The kids are not all right

Pediatric Covid-19 cases are ’soaring,’ especially, of course, in places with low vaccination rates. But even scarier, hospitalizations are as well.

The latest numbers from the American Academy of Pediatrics show there were nearly 94,000 cases of COVID among kids in the last week, or about 15% of weekly total cases. Kids made up between 1.5% and 3.5% of total hospitalizations, they said.

Hospitals in these areas are already at or close to capacity, and pediatric wards are filling up.

“It is scary, especially for kids who don’t fully understand what’s going on. They’re air hungry, struggling for breath, and it’s just scary […] [T]hey can’t breathe, they’re isolated — that’s hard for anyone to understand, but can you imagine what it’s like for a kid?”

Take yourself out to the ball game!

Let’s have some fun at Georgia Pharmacy Day at the Braves! Don’t miss the last game of the season as the Atlanta Braves play the New York Mets in their final regular season game, Sunday, October 3, 3:20 pm. (Party begins at 2:00 in the Xfinity Cabanas.)

Go to GPhA.org/georgia-pharmacy-day-at-the-braves: The $54 ticket price includes a seat in section 214 and a $10 beverage credit. Seating is limited so don’t delay — sign up today!

(Mets fans are welcome too — just try not to embarrass us.)

K is for heart health

Aussie researchers, looking at 23 years’ worth of data from more than 50,000 of those shifty Danes, found that “people with the highest intakes of vitamin K1 were 21 percent less likely to be hospitalised with cardiovascular disease related to atherosclerosis.” (Not to shortchange its cousin, vitamin K2, but K2 only reduced hospitalization 14 percent.)

And, since you’re wondering, you can get vitamin K the way grandma would have wanted: by eating green veggies.

More sunscreen woes

A group of scientists is asking the FDA to pull some sunscreens off the market — products that contain octocrylene. Apparently, octocrylene can break down into benzophenone, which is a potential carcinogen.

Of course it’s not that simple. Only recently have studies shown that octocrylene produces benzophenone, which is only a potential carcinogen. And while the FDA asked sunscreen makers for safety data on their ingredients in 2019, none have provided it yet.

So it’s a lot of “maybes,” but also a lot of risk … and not quite enough data.

The not-so-incredible shrinking women

People shrink when they age — that’s normal. But here’s a disturbing bit of info: For women, the more you shrink, the greater your risk of dying sooner, especially by cardiovascular disease.

Looking at long-term data from more than 2,400 European women born between 1908 and 1952, Swedish researchers looked at their heights when they started in a study and then 10 to 13 years later. Then they looked to see when they died. They determined that …

…each centimetre of height the women lost between the two measurements was associated with a 15% greater risk of death from any cause, while those who lost more than 2cm in height between measurements had a 74% increased risk of death from any cause and at any point in the future.

They clarified, though, that it’s not the height loss itself that’s a problem, but “that there is an underlying process that is leading to women losing height that is also contributing to an increased risk of death.”

Vaccines: If it ain’t broke…

BioNTech — you know, the company that makes the Pfizer vaccine — says that it believes a booster shot of its existing Covid vaccine is probably better than using a modified version. The current vaccine works against every variant, says the company, while there’s a risk that a booster designed for just one variant wouldn’t work for whatever comes down the pike.

In other words, don’t mess with what’s working.

A no-rejection coating

If you have a mouse that needs an organ transplant, it’s going to need anti-rejection drugs for the rest of its furry life.

But Canadian researchers have a better idea: a polymer coating that can be applied to the blood vessels of the transplant organ that mimics the natural sugars that suppress the immune system — sugars that are lost during the, er, procurement process.

It was tested first on an artery, then on a kidney, and in both cases there was “strong, long-term resistance to inflammation and rejection.” Human trials are, of course, years away.

A step toward a tooth-decay vaccine

Bacteria cause tooth decay; that’s not news. Kill the bacteria — Streptococcus mutans, specifically — and you can stop the decay. Problem: Mouthwashes have limited effect, and antibiotics also kill the good bacteria.

It’s a conundrum. But now microbiologists at the University of Kentucky have made a breakthrough. They’ve found an Achilles heel on S. mutans: a set of polysaccharide decorations in (on?) the bacteria’s cell walls that are required for reproduction.

Those decorations are made by a particular enzyme. So … mess with that enzyme, you stop the bacteria … and maybe put a bunch of dentists out of business. Finding a drug that targets the enzyme is the next step, but identifying the target is a Pretty Big Deal.