COVID-19 Update

If I may address the "confusing messaging" thing:

We're watching the clinicians argue the science in public and in real time.

 

A thousand years ago, I got to be in the room a few times to hear some top-shelf docs wrangle over things like the relative merits of gastric lavage vs activated charcoal slurry in the management of certain toxic ingestions where emesis is contraindicated.  

The subject matter (the bits I could actually understand) was interesting enough, but the amazing thing was the directness - which bordered on brutality - of the discussion. When those folks get into it, there's no quarter given, and none expected.

So if it's all a little confusing, it's not because they don't know what's going on - it's because the science itself is very fluid, so there will be big differences in opinion, and in approach, and they're going to sound even more "equivocating" than usual (ie: you'll never hear a competent clinician speak on any clinical topic in absolute terms, even on the most mundane subjects).

 

They're having to figure this out as they go, and since their training is centered around the maxim "the more you learn, the more you have to understand how little you know", we're going to hear a lot of "at this time" and "what we know now" - the point being that what it means is this: "We thought that, but now we know this, and pretty soon, we'll learn the other thing, so don't get comfortable thinking any of it is set in stone yet".

Like I said - fluid. Pay attention as best you can, and when in doubt, always count on the basics:

VAX UP

MASK UP

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

WASH YOUR HANDS

The Hill:

Pfizer CEO predicts omicron vaccine will be ready in March

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Monday said that his company is aiming to have a vaccine that targets the omicron variant as well as other COVID-19 variants ready in March.

“This vaccine will be ready in March,” Bourla said in an appearance on CNBC’s "Squawk Box."

“We [are] already starting manufacturing some of these quantities at risk,” he added.

Pfizer will produce the doses to be ready in case countries want the shots, but Bourla noted that it was unclear if a vaccine targeting variants was necessary or how exactly it would be used.

“The hope is that we will achieve something that will have way, way better protection particularly against infections, because the protection against the hospitalizations and the severe disease — it is reasonable right now with the current vaccines as long as you are having let’s say the third dose,” Bourla said.

Last month, Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, said that he did not see a need for an omicron-specific vaccine.

"Our booster vaccine regimens work against omicron," he said. "At this point there is no need for a variant-specific booster."

To combat the new variant, Fauci encouraged people to get their booster shots and their vaccines.

"The message remains clear: If you are unvaccinated, get vaccinated, and particularly in the arena of omicron, if you are fully vaccinated, get your booster shot," he said.

More recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved booster doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents ages 12 to 15, making about 5 million children now eligible for the shot.

WaPo: (freebie)

Fauci, Walensky testify at Senate hearing on federal response to omicron

The nation’s top health officials are testifying Tuesday in a Senate hearing on the federal government’s response to the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are appearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Officials with the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services also will testify.

The hearing comes as the United States surpasses its record for coronavirus hospitalizations. Tuesday’s total of 145,982 people in U.S. hospitals with covid-19, which includes 4,462 children, passed the record of 142,273 set Jan. 14, 2021, during the previous peak of the pandemic in this country.

Here’s what to know

• The CDC is considering updating its mask guidance to recommend that people use N95 or KN95 masks instead of cloth ones, if they can do so consistently.
• The United States has agreed to buy 600,000 more doses of sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody treatment for covid-19 from GSK and Vir Biotechnology that lab tests show works against omicron, the companies said Tuesday.