Booster news

As “Americans Gear Up to Receive COVID-19 Boosters,” it seems that some CDC advisors don’t think most people need them.

Still, they either voted in favor because showing dissent could make Americans think the vaccines don’t work (“Ha! See? Scientists don’t agree!”) or they were outvoted by the rest of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. (And in one case, they were overrruled by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.) Then they talked to the press.

Insurance webinar TODAY (and tomorrow)

Reminder: Pharmacy owners interested in GPhA’s insurance program will want to attend one of the two webinars that will review the program and fill you in on changes.

The first one is TODAY — Wednesday, October 27, from 4:00–5:00 pm

Can’t make it? There’s also one tomorrow — Thursday, October 28, from noon–1:00 pm

Open enrollment runs Monday, November 8 through Friday, November 18.

Kids’ vaccine update

The FDA’s advisors met yesterday to discuss whether to recommend the Covid vaccines for 5 to 11 year olds. Their answer: Yes. That’s just an advisory committee; it’s now up to the full FDA to make the call. It usuallly follows the committee recommendations, but not always.

Once the FDA gives a green light, the CDC is likely to follow suit, and the needles will come out — probably, per Anthony Fauci, in early November.

What, you want more? Fine. National Geographic has a more-detailed piece, “What to expect with COVID-19 vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11.”

Congratulations, Georgia!

Half of you are now fully vaccinated!

REMAIN CALM. Yes, the Moderna Expiry Lot Checker has been updated

The following lots have successfully been updated in the expiry look-up tool:

046A21A, 008B21-2A, 017B21A, 020B21A, 022B21A, 039B21A, 046B21A, 044B21A

The Moderna team is continuing to work on the expiry extension. The next weekly batch will include five priority lots in distribution and all lots expiring in October. Stay tuned.

Common drugs, common bleeding

Taking SSRIs with NSAIDs means an increased risk of intestinal bleeding. And not (say researchers from Nebraska’s Creighton University) just a little increase.

“When adding SSRIs to patients already on NSAIDs, the odds of developing an upper gastrointestinal bleed increased by 75%.”

The possible reason (which you probably guessed): NSAIDs weaken the GI lining making bleeding more likely, while SSRIs inhibit the serotonin in platelets, making clotting more difficult. One possible solution is to switch from SSRIs to SNRIs

What to know about the Democrats’ healthcare plans

Read about them somewhere else because I am not stepping into that particular morass.

The Long Read: CSI:Biology edition

How do bioengineering detectives determine whether a virus escaped from a lab or came naturally from another animal? Or both? It’s the science of “genetic engineering attribution,” and, as you might guess, it’s got a bit of a spotlight on it.

In fact, a group of bioresearch labs just held the “Genetic Engineering Attribution Challenge,” a contest that “offer[ed] monetary prizes for algorithms that could accurately predict the origin of genetically engineered DNA sequences.”

The most successful entrants in the competition could predict, using machine-learning algorithms, which lab produced a certain genetic sequence with more than 80 percent accuracy, according to a new preprint summing up the results of the contest.

Read more about how that works and what it can do for us, from Vox.

Publix offers disposals

Publix is adding drug disposal boxes to its pharmacies in Georgia (and several other states). Now every day will be both Children’s Day and Drug Disposal Day!