Think fast

If your reaction time is changing a lot, you’ll be more susceptible to a respiratory virus.

It’s not exactly that your brain’s performance overall can predict it, but rather how much your cognitive ability “see-saws.” That’s what University of Michigan (with Duke and UVa) researchers found in what they call “the first exposure study in humans to show that one’s cognitive performance before exposure to a respiratory virus can predict the severity of the infection.”

It’s actually logical. If you’re stressed or tired, you’re often more likely to get sick … and your cognitive performance will change — and change is the key. An idiot might always do poorly, but an idiot whose performance goes from bad to worse could be at higher risk.

“[W]hen we looked at change over time, we found that variation in cognitive function is closely related to immunity and susceptibility.”

Hear ye, hear ye

The Georgia Board of Public Health will hold a virtual meeting this coming Tuesday, January 10, from 1:00 – 3:00 pm. On the docket are updates on the flu, Covid-19, and RSV situation; a legislative update; discussion of screening newborns’ hearing; and the main event: “Special Awards for supporting the state during the Covid pandemic.”

Spouse-swapping, 2023 style

What do you do if you want surgery patients to have post-op opioids, but your state’s laws require them to pick them up in person? You write the prescriptions for their spouses.

After analyzing prescription data, Harvard researchers found a big bump in opioid scripts for the spouses of patients who had surgery … when the patients themselves didn’t get those meds.

So, unless those husbands or wives are a real pain to be around (ha ha), the rationale is clear.

“We seem to have found a situation where doctors are intentionally subverting the safety mechanisms that we have in place to ensure safe opioid prescribing. There’s no other plausible explanation for this dramatic increase in opioid prescriptions on the day that the recipient’s partner is having surgery.”

ICYMI

The FDA now allows mifepristone to be dispensed by retail pharmacies, provided they meet certain requirements.

The steps for pharmacies to become certified to dispense mifepristone are not difficult, but they involve some administrative requirements that go beyond the process pharmacies use with most other medications, such as designating an employee to ensure compliance.

Think of it as pig iron

Let’s say you have a boy pig and a girl pig, and you want them to have piglets, but the boy is … let’s just say he has some issues in the bed-sty. Forget Viagra — Chinese researchers “have developed a synthetic tissue that repairs injuries and restores normal erectile function in a pig model.”

To be fair, this treatment works for pigs that have injuries down yonder, rather than other medical issues — although their artificial tissue might work in other circumstances. “The technology is promising and warrants further work so it can be safely transitioned to human patients who can benefit from this advance.”

Flu and RSV declining

Instead of the entire country seeing absurdly high flu levels, many areas are seeing cases drop, moving from dark red to medium orange on the CDC’s flu map. Georgia has gone from ‘dark dark red’ down to ‘dark orange’ on the scale — i.e., from very high to high. (Minnesota and Vermont are both reporting minimal flu cases; how nice for them.)

The flu by itself hasn’t been that bad this year, thanks to the vaccine being the right one for the circulating strains. But the flu-Covid-RSV trifecta is still causing hospitals to be … well, let’s just say quite busy.

Which booster is better?

When it comes to a third mRNA Covid shot — i.e., a first booster — Moderna’s beats Pfizer’s according to a study by Harvard and VA researchers. Both were very effective, mind you, but one was just a bit more effective.

I’ve replaced the official virus names with the familiar names so you can actually understand this:

‘Recipients of a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine had an excess of 45 documented infections and 11 hospitalizations per 10,000 persons compared with recipients of a third dose of Moderna’s vaccine. We also found a higher risk of documented infection among recipients of a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine compared with Moderna’s.’

Why the difference? Speculation is that it’s due to the higher dose of the Moderna vaccine.