COVID 19 – MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL – Part 2 Dr. Sean O’Connell returned and gave us an update on variants, boosters, children’s vaccines, long covid and misinformation and variants on Monday, November 15th at 7:00 PM. Sean O’Connell, PhD, who is a seasoned healthcare professional with 35 years in immunology, cell biology, regenerative medicine and tissue repair, presented and answered questions.
Highlights are listed below. Click to see the YouTube recording for more details.
- Dr. O’Connell gave us a detailed account of the variants and why they are so much more dangerous than the original strain.
- Delta is 50% more contagious than Alpha and its infectivity is similar to chickenpox.
- He compared and contrasted the symptoms in older and younger age groups.
- The goal of the current vaccines is not tho stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2. It is to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death.
- Current vaccines are highly effective but data from Pfizer in Israel suggests that the antibody response to variants decreases over time, BETA, GAMMA and DELTA in particular.
- It is important to get a booster to give increases immunization against the booster and the benefit of Mix and Match boosters.
- While the booster is important, getting the shot to the unvaccinated is much more important to slowing/stopping the spread of COVID-19. The more viral spread, the more chance of new variants arising.
- Promising Anti-Viral Therapies were detailed.
- The symptoms and causes for Long COVID-19 and treatments were detailed.
- Misconceptions and Misinformation found in social media were debunked.
- Many people think they cannot get the disease and this is a huge barrier to getting more people vaccinated.
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