Feb. 15, 2021

COVID-19 Vaccines and How We’ll Get There
By Glenn Ellis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Even though the speed of the COVID -19 vaccination campaign has improved somewhat lately, there are still millions and millions more doses yet to be administered if we are to ever get past COVID-19.

According to the CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) only 37.1 million people, out of 328 million in this country, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine; including about 13.1 million people who have been fully vaccinated. The 48.9 million doses administered, nationally to date, represent only 11 percent of the total population. As you can see, we’ve got a long way to go to get to herd immunity.

What is this herd immunity, and why is it important? Well, measles is a good example. Measles is a highly contagious infectious, viral disease for which we have very effective vaccines. If 93-95% of the population is immune to measles, with the available vaccine, then that will protect the entire population. That’s herd immunity.

The COVID-19 vaccines are designed to offer the same public health protection. That’s why folks are so anxious for as many of us to get the vaccine as possible.

Sure, of course you’re going to get individual protection for yourself with a vaccine; but you gotta understand that you are never safe from infection as long as the virus is circulating. Viruses, especially this particular coronavirus, have only two purposes: to survive and to replicate. Nothing else matters. However, there is only one requirement; they must have a host to “conduct” their business. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re the host. All that being said, if they have no host, they don’t live. So now you see why herd immunity is so important to this whole fight to stop COVID.

Vaccines cause the immune system to develop little soldiers (antibodies) that will be on guard, prepared to attack and destroy the COIVD-19 virus if it ever shows its’ ugly face anywhere inside your body. Without the antibodies, the odds of the virus winning the battle of getting inside your body and infecting you are greatly increased. With the vaccine, those odds are diminished; in the case of Pfizer and Moderna, as much as 95%.

Public health experts have estimated that herd immunity would require around 80-90% of the population to have COVID-19 immunity, either through prior infection or vaccination. This means that it’s going to take a combination of those of us who have been already infected with COIVD-19 (having formed antibodies) and those who receive the vaccine. If the two groups make up 80-90% of the population, then the entire population would be protected.

This is because the protection from the antibodies has cut off any opportunity for the virus to find a “host”. No host, no survival or replication for the virus. It truly dies a natural death. There’s no two ways about it, unless, and /or until, the virus tires or “burns" itself out, herd immunity is the only light at the end of the tunnel that’s not a train coming.

Many of us are only stuck on making their decision on getting a vaccine on the confusion around the number of vaccines available. Based on the best estimates from the available data, more than 60 vaccines are still going through a three-stage clinical trial. We already have several currently available, including Pfizer; Moderna; Astra-Zeneca; Johnson & Johnson, among others. The Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines require two shots. After the initial vaccine dose, a second shot is given 3 to 4 weeks later. You need both COVID-19 vaccine doses to reach full immunity; the level of protection increases dramatically (from 52% to 95%) after the second shot. Researchers are also unclear whether the lower level of immunity from just one shot would last long. Bottom line…all vaccines work by exposing the human body to substances that trigger an immune response, creating protection from future infection.

Regardless of which vaccine you get, you won’t get the full protection until two weeks after your second or final dose. That’s about how long it takes your immune system to mount an antibody response to the vaccine.

Oh, a word for those who think getting a vaccination is a ticket to freedom from “COVID-19 jail”. Whether you’re vaccinated or not, your life won’t change right now. To protect the people around you, it is important to continue the same safety precautions such as mask-wearing and avoiding gatherings for a little while longer. While we know that the vaccines are expected to be great at protecting the person who received them from getting COVID-19, we don’t know how good they are at preventing that person from contracting and passing the virus. The vaccine is a really important tool, but it’s just one of a combination of tools needed to control and end the pandemic.

A final note to those 5-20 percent of you who will benefit from herd immunity because the other 80-95% of everyone else gets the vaccination. Obviously, you’re right - you don’t have to get the vaccine to get the protection and benefit of herd immunity; but at least be honest with yourself about the real reason you aren’t getting a vaccine. As always, “Information is the best medicine”…

Remember, I’m not a doctor. I just sound like one!

Take good care of yourself and live the best life possible!

The information included in this column is for educational purposes only. I do not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a replacement form of treatment for physical, mental or medical problems by your doctor either directly or indirectly.  Glenn Ellis, MPH is a Visiting Scholar at The National Bioethics Center at Tuskegee University and a Harvard Medical School Bioethics Fellow. He is author of Which Doctor? and Information is the Best Medicine. Ellis is an active media contributor on Health Equity and Medical Ethics. For more good health information visit: www.glennellis.com

Feb. 1, 2021

Should You Worry About COVID-19 Mutations?
By Glenn Ellis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The newest mutations of the COIVD-19 showing up in the United States will bring with it, over the next three or four weeks, the most difficult days of the pandemic we have seen so far. Studies in laboratories show that a mutation makes a person’s antibodies less effective at killing the virus. Viral mutations help a virus to disguise parts of its recognizable traits, so the pathogen might have an easier time slipping past immune protection. These mutations can also tell us what we don’t know…what lies ahead, in terms of other mutations and/or future pandemics.

The job for all of us now is to, first and foremost, survive; stay alive; and be as healthy as possible. Our second “job” is to learn and educate ourselves as much as we can; empowering ourselves with better understandings on how to ask the “right” questions; where to go for credible; factual information that you can trust; and to “personalize” the pandemic, by learning exactly what is necessary for you and your family to be safe and protected during this, and future pandemics…rest assured, there will be others. None of the experts can predict when; but they all agree that it’s not if, but when. Among the many options this pandemic is providing for us to “learn”, we are being introduced to a range of new questions, as a result of the introductions of mutant variants.

Mutations in viruses -including COVID-19 - are not new nor were they unexpected. All RNA viruses mutate over time, some more than others. We are all familiar with the how flu viruses change often, which is why you get a new flu vaccine every year. When viruses mutate, generally, they either kill the virus (a type of “virus-suicide”) or they can have no effect whatsoever on the normal behavior of the virus. To date, we are seeing variants (or mutant strains) from the United Kingdom; South Africa; and Brazil all hitting the United States at the same time, while we’re battling furiously against the rage of the initial version of COVID-19. Now, that there technically four different strains of a deadly virus circulating.

Scientists initially felt there was no cause for concern about the vaccines being distributed not being effective against emerging mutations, after hearing of a mutant strain being reported in United Kingdom. South African officials noticed that their mutant strain not only appeared to make the virus more able to spread (or transmit), and more capable of evading the immune system’s response; alarms bells sounded when the antibodies produced in people who had previously recovered from COVID did not completely neutralize a variant. This mutation phenomena became even more concerning when, contrary to all prior global clinical experience with the virus to date, this month researchers reported, for the first time that the mutant strain shows initial indications that it has the ability to evade the vaccine.

News of this has caused mixed reactions from different stakeholders.

You see, when this thing first made its’ appearance, public health experts and scientist knew it would bad, but they felt that at least it would be stable. As it turns out they were only half right; it is bad, but it is anything but stable.

Pfizer and Moderna, have been reluctant to support any changes to their respective vaccination schedules. The drug makers on grounds that the vaccines weren’t tested and so their efficacy is unknown. On the face of it, this position seems sensible; yet under current circumstances, it is dangerously overcautious. Some researchers and scientists think more lives would be saved by providing just one dose of the vaccine as soon as possible, or as others think, maybe we should provide just one dose of the vaccine to all people who face the highest risk of dying from Covid-19, whoever they are, for whatever the reason.

With all of the uncertainty surrounding mutations of COVID-19, the last thing we need to do is to minimize the potential of the vaccines to control this pandemic. We don’t have to worry that the mutation will make the existing vaccines available useless. The vaccines available now have what’s known as a polyclonal response, causing armies of antibodies to attack different parts of the virus. When the virus starts to mutate, causing changes to any of those target sites this increases the potential for the vaccine to be less effective, or not work at all.

There is growing concern among scientists who think the coronavirus could eventually change so much that the vaccines could reach a pint of providing no immunity. The more that people are protected from the virus - either through vaccination or infection – the more evolutionary pressure that puts on the virus to survive by mutating. Even though it would take years to reach that point of evolutionary mutation, could take years, the vaccine makers are confident that can modify their formulas to match a newer variant in only take weeks.

In the spirit of empowering the community with adequate information to make informed decisions, keep in mind that we are not helpless, we could wipe COIVD-19 out, if everyone wore a mask for 4 weeks.

Remember, I’m not a doctor. I just sound like one! Take good care of yourself and live the best life possible!

The information included in this column is for educational purposes only. I do not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a replacement form of treatment for physical, mental or medical problems by your doctor either directly or indirectly. Glenn Ellis, MPH is a Visiting Scholar at The National Bioethics Center at Tuskegee University and a Harvard Medical School Bioethics Fellow. He is author of Which Doctor? and Information is the Best Medicine. Ellis is an active media contributor on Health Equity and Medical Ethics. For more good health information visit: www.glennellis.com

Jan. 12, 2021

COVID-19: Have You Figured out Face Masks Yet?
By Glenn Ellis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Will the vaccine slow down the rate of transmission of Covid-19?

This is one of the key questions that scientists will be seeking to answer over coming weeks. The vaccines now being administered are designed to protect people from severe side-effects of the disease. They were not developed to block transmission of the virus. They are meant for you to be protected against serious illness but still carry the virus and spread it to others. However, scientists believe (and are hoping) that the vaccines should reduce viral load in those inoculated and there should then be a reduction in transmission. In the meantime, face masks will continue to be the order of the day.

Getting use to everybody wearing masks is certainly a new experience for us grownups, and one that we probably never imagined. It looks like wearing face masks will be a way of life for us for the near future. But can you imagine how confusing, scary, and even traumatizing face mask wearing is for kids and young people? I honestly don’t know how I would have handled it when I was a kid. Adults and parents in the lives of our young people must be vigilant about providing the information and support they will need.

For starters, what kind of masks are best for protection? Sure, any mask will have some effect, but cloth masks are less than half as effective as surgical masks at protecting the person wearing the mask. Surgical masks are two to three times as effective as cloth masks. Remind young people that it is important that teachers, postal workers, delivery people, cashiers, restaurant workers, and anyone they come in contact with whose work involves regular contact with other people should be wearing a mask.

I know we’ve heard all about N95 face masks. They are tested to show they are 95 percent effective. However, not only are they more expensive, but the research has also found that there is no evidence that the N95 face masks are better at protection than the simple green or blue surgical masks. There is a reason it is standard, required gear in hospital operating rooms!

By the way, make sure we show young people know how to wear their face mask properly, a mask helps block large-particle droplets, splashes, sprays, or splatter that may contain germs, viruses, or bacteria), keeping it from reaching the mouth and nose and infecting you. The whole point of surgical masks is to help reduce exposure of your saliva and respiratory secretions to others. In medical history, the surgical mask was invented not to protect the surgeon, but to protect the patient from the surgeon; you know, coughing into the open surgical wounds and causing infection in the patient. So, it doesn’t protect the doctor from the patient. Keep that in mind when you need motivation to maintain social distancing.

So how good is a good cloth mask? Single- and double-layer cloth masks made from lightweight, low-thread cotton are the least effective. I know they have some very stylish, cute cloth ones out there, but the researchers also found that gaps at the edges of an ill-fitting, flimsy cloth mask can reduce filtration efficiency by 60 percent. If you walk around any city in the U.S., some people are wearing masks over their noses and other ones are wearing them hanging off one ear. But cloth masks are far from useless; they are the best alternative to the more expensive N95, and they offer almost the same protection. Even the CDC says that when surgical masks are unavailable, cloth masks are a more suitable option for use in the general public.

As parents, we have a lot of impact on the meaning that children attach to their experiences. From about the age of 8 months, children look at others’ reactions to see how they should respond. Psychologists call this “social referencing.” For example, when kids see a dog for the first time, they look at the dog, then look up at their grown-ups to see, “Should I be scared, here?” If the grown-ups are calm or positive, it makes it easier for the kid to be calm or positive.

The same thing applies to masks: If we are calm and positive about wearing masks, it will be easier for our kids to be calm and positive about them, too. On the other hand, if our words or reactions say, “This is terrible! This is unbearable! You can’t possibly tolerate this!” we put an extra burden on our children.

The most important tips to continuously share with children and young people about face masks is: Don’t leave your nose or mouth uncovered. Don’t remove the mask while around others in public. Don’t share your mask with family members or friends. And remember, a mask is not a substitute for social distancing. Let’s continue to take care of our young people!

Remember, I’m not a doctor. I just sound like one! Take good care of yourself and live the best life possible!

The information included in this column is for educational purposes only. I do not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a replacement form of treatment for physical, mental or medical problems by your doctor either directly or indirectly. 

Glenn Ellis, MPH is a Visiting Scholar at The National Bioethics Center at Tuskegee University and a Harvard Medical School Bioethics Fellow. He is author of Which Doctor? and Information is the Best Medicine. Ellis is an active media contributor on Health Equity and Medical Ethics.

For more good health information visit: www.glennellis.com.

 Dec. 28, 2020

COVID-19: A New Year with More Meaningful Resolutions
By Glenn Ellis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - According to a new survey from CIT Bank conducted by The Harris Poll, despite the turbulence of 2020, Americans are not turning their backs on making goals for the year ahead. In fact, more Americans are planning to make New Year's resolutions for 2021 (43%) than did so for this year (35%).

As we near the end of 2020, many of us are looking to 2021 as a fresh start. Do you have a New Year’s resolution or goal for the new year? Did you have to put off your 2020 goals because of COVID-19? Has the pandemic given you a new perspective that makes your resolutions - or how you plan to achieve them - different than what you might have done in the past? How have your goals for the future changed in our “new normal”?

After almost the entirety of 2020, we are learning more about COVID-19 every day. Much of what we have learned should factor in each of our list of New Year’s Resolutions. These lessons are relevant for children as well as adults of all ages. While children have been less affected by COVID-19 compared to adults, children can be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 and some children develop severe illness. By now it should be clear that COVID-19 is an equal opportunity killer. 

What we have witnessed and learned from COVID-19 in 2020 should inform us on making New Year’s resolutions that matter, and ones that we should be committed to keeping moving forward. Here are some of the key takeaways: chronic disease and vaccines.

Chronic Diseases: The COVID-19 health crisis has caused massive disruptions in diagnosing and treating people with deadly but preventable diseases, such as diabetes; high blood pressure; obesity, etc.. People with chronic conditions are more vulnerable to catching and dying from COVID-19. In addition, their exposure to risk factors - such as substance abuse, social isolation and unhealthy diets - has dramatically increased during the pandemic.

Because of this insight, it is imperative that all resolutions for the New Year include particular attention to limits or restrictive availability of food supplies, so careful planning on how to maintain a good, consistently healthy diet. Care must also be given to considerations on physical activity and exercise. Regular physical activity helps improve your overall health, fitness, and quality of life. It also helps reduce your risk of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, many types of cancer, depression and anxiety, and dementia.

Finally, a word about chronic conditions and medical care. Pharmacies and community clinics are less able to handle the demands than ever. Make sure your resolutions include a promise (to yourself) to be as compliant as possible with the treatment plans and/or medications prescribed for your condition(s). Commit to monitoring your blood pressure and/or blood sugar at home on a daily basis. Bottomline? The New Year must find folks with chronic conditions making resolutions around lowering blood pressure and/or blood sugar; reducing BMI; and maintaining a healthy daily calorie intake.

Vaccines: The recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 35% of Black Americans would probably or definitely not get the vaccine if it was determined to be safe by scientists and widely available for free. Washington Post columnist Michele Norris captured the essence of this phenomenon. “Vaccine hesitancy from Black Americans is different from an “anti-vaxxer” stance. It’s not that Black Americans don’t believe in vaccines. They don’t trust a public health system that has in too many cases engaged in grievous harm by experimenting on Black bodies without consent or ignoring the specific needs of Black people.

What’s the solution for your resolution? Information is the best medicine. Add to your list a determination to improve your health literacy. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions.

Do you have any questions related to the coronavirus vaccine? Do the vaccines protect against both severe and mild illness? Can the vaccines stop virus transmission? How long will the vaccines be protective? Most of us won’t have access to the vaccine anytime soon. Some of the “experts” are saying that by Memorial Day, end of June, any Americans who want a vaccine will have their hands on a vaccine. Use the time wisely and find out all you can about vaccines. If improving your health literacy is one of your New Year’s resolutions, whatever you decide about taking the vaccine will not be based on fear and suspicion.

In closing, let me remind us that at the heart of our New year’s resolutions should be ample opportunity on us to work on our humanity. We see suffering and hardship brought on by the pandemic, all around us. Almost overnight we’ve become more and more, a nation of have’s and have nots. There's a lot of distress out there: If we can set goals that aim to help others, those kinds of goals will, in turn, also add to our own well-being. Think about the ways in which you can contribute to your family, your community, and to the world.

Remember, I’m not a doctor. I just sound like one, Take good care of yourself and live the best life possible!

 The information included in this column is for educational purposes only. I do not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a replacement form of treatment for physical, mental or medical problems by your doctor either directly or indirectly. Glenn Ellis, MPH is a Visiting Scholar at The National Bioethics Center at Tuskegee University and a Harvard Medical School Fellow in Research Bioethics and Writing. He is author of Which Doctor? and Information is the Best Medicine. Ellis is an active media contributor on Health Equity and Medical Ethics. For more good health information visit: www.glennellis.com