britain, the daily number of new Covid cases has fallen by more than 90 percent since peaking in early January. The decline is larger than in virtually any other country. (In the U.S., new cases have fallen 79 percent since January.) Given that the contagious B.1.1.7 variant was first discovered in Britain and is now the country’s dominant virus form, “Britain’s free-fall in cases is all the more impressive,…Clearly their vaccination strategy has been highly effective.”
Spread of a Variant SARS-CoV-2 in Long-Term Care Facilities in England
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2035906?query=TOC
The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant is now prevalent in all regions of England,4 and it spread rapidly from the community into long-term care facilities in the South East and East of England regions and London in November and December 2020. Emerging data suggest the variant may be associated with an increase in mortality.5 Enforcement of disease-control measures to prevent further spread of this highly transmissible variant is needed, particularly in long-term care facilities.
HOPKINS CITATIONS:
1. What Happens When a Person Is Simultaneously Infected With Two Different SARS-CoV-2 Variants? (Global Biodefense) Scientists in Brazil recently reported that two people were simultaneously infected with two different variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This co-infection seemed to have no effect on the severity of patients’ illness, and both recovered without needing to be hospitalised. Although this is one of the few such cases recorded with SARS-CoV-2 – and the study is yet to be published in a scientific journal – scientists have observed infections with multiple strains with other respiratory viruses, such as influenza. This has raised questions about how these viruses may interact in an infected person, and what it could mean for generating new variants.
2.UK Reports Five Cases of Rare Blood Clots in 11 Million AstraZeneca Shots, Continues with Vaccine (Reuters) Britain’s medicines regulator said there had been five cases of a rare type of blood clot in the brain among 11 million given AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine but said that it found the benefits of the shot far outweighed any possible risks.
3.What Happens When a Person Is Simultaneously Infected With Two Different SARS-CoV-2 Variants? (Global Biodefense) Scientists in Brazil recently reported that two people were simultaneously infected with two different variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This co-infection seemed to have no effect on the severity of patients’ illness, and both recovered without needing to be hospitalised. Although this is one of the few such cases recorded with SARS-CoV-2 – and the study is yet to be published in a scientific journal – scientists have observed infections with multiple strains with other respiratory viruses, such as influenza. This has raised questions about how these viruses may interact in an infected person, and what it could mean for generating new variants.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday that the agency might revise its guidance calling for at least six feet of distancing between students in schools in areas with high coronavirus transmission. Changing the guidance to three feet from six would allow many more schools to bring students back full time.
With concerns rising about the social costs of students not being in the classroom, some experts are questioning the basis for the six-foot guidance. A recent study in Massachusetts found there was no significant difference in infection rates in schools that required at least six feet of distance versus those that required only three feet, when both students and teachers were masked.
But the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teacher unions in the country, has voiced staunch opposition to changing the guidance.
“It is a debate about convenience, not a debate about safety,” Randi Weingarten, the union’s president, told our colleague Kate Taylor. “All of a sudden, because we can’t squeeze in every single kid if it’s six feet that miraculously there’s now studies that say three feet are fine. And what’s going to happen is, people are just not going to trust it.”
School reopening without robust COVID-19 mitigation risks accelerating the pandemic
(J. Harris: The Brits say leave the schools closed. For sure, young students can be carrying massive quantities of virus, and yet they might have no Covid symptoms. If you are not vaccinated, you need to try and avoid school children, in my opinion, and I generally exercise preventive care when I’m around them (and everybody else) even though I have been vaccinated.)
Four-Month Clinical Status of a Cohort of Patients After Hospitalization for COVID-19
Findings Four months after hospitalization, in an uncontrolled cohort study of 478 survivors of COVID-19, at least 1 new-onset symptom was reported by telephone interview by 244 patients (51%), including fatigue in 134 of 431 (31%), cognitive symptoms in 86 of 416 (21%), and dyspnea in 78 of 478 (16%). Computed tomographic lung scan abnormalities were reported in 63% of 171 patients assessed at an ambulatory visit, mainly subtle ground-glass opacities. Fibrotic lesions were observed in 19% of these 171 patients.
Convalescent Plasma Antibody Levels and the Risk of Death from Covid-19
CONCLUSIONS
Among patients hospitalized with Covid-19 who were not receiving mechanical ventilation, transfusion of plasma with higher anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody levels was associated with a lower risk of death than transfusion of plasma with lower antibody levels. (Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and others
(J. Harris: So, plasma transfusions do lower death risks, if they contain a HIGH LEVEL OF IgG antibodies.)
LAST BUT NOT LEASED:
Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour:
Knot-furlong
1 trillion pins: 1 terrapin
As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind –
every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.
~ John Glenn
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