COVID-19 Update: Monday, September 20th, 2021

The most effective vaccine, FDA ruling, Betadine, Ivermectin, kids 5-11

1. Moderna's vaccine has proven to be the best at preventing hospitalization after 120 days. When looking at the vaccines from "March to August 2021, the vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 hospitalizations landed at 93% for the Moderna vaccine, 88% for Pfizer's, and 71% for Johnson & Johnson's (J&J)." However, when you compared them at the 120-day mark (i.e. 120 days after vaccination) Moderna was still 92% effective at preventing hospitalization, while Pfizer was 77%. There was no data available for J&J at the 120-day mark but estimates put it around 68% (that is a pure estimate and shouldn't be considered hard data). You can read that report here. A common question from people who got the J&J vaccine is if they can get one of the other vaccines later. They are still looking at that - for now, don't.

2. The FDA ruled against everyone getting COVID boosters. They have instead approved the boosters for the elderly, high-risk, and immunocompromised. This was, in my opinion, the right decision. Please don't get the booster if you aren't in that category.

3. Betadine can kill you if you drink it - so don't. People are gargling with it but if you accidentally drink some while gargling, it is toxic.

4. Ivermectin is still a hot topic so I thought I would provide you some info about it. Ivermectin is, as you probably know, an anti-parasitic used to treat worms in livestock and, in some cases, in humans. Typically, it is used to treat conditions such as elephantiasis and river blindness, neither of which are endemic in the United States. It can also be used to treat lice. COVID is a virus, not a parasite, but early in the pandemic, some researchers in Australia looked at if it could be effective at killing COVID. They tested it in a lab, in Petri dishes against cell cultures - not in actual humans. Their research, which you can find in the following link, found that in large enough doses, it would kill COVID. The problem was, the dosing required to kill COVID was 100x the approved dosing for humans. Despite this, research and clinical trials have been ongoing to determine if the drug would kill COVID when used at safe levels. You can read more about that here. The research studies are where things got a little complicated. For one, some of the studies were too small, too short, poorly designed, etc., to really provide good information. A couple of studies got to pre-print status and that really created issues because they were in support of Ivermectin usage, however, as you know, pre-print studies have not yet undergone peer review - when they did, they were found to include errors and fabricated information. They were never published because the results were made up, but the damage was done. Thus far, all legitimate studies have found no benefit to safe doses of Ivermectin against COVID. But there are around 30 studies ongoing so it is being researched further to see if they can find any benefit at safe dosing levels. In the meantime, do not take horse or cow tablets, they may cause you to have an uncanny craving for hay. But seriously, given you are not a horse or cow, the dosing levels are not safe for humans.

5. The Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11 will soon be seeking FDA EUA approval. As soon as the data is released I will review that and provide an overview of the pros and cons so you can make the best decision for your family.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Over the course of this pandemic I have heard people say some atrocious things, things that have shocked me to my core. I will not burden you by repeating those things as I am sure you too have heard things that have stunned you. This is particularly true when the speaker is someone you would never have expected such things from. I struggle to make sense of it and at moments, I lose all faith in humanity. And then life has a way of reminding me of the truth. As you know I am teaching my child to drive and it has been an adventure for sure. We went out a few times and people were yelling at her for going too slow around a turn. They were tailgating, blowing their horns, and flipping her off. It really rattled her. So I got the "student driver" stickers and plastered them all over the car.

The next time we went out people were so incredibly kind to her. They were waiving her on when she sat too long at the four-way stop, patient as she was attempting a sharp turn at a ridiculously slow pace, and offering thumbs-ups as we went by. In those moments, I was reminded that people assign motivation to your actions without any real insight to back them up. We just do, it's human nature. But then, when we have a little more information. we tend to change the narrative and be a little kinder. I knew a woman once who I thought was just awful. And then I heard her story and I saw her in a completely different light. When people saw the stickers on the car, they saw the erratic driving and uncertainty in a different light. This week, try to shine a different light on those dark moments, if not for the other person, then for your own sanity as you deal with them.