WP Perspectives – Jan. 31, 2022

Is It All About Sex, After All?

Researchers have uncovered some interesting insights while investigating the way the COVID-19 virus affects men and women. It is still too early for any definitive analyses, but some tidbits they have discovered are intriguing:

• While it is clear that men die of COVID-19 more often than women, the reasons have been murky. Initially scientists thought the reasons were primarily biological, but other social factors, like jobs, behavioral patterns, and underlying health conditions also play a significant role. Two take-aways: 1) men face higher risks of exposure in jobs like transportation and production sectors, they are more likely to be incarcerated and experience homelessness; and 2) men are less likely to comply with prevention measures like mask wearing and less likely to be vaccinated than women. New York Times
• Some research seems to indicate that women are more vulnerable to long COVID than men, and that the condition may fall disproportionately hard on minority communities. The CDC tracks data on infections and vaccinations, but detailed information on long COVID is hard to come by in part because there is no definitive definition.  The Washington Post
• COVID-19 vaccination does not affect chances of conceiving a child, a study of more than 2,000 couples has found, but contracting the virus itself seems to temporarily reduce male fertility. National Institutes of Health

Asymptomatic.

In the age of Omicon, when symptoms can be almost imperceptible, asymptomatic means absolutely no sniffles, coughs, or aches of any kind. It means that you feel in your best shape ever, according to a Stanford University epidemiologist. "You are doing great. You feel amazing, nothing bothers you."

Efficacy and effectiveness both describe how well a vaccine works by comparing groups of people who received a vaccine to groups of people who did not.

• Efficacy is evaluated during clinical trials. Efficacy is how well a vaccine works to prevent disease in clinical trials.

• Effectiveness is evaluated after a vaccine is licensed and in use. Effectiveness is how well the vaccine works out in the real world after it is approved.

Epidemiology is the science at center of public health.

While there are signs that the Omicon wave is beginning to recede, it is still wreaking havoc in many parts of the country. Some scientists warn we should not celebrate too soon, since we don't know what, if any, new variant may be coming. Here is a powerful argument to vaccinate and boost, even if we have reached the Omicron peak. (Keep in mind a "peak" may be the top, but we still have to come down the same distance that it took to get up there.)

Irrational Skepticism

The CDC has begun to publish data on Covid outcomes among people who have received booster shots, and the numbers are striking:

That risk is not zero, but it is not far from it. The chance that an average American will die in a car crash this week is significantly higher — about 2.4 per million. So is the average weekly death rate from influenza and pneumonia — about three per million.

With a booster shot, Covid resembles other respiratory illnesses that have been around for years. It can still be nasty. For the elderly and immunocompromised, it can be debilitating, even fatal — much as the flu can be. The Omicron surge has been so terrible because it effectively subjected tens of millions of Americans to a flu all at once.

For the unvaccinated, of course, Covid remains many times worse than the flu.  New York Times, 1/31,2022

49.7  &  22.6
50.4  &  22
59.8  &  21.8
42  &  19.7

^{cumulative total as of 01/31/22}