For our next trick…

Pfizer has begun a phase 1 (“Will it hurt them?”) study of an mRNA flu vaccine. That’s good news if it works — mRNA vaccines are a lot faster and easier to make — and a lot easier to update with new strains. That’s the benefit of only needing some genetic sequences and not a warehouse full of eggs.

Don’t let a good portmanteau go to waste

Last year there was worry about a “twindemic” of Covid and the flu. That didn’t happen — Covid prevention measures (e.g., masks and social distancing) also, surprise surprise, worked against influenza.

Well, welcome to 2021. In places where people aren’t wearing masks (either because they’re safe thanks to the vaccine or they just don’t care about those around them) and social distancing has gone out the window … you can kinda predict the future. Stay safe out there.

Lilly cuts prices

The latest move in the insulin-pricing game comes from Eli Lilly, which said it’s lowering the price of it’s Lispro injection to $82.42 for individual vials and $159.12 for a pack of five pens. That’s about 70 percent lower than Humalog, which is the identical drug but with different pictures on the package. (Amusingly, the company says two-thirds of its customers pay extra for the “Humalog” box.)

Eradicate! Eradicate!

Could we eradicate Covid-19? Like, smallpox-level eradication? Kiwi public health researchers did a preliminary analysis, considering transmission, new variants, animal reservoirs, vaccine cost and distribution, and even “government-mediated ‘antiscience aggression’.”

Their conclusion: “COVID-19 eradication seems slightly more feasible than for polio, but much less so than for smallpox.” (And, they say, we need to consider whether we even need to eradicate it, if we can control it like we do the flu.)

Who’s getting high?

Who’s most likely to have high blood pressure? A study presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions found the answer is (the envelope, please) … older women and younger men.

Apparently men are higher risk at first, but that changes:

Men from ages 20 to 49 were up to 70% more likely to have uncontrolled hypertension than women of the same age. The likelihood that treated hypertension remained uncontrolled shifted to women beginning at age 70, when women had a 29% to 63% higher risk than men to have high blood pressure.

Lyme vaccine 2.0: almost ready for prime-time

We’re that much closer to a new Lyme vaccine — Valneva and Pfizer say they’ve seen more positive results from phase 2 (“What’s the right dosage?”) studies of their snappily named VLA15 Lyme vaccine.

A previous vaccine, LYMERix, was taken off the market in 2002 after claims (that turned out to be unfounded) that it caused arthritis.

New HIV PrEP a-comin’

Competition for Gilead’s Truvada and Descovy is coming from GlaxoSmithKline’s cabotegravir (aka Cabenuva) — apparently it’s not just an FDA-approved HIV treatment, it’s now got an FDA priority-review designation for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. And tests show it works better than Truvada.

Yet another microneedle patch

This one’s from UNC and Stanford. The gimmick: It can be 3-D printed rather than made from molds — in theory, that makes for sharper needles and easier changes for different vaccines. (And microneedle vaccines seem to generate a much more robust response than shots in the arm.)

Twist: It can only be printed on a special 3-D printer, which happens to have been invented and sold by the study’s lead author.

Captain Obvious sticks to lollipops

Well, it is a respiratory illness. “Smokers up to 80% more likely to be admitted to hospital with Covid, study says.”

“That’s funny…”

This is one of those “cause or effect” stories: A lot of critically ill Covid-19 patients had low vitamin C levels (according to Spanish researchers). The kick: They aren’t sure whether there’s a risk for people with vitamin C deficiency, or if having Covid depletes the body’s vitamin C level. File it under “That’s interesting, let’s do more research.”

* “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka’ but ‘That’s funny…'” —Isaac Asimov

The Long Read: No More Chemo? edition

“A growing number of cancer patients, especially those with breast and lung cancers, are being spared the dreaded treatment in favor of other options.”