Can you speak to the utility of sharing the percent of population with at least one dose of the vaccine? If we ultimately need three doses, is using one dose as a metric for reporting vaccine rates useful at all? I think it leads people to believe that one is better than none, even though one is still woefully short of protective.
Can you speak to the utility of sharing the percent of population with at least one dose of the vaccine? If we ultimately need three doses, is using one dose as a metric for reporting vaccine rates useful at all? I think it leads people to believe that one is better than none, even though one is still woefully short of protective.
First, it's a statistic we're used to using for multi-dose vaccines to give an idea of uptake. We can also see what the subsequent failure rate for completing the vaccination process, which tells the front-line practitioners if they need to pay more attention to getting people vaccinated.
Second, even a single dose will train the cellular immune system. Thus, while it takes a bit to activate compared to existing, circulating (neutralizing) antibodies, once the CD4 (helper) T-cell is sensitized it can help "coordinate" the work of the various components of the cellular immune system to address an infection.
So, noting the first-dose rate is useful in public health and clinical practice. And it's something we're used to doing.
Thanks, Gerry. I understand the utility of the rate for public health vaccine campaigns and the limited clinical use. I still don't understand the use of it for monitoring and reporting on outbreaks.
If I see a high magnitude transmission uptick with high single-dose uptake in a new outbreak, it's a rapid, surrogate indicator for me that we might be looking at something with the transmissivity, and ability to evade immunity, of omicron. It's just another data point, and a pretty good surrogate.
I'd also like to stop seeing people with two doses being called "fully vaccinated" by some. The US needs to do better to get boosted and keep up with vaccinations as needed.
That unfortunate label originated from when a boost dose wasn't anticipated. As with so many learning opportunities with the Pandemic, communications and clarity are important.
Can you speak to the utility of sharing the percent of population with at least one dose of the vaccine? If we ultimately need three doses, is using one dose as a metric for reporting vaccine rates useful at all? I think it leads people to believe that one is better than none, even though one is still woefully short of protective.
First, it's a statistic we're used to using for multi-dose vaccines to give an idea of uptake. We can also see what the subsequent failure rate for completing the vaccination process, which tells the front-line practitioners if they need to pay more attention to getting people vaccinated.
Second, even a single dose will train the cellular immune system. Thus, while it takes a bit to activate compared to existing, circulating (neutralizing) antibodies, once the CD4 (helper) T-cell is sensitized it can help "coordinate" the work of the various components of the cellular immune system to address an infection.
So, noting the first-dose rate is useful in public health and clinical practice. And it's something we're used to doing.
Thanks, Gerry. I understand the utility of the rate for public health vaccine campaigns and the limited clinical use. I still don't understand the use of it for monitoring and reporting on outbreaks.
If I see a high magnitude transmission uptick with high single-dose uptake in a new outbreak, it's a rapid, surrogate indicator for me that we might be looking at something with the transmissivity, and ability to evade immunity, of omicron. It's just another data point, and a pretty good surrogate.
I'd also like to stop seeing people with two doses being called "fully vaccinated" by some. The US needs to do better to get boosted and keep up with vaccinations as needed.
That unfortunate label originated from when a boost dose wasn't anticipated. As with so many learning opportunities with the Pandemic, communications and clarity are important.