Farm in a pill

Kids brought up on farms tend to have many fewer allergies later in life. Although this was once thought to be a result of exposure to all sorts of pathogens (the “hygiene hypothesis”), it’s now thought to be from exposure to certain good germs.

But, as much fun as it might be to grow up with Orville, Luzerne, Eliger, and kin on the farm (and Fluffy, who went to live there when she got sick), there are downsides, especially downwind when the manure is being spread.

So why not have the best of both worlds? Give kids the benefits of a farm, but in a pill, Jetsons-style.

An international consortium of researchers is now working on potential treatments from farm dust and unprocessed [but not raw] milk that may combat the reported increasing prevalence of food allergies, with a target to deliver a product within the next five years.

Fighting Covid: All in, or live with it?

Some countries went for ultra-strict “zero-Covid” policies. Others were a bit more relaxed. How much a difference did it make? Chinese scientists wanted to find out.

They had an easy way to do that. Four countries — Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea — switched policies from “zero Covid” to “living with Covid” at some point during the pandemic. (And, conveniently, have a mix of population densities.)

Using pre-pandemic statistics as a baseline, the researchers compared how those two policies impacted death rates. The result: “Zero-Covid” policies resulted in virtually no excess deaths. But when they switched to “living with Covid” — LWC — mortality jumped.

After shifting to the LWC policy, PEM [percent excess mortality] usually exceeded 10%, and countries with high population density experienced a peak PEM of 20-70%.

So depending on the population size, living with Covid meant a lot more people aren’t living with it.

(Where this applied least: New Zealand, where the excess mortality after switching policies never exceeded 10% — something the authors suggest “might be a result of the ultrahigh [95%] vaccination rate” there.)

It was Legionella all along

The “mystery respiratory illness” in Argentina turns out to be Legionnaire’s Disease. That is all.

Cut croup risk in the womb

Attention, mom-to-be: It seems that taking fish oil or vitamin D supplements while you’re expecting can lower your kid’s risk of croup*.

That’s what those shifty Danes found in a three+ year randomized trial of 736 women (and their babies). Their findings: Children whose mothers took either high-dose vitamin D supplements (2,800 IU) or 2.4 grams of fish oil per day had only an 11% chance of getting croup.

Taking olive oil or lower-dose vitamin D (i.e., 400 IU/day) gave kids a 17-18% chance of croup

Bottom line: Taking the right supplement could mean about a 40% reduction in risk of croup.

“We are not sure of the exact mechanisms behind the beneficial effects of vitamin D and fish oil, but it could be that they can stimulate the immune system to help babies and young children clear infections more effectively.”

* If you’re over 60, you might call it “the croup.”

A new low is a new high

Only 8 percent of Americans are now without health insurance — that’s a new low, according to data from HHS. After rising from 2016 through 2020, the uninsured rate has dropped due to a combination of subsidies from the pandemic’s American Rescue Plan (that are now permanent), more states expanding Medicaid (to a total of 38), and greater outreach efforts.

Georgia has the country’s fourth highest uninsured rate (15.3%); only Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida are worse.

Bats aren’t out to kill us after all

Sure, we’re quick to blame bats for a lot — belfry damage, Romanian tyrants, overcrowding at Arkham Asylum — but when it comes to getting us sick, the idea that bats are reservoirs of viral pathogens seems to be wrong.

The question (asked by Israeli zoologists): “Are bats really pathogen reservoirs or do they possess an efficient immune system?”

The answer: B. Media reports of bats threatening public health are overblown when, you know, you look at the facts. And the fact is, bats have a pretty powerful immune system, “able to confront viruses, recover, and remain immune by developing a potent titer of antibodies, often without becoming a reservoir.”

For example, they say…

Report: The coronavirus isolated from bats in Wuhan (China) was 96% genetically identical to the virus that started the pandemic!!!

Reality: When you look at mutation rate, the “temporal distance” between what the bats have and what humans got was several years at a minimum.

Although we do not claim that bats are never the origin of human pathogens, we suggest that their role has been consistently exaggerated and often without the necessary scientific basis.

Start your app and cough

The latest in the category “Surprising Ways to Detect Covid”: A phone app that can detect Covid-19 infection based on your voice.

Dutch data scientists used about 900 audio samples collected from 4,350 people to train an AI system to recognize signs of Covid. When tested…

… the AI model was accurate 89% of the time, whereas the accuracy of lateral flow tests varied widely depending on the brand. Also, lateral flow tests were considerably less accurate at detecting COVID infection in people who showed no symptoms.

Since that first study, they’ve expanded their database to more than 53,000 audio samples they plan to “improve and validate the accuracy of the model.”

Fun for the family: You can help make the app better by uploading short recordings of cough and breathing with an app from the University of Cambridge — “Healthy and non-healthy participants welcome.”