There has been a fair bit of media coverage recently regarding whether or not someone who received their initial COVID-19 vaccine using AstraZeneca (AZ), should take a Pfizer dose as their second given that Canada: (a) seems to be running out of AZ doses, and (b) appears to have a steady, consistent supply of Pfizer. From what I could find today, there is very little publicly available data to answer this question since it is still actively being researched. However, numerous experts have stated that it would be reasonable to assume that mixing doses is both safe and effective since it is already common practice for other diseases that require more than one dose to vaccinate an individual. In terms of active studies, I have noted two recent trials that are either complete or close to completion. In these trials, participants who had received their first vaccination dose with AstraZeneca were given their second dose with Pfizer, and compared against those who received the AstraZeneca dose twice. The overall conclusion appears to be that someone who received AZ as their first dose will have a better immunological response by choosing Pfizer as their second than if they opt for AZ again. Details of this quick research follow.
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Last night Heather and I watched a popular video published by some local COVID deniers. We tried to watch it with an open mind, but I was bothered by some of the claims made by the self-proclaimed experts in the video.
In no particular order, the experts cite the following as evidence of government overreach in the cover-up that is called COVID-19:
So, let's look at each of these claims in more detail.
For starters, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has provided emergency use authorization for three (see footnote 1) vaccines to protect people against COVID-19:
Note although there is no obligation on each Province's part to follow the NACI recommendations, to date they have largely done so. This has been pulled together to provide an easy reference to the relative pros and cons of the vaccines currently available to Canadians. While I identify the vaccine types that I would prefer given a choice, please note that no advice or recommendations are offered: this is simply a consolidation of publicly-available information and it represents nothing more than my opinion. Addendum to "Pandemic Fatigue and Social Media Disinformation are Enemies to Beating Covid-19"13/4/2021 In the post of 11 April, I commented about the impact that Covid-19 had on excess mortality in Alberta in 2020. It is important to note that the measurement of excess mortality is not unique to Canada. In its most recent "COVID-19 Science Update released: April 9, 2021 Edition 84" the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites a recent medical study [1] that found:
Statistics Canada provides an introduction to how it estimates and validates the estimates of excess mortality here if you are interested in learning more. Of note, the agency states: There are a number of indicators that are useful for monitoring the evolution and the impact of a pandemic like COVID-19 in terms of fatalities. To the naysayers who insist that the pandemic is either not real or overstated, the simple fact remains that an inordinate number of people have died over the past 15+ months who weren't expected to die under normal circumstances. If it isn't Covid-19 killing them, what is it then? Footnotes: 1. This is lower than estimates prepared by the CDC itself. As shown on the diagram below, the CDC estimates excess mortalities since 1 February 2020 across the United States to be within the range of 549,810 to 668,473 people. Citation
[1] S. H. Woolf, D. A. Chapman, R. T. Sabo, and E. B. Zimmerman, “Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes in the US, March 1, 2020, to January 2, 2021,” JAMA, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1001/jama.2021.5199. [Online]. Available: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778361. [Accessed: 13-Apr-2021] Since the Kenney UCP government finally decided to impose stricter measures as Albertans enter the third wave of the pandemic, I've seen a significant increase in the number of "...but our rights and freedoms" social media posts by people who are opposed to the measures. Rather than providing constructive criticisms intended to help beat the pandemic, they are supporting entities such as the GraceLife Church of Edmonton by ignoring a basic principle of Christianity to care about the well-being of their fellow citizens in their belief that their right to gather supersedes the public health needs of the greater population. I am both surprised and disappointed by these people. It displays a willing ignorance of simple, irrefutable facts: the SARS-COV-2 virus is real, it causes Covid-19, and people are dying in greater numbers than is statistically normal for our population. To my untrained eye, the charts below show at least two things:
We are all exhausted and ready to get on with our normal lives. However, the pandemic isn't over yet. Now that the vaccination roll-out is finally picking up steam, we can be optimistic that the province might reach "herd immunity" by this autumn. However, until then, it remains incumbent on everyone to continue to do their part: practice good hygiene, wear a mask as appropriate, and adhere to public health orders and recommendations.
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Ron StarmanI've been working in information security since it was known as "automated data processing" security (late 80's / early 90's). ArchivesCategories |