❄️ Freezethawed: The Newsletter #033 - COVID conjectures
Hello everyone!
Once again, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re in good health. By this week many states have announced a partial to complete lockdown once again. The COVID curve for India that was seemingly heading towards orbit during the past few weeks is finally flattening once again (for now).
What’s the vaccine scenario now?
There has been a lot of conjecture on vaccine efficacy, latency and hesitancy. The dosage schedules are confusing to the layman, but allow me to break it down. Any statement that is released, is based on a clinical trial conducted somewhere, under some conditions. As more time passes, more studies are being conducted considering a wider gap between doses, and it is a proven fact the larger the spacing of doses for any vaccine, the more efficacious it may be. However, nobody still knows how wide the gap needs to be for the multiple coronavirus vaccines we have. All we know that the minimum may be four weeks while it has shown greater efficacy when spaced till 12 weeks. There may be a study tomorrow which states greater or poorer efficacy at 16 weeks as well. Nevertheless the vaccines are still efficacious, so take it.
And speaking of multiple vaccines, did you know that currently there are 115 vaccines candidates, while there are 14 vaccines that are approved for use in at least one country? FOURTEEN.
So Covaxin, Covishield, CoronaVac, Sputnik, Pfizer or AstraZeneca – just get the jab!
Why can’t children and pregnant women take the vaccine? or can they?
The answer is simpler than you think. In any research study, pregnant women and children are considered under the high-risk population and therefore any study on them requires a bit more hurdles to be surpassed that usual. To expedite approval of vaccines, trials have excluded these two high risk groups and so there is no data available on them. In such a scenario considering the expected behaviour of the vaccines it may be speculated that there will be no adverse effects, but no one can stake their life on it yet.
The lessons we still have NOT learnt inspite of living with COVID for one year
- Lack of permanence and security of the future. The uncertainty and unpredictability.
- Family comes first, and should never be taken for granted.
- The life we knew before COVID is over, but we still look forward to going back to it.
- Anger doesn’t lead to anything fruitful but we still don’t let go of it.
- Good health is a fundamental right and a priority.
If you found this newsletter even mildly informative, I’m glad.
See you next week!
Anujeet.
Anujeet’s book journey
This week I updated myself on COVID and its management. There are a lot of changing guidelines for management. Also, read up on Mucormycosis, the little epidemic within the pandemic.
Aggregate, the weekly quote
"The more something upsets you, the more it is meant for you. When it no longer upsets you, it is no longer needed because the lesson is complete." - Bryant McGill
Harmony, the weekly song
Piano Man – Joey Stamper
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