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Eastern Cape Pupil Could Lose Arm After Taking COVID Vaccine + More
Eastern Cape Pupil Could Lose Arm After Taking COVID Vaccine
A 14-year-old pupil from the Eastern Cape might have to have her arm amputated after allegedly receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. According to SABC News, Yamkela Seplan, who attends Tina Falls Primary School in Qumbu, got an infection and developed a huge lump on the upper arm.
The public broadcaster reports that Seplan’s arm has been swelling up since last year and was even forced to drop out of school due to her condition. She claims her parents had refused to give the nod for her to receive the vaccine, but she ended up getting the jab anyway as the school had threatened to not allow pupils entry.
“On the vaccination day, we were instructed to go and bring our parents. I went out and called my mother but she refused to come and sign so that I could be vaccinated. After we were threatened that those who had not been vaccinated would not go to the school, I then vaccinated. After vaccination, I developed a small lump in February last year and in December it became worse. I had to quit schooling,” Yamkela said.
Yamkela’s mother says she was taken to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital and later to BedFord Orthopedic hospital in the Eastern Cape to treat her arm, but blames the former for negligence.
Too Little, Too Late: Disband the CDC Now
Dissolve the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, the CDC released updated COVID-19 guidance. The agency now believes we should be taking an individual approach to mitigating our COVID risk. In layman’s terms, we are all Florida 2020 now.
The new guidance suggests ending “test to stay” so kids exposed to someone with COVID-19 can remain in school. Of course, this was only related to known exposure. People are exposed to COVID all the time, but only children who were aware of that exposure were punished. Kids lost so much throughout the pandemic because of terrible, irrational CDC guidance like this.
The fresh guidance also says people without symptoms no longer need to be routinely tested.
But most importantly, the agency has finally faced some truths about the vaccine that it should have long ago. “CDC’s COVID-19 prevention recommendations no longer differentiate based on a person’s vaccination status because breakthrough infections occur.” And it’s admitted that “persons who have had COVID-19 but are not vaccinated have some degree of protection against severe illness from their previous infection.”
Kroger Claims Immunity in COVID Vaccine Suit
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel reported:
The Kroger company asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by parents who say their teenage child received an undiluted COVID-19 vaccine dose at a Parkersburg store, saying federal and state laws make it immune from liability. Court documents also revealed the plaintiffs sought a $150,000 settlement before filing the suit.
According to the complaint, the child of John and Maria Louden of Davisville received the second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine in June 2021. Later that day, Maria Louden was contacted by a pharmacist who said the student-employee who administered the vaccine had done so without diluting it. The result was a dosage more than five times the recommended amount, the complaint says.
Over the next two days, the teen suffered from high fever, severe nausea, headaches, body aches and dizziness, the complaint says, and has continued to experience fatigue, frequent headaches and difficulty focusing on tasks.
British Columbia Man Frustrated Over Wait After Being Approved for COVID Vaccine Injury Compensation
A B.C. man, who was among the first Canadians approved for Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program, says he is frustrated with the length of time it is taking to receive compensation.
Ross Wightman of Lake Country, B.C., was left partially paralyzed after receiving a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2021. Within the first few days of receiving the shot, he had developed severe pain in his lower back and hamstrings.
“And then 10 days after my shot, I ended up in the ER four times,” he told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday. “(It was) a bit of a mystery diagnosis originally, but the fourth time, I started presenting with facial paralysis and that’s when my life really got flipped upside down.”
Wightman’s application for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was approved in May. But since then, he still hasn’t received any compensation. He said Health Canada still needs to approve his income replacement paperwork and expenses.
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden Tests Positive for COVID
First lady Dr. Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, her spokesperson said Tuesday.
“After testing negative for COVID-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the First Lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening. She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive,” said Elizabeth Alexander, her communications director.
The first lady, who is double vaccinated and twice boosted, is taking Paxlovid, Pfizer‘s antiviral drug, according to Alexander, who told CNN that Biden received her second booster shot in April.
Defense Secretary Austin Positive for COVID for Second Time
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday he has tested positive for COVID-19, is experiencing mild symptoms and will quarantine at home. It’s the second time Austin has gotten the coronavirus.
In a statement, Austin, 69, said he is fully vaccinated and has received two boosters. He said he’ll quarantine for the next five days in accordance with CDC guidelines and “will retain all authorities and plan to maintain my normal work schedule virtually from home.”
In January, Austin also contracted COVID and had received a booster in October.
Gates Eyes Partnership With South Korea Over Global Health
Bill Gates on Tuesday called for South Korea to become more involved in international efforts to prevent infectious diseases like COVID-19 as he stressed the need for the world to be better prepared for the next pandemic.
Representing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s foreign and health ministries pledging further partnerships in projects aimed at improving public health tools in the developing world and advancing vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases.
Speaking to South Korean lawmakers in Seoul, Gates called for stronger international cooperation, including efforts to develop vaccines that would be effective for a broader range of coronaviruses, to navigate what he described as a “crisis moment” in global health.
Why Some Communities Are Distrustful of Doctors and Public Health Efforts
As the latest updates on COVID-19, the monkeypox virus, polio and other health concerns and issues continue to circulate, one doctor pointed out that healthcare is very much like a product.
Dr. Alexander Salerno, an internist in New Jersey, told Fox News Digital, “If you don’t trust the seller or the product, why would you buy it?” He told Fox News Digital that trust is the “glue” between doctors and patients — especially in underserved communities.
Some doctors and medical professionals also believe that knowledge of the infamous Tuskegee experiment ever since 1972 continues to have an impact today. This year 2022 is the 50th anniversary of when the public first learned that the federal government denied a group of Black men with active syphilis the proper treatment for the disease.
Axios-Ipsos Poll: Vacations Trump COVID Worries
Americans aren’t taking steps to avoid COVID-19 before going on vacation and have no bandwidth for another health crisis like monkeypox, according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
Our perception of personal risk has fallen to a point where travelers’ most common precaution is just to wash or sanitize their hands more frequently — and fewer than half even do that.
The poll findings nonetheless suggest a third of Americans are very or somewhat familiar with “rebound” cases of COVID in people who’ve taken Pfizer‘s antiviral treatment Paxlovid.
Less than half said they were concerned about the monkeypox outbreak, and 64% said they’re unlikely to get the monkeypox vaccine.
U.S. Offers More Monkeypox Vaccines to States and Cities
U.S. officials said they are able to ship out more monkeypox vaccine doses than previously planned — because of a strategy shift that allows more shots to be drawn from each vial.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had previously anticipated allowing 221,000 doses to be ordered starting Monday. But officials said they would release 442,000 doses for order by state, local and territorial health departments.
Dog Contracts Monkeypox From Owners, Prompting Change to CDC Guidance
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Adding yet another wrinkle to the monkeypox outbreak, a new case study suggests that people can pass the virus on to their pet dogs.
Therefore, people who are infected with the virus should avoid close contact with their pets, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control now advises in updated guidance.
The change reflects the first documented cases of a pet getting the virus from its owner, according to CBS News. That case happened in France, according to a new paper published in The Lancet.
In this case, a 4-year-old Italian greyhound developed lesions and tested positive for monkeypox 12 days after its owners first showed symptoms. The owners are two male partners who live together but were not sexually exclusive. They routinely allowed their pooch to snooze in their bed.
Quadruple-Vaccinated Pfizer CEO Tests Positive for COVID + More
Quadruple-Vaccinated Pfizer CEO Tests Positive for COVID
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla announced Monday that he has tested positive for COVID despite receiving four doses of his company’s vaccine.
Bourla shared the news in a Twitter post on Monday morning and in a statement on Pfizer’s website.
“I would like to let you know that I have tested positive for #COVID19. I am thankful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and I am feeling well while experiencing very mild symptoms,” Bourla tweeted. “I am isolating and have started a course of Paxlovid.”
Nurses Who Left the Healthcare System to Focus on Early Treatment Describe ‘Brutal’ COVID Treatment Protocols
Nurses who witnessed “brutal” hospital COVID-19 treatment protocols kill patients paint a bleak picture of what is taking place in state and federally-funded healthcare systems.
“They’re horrific, and they’re all in lockstep,” Staci Kay, a nurse practitioner with the North Carolina Physicians for Freedom who left the hospital system to start her own early treatment private practice, told The Epoch Times. “They will not consider protocols outside of what’s given to them by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). And nobody is asking why.”
Fueled by cognitive dissonance amid an array of red flags, Kay said hospital staff is ignoring blatantly problematic treatments that performed poorly in clinical trials, such as remdesivir, and protocols such as keeping the patient isolated, just to adhere to the federal canon.
As a former nurse in intensive care, Kay said she had seen her share of tragedy, but how she saw COVID patients being treated “had me waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with chest pains.”
U.K. Becomes First Country to Approve Updated Moderna Vaccine Targeting Omicron
The United Kingdom on Monday became the first country to approve an updated COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna targeting the Omicron variant and the original strain of the virus.
The United States is also working on updated vaccines for a possible fall booster campaign, though the shots might be slightly different. The vaccine approved by the U.K. targets the first version of the Omicron variant, known as BA.1, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has instructed vaccine makers to target the more recent subvariants of Omicron, known as BA.4 and BA.5.
The U.K. regulator on Monday said the updated Moderna vaccine was shown to provide a “strong immune response” against BA.1 as well as BA.4 and BA.5.
Novavax Seeks U.S. Authorization for COVID Vaccine Booster
Novavax Inc. (NVAX.O) said on Monday it had filed for U.S. authorization for the use of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose in people who had either received its shots or a different vaccine.
The application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration comes in the face of a slow rollout in the United States, where the Novavax vaccine was authorized in July, despite expectations that it would convince vaccine skeptics to get inoculated.
100-Year-Old Tuberculosis Vaccine May Protect Against COVID
A small study from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital suggests that a widely used, 100-year-old vaccine for tuberculosis also may offer protection from COVID-19.
The findings, published in Cell Reports Medicine on Monday and conducted on volunteers with Type 1 diabetes, found that the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine was 92% effective versus placebo in protecting against infections.
Patients already had been enrolled in a study looking at BCG in Type 1 diabetes when COVID began circulating in early 2020. Researchers quickly established a parallel trial with the same patients to see how effective BCG was in protecting against the new virus.
Can COVID Cause Hair Loss? — Shedding May Be Induced by COVID-Related Stress, but Hair Will Grow Back, Experts Say
Clinicians are seeing an influx of patients who have an unsettling side effect after COVID: losing their hair.
Although more patients are clearly reporting hair loss after COVID, there aren’t robust data describing how many patients experience this phenomenon or what factors put someone at risk.
While there are still many unanswered questions about COVID-related hair loss, experts say the good news is that it appears to be temporary and clinicians should reassure patients that their hair will very likely grow back.
‘Left to Rot’: The Lonely Plight of Long-COVID Sufferers
Thousands of long-COVID patients across the globe are urging their governments to provide more help for the growing number of people facing lingering symptoms after infection.
At least 90 long-COVID groups exist around the world in 34 countries. Most are pushing for more research, improved clinical treatments and increased access to disability benefits, while others offer support and advice.
The growing effort comes as new research suggests there are hundreds of millions of people likely suffering from long COVID and as some experts warn of potentially severe long-term economic and public health impacts of a condition that is still poorly understood.
“We are just left to rot,” said Chantal Britt, founder and president of Long COVID Switzerland. “That’s why all those organizations are popping up: There is no official help.”
Workers Forced to Take Time off Because of COVID Have Lost $28 Billion in Wages
Working through a pandemic took its toll on many Americans — and a new study shows just how much of an economic hit the lowest-paid workers bore.
In fact, as workers dealt with unpaid absences from work for being sick, or having to deal with childcare and other personal obligations, it may have cost them $28 billion.
COVID Sites in NYC Transition to Respond to Monkeypox Virus
New York City will transition some of its COVID-19 vaccination sites for children under the age of 5 next week. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene cited a recent decrease in demand for the sites, as well as greater access to coronavirus vaccines.
“Due to the ongoing monkeypox emergency, we transitioned some of these sites to administer monkeypox vaccine,” he said.
Monkeypox May Be Here to Stay
It may be too late to stop monkeypox from circulating in the U.S. permanently. The Biden administration was caught off-guard when the CDC confirmed monkeypox in a Massachusetts man on May 18. It was part of the first major outbreak outside parts of Africa where the virus is endemic, an unusual event that quickly spun into a global health crisis.
U.S. public health officials tracked the early cases around the country that followed. But a series of setbacks in the administration’s response — including clunky early testing protocols, slow vaccine distribution, a lack of federal funding to help state and local governments respond to the outbreak, and patchy communication with communities most affected by the virus — allowed the disease to gain a foothold among men who have sex with men, particularly those who have had multiple partners in a short period of time.
Epidemiologists, public health officials and doctors now fear the government cannot eliminate the disease in that community, and they’re warning that they are running out of time to stop the virus from spreading in the U.S. population more broadly.
Smallpox Vaccines May Not Protect Against Monkeypox for Life
Smallpox vaccinations may not protect against monkeypox for life, research suggests, with experts saying HIV may play a role in eroding protection from the jab over time. Vaccination with a jab initially developed to protect against smallpox, a related but more serious disease is among the measures being taken to control infections.
However, while experts stress that it is important for those at risk of monkeypox to take up the offer of vaccination, as it reduces the chance of symptomatic infection and severe illness, the protection offered by a smallpox jab may decline over time. A study into monkeypox cases in Spain revealed that 32 of the 181 patients had previously received a childhood vaccination against smallpox.
Another possibility, said Jimmy Whitworth, professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, is that HIV may play a role. According to the study, 40% of the monkeypox cases were in people who were HIV positive. Dr. Oriol Mitja, the co-author of the research, said the figure was 60% among those who had childhood smallpox vaccination but still got monkeypox.
“[People with HIV] may have had some immunodeficiency, eroding away the protection from the vaccine,” said Whitworth.
Colleges Warn Students About Monkeypox Risk as Fall Term Approaches
One by one, cases of the painful viral infection popped up this summer at George Washington, Georgetown and American universities. Now, these schools in the nation’s capital and others across the country are warning their communities to be on guard against the potential spread of monkeypox in the coming weeks when students return to campus for the fall term.
The public health campaigns centered on monkeypox come as colleges and universities are managing the third back-to-school season shadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. Students and educators are eager for normalcy after the disruptions of the previous two years.
That could complicate efforts to combat a threat much different from COVID-19. Health authorities say monkeypox spreads through intimate contact, often skin to skin, including but not limited to sexual encounters. Authorities also warn of possible spread through respiratory secretions or touching the bedding or towels used by someone who is infected.
J&J COVID Vaccine Factory Forced to Trash 135 Million More Doses + More
J&J COVID Vaccine Factory Forced to Trash Even More Doses
About 135 million more doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine from a troubled Baltimore factory will have to be destroyed due to quality problems, Congressional panel leaders said Thursday.
The announcement follows a report in May that detailed how more than 400 million vaccine doses made at an Emergent BioSolutions plant had to be trashed. The doses more recently slated for destruction were made between August 2021 and February, the House members said.
Johnson & Johnson said in a statement Thursday that no doses produced at the site since the factory restarted have reached the market, and it was ending its agreement with Emergent.
The doses had been set aside after they were made. The panel said J&J told it that a batch of the shots failed inspection, which rendered all of them unusable.
Only Half of Eligible Americans Have Gotten Their First COVID Booster
As we approach the fall, there is a renewed push to get Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, particularly the elderly and the vulnerable, who continue to bear the brunt of the nation’s COVID-19 crisis.
Although over 61 million people, over the age of 50, are eligible to receive their second COVID-19 booster shot, just a third have actually done so, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Similarly, less than half of Americans, over the age of 5, who are eligible to receive their first booster have received their supplemental shot.
The CDC’s Confusing New Guidance for the COVID-Positive Is Actually Kind of a Relief
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance on Thursday on how to live with the coronavirus. One of the recommendations, in particular, was surprising (OK, a lot were, but this one stood out): If you’re infected with COVID-19, you should isolate yourself for five days. Then, if you no longer have symptoms, you’re free to go out into the world, as long as you wear a mask — even if you are still testing positive on an antigen test.
Yes, really. Here’s what the guidance says: if after five days “your antigen test results are positive, you may still be infectious.” And so, to prevent spreading the virus, “You should continue wearing a mask.”
It’s also worth noting that the latest CDC guidance is an ever-more-complex tangle of options, and wild-card plays. For example, after five days, you have the option to go into the world (masked) but keep testing; if your test comes up negative sooner than day 10, you can remove your mask. But if COVID symptoms pop back up after five days, you need to go back into isolation and restart the countdown clock to day zero.
Also, none of this is relevant if you have shortness of breath: in that case, you should isolate for the full 10 days. At that point, you might also need to distinguish between shortness of breath due to light panic from all the instructions, versus COVID itself.
FDA: Take 3 Home Tests if Exposed to COVID to Boost Accuracy
If you were exposed to COVID-19, take three home tests instead of two to make sure you’re not infected, according to new U.S. recommendations released Thursday.
Previously, the Food and Drug Administration had advised taking two rapid antigen tests over two or three days to rule out infection. But the agency says new studies suggest that protocol can miss too many infections, and could result in people spreading the coronavirus to others, especially if they don’t develop symptoms.
The new guidance applies to people without symptoms who think they may have been exposed. People with symptoms can continue using two tests spaced 48 hours apart.
Here’s Why Pharmacists Directly Prescribing Paxlovid Is No Quick, Easy Process Right Now
The antiviral drug that treats COVID-19, Paxlovid, must be taken within five days after symptoms begin. To expand quick access to the medication, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revised the Emergency Use Authorization for Paxlovid in July to authorize state-licensed pharmacists to directly prescribe it.
Now more than a month after the FDA’s new authorization, it is still not easy for many eligible patients to get a Paxlovid prescription directly from their pharmacist.
It’s not just patients facing challenges. Many pharmacies may not be able to prescribe Paxlovid because of COVID-related staffing issues and how much extra time it takes to evaluate patients.
U.S. Monkeypox Cases Surpass 10,000 as CDC Still Aims for ‘Containment’
More than 10,000 Americans have now tested positive in the monkeypox outbreak across the U.S., according to figures published late Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as federal health officials say they are still racing to contain the virus.
Cases have been reported in every state but Wyoming while 15 states and the District of Columbia have reported more than a hundred cases. The largest numbers are in New York, California and Florida.
No U.S. deaths have so far been reported, out of the 12 monkeypox fatalities that the World Health Organization has tallied so far this year.
Health officials say the virus is mostly spreading through close interactions between men who have sex with men, either through direct skin-to-skin contact or shared linens like towels and bedding.
U.S. Colleges Lack Supplies to Prevent Monkeypox Outbreaks
Lack of access to monkeypox vaccines and tests threatens to hinder colleges and universities in the hardest-hit U.S. states as they plan to beat back a feared campus surge later this year.
Health administrators at schools nationwide are largely relying on educational measures as they prepare for the return of students for the fall semester. Some campuses have testing available at their medical centers, yet none reported requirements for students to get shots or undergo testing.
Germany: EU Could OK Combined COVID Vaccines Next Month
Germany’s health minister said Friday that European Union drug regulators may authorize the use of vaccines that are each effective against two variants of the coronavirus.
German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he expected the European Medicines Agency to meet on Sept. 1 to consider a vaccine that would provide protection against the original virus and the Omicron variant, also known as BA.1.
The EU agency would likely meet again on Sept. 27 to review a combined vaccine against the original virus and the BA.5 variant that is responsible for the latest global surge in COVID-19 cases, Lauterbach said.
Germany has procured sufficient amounts of both vaccines and would be able to start rolling them out a day after they received authorization, he said.
U.K. Decision Not to Buy COVID Drug Evusheld Disappoints Charities
The U.K. will not buy the drug Evusheld, which can help prevent COVID infections in people with weakened immune systems, the government has said.
The decision, revealed on Friday in an official statement to BBC Radio 4’s Today program, has been met with criticism from a host of charities who say it means many people who are immunocompromised will be left with no option but to avoid contact with loved ones for fear of catching COVID.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the decision not to procure doses of Evusheld was down to a lack of data on the duration of protection offered by treatment in relation to the Omicron variant.
New Science, Multiple Reports: COVID Vaccine Causes Lung Blockages + More
New Science, Multiple Reports: COVID Vaccine Causes Lung Blockages
A team of doctors has alerted the medical world to the danger of artery blockage from COVID vaccination with a new case report, published on August 5, 2022, in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science.
The case report describes how their patient, 67 years old, started to feel short of breath two days after getting the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19. Then, while doing some yard work, he could not catch his breath, even after resting for half an hour. So he went to the emergency room.
Since this 67-year-old man had no risk factors or previous history of thrombosis, and he had recently had a Pfizer vaccine, the medical team suspected vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia.
Dr. Kenji Yamamoto, a cardiovascular surgeon who works at Okamura Memorial Hospital in Shizuoka, Japan, has recorded a significant rise in vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia since COVID-19 vaccination began. Because of the dangers of VITT, Yamamoto believes that the vaccination booster program should be halted.
Moderna CEO Says COVID Vaccines Will Evolve Like ‘an iPhone’
Forget taking two to three COVID shots a year. Moderna hopes to roll out a single-dose annual booster to cover the coronavirus, the flu and another common respiratory virus within the next five years.
As COVID-19 continues to mutate, Moderna will need to keep updating the vaccines that turned it into a global household name while trying to make it more convenient for consumers, CEO Stéphane Bancel said in an interview with CNN Business Wednesday.
He estimated a timeline of “three to five years” for the new combined product and likened the development of the life-saving jab to that of a smartphone.
“You don’t get the amazing camera, amazing everything the first time you get an iPhone, but you get a lot of things,” he said. “A lot of us buy a new iPhone every September, and you get new apps and you get refreshed apps. And that’s exactly the same idea, which is you’ll get COVID and flu and RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] in your single dose.”
MIT Researchers Create Test to Predict COVID Immunity, Harvard Scientists Develop Test for Both Virus and Antibodies
If you’re wondering how much protection you have from COVID, researchers at two local powerhouse universities say they’ve created new tests that will help determine antibody levels.
MIT scientists on Tuesday announced they’ve developed a blood test that may predict COVID immunity. The announcement came a day after Harvard researchers said they’ve built a saliva test that detects the presence of both antibodies and the virus.
Meanwhile, researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have created a new point-of-care diagnostic device that can simultaneously detect the presence of both the virus and antibodies in a patient’s saliva.
People would be able to learn their immunity and infection status in a couple of hours, without needing to send samples to a lab.
Is COVID Losing Its Fangs and Becoming More Like the Flu?
Today’s hyper-transmissible strain of the COVID-19 virus has sent cases soaring across the country. But rising deaths — the grim marker of earlier dangerous surges — haven’t kept pace, and the average risk of dying from an infection is dropping to levels almost as low as seasonal influenza, leading epidemiologists say.
“COVID-19 case fatality rates are substantially lower and are rapidly approaching that of the annual flu,” said George Lemp, an infectious disease epidemiologist who has analyzed California public health data through the pandemic and former Director of the California HIV/AIDS Research Program at the University of California, Office of the President.
The Omicron BA.5 Wave Is Starting to Ebb. We Need to Know Why.
The COVID wave fueled by the Omicron BA.5 surge is finally starting to ebb in the U.K. and in some of the harder-hit parts of the U.S. But why? It’s no longer tenable to argue that disease waves peak and fall primarily because people start taking precautions. People, especially in these two countries, are taking fewer precautions all the time.
Scientists are starting to get a handle on the complex factors that drive waves up and down. Behavior patterns are just one small factor. Changing seasons, new contact patterns and waning immunity can drive waves up, and growing immunity can drive them back down.
University of Vermont network theorist Laurent Hebert-Dufresne compares each wave to a wildfire burning itself out when it runs out of fuel. Because most people who are infected retain immunity for a few weeks and some for a few months, the disease can — temporarily — run out of people to infect.
North Korea Declares Victory Over COVID, Hints Kim Jong Un Was Infected
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Kim Jong Un declared victory over North Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak that touched nearly one-fifth of the country’s population — including, apparently, himself.
State media didn’t explicitly say that Mr. Kim, the 38-year-old dictator, had contracted the virus. But the North Korean leader had recently fallen “seriously ill with a high fever,” according to remarks made by his sister, Kim Yo Jong, at a Wednesday meeting attended by top officials.
North Korea first disclosed the outbreak in May. Due to a lack of COVID-19 test kits, the impoverished country had tracked daily infections by tallying the number of fever cases. Some 4.77 million had gotten a fever, of which 74 died. No new cases have been reported since July 29.
At the Wednesday meeting, Mr. Kim, wearing a black Mao suit, appeared vibrant in photos published by state media. Calling it the “greatest miracle” in global health, Mr. Kim praised the country for exterminating the virus without vaccines and accepting maximum-level restrictions for three straight months.
Global Weekly Coronavirus Deaths Have Fallen 9%, WHO Reports
The number of coronavirus deaths fell 9% in the past week while new cases remained relatively stable, according to the latest weekly pandemic report released by the World Health Organization.
The number of new deaths rose 19% in the Middle East while dropping more than 70% in Africa, 15% in Europe and 10% in the Americas.
The western Pacific reported a 30% jump in cases while Africa reported a 46% drop. Cases also fell more than 20% in the Americas and the Middle East.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the Omicron subvariant BA.5 remains dominant globally, accounting for nearly 70% of all virus sequences shared with the world’s biggest publicly available virus database. The agency said other Omicron subvariants, including BA.4 and BA.2, appeared to be decreasing in prevalence as BA.5 takes over.
America’s New Monkeypox Strategy Rests on a Single Study
Once again, the United States is messing up its approach to vaccines. Three months into its monkeypox outbreak, just 620,000 doses of the two-injection Jynneos shot — the nation’s current best immune defense against the virus — have been shipped to states, not nearly enough to immunize the 1.6 million to 1.7 million Americans that the CDC considers at highest risk.
The next deliveries from the manufacturer aren’t slated until September at the earliest. For now, we’re stuck with the stocks we’ve got. Which is why the feds have turned to Inoculation Plan B: splitting Jynneos doses into five, and poking them into the skin, rather than into the layer of fat beneath. The FDA issued an emergency-use authorization for the strategy.
But this decision is based on scant data, and the degree of protection offered by in-skin shots is no guarantee. The FDA is now playing a high-stakes game with the health and trust of people most vulnerable to monkeypox — an already marginalized population.
The shot was approved for use against smallpox and monkeypox in 2019. But to date, researchers don’t have a strong sense of how well it guards against disease or infection or how long protection lasts. Although scientists know that two doses of Jynneos can elicit similar numbers of antibodies as older poxvirus vaccines, no estimates of the vaccine’s true efficacy, from large-scale clinical trials, exist; a human study in the Congo hasn’t yet reported results.
Africa CDC in ‘Advanced’ Talks to Obtain Monkeypox Vaccines
Africa’s public health agency says the continent of 1.3 billion people still does not have a single dose of the monkeypox vaccine, but “very advanced discussions” are underway with at least two partners.
The acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell, told journalists on Thursday that he could not give details, but he said the partners are “largely multilateral institutions and non-African governments.” There are no discussions with the private sector because all available doses have already been bought by countries, he said.
But a clinical trial is underway in Congo for a vaccine, Jynneos, that’s under emergency-use authorization, Ogwell said. The two-dose vaccine is considered the main medical weapon against the disease, but its availability is limited. The Africa CDC did not immediately respond to a question about details of the trial.
More monkeypox deaths have been reported on the African continent this year than anywhere in the world. Since May, nearly 90 countries have reported more than 31,000 cases.
‘Silent’ Spread of Polio in New York Drives CDC to Consider Additional Vaccinations for Some People
A polio case identified in New York last month is “just the very, very tip of the iceberg” and an indication there “must be several hundred cases in the community circulating,” a senior official with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN on Wednesday.
“There are a number of individuals in the community that have been infected with poliovirus. They are shedding the virus,” Dr. José Romero, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said. “The spread is always a possibility because the spread is going to be silent.”
Romero said the CDC is considering a variety of options to protect people from polio, including offering children in the area an extra shot of the vaccine, as U.K. health authorities are doing now in London, or recommending extra doses to certain groups of adults.