TWiVTLDR 1062

, a 2 min read

My summary for This Week in Virology Clinical Update #1062:

  • More kindergarteners are being exempted from “required” vaccinations for various things nowadays, including DTap and polio. The percentage of exempted children is more than 5% in 10 states. Most exemptions were “philosophical.” 😅
  • Dr. Griffin notes that people are assuming endemic COVID would have similar seasonalities to flu...and not other coronaviruses. 😅 Scientists have modeled it and have come up with a really interesting prediction of where COVID will peak in the future around the world. (😅 on Amsterdam always being at a moderate risk with no peak or lull...)
  • Babies younger than 6 months are protected somewhat from COVID infection when their birth parents are vaccinated during pregnancy. There’s no difference when the birth parent is vaccinated before pregnancy - it’s best to get a booster during the third trimester.
  • More observational studies about Paxlovid rebound! Dr. Griffin notes the “controversial” paper redefined what “rebound” is - not just return of symptoms, but checking people 3x a week with PCR tests, for any sort of detectable viral particles, or a 4x increase of viral particles even if it never goes to zero. Both Dr. Racaniello and Dr. Griffin “cry foul” for this new definition of rebound - “the game is rigged.” They walk through the figures anyway, and discuss how RNA copy number is not correlated 1:1 with infectivity due to the scale of the measurements used. (And you cannot tell how infectious you are on how dark your positive antigen test is either!) They acknowledge that even though symptoms can return and some jump in viral detection based on current test protocols, nobody who experienced a Paxlovid “rebound” needed to go to the hospital. And in this very study, only 8 of the ~70 participants who experienced a “rebound” in viral load (based on this “rigged” definition) experienced any symptoms at all. The hosts also discuss how some doctors avoid prescribing Paxlovid for nonsensical reasons, like rebound symptoms being worse than nontreated COVID (they aren’t) and preventing transmission during rebound (uhh, Paxlovid is an antiviral and should help with that...??). There also aren’t any indications that anyone taking Paxlovid has ever transmitted COVID onwards.