💡BREAKING—CDC study confirms the NIH-Moderna #COVID19 vaccine is more effective against #DeltaVariant hospitalizations than Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson. Vaccine efficacy for Delta🏥—Moderna 95%, Pfizer 80%, J&J 60%. VE also higher in age <74!🧵 cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/7…
2) “Overall, VE against COVID-19 hospital- ization was 86%. VE was significantly lower among adults aged ≥75 years (76%) than among those aged 18–74 years (89%) (Table). The difference in VE point estimates between age groups was similar for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines”
3) “Across all ages, VE was significantly higher among Moderna vaccine recipients (95%) than among Pfizer-BioNTech (80%) or Janssen (60%) vaccine recipients.”
4) Is this difference also true for ER visits too? Yes. For ER—“VE was highest among Moderna vaccine recipients (92%), followed by Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine recipients (77%), and was lowest (65%) for Janssen vaccine recipients (Table).”
5) What about all breakthrough infections? Well, CDC itself doesn’t track all cases nationwide. But luckily, Oklahoma tracks breakthroughs by vaccine type - and in this other report, Moderna also had the lowest vaccine breakthrough rates for total infections!
6) Show more proof? Moderna also produced 2.6x more antibodies against the #SARSCoV2 virus than Pfizer in another Belgian study! We think this is because Moderna’s standard dose is 100 microgram while Pfizer’s is 30 mcg. Many scientists acknowledge this + Moderna longer time gap.
7) Another study from Minnesota found an even bigger difference between Moderna and Pfizer… for breakthroughs, ➡️ Moderna had HALF as many breakthrough infections as Pfizer! Look at the graph!
8) Let’s still remember unvaccinated are still 11x more likely to die of #COVID19. Thus, any vaccine is still leaps and bounds better than no vaccine. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/09…
9) Moderna is also developing 4 variant adapted variant-specific spike vaccines! One for #DeltaVariant, one for #BetaVariant, one for Beta+Delta, and one for Beta+original!
10) Where else have we seen fewer breakthroughs with Moderna? DC health department also noticed it a month ago… much much lower than J&J, and somewhat lower than Pfizer.
It’s been an active debate for a while—but the clue were all there for us epidemiologists watching closely.
11) Moderna 3rd shot booster’s EUA is obviously coming soon. But there is a bug debate whether to EUA authorize it as a full standard 100 mcg dose or to cut it to 50 mcg dose for the booster. I hope 100 mcg! google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.…
12) excited for the new booster data from Israel. See thread 🧵 below 👇
⚠️BREAKING—ICU Hospitalized human bird flu case in Canada now officially confirmed as H5N1. Worse, it is the same 2.3.4.4b virus clade (variant group) as the one found in BC🇨🇦 poultry and in Washington state🇺🇸! The hospitalized teenager (with no pre existing conditions) had no animal contact, does not live on farm, had “deterioration quite rapid” and now critical in ICU with ARDS. Canada officials says infectious period is 2 days **prior to symptoms** (ie asymptomatic transmission) and infectious up to 10 days.
2) Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg confirmed that the individual has avian influenza H5N1 canada.ca/en/public-heal…
3) details…
⚠️BAD UPDATE—BIRD FLU HOSPITALIZATION IN CANADIAN TEEN
Summary 🧵 of the live press conference with Canada’s British Columbia health officer.
📌The teen is in intensive care.
📌Condition is ARDS
📌Teen was healthy prior; no underlying conditions
My god—Google Search for “what is a tariff” sudden spikes the DAY AFTER ELECTION DAY. 🤦🏻♂️
2) many folks simply don’t understand what a tariff is — unless you explain it several times to them with analogies. Even then, it’s hard for many to grasp. Eg 👇
📍HARRIS IS STILL AHEAD IN PA—in terms of votes yet to be counted. She’s still +2 of what is needed to win PA, given the outstanding votes still remaining in PA cities, according to @CBSNews @NorahODonnell
Plastic cookware should not be used. Period. Especially BLACK PLASTIC cookware, that often mixes in toxic recycled electronic waste materials. DISPOSE OF ALL PLASTIC COOKWARE, especially if black colored plastic ones. Pass it on to your family.
2) Because optical sensors in recycling facilities can’t detect them, black-colored plastics are largely rejected from domestic-waste streams, resulting in a shortage of black base material for recycled plastic. So the demand for black plastic appears to be met “in no insignificant part” via recycled e-waste, according to Turner’s research. TV and computer casings, like the majority of the world’s plastic waste, tend to be recycled in informal waste economies with few regulations and end up remolded into consumer products, including ones, such as spatulas and slotted spoons, that come into contact with food.
3) You simply do not want flame retardants anywhere near your stir-fry. Flame retardants are typically not bound to the polymers to which they are added, making them a particular flight risk: They dislodge easily and make their way into the surrounding environment. And, indeed, another paper from 2018 found that flame retardants in black kitchen utensils readily migrate into hot cooking oil. The health concerns associated with those chemicals are well established: Some flame retardants are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s hormonal system, and scientific literature suggests that they may be associated with a range of ailments, including thyroid disease, diabetes, and cancer. People with the highest blood levels of PBDEs, a class of flame retardants found in black plastic, had about a 300 percent increase in their risk of dying from cancer compared with people who had the lowest levels, according to a study released this year. In a separate study, published in a peer-reviewed journal this month, researchers from the advocacy group Toxic-Free Future and from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam found that, out of all of the consumer products they tested, kitchen utensils had some of the highest levels of flame retardants.
⚠️MASK MANDATE RETURNING TO ALL NIH PATIENT CLINICS—Effective November 4, 2024, masking will be required in all patient care & waiting rooms. Furthermore, testing for COVID, flu A, flu B, and RSV will be required for all inpatients & rooming-in visitors. cc.nih.gov/patient-servic…
2) This means wearing a mask will be REQUIRED in all patient care areas, including waiting rooms. ➡️This change is due to an anticipated increase in COVID-19 and other respiratory virus activity in the community. 😷
3) I think people should stock up on COVID tests again. The Cheapest COVID test on the U.S. market is now as low as $1.50 with special promo code “COV20”… expiring Jan or March 2025.