COVID Transmissions for 9-2-2020
A new vaccine trial, and air circulation.
Good morning! It has been 289 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19.
I figured I’d try something new in this space. Today’s newsletter deals with a new vaccine trial and a study of air circulation in a nursing home. Continuation of the vaccination piece will come later this week.
Bolded terms are linked to the running newsletter glossary.
Keep the newsletter growing by sharing it! I love talking about science and explaining important concepts in human health, but I rely on all of you to grow the audience for this:
Now, let’s talk COVID.
A new Phase 3 vaccine trial
CIDRAP reports that AstraZeneca has begun US Phase 3 trials of the ChAdOx viral vector vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Don’t know what that is? Take a look at yesterday’s newsletter, and an earlier issue where I walked through that specific vaccine in detail.
This vaccine candidate is one of the most exciting, to me, though between you and me…they’re all exciting.
Here’s the story: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/09/third-covid-vaccine-candidate-starts-phase-3-trial-us
In a nursing home, airflow saved lives
A publication in Clinical Infectious Diseases adds evidence to the suspicions of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by looking at a nursing home where six of seven wards had old-fashioned ventilation systems that freely exchanged indoor air with outdoor air, while the seventh ward had a modern ventilation system that recirculated indoor air continually unless carbon dioxide levels inside went above a certain level. The indoor air in this ward was recirculated by air conditioning units that had 1-mm mesh dust filters.
In the modern ward, 80% of residents and 50% of staff became infected with SARS-CoV-2 when an outbreak occurred there. The authors suggest that part of the reason is that the residents of the ward in question were less active than a normal set of people, and might not have achieved the CO2 concentrations necessary to bring an influx of outside air via the computerized system managing their environment.
In the six wards that were ventilated with outside air, there were no COVID-19 cases.
This further suggests that aerosol, airborne transmission in indoor environments is a possibility, and that opening a window or otherwise exchanging the air in indoor shared spaces with the outside is a good move.
Check out their communication here, which is accepted but not yet in press: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa1270/5898577
19-month pandemic-related surgical backlog in Ontario, Canada
Canada is facing some logistical issues given the suspension of normal medical services resulting from the pandemic. Right now they are trying to figure out how to reduce this backlog while still maintaining surge capacity for the possibility of future COVID-19 outbreaks.
CIDRAP has a story dealing with this in enlightening detail here: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/09/19-month-pandemic-related-surgical-backlog-ontario
In the US, there has also been a suspension of normal surgical activities due to the pandemic, and it is possible that we will see similar strains on the system. People have been putting off important care events because of COVID-19, and their need for care hasn’t ended. In fact, the delays have probably made some conditions worse. Since the US has a for-profit healthcare system, this is something that we’ll need to keep a close eye on lest costs spiral even more out of control.
This goes to show how a pandemic can have serious ripple effects across an entire healthcare system.
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
Day job
My company is going through a difficult time, with layoffs on the horizon for much of our field force and some of our headquarters team.
However, I’m proud to report that one of my main projects was recently presented at a major medical meeting, and generated a fair amount of positive media coverage. At the same time, every single abstract that I submitted for another upcoming major meeting was accepted to that meeting, including two oral presentations. This is a major achievement particularly considering regulatory uncertainties surrounding our main product, and we received very direct praise from the company’s Chief Medical Officer.
With the FDA overwhelmed from COVID-19 issues, it is hard to be a small pharmaceutical company these days.
Join the conversation, and what you say will impact what I talk about in the next issue.
Also, let me know any other thoughts you might have about the newsletter. I’d like to make sure you’re getting what you want out of this.
This newsletter will contain mistakes. When you find them, tell me about them so that I can fix them. I would rather this newsletter be correct than protect my ego.
Though I can’t correct the emailed version after it has been sent, I do update the online post of the newsletter every time a mistake is brought to my attention.
No corrections since last issue.
I did receive some nice comments, though, on yesterday’s in-depth piece. Thanks!
See you all next time.
Always,
JS