May 21, 2021 Prevention and Screening JAMA research letter used in part to ask the question, “How effective are the coronavirus vaccines for those who are immunocompromised?” More reason for everyone else to get vaccinated to protect them from Covid.
May 19, 2021 Clinical Research For those who have had AstraZeneca as their first dose, small Spanish study shows that using Pfizer as the second dose is safe and effective. More evaluation and other trials are ongoing but still, good news.
May 14, 2021 Clinical Research Give research the time to answer the question about the need for yearly Covid-19 vaccine boosters given that variants, present and future, will continue to be an issue for a while. Speculation is a mug’s game. Evidence is better.
May 13, 2021 Clinical Research Short-lived common side effects including fever, chills, pain, and headache after mixing AZ with Pfizer vaccine reported in @TheLancet. Immunogenicity results to be reported in June and if mixing is a viable option (likely but assumption needs evidence).
May 12, 2021 Epidemiology Risk calculus and interpretation changing in Ontario. Public Health recommends suspending first dose of AZ vaccine pending further data analysis. Outcome even if in favour of resumption will not change the erosion of public confidence.
May 6, 2021 Allergy/Immunology Jury still out on mixing and matching vaccines. Picture to become much clearer very soon with studies to come but assumption is that it should work given existing vaccines stimulate production of the spike protein with similar endpoint efficacy.
May 5, 2021 Clinical Research U.K. planning to give third Covid booster dose alongside the flu vaccine to people over 50 in the Fall. Studies looking at new variant-adjusted vaccine versus existing one to be used in this process.
May 4, 2021 Health Policy Agree with @YoniFreedhoff & @dgardner on the latest NACI statement about the risk of AZ vaccine: “So many facepalms” & “If I were writing a chapter on risk communication, I would use what NACI has done to illustrate every possible mistake”, respectively.
May 3, 2021 Allergy/Immunology The development of mRNA vaccine technology has the potential to expand to treat and prevent other diseases akin to the technological spinoffs seen with the Apollo space program.
April 30, 2021 Clinical Research Preprint study evaluated entire Scottish population and calls into question delaying second Covid vaccine dose up to 12 weeks. After first dose it noted a drop in preventing hospitalization from 84% at 5 weeks to 58% after the 7th. And after 16 weeks?