Also on today’s menu:
Dartmouth Doctor Champions Paxlovid
Boston’s Engineered COVID Strain
Anachronistic Response To Inflation
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted unanimously — 15-0 — to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the country’s childhood immunization schedule, which already includes the vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR); tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (Tdap); and inactivated polio. While the decision is merely a recommendation, it serves as the roadmap of routinely recommended vaccines for children across the nation, and state and local governments turn to the CDC’s guidance when deciding public health policy. The CDC has yet to adopt this guidance, but likely will in the coming weeks.
Vinay Prasad, an associate professor with a background in hematology and oncology, argues against adoption of the vaccine for young children, saying that parents who question the use of the vaccine may come to mistrust the entire immunization schedule for other vaccines whose benefits have long been established.
The Danish Health Authority no longer recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for those under the age of 18, citing evidence that children and young people “very rarely become seriously ill” from the COVID-19 omicron variant. Since September 1, youths in Denmark are no longer routinely getting the second dose: “The Danish Health Authority does not currently plan on recommending vaccination to persons under the age of 18 as a group,” Lotte Bælum, speaking for the agency, told the Associated Press in an email. “Children and young people who are at increased risk of a serious course of covid-19 will continue to have the option of vaccination after individual assessment.”
In Sweden, children from the age of 12 years have been offered COVID-19 vaccination, and those 12-17 years old were advised to have, in total, two doses of vaccine. That recommendation expires on October 31. Beginning November 1, vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended only for special groups of children.
South Carolina Attorney-General Alan Wilson and 11 other attorneys-general had asked the CDC Advisory Committee not to include the COVID-19 vaccine on the list of child immunizations. “It’s important for South Carolinians to remember that this is a CDC recommendation. The CDC does not have the power to require this vaccine nor should it,” Wilson said in a press release. “This is a state decision, and I will oppose any effort to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of shots that children must get to go to school.”
Dartmouth Doctor Champions Paxlovid
Dr. Rebecca Wang, an infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, has said: “Never really in recent history for a respiratory virus can I think of an anti-viral medication being as effective, demonstrated in scientific literature, as what Paxlovid has shown.”
The anti-COVID drug has been criticized for sometimes leaving a metallic taste in the mouth, and some research has found that the drug might not cause a statistically significant reduction in hospitalization among younger adults. Additionally, people who take Paxlovid can endure “rebound” COVID in which symptoms return after the five-day course of pills has ended.
Despite all that, COVID-19 is a deadly virus, especially for older people, and Paxlovid reduces COVID’s severity by inhibiting the replication of the virus inside the human body. Both randomized trials and data from electronic health records have pointed to its effectiveness. Some research finds an effect across all age groups, while other research finds one only among older patients.
Boston’s Engineered COVID Strain
There was a bit of a panic when news broke that Boston University had engineered a strain of COVID in a lab while investigating why the COVID-19’s Omicron variant seems to cause less severe disease than the original strain of the virus. The main focus of the research was to see if the spike protein in Omicron causes less severe disease, and the experiments found that the lab-created hybrid virus killed eight of 10 infected mice, while the mice that were infected with natural Omicron got sick but did not die.
Laura Balsas, writing for Popular Science, explained that the results actually demonstrate that the hybrid virus used in the study was less lethal than the original strain, which was fatal in 100 percent of the mice studied, suggesting that the mutations that make Omicron less infectious involve changes in some of the virus’ other proteins and not the spike protein.
The ensuing controversy over the experiments claimed that it was “gain-of-function” research, which is tightly regulated and the subject of debate among scientists because it works with viral strains to understand how the pathogen adapts to environmental changes. Ronald B. Corley of BU said the research was not gain-of-function experimentation, and, in fact, made the virus less dangerous.
Still, the article stated, “This controversy will likely add to the ongoing debate on conducting and regulating risky GOF research, as well as the lack of clarity within regulations. Last month, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) task force issued a draft report that recommended that some pathogens and types of research that are now exempt [from regulation] be included in new reviews.”
Anachronistic Response To Inflation
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich maintains in an article in The Guardian that the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes are based on “the anachronistic idea that slowing consumer demand automatically causes prices to fall or to climb more slowly.” Instead, pointing out that inflation is worldwide, he writes: “But with global shortages of supplies, and monopolistic corporations raising prices to preserve or enlarge their profits, the Fed would have to raise interest rates far higher before having the desired effect. The Fed would very likely bring the economy to a crawl, by which time the human cost will be overwhelming.”
Today’s inflation is propelled by continuing global supply shocks at a time when consumer demand is soaring as the worst of pandemic appears to be behind us. Reich says inflation in the United States also is being caused by corporations raising their prices faster than their costs: Corporate profit margins are at record highs. He quotes Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: “The companies who set prices are really reluctant to stop increasing them. What we saw was that corporations were actually pocketing quite a bit more profit off this …. They’re still putting up prices very rapidly, even in instances where their own costs are starting to fall.”
“Better to wait out the global supply shocks and deal with corporate power with a temporary windfall profits tax and more vigorous antitrust enforcement,” Reich says.
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