CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS – 07/30/2021

HELLO,

TOO MUCH INFORMATION, BUT MOST OF IT IS ENCOURAGING.

AREA NEW CASES /100,000 POPULATION FROM NYT:

FROM THE NYT SHORT CURRENT SHORT ARTICLES:

1. C.D.C. Internal Report Calls Delta Variant as Contagious as Chickenpox

2. Why Vaccinated People Are Getting ‘Breakthrough’ Infections

More than 97 percent of people hospitalized for Covid-19 are unvaccinated…if you’re vaccinated, you are protected….You are not going to end up with severe disease, hospitalization or death.”

3. Covid is more mysterious than we often admit.

(J. Harris: Read this short article; it will cheer you up.)

But much of the ebb and flow of a pandemic cannot be explained by changes in human behavior. That was true with influenza a century ago, and it is true with Covid now. An outbreak often fizzles mysteriously, like a forest fire that fails to jump from one patch of trees to another….A more plausible explanation appears to be that Delta spreads very quickly at first and, for some unknown set of reasons, peters out long before a society has reached herd immunity..That’s not guaranteed to happen everywhere, and there probably will be more variants after Delta. Remember: Covid behaves in mysterious ways. But Americans should not assume that Delta is destined to cause months of rising caseloads. Nor should they assume that a sudden decline, if one starts this summer, fits a tidy narrative that attributes the turnaround to rising vaccination and mask wearing.

FROM JAMA, ANOTHER ENCOURAGING ARTICLE:

Überantibodies From Recovered COVID-19 Patients Could Spur New Therapeutics and Vaccines

“…Knowing which spike protein regions are highly conserved across variants could potentially enable the design of a universal SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The available shots are based on the original spike configuration, and researchers are studying boosters that use variant spikes. This arms race between virus and vaccine could continue indefinitely. But instead of perpetually staying 1 (or more) steps behind the virus, third-generation vaccines could be designed to induce or deliver only the spike epitopes that at least so far have remained stable….The experiments suggested that combining B1-182.1, the most potent of the candidates, with either of 2 other strong neutralizers stopped antibody-resistant mutations from emerging. “Two of the antibodies working together appear to be better at mitigating escapes than just a single antibody alone…

(J. Harris: This complicated article provides the hope that the use of combinations of certain antibodies originally produced naturally by Covid infected patients can be identified, manufactured, tested, and used to treat Covid patients. It can probably be constantly updated to treat the new variants as they appear.

LOCAL VACCINATION SCHEDULE FROM COUNTY HEALTH DEPT:

Here ARE our county vaccination rates

County: Harrison

Public Health Region:

4/5N

Percentage of Population 12+ Vaccinated with At Least One Dose: 36.28%

Percentage of Population 12+ Fully Vaccinated: 31.44%

Percentage of Population 65+ Vaccinated with At Least One Dose: 63.36%

Percentage of Population 65+ Fully Vaccinated: 57.65%

Our [COUNTY HEALTH] office has worked diligently to educate and vaccinate our community. Our vaccine rate is low and we need to get the message to our community. Our office coordinated numerous Community COVID 19 vaccine clinics January – April 2021. We have the COVID 19 vaccine available now in our office on a walk-in basis. The following COVID 19 Vaccines clinics have been scheduled as well:

07/21/2021 The Crosby Group Employee COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

07/26/2021 DSHS Community COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

07/27/2021 Harrison County Jail – COVID 19 Vaccines

07/28/2021 MISD Back to School Vaccine Clinic

07/29/2021 Wiley College COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

07/31/2021 NRG Back to School Event COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic at City Park

08/03/2021 Wiley College COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

08/04/2021 TSTC COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

08/09/2021 Dirt Cheap – Employee COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

08/11/2021 The Crosby Group Employee COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

08/24/2021 Wiley College COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

08/25/2021 TSTC COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

08/30/2021 Dirt Cheap – Employee COVID 19 Vaccine Clinic

*Highlighted ones are open to the public

THANK YOU MRS. DILLARD:

Dawn Dillard: A shot in the heart … or the arm

“On a crash course”: Texas hospitals brace for another COVID-19 surge as delta variant burns through unvaccinated communities

National cases up 439% from June & 5 other COVID-19 trends to know

(CITED BY Gabrielle Masson)

J. Harris: Several quick summaries that are relevant

FROM HOPKINS:

1. New US Mask Guidance Prompted by Evidence Vaccinated can Spread Delta (The Guardian) The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection spoke on Wednesday about evidence that vaccinated people can spread the Covid-19 Delta variant to others, after the nation’s top health agency expanded on its new guidance that fully vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors in certain places. Rochelle Walensky said “new science” observed in recent days demonstrated that new variants of the coronavirus were transmissible by people who have been fully vaccinated in some cases.

2. Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of an Aerosolised Adenovirus Type-5 Vector-based COVID-19 Vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) in adults: preliminary report of an open-label and randomised phase 1 clinical trial (Lancet) Aerosolised Ad5-nCoV is well tolerated, and two doses of aerosolised Ad5-nCoV elicited neutralising antibody responses, similar to one dose of intramuscular injection. An aerosolised booster vaccination at 28 days after first intramuscular injection induced strong IgG and neutralising antibody responses. The efficacy and cost-effectiveness of aerosol vaccination should be evaluated in future studies.

3. ‘There Is A Real Cost’: As Covid Shows, Barring Bedside Visitors From ICU Deprives Patients of the Best Care (STAT) A growing body of evidence supports the theory that bedside visitors offer not only comfort, but true clinical value. As experts on their loved ones, they can provide important details that may be missing from health records, and can clock subtle changes in behavior that may precede adverse medical complications. Visitors can calm agitated patients with a touch of the hand and reassure them with a word. They fluff pillows, fetch ice, clip fingernails, brush hair, and bring in favorite foods that might convince someone to eat for the first time in a long time.

AND LAST BUT NO LEASED FROM THE ONION (NOT A BLOND NOR A BLONDE JOKE)

Well, Why Did I Get Vaccinated Then?’ Screams Burning Woman After Realizing She Can Still Catch Fire: