I finished setting all my clocks and outdoor light timers to DST this morning for our annual spring ritual, but I realize that I might not be doing this for much longer. Congress continues to look into abolishing these switches due to growing data suggesting it is bad for our health, now awaiting an analysis from the Department of Transportation. I'm not holding my breath.
In the meantime, I will mention a couple of CDC reports from last week.
BNT162b2 Vaccine Effectiveness for 5-15 year-olds
In case you don't recognize the code, BNT162b2 is the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. CDC now has a new analysis of how it has worked in this age group, covering the time period from July, 25, 2021 through February 12, 2022. Bottom line: adjusting for various confounders like health information, mask use, local virus circulation, and other factors, VE was higher for 12-15 year olds compared to the 5-11 age group. It was better against delta than omicron variants. They don't yet have information to break down asymptomatic versus symptomatic infections.
The CDC generally is pretty thorough in stating data limitations, and they did a good job here. The 2 take-home points I see from the data are: 1) VE, while it wanes with time after vaccination and is lower with younger children, is still pretty good; and 2) this situation is fluid. I'm not so focused on the exact numbers reported now, especially with wide confidence intervals. We'll have new analyses as time goes by (apologies to Dooley Wilson).
Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness 2021-22 Season
As they generally do this time of year, CDC released an interim analysis of influenza VE for this season. It didn't look good; the vaccine did not appear to be effective against H3N2 infections that predominate so far this year. This wasn't too surprising, see my December 5, 2021 posting first raising concern about a mismatch of this year's vaccine. However, we are in an unusual flu season with brief heightened activity in some parts of the country and little to no activity elsewhere. Given that NPI (non-pharmaceutical interventions) for COVID-19 are lifting, we'll see what happens to our flu season. I would still recommend influenza vaccine for everyone eligible.
I well remember being on call as a pediatric resident during the spring forward to DST and rejoicing that I had 1 less hour to work. I definitely try not to count my work hours now, not something to dwell on! Maybe I'll find time to watch an old movie today.