COVID-19: Chapter 7 - Brags, Beats, and Variants

I agree its going to be hard to get the vaccine program where it should be, but is it possible we get a little help from a natural summer lull in cases?

A leading virologist who said one of two Brazilian COVID-19 variants had been detected in the UK has now said the one picked up in Britain is not the one “of concern”.

Speaking earlier at the launch of a new variant research group, Professor Wendy Barclay said: “There are two different types of Brazilian variant and one of them has been detected in the UK.”

During the briefing, she warned that studies from other groups, and G2P-UK, are suggesting the Brazil variants “might impact the way that some people’s antibodies can see the virus”, so there may be a risk of reinfection which would have “big implications”.

Possibly. But the end of summer, there is a good chance that no one will give a fuck about COVID any longer. Everyone who wants vaccine will have had it. And everyone who doesn’t is fine with yoloing it up. So it should back to business as usual. There will still likely be lots of COVID deaths, but we will be numb to it (even more than we are now).

If the vaccines don’t prove to be as effective as claimed or the mutations confer vaccine resistance, then that would change things.

Cliffs on tPA issue?

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yes, absolutely. Polio at one extreme as the vaccine apparently has (near?) zero impact on transmission.

I don’t know what the average difference between transmission prevention effectiveness and illness prevention effectiveness. But we shouldn’t assume that it’s going to be zero in this case. And this isn’t an unknowable piece of information, it’s just important to be aware what they’re talking about when they say “95% effective” and that the transmission prevention effectiveness number will take more effort to determine.

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tincy nitpick, if I may…95% efficacy - too early to know effectiveness

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Well, I guess I could have said respiratory illness, instead of disease. But sure, let’s go with polio.

Now, what is the mechanism by which polio can be transmitted by certain vaccinated individuals who can transmit it?

Ok, once you’ve answered that, how does it apply to COVID?

I’m OK in not assuming it to be zero. But assuming it to be 50% is even more ridiculous based on our understanding of how how such viruses are transmitted and how the vaccine works.

Meh, there’s a bunch of studies on thrombolytics and stroke in the 90s. tPA is a thrombolytic, aka a clot buster. Most were negative, some showed harm. They finally got a positive study in a very specific group of patients (0-3 hours from stroke onset) using some questionable methods using tPA only. This has since been slowly expanded to 4.5 hours using tPA or a different drug called TNK (which failed every single trial on it’s own but not in a study that looked in 0-4.5 hours exactly like tPA) using other studies of dubious quality. Basically the issue is that thrombolytics are more likely than placebo to bust the clot causing the stroke, at the cost of making it more likely you have a brain bleed. There’s a balance that has to be struck.

Despite the evidence not being great tPA was immediately heralded as a game changer by the AHA, who just happened to have the makers of tPA (Genetech) pay $2.5m for their headquarters in Dallas.

tPA is the right thing to do for a select set of patients in stroke, but the way we got there was really shitty. We now use TNK at my hospital based on a few non-inferiority trials basically because you can give it as one shot instead of an hour long infusion like tpa.

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I’m pretty sure Biden reads the thread. LFG.

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Interesting, I knew they had expanded the window but none of the backstory. Thanks.

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It honestly feels amazing to have someone credibly tell me they won’t purposely lie to me lol

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My parents have an appointment to get vaccinated. They are pretty Trumpy but I’ve been able to help guide them into making smart decisions about covid and knowing that they will be relatively safe soon is a huge relief.

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No idea what any of this means, but definitely here for it!

Just got home from getting my first Moderna shot. Strangely didn’t feel it as much as I usually feel other shots, and now I don’t feel anything, I couldn’t even point to where on my arm I got the injection. took about 15 minutes to get the shot and then they kept me for another 15 minutes which was the most nerve-wracking part of the wohle thing because i was in a room with a bunch of other (masked) people waiting the 15 minutes. Overall A+, would vaccinate again. Also took the opportunity to profusely thank the nurse who gave me the shot and the nurse in the waiting area.

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How did you qualify to receive the shot?

Because of my job.

Good chance Trump sent placebo to NY. Good luck!

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Congrats on getting it. Are most of your co-workers getting it as well?

Vaccine police woowooweewoo :rotating_light:

Thanks. Yeah, pretty much everyone I"ve talked to is either now booked for an appointment or trying to book . It’s pretty reassuring because if I had polled everyone in my office 4 months ago, it’d problbay be like maybe 60-40 for people who wanted the vaccine immediately versus weren’t sure or said they wouldn’t get it. Now it’s everyone trying to get one. I think it’s a positive sign for society at large. When the vaccine isn’t abstract but a chance to escape the daily hell of maybe catching a fatal disease, I think the vast majority will opt to vaccinate.

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