CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS –12/14/2021

J. Harris: The “77” for the 13th comes from Judge Sims and the MNM. I can’t find that data yet, but they were correct a couple of days ago with a “35.”This would raise our “Cases Per 100,000” value considerably. Obviously, I am very concerned. I started wearing my mask again two days ago. We live in an unvaccinated county. This is probably still Delta. We should know soon. “Merry Christmas.”

My computer ate my homework and I inadvertently deleted some good stuff. Sorry. Today’s not a total loss, however.

SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Antibody Response and Breakthrough Infection in Patients Receiving Dialysis

”…In our cohort, we were able to implement an unbiased monthly serologic testing strategy to study postvaccination response in a geographically diverse population with sizeable proportions of racial and ethnic minority groups and patients with chronic illnesses (such as heart failure or diabetes). Using these real-world data from a time when the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 was also circulating widely in the United States, we found a clinically meaningful indication that antibody values measured using an accessible assay and at time points remote from vaccination are strongly associated with risk for breakthrough infection. This brings us closer to defining a “persisting antibody” threshold (34) for immunity. The relative importance of such a threshold may be greater for high-risk or immunocompromised groups compared with otherwise healthy persons because many components of their immune response may be impaired (35). This is evident in our data, as 40% of patients with breakthrough infection were hospitalized.

”…Several studies have reported a stronger initial antibody response with mRNA-1273 [Moderna] than with BNT162b2 [Pfizer] putatively due to the higher mRNA dose in the mRNA-1273 formulation (35, 38). Our longitudinal analyses confirmed that persons vaccinated with mRNA-1273 maintained slightly higher index values than those receiving BNT162b2 throughout the 6-month follow-up. A single dose of Ad26.COV2.S [J&J] did not yield a detectable antibody response in more than half of patients. The manufacturers of Ad26.COV2.S recently submitted data showing improved efficacy of this vaccine with 2 doses given 2 months apart (39). Finally, although healthy persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection before vaccination seem to mount peak antibody responses that are more than 2-fold higher than among those who were not infected (40), we found that antibodies among patients receiving dialysis wane over time regardless of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and are equivalently low 6 months after vaccination. Patients with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection also experienced breakthrough infection in our cohort.”

From THE LANCET:

Serial antigen rapid testing in staff of a large acute hospital

(J. Harris: A short, readable description of Covid detection and containment in a large Singapore hospital. An expensive and sophisticated serial testing program is described — the results must have pleased a staff that seemed healthy and reasonable and intelligent to start with.)

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants: shooting the messenger

J. Harris: This is a short discussion of travel bands in countries who report variants.

HOW ABOUT A GOOD JOKE?