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CMAAO Coronavirus Facts and Myth Buster: Around the Globe

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Dr KK Aggarwal    05 March 2021

With input from Dr Monica Vasudev
1421: In a bid to reduce the risk for escape variants, the US FDA has revised the emergency use authorization for monoclonal antibodies bamlanivimab and etesevimab to be used in combination for the treatment of mild to moderate cases of non-hospitalized COVID-19. (Medscape)
 
1422: The vaccines currently available are effective against the COVID-19 variants, though there is decreased protection against the South African variant. More variants will possibly emerge, and the FDA is planning for the worst-case scenario, in order to be prepared for variants that resist vaccines or treatment. (Medscape)
 
1423: Hundreds of repurposed drugs are being evaluated across the globe for the treatment of COVID-19, for both inpatients and outpatients. Only 5% of the trials could provide definitive data that would be actionable. (Medscape)
 
1424: ‘Scariants’ refer to the COVID-19 variants of concern that lack proven or peer-reviewed data. 
·        Of the highest concern are variants that are infectious, virulent, and evade the immune system. There are no variants with all three of these properties. The UK variant is more infectious and more virulent.
·        We must get more people vaccinated.
·        Researchers are making claims and sending pre-preprints, which are not even available on a preprint server yet, to journalists but not to the biomedical community. (Medscape)

1425: Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines have been found to be highly effective in reducing COVID-19 among older people.
 
Public Health England (PHE) has submitted the preprint of a study which shows that since January 4, the approximate protection against symptomatic COVID-19 among people aged 70 years and above after a single dose of vaccine ranged from 60% to 70% for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 60% to 75% for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.
 
Besides protecting against symptomatic disease, those vaccinated with one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had a 44% reduced risk of emergency hospitalization and a 51% lower mortality risk in comparison with those not vaccinated.
 
Those vaccinated with one dose of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine had a 37% reduced risk of emergency hospitalization. However, the confidence interval for this was wide, ranging from 3% to 59%.
 
Both vaccines were about 80% effective at preventing hospitalization in individuals aged 80 and above around 3 to 4 weeks following a single shot.
 
A single dose of either of the vaccines yielded significant protection against COVID-19 lasting at least 6 weeks, including against the UK variant of concern, VOC 202012/01. (Medscape)

Dr KK Aggarwal
President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA

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