Apparently, two doses of the Janssen vaccine, 56 days apart, improves efficacy to better than Moderna. And by "apparently" I mean, that's what this press release says.
The Post refers to it as a "booster" but the original intent of the study was to test a two-dose regimen, which is not the same thing.
In the technical sense, this is a booster--the first dose is the prime dose. So they're not *wrong*, it's just not a second booster like the other vaccines get.
Either way this is fantastic news and it'll be covered in tomorrow's edition.
In the discussion of ivermectin in India a crowded and poor nation, is there a possibility that treating undiagnosed worms in those ex with Covid might have emerged their immune systems to quit fighting the parasites and focus more on fighting the viral infection?
That's a really interesting point! Generally antiparasitic immunity is quite separate from antiviral immunity, but having an infestation to fight off at the same time as a viral infection may make the prognosis for both worse! It's hard to say exactly without a dataset supporting this, but as hypotheses go, this is one worth testing.
Hey, John: just in time to make you rethink this very column, the ENSEMBLE 2 team has released interim data:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/09/21/johnson-and-johnson-booster-shot/
Apparently, two doses of the Janssen vaccine, 56 days apart, improves efficacy to better than Moderna. And by "apparently" I mean, that's what this press release says.
The Post refers to it as a "booster" but the original intent of the study was to test a two-dose regimen, which is not the same thing.
In the technical sense, this is a booster--the first dose is the prime dose. So they're not *wrong*, it's just not a second booster like the other vaccines get.
Either way this is fantastic news and it'll be covered in tomorrow's edition.
In the discussion of ivermectin in India a crowded and poor nation, is there a possibility that treating undiagnosed worms in those ex with Covid might have emerged their immune systems to quit fighting the parasites and focus more on fighting the viral infection?
That's a really interesting point! Generally antiparasitic immunity is quite separate from antiviral immunity, but having an infestation to fight off at the same time as a viral infection may make the prognosis for both worse! It's hard to say exactly without a dataset supporting this, but as hypotheses go, this is one worth testing.