COVID-19 Update: Friday, January 7th

long covid in the Britons, waning protection, Pfizer and children ages 2-5

1. About 2% of people in Brittan are experiencing long covid. While 2% may sound like a small number, it represents over a million people. As a reminder, the issues with COVID are not just about if you die from it, but all the other ripple effects. Workers being out due to sickness, overwhelming the medical system, and of course, all the possible long-term implications for those with long-term effects. You can read more about that here.

2. Boosters protection against disease wanes after about 10 weeks - similar to natural infection. Before I share these numbers let me just be clear that what was looked at here was protection against symptomatic illness in general - NOT protection against severe illness or death. So what this is telling us is that after about 10 weeks (give or take depending on which vaccine you get) you become less protected against getting Omicron, but we have continued to see that those who choose to vaccinate have a less severe illness. Just a reminder that vaccines' primary function is to prevent death - not all forms of illness. Here are the protection levels for a variety of vaccine/booster combos: "for those with a Pfizer primary series and booster, efficacy against the symptomatic disease was 70% immediately after the third dose but fell to 45% at 10 weeks or longer. Those who had a Pfizer primary series but a Moderna booster saw protection against symptomatic disease hover around 70% to 75% for up to 9 weeks post-boost. For those with a primary series of AstraZeneca, efficacy peaked at 60%, 2 to 4 weeks after either a Pfizer or Moderna booster, then fell to 35% with Pfizer and 45% with Moderna by around 10 weeks." As a reminder, the boosters were not designed specifically for Omicron, so it isn't completely shocking that they aren't super effective against it. You can read the full report here. HOWEVER, a study out of Israel showed that vaccines continue to be 90% effective at preventing severe illness and death. You can read those studies here and here.

3. Early data suggests that the Pfizer vaccine for children 2-5 does not produce an immune response as it does for older children. They are studying a third dose as a possible way to increase that. You can read their statement here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I hear coughing from my basement and my heart is sinking a little. My college-aged son lives in the basement. To be honest, I am dreading going down there and checking on the situation because I don't want COVID to have come to my house. The timing is not good. The irony of us ending up with it is not lost on me. Perhaps it is just a cough. Maybe a little cold. But it made me think about where I may have gone wrong, what I may have missed. And that led me to you. If I am having these thoughts, chances are some of you are as well. Blaming yourselves if you or someone in your home ends up with Covid. But the fact of the matter is, right now, you are more likely to get it than not. You can do all the right things and still end up with it. And you can't blame yourself for that. Precautions are designed to reduce your risk, but nothing can reduce your risk to zero - short of becoming a full-on recluse. So if you or someone you love gets/got covid. Don't beat yourself up, don't beat them up. Even if you took a risk you knew you were taking - don't beat yourself up. We have to live our lives in the midst of all this. So you do what you can but we can't control everything. Give yourself some grace today.