The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 216 (716)

Lots of poll results today but first there's news I don't think many parents wanted to hear or read. It appears that the Pfizer vaccine is far less effective in five- through 11-year-old children than in older children. While it still offers protection against hospitalization, it appears to offer almost no protection against infection even just a month after vaccination. This may be due to the fact that the dosage is but one-third of the dose adults and teenagers get. In support of this, for the two weeks ending January 30, there was 67 percent effectiveness in 12-year-old children versus 11 percent effectiveness in 11-year-old children. Given that biological differences would be minor here argues that the problem is a dosage one. Giving younger children the higher, teenage dosage may not be an option. The higher dosage may cause too many fevers, a side effect particularly dangerous in young children. I know parents who home-schooled their children planning to send them back to classrooms once vaccinations of younger kids started. I don't want to think how they're feeling right now.

According to an Axios/Ipsos poll, only 35 percent of people think the current administration has done a good job restarting the economy and supporting small businesses. While 58 percent think that the administration did an excellent or good job on supporting vaccine development and delivery, only 43 percent trust the current administration to provide accurate information on the virus. This is down from 54 percent a year ago.

In a Washington Post-ABC poll, 60 percent of Americans say that some restrictions should remain in place. A majority, 64 percent, think that the virus is only "somewhat under control" or "not at all under control." Even so, most say that they have fully or mostly returned to pre-coronavirus activities. In an Economist-YouGov poll, 52 percent of Americans say they support mask mandates for indoor spaces. In an Associated Press-NORC poll, half of Americans support mask mandates when people are around others outside their homes. Fewer than three in 10 oppose such mandates. In the same poll, 38 percent say that restrictions should end, while 58 percent believe some measures should remain in place to control the spread of the virus. 

A CDC analysis of blood samples suggests that 140 million Americans have had covid, about double the number usually cited. There are 14 states in which half of people carry covid antibodies in their blood. Wisconsin leads the list at 56 percent. The others, in descending order, are Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Wyoming, Texas, Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Louisiana, followed by Georgia with 50 percent. New York came close, at 49 percent. 

Finally, a preprint from Canadian researchers reports the first case of deer-to-human covid transmission. The variant involved was said to have a "new and highly divergent lineage." It had 76 consensus mutations including 37 previously associated with non-human animal hosts, 23 of which were not previously reported in deer. The claim of deer-to-human transmission is based on identifying a "epidemiologically-linked" human case from the same geographic region and sampling period.