WANING—After 3 doses, effectiveness of Pfizer vaccine against Omicron (BA1) hospital admission was 📌85% at <3 months but fell to 📌55% at 3-5 months. For ER admission, VE of 3 doses was 📌77% at <3 months but fell to 📌53% at 3-5 months. 2 doses worse. 🧵 thelancet.com/journals/lanre…
2) Trends in waning against SARS-CoV-2 outcomes due to the delta variant were generally similar, but with higher effectiveness estimates at each timepoint than those seen for the (BA1) #omicron variant.
3) Analyses were done for 11,123 hospital or ED admissions at Kaiser… ➡️effectiveness of two doses against the omicron variant was 41% against hospital admission and 31% against emergency department admission at 9 months or longer after the second dose. 👀
4) we have long known 2 shots has very poor efficacy against #Omicron. It was low ever since it emerged. Booster is still very very very important for protection with 70% efficacy against symptomatic infection early on.
6) and it seems the Moderna booster is very different than the Pfizer booster. The T cell response seems different too. Many experts advise mixing up the vaccines for broader immunity coverage.
7) And what is the efficacy protection against #Omicron mortality with 2 shots? It’s now only 59%! But with a 3rd shot booster— surges to 95%! You don’t want to stay at 59% protection. You want 95% with a booster folks! Please I beg you all. #getboosted
8) And again, data from 🇬🇧 shows, have had a full Moderna 2 shot series is much stronger than 2 shots of Pfizer or AstraZeneca. The data shows it’s over and over again. It’s the vaccine that has the least relative waning against #Omicron.
9) Here is an example of misinfo/ misunderstanding about vaccine efficacy / effectiveness. this is claim of 50/50 chance is a grave misreading. 55% vaccine effectiveness means it cuts risk by 55. So if instead of 2 in 100 with severe disease, it is lowered by half to ~ 1 in 100.
10) in case I’m not clear— the Moderna vaccine seems much stronger than the Pfizer vaccine. Even if the Booster for Moderna is just 50 mcg instead of Pfizer’s 30 mcg, it’s still likely stronger. Also the upcoming age <5 Moderna vaccine will be 25 mcg vs just 3 mcg for Pfizer.
⚠️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.