42. #ACIP member Pablo Sanchez, who has been one of the most vocal about his concerns about vaccine-associated myocarditis, is supportive of a *should* recommendation. To borrow a phrase from elsewhere: I've seen enough.
43. #ACIP member Keipp Talbot says "this booster will not be a hammer" becoz too many 12-15 yos aren't vaccinated at all.
"Boosters are incredibly important but they won't solve this problem of the crowded hospitals." Talbot thinks efforts should focus on getting kids dose 1 &2.
44. When #ACIP votes (probably in the next few minutes) it will be on a *should* recommendation.
Which means the vote will be about recommending kids 12-17 should get a booster. 16 & 17 yos are included because currently the recommendation for them is a *may* recommendation.
46. #ACIP votes 13 to 1 (1 member was absent) to recommend that youths 12 to 17 years old *should* get a Covid booster at least 5 months after their 2nd shot. This relates to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the only one authorized in this age group.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
1. #ACIP is meeting this afternoon to discuss the recently @US_FDA authorization of Covid boosters for youths aged 12 to 15. I'll be live tweeting. The agenda is here cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/… and the meeting can be monitored here: video.ibm.com/channel/VWBXKB…
2. Slide presentations for today's #ACIP meeting can be found here, though most of them aren't yet up: cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/…
3. At present there are 13 of the 15 #ACIP voting members in attendance. Chair Grace Lee says others may join later. This meeting was set up at short notice and members have had to scramble — as they have multiple times through the pandemic — to clear time for this meeting.
1. A short #flu 🧵 @CDCgov posted flu data for the week ending Dec. 25 today. Flu activity continues to increase, but remains at lower levels than in pre-pandemic years.
Most diagnosed flu infections are in 5-24 year olds. Flu activity is highest in the east & central US.
2. Virtually all #flu activity so far has been caused by the #influenza A virus H3N2. That's too bad as it is the most problematic of (human) flu A & B viruses. There's a mismatch this year this year in the H3 component of flu shots. (Week 51, left column, season to date, right.)
3. For the week ending Dec. 25 (week 51), 6.2% of tests run by clinical labs were positive for flu. I think the last time it would have been that high was the week ending March 21, 2020 (6.9%), when the very active 2019-20 flu season ran smack dab into Covid — and promptly ended.
1. 🧵 @CDCgov has changed its recommendations about isolation & quarantine following infection or exposure to someone infected with #Covid19. The changes will involve a shortening of isolation/quarantine for most people.
2. People who contract #Covid19 should isolate for 5 days (formerly 10). If their symptoms have ended by then, they should wear a well-fitted mask when around others for 5 days.
If symptoms haven't ended at 5 days, isolation (followed by 5 days of masking) continues till they do.
3. Regarding quarantine: People who've been vaxed & boosted don't need to quarantine after exposure to someone who is infected with #Covid19. But they should wear a mask around others for 10 days after the exposure. And they should get tested 5 days after the exposure event.
1. A sure fire sign #flu is making a comeback: 2 children in the US have died from flu this month. They are the first to die from flu in over a year. Last year there was 1 pediatric flu death, in the week ending Nov. 28, 2020.
Sad to see new additions to this graph.
🧵
2. There've been lots of ugly graphs in the past couple of years, but the pediatric flu deaths one from the @CDCgov's weekly FluView report has been a respite from them. The collapse of flu activity in the earlier days of the pandemic meant no kids dying from flu. Changing now.
3. One child died from #H3N2#flu the week ending Dec. 11. The second died the week ending Dec. 18; the causative flu strain hasn't been typed.
FluView reports that flu activity continues to increase & flu hospitalizations are climbing. Exactly what hospitals don't need now.
1. @WHO has released its latest global #flu update. Flu activity is still low, but it is definitely picking up after our 20 month or so #influenza holiday. Flu & #Covid cocirculating is going to make everything that much more complicated. who.int/teams/global-i…
🧵
2. @WHO reports that 3.2% of the nearly 235,000 respiratory samples tested for flu from Nov. 22 to Dec. 5 were positive. The flu positivity rate hasn't been that high globally since the second half of March 2020. (Chart=mine)
3. #Flu activity is still low relative to pre-Covid times, but it is on the rise in parts of the world. The mix of viruses circulating depends on the region; in North America & Europe, it's mainly H3N2. That's unfortunate; that component of the vaccine is mismatched.
1. @WHO presser underway. I'll tweet a little. @DrTedros, WHO's DG, said science came through in 2021 with amazing vaccines. But they were not shared equitably. There were enough doses produced to let every country vaccinate 40% of their people by Sept. But that didn't happen.
2. @DrTedros says vaccine production is increasing. But 20% of doses being used at this point are boosters. "No country can boost its way out of the pandemic," the @WHO DG said.
3. "Blanket booster programs are likely to prolong the pandemic, not to end it," @DrTedros said.
In 2021, 3.5M lives have been lost to #Covid — more than to HIV, TB and malaria combined. It is claiming 50,000 lives per week at this point, he said.