From GCSU to UGA

Know any undergraduate chemistry major at Georgia College and State University? If they’re interested in a career in pharmacy (and really, who wouldn’t be?), there’s a slightly smoother path — a “guided pathway,” they call it, into UGA’s four-year PharmD curriculum.

GCSU students in their junior year who maintain certain academic criteria and successfully fulfill all admissions requirements will receive a guaranteed admission interview at UGA. Those admitted then can complete their bachelor’s degree with transferred credits earned through the Pharm.D. program. Further, aspiring pharmacists will be eligible to receive structured guidance directly from UGA faculty, staff, and current Pharm.D. student mentors as early as their freshman year.

Chasing the worm

Why are there so many allergies these days? And so much inflammation? Could it be that we don’t have hookworms in our guts any more?

In developed countries, these parasitic worms — helminths — are all but eliminated. Which sounds good, because most of us prefer not to have millions of worms in our guts.

Thing is, “Helminths have infected humans throughout our evolutionary history, and as a result have become master manipulators of our immune response. Humans, in turn, have evolved levels of tolerance to their presence.” Meaning that it’s possible the lack of gut worms is one cause of what researchers at University College London call “inflammageing.”

Covid variant news

AstraZeneca’s vaccine fails against South African variant

Bad news for the company: The latest results show that it’s Covid-19 vaccine is only minimally effective against the South African variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, prompting the South African government to stop using the vaccine.

But it’s not just AZ’s vaccine — that South African variant (B.1.351) seems to be troublesome all around, and it’s not clear that other vaccines will be more effective against it.

For their part, AstraZeneca and its Oxford partner are working to update the vaccine to tackle that South African variant.

(One peek into the crystal ball imagines getting a ‘main’ Covid-19 shot, then boosters if particular variants emerge.)

British invasion

The British variant of SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.7, is likely to become the dominant strain here in the U.S. It spreads 30 percent faster and may — may — have a 35 percent greater risk of death. And there’s already a sub-variant of B.1.1.7 that’s less susceptible to current vaccines.

Current vaccines, including AstraZeneca’s, appear to work against most B.1.1.7 strains — so that’s good news.

Night lights can kill

Well, not kill — but they might be associated with a higher risk of thyroid cancer. Maybe. University of Arkansas researchers looked at areas with high artificial light at night (“LAN” they call it — perhaps for the French “lumière artificielle la nuit”). They found that the more lumière artificielle la nuit, the greater the incidence of thyroid cancer.

Of course, they point out that there’s not necessarily a causal connection, but it still gives us a chance for a scary headline.

Pfizer ramping up production

Now that it’s got the vaccine production process down pat, Pfizer says it expects to cut production time by almost half. Here’s hoping that vaccine keeps working.

“We just went right to commercial production,” [Pfizer VP Chaz] Calitri said.

As soon as vials of vaccine began coming off the production line, engineers started analyzing how production could work faster and better.

“We made a lot of really slick enhancements.”

Caffeinated kids

Get this: You can get your kid started on all the benefits of caffeine before it’s even born! Yep, University of Rochester neuroscientists found that “caffeine consumed during pregnancy can change important brain pathways”.

Oh, wait — did I say “benefits”? In fact, they’re less benefits than “really annoying issues.” Caffeine in utero, they say, seems to lead to “Elevated behavioral issues, attention difficulties, and hyperactivity” when the kids turn nine or 10. So maybe they need to wait a bit before hitting the sauce.

Post-vaccine, avoid NSAIDs

Saving you a click: It’s probably best to avoid NSAIDs to deal with any side effects of a Covid-19 vaccination, because they could potentially reduce the vaccine’s effectiveness.

[A]s detailed in a publication in the Journal of Virology, laboratory studies using human cells in culture dishes and mice have suggested that NSAIDs may reduce antibody production against SARS-CoV-2 and dampen your immune system’s inflammatory response.

What, you want to read the whole article in Forbes? No problem.

After it’s over

One thing we’ve all learned since 2020 is that many of the people around us are germ-spewing monsters. That in mind, a lot of Americans — 72 percent, if you can believe it — say they’ll continue to wear a mask in public even after the Covid-19 pandemic is over. The operative word is “say.”