COVID Transmissions for 9-4-2020

Good morning! It has been 291 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19.

Today I received a lovely message from a reader letting me know that they were able to use the newsletter to debunk false claims made about the virus by someone who was opposed to masking and had other problematic, counterfactual views. That’s awesome! I’m glad that this info is getting out there and making a difference. The more you all share the newsletter, the more stories like this we’ll hear. A great story to go into the weekend with.

I also want to thank that reader for converting to a paid subscription because of the value that they got out of it.

As usual, 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.

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Have people stopped paying attention to COVID-19?

I saw something today that bothered me:

Kumail Nanjiani @kumailn

Back in May, coronavirus coverage largely left the news. For no reason at all, there was a sense we’d beaten it. There was a massive spike in June. We are in a coronavirus coverage lull now. Theaters & schools reopening, ppl getting lax. I’m afraid we’re heading to another surge.

Now, this just isn’t correct. News outlets are still covering the pandemic. It’s a major story. But I get the impression that this person stopped paying attention. Has that happened widely throughout the country? I sure hope not.

Pfizer takes a principled stance on COVID-19 vaccine approval

Yesterday, the CEO of Pfizer said that the company will not seek an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine from the FDA unless it has successfully completed trials demonstrating that the vaccine is both safe and effective.

This comment comes after the FDA said that they might provide an EUA for a COVID vaccine without the completion of such trials.

This is fascinating. Pfizer would stand to profit tremendously from government obligations, already signed, to purchase vaccine from them. They are walking away from $1.95 billion that they could have for a song, because they believe it is wrong to cut corners.

They are doing this because the FDA cannot approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine unless it is actually submitted for approval. The developer of a drug doesn’t have to seek approval for the product, nor are they obligated to market it. Generally they want to. In this case, Pfizer has decided that they will only act to seek approval for their vaccine if they actually have evidence to say it works.

Contrast this with the behavior of hucksters who sell evidence-bereft homeopathic remedies, who will happily take your money despite knowing there is nothing biologically active in their medications.

I know that Big Pharma has a reputation, but I’ve been in some very confidential rooms for some very confidential discussions and I’ve always heard concern for patients put ahead of profit, often to the tune of billions. Pfizer shouldn’t be in a position to have to make this kind of statement—the FDA should be doing its job properly—but the fact that it has makes me reassured that there is sanity somewhere.

CIDRAP has this story: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/09/ceo-says-pfizer-wont-cut-corners-covid-vaccine-race

One particularly interesting element of this is that the results from the Pfizer trial could be available by late October.

Depression in US adults triples during COVID-19 pandemic

According to a paper in JAMA Network Open, rates of depression in US adults tripled during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770146

This is not surprising given the record unemployment, extreme scale of death, and confinement due to disease control measures.

However, it is awful. I want to encourage all of you to do something for yourselves this weekend, to try to combat this trend. That is why I include the “pandemic life” section of this newsletter. Regular life continues, my friends, although with some changes.

A good friend once told me “secure your own mask first.” He was referring to taking care of yourself before taking care of others, referencing airline safety announcements about oxygen masks. This advice doubly applies during the COVID-19 pandemic, because you really do need to take care of yourself—but you also need to wear a mask while doing so.

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What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:

Gym reopening

I went to the gym yesterday! Everyone I saw wore a mask and stayed distant. Everything was scrubbed down every time someone stopped using it. Even the lockers.

I didn’t test whether the mask policy applies in the shower. Since I’d biked down and was going to bike back, I figured it’d be better to shower at home.

As of today, I’ve dropped about 29 pounds from my high weight last summer.

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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.

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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.

Correction: there was an error in the following sentence, “It generates antibodies that circulate in the blood and prevent poliovirus from moving to the gut, where infection begins, to the central nervous system, where it can cause paralysis.”

This sentence should have read: "It generates antibodies that circulate in the blood and prevent poliovirus from moving out of the gut, where infection begins, to the central nervous system, where it can cause paralysis.”

This has been corrected in the web edition.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and have a great weekend!

See you all next time.

Always,

JS