Tag Archives: vaccines

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 1

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Covid update #77 with quick hits on vaccines in young adults, POTS or hypotension following Covid 19 as well as obesity and Sars2. Non covid research looking at the brain.

From Nature Communications: “Parkinson’s disease (PD) may start in the gut and spread to the brain. To investigate the role of gut microbiome, we conducted a large-scale study, at high taxonomic resolution, using uniform standardized methods from start to end… Here we show that over 30% of species, genes and pathways tested have altered abundances in PD, depicting a widespread dysbiosis.”

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 45

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Covid Update # 73:
Omicron US strains: as of October 22nd data – variants make up: BA.4.6 is 11%, BA.2.75 is 2%, BF.7 is 7%, BA.5 is 62%, BQ.1 is 9%, BQ1.1 is 7%
BA.5 is losing ground to many new Omicron variant offshoots. BF.7, BQ.1 and BQ1.1 are very interesting as they are apparently more infectious than BA.5. That is amazing.
We look at new PASC Long Covid data as well as the world of vaccine effectiveness. And much more…
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 43

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Coronavirus Update 72 plus other stuff

More data on the current Covid variants and how they are evading our immunity and vaccines. Morbidity and death remain completely reduced over the first 2 years of the pandemic. We tackle these and other topics this week.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 39

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Coronavirus Update #70 GOOD NEWS: This information is so important to help us all understand risk. Stratified risk is the only true way to measure personal risk. Let us look at some CDC data from the spring Omicron BA.1 and .2 spikes versus the fall 2021 delta wave.
Median age of hospitalization has increased from 60 years old with Delta to 64 with BA.1 and 71 with BA.2. Any underlying medical condition associated with hospitalization increased from 89% with Delta to 92% with BA.1 to 95% with BA.2 respectively. Length of hospital stay decreased from 4.8 to 3.9 to 3.3 days. ICU admission was down from 24% to 18% to 13% of admitted patients. Mechanical ventilation decreased from 14% to 8% to 6% of admitted patients. And Finally, death from 12% to 8% to 5% overall.

What we can glean from this data set is very clear. With successive SARS2 mutations coupled to increased population based exposure to virus via infection or vaccine, we are now seriously in a reduced risk state unless you are older than 65 years with a comorbid disease or younger than 65 with a serious disease. 95% of hospitalizations were related to a comorbid disease regardless of age. The other big takeaway was this: if you are in this high risk group, getting every available booster is vital to your survival based on the risk reduction data. For everybody else, the data is clear, you are ok – to boost or not to boost is up to you. But, absolutely work on your general health.

To your health,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #27 – Dr. Paul Offit – Covid Vaccines

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Dr. Paul A. Offit is Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Offit is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of virology and immunology, and was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a member of the Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, a member of the Institute of Medicine and co-editor of the foremost vaccine text, Vaccines.

He is a scientist, a skeptic, a thinker and an individual deeply passionate about children’s health.

This week we sit down to discuss Covid, vaccines and children’s health.

I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Offit,

 

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 27

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Coronavirus Update #64

What is the current state of affairs? We have a highly contagious and mutational SARS2 virus that is present in the United States. The mutations usually occur overseas in vaccine naive areas. The landscape here has changed as most of us have some immunity as vaccine induced, viral induced or a hybrid combination. That reality has dramatically reduced the death and hospitalization rate so that my colleagues in the ICU feel little to no stress anymore from Covid despite relatively high circulating case volume compared to other waves except wave 4. We discussed boosters and much more this week.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 25

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Coronavirus Update 63 plus other stuff – Lots on boosters today while the persistent world of Covid exposure drags on. Omicron US strains: newer variant BA.2 makes up 35% of current case volume based on different parts of the country while omicron BA BA 1.1.529 is at 6% and B 2.12.1 is 59%. Delta is gone by competition. Cases are increasing in some cities with little increase in hospital morbidity and mortality. In essence we are still fairing quite well in the new norm. Quick Hits and other musings!
Dr. M

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