Would other vaccines gain from a half-dose approach? (1)
I am glad to read that the University of Oxford’s Sarah Gilbert thinks more research is needed into the “half-dose” findings on the vaccine jointly developed with AstraZeneca (28 November, p 7). So far, nearly all commentary on the half-dose observation has been along the lines of coy smiles at a piece of serendipity, following a possible technical error in the trials.
But the obvious questions would be: whether a 50 per cent first dose was better than any other percentage; whether a number of doses at increasing strength works better (say, a 20 per cent dose followed by a 70 per cent dose and then the full dose); or, perhaps more significantly, whether the 60 to 70 per cent efficacy of the regular annual flu vaccine 鈥� or any other vaccine 鈥� could be improved by splitting the dose in this way.
If anyone should propose an investigation into the latter, may I join the queue to put my name down as a volunteer?
Would other vaccines gain from a half-dose approach? (2)
The good news regarding the successful results of covid-19 vaccine trials is most welcome.
However, as someone who is at high risk for this disease, I wonder if there will be any way of testing, post-vaccination, to find out if I am protected. I wouldn’t feel confident to return to “normal” life unless I’m sure I am protected.
We must rise to challenge of vaccinating the world
Reporting on the vast task of vaccinating people everywhere against coronavirus, Carrie Arnold quotes Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, as saying: “There’s no muscle memory to vaccinate people at that scale throughout the world, at levels that are needed to open up society (21 November, p 36).” There was no muscle memory in 1939 when the UK needed hundreds of Spitfires (and much else besides).
Then, as now, saying necessity is the mother of invention is meaningless without the courage and determination of millions of people to face the challenge. What we have seen since March is just that. Even youngsters in garages have been 3D printing personal protective equipment.
The challenge of vaccinating populations will be magnified because of conflicts in some countries. I have a feeling the arrival of a vaccine is just the end of stage one of the pandemic.
Anti-vaxxers can get immunity the hard way
I don’t understand what all the fuss is about anti-vaxxers and covid-19 (21 November, p 30). It will be years before we have enough vaccine for everybody. Those who believe the science will get their immunity from a dose of vaccine. Those who don’t will get their immunity from a dose of a nasty disease. Sorted.
Proof of inoculation could be easy to fake
Keith Macpherson writes that concerns about vaccination may be resolved if people need to show a valid vaccination certificate to be allowed, for example, to board an aeroplane (Letters, 28 November). Problem is, the internet will soon be full of very high quality fake certificates.
On balance, a car-free life is the one for me
Change your diet to compensate for a cat
Hillary Shaw suggests that the amount of meat eaten by pet cats is a bigger issue than the wildlife they kill (Letters, 14 November). 快猫短视频 covered this in 2009 (24 October), looking at the “greenness” of pet ownership. I seem to recall on a per annum basis, a medium-sized dog was worse than running an SUV.
Cats have a poor reputation in relation to ecological damage, and deservedly so. However, I’d rather keep my cat and responsibly own it. I’ve already reduced my meat intake for health reasons, but will perhaps look to reduce it further to “offset” what my cat eats.
I lock our cat inside at night to protect wildlife, and new suburbs in Canberra, where I live, will only allow cat ownership if they are kept inside full time. I expect this will apply to all suburbs eventually.
This ball lightning was no hallucination
I am writing about the suggestion that sightings of ball lightning may be visual hallucinations induced by a bright flash (Letters, 21 November). Over 50 years ago, I was watching an intense thunderstorm through the window across dark fields, when a ball appeared in the line of a very bright lightning stroke.
This might seem to have been an illusion for me, as Robert Masta speculates, but for the fact that my wife and mother-in-law were in the room and had time to get to the window and see the ball before it faded. But they couldn’t have been affected by the flash itself.
On the very knotty problem of a tangled cable
Tom Roberts asks whether an extension cord plugged into itself can be manipulated to form a knot (Letters, 12 September). We don’t need an equation or extra dimensions to solve his problem (and in fact, knots can only exist in 3D), but to just consider the definitions.
In knot theory, we don’t care how much you distort a knot as long as it isn’t cut and rejoined, so this extension cord loop, known as a trivial knot, stays trivial as long as it isn’t unplugged. This doesn’t stop it being tangled, however, which presents a key issue in knot theory 鈥� that of determining whether a given tangle can be unravelled to a trivial knot.