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News for November 17 — COVID-19 Tide Keeps Rising

COVID-19 tide keeps rising: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covid-19-cases-are-rise-all-50-states-nbc-news-n1248006 . FDA grants EUA for 30-minute home COVID-19 test: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-0430fe7460b4385bd952978f19b3d88d . WSJ: COVID-19 treatment improving: https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-apply-covid-19-lessons-learned-as-u-s-cases-surge-11605609000 . It is tragic that this improvement has come from a year of high-volume caseloads and deaths. White House Coronavirus Task Force reports “further deterioration”: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/politics/white-house-coronavirus-task-force-state-reports/index.html . Interestingly, “further deterioration” also applies to the …

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News for November 16 — Vaccination Target; COVID Baby Bust

Vaccination target: https://news.yahoo.com/around-65-75-of-the-population-needs-to-take-a-90-effective-coronavirus-vaccine-johns-hopkins-expert-says-185102526.html . This gentleman is certainly an expert. I respectfully disagree with what he is saying. Yes, herd immunity is complex. The key, however, IS the infectiousness of the virus. COVID-19 is highly infectious. As a reference point (which the doctor presumably knows), measles herd immunity is achieved at 96% or higher immunization …

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News for November 15 — COVID-19 Reinfection

COVID-19 reinfection: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/13/covid-19-reinfection-vaccines-herd-immunity-health/6136943002/ . WSJ: COVID, COVID everywhere: https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-covid-surge-u-s-restrictions-11605466754 . Cuomo threatens to sue Trump over vaccine distribution: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/526070-cuomo-threatens-to-sue-trump-administration-over-vaccine-distribution-plan . Whether or not Cuomo’s argument wins with Trump, it is a winner with a Democratic president. As a practical matter, this is one New Yorker telling another to stick the Sunday Times where the sun …

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News for November 14 — US Drowning in Virus

US drowning in virus: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/14/health/us-coronavirus-saturday/index.html . A little over a week after the US first topped 100,000 cases in a day, Friday’s total exceeded 184,000. To reaffirm, the huge virus load in the population globally increases the likelihood of mutation. This in turn could reduce vaccine effectiveness.                                                                              More: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/11/14/934973850/u-s-adds-184-000-coronavirus-cases-in-one-day-with-no-end-in-sight . A national lockdown …

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News for November 13 — Autoantibodies Disable Interferon

Autoantibodies disable interferons: https://khn.org/news/breakthrough-finding-reveals-why-certain-covid-patients-die/ . In “breakthrough research”, some patients have autoantibodies which are somehow activated by COVID-19. These autoantibodies then disable interferons, which are the body’s first line of defense against newly acquired viruses. The result can be severe COVID-19. Among study participants with this result, 94% were men. This is particularly surprising as …

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News for November 12 — Vaccine Conspiracy Theory

Vaccine conspiracy theory: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8931911/Donald-Trump-accuses-FDA-holding-Pfizer-vaccine-election.html . The soon-to-be-ex-president (STBEP) has been nuts and getting nuttier for a long time. The Deep State Crusade will be coming to a cable channel near you soon. Vaccine conspiracy theory debunked: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/pfizer-s-covid-vaccine-prevents-90-of-infections-in-large-study . So the reason Pfizer got results now is that when they resumed testing, there were way more …

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News for November 11 — Vaccine’s Slow Shot in the Arm

WSJ: Vaccine’s economic stimulus: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-covid-19-vaccine-would-boost-the-global-economy-but-not-all-at-once-11605087345 . This will be a rather slow shot in the arm. WSJ: China’s vaccine exports: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vaccines-are-chinas-golden-opportunity-to-regain-global-trust-on-health-exports-11605082819 . WSJ: Sputnik V: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-says-its-coronavirus-vaccine-sputnik-v-shows-over-90-efficacy-11605095822 . Russian vaccine claims are a wait-and-see item. The scientists behind the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/europe/biontech-pfizer-vaccine-team-couple-intl/index.html . WSJ: The CEOs behind the Pfizer BioNTech and other vaccines: https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizer-ceo-joins-host-of-executives-at-covid-19-vaccine-makers-in-big-stock-sale-11605139164 . …

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News for November 10 — COVID-19: A Vascular Disease

COVID-19: A vascular disease: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/11/05/917317541/clots-strokes-and-rashes-is-covid-19-a-disease-of-the-blood-vessels . Regular readers are aware that while COVID-19 launches as a respiratory disease, it morphs into a vascular disease. This article provides the latest details on how the vascular system is damaged. In particular, there are highly elevated levels of Von Willebrand factor, involved in coagulation, which are predictive of …

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News for November 9 — FDA grants EUA to Lilly

FDA grants EUA to Lilly antibody drug: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/09/fda-authorizes-lilly-antibody-coronavirus-435564 . So there won’t be enough of a drug on which NIH stopped the trial as showing no benefit. Where exactly is the demand for this treatment? FDA continues to sink … WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/eli-lillys-covid-19-antibody-drug-gets-fda-green-light-11604968438 . Pfizer BioNTech vaccine over 90% effective: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-pfizer-du/biontech-hopes-covid-19-vaccine-will-immunize-for-at-least-a-year-idUSKBN27P1J2 . Brazil suspends Sinovac …

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News for November 8 — The Zoom Effect; Alex Trebek

The Zoom Effect: increased plastic surgery demand: https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/the-weird-side-effect-from-zoom-meetings-everyone-will-be-talking-about-soon . There is an alternate explanation. As people are working remotely, they can recuperate from a procedure without having to interact with others. Also, non-facial procedures are not visible on Zoom. This could be called the Anti-Zoom Effect, although it’s really more the Time in Solitary Effect. …

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