Few U.S. adults are getting new flu, COVID and RSV vaccines, researchers report. Via @CIDRAP: https://t.co/myTOtO5yrX
— The Nation's Health (@nationshealth) November 25, 2024
Health officials in British Columbia, Canada, have failed, for now, to confirm how a teenager there became infected with H5N1 bird flu. www.statnews.com/2024/11/26/b…
BREAKING: #CDC reports it has confirmed that a child in California tested positive for #H5N1. The child had no known exposures to infected animals or poultry. The child had mild illness and is recovering.
I discuss in this video what cases like this mean, and why they are a bit unsettling.— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) November 22, 2024 at 12:52 PM
[email protected] reports finding #H5N1 #birdflu virus in raw milk. The producer, Raw Farm LLC of Fresno County, has agreed to recall a batch of a whole milk product called "cream top."
Milk from infected cows contains staggering levels of virus. www.statnews.com/2024/04/29/b…— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 6:28 PM
Europe tightens H5N1 surveillance as winter flu season looms
The risk of H5N1 combining with other influenza viruses is predicted to soar by five-fold this winter.
The Telegraph https://t.co/L2ypCB6bkZ
— SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@COVID19_disease) November 22, 2024
California reported its first #H5N1 #birdflu infected dairy herds on Aug. 30. Today, less than 3 months later, the state's infected herd count topped 400. The vast majority of these herds are still in quarantine for the infection. How is this not affecting availability of/pricing of milk?
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) November 22, 2024 at 8:58 AM
Interesting factoid about California's #H5N1 #birdflu in cows problem: the CA Dept of Food and Agriculture says that to date 9 previously infected herds have cleared quarantine.
Only 9.
That means 327 dairy herds in the state remain in quarantine.— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 7:26 PM
Not sure this is on the incoming administration's radar, but it ought to be. #H5N1 #birdflu in dairy cows — and poultry, and people — isn't going away. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/o…
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 11:50 AM
Conservatives are going to start saying "we need to abolish the FDA and it's onerous pasteurization requirements, and replace it with an institution that makes sure farmers safely boil their raw milk"
— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 4:09 PM
Nov 22nd update:
The US is maintaing unseasonably good numbers. Almost 4x ⬇️ lower than same week average of prior years. Good news going into a week of Thanksgiving travel and gatherings.
🔸182,000 new infections/day
🔸1 in every 183 people currently infected pic.twitter.com/HXeF24GEgr— JWeiland (@JPWeiland) November 23, 2024
======
Australia: Victoria seeing increase of people being hospitalised with COVID-19 https://t.co/SmkrPjm4Ny
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) November 27, 2024
Netherlands:
Targeted texts boost #COVIDvaccine uptake, 2 trials show
In @CIDRAP #COVID19 https://t.co/4F3q0yZwWS pic.twitter.com/ZzVMjAvIqx
— APPRISE (@APPRISE_network) November 26, 2024
======
As an emergency physician from day 1 of the pandemic, who was offered a COVID vaccine the first week it was available, I had watched young, healthy people die in alarming ways, but I was worried about sticking this stuff into my arm that was approved under an emergency authorization. 1/
— Ari B Friedman (@abfriedman.com) November 21, 2024 at 8:54 AM
So I went and read the paper describing the vaccine trial results. I’ve read thousands of scientific papers. I lead “Evidence in the ED” sessions teaching residents how to critically analyze papers and find flaws and future areas to be explored. 2/
When I read the paper describing the vaccine trial, I cried. Whole body sobs. In medicine we are often shooting for a game of inches, trying to improve neurologic survival by a few percent. The trial was incredibly carefully conducted, a rigorous evaluation showing made was a massive difference. 3/
The vaccine was a full 100 yards, a touchdown run initiated from our own end zone. Differences in outcomes that big should be visible not just in trials but in obvious differences in the lives of the sick patients in front of us. My car was parked on a block of ice and the plows were out. 4/
But I drove anyway to get my shot. And it worked. Over the next months every vaccinated patient I saw was better off than they would have been before. I stopped seeing young, healthy people with lungs that looked like pea soup. 5/
And older, frailer patients with multiple chronic conditions lived instead of dying. It is such an obvious win for humanity. Rolling back vaccines will kill people, maim them, destroy lives for no reason. 6/6
Thread:
To preserve it over here on 🦋, and to again reiterate that the Public Health measures taken back then to save lives were 💯 worth it, I repeat:
🧵An ICU nurses' response to that terrible article:
👉The 77 things I hated about what COVID did to the human body.
📸 Heather Patterson Photography— Caroline Dew (@caro-icu.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 8:32 PM
It's alarming how the all of the death that occurred and the desperation for a vaccine was memory holed. Then people were angry that Covid didn't just vanish immediately when the first people started to get vaxxed. Bad faith assholes claimed that the vax was dangerous and didn't work.
— numb3r5ev3n (@numb3r5ev3n.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 2:49 PM
And pushed that narrative. And then had the nerve to ask why people were still getting sick. I'll never not believe that the antivaxx propaganda wasn't an Active Measure.
— numb3r5ev3n (@numb3r5ev3n.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 2:50 PM
Study: No unexpected COVID vaccine safety concerns in kids
Postvaccination reactions were reported for 46.7% of children.https://t.co/kSeP6fX86E pic.twitter.com/vIOqrt4WgX
— CIDRAP (@CIDRAP) November 26, 2024
Covid and heart sequelae
gift link www.nytimes.com/2024/11/22/w…— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 9:40 AM
Then (2020) and Now
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/… @science.org
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/22/w… @nyt-first-said.bsky.social— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 10:12 AM
How well do vaccines protect vs #LongCovid, a systematic review during the Omicron era?
—about 20% reduced by primary series (vs no vaccination), and
—another 20% reduction by boosters vs primary series
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1…— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 10:33 AM
The #SARSCoV2 XEC variant keeps gaining in the United States, new CDC data
covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-t…
But the KP.2 or JN.1 boosters should (by multiple lab assessments) provide good protection and this variant hopefully will not be associated with a substantial wave— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) November 22, 2024 at 10:37 AM
Northwestern Medicine research suggests COVID-19 RNA can induce immune cells with anti-#cancer properties, offering a potential new therapeutic approach for cancers resistant to traditional treatments. @northwesternu @jclinicalinvest https://t.co/qWZGmSbznp…
— Medical Xpress (@medical_xpress) November 20, 2024
======
#News: Rand Paul plans to investigate Covid-19 origins from his new perch leading a key committee www.statnews.com/2024/11/22/r…
If disease outbreaks happen, the new administration will be distracted only if
1) They care about the people getting sick
and
2) They don't decide to simply lie about it, which was Trump's strategy for COVID until it became so big that it was unignorable— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 10:33 AM
New from me: Republican doctors in the Senate responsible for confirming Robert F Kennedy Jr REALLY don't want to talk about his views on vaccines and autism.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a…— Eric Michael Garcia (@ericmgarcia.bsky.social) November 22, 2024 at 5:17 PM
"Congratulations! You didn’t die of measles." @laurahelmuth.bsky.social on the miracle of vaccines are, and the dangers of RFK Jr.
slate.com/_pages/cm3qc…— Shannon Palus (@shanpalus.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 8:08 AM
Dr Jay Bhattacharya is Trump’s pick for Director of NIH. During COVID he advocated to let the virus spread widely so the US would get to herd immunity faster. His plan would have killed many more Americans. He also thought COVID might only kill 40K people. He was off by 1.2…
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) November 27, 2024
If Bhattacharya testifies I would ask
-how many Americans have died of Covid?
-did you predict 30,000 Americans would die of Covid?
-would you be getting this job if you hadn’t gotten that wrong?— ????Centrist Madness???? (@CentristMadness) November 21, 2024
This is the most important chart published in America this week.
(By @dylanlscott.bsky.social)— Mark D. Levine (@marklevinenyc.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 10:04 PM
On The Road – ema – City Livin’
Baud
Vaccines > Republicans
Chris T.
I got all the vaccines, and yet, I caught COVID last month, and am suffering through death flu aftermath now. No fair! /whine
JoyceH
Geez – remember (it wasn’t that long ago) when the news media covered the first truckloads of COVID vaccine being shipped out live like it was a moonshot?
JoyceH
@Chris T.: I just tested positive yesterday and I’m being a thorough hypochondriac about it. Didn’t even make it to bed last night, snoozed in the recliner surrounded by my blood pressure monitor, thermometer and pulse oximeter.
Quantum man
We are vaccinating up on everything. Getting ready for the potential dark times.
p.a
Waiting on liberal pastors to mimic the god-botherers: “these diseases are god’s judgement on us for electing a degenerate… multiple times”
Splitting Image
I think it is virtually certain that COVID was a form of biological warfare instigated by the Chinese to hurt everybody but themselves (and for some odd reason, the Jews).
That is why I support dismantling the entire state apparatus that investigates the origins and spread of viruses like COVID and encourage the adoption of herd immunity to prevent the spread of diseases like COVID.
I am a serious person.
But seriously, Anne. Thanks for keeping up these reports all these years. They have been one of my go-to places for information since the pandemic started.
MagdaInBlack
What RFKbw isn’t saying, at least in public (to my knowledge) is that he believes that we have “weakened” society through the use of vaccines. Let the disease take the “weak” so we have a stronger society. Ain’t that sorta kinda eugenics?
Baud
@p.a:
I’d rather liberal pastors blame the degenerates directly rather than God.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Splitting Image:
You just described the modern GOP, that’s the sad and very scary part. That and they’re in charge and you just provided their health program Mission Statement.
NotMax
“Call it.”
“Heads.”
“Hah, tails. Your day to shove the black lights up the cow butts.”
:)
Princess
@MagdaInBlack: Not sorta. It is eugenics. It is becoming clear to me that current Republican health policy is to try to kill a lot of preferably old people to reduce social security and Medicare costs, and they’re really angry they lost the chance to let it rip with COVID. Joke will be on them if it turns out avian flu kills mostly young working-age people. Haha not funny.
NotMax
@Princess
Invest in ice floe futures?
//
Rusty
The spring of 2020 my then 12 year old ended up in the hospital for 6 days with pediatric cardiac inflammatory syndrome from exposure to COVID. That was scary as hell (only my wife could be with him, I couldn’t even go to the hospital). I find it mind bending how we now have elected an anti-vax government. In the pre- vaccine world, my great aunt got rubella, and the high fever left with a permanent mental disability. It’s insane anyone would risk that with their children when it is preventable.
Ramalama
Is there an AI firm that also manufactures calipers (for skull measurement)?
Love,
The Stock Market
TBone
After reading the 77 Things, I’m feeling grateful despite (because of) my comparatively minor long term symptoms. Dear lort. Enhanced IBS et al. is much better than dead bowel removal.
New Deal democrat
I am away from my spreadsheet at the moment, but as the lead note points out, both Biobot and the CDC’s latest updates show COVID particles in wastewater close to their all time previous lows, and we’re still declining slightly as of mid-November. This is close to astounding for this late in the autumn.
As of the last full week of reporting, there were only 597 deaths. The most recent preliminary week shows only 219 death, which will probably end up being about 450-500 deaths – compared with about 1,500 this time last year. For the past 52 weeks, there have been “only” 57,000 deaths, an all-time low.
How much the wastewater counts start to rise after Thanksgiving should give us a good indication of whether our recent great fortune will continue. The best case scenario is something like 1,000 fewer deaths each week compared with last year’s Holiday season – which would bring us down to about 40,000 or so annual deaths – or a higher than average flu season.
I am not particularly concerned about the XEC back-cross variant, because it is an increasing percentage of a smaller total, meaning slow absolute growth.
Chris T.
@TBone: Wait, what 77 things? I find myself lost. (Can you find yourself lost? If you’ve found yourself, you’re found, aren’t you?)
Erin
I not only have to say thank you for these weekly updates, but also thank you for the vast majority of links coming from BlueSky instead of Xitter!
TBone
Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet starring Edward G. Robinson is on TCM right now.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Ehrlich's_Magic_Bullet
TBone
@Chris T.: it’s a bluesky post (I dunno the proper term) on the front page, you have to click on it and then ‘continue the thread’ to read all 77 Things (not for the faint of heart!)
I like your style!
TBone
@TBone: forever grateful to him in the battle against little corksuckers and for his many other achievements (including chemotherapy).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_bullet_(medicine)
He faced opposition on all fronts admirably.
Link fix?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Ehrlich's_Magic_Bullet
WereBear
@JoyceH: They just promote big things. They don’t make many attempts to hook everything together.
narya
I am sufficiently old that I got sick with both mumps AND rubella; I still remember the mumps, and that was nearly 60 years ago. Last week I got the Novavax booster, in part because of the info I found here, so thank you, AL! I really appreciate all of your work these last years. All the rest of my shots and boosters were Moderna, so I figured I’d switch it up this time.
wenchacha
I’m trying to understand why my sister’s dr told her a booster wouldn’t offer her much more protection than what she has now. I feel like there must be a study somewhere that says as much? Even if that were true, why not increase protection by a little bit?
Same dr also told her when she had Covid, that Paxlovid wasn’t needed. I’m reluctant to interfere with what her dr is saying, and there are contraindications for Paxlovid, but my sister is 72! 😐
Kristine
I asked my PCP’s office about measles titer and my doc put in the order, so I’ll be getting that done in a couple of weeks and I’ll have time to get vaxed if necessary. I had asked about any other vaccines and Hep A was one she mentioned so I will try to get that too.
Gov Pritzker asked his people to shore up all they could to stop the expected wave of shit from the incoming administration. Hoping Illinois and other blue states can throw as much sand in the gears as possible.
Also adding my thanks 🙏 to all the others, AL.
TBone
@wenchacha: I would loudly interfere (present sister with evidence of vaccine protections against long Covid and death). Something she could present to her doctor if she needs to argue her pro-vaccine case.
If Jewish Dr. Ehrlich had listened to the Nazis and the medical naysayers and all the people pearl clutching about syphilis, it’d be an ugly, uglier, ugliest world we live in right now.
wenchacha
@TBone: Thanks. I will try. She is not anti-vax at all, and has no problem wearing a mask. I don’t entirely get it.
TBone
@wenchacha: does she have weakened immune system problems? I can’t think of any other reason a doctor would discourage vaccine uptake (unless s/he is a quack) if sister’s last shot was six months ago or longer!
I have a weakened immune system and the vaxx has only helped me. Never a problem with Moderna or Pfizer Covid boosters or the original shots.
wenchacha
@TBone: Not that I know of, and she shares med info with me. I suspect her dr is on the fence with too many others. Wonder if her dr will be consulting with Trump’s med team.
I am trying to get her to try Novavax, and like millions of other Americans, she has no awareness of it. 😐
TBone
@wenchacha: I wish you both success! Especially you in your powers of persuasion. Maybe sis is not clearly communicating what doc says or what she tells the doctor? Get more details if you can.
Bill Arnold
@MagdaInBlack:
RFK Jr is upset that he has only racked up a 5 figure(maybe 6) death count so far. He wants to boost his kill score. Infectious diseases are his current weapon of choice. IMO.
Masks (respirators) work very well vs low-R infectious respiratory viruses like influenza viruses, especially combined with (hand, particularly) hygiene. In an influenza pandemic, the Republicans vs Democrats kill ratio will be high.
Bill Arnold
Just for reference, this years CDC table for influenza (normal strains):
Influenza Positive Tests Reported to CDC by U.S. Clinical Laboratories 2024-2025 Season
You need to bump the week number every week e.g. “cl46” to “cl47” – just keep increasing it until you get a not-found. (week number rolls over at the end of the year).
Anyway, influenza A is ramping up, with a test positivity of > 2.0
Kayla Rudbek
@Rusty: I wonder if it’s because they really didn’t and don’t want to have children and having them die of disease is god’s will, not murder
Kayla Rudbek
@TBone: yeah, presumed weakness in my immune system (cancer survivor) is how I have managed to justify getting vaccinated for things that they normally wouldn’t do unless I was over 65
Ryan
I will be honest. I work at a university, which until last year has been pretty good to us. But why, when they are freely distributing flu shots are not also distributing COVID-19 shots? I mean, all our insurance goes through them, so they know who we are and they can pass on the costs. I just don’t get it.
artem1s
And five minutes after the fundie community finally kicks TCF to the curb for killing off too many of their
donor rubescongregants, it will be the fault of a George Soros driven conspiracy that lead ‘vulnerable’ true Christian voters to embrace the devil in a desperate effrot to keep the other agents of the devil Killary and Harris out of the WH. Embracing the lesser of two evils was surely the right direction so we could use him as a puppet to fight the ultimate war to save America from Feminazism (leaders with vaginas and Jewish space lasers).