Given that we are living through THREE global health emergencies (COVID, polio, and monkeypox), new vaccines are being approved, new outbreaks are occurring, and the reality that being healthy is being redefined as a radical selfless act of loving others, “Three Things Thursday” highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week.
Hoping these posts help to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Today’s three things Thursday —
Bivalent Booster Updates
Two studies published in the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (aka the MMWR) this week highlighted the effectiveness of the bivalent COVID booster vaccines. The updated bivalent booster shot (which contains the original SARS-CoV-2 virus + the Omicron variant mRNA) cut the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 by 57% and prevented hospitalizations in the elderly.
In the first study, the vaccine effectiveness against severe COVID (requiring medical attention in an emergency room or urgent care center) of the bivalent booster was compared with no previous vaccination and receipt of the original vaccine in adults across the United States. A total of 78,303 COVID admissions were included in the study. Researchers concluded that vaccine effectiveness —
“of a bivalent booster dose (after 2, 3, or 4 monovalent doses) against COVID-19–associated hospitalizations was 57% compared with no vaccination, 38% compared with monovalent vaccination only with last dose 5–7 months earlier, and 45% compared with monovalent vaccination only with last dose ≥11 months earlier…. significant protection from a booster dose of bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (after receipt of 2, 3, or 4 monovalent doses) compared with no vaccination was found, as well as significant relative benefits of a bivalent booster dose when compared with previous receipt of monovalent doses only.”
In the second study, the bivalent booster was found to offer significant protections in adults 65 and older whose immune systems were not compromised. The bivalent vaccine effectiveness against COVID-associated hospitalization was 84% when compared to unvaccinated individuals and 73% when compared to adults who had received at least two of the monoclonal vaccines.
Findings from both studies illustrate the importance of bivalent boosters for everyone, but especially older adults.
"All eligible persons, especially adults aged ≥65 years, should receive a bivalent booster dose to maximize protection against COVID-19 hospitalization this winter season.”
Our family is nearing the four-month mark since we all had COVID. We are planning a trip to the pharmacy in January to get our bivalent booster.
Will you commit to getting yours, too?
If you are local, want to join us and get some coffee or fro-yo afterward?
Pandemic Response Updates in the US
The Biden Administration recently announced that households can once again order four rapid COVID tests for free. Orders can be placed online or by calling 1-800-232-0233. Home tests should be used when an individual has symptoms of disease to determine if those symptoms are caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus or not.
Knowing whether you have COVID is helpful information. If you test positive, you should isolate for five days and then return to work/school/activities with a mask for an additional five days (assuming you are symptom-free). And if you test positive, you can get treatment. Paxlovid, an antiviral medication used to treat COVID, is effective. Testing to know whether your illness is COVID or not is really important.
In addition to offering additional free COVID tests, the White House has also established an Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. The (new) director of this office will advise the President on preparing for pandemics and other biological threats, coordinate response activities, and evaluate the government’s readiness.
According to J. Stephen Morrison from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Director of its Global Health Policy Center —
“We routinely underinvest in, and underappreciate, these key dimensions of preparedness. Having a pandemic response office, with a director appointed by White House, is an important development.”
Could the COVID Global Health Emergency Be Coming to an End?
In his year-end review, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - Director-General of the WHO - said he is hopeful that the COVID Global Health Emergency will end in 2023. He cited declining case fatality and the availability of effective vaccines, diagnostic tests, and treatments as key reasons that the EMERGENCY might be declared over.
COVID is here to stay.
But with effective vaccines to prevent severe illness, tests to diagnose the disease, and antivirals available COVID can be managed — like other respiratory diseases, such as influenza and RSV.
As we near the third anniversary of COVID being declared a global health emergency, the global public health community is focusing on the need to increase vaccine uptake and to get COVID tests and treatments to individuals around the world, especially those who live in low-income countries.
There is also a need to increase global public health surveillance —
“Many countries have disinvested in surveillance capacity…because their systems are under such pressure because of the … energy crisis and economic crises. We’ve left blind spots on surveillance in different parts of the world.
…we need to be really careful because if we do want to match our [new] vaccines to the circulating strains, we still have work to do, and it’s not just on vaccine development. It’s not losing sight of surveillance.” ~ Mike Ryan, Executive Director of Health Emergencies at WHO.
An effective public health surveillance system is essential in order to identify new pathogens, increases in diseases that are circulating, and patterns of concern. We can also use this data to develop better tools to prevent disease, inform the development of new policies and programs, make predictions about the future, and assess the current public health initiatives.
Public health surveillance data are so important because (to quote Will McAvoy from The Newsroom) —
The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.
Have questions?
And please share Epi(demiology) Matters with your friends and family!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and advice. Until this past week I had not contracted COVID by being vaccinated and wearing masks when out in public. Then I had a 5 day stay in a hospital and came home with it. Thankfully my symptoms have been mild. Keep up the good work.