Week 49 – coronavirus update – vaccine updates and more

Vaccine update

Vaccine availability is continuing to rise. See this link for available places. Everyone over age 65 should sign up and get the currently available vaccines.

Ongoing information still supports the appreciation that both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing COVID-19.

The next vaccines in the pipeline appear to be about 70% effective at preventing illness from most of the current strains EXCEPT the South African and Brazilian mutations. All available vaccines appear to be less effective on these strains and booster vaccination will likely be around the corner. Both the Johnson & Johnson and the AstraZenica/Oxford vaccines are still not in the FDA approval stage yet.

Masks, masks, and more masks

COVID-19 cases continue to decline in Colorado and nationally. The exceptions are in the schools, particularly high school and colleges.

According to another recent CDC study masks appear to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission by over 95% IF your mask fits properly. This means the upper edge contacts the skin across the bridge of the nose and face and the sides remain against the skin of the cheeks. IF your mask doesn’t fit along all edges, then double-masking is recommended.

There is now ample evidence supporting regular mask use as an effective means of preventing spread of COVID-19.

Caution about easy testing

Drive-by self-testing is a new thing. Drive up to some Walgreens, get a swab, put it in your nose and hand it back. Unfortunately the accuracy of the test is heavily dependent on the adequacy of the swab placement. The farther back into the nose the more accurate the test will be. An inadequate sample will mean that the test could be negative even if you have COVID-19. This would obviously result in delayed treatment. The ease of this type of testing could also result in inappropriate testing.

Testing is still not recommended unless you have symptoms or have had direct exposure to someone with COVID-19.

Problems with the vaccines and mammograms? Just a timing issue

There have been a few reports of “false positive” mammograms due to lymph node swelling soon after receiving one of the vaccines. Some are recommending to wait at least a month after getting the vaccine to get your mammogram. Because mammography is elective, this suggestion makes reasonable sense to avoid the possibility of having to go back for an ultrasound or diagnostic mammogram just to evaluate a “lump” that turns out to be only a lymph node.

Tylenol, Advil, aspirin, and Aleve problems with the vaccines? No

It is fine to take acetaminophen or ibuprofen around the time of your COVID-19 vaccination.