PlagueWatch 2020-23 - Coronavirus

[budwom]

our large local hospital just lifted the mask requirement as well for public places, but when you see the doc they want you masked (as they will be)...very very few cases here now, let's keep it that way.

[MChambers]

CDC and FDA have approved bivalent boosters for those over 65 and those with weakened immune systems: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-...americans.html

Since I turned 65 late last year, I'll be getting a booster in the next week or so.

[duke79]

CDC and FDA have approved bivalent boosters for those over 65 and those with weakened immune systems: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-...americans.html

Since I turned 65 late last year, I'll be getting a booster in the next week or so.

I'm scheduled to get mine tomorrow afternoon. It's been about six months since my last booster shot.

[Bluedog]

CDC and FDA have approved bivalent boosters for those over 65 and those with weakened immune systems: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-...americans.html

Since I turned 65 late last year, I'll be getting a booster in the next week or so.

I'm scheduled to get mine tomorrow afternoon. It's been about six months since my last booster shot.

I found this interesting. Seems like the bivalent booster is definitely a step up in effectiveness against severe outcomes (59%) when compared to the monovalent booster (only 25% effective):

Published Feb 2023:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2215471

For all participants 12 years of age or older, vaccine effectiveness against severe infection resulting in hospitalization over days 15 to 99 after receipt of one monovalent booster dose was 25.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], –0.2 to 44.2), and the corresponding vaccine effectiveness for one bivalent booster dose was 58.7% (95% CI, 43.7 to 69.8); the difference in vaccine effectiveness against this outcome between the bivalent booster and the monovalent booster was 33.5 percentage points (95% CI, 2.9 to 62.1). Vaccine effectiveness against severe infection resulting in hospitalization or death was 24.9% (95% CI, 1.4 to 42.8) for one monovalent booster dose and 61.8% (95% CI, 48.2 to 71.8) for one bivalent booster dose; the difference in vaccine effectiveness against this outcome between the bivalent booster and the monovalent booster was 36.9 percentage points (95% CI, 12.6 to 64.3) (Fig. S3 and Table 1). We obtained similar vaccine effectiveness estimates when the analysis was restricted to participants who were 18 years of age or older or 65 years of age or older...

Although note that the figures are "only" through Day 99 (approx 3 months), so the effectiveness is undoubtedly lower for most of the population now that we're 6+ months out, and that most people will be waiting a year between doses. Don't know what effectiveness levels are at those timeframes but unfortunately not all that high relatively speaking in all likelihood.

[MChambers]

I'm scheduled to get mine tomorrow afternoon. It's been about six months since my last booster shot.

Just got the second bivalent booster.

Who would have thought three years ago that I'd have six shots for Covid?

[Skydog]

Anyone know anyone whose gotten covid here in NC in the last month or so? I am not hearing about any cases despite massive public gatherings and little masking.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Anyone know anyone whose gotten covid here in NC in the last month or so? I am not hearing about any cases despite massive public gatherings and little masking.

Neighbor's coworker got it last week. 30s male, first time infected, fully vaxxed. Laid him out pretty good. Not hospitalized, but sure didn't feel well.

[-jk]

I've had three clients and a couple colleagues get it in the last couple months. All three clients are 70+, took paxlovid, and had no serious complications. The other two were 20's and 40's and came through fine, too, without paxlovid.

-jk

[devil84]

Anyone know anyone whose gotten covid here in NC in the last month or so? I am not hearing about any cases despite massive public gatherings and little masking.

Between the workplaces employing those in my household and those of my adult children, there are a number of people that have tested positive in the last few weeks. The wastewater numbers were fairly high a couple weeks ago.

I also know a number of people with "allergies I've never had before" who don't feel any need to test. They say that because they don't have a fever it can't be Covid. None of the six of us in my family that got Covid in February had a fever. In fact, had my daughter not tested just to make sure (she's a pediatric SLP who works with medically fragile children), we might not have thought we had anything other than the other crud that the grandsons had brought home from preschool. After my daughter tested positive, we tested everyone every day until positive and took temperatures multiple times per day even if positive, so we would have caught a fever, a process that took a while because it took 2-3 days between people testing positive (it was 2 weeks of testing, testing, testing -- I think we went through over 40 tests before the last one of us tested positive, and the two kids under 5, who are the difficult to get to hold still while swabbing, tested positive last). I think that because symptoms can be so mild and confused with allergies or a mild cold, people just aren't testing.

[aimo]

From what I understand, Durham is not "high" or red, but is still orange. I also saw that wastewater #s were edging up, which should predict an uptick. I still wear a mask indoors around people I do not know, except I ate at the Bull Durham last night and did not mask at all. I hope I don't jinx myself.

[camion]

Just got the second bivalent booster.

Who would have thought three years ago that I'd have six shots for Covid?

Also just vaxxed. I'm getting ready to visit airports for travel in May and thought it would be good to travel boosted.

[Furniture]

Anyone know anyone whose gotten covid here in NC in the last month or so? I am not hearing about any cases despite massive public gatherings and little masking.

My son. His partner and a co-worker. All three very mild. My son actually was on the way home for a visit when he got a text about the co-worker. We told him to come home anyway. The very next day he tested positive. He stayed with us for about a week and we coexisted with him pretty closely but he always used a mask when close to us (in the same room).
Who would have thought it….

[House P]

The wastewater numbers were fairly high a couple weeks ago.

Interesting, the wastewater numbers in eastern Massachusetts are the lowest they have been since the initial post-vaccine Summer.

[Skydog]

Thank you all for the responses. Apparently its still percolating here.

[rsvman]

Our numbers in Southeastern Virginia are now lower than at any time since March of 2020. Test positivity rate the week before last was 1.6%.

Rates were as high as 20-ish percent in January of 2021, by way of comparison.

[-jk]

Our numbers in Southeastern Virginia are now lower than at any time since March of 2020. Test positivity rate the week before last was 1.6%.

Rates were as high as 20-ish percent in January of 2021, by way of comparison.

Are people still testing, though?

-jk

[rsvman]

Are people still testing, though?

-jk

Testing is down, but unless Covid has now morphed into mostly an asymptomatic disease, less testing should actually make the percentage of positives higher, since docs are more likely to test people who are sicker. Back in the earlier days you were getting tested even if you only had a tiny sniffle. This watered down the pool by including a lot of people with allergies, rhinoviruses, etc.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Wow. This guy not only needs to lose his medical license, he needs jail.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community, according to a newly obtained document.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-s...175951425.html

[beergoddess]

for rsvman:

The FDA approves RSV Vaccine for older adults:

The Washington Post reports that "the FDA approved GSK’s RSV vaccine, called Arexvy, in adults 60 years of age and older. This marks the first U.S. approval of a vaccine in this indication, with a Pfizer vaccine following close behind and “under consideration for older adults and for pregnant people as a maternal vaccination that would protect newborn children.” Meanwhile, “a monoclonal antibody treatment for babies, developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca to offer vaccine-like protection during the winter RSV season, is also under consideration.”

The New York Times reports, “The GSK vaccine was nearly 83% effective in preventing lower respiratory tract illness in adults 60 and older in a study of about 25,000 patients," according to data published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The CDC ACIP should approve on June 21-22.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/h...da-adults.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...accine-adults/

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2209604

[cato]

for rsvman:

The FDA approves RSV Vaccine for older adults:

The Washington Post reports that "the FDA approved GSK’s RSV vaccine, called Arexvy, in adults 60 years of age and older. This marks the first U.S. approval of a vaccine in this indication, with a Pfizer vaccine following close behind and “under consideration for older adults and for pregnant people as a maternal vaccination that would protect newborn children.” Meanwhile, “a monoclonal antibody treatment for babies, developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca to offer vaccine-like protection during the winter RSV season, is also under consideration.”

The New York Times reports, “The GSK vaccine was nearly 83% effective in preventing lower respiratory tract illness in adults 60 and older in a study of about 25,000 patients," according to data published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The CDC ACIP should approve on June 21-22.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/h...da-adults.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...accine-adults/

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2209604

I haven’t visited this thread in a while (double guns at the sky with a whispered “thanks, Big Guy”), but when I saw it updated by “beergoddess,” I had to see the update.

I was happy to see it was about a positive development (I assume). I had never heard of RSV until Covid (boo) and this thread (still excellent) and rsvman in particular (double guns to our esteemed respiratory virus expert with a whispered “thanks, Big Guy”).

I heard this news and immediately thoughts of rsvman. I recall discussion way upthread about RSV vaccines he was excited about. My main takeaway at the time was trying to understand how soon we would get a Covid vaccine and how effective it might be, but now that the RSV vaccine is here, I would love to hear more from rsvman.