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Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 Profile picture
@michaelzlin
Jan 31, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
🙄 Count on some "researchers" to claim the obvious answer isn't the answer.

Did we want a vax to the original strain? We did?

Is SARSCoV2 now mostly Omicron? It is?

Okay then...
Chances are nonzero that the next variant will come from the currently most widespread and most contagious variant, i.e. Omicron. Good to be prepared.
Basically in this epidemic, if the question is "should we .... just in case?" the answer is yes. Just do it.
The two scariest words from that Nature news article?

WHO committee
Aha to give the WHO committee credit they arrived at the right answer. I guess the logic of updating your vaccines with actually extant viral sequences was too straightforward to refute.
who.int/news/item/08-0… Image
BTW news coverage of various crises within the epidemic makes a lot more sense if you just imagine "what would big pharma say at this point"? e.g. media voices hesitation on variant-specific boosters (top tweet) when big pharma had original-strain vax to sell but no variant vax
When variant vax are ready you can expect news stories about their advantages. Not saying media purposely advertise for pharma, but reporters know companies have more data than the CDC, treat pharma predictions/ideas as newsworthy, and many aren't able to find indep. sources.
That's why the news articles about Pfizer or Merck vax and pills were ~100% favorable. What big pharmas say is news because they are big, whereas what anybody else says is not important by definition. Okay for political and financial news, but not accurate as science journalism.
Example below. No second opinions presented, just a straight repeat of what the Pfizer CEO says. Because what a CEO says about what CDC and FDA should do is news in itself, it seems.
thehill.com/policy/healthc…
Of course this has the effect of biasing the jury. By making it seem a foregone conclusion it will make it harder for FDA or CDC to resist approving whatever Pfizer wants to sell. Fine if it's an updated booster. Not so fine if it's the obsolete formula.

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More from @michaelzlin

Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 Profile picture
Sep 3
New study in JAMA: azelastine antihistamine nasal spray reduced occurrence of COVID19 and common cold by 67% in a placebo-controlled (but small) study.

Azelastine in the US is sold OTC as Astepro, just $10 at CVS (with coupon). Note it's not the more common steroid nasal spray Image
Azelastine is generic now, and this was an academic study. Little interest by companies to test off-patent drugs. It was done in Germany (zero interest by US to do COVID-19 research now)

Trial was n=450 split into azelastine and placebo groups. That's large by academic standards
Subjects took azelastine 3x/day for 8 weeks. SARS2 antigen testing was done 2x weekly by study personnel, so not self-reported which is good. Those with symptoms but SARS2 negativity were tested for other viruses. Solid study.

SARS2 rate 2.2% treatment v 6.7% placebo, p = 0.02 Image
Read 20 tweets
Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 Profile picture
Aug 19
People have been asking about the SARSCoV2 (COVID19) vaccine outlook so I'll summarize as best as I can. But overall, the current situation is chaotic and in constant flux, and if FDA is trying to apply consistent criteria then they haven't shown it yet
Right now there are 4 vaccines from 3 companies covering 2 technologies with FDA approval in some form or other. The approvals are for different age ranges and risk categories. In addition each August or September new formulations have to be reapproved, kind of like influenza.
The vax are Comirnaty (Pfizer), Spikevax (Moderna), mNEXSPIKE (Moderna), and Novaxovid (Novavax). The first 3 are RNA, the last is protein. HHS.gov shows who qualifies for each, but hasn't been updated with mNEXSPIKE. Must be the DOGE cuts hhs.gov/coronavirus/co… Image
Read 22 tweets
Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 Profile picture
Jul 6
In case you think cameras can detect cars or people ahead of them through the glare of the sun, or that AI has learned to react to ambiguous situations with the, well, intelligence of humans, read this Image
It's a frightening and sad story (a grandmother was killed) and I'm surprised to find out about it only now.

There's clear evidence from the Tesla's own cameras that no kind of image processing can beat glare (and that FSD lacks all sense of caution)
bloomberg.com/features/2025-…
Glare happens when light rays from the sun get scattered by water or dust in the air at every lit location to new directions. That means air between an object and the camera can scatter sunlight toward the eye or camera.
Read 7 tweets
Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 Profile picture
May 18
FDA has granted regular approval to the Novavax vaccine. What does this mean? A lot of things, all good.

1- It proves Novavax has met efficacy and safety criteria to merit approval outside of the emergency use situation.
Novavax is safer than the RNA vaccines, but ironically the RNA vaccines received full approval earlier than Novavax. That meant Novavax was the only COVID vaccine which vaccine skeptics could incorrectly claim was not safe enough to receive regular approval.
2- Novavax will get to participate in annual booster updates on the same terms as the RNA vaccines. This year's advisory committee for booster strain selection has already been scheduled.

3- All health insurers should now cover Novavax.
Read 14 tweets
Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 Profile picture
Apr 18
"Novavax had 1.7 systemic symptoms compared with 2.8 in Pfizer recipients. In total, 43.8% of Pfizer vaccinees reported at least one symptom of moderate or higher grade, compared with 24.2% of Novavax"

@RobertKennedyJr in case you didn't know. It's also more broadly protective. Image
This is the 2nd controlled study to show about half the side effects rate for Novavax vs Pfizer.

Of the 3 covid vaccines, Novavax is the only one still on EUA. Happens it's the smallest of the 3 companies and hasn't hired ex-FDA staffers.

Article below.
cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/novav…
FDA had a deadline of April 2 (this month) to decide on regular approval for Novavax, and reportedly was going to, except Peter Marks resigned the day before. Sadly he didn't sign the approval before he left. Was different for Pfizer and Moderna, who got early review and approval
Read 9 tweets
Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 Profile picture
Mar 25
Our NIH grant to discover coronavirus antiviral meds was terminated today.

With this grant, we had developed a better SARSCoV2 inhibitor than Paxlovid, and we recently discovered an improved drug that looks better than Pfizer's own second-generation inhibitor. Image
This is part of a complete elimination of COVID19-related research, including on long COVID.

The rationale given is that the pandemic is over.

In reality, people are dying of COVID at several times the rate of flu, and still getting long COVID.

arstechnica.com/health/2025/03…
This goes against RFK Jr's stated intention to concentrate on chronic disease.

Long COVID is a bad chronic disease to get, and there are reports of long COVID cases getting better immediately after treatment by protease inhibitors such as the ones we are improving.
Read 9 tweets

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