United Air CEO Says 98.5% of U.S. Employees Have Been Vaccinated

This is the summary figure I meant to show. From the amazing resource that is http://CoVariants.org. Gracias, @firefoxx66! 31/

Vaccination coverage remains low at ~30%, and most countries are preparing for a rise in cases in the following weeks with the arrival of Delta. So, there's room for novel variants to emerge locally in the next months. We'll see how that goes. 30/ FIN.

But increased immune evasion may not be enough to overcome Delta's high transmissibility. As new cases fall to their lowest levels of 2021, we see Delta replace Gamma in Rio de Janeiro and Lambda in Lima. Delta is also expanding in Colombia and may replace Mu soon. 29/

So, it is possible that Gamma, Lambda, Mu, and local variants prevented Alpha from dominating Latam in early 2021, possibly because they could transmit better in populations with high levels of natural immunity from large initial waves of 2020. 28/

What about other countries? We see diverse mixes of regional variants plus Alpha and other imported lineages in Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador. Other countries report less than 1000 genomes, so it's hard to assess their situation https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.19.21260779v1… https://auspice.cov2.cl/ncov/chile-global… 27/

Additional evidence on Mu is scarce for similar reasons to Lambda: (1) limited capacity for follow-up studies, and (2) these variants have not been a significant threat in high-income countries like Delta is. The recent VOI designation by WHO should bring new data on Mu soon. 26/

Data from PHE and a recent preprint suggest reduced neutralization by convalescent + post-vaccine sera to levels greater than Beta, potentially making Mu the most immune-evading variant yet. https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.06.459005v1… https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1009009/6_August_2021_Risk_assessment_for_SARS-CoV-2_variant_VUI_21JUL-01.pdf… 25/

Colombia has had two epidemic waves in 2021. Gamma + 2020 lineages caused the first peak (Feb), and Mu drove the second peak (June-July). 24/

Finally, B.1.621 / Mu. It was first reported in Colombia, with E484K, N501Y, P681H, and a similar emergence pattern and export to other regional variants. https://virological.org/t/emergence-of-lineage-b-1-621-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/742… https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.08.21256619v2… 23/

Evidence for reduced antibody neutralization to levels similar to Gamma and Delta through Δ246-253, L452Q, F490S: https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.14.456353v1… https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.25.457692v1.full.pdf… https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.20.21262328v1… https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.21.21260961v1… https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.19.452771v3… 22/

Evidence for higher ACE2 affinity + infectivity https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.28.454085v1… https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259673v1… 21/

Most countries in Latam have limited capacity for follow-up lab + epi studies, so it's been challenging to assess the effect of C.37 mutations on transmission, virulence, or potential immune scape. Here's a summary of the early evidence from PHE. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1000662/8_July_2021_Risk_assessment_for_SARS-CoV-2_variant_LAMBDA_01.00-1.pdf… 20/

C.37 has accumulated additional mutations of interest appearing multiple times on the global tree: (1) Additional deletion in S:61-75, (2) Q675H, (3) I714V https://nextstrain.org/community/quipupe/C37_lineage… 19/

C.37 likely originated in Peru in late 2020, given its earlier growth and peak frequency. However, the earliest C.37 record is from Argentina from 8-Nov (EPI_ISL_2158693, although this sequence is identical to the second earliest case, from 29-Jan). 18/

By the time we first reported C.37 in late April, it had already been expanding in Chile and Argentina, in the presence of Alpha and Gamma. https://virological.org/t/novel-sublineage-within-b-1-1-1-currently-expanding-in-peru-and-chile-with-a-convergent-deletion-in-the-orf1a-gene-3675-3677-and-a-novel-deletion-in-the-spike-gene-246-252-g75v-t76i-l452q-f490s-t859n/685… 17/

We first noticed it in Lima in late December (<1% of cases then). By April, at the peak of Peru's second wave, it was already 80% of all sequenced cases. 16/

Lambda has its unique constellation of mutations in the Spike gene. Particularly interesting at first: Δ247-253 in NTD, and L452Q (similar to L452R in Delta) + F490S in RBD. It also shares a convergent deletion in ORF1a:3675-3677 with Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Eta, and Iota. 15/

C.37 evolved from B.1.1.1, a lineage imported from Europe early in the pandemic. By late 2020, B.1.1.1 accounted for 20%+ of sequenced genomes from Peru. 14/

C.37 has been exported to 30+ countries, mainly in the Americas and Europe. 13/

Now, on to C.37 / Lambda. I will explain more about it since I am most familiar with this story. https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.26.21259487v1… 12/

Moving to Uruguay, which contained the virus for most of 2020. Cases rose in November with P.6, a B.1.1.28 sublineage with S:Q675H+Q677H. P.6 was replaced by P.1 by April, coinciding with a sharp rise in cases and deaths. https://go.nature.com/3jTTlrm https://bit.ly/3tunQHt 11/

Elsewhere in Brazil, P.2 / Zeta evolved independently from P.1 and had S:E484K but not N501Y or K417N. It peaked around December and has been exported to 40+ countries but has since been replaced by P.1 in most of Brazil. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JVI.00119-21… 10/

Gamma has now generated multiple sublineages, has been exported to 80+ countries, and is arguably the most successful variant in the region so far. https://outbreak.info/situation-reports/gamma… https://cov-lineages.org/lineage.html?lineage=P.1… 9/

P.1 / Gamma is already known to everyone. Its emergence from Manaus and its spread have been described in detail by our colleagues at CADDE, Fiocruz, and others in Brazil. https://science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abh2644… https://nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01378-7… 8/

More on the global disparities in genomic surveillance in this post from @AndersonBrito_ https://twitter.com/AndersonBrito_/status/1431235752944340992?s=20… 7/

South America has a very limited capacity for genomic surveillance: We contribute less than 2% of sequences on GISAID (65k by September 8), which represent less than 0.5% of total cases for most countries. We are also very slow to upload sequences to GISAID/Genbank. 6/

So, we have had very high levels of transmission and it's not surprising that novel variants beyond P.1 would emerge in the region, usually in the presence of high seroprevalence from the initial wave of cases in 2020. https://go.nature.com/3DXhrJR https://bit.ly/3yVcGww 5/

Looking at excess deaths relative to previous years, many Latam countries appear at the top. http://ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938… 4/

While much attention has focused on Brazil due to the magnitude of its epidemic (584k+ COVID deaths, pop. 210M+), relative to pop size, many countries in the region have had similar or worse epidemics. 3/

Let me first bring your attention to Latin America, an epicenter for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. We have around 8% of the world population (660M) yet accumulate 25+% (1.4M) of COVID deaths. http://ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938… 2/

Hello from Peru. Recently, there's been some buzz about Lambda, Mu, and variants coming out of South America. Here's a summary of the variant landscape in the region where Delta is yet to dominate (but will soon), as we prepare for a new wave of cases in the following weeks. 1/n

The state has the highest rate of Covid in America, leaving hospitals overwhelmed and health workers burned out

‘It’s awful. It’s exhausting’: Alaska rations care as it hits Covid nadir

The brains trust behind CovidbaseAU was anonymous before Wesley, 14, and 15 year olds Jack and Darcy tweeted a photograph of themselves

‘Absolutely madness’: Melbourne teenagers reveal they are behind leading Covid tracking website

Studies suggesting ivermectin is an effective Covid treatment relied on evidence ‘that has substantially evaporated under close scrutiny’, fresh research shows

Fraudulent ivermectin studies open up new battleground between science and misinformation

As Covid-19 cases in Peru rose rapidly during the early months of the pandemic, public interest in the drug ivermectin surged.

Desperation, misinformation: how the ivermectin craze spread across the world

The Indian Council of Medical Research and the Covid-19 National Task Force have dropped the usage of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drugs from their revised "clinical guidance for management of adult Covid-19 patients".

ICMR removes Ivermectin, HCQ from revised guidelines on Covid-19 treatment

Canadians overwhelmingly support the idea of requiring vaccine passports to gain admittance to public places such as restaurants, bars and gyms, a new poll suggests. Fully 78 per cent of respondents to the Leger poll said they strongly support (56 per cent) or somewhat support (22 per cent) requiring proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to visit non-essential public places where numerous people typically congregate, including concert halls and festivals.

78% Canadians support COVID-19 vaccine passport for public places: poll

Abstract Background: Long COVID is a complex multiorgan disorder that can affect patients’ lives severely. Recent reports suggest that symptoms improve after COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: We used data from the ComPaRe long COVID cohort to emulate a target trial evaluating the effect of vaccination among patients with long COVID who still had persistent symptoms at baseline. Vaccinated patients were matched to unvaccinated controls in a 1:1 ratio by their propensity scores. Outcomes, all measured at 120 days after baseline, include disease severity (long COVID ST, range 0-53), rate of complete remission (ie, disappearance of all symptoms), disease impact on patients’ lives (long covid IT, range 0-60), and the proportion of patients reporting an unacceptable symptom state. Vaccinated patients reported all adverse events occurring after vaccination in free text. Findings: In total, 455 patients were allocated to the vaccination group and 455 to the control group; 545 (60·1%) had confirmed infections, and 81 (8·9%) had been hospitalized during their acute COVID-19. By 120 days, vaccination reduced the long COVID symptoms (mean (SD) ST score in the vaccination group 13·0 (9·4) vs. 14·8 (9·8) in the control group; mean difference: -1·8, 95% CI -2·5 to -1·0) and doubled the rate of patients in complete remission (remission rate 16·6% vs 7·5%, HR: 1·97, 95% CI 1·23 to 3·15). Furthermore, vaccination reduced both disease impact on patients’ lives (mean (SD) IT score 24.3 (16·7) vs 27·6 (16·7); mean difference: -3·3, 95% CI -6·2 to -0·5) and the proportion of patients with an unacceptable symptom state (38.9% vs 46.4%, risk difference -7·5%, 95% CI -14·4 to -0·5). In the vaccination group, two (0·4%) patients reported serious adverse events leading to hospitalisation. Interpretation: COVID-19 vaccination lowers the severity and life impact of long COVID at 120 days among patients with persistent symptoms.Funding Information: The authors received no specific funding for this work.Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests and no financial associations that may be relevant or seen as relevant to the submitted manuscript. The authors have no association with commercial entities that could be viewed as having an interest in the general area of the submitted manuscript.Ethics Approval Statement: All patients provided online consent before participating in the cohort. The Institutional Review Board of Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Paris, approved the study (IRB: 0008367). Keywords: COVID-19, long COVID, COVID-19 vaccination, comparative effectiveness research, causal inference, target trial emulation

Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccination on the Symptoms of Patients With Long COVID: A Target Trial Emulation Using Data From the ComPaRe e-Cohort in France

We hope to understand how vaccines are helping some long haulers and not others. Understanding the pathophysiology of #longCOVID is direly needed to develop diagnostic tools and therapy. Thank you @thitran3 et al for this important study (end)

With input from @Survivor_Corps and @patientled, we are studying the impact of COVID vaccines on #longCOVID symptoms and correlating the changes in the immune responses to symptom changes. Led by @DaisySMassey @hmkyale (7/)

A prospective observational study by @gushamilton team showed small overall improvement in #longCOVID symptoms in vaccinated patients. (6/)

Overall, this study adds to growing evidence that vaccines can improve symptoms and lessen the disease impact in #longCOVID. What is the evidence? An important patient survey from @LongCovidSOS showed impact of vaccines on long covid symptoms. (5/) …https://3ca26cd7-266e-4609-b25f-6f3d1497c4cf.filesusr.com/ugd/8bd4fe_a338597f76bf4279a851a7a4cb0e0a74.pdf

What about severe adverse effects of vaccines in long haulers? Of the 455 long covid patients who received vaccines, 2 led to hospitalization, 2 led to ER visit, 13 had relapse of long covid symptoms. (4/)

In addition, disease impact of long covid on patients’ lives were significantly reduced (symptoms improved) in vax group (long COVID IT score of 24.3) compared to unvax group (IT score of 27.6). (3/)

The study found that the rate of complete remission from long COVID symptoms doubled in vaccinated patients compared to unvaccinated long COVID patients. Wow, vaccines appear to be helping long haulers with recovery (2/)

An important new study looks at how COVID vaccines impacts symptoms in #LongCovid patients. @thitran3’s team used data from ComPaRe long COVID cohort to emulate a target trial (1:1 matched vax:unvax) measuring outcome at 120 days after baseline. (1/) https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3932953

So IMO, OAS is a super-interesting thing to study from the standpoint of immunodominance and selective pressures on viral evolution. Pre-pandemic I didn't care much abt what ppl call it. But the term carries negative connotations that I don't find very helpful for #SciComm.

Second, we earlier made some recombinant RBD that carried mutations at all of the key neutralizing epitopes. We wanted a serological comparison to estimate neut responses. But the mutant protein was less thermostable. So the virus *might* take a fitness cost if it did this.

But what happens if the virus mutates its way out of all earlier neutralizing epitopes? First, as @GuthmillerJenna points out, neutralization is not the only mechanism of protection. Antibodies (and T cells ofc) made to other parts of the virus can help.

Similarly, this paper by @TheBcellArtist and @florian_krammer showed that post-mRNA vaccination, you do get beta-CoV X-reactive memory responses, but it obviously doesn't keep you from making primary neutralizing responses to SARS2.

So this is all wrt flu. But there are some data for SARS-CoV-2. E.g this paper by @MahevasMatthieu showed that while you get beta-CoV X-reactive responses early post-SARS2 infection, later naive responses specific to SARS2 take over (*loved* this paper).

So for these reasons, I don't like the blanket term of 'sin.' Recalling memory B cells against conserved parts of the virus can be a 'blessing' too, as stated by @SCOTTeHENSLEY and @MichaelWorobey. http://perspectivesinmedicine.cshlp.org/content/10/10/a038471.long

Moreover, making memory responses against invariant parts of the virus doesn't prevent new primary responses against other parts. It's possible these new responses get slowed or are weaker (reason to be cautious in over-boosting), but it's not absent.

...making immune responses to parts of the virus that haven't changed can be a good thing. This paper by my colleague @MichaelWorobey and co-authors shows that such antigenic imprinting (IMO a better term than OAS) can be protective.

Since immune responses are competitions, this could be bad by competitively inhibiting new responses against parts of the strain that changed. There's evidence that as a result, repeated flu boosters confer less protection (tho this v. complicated). But...

boosters from working at all. First, what is OAS? It's a concept proposed by Thomas Francis wrt influenza. It means that you keep making immune responses aimed at the original flu you first encountered even when exposed later to diff strains. https://jstor.org/stable/985534

Okay, day 2 of kid quarantine (Btw, he is fine and tested negative so far)! Let's dig into original antigenic sin and why IMO the term (not the concept) is too negative. It could start to be a problem at the margins if we boost too often, but I doubt it would prevent updated

'Behavioural responses to Covid-19 health certification: a rapid review' @ProfJohnDrury The first rapid review on possible behavioural effects of 'vaccine passports' and similar schemes *open access* https://rdcu.be/cm6qf

Bogus, damaging “consent form” being peddled over in the UK. Ugh. The anti-vaccine movement is trying every grotesque tactic under the sun.

How the US vaccine effort derailed and why we shouldn’t be surprisedLow vaccine rates may be the predictable outcome subject to entrenched social forces that have diminished American health and life expectancy since the 1980s, health researchers say

How the US vaccine effort derailed and why we shouldn’t be surprised

The past several months have seen thousands of hospitals announce COVID-19 vaccination requirements for staff and clinicians as a condition of employment. <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- document.addEventListener("googletagEvent", function () { let hideOnMobile = "0"; let isMobileQuery = false; if (typeof window.dataLayerValues === "undefined" || !window.dataLayerValues.hasOwnProperty('isMobileQuery') || window.dataLayerValues.isMobileQuery) { isMobileQuery = window.dataLayerValues.isMobileQuery; } // Don't display the ad unit if this is a mobile browser and we're supposed to hide the unit in mobile view. if (isMobileQuery && hideOnMobile === '1') { console.log("[debug] [mobile] [skipping] ad unit: ", 'content-embed-one'); return; } let hideOnDesktop = "0"; // Don't display this ad unit if this is a desktop broser and we're supposed to hide the mobile ad unit if(!isMobileQuery && hideOnDesktop === '1') { //console.log("[debug] [desktop] [skipping] ad unit on: ", 'content-embed-one',"hideOnDesktop:",hideOnDesktop); return; } //console.log("[debug] content-embed-one","firing"); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('content-embed-one'); }); }); //--><!]]> Although controversial, the policies picked up steam when Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty received a full regulatory approval and then really kicked into gear when the Biden administration made workforce vaccination a requirement for Medicare and Medicaid participation. Most health system leaders and professional organizations have been supportive of the requirement, with some describing vaccination as “the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all healthcare workers to put patients as well as residents of long-term care facilities first.” <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- document.addEventListener("googletagEvent", function () { let hideOnMobile = "0"; let isMobileQuery = false; if (typeof window.dataLayerValues === "undefined" || !window.dataLayerValues.hasOwnProperty('isMobileQuery') || window.dataLayerValues.isMobileQuery) { isMobileQuery = window.dataLayerValues.isMobileQuery; } // Don't display the ad unit if this is a mobile browser and we're supposed to hide the unit in mobile view. if (isMobileQuery && hideOnMobile === '1') { console.log("[debug] [mobile] [skipping] ad unit: ", 'ad-slot_1__mobile'); return; } let hideOnDesktop = "1"; // Don't display this ad unit if this is a desktop broser and we're supposed to hide the mobile ad unit if(!isMobileQuery && hideOnDesktop === '1') { //console.log("[debug] [desktop] [skipping] ad unit on: ", 'ad-slot_1__mobile',"hideOnDesktop:",hideOnDesktop); return; } //console.log("[debug] ad-slot_1__mobile","firing"); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('ad-slot_1__mobile'); }); }); //--><!]]> However, some executives and industry figures have warned that mandates might place provider organizations in a bind as disgruntled employees choose to walk away rather than comply.

How many employees have hospitals lost to vaccine mandates? Here are the numbers so far

and just to note official government guidance https://gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do#wear-a-face-covering…Quote TweetProf. Christina Pagel@chrischirp · 3hhate to say it, but the Labour conference looks kind of super spready... 4 days of rooms this full plus evening drinking in the bar... and not a mask in sight. twitter.com/SadiqKhan/stat…

"We've been creative": Puerto Rico fares better at COVID shots than many U.S. states, with 62% of its population fully vaccinated. Gov. Pedro Pierluisi tells CBSN how Puerto Rico benefits from vaccine mandates, rejecting misinformation and avoiding politicization of the pandemic

The political divide over vaccinations is so large that almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state. https://nytimes.com/2021/09/27/briefing/covid-red-states-vaccinations.html…

What to Know About the Global COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout So Far

10.1016/j.jvacx.2021.100114

AbstractAs the COVID-19 pandemic continues causing problems around the world, Chile is facing a new episode of increasing cases and deaths. However, at the same time, the country has succeeded in providing vaccines for an important part of its population over a short period.What are the factors behind this successful process? What are the challenges faced by the country today? This article explores potential explanations for the “Chilean paradigm”, regarding the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Borrowing from implementation science frameworks, the analysis proposed an alternative explanation—based on multiple actors, approaches, and history—as opposed to one in which the outcome is due mainly to the government’s performance.The rapid and extensive coverage of vaccination can be explained by the role played by the government and the academia in securing vaccines through a pragmatic approach; the capacity built at local level, as well as the coordination between the health system and local authorities; and favorable vaccine culture, developed through the implementation of the National Immunization Program. Short and long-term elements (such as investment in infrastructure and relationships between stakeholders, and actions carried out during the pandemic), as well as contextual factors (such as the political and socioeconomic context), provide a more complex story to explain the observed outcomes.While other countries could try to follow the Chilean example, the article shows that short-term actions are necessary but might not be sufficient to achieve results. At a global level, the situation calls for rethinking how countries will face these global challenges, including issues such as international cooperation and global health governance.

The successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Chile: Factors and challenges

Now that covid-19 vaccination of children in the UK is starting, it is essential that the legal basis of consent for a medical intervention in this group are well understood

Consent for covid-19 vaccination in children

OTTAWA -- Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says “active” discussions are underway with various countries, including the U.S., to permit the entry of Canadians with mixed COVID-19 vaccine doses.

Discussions underway with countries to accept Canadians with mixed vaccines: Tam

10.1136/bmj.n2297

Rates of infection and of severe illness were substantially lower in people aged over 60 who received a booster (third) dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine than in those who had only two doses, Israeli researchers have reported.1

Covid-19: Booster dose reduces infections and severe illness in over 60s, Israeli study reports

10.1136/bmj.n2244

AbstractObjectives To derive and validate risk prediction algorithms to estimate the risk of covid-19 related mortality and hospital admission in UK adults after one or two doses of covid-19 vaccination.Design Prospective, population based cohort study using the QResearch database linked to data on covid-19 vaccination, SARS-CoV-2 results, hospital admissions, systemic anticancer treatment, radiotherapy, and the national death and cancer registries.Settings Adults aged 19-100 years with one or two doses of covid-19 vaccination between 8 December 2020 and 15 June 2021.Main outcome measures Primary outcome was covid-19 related death. Secondary outcome was covid-19 related hospital admission. Outcomes were assessed from 14 days after each vaccination dose. Models were fitted in the derivation cohort to derive risk equations using a range of predictor variables. Performance was evaluated in a separate validation cohort of general practices.Results Of 6 952 440 vaccinated patients in the derivation cohort, 5 150 310 (74.1%) had two vaccine doses. Of 2031 covid-19 deaths and 1929 covid-19 hospital admissions, 81 deaths (4.0%) and 71 admissions (3.7%) occurred 14 days or more after the second vaccine dose. The risk algorithms included age, sex, ethnic origin, deprivation, body mass index, a range of comorbidities, and SARS-CoV-2 infection rate. Incidence of covid-19 mortality increased with age and deprivation, male sex, and Indian and Pakistani ethnic origin. Cause specific hazard ratios were highest for patients with Down’s syndrome (12.7-fold increase), kidney transplantation (8.1-fold), sickle cell disease (7.7-fold), care home residency (4.1-fold), chemotherapy (4.3-fold), HIV/AIDS (3.3-fold), liver cirrhosis (3.0-fold), neurological conditions (2.6-fold), recent bone marrow transplantation or a solid organ transplantation ever (2.5-fold), dementia (2.2-fold), and Parkinson’s disease (2.2-fold). Other conditions with increased risk (ranging from 1.2-fold to 2.0-fold increases) included chronic kidney disease, blood cancer, epilepsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, thromboembolism, peripheral vascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. A similar pattern of associations was seen for covid-19 related hospital admissions. No evidence indicated that associations differed after the second dose, although absolute risks were reduced. The risk algorithm explained 74.1% (95% confidence interval 71.1% to 77.0%) of the variation in time to covid-19 death in the validation cohort. Discrimination was high, with a D statistic of 3.46 (95% confidence interval 3.19 to 3.73) and C statistic of 92.5. Performance was similar after each vaccine dose. In the top 5% of patients with the highest predicted covid-19 mortality risk, sensitivity for identifying covid-19 deaths within 70 days was 78.7%.Conclusion This population based risk algorithm performed well showing high levels of discrimination for identifying those patients at highest risk of covid-19 related death and hospital admission after vaccination.

Risk prediction of covid-19 related death and hospital admission in adults after covid-19 vaccination: national prospective cohort study

10.1136/bmj.n2168

Getting people to agree to covid-19 vaccination is an ongoing challenge in the US. But one demographic group shines, reports Joanne Silberner

Covid-19: How Native Americans led the way in the US vaccination effort

Mike Yeadon's Covid vaccine claims: Fact Checked. Dose ranging studies DID take place Vaccines AREN'T dangerous in pregnancy You CAN refuse a vaccine Our sources http://fullfact.org/health/Mike-Yeadon-video

Fascinating clip from Dr.Fauci where he says we should treat COVID like how we treat measles. Not flu.

As millions of students return to school, pediatric COVID-19 cases are surging.

Nearly 252,000 children in US test positive for COVID-19 amid back-to-school season

A SCOTUS legal precedent about vaccines for the public good.

AS A growing body of data suggests that vaccine-induced protection from covid-19 declines over time, many nations are gearing up to roll out a booster programme. Israel has already begun, while the US, France and Germany have all announced plans to begin rolling out third doses. Some other countries, including the UK, are holding back, with results from a key trial of third shots expected imminently.

What we know so far about booster shots and the covid-19 vaccines

10.1140/epjds/s13688-021-00301-x

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a deep impact on the lives of the entire world population, inducing a participated societal debate. As in other contexts, the debate has been the subject of several d/misinformation campaigns; in a quite unprecedented fashion, however, the presence of false information has seriously put at risk the public health. In this sense, detecting the presence of malicious narratives and identifying the kinds of users that are more prone to spread them represent the first step to limit the persistence of the former ones. In the present paper we analyse the semantic network observed on Twitter during the first Italian lockdown (induced by the hashtags contained in approximately 1.5 millions tweets published between the 23rd of March 2020 and the 23rd of April 2020) and study the extent to which various discursive communities are exposed to d/misinformation arguments. As observed in other studies, the recovered discursive communities largely overlap with traditional political parties, even if the debated topics concern different facets of the management of the pandemic. Although the themes directly related to d/misinformation are a minority of those discussed within our semantic networks, their popularity is unevenly distributed among the various discursive communities.

Italian Twitter semantic network during the Covid-19 epidemic

10.31234/osf.io/6cu3t

To mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the globe implemented Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs), one of which being Working From Home (WFH). In this paper we present an ethnographic investigation into the adaptations of working spaces and habits due to the adoption of WFH. We interviewed 12 participants from different industry contexts in order to cover a wide range of tools and practices used to conduct remote work. We focus on the importance and benefits of the different technologies available and how they impact collaboration. We discuss challenges experienced by participants in organizing their workspace at home, the impact of workload on practices, and the growing worries about isolation. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the changing physical, social and technological environments in designing new ways of working and collaborating remotely. From our results, we finally derive new directions for the HCI and CSCW research agenda on the topic of WFH.

Working from home is the new black: into the private world of remote collaboration in COVID-19 lockdowns

10.1103/PhysRevE.104.034303

Within the context of social balance theory, much attention has been paid to the attainment and stability of unipolar or bipolar societies. However, multipolar societies are commonplace in the real world, despite the fact that the mechanism of their emergence is much less explored. Here, we investigate the evolution of a society of interacting agents with friendly (positive) and enmity (negative) relations into a final stable multipolar state. Triads are assigned energy according to the degree of tension they impose on the network. Agents update their connections to decrease the total energy (tension) of the system, on average. Our approach is to consider a variable energy ε∈[0,1]<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>ε</mi><mo>∈</mo><mo>[</mo><mn>0</mn><mo>,</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>]</mo></mrow></math> for triads which are entirely made of negative relations. We show that the final state of the system depends on the initial density of the friendly links ρ0<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mi>ρ</mi><mn>0</mn></msub></math>. For initial densities greater than an ε<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>ε</mi></math>-dependent threshold ρc0(ε)<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><msubsup><mi>ρ</mi><mn>0</mn><mi>c</mi></msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mi>ε</mi><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math>, a unipolar (paradise) state is reached. However, for ρ0≤ρc0(ε)<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><msub><mi>ρ</mi><mn>0</mn></msub><mo>≤</mo><msubsup><mi>ρ</mi><mn>0</mn><mi>c</mi></msubsup><mrow><mo>(</mo><mi>ε</mi><mo>)</mo></mrow></mrow></math>, multipolar and bipolar states can emerge. We observe that the number of stable final poles increases with decreasing ε<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>ε</mi></math> where the first transition from bipolar to multipolar society occurs at ε∗≈0.67<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><msup><mi>ε</mi><mo>*</mo></msup><mo>≈</mo><mn>0.67</mn></mrow></math>. We end the paper by providing a mean-field calculation that provides an estimate for the critical (ε<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>ε</mi></math> dependent) initial positive link density, which is consistent with our simulations.

Dynamics of social balance on networks: The emergence of multipolar societies

Lots of people are asking GPs about kids and Covid-19 vaccines

Covid Vaccines and Kids

The Delta variant has caused a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and deaths, threatening earlier gains made by the Biden Administration in tackling the pandemic. President Biden on Thursday laid out an ambitious comprehensive six-point COVID Action Plan to respond to the variant challenge. It gives appropriate top priority to using executive action to maximize vaccinations and recognizes the direct link between curbing the virus and reopening schools, workplaces, transportation hubs, entertainment venues and other vital segments of our economy.