Eric B. Schneider, Sören Edvinsson, Kota Ogasawara: Did smallpox cause stillbirths? Maternal smallpox infection, vaccination and stillbirths in Sweden, 1780-1839, in: London School of Economics. Economic History Working Papers No. 340 (May 2022). In 2009, Robert Woods argued that smallpox was an important cause of stillbirths in the past. While there is strong evidence that maternal smallpox infection could lead to fetal loss, it is not clear whether smallpox infections were a demographically important source of stillbirths. In this paper, the authors use parish-level data from the Swedish Tabellverket dataset from 1780 to 1839 to test the effect of smallpox […]
Monthly archives: August 2022
6 posts
M. Cyrus Maher et al. (ed.): Predicting the mutational drivers of future SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, in: Science Translational Medicine 14, Nr. 633 (January 11, 2022) S. 1-10, online in: https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abk3445. Abstract SARS-CoV-2 evolution threatens vaccine- and natural infection–derived immunity and the efficacy of therapeutic antibodies. To improve public health preparedness, the authors sought to predict which existing amino acid mutations in SARS-CoV-2 might contribute to future variants of concern. They tested the predictive value of features comprising epidemiology, evolution, immunology, and neural network–based protein sequence modeling and identified primary biological drivers of SARS-CoV-2 intrapandemic evolution. The authors found evidence […]
Peter Nordström, Marcel Ballin, Anna Nordström: Effectiveness of a fourth dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine against all-cause mortality in long-term care facility residents and in the oldest old: A nationwide, retrospective cohort study in Sweden, in: The Lancet Regional Health – Europe (July 13, 2022), online in: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100466. Summary Background The effect of a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the risk of death in the oldest and frailest individuals is unknown. Methods Two matched cohorts were formed using Swedish nationwide registers. In the first, residents of long-term care facilities (LTCFs) given a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine from […]
WHO (ed.): 14.9 million excess deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, in: www.who.int-News (May 5, 2022). Estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that the total number of deaths directly or indirectly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (described as “excess mortality”) between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, will be about 14.9 million. (Range 13.3 million to 16.6 million). The highest excess mortality was concentrated in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas, with 68% of excess mortality recorded in just 10 countries. Middle-income countries (81%) were particularly affected, in contrast to high-income (15%) and […]
BRISANT: Wann kommt der Corona-Impfstoff gegen die Omikron-Variante? [When will the Corona vaccine against the omicron variant be available?], in: mdr.de, June 5, 2022. The Standing Committee on Vaccination at the Robert Koch Institute (STIKO) recommends a fourth vaccination against the Corona virus for groups at particular risk. Although the vaccine adapted to omicron could be delivered since the end of March, data for approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) were still missing in June 2022. The author explains why vaccines adapted to different variants are necessary and the steps involved in developing an adapted vaccine.
Angela Göpfert: Omikron-Booster kommen später – oder nie [Omicron boosters come later – or never], in: tagesschau.de, February 17, 2022. In her article published in February 2022, the author addresses the delay in delivery of a vaccine against the omicron variant that existed at that time. In February, the omicron wave seemed to have already passed its peak, which is why the author questioned the usefulness of an omicron-specific vaccine. First study results had shown that mRNA vaccines directed against the omicron variant would not work any better than the already approved vaccines. In order to save money and resources, […]