That’s what I was trying to figure out as well. I find a lot of these articles about studies very confusing because they pick and choose what to discuss.
However, I’ve also read that the UK is preparing to give boosters to all over 50s starting next month. No real explanation….but perhaps they’re following Israel’s lead because they both have large swaths of their population vaccinated with Pfizer?
Feels a bit like we’re shooting in the dark right now because there are so many factors at play….and studies seems to be constantly playing catch-up with the variants. I hope someone is looking into lambda because no one seemed to do anything about delta when it was still relatively confined to India and now it’s everywhere….and contrary to what I heard the moderna CEO say about their ability to quickly pivot and modify their vaccines for Covid variants I haven’t seen much on that front. Also is producing more antibodies via the booster when it’s not targeted to delta really going to help? I hope so but haven’t seen any studies confirming that.
Totally agree on shooting in the dark. And the lack of info on tweaking vaccines for variants.
I am hoping for boosters before 8 months, for all who are vulnerable.
Transmission by those who are vaccinated, plus COVID transmission by those who are asymptomatic (whether vaccinated or not) just makes for a tough picture.
There seems to be a lot of panic in the air and I am hoping the media chooses not to inflame it further.
Exactly. I mean were they saying that severe long Covid is likely some sort of mental illness? I truly couldn’t follow as they seemed to be tip toeing around the issue.
" Psychosocial strain could be one contributing factor, particularly in light of the sharp increase in psychological distress amid the tragedy of the pandemic."
So just a short leap to “it’s all in your head”?
“if we understand this form of long Covid as a complex chronic illness, a biopharmaceutical solution is unlikely, and there may be no single cure. Rather, over time, a compassionate, humanistic team of professionals from multiple disciplines, including rehabilitation, can validate patients’ experiences and collaborate with them to improve their health in incremental yet significant ways.”
Sounds kind of unrealistic to me. Are there going to be enough professionals for all the teams that will be necessary?
And then perhaps the real point of the opinion piece – universal healthcare is needed!
I will be eligible for booster as soon as health care workers 8 months out are eligible–I got my first shot on 1/11 and I am a therapist seeing some clients face to face (well, mask to mask!).
I had a telehealth visit with my PCP and she ordered an antibody test for me to decide whether the shot is necessary.
If we have MBAs running our companies and economists making our national budget, we almost certainly won’t have enough testing kits, vaccines, or protective gears to deal with future pandemics.
It’s things like that that have medical lad’s group really concerned, not only in his neurology specialty, but several other specialties too. They worry about the lingering effects that are far more subtle than death and affect many, even if those folks don’t realize it’s going on inside their bodies. They wonder how it’s going to affect medical system capabilities over the next decade or two, esp as Covid survivors age.
@oldmom4896 I requested an antibody test because I took a steroid between my shots (and have lupus). My doc didn’t offer one. Can you give specifics on the test you are getting?
I was told by my doc that I could go ahead and have the booster but I want to be protected for the holidays so am delaying. I want to see if that is a good idea.
I think this is very interesting information to have as a guideline. I understand it’s only preliminary; it would be helpful to see how the recommendations might change over time.
Here are the publisher’s key findings from the study which the article @vpa2019 linked summarized.
Obtaining two vaccine doses remains the most effective way to ensure protection against the COVID-19 Delta variant of concern dominant in the UK today.
With Delta, Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines still offer good protection against new infections, but effectiveness is reduced compared with Alpha.
Two doses of either vaccine still provided at least the same level of protection as having had COVID-19 before through natural infection; people who had been vaccinated after already being infected with COVID-19 had even more protection than vaccinated individuals who had not had COVID-19 before.
However, Delta infections after two vaccine doses had similar peak levels of virus to those in unvaccinated people; with the Alpha variant, peak virus levels in those infected post-vaccination were much lower.
Other findings:
A single dose of the Moderna vaccine has similar or greater effectiveness against the Delta variant as single doses of the other vaccines.
Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech have greater initial effectiveness against new COVID-19 infections, but this declines faster compared with two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca. Results suggest that after four to five months effectiveness of these two vaccines would be similar – however, long-term effects need to be studied.
The time between doses does not affect effectiveness in preventing new infections, but younger people have even more protection from vaccination than older people.
It’s so interesting the information different people seem to highlight.
Of course, particular points jumped out to me with my biases which I have been musing on…
With Delta, immunity from natural infection is as good as two doses of Pfizer or Oxford-Astra Zeneca. Very interesting. (Warning: Natural infection is not a safe way to gain immunity and I’m not promoting it at all. It’s just good to know and take into account in dealings with unvaccinated but recently infected peeps.)
Pfizer vaccination immunity wanes after four or five months…and natural immunity wanes as well with more infections seen after 180 days…One vaccination on top of natural infection gives even higher levels of protection than two doses or natural immunity alone, but can it extend immunity longer? I hope somebody studies that.
The time between doses doesn’t seem significant after all…as we may have been led to believe seeing data comparing VE in Israel and the UK. Now I know not to stress about timing. Thank you, researchers, for that!
Vaccination does not reduce viral load in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated. While vaccination will keep people from getting sick with covid in the first place, if one should come down with any covid-like symptoms some months post-vaccination or post-infected, it seems wise to take care and practice prevention measures, especially around at risk people.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve seen that Moderna offers the most protection after one shot. I’m kind of interested to see data in the future about how Moderna performs over time.
I didn’t go back to check the reference, but this reminded me of an article I just read (catching up with old New York Times Magazines) it was a fascinating read about what we do and don’t know about our sense of smell, it’s connections with the immune system, the surprising fact that loss of smell often comes with the onset of schizophrenia and various dementias. Many people who lost their sense of smell found that contrary to what they expected it left them surprisingly depressed and anxious. It also apparently is not at all true that human have a bad sense of smell, but we don’t have good words for it, and we don’t train it as much as we probably could. I don’t know if it’s behind a paywall, but I thought it was really worth reading. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/magazine/covid-smell-science.html
I had a concussion many years ago. Since then, one sign of a migraine is a strong smell of burnt coffee, generated by my brain. After the concussion I had this smell “hallucination” for months but now only maybe once every few months. It is very unpleasant and makes it hard to eat, though sometimes I try eating certain things to blot out the smell.
I haven’t read that story, but the idea is fascinating and makes sense to me. Smell is one thing we can use to detect danger so I could see that losing that sense absolutely could make a person anxious.
While vaccination will keep people from getting sick with covid in the first place, if one should come down with any covid-like symptoms some months post-vaccination or post-infected, it seems wise to take care and practice prevention measures, especially around at risk people.