COVID-19 vaccines: medical concerns and recommendations

[peterb]

Merck announces new treatment.
——————
WASHINGTON — Merck & Co. said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use.

If cleared, Merck's drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.

Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/10422...lization-treat

[luckyman]

Any after effects following the 2nd or 3rd shots?

2nd Moderna gave me a day of yuck. Just wondering if the typical reaction (if any) to the booster is similar to dose 2.
Hoping that after 6 months, the booster reaction is much less icky than the dose 2 reaction (3-4 weeks after dose 1).

?

After my second Moderna shot I had my resting heart rate reduce slowly a couple bpm every day from 55 all the way down to 38. Then after a couple of weeks finally reversed itself. EKG showed a slight non-scary abnormality; at the time Moderna heart inflammation side effects weren’t a known thing so the doc assumed it was just coincidental timing, and couldn’t be related to the vaccine. So I’m going to be really going slow and exploring my options re: booster shots. With my second shot experience I would be more comfortable with a non-Moderna booster, but then again there is no data on that kind of combo so it’s not currently recommended.

[37th Mass]

Got my Pfizer booster (3rd) shot yesterday, six months and one day after receiving my second shot. Absolutely no side effects. I didn't have any for the first two shots either.

[fly out]

Sorry if this got mentioned and I just missed it. FDA is looking at a half dose of Moderna for the booster, according to Bloomberg's anonymous sources.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Merck announces new treatment.
——————
WASHINGTON — Merck & Co. said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use.

If cleared, Merck's drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.

Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/10422...lization-treat

I am exclusively referring to this drug as Ivermercktin

[Clusterfrack]

Decoding molnupiravir-induced mutagenesis in SARS-CoV-2
J Biol Chem. 2021 Jul; 297(1): 100867
...molnupiravir could become a paradigmatic example in the use of lethal mutagenesis as an antiviral strategy. However, there are inherent risks in this approach. NHC can be metabolized by the host cell to the 2′-deoxyribonucleoside form by the ribonucleotide reductase and then incorporated into the host cell DNA. The mutagenic effect of NHC has been shown in animal cell cultures (10), raising concerns on the potential risk of molnupiravir-induced tumorigenesis and the emergence of detrimental mutations in sperm precursor cell generation and embryo development.

Merck announces new treatment.
——————
WASHINGTON — Merck & Co. said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use.

If cleared, Merck's drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.

Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/10422...lization-treat

[YVK]

What reaction, if any, did you have to dose 2? Similar to dose 3?
Just trying to get a feel for whether dose 3 might be as unpleasant as dose 2.
Your dose 2 may have been a non-event, of course.

I''ve multiple patients who had gotten their 3rd under the immunocompromised indications, even if they weren't. Nobody reported anything worth mentioning.


Last week I had a chat with our hospital's only infectious diseases doc. She said she'd take the booster (she is young). Asked if she had any clinical outcomes data, she didn't. Them boosters will be available next week. I am gonna talk to my ICU and hospitalist colleagues and find out how many severe breakthrough cases they've seen in otherwise healthy 50+ year olds, and decide then.

[vcdgrips]

Should folks be "brand loyal" re their boasters?

P with P
M with M
JJ with JJ

etc.

THX.

[Totem Polar]

Decoding molnupiravir-induced mutagenesis in SARS-CoV-2
J Biol Chem. 2021 Jul; 297(1): 100867
...molnupiravir could become a paradigmatic example in the use of lethal mutagenesis as an antiviral strategy. However, there are inherent risks in this approach. NHC can be metabolized by the host cell to the 2′-deoxyribonucleoside form by the ribonucleotide reductase and then incorporated into the host cell DNA. The mutagenic effect of NHC has been shown in animal cell cultures (10), raising concerns on the potential risk of molnupiravir-induced tumorigenesis and the emergence of detrimental mutations in sperm precursor cell generation and embryo development.

[VT1032]

Should folks be "brand loyal" re their boasters?

P with P
M with M
JJ with JJ

etc.

THX.

I was under the impression that the only shot with a booster available is Pfizer. Is that not that case? I got moderna, but my last dose was in early February so I'd be tempted to get a booster if I could.