Panel Rejects $1 Million Payouts to Inmates Given Vaccine Overdoses

Associated Press reported:

A state board on Monday rejected claims for $1 million payments for 52 prison inmates who were given six times the proper dose of COVID-19 vaccines last year.

The three-member State Appeals Board, which considers state legal financial obligations, unanimously denied the claims from inmates who received the extra doses in April 2021. The 52 inmates who each sought a $1 million payment were among 77 prisoners at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison who had been given overdoses of the Pfizer vaccine by prison nursing staff.

The lawyers advised that under the federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act “the state is immune from claims arising out of the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine.”

National Guard Gives Service Members COVID Vaccine Instead of Influenza Shot

The Epoch Times reported:

The National Guard administered the COVID-19 vaccine to multiple service members who were lined up for the influenza vaccine, including a member who objected to the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds, according to officials and one of the members.

During a vaccination clinic where both flu and COVID-19 vaccines were being administered, “three service members were accidentally given a COVID vaccine,” Maj. Carl Lamb, a spokesman for the Maine National Guard, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Mathew Bouchard, who is no longer with the Guard, has identified himself as one of the members. Bouchard said he was ordered to receive an annual flu vaccine and went to the clinic to get that vaccine. He verified his name, date of birth and part of his social security number, and told officials at the clinic he was there for the flu vaccine. But he was injected with a dose of a messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine, officials told him.

Bouchard says he was pursuing a religious exemption due to his Christian faith when he was injected with a vaccine against his will. At the time, he only had several months left before his enlistment was over. Bouchard believes the vaccine mixup was intentional, noting how the military has aggressively tried to pressure members to get vaccinated. The purpose would be to get members to re-enlist, he thinks.

U.K. COVID Inquiry Begins, Vowing to Expose Any Culpable Conduct

Reuters reported:

A public inquiry into Britain’s response to and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic got underway on Tuesday, with a promise it would get to the truth, and expose any wrongdoing or culpable conduct.

Britain has recorded almost 20 million COVID infections and more than 166,000 deaths — the seventh highest fatality total globally — and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ministers have faced criticism for their handling of the crisis.

The investigation is being led by former judge Heather Hallett, who said she was determined the inquiry would not “drag on for decades” and her aim was to produce timely reports and recommendations “before another disaster strikes.”

Its duty was “to get to the truth, to ensure that the full facts are revealed, that culpable and discreditable conduct is exposed and brought to public notice, that plainly wrongful decision-making and significant errors of judgment are identified and that lessons may be properly learned,” said Hugo Keith, the lead counsel who provides legal advice to its chair.

CDC Suspends Country-Specific COVID Travel Advisories

CNN Travel reported:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer maintain a country-by-country list of travel advisories related to COVID-19, the agency said Monday.

“As fewer countries are testing or reporting COVID-19 cases, CDC’s ability to accurately assess the COVID-19 THN [Travel Health Notice] levels for most destinations that American travelers visit is limited,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement to CNN Travel.

A notice will only be posted for a country if there is a concerning COVID-19 variant or other situation that would change the CDC’s travel recommendations.

Will There Be a COVID Winter Wave? What Scientists Say

Nature reported:

Evidence is building that the northern hemisphere is on course for a surge of COVID-19 cases this autumn and winter. New immune-evading strains of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, behavior changes and waning immunity mean that many countries could soon see large numbers of COVID infections — and potentially hospitalizations — say scientists.

In mid-August, an effort called the COVID-19 Scenario Modelling Hub laid out several possible U.S. scenarios for the coming months. With surges caused by the BA.5 Omicron variant in the rear-view mirror — resulting in high population immunity — the United States could be in for a relatively quiet COVID-19 season, the models suggested, so long as vaccine booster campaigns began quickly and new variants didn’t emerge. Even with a new variant, a big surge in cases wasn’t certain.

Some U.S. states are already beginning to see an uptick in cases, notes epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The United Kingdom’s weekly population survey of SARS-CoV-2 infections, a gold standard in COVID data, has also documented an increase in COVID prevalence in its past two reports. Hospitalizations of people who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 are rising quickly — although from low levels — in Britain and other European countries.

In the backdrop, a slew of immunity-dodging variants are emerging globally, and researchers think these variants will fuel an autumn–winter wave.

France’s 8th Wave of COVID Is Gaining in Intensity, Health Official Says

Reuters reported:

France has entered an eighth wave of the COVID-19 virus, as the winter season approaches, said a leading French health official.

“Yes, we are in this eighth wave,” said Brigitte Autran, who is a member of the government’s vaccination strategic board. “All the indicators are on the up,” added Autran.

France’s COVID figures published on Monday showed that the seven-day moving average of daily new cases had reached, the latest reported figure of 45,631, its highest level since August 2.

Sixty Seconds on the ‘Twindemic’

The BMJ reported:

Although the rate of multiple births in the U.K. has been rising over the past 20 years, it’s starting to slow down, in line with singleton births. But this isn’t about twins. We’re talking about the dual epidemics of flu and COVID-19 which will be in circulation this winter.

Indeed. Public health officials are certainly getting worried. Last week the U.K. Health Security Agency urged parents to vaccinate their 2 and 3-year-old children against flu this year, because of fears over a lack of natural immunity caused by reduced exposure during the pandemic. All those eligible for a flu vaccine should also book their jab, it said.

AHA News: Heart Risk Factors, Not Heart Disease Itself, May Increase Odds of COVID Death

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Seeking to clarify connections between pre-existing heart disease and COVID-19, a study of critically ill patients has found their risk of dying from COVID-19 may stem not directly from heart disease, but from the factors that contribute to it.

People with heart disease have been, and continue to be, at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new study, published Tuesday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, suggests cardiovascular risk factors — such as being older and whether a person smoked — were the main contributors to serious illness, rather than heart disease itself.

To understand the connections, researchers looked at the records of 5,133 critically ill COVID-19 patients who were part of a collaborative study called STOP-COVID. The patients came from 68 hospitals across the U.S. and were admitted to ICUs between March 1 and July 1, 2020.

When researchers separated out things associated with cardiovascular disease, such as age, high blood pressure and diabetes, the link between cardiovascular disease itself and death from COVID appeared to be statistically insignificant. The researchers found the most important risk factors for death to be, in order, age, body mass index (a measure of obesity), race and ethnicity and history of smoking.

Dangerous Virus Found in Monkeys Could Jump to Humans

U.S. News & World Report reported:

The global public health community should be on the alert for a family of viruses in African monkeys that have the potential to spill over to humans, researchers warn.

In their new study, the scientists noted that while it’s not certain what impact these viruses might have on humans, there are troubling parallels to HIV.

“This animal virus has figured out how to gain access to human cells, multiply itself and escape some of the important immune mechanisms we would expect to protect us from an animal virus. That’s pretty rare,” said senior author Sara Sawyer, a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Known as arteriviruses, this family of viruses is a critical threat to macaque monkeys. They can cause fatal Ebola-like symptoms in some monkeys. No human infections have been reported, but remaining vigilant could help avoid a future pandemic, the authors noted.

Fauci Pal at Center of COVID Lab-Leak Suspicions Gets New Bat Virus Grant

The Daily Wire reported:

Dr. Anthony Fauci has steered another lucrative grant to study bat viruses to the same company suspected of conducting gain-of-function research at the mysterious Chinese laboratory where some experts believe COVID-19 was hatched.

EcoHealth Alliance last month began a multi-year study of “viral sequences and isolates for use in vaccine development,” according to a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci runs. The $3.3 million study, which involves bats and coronaviruses, is set to run through August 31, 2027.

“It should be noted that EcoHealth Alliance was awarded a new NIH grant 10 days ago, providing an additional $3.3 M over five years for a project including high-risk virus discovery research in bats in Southeast Asia,” tweeted Rutgers University Professor of Chemical Biology Richard Ebright, who has been a frequent critic of Fauci and believes the virus was likely man-made.

EcoHealth Alliance, run by Fauci pal Peter Daszak, has been the focus of suspicion that the virus that has killed more than 6 million people worldwide may have been created in the Wuhan Institute of Virology through gain-of-function research, work that purposely makes viruses more transmissible and deadly in order to develop antidotes.

Moderna Turns Down China Request for Vaccine Technology: Report

FOXBusiness reported:

Moderna has turned down a request from Beijing to hand over the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough COVID-19 vaccine. That caused the collapse in negotiations on its sale there, multiple people told the Financial Times.

The pharmaceutical company had commercial and safety concerns concerning the recipe. Moderna is reportedly still interested in selling the product to China.

The mRNA vaccine technology used by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer lasts longer and provides higher levels of protection than the inactivated vaccine technology used by Chinese makers. Several Chinese pharma companies are racing to develop a homemade mRNA alternative but have struggled with the emergence of more infectious variants.

One individual close to the Moderna team in Greater China told the FT, the company had “given up” on its previous efforts to access the Chinese market, because of Beijing’s demand that it hand over the technology as a prerequisite for selling in the country.

How the CDC’s Communication Failures During COVID Tarnished the Agency

NBC News reported:

In the early days of COVID, staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sought to give Americans guidance about maintaining some semblance of normalcy during a once-in-a-century pandemic that had upended daily life.​​

Communication failures, along with much more consequential errors, would continue throughout the pandemic, deeply tarnishing the agency — long considered the gold standard of public health institutions. The blunders have left career scientists and other longtime employees worried that the wounds can’t be healed.

All culminated in what would become a series of unsettlingly defining moments for CDC employees who say the agency was unable to move fast enough for the public with science solid enough to meet their own expectations.

While some employees say they are optimistic that the agency can improve its public health responses, blunders during the COVID response still haunt those who have dedicated their lives to public health.

New Coronavirus Subvariant BA.2.75.2 Tops Concerns as Officials Gear up for Potential Winter Wave

Los Angeles Times reported:

As officials in California and beyond try to assess how severe a fall-and-winter coronavirus wave may be, one key factor is the growth of several new subvariants now emerging.

It’s too soon to say whether any of the newer variants will rise to prominence in the ways Omicron and Delta did. None have been documented in significant numbers in California or the nation. Still, experts say another super-spreading subvariant — combined with more people being indoors when the weather gets cold — could bring new challenges.

There is a wide expectation for an increase in COVID-19 cases this fall and winter. New York is already recording an uptick since hitting a seasonal low in early September.

BA.2.75.2, which Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor for the pandemic, identified as “one that looks suspicious — that it might start to evolve as a [troublesome] variant.” BA.2.75.2 has not been found widely in the U.S., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not counting it separately from the less worrisome but similarly named BA.2.75.

EXCLUSIVE: FDA Preparing to Publish Study on 4 Potential Adverse Events Following Pfizer Vaccination

The Epoch Times reported:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers are preparing to publish a study on a set of data that identified four potential issues in elderly persons after COVID-19 vaccination.

The FDA announced in July 2021 that near real-time surveillance detected four potential adverse events of interest (AEI) following receipt of Pfizer’s vaccine. The agency has given zero updates on the matter since then, until Sept. 30, when a spokesperson said that a study on the surveillance is expected to be published soon.

“The medical record review and statistical analyses have recently been completed, and the overall study results are currently under internal review at FDA,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email. “Release of the study findings is expected later this fall.”

The events were blood clotting in the lungs, insufficient oxygen to the heart, low blood platelet levels and disseminated intravascular coagulation.

Long COVID: What Science Has Learned About the Loss of Smell and Taste

CNN Health reported:

Imagine waking up one morning after recovering from COVID-19 to find that your coffee smells like unwashed socks, your eggs reek of feces and your orange juice tastes metallic. Oddly, that’s a good thing: It’s a sign you still have a working sense of smell — even if it’s miswired in your brain.

Your ability to smell can also disappear completely, a condition called anosmia. Without warning, you can no longer inhale the sweet odor of your baby’s skin, the roses gifted by your partner or the pungent stink of your exercise clothes.

Taste and smell are intertwined, so food may be bland or flavorless. Appetite and enjoyment of life may plummet, which past studies show can lead to nutritional deficits, cognitive decline and depression.

As science learns more about how COVID-19 attacks and disrupts smell, “I think you’re going to see interventions that are more targeted,” said rhinologist Dr. Justin Turner, an associate professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Smoggy Air Could Worsen COVID, Even If You’re Vaccinated

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Exposure to air pollution can impede COVID-19 recovery, whether someone is vaccinated or not, according to new research.

“These findings are important because they show that, while COVID-19 vaccines are successful at reducing the risk of hospitalization, people who are vaccinated and exposed to polluted air are still at increased risk for worse outcomes than vaccinated people not exposed to air pollution,” said study co-author Anny Xiang, a senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Researchers analyzed medical records from patients in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health system. This included more than 50,000 patients 12 and older diagnosed with COVID-19 in July or August 2021, while the Delta variant was spreading. About 34% had been fully vaccinated.

The team included researchers from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Using street addresses and air quality data, they determined the patients’ exposure to fine particles known as PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) levels one month before COVID diagnosis and a year earlier.

Bereaved Families Fear COVID Inquiry Cover-up After Ban on Testimony

The Guardian reported:

Families of those who died from COVID-19 have been barred from submitting individual testimony to the official public inquiry about the standard of care received by their loved ones during the pandemic, the Observer can reveal.

Instead, the inquiry chair, Lady Hallett, is proposing they submit “pen portraits” to a private research company as part of a parallel “Listening Project” that will not have the power to demand the disclosure of documents or investigate claims about their relatives’ care.

“It would appear that Lady Hallett would rather outsource the grief of bereaved families to the Listening Project than engage with us constructively,” said John Sullivan, whose daughter, Susan, died in March 2020 at Barnet hospital after being denied access to an intensive therapy unit because of her Down’s syndrome and supposed cardiac comorbidities. “The inquiry is becoming a farce and an exercise in cover-up,” he said, ahead of the first hearing on Tuesday.

Sullivan is just one of scores of bereaved people who believe their loved ones were victims of inappropriate triaging procedures and Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) or Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) orders.

Monkeypox Eradication Unlikely in the U.S. as Virus Could Spread Indefinitely, CDC Says

CNBC reported:

The monkeypox virus is unlikely to be eliminated from the U.S. in the near future, according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week. The CDC, in a technical brief, said the outbreak is slowing as the availability of vaccines has increased, people have become more aware of how to avoid infection, and immunity has likely increased among gay and bisexual men, the group most impacted by the virus.

But low-level transmission of the virus could continue indefinitely among men who have sex with other men, according to the report. The CDC said it does not have a projection of how many total people might get infected by the virus.

The Biden administration declared a public health emergency in August in an effort to ramp up vaccines, testing, treatment and community outreach in an effort to eradicate the virus from the U.S.

The global monkeypox outbreak, the largest in history, is highly unusual because the virus is circulating widely in countries where it is not normally found. Historically, monkeypox has circulated in remote parts of West and Central Africa. In that context, people normally caught the virus from animals. There was little spread between people.

U.S. Monkeypox Deaths Are Rare; Here’s Why They Can Be Difficult to Confirm

CNN Health reported:

There have been more than 25,000 monkeypox cases in the United States during the current outbreak, and deaths among monkeypox patients are rare. Among the few reported, it has sometimes been difficult to determine the role monkeypox played in the deaths.

“It’s sort of the old situation we had with COVID: Did you die of COVID, or did you die with COVID? And so this is the same scenario: Did you die with monkeypox, or did you die of monkeypox?” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Many people who have been infected with monkeypox in this outbreak also have compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions, such as HIV. It can be tough for officials to determine whether a death in fact was caused by monkeypox or whether the person died of an underlying health condition while they happened to be infected with monkeypox.

Two-Thirds of U.S. Adults Don’t Plan on Getting COVID Boosters Soon — Poll

Reuters reported:

Around two-thirds of adults in the United States do not plan to get updated COVID-19 booster shots soon, according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a health policy nonprofit organization.

Only a third of adults polled said they either already received the updated shots or plan to get the booster as soon as possible, the poll found.

The Pfizer/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) and Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O) shots, updated to target more recently circulating Omicron subvariants of the coronavirus as well as the original strain, were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last month.

Around 18% said they would wait and see whether they would get the new booster shot, while 10% said they would only get it if it was required. Around 12% of adults surveyed said they would definitely not get the shot, while 27% said they were not eligible because they were not fully vaccinated.

Pfizer CEO Pulls out of Testifying to EU Parliament COVID Panel

Politico reported:

Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla has pulled out of an appointment to testify before the European Parliament’s special committee on COVID-19, at which he was expected to face tough questions on how secretive vaccine deals were struck.

The decision follows an audit report into the EU’s vaccine procurement strategy published earlier in the month that raised new questions about contact between Bourla and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that preceded a multibillion-euro vaccine contract.

The head of the U.S. pharmaceutical giant, the largest supplier of COVID-19 vaccines to the EU, was scheduled to appear before the panel on Oct. 10. The committee is meeting with key officials involved in the EU’s vaccine procurement process to draw lessons on how to respond to future pandemics. Other pharmaceutical executives have addressed the committee, including the CEO of Moderna and senior officials from AstraZeneca and Sanofi.

Already in 2021, the New York Times reported on the seemingly-cozy relationship between Bourla and von der Leyen, with the two exchanging text messages in the run-up to the deal.

Contacted by POLITICO, a spokesperson for Pfizer said the company’s president of international development markets, Janine Small, would attend the committee hearing.

University of Washington Vaccinates Humans Using Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

The Daily Wire reported:

Two hundred genetically modified mosquitoes with an experimental malaria vaccine packed inside a Chinese food takeout-style box inoculated 26 participants in a University of Washington study last month.

As reported by The Counter Signal, each participant placed their arms in the box to receive three to five jabs over 30-day intervals during the clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health.

“We use the mosquitoes like they’re 1,000 small flying syringes,” Dr. Sean Murphy, physician and scientist at the university, told NPR. Murphy, who also serves as the lead author on a Science Translational Medicine paper that details the vaccine trials, said the study would not be used to vaccinate millions of people. Instead, the team crafted the bloodsuckers because formulating a parasite delivered with a needle takes up too much time and money.

Carolina Reid, a volunteer, was one of the participants who came down with malaria. “My whole forearm swelled and blistered,” Carolina Reid, volunteer, told NPR. “My family was laughing, asking like, ‘why are you subjecting yourself to this?’” Reid, who joined the trial in 2018, pocketed a $4,100 payment for participating in the study.

New Nasal Spray Vaccines Might Reduce COVID Infections, but the Money Is Still Missing

The Boston Globe reported:

Even as Americans roll up their sleeves for updated fall boosters, new variants with the potential to evade immunity are spreading in parts of Europe and Asia, renewing calls among some experts for next-generation vaccines that can truly conquer the virus.

Dozens of academic labs and biotech firms, including Moderna, are working on nasal vaccines. A few countries, including India, recently approved them. Prominent researchers are calling for a coordinated effort to accelerate their development in the United States. And the White House is asking Congress for $8 billion to develop intranasal vaccines and other COVID shots that could protect us from future variants of the coronavirus.

Yet despite the bullish excitement for the needleless approach, the future of the vaccines is clouded by a flurry of questions; most crucially, how safe and effective they are in humans.

“None of these vaccines have been tested to prove that they can prevent transmission or infection,” said Karin Bok, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “It’s not clear how we’re going to get that done, and at the very least, it is going to take a couple of years to get there.”

Pharma-Funded FDA Gets Drugs out Faster, but Some Work Only ‘Marginally’ and Most Are Pricey

Kaiser Health News reported:

Dr. Steven-Huy Han, a UCLA liver specialist, has prescribed Ocaliva to a handful of patients, although he’s not sure it helps. “I have no idea if the drug will make them better,” he said. “It could take 10, 20 or 30 years to know.”

Ocaliva came to market through an FDA review process created 30 years ago called accelerated approval, which allows pharmaceutical companies to license promising treatments without proving they are effective. It has become a common path to market — accounting for 14 of the 50 approvals of novel drugs in 2021 compared with four among 59 in 2018, for example.

The FDA’s accelerated approval is usually based on a “surrogate marker” of effectiveness — evidence of lower viral loads for HIV, for example, or shrinking tumors for cancer. Debate rages over the validity of some of these stand-ins, and some of the drugs.

Impatience — among drug companies, investors, patients and politicians — created the user fee agreements and accelerated-approval pathway, and that impatience, for profits and cures, fuels both programs.

Around 3.2 Million Americans Received Updated COVID Boosters Last Week — CDC

Reuters reported:

Around 3.2 million people in the United States received updated COVID-19 booster shots over the past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

The CDC said a total of 7.6 million Americans had received the shot as of Sept. 28, the first four weeks the booster has been available. This is up from 4.4. million people who received the shot as of Sept. 21.

The 7.6 million figure represents only 3.5% of the 215.5 million people in the United States aged 12 or older who are eligible to receive the shots because they have completed their primary vaccination series.

Unlike Flu, COVID Attacks DNA in the Heart: New Research

Brisbane Times reported:

Direct research on the hearts of COVID-19 patients who have died from the disease has revealed they sustained DNA damage in a way completely unlike how influenza affects the body.

The finding gives researchers clues about exactly how severe COVID-19 is affecting the body, and also a potential way to detect who will be seriously affected by the disease in the future.

The work was an international collaboration led by researchers from Australia, with Dr. Arutha Kulasinghe from the University of Queensland’s Diamantina Institute and Ning Liu from Victoria’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research co-lead authors.

Kulasinghe said the research is only a preliminary step because the sample size was so small — the hearts of just seven COVID-19 patients from Brazil were studied for the paper, along with hearts from people who had died from influenza and a control group.

House Passes Bill Addressing Mental Health Concerns Among Students, Families, Educators

The Hill reported:

The House passed a bill on Thursday that seeks to address mental health concerns among students, families and educators aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which lawmakers say had a “severe impact” on those three groups.

The bill titled the Mental Health Matters Act passed in a largely party-line 220-205 vote. One Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), joined all Democrats present in supporting it.

The legislation, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would provide grants to establish a pipeline for school-based mental health service professionals. Additionally, it would grow the number of mental health experts at elementary and secondary schools that are based in high-need locations.

England Sees Surge in COVID Hospital Admissions in Latest Week

Politico reported:

Hospital admissions for patients with COVID-19 jumped 48% over the last week in England, as experts warn that the first winter wave is starting to impact the health service.

“It is clear now that we are seeing an increase which could signal the start of the anticipated winter wave of COVID-19,” said Mary Ramsay, director of public health programs at the U.K. Health Security Agency. “Cases have started to climb and hospitalizations are increasing in the oldest age groups.”

Much of the surge is driven by coronavirus acquired in the hospital, the figures show. The proportion of beds occupied for COVID, as opposed to with COVID, stands at 39% in England, a rise of 46% over the week. In some areas, more than half of people in hospital with COVID are being treated primarily for their coronavirus infection.

Germany Warns of Rise in COVID Cases Going Into Fall

Associated Press reported:

Germany’s health minister warned Friday that the country is seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases as it goes into the fall, and urged older people to get a second booster shot tweaked to protect against new variants.

Other European countries such as France, Denmark and the Netherlands are also recording an increase in cases, Karl Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin.

“We are clearly at the start of a winter wave,” he said. German officials recorded 96,367 new cases in the past 24 hours, about twice as many as a week ago.

A Chinese mRNA COVID Vaccine Is Approved for the First Time — in Indonesia

Reuters reported:

Indonesia said it has granted emergency use approval to an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine developed by a Chinese company, becoming the first country, ahead of even China, to do so.

Indonesia’s food and drugs agency (BPOM) greenlighted the use of Walvax Biotechnology Co Ltd’s (300142.SZ) mRNA vaccine, which has been in development for more than two years and targets the original strain of the coronavirus.

The approval comes as somewhat of a surprise as Walvax, which has been conducting large late-stage trials of the vaccine in several countries including Indonesia, Mexico and China, has yet to publish efficacy readings that would show how well it can reduce the risk of COVID cases and deaths.

CDC Warns of Severe Illnesses From Monkeypox as Ohio Reports Death of a Monkeypox Patient

CNN Health reported:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new warning to healthcare providers Thursday about severe illnesses in people with monkeypox.

The alert comes as Ohio reported that an individual with monkeypox has died — the third known death of a patient with monkeypox in the United States.

Ohio listed the death in an update to its online monkeypox outbreak dashboard Thursday. The Ohio Department of Health on Friday said an adult male with monkeypox had died, and the individual had “other health conditions.” The CDC told CNN it is aware of the death.

Deaths from monkeypox are extremely rare, and babies, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at greater risk. Among more than 67,000 cases reported globally in the current outbreak, there have been 27 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Big Pharma Is Chasing a $55 Billion Prize of Safer Blood Thinners

Bloomberg reported:

Blood clots are estimated to cause about 1 in 4 deaths worldwide, and the leading blood thinners prescribed to prevent them are among the most widely used medicines. Known under the brands Eliquis and Xarelto, the drugs are called Factor Xa inhibitors for the enzyme they block in the body’s natural clotting process.

In rare cases, however, switching off Factor Xa can cause unintended consequences, ranging from bruising easily to life-threatening internal bleeding, limiting who can take the medicines. Now drugmakers are working on alternatives that act on a different enzyme to dramatically reduce those risks.

It will take a few more years before any of them become available: Three of the experimental drugs that have generated buzz — from Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and its partner Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis spinout Anthos Therapeutics — are in late-stage trials. And none would have meaningful sales until around 2028 after Eliquis and Xarelto are set to lose patent protection, Andrew Baum, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., says.

But the long-term potential is huge. He estimates the new drugs could become a $55 billion category by around 2035.

Unmasked: Documents Reveal Fauci’s Staggering Pandemic-Period Profits

The Daily Wire reported:

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s net worth soared during the COVID pandemic, leaving the career government worker sitting on a nearly $13 million nest egg, according to newly uncovered documents.

The 81-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases added some $5 million to his household net worth from 2019-2021, according to financial disclosures obtained by OpenTheBooks.com. Fauci, the federal government’s highest-paid employee including the president, earns $480,000 per year.

“While millions of Americans suffered under his pandemic policies, Fauci’s personal profits soared,” wrote OpenTheBooks.com CEO Adam Andrzejewski.

Mandatory disclosures show the Fauci household’s net worth jumped from $7.6 million at the beginning of 2019 to over $12.6 million by the end of 2021.  Fauci augmented his generous taxpayer-funded salary with an array of prizes, perks, royalties and investment income. One example was the $1 million prize awarded to Fauci by the Israel-based Dan David Foundation for “speaking truth to power” and “defending science” during the Trump administration.

Gov. Hochul Takes New Steps to Fight Polio Amid Outbreak in New York: ‘an Imminent Threat to Public Health’

New York Daily News reported:

Gov. Hochul announced new steps to combat the outbreak of polio in several suburban New York counties and New York City.

The governor said on Wednesday that fresh measures would bolster coordination between state and local health departments and improve vaccination rates, especially among children.

New York State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett declared polio as an “immediate threat to public health” — a move that unlocks money and other resources to increase vaccinations.

Pandemic May Have Made Young Adults More Neurotic and Less Agreeable, Study Finds

NBC News reported:

Adults became less extroverted, open, agreeable and conscientious during the pandemic, a new study found.

The results, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, showed that the degree of change was roughly equivalent to a decade’s worth of average personality changes. Young adults in particular grew moodier, more emotional and more sensitive to stress in 2021 compared to years past, according to the study.

The researchers analyzed survey results from more than 7,100 U.S. adults from January 2021 to February 2022 and compared their responses to earlier in the pandemic — the period from March to December 2020 — as well as to responses from previous years.

The survey was based on the Big Five traits, a common way researchers evaluate personalities. Participants were scored according to their levels of neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

New Guidance Focuses on Long COVID in Kids — PASC Collaborative Cautions That Long COVID Can Present Differently in Children Than in Adults

MedPage Today reported:

When it comes to long COVID in children, physicians should focus on mitigating symptoms and encouraging multidisciplinary rehabilitation designed to improve age-appropriate development, according to new clinical guidance from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R).

Long COVID can present differently in children, so standard practices for managing the condition in adults should not be automatically applied to pediatric cases, according to Sarah Sampsel, MPH, a healthcare quality consultant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and colleagues, who published the guidance in PM&R.

For instance, children with long COVID may have fatigue or attention problems at school or in extracurricular activities, or they may experience ongoing fever, headaches or sleep issues, the guidance states.

Scientists Honored for COVID Tracker, Prenatal Test

Associated Press reported:

A Johns Hopkins University scientist who created a website to track COVID-19 cases worldwide is the recipient of this year’s Lasker award for public service.

The $250,000 awards, announced Wednesday by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, recognize achievements in medical research.

The public service award went to Lauren Gardner, an engineer who studies the spread of diseases. She worked with her lab team to develop the COVID-19 tracker as the coronavirus began spreading worldwide in January 2020. The dashboard became a key resource and now tracks global cases, deaths, vaccines and more. Through it all, the team has made the tracker freely available to the public.

U.S. CDC Expands Pre-Exposure Eligibility for Monkeypox Vaccine

Reuters reported:

At-risk people nationwide will now be able to get Bavarian Nordic’s (BAVA.CO) Jynneos monkeypox vaccine before being exposed to the disease, U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.

The CDC had previously recommended vaccination after known or presumed exposure to the virus for most groups deemed to be at high risk of contracting it, as well as for those who had visited a geographic area where known monkeypox transmission is occurring.

At-risk individuals will now be eligible to receive the vaccine before exposure as the CDC shifts to a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) strategy, Walensky said.

Vaccine Appears to Protect Against Monkeypox, CDC Says

Associated Press reported:

At-risk people who received a single dose of the monkeypox vaccine in U.S. efforts against the virus appeared to be significantly less likely to get sick, public health officials announced Wednesday, even as they urged a second dose for full protection.

It was the first look public health officials have offered into how the Jynneos vaccine is affecting monkeypox, a virus that is primarily spread among men who have sex with infected men.

Roughly 800,000 first and second doses of the vaccine have been administered across the country to people who are considered at high risk for becoming infected with the virus, White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator Bob Fenton said.

There is no scientifically conclusive data available to prove the effectiveness of the Jynneos vaccine against monkeypox.

Still, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, lab studies show the highest level of immunity from the virus is reached after people get a second dose of the vaccine, calling it “really important.”

Ebola Experimental Vaccine Trial May Begin Soon in Uganda

STAT News reported:

A clinical trial of one or perhaps two experimental vaccines designed to protect against the Ebola Sudan virus could soon begin in Uganda, as long as the country agrees to allow the research to take place, an official of the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The trial could get underway within a couple of weeks and definitely before the end of October, said Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo, who heads WHO’s R&D Blueprint effort to develop drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines to respond to outbreaks of rare and dangerous pathogens.

Henao-Restrepo and her team in WHO’s Health Emergencies Program have been meeting since last week to try to determine if any of the vaccines in development are far enough along to warrant testing in the fast-growing Ebola Sudan outbreak, which was first recognized early last week.

This is the first Ebola Sudan outbreak in a decade, presenting a rare opportunity to test a vaccine for this species of Ebola virus. Although Uganda announced the first confirmed case on Sept. 20, the first case may date back to early August. There have already been at least 36 cases and 23 deaths.