“Blood tests on the trial volunteers suggest there was no negative impact on the immune responses to either flu or Covid vaccines when the shots were given one after the other, in opposite arms, though one of the flu vaccines, FluBlok by Sanofi, appeared to be more potent when given alongside the Pfizer jab.”
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Penta-valent fall shot here we come, lol!
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I’ve been feeling sick since Tuesday morning. where I used to live, there were multiple same-day drive-thru testing sites. here, the first appointment I could get was today, three days later. I hate it here.
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Out of several hundred employees, only 2 regular staff apparently missed the vaccination deadline. (Plus 6 on call staff.) Woot!
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I thought this was fascinating. I hope more companies require vaccines.
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My DD’s company had .05 percent of employees leave over the vaccine mandate.
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It looks like this is good news. Is it a game changer as far as getting back to “normal”?
If the hospitals are not getting swamped that is good. But getting it out to people within that window seems like a challenge. And knowing whom to allocate it to.
I also wondered… it says it blocks an enzyme Covid needs. Will that make it variant-proof?
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I explained PCR to someone yesterday to try to clarify how the mRNA vaccines are made, and this song has been stuck in my head since then. It’s called “The PCR Song”, by Bio-Rad 
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I also wondered… it says it blocks an enzyme Covid needs. Will that make it variant-proof?
Evolution is a really weird thing. Never know if it’s possible to evolve to not need that enzyme, or if the virus goes the way of the dinosaurs. Just have to wait and see what happens. (Like, I don’t think early users of antibiotics had any idea that resistance was going to become a thing.)
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Late July when I had to take Kiddo to get a PCR test his pediatrician was able to accommodate him same day. Now they’re booked out till Thursday so we had to go to a CVS instead. The pediatrician was able to send a nurse out to our car so she could do the swab, CVS they shove a test kit through the window and I get to swab my own kid by myself - meaning instead of me holding down his arms while another adult does the swab, I get to wrestle him and try to swab each nostril for fifteen whole seconds. Spoiler: it was not fifteen seconds. Also he didn’t have any sort of restraint on because I asked him to move up to the front seat, and wrestling a kid in the car sucks. I don’t know how much he weighs but standing he’s up to my sternum so I don’t have the physical advantage I had when he was a toddler.
But hey, I’m surprised it took eight weeks into the school year for him to get the sniffles. And, in case my opinion on this was at all fuzzy, if the kids vaccine could come out any fucking day now that’d be just spiffy.
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Was reading a bit about the new Merck drug, molnupiravir, when I had some down-time at work the other day. Looks like it’s a neucleoside analog that works against all known Covid variants and could potentially work against ANY RNA virus. In the body, the drug is processed into something that looks like cytidine, and the virus’s RNA polymerase incorporates it into the viral RNA. Molupiravir changes shape (has tautomers) that resemble cytidine © or uridine (U). When strand of RNA containing molupiravir is copied, the virus sometimes interprets the site as C and sometimes as U, causing a large number of errors that don’t allow the virus to survive.
Made me think of another nucleoside analog, AZT, an early HIV drug, which works as a chain terminator. HIV quickly evolved to become resistant when AZT was used as monotherapy. I think it’s less likely for Covid to become resistant to the Merck drug, though, because Covid has a lower mutation rate than HIV, and it’s only a 5 day course, whereas people with HIV have to take antivirals for the rest of their lives. But who knows.
Merck is planning to charge $700 per course, about 40x what it costs them to make it. Also, there’s the potential for mutagenesis (you know, like, changing your DNA), so pregnant people were carefully excluded from the trials.
50% reduction in hospitalization and death is not as good as the 85% reduction seen with monoclonal antibodies, but 5 days of pills is much easier to give to a large number of people than an IV infusion.
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Amazing news for those with elementary aged kids! Also just for general herd immunity.
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Finally!
Looking at this announcement they won’t approve it before their October 26th meeting from the sounds of it. I had been really hoping they’d get them approved well before Halloween but that doesn’t look likely at this point.
I don’t have a solid source for this, but my understanding is that Pfizer’s data submission without a formal request last week allowed the FDA to schedule the 10/26 meeting in the first place, instead of waiting till today to figure out scheduling. After FDA approval will be CDC approval, it’s expected that within the next week CDC-ACIP will schedule that meeting for sometime after the 10/26 FDA meeting. So shots will likely be in November.
FDA approves the manufacture and shipment of vaccines. CDC approves how the shots go in arms.
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Posted this in the flu shot thread but wanted any thoughts here, too.
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We were going to wait for Lily’s well child visit in January but the pediatrician wants us to bring her to the flu shot clinic in November instead. At least it is quick and easy - there are a line of nurses right by the doors and you just walk up, and them your card, and get your shot. It usually takes less than 5 minutes
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We’re doing the infant at the well visit, but also bringing the toddler at the same time for just her flu shot. But our pediatrician makes you stay in the car until an exam room is open and then texts you the exam room number and you walk straight in. Is it possible to check in, and then ask them to call you in the car or outside if there is a grassy spot instead of sitting in the waiting room?
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We took the little boy for his flu shot, but they had a flu shot clinic setup - we checked in, walked over to the side of the room and got the shot. The whole thing took 5 minutes. No one else was in the waiting room.
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Our pediatrician told us to do them early this year- she wanted them in early September.
Of course, my children keep getting sick so my efforts at flu shots have been thwarted, and we have cancelled 4 appointments for them…
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It’s a bit of an iffy area, both people and busy traffic wise, so we’d prefer not to wait outside with a sprinting toddler. And she will NOT sit calmly in a car especially if the scenery isn’t changing. No grassy areas that wouldn’t be needle risk zones.
I’ll call and double check they’re not doing one for kids this year. They didn’t last year.
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We took my toddler in a few weeks ago, as soon as it was available. BUT we’re in daycare and getting ALL the viruses. I think I’d be inclined to wait in your shoes as well, just due to the hassle.
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