Page 16 - Mid Valley Times 7-2-20 E-edition

Thursday, July 2, 2020
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Mid Valley TiMes
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ealth &Fitne
ealth &Fitne
We have lived through uncertain times before
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By Jim Dueck
In June of 1942, Palm Village Retire- ment Community be- gan caring for seniors in Reedley. is wasn’t
new for the Mennonite Brethren. ey oper- ated a Home for the Aged in the 1800’s un- til their departure from what is now known as the country of Ukraine. When these same people ed the Russian Revolution and mi- grated to Canada and the United States, they left possessions behind but did not forget their heritage of caring for the elderly.
Some of you remem- ber what life was like in the summer of 1942,
six months after Pearl Harbor. e entire world was living in uncertain times. No one knew exactly what the future held and many young men and women were heading o to war.
Even though the future was uncertain and our country was at war, the Western USA Mennonite Brethren came together and began a new, mission based non-pro t in Reedley to care for seniors because the
daily needs of seniors do not go away no matter what is happen- ing around the world. 78 years later, we once again nd ourselves living in uncertain times.
In good times and challenging times, it is important to maintain good health. We know there are four things seniors can do to stay healthy. All four of these things are auto- matic for the residents who live at Palm Vil- lage. First, get out of
the house. is can done responsibly even with shelter in place orders. Second is to socialize. Again,this can be done respon- sibly even with the six-foot distancing and masks in place. ird is to exercise by taking a short walk or other activities you enjoy. Fourth is to do some- thing di erent and boy are we living di erent- ly these days. Believe it or not, this activity stimulates the brain for good brain health.
With the current pandemic, we are hav- ing to make changes
to our daily lives
and many of us have learned how impor- tant socializing is even though we may have taken this for granted in the past. We will get through this and it can be easier when you are part of a supportive community that proac- tively looks after your health and care needs.
By Trudy Lieberman,
Rural Health News Service
How soon will we have a
vaccine to protect us from coronavirus? at’s the question uppermost on the
minds of many Americans, especially the elderly and others especially at risk for a severe bout of the disease.
Everyone wants the vac- cine yesterday. Maybe that’s why the media cheered in late May and hope soared when Moderna, a 10-year- old biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, issued a press release with hopeful news.
Positive Phase 1 data, al- though early, showed prom- ising results, the company said: “ ese data substanti- ate our belief that mRNA- 1273 (the vaccine name) has potential to prevent COV-
ID-19 disease.” Given how devastating the disease has been, who wouldn’t appreci- ate news like that?
e media ran with the story. e company’s stock value zoomed up even though Moderna has yet to sell any products. e public was left with the message that maybe a vaccine was right around the corner. But is it?
Readers and listeners need to be on the lookout for clues to the real story right now.
Helen Branswell, a vet- eran reporter I know who
has covered other disease outbreaks and knows her stu , penned a cautionary message for STAT News where she now works. She wrote, “While Moderna blitzed the media, it revealed very little information, and most of what it did disclose were words, not data. With science, numbers speak louder than words.”
I reached Branswell by phone to chat about how people should judge the studies, the claims, and the wishful thinking that will surely come until a new medication has been discov- ered that will tame the virus.
First o , the public needs to understand that all clinical trials are not created equal. A Phase 1 trial that Moderna reported is just the rst step in the pro- cess. ese trials are usually small with no expectation there will be data about
how e ective a drug will be. Instead, Branswell pointed out, such a trial is “really about establishing a dose to make sure it’s safe enough to keep going.
In a Phase 2 trial, which may enroll a few hundred people, researchers are looking for e cacy and safety signals that tell them whether it makes sense to continue and whether the result may be an e ective vaccine for humans.
Phase 3 trials are the gold standard. ey are usu- ally large and double blind. at means half of the participants receive the trial vaccine and the other half
a placebo. Neither the par- ticipants nor the researchers know which half is which until the end of the trial.
It’s generally best to look for how well a new drug performed in a Phase 3 trial with results published in a peer-reviewed journal where experts have scrutinized the data.
In this case, because of the rush to nd a vaccine, Bran- swell said some testing may be compressed. For example, a Phase 1 trial may be com- bined with a Phase 2 trial in the hope of speeding up the process and getting quickly to a marketable vaccine.
Branswell told me many things are still not known about the virus. For ex- ample, she said, “It’s still not clear what protective im- munity should look like and what level of antibodies are needed to ward o disease?”
FULL STORY... Continued on Next H&F Page
THINKING ABOUT HEALTH
Reports About Coronavirus Vaccine Don’t Always Give the Full Story
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