In the News
In the News
Jeffrey Morris, PhD, discusses how he dismantles false claims about vaccines — and he critiques some aspects of the Covid-19 public health response: “We don’t want to feed the anti-vaccine trolls, so we actively suppress clear scientific data.”
It’s frustrating when vaccine opponents use the government’s VAERS database to stoke false concerns about safety, says Susan Ellenberg, PhD, “especially when they interfere in such major ways with critical public health issues like the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. But overall," she adds, " I still think transparency is better.”
A data table shared on social media seems to show vaccinated Israelis are much more likely to catch the virus than unvaccinated people. The image ignores all case counts for people under 20, and fails to note that the rate of severe cases is 10 to 20 times higher among the unvaccinated, according to Jeffrey Morris, PhD.
The experience of a Covid-19 breakthrough infection can range "from being asymptomatic to feeling pretty lousy, but typically it’s a shorter course than what we’re seeing for COVID without the vaccine,” says Meenakshi Bewtra, MD, PhD, MPH.
A scientific task force recommends that we stop using a common measure of kidney function that adjusts results by race, providing different assessments for Black patients than for others. Nwamaka Eneanya, MD, MPH, comments.
Measuring blood pressure is hard, and getting it right is critical. Can we do it with a smartwatch? That technology is “not ready for primetime yet,” says Jordana Cohen, MD, MSCE.
Some evidence that the protection of the Covid19 vaccine wanes comes from observational studies — and so we must view our inferences critically, says Jeffrey Morris, PhD. In everyday life, participants aren’t randomized to account for different ages, behaviors, etc. We need careful modelling and thorough data “to de-convolve all these things.”
A new study showed that older Israelis who received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine are much less likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 or to develop severe COVID-19 than are those who have had only two shots. Susan Ellenberg, PhD, commented.
Granted, Delaware is “one state; it’s relatively small,” commented Jeffrey Morris, PhD, “but to have accurate data for that snapshot will give us a lot.”
Jeffrey Morris, PhD, is concerned that requiring a third dose could dissuade some people from getting a Covid-19 vaccine because they’ll interpret it to mean that the vaccines aren’t very effective. "If it comes at the cost of not being able to get more of the unvaccinated to be protected, it could be a net negative,” he says.
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