Author Archives: jbakerjrblog

There is much concern about the “fourth wave” of COVID-19 in the U.S., and blame has been placed on variants, reduced social restrictions, and lack of vaccines. Pressure has increased on the federal government to rethink its strategy for combating COVID since most new infections are concentrated in just a handful of states, including Michigan,Continue reading “I am again confused by the discussion around the “next wave” of COVID-19.”

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has concluded there is a link between AstraZeneca’s (AZ) Covid-19 vaccine and “very rare,” unusual, but dangerous blood clots, which in some cases have killed. A safety committee of the agency announced today that “unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects” of the vaccine.Continue reading “Astra Zeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine associated with unusual types of blood clots”

After a year of intimidating people into washing every inanimate object they own, the CDC finally said today what most of us had surmised — sterilizing these objects does not help prevent COVID-19. In an announcement coyly entitled “Science Brief: SARS-CoV-2 and Surface (Fomite) Transmission for Indoor Community Environments” the CDC admitted what most of us alreadyContinue reading “Finally, the CDC says ditch the Lysol!”

It’s been a very long week of contradictory messages from federal and state officials and supposed experts. Despite this, I thought I’d summarize a number of the major points they seem to be making. 1) Michigan is on fire. Why? Over and over, we hear that Michigan has the worst COVID-19 levels in the country.Continue reading “I’m tired of people blaming Michiganders!”

There is now published evidence that the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine not only prevents symptomatic infection, but also reduces the amount of virus produced during infections in vaccinated people. This data clearly demonstrates that vaccination should reduce the likelihood of passing infection even in the rare individuals who become infected after the vaccine. This is exceptionallyContinue reading “More good news around the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.”

First, I would like to state that I greatly appreciate new CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. She is very articulate and, unlike her predecessor, appropriately tries to get ahead of issues. It is a very pleasant change! Therefore, I was extremely concerned when yesterday, Monday, she issued an urgent plea to Americans.  She commented that she hasContinue reading “Dr. Walensky’s concerns.”

I wrote last Sunday about the precipitous drop in COVID-19 cases over the past two months. I continue to believe that there will be ongoing reductions in infections as we move forward. However, in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday Marty Makary, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,Continue reading “Marty Makary’s fuzzy math”

As the pandemic begins to wind down, it is getting very difficult to get hard data on where things actually stand in the United States. Many of the long-term pandemic monitor websites such as the “Covid Tracking Project” have ceased their operations. In addition, even state websites are not listing daily data in a cumulativeContinue reading “It is getting harder to get statistics on the COVID-19 pandemic in the United states, but what is available looks much better.”

I should have waited another day before commenting on the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine U.S. trial. By now, everyone knows this is not my favorite vaccine, and I have been critical of the company’s handling of its testing. But even I could not have expected this turn of events! The results on their U.S. trial thatContinue reading “NIH’s Midnight Announcement — AstraZeneca screws up their COVID-19 vaccine data yet again!”

The results of the U.S. clinical trial of the AstraZeneca SARS-CoV-2 vaccine came in today in a press release and it was extremely good news for the company. This trial was done entirely in the U.S. and was the first clinical trial performed using this vaccine that did not have a technical error. The data,Continue reading “The AstraZeneca vaccine results in the U.S. are revealed.”