You may have noticed that from time to time news articles stating that this or that vaccination program is encouraging pregnant women to be vaccinated, or for women who are trying to become pregnant to be vaccinated. An article in JAMA Network Open reports that babies born to women who had covid while pregnant may face a higher risk of developmental disorders such as autism and bipolar disorder. This risk is not limited to covid infections. Infections with viruses such as influenza and measles raise the risk of disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and depression. The covid study looked at the records of 7,550 babies. Three percent of babies born to mothers who did not have covid were diagnosed with a brain developmental disorder before their first birthday. For babies exposed to covid in utero, that percent was 6.3. After accounting for other factors that might influence a child's risk for these disorders--including preterm births, mother's age, and baby's gender--babies with in utero covid exposure were 86 percent more likely be diagnosed with a brain developmental disorder before their first birthday.
The FDA is expected to rule this week on emergency use authorization for the Moderna and/or Pfizer vaccines given to children under the age of five. If the FDA gives emergency authorization, the CDC will have to ratify it. The CDC has ended the requirement that travelers entering the US by air have to present the results of a negative covid test. Sports teams will no longer have to travel by bus from Toronto to Buffalo to get on a plane there.
One candidate to be the Republican nominee in the race for governor in New York cannot appear in person at an upcoming debate. Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudy, has not been vaccinated for covid and refuses to get vaccinated. He says that he has "natural immunity" and will submit to multiple tests to prove he is not infected. The studio hosting the debate is holding firm on its vaccine mandate. Giuliani can appear in the debate remotely, though at least one of the other candidates is not at all happy with that ruling. He's holding out for in-person or not-at-all.
The last time I had my hair trimmed, my stylist told me that she and her housemates had gone through a bout of covid. She said she was glad she could not get it again and was not at all happy when I told her she could get infected again ... and again ... and... (She did not take her feelings out on my hair, thankfully.) Some people are reporting they've had covid three times now. Some scientists believe that covid will become "an inevitable infection that everyone gets multiple times," similar to the common cold. There are some differences, however. There is not as yet a seasonal pattern to covid. There is no long cold analogous to long covid. A case of Delta or an earlier variant was roughly 90 percent effective in preventing reinfection in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Since Omicron appeared, however, infection offers only about 50 percent effectiveness. Immune defenses do wane; an October 2021 per-Omicron study estimated that reinfection could come after only three months.
Quickies: A vet in Thailand may have gotten covid from a cat. An as-yet-unpublished study found that ivermectin does not reduce the time needed to recover from covid. (Surprise! Surprise!) The president of the opposition party in India has been hospitalized with "covid-related issues." Finally, a team of international scientists assembled by WHO says in its first report that bats likely carried early versions on the coronavirus and may have transferred them to animals sold at the market in Wuhan.
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