9 votes

Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of September 5

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Tags: ask.survey, recurring.weekly, coronaviruses.covid19, coronavirus

This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!

5 comments

  1. skybrian
    Link
    Most Californians Now Eligible for Updated Booster Vaccines Targeting Omicron

    Most Californians Now Eligible for Updated Booster Vaccines Targeting Omicron

    The updated bivalent boosters will now replace the existing monovalent booster vaccines -- the Moderna bivalent booster for individuals 18 years of age and older and the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster for individuals 12 years of age and older. Children ages 5-11 can still boost their immunity with the monovalent boosters currently available.

    The state is prepared to begin offering the updated boosters to Californians as supplies arrive over the next few days.

    3 votes
  2. [2]
    kfwyre
    Link
    Katelyn Jetelina: Considerations for your fall booster

    Katelyn Jetelina: Considerations for your fall booster

    I recommend the following:

    <2-3 months since infection/vaccination: Wait.

    3-4 months since infection/vaccination: Consider a booster if you’re high risk, or have an event. (Get your booster 2 weeks before this event for optimal protection).

    4-6 months since infection/vaccination: Get your booster at some point.

    6+ months since infection/vaccination: Get your booster ASAP. This includes me—I haven’t been infected, and I had my booster last November.

    3 votes
    1. eladnarra
      Link Parent
      Interesting... I was going to wait 2 months. I'm not sure about waiting 3, since I'm stuck going to doctor appointments where no one wears masks and I'm going on a (very socially distanced)...

      Interesting... I was going to wait 2 months. I'm not sure about waiting 3, since I'm stuck going to doctor appointments where no one wears masks and I'm going on a (very socially distanced) vacation at the 3 month mark.

      3 votes
  3. skybrian
    Link
    New York's subway now has a 'you do you' mask policy. It's getting a Bronx cheer (NPR)

    New York's subway now has a 'you do you' mask policy. It's getting a Bronx cheer (NPR)

    The messages, in MTA's trademark yellow, urged people to respect anyone wearing a mask, or choosing not to — and also gave a jokey thumbs-up to improperly worn masks, incensing New Yorkers and health experts who saw it as a thumb in the eye to people who endured being an early global epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.

    2 votes
  4. skybrian
    Link
    How nasal-spray vaccines could change the pandemic (Nature) [...] [...] [...] Also: Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 nasal vaccine approved for restricted use in India I couldn't tell from the stories I...

    How nasal-spray vaccines could change the pandemic (Nature)

    This week, an inhaled version of a COVID-19 vaccine, produced by the Chinese company CanSino Biologics in Tianjin, was approved for use as a booster dose in China.

    [...]

    Mucosal vaccines can prompt a whole-body immune response, but they can also activate immune cells in the mucosal tissue of the nose and respiratory tract. These localized cells “act as sentinels at the site of infection”, says Benjamin Goldman-Israelow, a physician-scientist at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. “They can act much more quickly.”

    [...]

    Around 100 mucosal COVID-19 vaccines are in development globally, according to Airfinity, a health-analytics company in London (see ‘Mucosal COVID-19 vaccines’). Around 20 of those have reached clinical trials in humans, of which at least four — in India, Iran and two in China — have completed or are undergoing phase III studies to test safety and how well they work compared to other vaccines. Iran gave its vaccine emergency approval in October 2021, and at least five million doses have been delivered to the Ministry of Health, says Ali Es-haghi, an analytical chemist at the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Karaj, which developed the vaccine. But the institute has not yet published data on efficacy in humans. (Russia is said to have approved a mucosal vaccine for its market but has not published data, and the vaccine makers did not respond to Nature’s request for details.)

    [...]

    Also: Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 nasal vaccine approved for restricted use in India

    I couldn't tell from the stories I looked at what "emergency use" means in India. Is it like in the US where it didn't change who could get the vaccine, or more restrictive than that?

    1 vote