{"id":4076,"date":"2021-10-19T10:56:02","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T14:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/?p=4076"},"modified":"2021-10-19T11:31:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T15:31:22","slug":"three-sources-on-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/2021\/10\/three-sources-on-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Three sources on COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

This BUHealth blog contains clips on practical advice about COVID-19 from a Harvard School of Public Health email, links to the The Vaccine Confidence Project, and an except from the CDC advisory<\/a> on pregnancy and COVID-19<\/p>\n

From:<\/strong> Harvard Executive Director Mark Dorgan <oer_info@hsph.harvard.edu<\/a>><\/p>\n

While globally new cases are trending downward, the virus continues to spread. Half the world\u2019s population still has not had a single shot, many people remain extremely vulnerable, and we continue to learn about the best ways to protect ourselves. For those who have access, medical masks far surpass cloth masks<\/a>, mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are proving most effective, and rapid tests can help make real-time decisions. In all cases, any protection is better than none.<\/p>\n

Bill Hanage,<\/a> associate professor of epidemiology, said in a recent interview, \u201cYou cannot tell where the virus is, or if somebody is infected with it, unless you test for it<\/a>. Once testing becomes available, you suddenly turn on the lights and you see that there\u2019s a huge problem. And by that stage, it\u2019s a little bit too late to be able to control that problem.\u201d Pardis Sabeti<\/a>, professor of immunology and infectious diseases, added, \u201cTo do it right in the future, whenever a new viral threat emerges, we have to position…clinical labs to be able to set up testing right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Mina<\/a>, assistant professor of epidemiology, advocates for at-home tests over PCR tests to help stem spread. \u201cIf you want to keep businesses running, or to be able to host a safe dinner at home, don\u2019t ask people to get a PCR test two days before. Ask them to use a rapid test within two hours of coming over.\u201d If it\u2019s negative, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s extremely unlikely that person is infectious and a risk to other people. It\u2019s an extraordinarily effective way to keep dinner, concerts, workplaces, and schools safe. Will it keep them 100% safe? No, but it will likely be 100% effective in stopping super spreaders<\/a> from entering gatherings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding vaccines, Sarah Fortune<\/a>, John LaPorte Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, explained in a We\u2019re Better Off<\/a> podcast that mRNA vaccines were not rushed despite the quick rollout. \u201cThere were decades of work involved in mRNA vaccine platforms, and in fact, in testing different kinds of vaccines for different coronaviruses. When SARS-CoV-2 first appeared at the end of 2019, actually we had a huge foundational knowledge that accelerated that vaccine development<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

RE: The main battles being fought in developed countries like the US is over the acceptance of science and acceptance of the key importance of the social determinant of health. I highly recommend the series of articles in The Vaccine Confidence Project<\/a> from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Here is the direct link.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vaccineconfidence.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

This September 29, 2021 posting on the CDC website has the new recommendations for related to pregnancy, which is a big change.<\/p>\n

CDC Statement on Pregnancy Health Advisory<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/media\/releases\/2021\/s0929-pregnancy-health-advisory.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are the key paragraphs from this report.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, CDC issued an urgent health advisory to increase COVID-19 vaccination among people who are pregnant, recently pregnant (including those who are lactating), who are trying to become pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future to prevent\u00a0serious illness, deaths, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough September 27th<\/sup>, there were more than 125,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in pregnant people<\/a> including more than 22,000 hospitalized and 161 deaths; of which, 22 deaths occurred in the month of August alone.\u00a0Cases of COVID-19 in symptomatic, pregnant people have a two-fold risk of admission into intensive care and a 70 percent increased risk of death.\u00a0Pregnant people with COVID-19 are at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes that could include preterm birth, stillbirth, and admission into the ICU of a newborn also infected with COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

RE: If you trust your obstetrician\u2019s advice to have your baby in a hospital, then you should also trust their advice to get a COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of what stage of pregnancy you are in: before, during, or after.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This BUHealth blog contains clips on practical advice about COVID-19 from a Harvard School of Public Health email, links to the The Vaccine Confidence Project, and an except from the CDC advisory on pregnancy and COVID-19 From: Harvard Executive Director Mark Dorgan <oer_info@hsph.harvard.edu> While globally new cases are trending downward, the virus continues to spread. … Continue reading Three sources on COVID-19<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2755,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[185,7238,10943],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2755"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4077,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076\/revisions\/4077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ellisrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}