Who Breaks Pandemic Rules Most? Bored Conservatives. And More Science News

Compiled by veteran medical journalist Brian Owens, this roundup of some of the newest science on the COVID-19 pandemic, straight from the scientific journals, is presented by Hakai Magazine in partnership with The Tyee.

Mixing and matching vaccines works

Canada’s public health authorities now say people can mix and match their two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, combining the AstraZeneca shot with either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA ones, or mixing the two mRNA vaccines. And evidence is starting to emerge that this is not only safe, but highly effective. Researchers at Dalhousie University studied the immune response of two patients who received the AstraZeneca vaccine, followed by a Pfizer shot, as part of a larger Canadian study of vaccine mixing. Both patients had a strong immune response, especially after the second dose.

Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, May 31, 2021

Viral variants get new names

The World Health Organization has announced new names for the variants of SARS-CoV-2, to enable clearer communication. Instead of using the genetic lineages, like B117, or the place of origin, the variants will be named after letters of the Greek alphabet. So B117, which first arose in the U.K., will now be called alpha, B1351 from South Africa is now beta, and B16172 from India is now delta.

Nature Microbiology, June 9, 2021

Vaccine immunity is better than ‘natural’ immunity

The antibodies generated in response to vaccination with an mRNA vaccine target a broader range of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants than antibodies resulting from a “natural” infection, suggesting vaccines may be better at protecting against new variants than the immunity that results from infection. The researchers suggest that these differences may exist because the vaccine presents the viral protein in slightly different shapes than viral infection, providing more places for the antibodies to bind.

Evidence is now beginning to emerge that vaccines do provide good protection against many of the variants of concern. One study found the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has been approved in Canada but not yet used, produced an immune response to all viral variants, while another found that the Pfizer vaccine was able to neutralize several variants, including the delta variant first identified in India.

Science Translational Medicine, June 8, 2021

Nature, June 9, 2021

Nature, June 10, 2021

Vaccines also protect the unvaccinated

High rates of vaccination in a population is associated with lower rates of COVID-19 infection among unvaccinated children under the age of 16, according to a study from Israel. The researchers found that on average, for each 20 per cent increase in the number of vaccinated people in a given population, the number of positive SARS-CoV-2 tests in the unvaccinated population in the same community decreased by approximately two-fold.

Nature Medicine, June 10, 2021

Canadian doctors develop treatment for vaccine-induced blood clots

Three of the first patients in Canada who developed blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine were successfully treated using a combination therapy consisting of a high dose of intravenous antibodies along with anticoagulants.

New England Journal of Medicine, June 9, 2021

Growing evidence of airborne transmission requires re-think of public health guidelines

Unmasked speech in confined areas carries the greatest risk of transmitting COVID-19 to others, according to a review of existing evidence. Intermediate-sized speech droplets that remain suspended in air for minutes and can be transported over considerable distances by air currents are the greatest threat. Because of this growing body of evidence on the importance of airborne transmission, a group of Canadian doctors is calling for Canada’s public health guidance and practices to be updated to include more emphasis on airborne mitigation measures like ventilation, filtration and better masks.

Journal of Internal Medicine, June 8, 2021

Canadian Medical Association Journal, June 8, 2021

People who are more afraid of COVID-19 are more judgmental

People more concerned about catching COVID-19 are more disapproving of the wrongdoings of others, even if the transgressions have nothing to do with the pandemic. Researchers had people judge several different scenarios, such as someone leaving their family business to work for a competitor, or a tenant bribing the landlord to paint their apartment first. They found that people who were more worried about catching COVID-19 judged the behaviours in these scenarios to be more wrong than those who were less worried. The researchers say this shows that our judgements of wrongdoing are not completely rational, but are shaped by emotion and intuition, of which concerns about health and safety are prominent.

Evolutionary Psychology, June 10, 2021

Social media use a major factor in viral spread

Countries that have a high rate of social media use that leads to offline political action tended to have higher rates of COVID-19 in the early phase of the pandemic, according to a study by researchers at the University of British Columbia. While social media use had the strongest relationship with infection rates, three other factors also contributed to the spread of the virus. Countries with an intermediate number of youth between the ages of 20 and 34 (but not low or high numbers of youth), an intermediate amount of income inequality, and a population that primarily lives in cities of more than one million people also had strong relationships to the rate of spread.

PLOS One, June 9, 2021

Bored conservatives break the rules

People who are more prone to boredom and who are socially conservative are more likely to break public-health rules, according to a new study from the University of Waterloo. According to the researchers, boredom threatens our need to make meaning out of life, and politics can strengthen our sense of identity and meaning. So people who find public health measures like mask-wearing a threat to their identity, and who suffer from boredom a lot, find breaking the rules helps them re-establish a sense of meaning and identity.

Motivation and Emotion, May 25, 2021

International medical graduates died at a higher rate

International medical graduates — doctors trained in other countries — make up 25 per cent of practicing physicians in the United States but accounted for 45 per cent of physician deaths from COVID-19 in that country. This could be due in part to the fact that foreign-trained doctors often practice in locations and specialties less preferred by U.S. medical graduates, such as primary care.

JAMA Network Open, June 11, 2021