My daughter’s hospital is offering McA to ALL patient-facing staff who test positive. My daughter is currently isolating with a breakthrough infection and was offered it. But as her mild to begin with symptoms disappeared in about 5 days she declined.
2 Likes
Thanks. For anyone who is interested, I found an op-ed Michael Mina co-authored that supports this approach. Here is the relevant section:
“There has been a general reluctance to allow largescale rapid antigen testing due to concerns about the false negative rate of these tests – while quite sensitive to detect individuals who are actively spreading the virus, they are still not as sensitive as RT-PCR tests overall. For public health however, this is a good thing. PCR detects people during the initial span of ~7 days (in most cases) that they are infectious but also during the following 20 days that they are no longer infectious. Detecting people and isolating them after they are no longer infectious is not good for society, potentially taking up precious medical resources and isolation capacity. Unlike PCR, rapid antigen tests are highly specific to the period of time when people are transmitting but quickly turn negative afterwards, catching infections in the act of transmitting and preventing unnecessary isolations.”
Here is the link to the full opinion piece - it was drafted in response to Delta in India:
2 Likes
Also sad here that Michael Mina’s ideas never seemed to take off.
BinaxNow is under $20 at Walmart. I should have bought stock. I have used them liberally.
4 Likes
Orientation May matters a bit here because about 6 percent of those who tested positive for COVID were HIV positive. More common in a gay male population than generally. Many of the public health/ epidemiologists I’ve been seeing On Twitter (including Paule G Allen who has a piece in today’s WaPo) are NOT happy with the CDC using P-Town’s “bear week” study as a basis for their pronouncements.
2 Likes
Glad to read about Michael Mina and the lick a stick antigen tests. I have followed him since he explained his idea on TWIV in July 2020. I am guessing that it isn’t possible to make them as cheaply as he thought/hoped. (He is brilliant, but he is an epidemiologist, not an R&D guy for a medical diagnostics company).
For testing vaccinated people, antigen tests are a much better idea than PCR. This can be seen in several studies where only about half of the vaccinated people who test positive on PCR turn out to actually be positive for antigen.
This is likely because a vaccinated person’s immune system neutralizes the virus in the nose, but the PCR test can pick up “dead” fragments of viral RNA and come back positive.
PCR is good for the unvaccinated and vulnerable, because it’s good at detecting any possibility that this person has been infected with Covid. That’s important to know to start the clock for monoclonals, and treatment in general.
But PCR is too sensitive for use in most vaccinated people, especially those under 65. First of all, Covid is highly unlikely to be serious for them, so what we really want to know is whether or not they are infectious. The right test for that purpose would be an antigen test which detects the presence of proteins made by the virus when it is “live” and active.
Here’s an example from the study published in New England Journal of Medicine study of healthcare workers in Israel:
A total of 29 case patients (74%) had a Ct value of less than 30 at some point during their infection. However, of these workers, only 17 (59%) had positive results on a concurrent Ag-RDT [antigen test]. Ten workers (26%) had an N gene Ct value of more than 30 throughout the entire period; 6 of these workers had values of more than 35 and probably had never been infectious.
So, PCR in a vaccinated person tells you whether they have been infected, but it does not tell you whether they are infectious. We don’t know much yet about the infectiousness of vaccinated people with delta, other than that their chance of getting infected in the first place is much lower than an unvaccinated person. Also, if they do get infected, and are contagious, their window of contagiousness is shorter than an unvaccinated person’s.
3 Likes
Study of J&J - Janssen vaccine recipients’ antibodies and T-cells after 8 months:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2108829
Note that, out of the twenty people whose antibodies and T-cells were tracked, one had a breakthrough infection (this person initially had the lowest antibodies in the group) and two later received a different vaccine; these three had high antibodies measured later (red arrows in charts).
Otherwise, antibodies declined somewhat after 8 months, as did CD4+ T-cells, but CD8+ T-cells appeared to remain stable or rise slightly.
Antibody responses to variants were also checked at 1 and 8 months.
2 Likes
I don’t have a study at my finger tips, but I’ve heard immunologists say that they think the T-cell response (which takes longer to build but lasts longer) is the most important.
1 Like
I would be grateful if anyone could share any info (data, experiences, anecdotes all fine) regarding people with various conditions being helped by the vaccine like some Covid long-haulers have reported. I would be particularly interested in any stories concerning POTS autonomic dysfunction or allergies. I realize it’s too early for real data.
1 Like
This Johns Hopkins researcher may be be able to help you, is interested in POTS& COVID.
This article researcher on drug hypersensitivity mentions an ongoing study
5 Likes
Why israel is giving booster
Everyone should know that almost 9 out of 10 serious patients are over the age of 60,” Bennett said as he accompanied his mother, Mirna, to get inoculated Tuesday morning. “The third vaccine, simply ‘recharges’ the body’s defenses and allows us to save lives.”
1 Like
As someone about to turn 59, I always hope the drop down at least five years for a buffer when they make statements like that.
2 Likes
This article is a good overview of how current data does not support the assertion that vaccinated people are as likely to spread the virus as unvaccinated.
11 Likes
I’m seeing far too little information to be excited about. The vaccine is working like it’s designed to. Information from the government is as trustworthy as government information always is. The media loves to report things out of context for ratings. Information from social media is garbage. Life is back to normal 
2 Likes
Another study that shows vaccinated far less likely to get infected, and transmit virus compared to unvaccinated.
3 Likes
Unfortunately life is not back to normal for many people…12 and unders, anyone attending/working in K-12 schools or colleges, health care workers, musicians/theater personnel, immunocompromised, elderly, anyone who decides to have a heart attack/stroke/car accident in an area with full ERs and hospitals. I could go on, but I’m sure you get my point.
12 Likes
My life hasn’t been back to normal since 2/2020. It still isn’t and won’t be until we have higher % immunized and reassurance about whether to get a booster, when and which VAX. Sure would be nice to have more normal but it will be awhile—I have beloved relatives under 12 years old as well.
1 Like
We are surging in CA now. This article suggests we might get a break soon.
1 Like
I think Delta peaking in mid-August is a very optimistic prediction. It is already first week of August.
2 Likes
Our state went from averaging 100 cases/day in June to over 400/day now, with nearly 700 new cases today! Yikes!
If there’s anything we learned about this virus, it’s its unpredictability.
6 Likes