There isn’t much COVID news this week, and I consider that a good thing. This week, the CDC announced the results of its observational study on the ability of the current COVID vaccine to prevent symptomatic infection. The vaccine had a 54% effectiveness against symptomatic infection. Of course, the reduction in severe infections that would result in either hospitalization or death has been repeatedly shown to be much higher. 54% is in line with what European and other non-American countries have reported, by the way.
Dr. Klotman’s update for Week 202 focuses on Baylor College of Medicine’s (BCM) work in sequencing the wastewater virome (all of the viruses present in wastewater). This effort is part of a statewide viral surveillance collaborative called TEPHI (Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute). TEPHI is meant to serve as an Early Warning System for known and emerging viruses.
An incidental but very important part of this week’s BCM video update is the inclusion of some stock images from the years during which Polio was a rampant childhood illness (one that also shows up in wastewater, by the way). The stock images in this video show dozens of children in iron lungs. Polio has been nearly eradicated Worldwide through childhood vaccination – something that seems to be lost on anti-vaxxers. Alas!