Who’s been exposed to Covid?

1. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
2. Zoo Atlanta’s gorillas — they’re being treated with monoclonal antibodies, while others are being vaccinated.

Take yourself out to the ball game!

The Braves lead the NL East, but (as of today) they haven’t clinched the division. That means the Sunday October 3 game against the New York Mets could be critical — and you can be there!

Join GPhA for a Day at the Braves — grab one of the last remaining tickets for the season-ending October 3 game. The $54 ticket includes early access to Xfinity Cabanas (beginning at 2:00 pm), the game (section 214), and a $10 beverage credit!

Come join the fun with your GPhA pharmacy family! Arrive early, have a blast — but first, sign up today!

What will they think of next?

Cattle dewormer is so last week as a TikTok Covid treatment. The latest trend: gargling and drinking Betadine. Yes, the antiseptic. The one with “Do Not Swallow” on the label. And yes, people are doing that rather than simply getting a free, safe, and proven vaccine. 🤦‍♂️

“[W]hy drink a chemical that can corrode your gut, mess up your thyroid, kill your kidneys, or kill you? To show that you know more than all the scientists in the world?”

One less thing* to worry about

Johnson & Johnson’s Ebola vaccine looks pretty darned good.

The two-dose regimen was well-tolerated and induced antibody responses to the Zaire ebolavirus species 21 days after the second dose in 98% of all participants, the company said, citing data from a late-stage trial.

* One thing fewer?

Sometimes it’s just about the math

The city of Savannah, Chatham County, the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, and Chatham Area Transit are all offering their full- and part-time employees a $500 incentive to get a Covid-19 vaccine. It’s a smart investment.

“It’s the best way that an organization can protect itself against any type of production loss or inefficiency as a consequence of needing to quarantine or losing people to sick leave as they deal with the virus.”

The latest analysis finds that hospitalization of unvaccinated people has cost the U.S. — notably taxpayers — more than $5 billion since June.

But there’s also the rising risk

Unvaccinated people in the Augusta area are driving the rise of mutations to the delta variant, while increasing the risk that the mu variant will take hold — or, worse, that “a different disease than the original infection will arise and could lead to adaptations that evade vaccines and treatments.” The Augusta Chronicle reports.

Moon over the Y chromosome

A study out of Sweden’s Uppsala University found that, contrary to folklore, it’s men whose sleep is affected by the lunar cycle. Guys, it seems, “exhibited lower sleep efficiency and increased time awake after sleep onset” during the waxing phase of the moon — that is, approaching the full moon.

Women, on the other hand “remained largely unaffected by the lunar cycle.”

The study includes this helpful image:

Buzz take: This may be an evolutionary response to the need for hunting werewolves during the full moon.

The tin-foil* hats were right all along

Auburn University engineers have unveiled an implantable microchip that can detect a Covid-19 infection.

“One of the great advantages of the device is that it’s extremely portable and you can develop arrays of devices with a variety of functionalizations for testing.”

* We all know it’s aluminum foil, but this makes for a punchier headline