Did you know….

That breastfeeding moms apparently pass Covid-19 antibodies to their kids? Now you do. (Well, they likely pass them on. About two-thirds did in a study at the University of Rochester.)

Liar, liar and more from this week’s Legislative Update

Get this: Some people tried to tell Georgia’s state senators that SB46, which would expand the vaccinations pharmacists are allowed to give, would require people to get vaccinations? It doesn’t. You can read about that and more in the week 5 Legislative Update from GPhA’s Greg Reybold.

The lurking virus

What makes herpes simplex go from “lurking” to “popping out cold sores”? Stress or sunburn, for example, can cause flare-ups, and now we know the reason: excited neurons.

The virus, it seems inserts itself into a particular immune pathway — one that gets activated “in response to prolonged periods of inflammation or stress.” So when UV light or stress activates those pathways, it also causes the virus to wake up.

“It is really remarkable that the virus has hijacked this pathway that is part of our body’s immune response. It highlights how some viruses have evolved to take advantage of what should be part of our infection-fighting machinery.”

When aspirin beats warfarin

File this away: If one of your patients is a kid who had heart surgery, aspirin may be a better choice than warfarin to prevent blood clots. So found Aussie researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Besides having to monitor warfarin levels…

[S]troke was common regardless of which medication the patient took. But patients on warfarin had poorer bone mineral density and were at a higher risk of bleeding.

Which vaccine should you get?

Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J? Live Science will happily use 823 words to tell you “It doesn’t matter.”

We haven’t seen its final form

Covid is evolving in the U.S., and what’s interesting (and possibly a bit scary) is that the seven new lineages all “have evolved a mutation in the same genetic letter.”

It’s unclear whether it makes the variants more contagious. But because the mutation appears in a gene that influences how the virus enters human cells, the scientists are highly suspicious.

Meaning, they see that there must be a clear benefit to this mutation, but whether that’s a problem or not remains to be seen. Oh, and the U.S. sequences genomes from fewer than one percent of coronavirus test samples.

A kinder test for prostate cancer

A urine test seems to be a better option for detecting prostate cancer than a biopsy is. Well, not better — but a way to potentially avoid the biopsy. If a PSA test shows potential prostate cancer, instead of going right for a biopsy to confirm, this urine test — soon to be commercialized as “MyProstateScore” — could save the pain and trouble.

The moist air in there

Masks during Covid-19 are to protect other people in case you’re infected, and they can also help protect you. Here’s a new (small) twist: It seems that the humidity that builds up inside a mask can also help protect you from the virus.

“We found that face masks strongly increase the humidity in inhaled air and propose that the resulting hydration of the respiratory tract could be responsible for the documented finding that links lower Covid-19 disease severity to wearing a mask.”