Oklahoma Health Dept. has good tracking that shows vaccine immunity is better than natural immunity. Gonna have to look at the Israeli data again. https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/covid-reinfections-have-jumped-300-may#stream/0
New therapuetic- Merck announced Friday that an experimental pill it developed to treat covid-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly half in a clinical trial. An independent board of experts monitoring the trial recommended the study be stopped early because of the positive results, a significant and telling step in a pharmaceutical study. Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said in a news release they would apply for emergency use authorization for the drug, molnupiravir, in the United States as soon as possible. It would be the first antiviral pill for covid-19. A simple, easy-to-prescribe pill that prevents mild and moderate cases of covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, from turning into dire episodes has been one of the missing pieces of the medical armamentarium to fight the virus. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/10/01/pill-to-treat-covid/
Previous to this I read that "Remdesivir is the only Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for the treatment of COVID-19" so is molnupiravir the first oral treatment? That would be a great step forward when one considers the speed of giving 1,000 doses of a pill compared with 1,000 vaccinations! I have also been reading about the development of skin patches (containing small multi needles). For all the negatives of the pandemic, which have been vast, it certainly has focused attention on the next pandemic and is enabling faster responses.
