My 2nd Dose ≠ Post-COVID Life
#FullyVaccinated thanks to Pfizer & UC San Diego, and I want Johnson & Johnson as my 3rd vaccine later this year
Thanks to the scientists who made the vaccines, UC San Diego & universities around the world that have helped vaccinate their communities, the volunteers who have assisted throughout this process here at UCSD/ the YMCA/ the Harriet Tubman & Cesar Chavez Community Center / Petco Park/ and others, & the healthcare workers who have risked their lives for the past year (and continue to do so) trying to help us overcome & defeat this virus.
Nurses & doctors have been Seal Team 6 in the war against COVID19.
Now that I’m Fully Vaccinated…
I have a cool new mask to wear =^.^=
I’m still wearing a mask (#MultiMasking) since there’s a chance (until studies verify otherwise) a vaccinated person could infect someone else, particularly in the first 10–14 days after the second dose (the vaccine efficacy window).
I’m also social distancing. Today I even reparked my car because someone walked within 6 feet of it as I was preparing to open the door (pro-level human avoidance skills).
In addition, a vaccinated person could still develop an infection (though it wouldn’t harm them) & give the virus to someone else who may be unvaccinated. Thus, businesses that allow vaccinated patrons inside (and some that are even offering discounts to vaccinated customers to incentivize those who aren’t vaccinated), and high schools that only let vaccinated students return in-person aren’t doing so out of animosity towards unvaccinated customers/students. Rather, they’re trying to protect unvaccinated customers/students because vaccinated individuals could still be a carrier of SARSCoV2 & give it to someone who is unvaccinated.
Those high schools are keeping unvaccinated students out to keep them safe. Imagine in October when many students take their first
in-person,
crowded room,
closed notes,
closed Google,
paper/pencil/scantron pen/blue book midterm
in 18–19 months (about 585-600 days). That’s already stressful…
but if you’re also one of the only unvaccinated students in the classroom… #ExistentialStressor
The goal is to approve individual return to campus plans for 100 percent of faculty and researchers and then carefully coordinate activities in order to remain within the county’s 25 percent occupancy cap. Everyone can be included on plans, but only 25 percent of us will be permitted on campus at any given time. We hope to accustom faculty to being back on campus and build momentum for an eventual transition to primarily in-person teaching and research as safely as possible.
Commitment to Equity
We recognize that shifts between remote work and on-site work have significant impact on those with caregiving responsibilities, including childcare/eldercare arrangements. In order to successfully resume campus academic and research operations, we will be mindful of the many dimensions of life that the pandemic is impacting.
Safety Considerations
Anyone working in person on campus must continue to abide by the full set of public health requirements, including daily symptom-screening, masking, social distancing, and weekly testing. Faculty and researchers should be mindful of the particular transmission risks associated with eating in an indoor breakroom or lunchroom.
Anyone newly returning to work on campus will need to first complete the “COVID-19 Return to Work” online training offered in the UC Learning Center. This 15-minute training fulfills our California OSHA requirements.
Research Town Halls
Our upcoming town halls will cover research concerns during COVID-19 as well as general updates. You may submit questions in advance (email them to vcr-events@ucsd.edu) or you may ask questions during the webinar.
Because Politics (N = 1227)
Republicans → 41% said they refuse to get a COVID vaccine, including 49% of Republican men. 50% of GOP men said they’ll get the vaccine or they’re already vaccinated. Overall, 56% of Republicans said they plan to get a vaccine or they’re already vaccinated.
Democrats → 87% said they plan to get a vaccine or they’re already vaccinated.
Vaccine results start on Page 25
Mental Health Crisis Among Graduate Students
v
Sidenotes
Per James Hamblin of the Atlantic:
Vaccinations are “creating a legion of people who no longer need to fear getting sick, and are desperate to return to “normal” life” but research on “whether it’s really safe for them to resume their unmasked, un-distanced lives — has been oblique. Anthony Fauci said last week on CNN that “it is conceivable, maybe likely,” that vaccinated people can get infected with the coronavirus and then spread it to someone else, and that more will be known about this likelihood “in some time, as we do some follow-up studies.”
“When the immune system detects a virus, it will dispatch cells and molecules to memorize its features so it can be fought off more swiftly in the future. Vaccines impart these same lessons without involving the disease-causing pathogen itself — the immunological equivalent of training wheels or water wings.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines accomplish that pedagogy via a genetic molecule called mRNA that’s naturally found in human cells. Once delivered into the upper arm, the mRNA instructs the body’s own cells to produce a coronavirus protein called spike — a molecule that elicits powerful, infection-fighting antibody responses in people battling COVID-19.
Read: What’s the use of a pretty good vaccine?
To ensure safe passage of mRNA into cells, the vaccine makers swathed the molecules in greasy bubbles called lipid nanoparticles. These strange, fatty spheres don’t resemble anything naturally present in the body, and they trip the sensors of a cavalry of fast-acting immune cells, called innate immune cells, that patrol the body for foreign matter. Once they spot the nanoparticles, these cells dispatch molecular alarms called cytokines that recruit other immune cells to the site of injection. Marshaling these reinforcements is important, but the influx of cells and molecules makes the upper arm swollen and sore. The congregating cells spew out more cytokines still, flooding the rest of the body with signals that can seed system-wide symptoms such as fever and fatigue.
“It’s the body’s knee-jerk reaction to an infection,” or something that looks like it, Mark Slifka, a vaccine expert and an immunologist at Oregon Health and Science University, told me.”
InterDosal Marriage
Can single-dose people (not counting J&J) safely hang out with someone who is fully vaccinated?
Sinovac Vaccine Info
Viral Reflections
Quarantine started in the US a year ago tomorrow (March 15th; Day Zero) after COVID was declared a pandemic on March 11th & the CDC recommended 8-weeks of staying at home in quarantine.
8-weeks and 309 days later & we’re still practicing social distancing, entering stores in limited capacity, buying movie tickets on Netflix/Prime/etc, and many high risk/ immunocompromised individuals continue to stay at home.
CDC on Efficacy
CDC Library: COVID-19 Science Update: 2/12/2021
www.cdc.gov › library › 02122021_covidupdate
Feb 12, 2021 — A single standard vaccine dose had 76% (95% CI 59%-86%) efficacy from 22 to 90 days after vaccination. When there was a longer interval.
Among the 596,618 patients 16 years and older vaccinated, the first dose was 46% effective against COVID-19 infection 14 to 20 days later and 92% effective 7 or more days after the second dose.
Countrywide data via Tom Wenseleers on Github
Loneliness & Social Isolation are Risk Factors for Mortality
Psychological impacts from COVID-19 among university students Across 7 US States
Mental Health Problems among university students
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00229-2
by Chris Woolston —
Undark
Four Steps to Building Vaccine Trust in Marginalized Communities
Deep wounds underlie the vaccine skepticism in Black and Brown communities. Only relationship building can heal them.
Left: Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, was the first person in the U.S. to receive a Covid-19 vaccine on Dec. 14, 2020. Visual: Mark Lennihan — Pool / Getty Images
BY WRENETHA JULION & KENYA BEARD
01.28.2021
3 medical innovations fueled by COVID-19 that will outlast the pandemic
March 9, 2021 — by Deborah Fuller, Titus, & Krogan (2021)
¨Wearable tech and early illness detection
¨A new way to discover drugs
¨Genetic vaccines
Biased AI can be bad for your health — here’s how to promote algorithmic fairness
March 9, 2021 — by Sharona Hoffman (2021)