Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Pfizer Vaccine almost completely ineffective against the Omicron variant.

Data released today from South Africa shows that the Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine is only 30% effective at best in stopping infection by the Omicron COVID variant which is spreading twice as fast as the Delta variant which was already twice as infective as the earlier COVID strains.

The good news is that the Pfizer vaccine appears to be very effective in preventing serious disease even among the high risk groups.

The bad news is that in South Africa nearly all of the people developing COVID Omicron have had both the two shots of the vaccine but have also previously recovered from COVID in some earlier variant or the original strain.

That means that the 30% level of protection against catching the Omicron variant is the high mark because people in the study not only had been fully vaccinated but had also recovered from another form of COVID and therefore had antibodies from that infection. People who have not previously had COVID before getting the Pfizer vaccine may and almost certainly WILL have a lower than 30% level of protection.

The study doesn’t look at those who got a Pfizer booster shot because that is too recently been given in SA and says nothing about Moderna’s Vaccine because it was not given in any great number to people in SA being an American based company (Cambridge, MA) while Pfizer is more international.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Omicron in U.S. first case in fully vaccinated man but only very mild

The first case in the U.S. of the Omicron COVID variant has been reported
in San Francisco - patient Zero just returned from South Africa. (Confirmed at UCSF lab.)

He had mild symptoms and has already fully recovered but is self-isolated.

He had two Moderna vaccine shots but no booster.

Reports from South African hospitals is that 90+% of those

in hospital for COVID were unvaccinated. Most cases are in

younger people and are relatively mild, although some are

severe enough to require an ER visit.

The World Health Organization has reported that the Thermo Fisher Scientific

RT-PCR COVID test kits can detect the Omicron variant.

Some unidentified kits used in India are also reported to be effective.

Both of Abbott Labs' tests, the rapid (antigen) and more accurate PCR lab test, are effective because they do not rely on testing for the spike portion of the virus which is the segment that opens up cell walls and lets the virus into cells. The spike structure is the area most often involved in changes for the various variants.

So far all we know for certain about the Omicron variant of COVID is that mask-wearing and staying out of crowds is nearly perfect protection for this as well as every other airborne vaccine.

Getting vaccinated will almost certainly provide some protection against any COVID variant.

Saturday, November 27, 2021

COVID Omicron - copy of my medical alert newsletter

This is a copy of the medical newsletter I send to about thirty people and companies. Let me know if you want included in the regular mailing list. I only send these rarely, not as many as one each month.

Noon 11/27 update Please note my blog and newsletter posts were BEFORE the UK PM announced that Omicron can be passed between fully vaccinated people. That may or may not be important - no data on whether they actually get sick or are just carriers - it is normal for vaccinated people to test positive for COVID and they MIGHT be able to pass it along to others (hence the idea of everyone wearing masks) but they have no symptoms. Mask wearing not chin diapers or a layer of cloth, real N-95 masks, protects against ANY variant.

Friends,

My little newsletter only goes out when I am aware of something not generally publicized yet.

The new variant - based on the absolute panic in various governments, WHO, and CDC, including ban on flights from South Africa and Southern Africa, there is something scientists suspect about the new Omicron variant which is not yet being disclosed in public.

It is possible there is no risk but the signs are very bad, including the fact that my contacts are not responding, saying they are busy.

Locally the hospitals are filling up for the first time in this pandemic.

Punxsutawney Hospital at least, has no vaccine mandate for critical workers - I know this because the person drawing my blood for the lab told me she hadn’t found time to get vaccinated for COVID despite working one floor above a vaccine clinic and despite having gotten the flu vaccine this year. The hospital refused to comment.

So I am cautioning everyone to consider wearing an N95 mask any time outside the house.

Locally very few people are wearing masks.

We are always stocked up in the winter because we avoid the flu. But we will be getting perishables at Walmart before seven a.m. and Aldi during the early days for the vulnerable.

Note on flight bans - silly. There is already a requirement that any foreigner must be fully vaccinated or recently tested to enter the U.S. anyway. Unfortunately it isn't applied to U.S. citizens (as if they aren't infected??).

Flight bans are counterproductive because of that and because they discourage governments from reporting new variants they discover.

Failure to vaccinate people in other countries such as third world countries means a large pool of people passing COVID around and therefore producing new variants such as Omicron. The only good news about that is since they are unvaccinated the new variants are not developed trying to avoid the vaccines which is why many are not getting any notice. Note that Omicron is the 15th character in the Greek alphabet so there have been a lot of variants of concern, the only ones which get named. The CDC skipped Nu and Xi, Nu because it would be confused with NEW, and Xi to avoid any Chinese connection (Premier for life is Xi Jinping.)

I am reading and getting bulletins from the WHO, Nature (the world's top science journal), The Lancet, and the NEJM. I will send another newsletter only if there is a major development.

Best to all of you,

John

If you appreciate these notes you can show your support by posting reviews for my Amazon books. I can share most of them for free if you don't have Amazon Prime which makes them free anyway.

John McCormick

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