Your immune system stands between you and deadly infections. But as you get older so does your immune age, making you more susceptible to disease. How exactly does the immune system work and what can we do to give it a boost? Science with Sam looks at things you can do to turn back the clock and stay healthy.

The immune system: How to boost your immunity to infection | Science with Sam

Big myths about COVID vaccines are showing real staying power among Americans who are not vaccinated. They are not the only factor fueling vaccine hesitancy, but they are a continuing problem the media, health leaders and trusted messengers ought to be able to chip away at to get more people vaccinated.

Persistent Vaccine Myths

"Even if a link between myocarditis and the vaccine holds up, the condition is usually mild, requiring treatment only with anti-inflammatory drugs, whereas COVID-19 infection can also cause serious disease and long-term side effects, even in young people."

Meanwhile, the evidence that the mRNA vaccines cause myocarditis keeps piling up. Israel reported today that the risk is 1 in 3000 to 1 in 6000 for young men. By way of comparison, the death risk of #Covid for healthy people under 25 is essentially too low to measure accurately.

This is what it takes to deliver lifesaving vaccines to the world. Thank you for your support.

Direction broadly consistent with PHE findings below (with caveat that above is very rough estimate, plus different vaccine types being used in India vs UK) – https://khub.net/documents/135939561/430986542/Effectiveness+of+COVID-19+vaccines+against+the+B.1.617.2+variant.pdf/204c11a4-e02e-11f2-db19-b3664107ac42

Small numbers, hence large uncertainty, but this suggests (albeit weakly) that vaccine breakthroughs have tended to come disproportionately from B.1.617.2 vs other variants...

Useful data – quick look suggests odds ratio for detection of B.1.617.2 relative to non-B.1.617.2 in vaccinated group compared to controls is 2.7 (95% CI: 0.7-10) after one dose and 1.2 (0.4-3.6) after two...

Outdated public health guidance about children and Covid-19 vaccines is being misleadingly passed off as a new development. In guidance posted April 8, the World Health Organization said that several Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective for most people over 18, and that children “should not be vaccinated for the moment.”

Misleading information about vaccinating children is linked to old WHO advice

10.1038/s41586-021-03694-x

Social and cultural forces shape almost every aspect of infectious disease transmission in human populations, as well as our ability to measure, understand, and respond to epidemics. For directly transmitted infections, pathogen transmission relies on human-to-human contact, with kinship, household, and societal structures shaping contact patterns that in turn determine epidemic dynamics. Social, economic, and cultural forces also shape patterns of exposure, health-seeking behaviour, infection outcomes, the likelihood of diagnosis and reporting of cases, and the uptake of interventions. Although these social aspects of epidemiology are hard to quantify and have limited the generalizability of modelling frameworks in a policy context, new sources of data on relevant aspects of human behaviour are increasingly available. Researchers have begun to embrace data from mobile devices and other technologies as useful proxies for behavioural drivers of disease transmission, but there is much work to be done to measure and validate these approaches, particularly for policy-making. Here we discuss how integrating local knowledge in the design of model frameworks and the interpretation of new data streams offers the possibility of policy-relevant models for public health decision-making as well as the development of robust, generalizable theories about human behaviour in relation to infectious diseases.

Thinking clearly about social aspects of infectious disease transmission

Imagine if we were now facing the Delta variant without widely available vaccines. Because that's the situation many, many countries are currently in.

How support for remote freelancers and remote workers could revitalize heartland economies across the U.S. 

Policy Opportunities for the Remote Economy

Informing solutions for public health crises through psychological science.

APS Global Collaboration on COVID-19

Vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency for use in the European Union (EU) are known to be safe and effective in preventing infectious diseases. Nonetheless, misinformation that incorrectly links these vaccines to harms to health or other undesirable consequences has, over recent years, continued to proliferate online and elsewhere. Misinformation about vaccines is not a new phenomenon, but it has become more prominent due to the rise of social media and, more recently, due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has clearly illustrated how easily misinformation can spread online and how rapidly new narratives can emerge and evolve. Vaccine misinformation can be dangerous: it decreases confidence in vaccines and can lead to vaccine hesitancy and reduced vaccination uptake. Public health authorities can play an important role in identifying and countering online vaccine misinformation to limit the harm it can do to a country’s vaccination efforts. In order to do this effectively, however, they need to have a good understanding of the landscape of vaccine misinformation in their respective countries, and of the tools and strategies that are available to fight misinformation effectively. This study, commissioned by ECDC, thus set out to explore: The main sources of online vaccine misinformation in the EU/European Economic Area (EEA); The evidence base for how to counter online vaccine misinformation; The current strategies used by national public health authorities in the EU/EEA and other organisations to counter online vaccine misinformation; and The training needs of national public health authorities in the EU/EEA for how to develop effective strategies for countering online vaccine misinformation. The study applied a mixed-methods approach consisting of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including a literature review, interviews with representatives of national public health authorities of six EU Member States (MS) and several pan-European and global organisations involved in countering vaccine misinformation, and a social media analysis in the six selected countries (Estonia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Romania). The focus of this study was misinformation relating to vaccination against measles (in combination with mumps and rubella), human papillomavirus (HPV), influenza, and COVID-19. The findings from this study provide insights for national public health authorities into the factors behind the spread of vaccine misinformation online and the options and capacities needed for responding to it. The findings will also serve to inform the development of a training package to support those authorities (and other interested organisations) in their work in this area.

Countering online vaccine misinformation in the EU/EEA

What was claimed Covid-19 vaccines have caused 172 miscarriages since January 2021. Our verdict Miscarriages have been reported following vaccination, but there’s no evidence to show vaccines were the cause. The number of miscarriages reported after vaccination does not appear to exceed the number you would ordinarily expect.

Website makes false claims about vaccines and miscarriages

10.1136/bmj.n1645

The world is divided over whether doctors and other health workers should have a covid-19 jab to do their jobs. As the UK once again considers the situation, Chris Stokel-Walker looks at the differing perspectives globally

Covid-19: The countries that have mandatory vaccination for health workers

10.1038/s41591-021-01437-z

Brazil has been heavily affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study, we used data on reported total deaths in 2020 and in January–April 2021 to measure and compare the death toll across states. We estimate a decline in 2020 life expectancy at birth (e0) of 1.3 years, a mortality level not seen since 2014. The reduction in life expectancy at age 65 (e65) in 2020 was 0.9 years, setting Brazil back to 2012 levels. The decline was larger for males, widening by 9.1% the female–male gap in e0. Among states, Amazonas lost 60.4% of the improvements in e0 since 2000. In the first 4 months of 2021, COVID-19 deaths represented 107% of the total 2020 figures. Assuming that death rates would have been equal to 2019 all-cause rates in the absence of COVID-19, COVID-19 deaths in 2021 have already reduced e0 in 2021 by 1.8 years, which is slightly larger than the reduction estimated for 2020 under similar assumptions.

Reduction in life expectancy in Brazil after COVID-19

10.31234/osf.io/tcr8s

Rationale: Covid-19 Is Certainly One Of The Worst Pandemics Ever. In The Absence Of A Vaccine, Classical Epidemiological Measures Such As Testing In Order To Isolate The Infected People, Quarantine And Social Distancing Are Ways To Reduce The Growing Speed Of New Infections As Much As Possible And As Soon As Possible, But With A Cost To Economic And Social Disruption. It Is Therefore A Challenge To Implement Timely And Appropriate Public Health Interventions. Objective: This Study Investigates A Reinforcement Learning Based Approach To Incrementally Learn How Much Intensity Of Each Public Health Intervention Should Be Applied At Each Period In A Given Region. Methods: First We Define The Basic Components Of A Reinforcement Learning (Rl) Set Up (I.E., States, Reward, Actions, And Transition Function), This Represents The Learning Environment For The Agent (I.E., An Ai-Model). Then We Train Our Agent Using Rl In An Online Fashion, Using A Reinforcement Learning Algorithm Known As Reinforce. Finally, A Developed Flow Network, Serving As An Epidemiological Model Is Used To Visualize The Results Of The Decisions Taken By The Agent Given Different Epidemic And Demographic State Scenarios. Main Results: After A Relatively Short Period Of Training, The Agent Starts Taking Reasonable Actions Allowing A Balance Between The Public Health And Economic Considerations. In Order To Test The Developed Tool, We Ran The Rl-Agent On Different Regions (Demographic Scale) And Recorded The Output Policy Which Was Still Consistent With The Training Performance. The Flow Network Used To Visualize The Results Of The Simulation Is Considerably Useful Since It Shows A High Correlation Between The Simulated Results And The Real Case Scenarios. Conclusion: This Work Shows That Reinforcement Learning Paradigm Can Be Used To Learn Public Health Policies In Complex Epidemiological Models. Moreover, Through This Experiment, We Demonstrate That The Developed Model Can Be Very Useful If Fed In With Real Data. Future Work: When Treating Trade-Off Problems (Balance Between Two Goals) Like Here, Engineering A Good Reward (That Encapsulates All Goals) Can Be Difficult, Therefore Future Work Might Tackle This Problem By Investigating Other Techniques Such As Inverse Reinforcement Learning And Human-In-The-Loop. Also, Regarding The Developed Epidemiological Model, We Aim To Gather Proper Real Data That Can Be Used To Make The Training Environment More Realistic, As Well As To Apply It For Network Of Regions Instead Of A Single Region.

Reinforcement Learning Based Decision Support Tool For Epidemic Control

The good news: an astonishing 98.2% of over-60s in Scotland are now fully vaccinated. That's an amazing uptake. It doesn't mean they are 100% protected of course (and especially not when case rates are high) but their risk of hospitalisation/death is cut by over 90%

Confirmed COVID deaths have increased very rapidly in Namibia.

If people are to act responsibly they need their government to fulfil its own responsibilities to make safe behaviour possible, argue these authors

After restriction: why the public can only fulfill its responsibilities if the government fulfills theirs

Our risk model estimates chances of death and hospitalisation based on age, sex and comorbidities

See how age and illnesses change the risk of dying from covid-19

Sage says majority were likely infected shortly before or soon after jab, before immunity had time to develop

One in 25 people hospitalised with Covid in UK since December have had vaccine

All EEOC materials related to COVID-19 are collected at www.eeoc.gov/coronavirus. The EEOC enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act (which include the requirement for reasonable accommodation and non-discrimination based on disability, and rules about employer medical examinations and inquiries), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, and sex, including pregnancy), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (which prohibits discrimination based on age, 40 or older), and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Note: Other federal laws, as well as state or local laws, may provide employees with additional protections. Title I of the ADA applies to private employers with 15 or more employees. It also applies to state and local government employers, employment agencies, and labor unions. All nondiscrimination standards under Title I of the ADA also apply to federal agencies under Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act. Basic background information about the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act is available on EEOC's disability page. The EEO laws, including the ADA and Rehabilitation Act, continue to apply during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they do not interfere with or prevent employers from following the guidelines and suggestions made by the CDC or state/local public health authorities about steps employers should take regarding COVID-19. Employers should remember that guidance from public health authorities is likely to change as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. Therefore, employers should continue to follow the most current information on maintaining workplace safety. Many common workplace inquiries about the COVID-19 pandemic are addressed in the CDC publication “General Business Frequently Asked Questions.” The EEOC has provided guidance (a publication entitled Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans With Disabilities Act [PDF version]) ("Pandemic Preparedness"), consistent with these workplace protections and rules, that can help employers implement strategies to navigate the impact of COVID-19 in the workplace. This pandemic publication, which was written during the prior H1N1 outbreak, is still relevant today and identifies established ADA and Rehabilitation Act principles to answer questions frequently asked about the workplace during a pandemic. It has been updated as of March 19, 2020 to address examples and information regarding COVID-19; the new 2020 information appears in bold and is marked with an asterisk. On March 27, 2020 the EEOC provided a webinar ("3/27/20 Webinar") which was recorded and transcribed and is available at www.eeoc.gov/coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 to be an international pandemic. The EEOC pandemic publication includes a separate section that answers common employer questions about what to do after a pandemic has been declared. Applying these principles to the COVID-19 pandemic, the following may be useful:

What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws

10.1038/d41586-021-00338-y

Immunologist Kizzmekia Corbett helped to design the Moderna vaccine. Now she volunteers her time talking about vaccine science with people of colour.

This COVID-vaccine designer is tackling vaccine hesitancy — in churches and on Twitter

Still pretty slow recovery in London too @nicolegelinas.

With vaccination, testing, treatment and social responsibility, in the near future, when someone gets Covid-19, our response can be very different from now. We are drawing up a road map to transit to this new normal.

Living normally, with Covid-19: Task force ministers on how S'pore is drawing road map for new normal

10.31234/osf.io/7fmrx

Collective narcissism is a belief in in-group’s greatness that is not appreciated by others. In three studies, conducted in the context of COVID-19, we found that collective narcissism measured with respect to the national group was related to support of policies that protect the national image at the expense of in-group members’ health. In Study 1, British national narcissism was related to opposing cooperation with the EU on medical equipment. In Study 2, American national narcissism predicted opposition to COVID-19 testing in order to downplay the number of cases. In Study 3, American national narcissism was related to support for releasing an untested COVID-19 vaccine, in order to beat other countries to the punch. These relationships were mediated by concern about the country’s reputation. Our studies shed light on collective narcissism as a group-based ego-enhancement strategy in which a strong image of the group is prioritised over its members’ well-being.

A Small Price to Pay: National Narcissism Predicts Readiness to Sacrifice In-group Members to Defend the In-group’s Image

What was claimed Just 748.6 people per 100,000 died in England in May. Our verdict False. If May’s death rate was replicated over the course of a year, then 748.6 people per 100,000 would die. But about a twelfth as many people died in May alone.

Telegraph suggests 9% of England dies each year

Amid Victoria’s worrying COVID outbreak, perhaps the point of greatest concern is the fact the virus has again found its way into aged care. On Sunday, the state government announced an aged-care worker had tested positive for COVID-19, despite having received their first vaccine dose on May 12.

How long do COVID vaccines take to start working?

Moral minefield as CMI poll finds opinion split on whether to restrict workplace for employees refusing vaccination

Covid-19 jabs for staff 'should be our call' say 58% of UK managers

In this webinar, we’ll delve into what one of our speakers has termed “the natural ecology of bullshit” — how to spot it, how it spreads and how to counter it. We’ll look at which groups suffer the greatest burden of deaths and illness from disinformation campaigns, and how journalists

Covering Coronavirus: Fighting the ‘Infodemic’

10.1136/bmj.n513

Tackling the reasons for hesitancy requires engagement, understanding, and trust

Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minority groups

10.1136/bmj.n597

Nearly a year after WHO declared the covid-19 pandemic, Elisabeth Mahase reports on the latest developments in vaccines, variants, and diplomacy

Covid-19: Where are we on vaccines and variants?

The rush to roll-out Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries has contributed to a new viral spread—that of false health information and malicious disinformation campaigns about the vaccines.

Covid-19 Conspiracies: How Can We Deal With Misinformation?

Portuguese island’s ‘green corridor’ opens door to visitors even if they have not been vaccinated

Madeira lets in tourists who can show Covid 'vaccine passport'

Tonight is the night! LIVE Town Hall. Real experts. Real answers. 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT. Tune in at http://thisisourshot.ca

What do you miss most because of the pandemic – celebrating with family and friends, going to a game or simply getting together? We all want these things back.This Is Our Shot to be #TogetherAgain is a movement aimed to rally Canadians and encourage each other to replace vaccine hesitancy with confidence so that we can end the pandemic – together.To be #TogetherAgain, we must continue to protect ourselves, our families, and our communities. Let’s start by acknowledging that getting vaccinated isn’t as easy for some people as it is for others. We must all work together to make sure everyone has access to the facts and information they need to make informed decisions.This Is Our Shot to end the pandemic, Canada.

This Is Our Shot to be#TogetherAgain

This is a great new @bmj_latest paper from @Azeem_Majeed and colleagues with tonnes of practical advice and resources for addressing vaccine hesitancy.

10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.06.011

10.1101/2021.02.25.21252415

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown high efficacy of multiple vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 disease (COVID-19), and recent studies have shown the vaccines are also effective against infection. Evidence for the effect of each of these vaccines on ability to transmit the virus is also beginning to emerge. We describe an approach to estimate these vaccines’ effects on viral positivity, a prevalence measure which under the reasonable assumption that vaccinated individuals who become infected are no more infectious than unvaccinated individuals forms a lower bound on efficacy against transmission. Specifically, we recommend separate analysis of positive tests triggered by symptoms (usually the primary outcome) and cross-sectional prevalence of positive tests obtained regardless of symptoms. The odds ratio of carriage for vaccine vs. placebo provides an unbiased estimate of vaccine effectiveness against viral positivity, under certain assumptions, and we show through simulations that likely departures from these assumptions will only modestly bias this estimate. Applying this approach to published data from the RCT of the Moderna vaccine, we estimate that one dose of vaccine reduces the potential for transmission by at least 61%, possibly considerably more. We describe how these approaches can be translated into observational studies of vaccine effectiveness.

Interpreting vaccine efficacy trial results for infection and transmission

10.1101/2021.05.20.21257461

In this report, we provide summary estimates, from publications and reports, of vaccine efficacy (VE) for the COVID-19 vaccines that are being rolled out on a global scale. We find that, on average, the efficacy against any disease with infection is 85% (95% CI: 71 - 93%) after a fully course of vaccination. The VE against severe disease, hospitalization or death averages close to 100%. The average VE against infection, regardless of symptoms, is 84% (95% CI: 70 - 91%). We also find that the average VE against transmission to others for infected vaccinated people is 54% (95% CI: 38 - 66%). Finally, we prove summary estimates of the VE against any disease with infection for some of the variants of concern (VOC). The average VE for the VOC B.1.1.7, B.1.1.28 (P1) and B.1.351 are 86% (95% CI: 65 - 84%), 61% (95% CI: 43 - 73%) and 56% (95% CI: 29 - 73%), respectively.

Efficacy Estimates for Various COVID-19 Vaccines: What we Know from the Literature and Reports

How effective are vaccines vs severe & all disease, death, infection, & transmission? Very nice collection of studies assessing different aspects of vaccine protection by Julia Shapiro (on twitter?) @nataliexdean @betzhallo @ilongini & 2 others. Thread

Everything is selection effects, always has been. From page 162 of my book:

Greetings, readers!  How many of you have heard about this myocarditis thing?  Did it scare you?  Of course it did, the headlines sound scary!  Have you been hoping I would chime in on this thing?  No?  Oh, OK.  We’ll, I’m going to anyway.  Here goes . . .

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (Myocarditis and the mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines)

And why is she just speaking out now? Well...

Don’t think of this as a bad sign, it’s exactly what’s expected from an effective but imperfect jab

Why most people who now die with Covid in England have had a vaccination