The “health nuggets” are a fabulous addition to Team YLE’s already superlative offerings. It is tragic to see the fall-off in trust in vaccines—if only everyone would read the information Team YLE puts out, and look at the always top-notch, easy to read graphs, the world would be a much safer place, health wise.
As a family doc and an epidemiologist who studies child abuse and neglect, I think it is important to emphasize other aspects of the Georgia school shooting that are very important, but often over looked. (1) For the second time in recent weeks, the shooter's parent was arrested and charged as contributing to the crime. This an important advance - legally because access to firearms was facilitated by the parent. Epidemiologically, it is important because of the reported context of family violence and abuse experienced by the shooter. (2) The Violence Project, which studies mass shootings, has estimated that (when the history is known) in up to 70% of mass shootings, the perpetrator was the victim of child abuse. "Mental Illness" although often cited, does not commonly contribute to expressing violence, being abused does. (3) Child abuse and neglect is surprisingly prevalent (about 15% of non-institutionalized adults have 4 or more ACES) and very undercounted. (As many children die from maltreatment each year as from childhood cancer.) Our society culturally avoids this pervasive problem, perhaps out of shame, and although many therapists work in this area, research and preventive interventions have only been skimpily funded for decades.
Wisdom suggests each shooting is an opportunity to expand the understanding of this perspective in the public square as an important adjunct to gun control.
I appreciated your info. I hadn’t heard specifically about the correlation of abuse and tendency to violence. But it makes sense. How can we get that info out?
I appreciate this nugget styled update. It gave enough context for a few headlines I’ve seen to help me see the relevance. The nuggets also give me enough trustworthy info that I feel more confident in my ability to search for more should I wish.
I have been impressed with your constant desire to improve communication of health issues and events. Your creativity keeps me interested, informed, and educated. Thank you for your diligence!
I am hearing that Novavax won’t be released till early October. Hopefully this is bad information and it will be released sooner.
So far, the vaccines.gov website shows which pharmacies offer covid vaccines. Last year you could search by manufacturer, but this year, that’s not an option (at least for now).
I have heard from several pharmacists that “the Covid vaccines are all the same.” They’re not!
Maybe certain people wish this were true, but the Covid shot isn’t the flu shot. I am waiting for Novavax. I hope I don’t catch covid in the interim.
@BayDog: A real threat with this latest variant IMHO. Let your guard down for a minute and you may regret it. My wife and I are socially isolated. While I don't generally wear a mask in a large grocery and stay clear of lines, etc, that's a risk factor as you might suspect. A dental visit for routine cleaning Tues a week ago exposed us both. A staff member in the rear of the old DDS office sneezed a couple of times as I waited in the tiny foyer waiting area a max of 15" as my wife was finishing up. I preferred to sit in my car for the 1st 45". Both hygienist and DDS wore masks but no other staff had them. Late the next night I could tell something was brewing and by the next AM we both had full-blown respiratory sxs. Mine was a very dry cough, a brief chill coupled with 3 days of a furiously runny nose. My immune-compromised wife started a deep, wet type bronchial cough that has persisted 9 days hence. Ag Tests on the 4 day after exposure - both pos, mine lit up at 2" of the 10" timeframe. I'm much better cough and nasal-wise but have lingering malaise, light-headedness/equilbrium issues and some orthostatic signs. Novavax boosters were planned for this month but the exposure intervened. I'm pretty certain that the old office, probably marginal air-handling/MERV filtering a a single sneezer likely did us in. Mgr later said the tested when someone was ill but no one was ill. Maybe not ill but certainly infected and transmissible with a few aerosol sneezes, I wager. A neighbor reported he ONLY experienced a new onset stuffy nose one eve, tested next AM and was Pos. So, apparently a full-blown syndrome isn't required with this Omicron Variant, likely KP3.1.1
Oh no, Ray, I'm so sorry to hear that you and your wife both caught covid. What a bummer that even dental offices can't be safe spaces.
Your story has encouraged me to be extra vigilant over the next few weeks until I get Novavax. Luckily the weather is still nice enough to do most things outdoors. I wonder what, if anything, the Vaccine Decision Makers are learning from this year's summer surge, which I think caught many off guard. What will be different next year? Earlier release of vaccines? Maybe the vaccine needs to be updated every 6 instead of 12 months? I wish Novovax didn't take so long to make, but clearly, they need to start making it earlier.
I know you're a doctor yet one of my friends who is also a doctor and does research in the covid space was telling me recently that in addition to Paxlovid, it's important to also take Metformin and aspirin. I am paraphrasing, so forgive me if I don't get this quite right, but he was saying something like the new thinking is that it's the clotting that causes a lot of the covid-related complications (not the other way around), which is why taking aspirin during covid is important. (Of course, the usual caveat: check with your doctor first)
Metformin is among several repurposed drugs being touted as a therapeutic. It’s been studied in Clinical Trials along with arms of hydroxyCHLOROQUINE, fluvoxamine, fluticasone, dexamethasone and the ever popular but non-starter ivermectin. HydroxyUREA never had a chance to make it to a study arm and pretty much all repurposing has been poisoned. Unlike these drugs, HU addresses critical a7nAChRs about which we have conferred in the past. A multipurposed multifunctional pharmaceutical should do more than address a narrow sequence after viral invasion (viral replication) per our 5 yrs of clinical observations and the basic science discoveries by our collaborators are concerned. HU is not a cure-all as we have come to appreciate with this latest variant. We took our 5 day protocol of HU. Symptoms such as profuse rhinorrhea and dry cough were impacted by 50+% in <24 hrs, 90+% in 4 days but there are lingering issues including autonomic functions and CNS issues in our own experience. As far as transmissibility goes, the myth that you have to be visibly “sick” to transmit is all too prevalent. Do most people claim to be sick when the sneeze a couple of times? Doubtful. Covid19 is all around presenting in a “cloaked” (denial scenario?) for some.
Perhaps the RPh is simply saying that at the present time what we provide is mRNA vaccine?? Novavax isn’t generally available now as I’ve read. The Family/Independent Pharmacy gets short-shrift over the Costco, Walgreens and CVS mega-distributors. Sounds all too familiar to me…..
My take is that Novavax hasn’t finished producing it, and until they do, they obviously can’t distribute it.
I really wish we could get official word on this. The vaccine appointments are starting to fill up, meaning once Novavax is released, those seeking it won’t be able to get an appointment for several weeks.
As far as I can tell, CVS is the only major pharmacy that lets you book a “covid vaccine” appointment without having to specify manufacturer. Costco, Rite Aid and Walgreens all require that you specify manufacturer, and of course Novavax is not listed.
So one strategy is to book a future appointment with CVS, and cross your fingers that Novavax will be distributed in time and available at the pharmacy you booked.
I can only report my personal experience making an appointment at Walgreens through their app. I was asked if I wanted to get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine only (there was a third option of “don’t care”). No mention of any other options.
I like this Dose format. Unfortunately so much of it is disappointing. Fluoride controversy: my generation, Baby Boomers, have a mouthful of metal fillings, now crowns or implants as the teeth crack, while my children 40-50s have virtually NO cavities. Do folks really want to go back to dental problems?!
I liked this Dose format. Concise and up-to-date. However, I feel compelled to comment on your HPV vaccine/Scottish study reporting. This was so incomplete that folks can't really grasp what you're saying. What ages were the study participants and how many life-time partners had they had when the study was done? As a clinican who works in repro and sexual health, I encourage patients to get the HPV vaccine. I also tell them about safest sex practices, especially if they have multiple partners which is more common these days than ever. Rates of HPV vaccine are low among well-educated, white people. Please consider a more complete picture of what you are reporting on before posting so folks can really benefit from the news you provide. Thanks. Evelyn Resh CNM, MPH, MSN
Thanks for your feedback! You're not the only one that was craving more. Getting lots of emails. We will follow-up with a routine vaccines post next week!
Thanks for explaining how polio got into Gaza and why the live vaccine will cause spreading as it mutates to add back in the paralysis-causing part.
It hurt my heart to hear you write again, “due to low sanitation and low community immunity” in reference to Gaza without explaining why. Maybe I didn’t do a good job explaining what I meant earlier. If we as a society continue to remove the perpetrator of acts we are intentionally obscuring and providing cover for atrocities and those committing them. There are a myriad of us Westerners complicitly covering for Israel throughout the plausible genocide: https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2024/07/17/bbc-israel-downs-syndrome/#google_vignette.
But perhaps it is more helpful to point it out in your own newsletter. Imagine you had written: “news of four people murdered and many wounded in a public high school”. Leaving out the cause (a shooter) then not writing the following paragraph naming Georgia as the state and explaining why Georgia is more susceptible to gun violence. We would have been left with a general sense of tragedy for which nothing could be done. By naming the perpetrator (a shooter) and explaining the cause (lax gun laws) and tying that cause to the problem with data (states with more permissive laws have more firearm deaths, overall.) we are left with a solid solution: stricter gun laws will reduce gun deaths. We know what we as individuals can do to support that conclusion—vote for and spread the word about stricter gun laws. And you’ve given us the tools to have these conversations: data. It’s one reason we love you so much—you explain why and how we can do better with data and clear charts.
Now back to Gaza. As one commenter said, we depend on you to not pull data punches in fear of political reaction. “due to low sanitation and low community immunity” leaves out the perpetrator (Israeli government), the cause (destruction of civilian infrastructure, the healthcare system and forcible displacement of the civilian population) and the conclusion of tying the cause to the problem with data.
If instead you had been clear, we would then be able to imagine if every hospital in the USA was destroyed over the last 11 months, we were driven from our homes which along with all our universities, schools, places of worship, museums, libraries, clinics were destroyed into shells or worse, rubble beneath which uncounted family members and friends lie. How would we as a people then react if we could imagine this reality others are living? How would we feel knowing our taxes are being used to commit plausible genocide? That our country above all others is funding it?
I understand the fear of political ramifications during a heated moment. But leaving out the perpetrators, causes and explanations confuses us and disables our civil engagement. It anesthetizes our humanity.
In the case of the Georgia shooter. There was an incidence previous to the mass shooting, investigated, but nothing definitive was uncovered to warrant pursuing it. How many red flags does it take? Part of the issue is fear of litigation - false incrimination, etc. In this case the parent's were arrested. Did they have mental health issues? One will never know. (Sure sounds like they might have.....). As a society we are becoming inured with these events with enablers in clear sight. Going forward will be alter the course of these all too frequent events? Surely there are many red flags but often the observations are discounted as not serious. I still like the adage "If you see something, say something!" Anyone reporting threatening behavior in good faith should never fear that they will be the subject of some frivolous lawsuit.
Oldest son is a pediatric nurse and has been seeing this trend of non vaccination for a while now. He uses me as an example to scare parents into getting DTaP or Tdap. I had pertussis and I was vaccinated -Tdap and it was not pretty. Can't use me for other childhood diseases. As a funeral home owner, I did tell people about the 100 plus people who were unvaccinated against COVID and died in 2020. We are still seeing some COVID deaths. About one to two a month now.
My mother almost died from pertussis as a child. It is one of THE most miserable illnesses a child (or adult) can have. Why anyone would risk their child going through that is beyond me, but here we are.
I remember when I hit the Paroxysmal Stage. It was frightening not being able to breathe during/after a coughing fit and that was with a vaccine! I get a little freaked out when I hear there is pertussis going around our area. Babies and children can die. I don't get it.
Too many people fall for the mis/dis-information and, underneath it all, believe that they/their child will either: 1) not contract the illness, and/or 2) will have a mild case if they do. (Followed by a rabid insistence that the medical system save their child/themselves from the self-inflicted hardship if they do contract it. With essential oils or whatever. We saw this with Covid.)
As a society, we've gone too long with no/few children dying of infectious diseases, and a whole swath of parents think it's all overblown. Not sure what to do about that, but I've become pretty fatalistic lately...natural selection is a bitch, but it seems to be something humans have to continually learn.
The most heart wrenching COVID death we've had was a mother who did not get vaccinated and came down with COVID. She gave it to her toddler who died. She was suicidal after that and fortunately got help.
Sorry for your not do good encounter with pertussis. Tdap is a very good vaccine, tetanus we hold immunity quite long (UK does not revax every 10 yr's), diphtheria best every 10 yr's.
However, the acellular pertussis response although robust it's duration is much more limited. Ref... Shoreland Travax
Pertussis vaccine effectiveness estimates for Tdap given to adolescents and adults have ranged from 66% to 78% among adolescents who received both DTP and DTaP as children. Among adolescents who received only DTaP as children, the overall estimated vaccine effectiveness of Tdap was 63.9%. Initial vaccine effectiveness against pertussis within 1 year of Tdap vaccination was 73%, but after 2 to 4 years, vaccine effectiveness decreased to 34%. Another study found that, within the first year after vaccination, effectiveness was 68.8%; by ≥ 4 years after vaccination, vaccine effectiveness was 8.9%
Thank for this info John. Sounds like maybe with the rise of pertussis, we need to have a singular pertussis vaccine at more frequent intervals. I would take! When I got pertussis, I know time had passed since I had the TDap. It could have been 5 years?
You may have discovered it's coined the 100 day cough. Literally pick any country worldwide are there are increased cases being reported along with local outbreaks.
The Eastern province of New Brunswick here in Canada has 141 cases reported in recent months cf an average of 35.
I would recommend anyone traveling abroad or to an area within Canada and US who's not had a Tdap within the past 3 yr's particularly anyone elderly, immunocompromised or visiting a new grandbaby (assuming mom didn't have a booster in her last trimester... current recommendation) do so...current advice from Shoreland Travax which mirrors the CDC recommendations.
My preferred day job... certified travel medicine consultant.
I am fascinated by your graph of gun deaths. While restrictive gun laws clearly have an effect (more green at the low end, more red at the high end) its also clear that the laws are not the only determining factor. I say this because there are lots of blues and greens mixed in with the reds at the high end. Any insight as to what these other factors might be?
Is there any correlation with vaccine effectiveness and the variant lineage branching in the CDC's "Variant Proportions" report? This week I see a new variant LP.1 increasing. Can we make any scientific guesses from the lineage about whether the Novovax (JN.1) could be more successful than the Pfizer/Moderna (KP.2), were the LP.1 to become the dominant variant? In humans, one's close ancestors tend to have more genetic similarity than one's cousins, but maybe in rapidly mutating viruses, the time contiguous cousins tend to be closer?
If I were you, I would not wait until Thanksgiving. We had a single exposure after five years of social isolation. See previous note in this YLE discussion. We were due for our boosters of flu and covid-19 shortly. You Will at least be as reasonably protected as possible getting boosted currently but well before Thanksgiving in my opinion.. The latest variants are extremely transmissible from our experience. We are 11 days out from our exposure, seven days since our positive test and still having significant effects of the virus.. Not so much fever etc. But a lingering sense of malaise, a queasy stomach, some autonomic dysfunctions and mild sympathetic response for me last evening when I got up to attend to my disabled wife. Don't try to second-guess this latest variant with timing. My two cents worth
Ray, I'm so sorry. Caregiving can be challenging on its own for both the caregiver and recipient. Adding a bad case of Covid to that mix is scary and hard. It takes out the safety valve of being able to ask for help. I hope you are both better soon! (And I appreciate your kind advice.)
The “health nuggets” are a fabulous addition to Team YLE’s already superlative offerings. It is tragic to see the fall-off in trust in vaccines—if only everyone would read the information Team YLE puts out, and look at the always top-notch, easy to read graphs, the world would be a much safer place, health wise.
Any thoughts about the intra-nasal COVID vaccines?
As a family doc and an epidemiologist who studies child abuse and neglect, I think it is important to emphasize other aspects of the Georgia school shooting that are very important, but often over looked. (1) For the second time in recent weeks, the shooter's parent was arrested and charged as contributing to the crime. This an important advance - legally because access to firearms was facilitated by the parent. Epidemiologically, it is important because of the reported context of family violence and abuse experienced by the shooter. (2) The Violence Project, which studies mass shootings, has estimated that (when the history is known) in up to 70% of mass shootings, the perpetrator was the victim of child abuse. "Mental Illness" although often cited, does not commonly contribute to expressing violence, being abused does. (3) Child abuse and neglect is surprisingly prevalent (about 15% of non-institutionalized adults have 4 or more ACES) and very undercounted. (As many children die from maltreatment each year as from childhood cancer.) Our society culturally avoids this pervasive problem, perhaps out of shame, and although many therapists work in this area, research and preventive interventions have only been skimpily funded for decades.
Wisdom suggests each shooting is an opportunity to expand the understanding of this perspective in the public square as an important adjunct to gun control.
I appreciated your info. I hadn’t heard specifically about the correlation of abuse and tendency to violence. But it makes sense. How can we get that info out?
Definitely continue this weekly "dose" of information!
I appreciate this nugget styled update. It gave enough context for a few headlines I’ve seen to help me see the relevance. The nuggets also give me enough trustworthy info that I feel more confident in my ability to search for more should I wish.
I have been impressed with your constant desire to improve communication of health issues and events. Your creativity keeps me interested, informed, and educated. Thank you for your diligence!
I am hearing that Novavax won’t be released till early October. Hopefully this is bad information and it will be released sooner.
So far, the vaccines.gov website shows which pharmacies offer covid vaccines. Last year you could search by manufacturer, but this year, that’s not an option (at least for now).
I have heard from several pharmacists that “the Covid vaccines are all the same.” They’re not!
Maybe certain people wish this were true, but the Covid shot isn’t the flu shot. I am waiting for Novavax. I hope I don’t catch covid in the interim.
@BayDog: A real threat with this latest variant IMHO. Let your guard down for a minute and you may regret it. My wife and I are socially isolated. While I don't generally wear a mask in a large grocery and stay clear of lines, etc, that's a risk factor as you might suspect. A dental visit for routine cleaning Tues a week ago exposed us both. A staff member in the rear of the old DDS office sneezed a couple of times as I waited in the tiny foyer waiting area a max of 15" as my wife was finishing up. I preferred to sit in my car for the 1st 45". Both hygienist and DDS wore masks but no other staff had them. Late the next night I could tell something was brewing and by the next AM we both had full-blown respiratory sxs. Mine was a very dry cough, a brief chill coupled with 3 days of a furiously runny nose. My immune-compromised wife started a deep, wet type bronchial cough that has persisted 9 days hence. Ag Tests on the 4 day after exposure - both pos, mine lit up at 2" of the 10" timeframe. I'm much better cough and nasal-wise but have lingering malaise, light-headedness/equilbrium issues and some orthostatic signs. Novavax boosters were planned for this month but the exposure intervened. I'm pretty certain that the old office, probably marginal air-handling/MERV filtering a a single sneezer likely did us in. Mgr later said the tested when someone was ill but no one was ill. Maybe not ill but certainly infected and transmissible with a few aerosol sneezes, I wager. A neighbor reported he ONLY experienced a new onset stuffy nose one eve, tested next AM and was Pos. So, apparently a full-blown syndrome isn't required with this Omicron Variant, likely KP3.1.1
Oh no, Ray, I'm so sorry to hear that you and your wife both caught covid. What a bummer that even dental offices can't be safe spaces.
Your story has encouraged me to be extra vigilant over the next few weeks until I get Novavax. Luckily the weather is still nice enough to do most things outdoors. I wonder what, if anything, the Vaccine Decision Makers are learning from this year's summer surge, which I think caught many off guard. What will be different next year? Earlier release of vaccines? Maybe the vaccine needs to be updated every 6 instead of 12 months? I wish Novovax didn't take so long to make, but clearly, they need to start making it earlier.
I know you're a doctor yet one of my friends who is also a doctor and does research in the covid space was telling me recently that in addition to Paxlovid, it's important to also take Metformin and aspirin. I am paraphrasing, so forgive me if I don't get this quite right, but he was saying something like the new thinking is that it's the clotting that causes a lot of the covid-related complications (not the other way around), which is why taking aspirin during covid is important. (Of course, the usual caveat: check with your doctor first)
I hope you're both feeling better soon. 🍲
Metformin is among several repurposed drugs being touted as a therapeutic. It’s been studied in Clinical Trials along with arms of hydroxyCHLOROQUINE, fluvoxamine, fluticasone, dexamethasone and the ever popular but non-starter ivermectin. HydroxyUREA never had a chance to make it to a study arm and pretty much all repurposing has been poisoned. Unlike these drugs, HU addresses critical a7nAChRs about which we have conferred in the past. A multipurposed multifunctional pharmaceutical should do more than address a narrow sequence after viral invasion (viral replication) per our 5 yrs of clinical observations and the basic science discoveries by our collaborators are concerned. HU is not a cure-all as we have come to appreciate with this latest variant. We took our 5 day protocol of HU. Symptoms such as profuse rhinorrhea and dry cough were impacted by 50+% in <24 hrs, 90+% in 4 days but there are lingering issues including autonomic functions and CNS issues in our own experience. As far as transmissibility goes, the myth that you have to be visibly “sick” to transmit is all too prevalent. Do most people claim to be sick when the sneeze a couple of times? Doubtful. Covid19 is all around presenting in a “cloaked” (denial scenario?) for some.
No it's already released in USA. Supposed to be available by end this or early next week.
Perhaps the RPh is simply saying that at the present time what we provide is mRNA vaccine?? Novavax isn’t generally available now as I’ve read. The Family/Independent Pharmacy gets short-shrift over the Costco, Walgreens and CVS mega-distributors. Sounds all too familiar to me…..
My take is that Novavax hasn’t finished producing it, and until they do, they obviously can’t distribute it.
I really wish we could get official word on this. The vaccine appointments are starting to fill up, meaning once Novavax is released, those seeking it won’t be able to get an appointment for several weeks.
As far as I can tell, CVS is the only major pharmacy that lets you book a “covid vaccine” appointment without having to specify manufacturer. Costco, Rite Aid and Walgreens all require that you specify manufacturer, and of course Novavax is not listed.
So one strategy is to book a future appointment with CVS, and cross your fingers that Novavax will be distributed in time and available at the pharmacy you booked.
This is so frustrating!
I can only report my personal experience making an appointment at Walgreens through their app. I was asked if I wanted to get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine only (there was a third option of “don’t care”). No mention of any other options.
I like this Dose format. Unfortunately so much of it is disappointing. Fluoride controversy: my generation, Baby Boomers, have a mouthful of metal fillings, now crowns or implants as the teeth crack, while my children 40-50s have virtually NO cavities. Do folks really want to go back to dental problems?!
Apparently bad teeth helped Make America Great, along with crippling/disfiguring/deadly preventable childhood diseases.
No doubt we'll be going back to bleeding soon.
I liked this Dose format. Concise and up-to-date. However, I feel compelled to comment on your HPV vaccine/Scottish study reporting. This was so incomplete that folks can't really grasp what you're saying. What ages were the study participants and how many life-time partners had they had when the study was done? As a clinican who works in repro and sexual health, I encourage patients to get the HPV vaccine. I also tell them about safest sex practices, especially if they have multiple partners which is more common these days than ever. Rates of HPV vaccine are low among well-educated, white people. Please consider a more complete picture of what you are reporting on before posting so folks can really benefit from the news you provide. Thanks. Evelyn Resh CNM, MPH, MSN
Thanks for your feedback! You're not the only one that was craving more. Getting lots of emails. We will follow-up with a routine vaccines post next week!
Like this format!
Love this new summary of the week’s issues!
Thanks for explaining how polio got into Gaza and why the live vaccine will cause spreading as it mutates to add back in the paralysis-causing part.
It hurt my heart to hear you write again, “due to low sanitation and low community immunity” in reference to Gaza without explaining why. Maybe I didn’t do a good job explaining what I meant earlier. If we as a society continue to remove the perpetrator of acts we are intentionally obscuring and providing cover for atrocities and those committing them. There are a myriad of us Westerners complicitly covering for Israel throughout the plausible genocide: https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2024/07/17/bbc-israel-downs-syndrome/#google_vignette.
But perhaps it is more helpful to point it out in your own newsletter. Imagine you had written: “news of four people murdered and many wounded in a public high school”. Leaving out the cause (a shooter) then not writing the following paragraph naming Georgia as the state and explaining why Georgia is more susceptible to gun violence. We would have been left with a general sense of tragedy for which nothing could be done. By naming the perpetrator (a shooter) and explaining the cause (lax gun laws) and tying that cause to the problem with data (states with more permissive laws have more firearm deaths, overall.) we are left with a solid solution: stricter gun laws will reduce gun deaths. We know what we as individuals can do to support that conclusion—vote for and spread the word about stricter gun laws. And you’ve given us the tools to have these conversations: data. It’s one reason we love you so much—you explain why and how we can do better with data and clear charts.
Now back to Gaza. As one commenter said, we depend on you to not pull data punches in fear of political reaction. “due to low sanitation and low community immunity” leaves out the perpetrator (Israeli government), the cause (destruction of civilian infrastructure, the healthcare system and forcible displacement of the civilian population) and the conclusion of tying the cause to the problem with data.
If instead you had been clear, we would then be able to imagine if every hospital in the USA was destroyed over the last 11 months, we were driven from our homes which along with all our universities, schools, places of worship, museums, libraries, clinics were destroyed into shells or worse, rubble beneath which uncounted family members and friends lie. How would we as a people then react if we could imagine this reality others are living? How would we feel knowing our taxes are being used to commit plausible genocide? That our country above all others is funding it?
I understand the fear of political ramifications during a heated moment. But leaving out the perpetrators, causes and explanations confuses us and disables our civil engagement. It anesthetizes our humanity.
In the case of the Georgia shooter. There was an incidence previous to the mass shooting, investigated, but nothing definitive was uncovered to warrant pursuing it. How many red flags does it take? Part of the issue is fear of litigation - false incrimination, etc. In this case the parent's were arrested. Did they have mental health issues? One will never know. (Sure sounds like they might have.....). As a society we are becoming inured with these events with enablers in clear sight. Going forward will be alter the course of these all too frequent events? Surely there are many red flags but often the observations are discounted as not serious. I still like the adage "If you see something, say something!" Anyone reporting threatening behavior in good faith should never fear that they will be the subject of some frivolous lawsuit.
Oldest son is a pediatric nurse and has been seeing this trend of non vaccination for a while now. He uses me as an example to scare parents into getting DTaP or Tdap. I had pertussis and I was vaccinated -Tdap and it was not pretty. Can't use me for other childhood diseases. As a funeral home owner, I did tell people about the 100 plus people who were unvaccinated against COVID and died in 2020. We are still seeing some COVID deaths. About one to two a month now.
My mother almost died from pertussis as a child. It is one of THE most miserable illnesses a child (or adult) can have. Why anyone would risk their child going through that is beyond me, but here we are.
I remember when I hit the Paroxysmal Stage. It was frightening not being able to breathe during/after a coughing fit and that was with a vaccine! I get a little freaked out when I hear there is pertussis going around our area. Babies and children can die. I don't get it.
Too many people fall for the mis/dis-information and, underneath it all, believe that they/their child will either: 1) not contract the illness, and/or 2) will have a mild case if they do. (Followed by a rabid insistence that the medical system save their child/themselves from the self-inflicted hardship if they do contract it. With essential oils or whatever. We saw this with Covid.)
As a society, we've gone too long with no/few children dying of infectious diseases, and a whole swath of parents think it's all overblown. Not sure what to do about that, but I've become pretty fatalistic lately...natural selection is a bitch, but it seems to be something humans have to continually learn.
The most heart wrenching COVID death we've had was a mother who did not get vaccinated and came down with COVID. She gave it to her toddler who died. She was suicidal after that and fortunately got help.
Janet & Stephanie
Sorry for your not do good encounter with pertussis. Tdap is a very good vaccine, tetanus we hold immunity quite long (UK does not revax every 10 yr's), diphtheria best every 10 yr's.
However, the acellular pertussis response although robust it's duration is much more limited. Ref... Shoreland Travax
Pertussis vaccine effectiveness estimates for Tdap given to adolescents and adults have ranged from 66% to 78% among adolescents who received both DTP and DTaP as children. Among adolescents who received only DTaP as children, the overall estimated vaccine effectiveness of Tdap was 63.9%. Initial vaccine effectiveness against pertussis within 1 year of Tdap vaccination was 73%, but after 2 to 4 years, vaccine effectiveness decreased to 34%. Another study found that, within the first year after vaccination, effectiveness was 68.8%; by ≥ 4 years after vaccination, vaccine effectiveness was 8.9%
Thank for this info John. Sounds like maybe with the rise of pertussis, we need to have a singular pertussis vaccine at more frequent intervals. I would take! When I got pertussis, I know time had passed since I had the TDap. It could have been 5 years?
You may have discovered it's coined the 100 day cough. Literally pick any country worldwide are there are increased cases being reported along with local outbreaks.
The Eastern province of New Brunswick here in Canada has 141 cases reported in recent months cf an average of 35.
I would recommend anyone traveling abroad or to an area within Canada and US who's not had a Tdap within the past 3 yr's particularly anyone elderly, immunocompromised or visiting a new grandbaby (assuming mom didn't have a booster in her last trimester... current recommendation) do so...current advice from Shoreland Travax which mirrors the CDC recommendations.
My preferred day job... certified travel medicine consultant.
Take care
This is a great addition. Thanks
I am fascinated by your graph of gun deaths. While restrictive gun laws clearly have an effect (more green at the low end, more red at the high end) its also clear that the laws are not the only determining factor. I say this because there are lots of blues and greens mixed in with the reds at the high end. Any insight as to what these other factors might be?
Is there any correlation with vaccine effectiveness and the variant lineage branching in the CDC's "Variant Proportions" report? This week I see a new variant LP.1 increasing. Can we make any scientific guesses from the lineage about whether the Novovax (JN.1) could be more successful than the Pfizer/Moderna (KP.2), were the LP.1 to become the dominant variant? In humans, one's close ancestors tend to have more genetic similarity than one's cousins, but maybe in rapidly mutating viruses, the time contiguous cousins tend to be closer?
(I ask because I can wait to vaccinate closer to Thanksgiving, when my risk levels go up.)
If I were you, I would not wait until Thanksgiving. We had a single exposure after five years of social isolation. See previous note in this YLE discussion. We were due for our boosters of flu and covid-19 shortly. You Will at least be as reasonably protected as possible getting boosted currently but well before Thanksgiving in my opinion.. The latest variants are extremely transmissible from our experience. We are 11 days out from our exposure, seven days since our positive test and still having significant effects of the virus.. Not so much fever etc. But a lingering sense of malaise, a queasy stomach, some autonomic dysfunctions and mild sympathetic response for me last evening when I got up to attend to my disabled wife. Don't try to second-guess this latest variant with timing. My two cents worth
I agree 100%. Cases are still high and adding back to school to the summer surge will just make it worse.
Ray, I'm so sorry. Caregiving can be challenging on its own for both the caregiver and recipient. Adding a bad case of Covid to that mix is scary and hard. It takes out the safety valve of being able to ask for help. I hope you are both better soon! (And I appreciate your kind advice.)