Author Archives: jbakerjrblog

If you have some down time you might want to watch Richard Helppie’s excellent podcast Common Bridge, where I discuss all things COVID-19, how the pandemic will end (it will!) and its impact on our medical system. Best wishes, Jim Baker

A good bit of holiday news is the new finding that the rapid increase in COVID-19 infections in South Africa with the Omicron variant has begun to decline. As quickly as the infections rose, they appear to be decreasing just as fast. While this does not rule out a second peak, several things are clear.Continue reading “Breaking news: the Omicron wave is burning itself out in South Africa.”

As if the news concerning COVID-19 weren’t bad enough, one press release yesterday stands out as an attempt to incite panic in order to draw attention to a person and institution. The press release, from Columbia University, “New Study Adds More Evidence for Omicron Immune Evasion,” draws attention to an unpublished, non-reviewed article posted on the web byContinue reading “Yesterday’s panic pedaling news release on Omicron.”

Over the past few weeks there have been many media reports about the ability of current COVID-19 vaccines to protect against the Omicron virus variant. While many presented reasonable information, there was also significant panic peddling. Some of this latter activity seemed to involve attracting attention to a media outlet or “influencer,” however, there alsoContinue reading “Why was this biotech CEO so alarmed about omicron and vaccines?”

After many reports hypothesizing about the poor efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines in protecting individuals from the Omicron variant, there is finally real-world data. Unlike the prior stories, however, the news is generally very good. While the study is yet to be peer-reviewed, it is an extensive analysis of COVID-19 infection data from the South AfricanContinue reading “Real world data provides good news on vaccines and omicron “

Just a FYI that I will be discussing the pandemic with Devin Scillian on his program Flashpoint tomorrow at 10:00 AM on WDIV (channel 4 in Detroit and https://www.clickondetroit.com/flashpoint/).

A report from Pfizer yesterday suggested that three doses of their vaccine (the initial two doses plus a booster shot) were protective against the Omicron variant of COVID-19 virus. This came a day after it was announced that two doses of the vaccine, the standard initial course of therapy, had little efficacy in preventing infection with Omicron. Continue reading “Why would you only be protected against Omicron after a vaccine booster?”

The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron virus variants has raised the importance of booster vaccines. The broader immunity from a third dose of COVID vaccine appears to provide better protection against both the original virus strain and new variants. In addition, a few of the vaccines available throughout the world, particularly the singleContinue reading “Which booster vaccine is best for you?”

A few days reviewing the available information concerning the newest COVID-19 virus variant has provided little insight, but lots of opinions. Three perspectives caught my eye this morning. The first is from Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the Chair of the South African Medical Association who told several news organizations, “local physicians do not feel panicked aboutContinue reading “The noise keeps coming on Omicron.”