February 15, 2021 Clinical Research Israeli study offers more evidence of Pfizer vaccine efficacy with 94% drop in symptomatic cases and 92% decrease in severe illness in people aged 55 and older.—- Restriction-easing plan in Ontario risks Yo-Yo effect once again.
February 12, 2021 Epidemiology Who/what priority group is next in line with limited vaccine supply once those most at risk are vaccinated? Gut-wrenching decisions & no easy solutions considering Minorities, socioecon status, work environment, med hx, and other interconnected factors.
February 8, 2021 Epidemiology Some governments and businesses are preparing for the reality of endemic Covid-19 according to report in @WSJ
February 5, 2021 General information Do people need a mask upgrade? @WSJ reviews the studies and some of the recommendations.
February 2, 2021 Epidemiology First case of South African variant confirmed in Ontario’s Peel Region. Person had no history of travel. Dominance by more vaccine-resistant virus helped in part by slow vaccine rollout, incomplete public health measures and virus response to same.
February 1, 2021 Health Policy Vaccine/Variant Whack-a-Mole: Concerns raised that slow vaccine rollout, combined with incomplete strategies to prevent infection and spread can lead to a greater risk of further coronavirus mutations and reduced vaccine efficacy.
January 29, 2021 Epidemiology The variant is to model outcome predictions as Asimov’s Foundation series’ Mule was in Hari Seldon’s Psychohistory projections. Extracting six doses per vial instead of five is like Jean Luc Picard being told there are five lights when there are four.
January 26, 2021 Geriatrics Vaccine shortage has led to Ontario’s plan to delay health care provider’s second dose for some and redirect them to long-term care residents so that by Feb. 5 all will have had at least one dose.
January 22, 2021 Epidemiology Ontario’s provincial case rate has started to decline for the first time since November. Ontario’s Associate Medical Officer of Health says it is still too early to determine if this represents a true trend.
January 21, 2021 Clinical Research Israeli real-world Pfizer vaccine study reports infection rates dropped by 33% in treatment group of 200K people >60 y.o vs 200K controls after 21 days, less than predicted by proponents of delaying 2nd dose. Stay on schedule until proven otherwise.