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Vincent Rajkumar Profile picture
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30 Sep, 4 tweets, 2 min read
The 7 most well vaccinated countries (all>75% fully vaccinated) are competing for the lowest death rates from COVID. #VaccinesWork Image
I could only have 6 countries in the graph. Singapore is same as well.
Some of these had recent spike in cases. But it didn't result in the type of loss of lives they had experienced with COVID in prior waves. ImageImage
The #1 country as expected is doing well. nytimes.com/2021/10/01/wor…

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Vincent Rajkumar Profile picture
2 Oct
Medicare Part D spends 60% of its money on 250 drugs that have only one manufacturer and no generic or biosimilar competitors. #UnregulatedMonopoly

13% on 2,208 other drugs with only one manufacturer

27% on 1,078 drugs with more than one manufacturer.
kff.org/medicare/issue… Image
Not all drugs with only one manufacturer are a monopoly. That's why some of single source drugs are lower priced. If an alternative drug is available from another manufacturer, there's competition; many equivalent drugs, especially generic equivalents, means real competition.
On the other hand, if a new cancer drug works for only a few months or years, and then stops working - the case with most cancer medicines - then even if there are multiple meds EACH drug remains a monopoly. Because we want to try each drug and prolong life the most we can.
Read 5 tweets
Vincent Rajkumar Profile picture
1 Oct
Of >51,000 Covid deaths in England between January and July 2021, only 256 occurred after full vaccination.

That is 256 out of 25-35 million fully vaccinated. Compared to >38,000 deaths in 20-30 million unvaccinated people.

1/ google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.…
The denominators are hard to nail down because vaccinations occurred over a 6 month period. But you get the idea.

2/
Caveats that affect direct comparisons:

- Older /high risk people were vaccinated first.

- Unvaccinated include children who cannot get a vaccine but are also less likely to have severe disease.

- Deaths that occurred early on before people had a chance to get vaccinated.
Read 4 tweets
Vincent Rajkumar Profile picture
29 Sep
How a variant can change everything.

We had 5 months of declining deaths after vaccines. After all, the proportion who were unvaccinated & susceptible existed during these months as well. But delta was just settling in

Once delta established itself, we are at >2000 deaths/day.
Whatever protection we had against original strain of Covid, disappeared with delta. delta was more transmissible. Taking off masks too early didn't help.

Deaths are very high with delta, but we would have faced a much bigger crisis without vaccines.
Based on Israel study on effect of vaccines in reducing deaths and hospitalizations, and knowing what happened in India, we probably saved >100,000 lives in the US because of vaccinations. thelancet.com/journals/lanin…
Read 5 tweets
Vincent Rajkumar Profile picture
23 Sep
The FDA seems to have been more lenient on who should get the booster dose than the CDC panel. How's is that going to play out?
Unlike the FDA, the CDC panel has not recommended a booster for those at high risk of occupational exposure. Something that an FDA advisory panel unanimously voted to recommend to the FDA. And the FDA obliged.
So we have an FDA approved EUA indication that is not recommended by the CDC panel.

Unless CDC director revises it, I think it will be interesting how this plays out for healthcare workers and teachers.
Read 7 tweets
Vincent Rajkumar Profile picture
23 Sep
Please don't think of it as natural immunity vs vaccine induced immunity. Think of it as a risky versus safe way of getting immunity.

Both present antigen to the immune system which responds in the natural way it was designed to. #COVID19
The whole virus which is capable of dividing presents the immune system with a bigger challenge & can overpower some people. Even previously healthy.

It also can cause serious damage before the immune system can react.

A vaccine provides the immune system a safer target & time
The word "natural" makes it sound like the virus is some kind of healthy fruit growing on a tree. It's not.
Read 4 tweets
Vincent Rajkumar Profile picture
23 Sep
Eta, Iota, & Kappa are no longer variants of interest. Well that's good! Maybe there is an end in sight; the rain of serious variants has slowed.

All 4 variants of concern were documented last year. None new this year.

Of the 2 variants of interest, none new since Jan 2021.
Variants of concern. See below.
HT @MenonBioPhysics
More details here @WHO who.int/en/activities/…
Read 4 tweets

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