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Covid News Watch
Heartbroken Dad Seeks Truth About Teen Son’s Death, Blames COVID-19 Vaccination + More
Heartbroken Dad Seeks Truth About Teen Son’s Death, Blames COVID-19 Vaccination
Dan Hartman is sure that his hockey-loving son died from a COVID vaccination, but he’s being told very little about what happened. The Ontario dad says he wants answers about the sudden death of 17-year-old Sean.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ontario Minor Hockey Association implemented a policy that required players aged 12 and over to be vaccinated or risk not being able to play. Hartman said that Sean decided to get the shot last August in order to continue playing, as hockey was his passion.
In Ontario, there is no minimum age of consent under the Health Care Consent Act, which means youth of Sean’s age can get vaccinated without parental consent.
“So on August 25, he had the Pfizer vaccine. And on August 29, he went to the emergency [room] — he had brown circles around his eyes, and a rash and he was vomiting,” Hartman said.
“They sent him home with only Advil. The doctor didn’t do two blood tests that he should have done. I’ve been told by another doctor that he should have done them. And on the morning of September 27, he was found dead on the floor beside his bed.”
“He was a perfectly healthy boy. He had no underlying conditions,” Hartman said. “They don’t know why he died. Nobody can tell me why he died. And I asked the coroner, ‘can you tell me 100 percent it wasn’t the vaccine?’ And he said ‘no.’”
U.S. To Declare Health Emergency Over Monkeypox Outbreak
The U.S. will declare a public health emergency to bolster the federal response to the outbreak of monkeypox that already has infected more than 6,600 Americans, two people familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The announcement will free up federal funding and resources to fight the virus, which may cause fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and pimple-like bumps on many parts of the body. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.
The declaration comes as the the Biden administration has faced criticism over the pace of vaccine availability for monkeypox. Clinics in major cities like New York and San Francisco say they haven’t received enough of the two-shot vaccine to meet demand and some have had to stop offering the second dose of the vaccine to ensure supply of first doses. The White House said it has made more than 1.1 million doses of vaccine available and has helped to boost domestic diagnostic capacity to 80,000 tests per week.
The monkeypox virus spreads through prolonged and close skin-to-skin contact, including hugging, cuddling and kissing, as well as sharing bedding, towels and clothing. People getting sick so far have been primarily men who have sex with men. But health officials emphasize that the virus can infect anyone.
Novavax Starts COVID-19 Vaccine Trial for Children Aged Six Months to 11 Years
U.S. biotech company Novavax, Inc., has started its phase 2b/3 Hummingbird global clinical trial.
The trial will evaluate the safety, effectiveness (immunogenicity), and efficacy of two doses of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine (NVX-CoV2373) in younger children aged six months through 11 years, followed by a booster at six months after the primary vaccination series.
The trial will assess the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in infants (six through 23 months of age), toddlers (two through five years) and children (six through 11 years).
The trial is an age de-escalation trial and age groups will be tested sequentially. Participants have begun dosing in the six to 11-year-old age group. The trial will also have sentinel cohorts in each age group and cohort progression and age-de-escalation will occur after safety review.
Scientist Testifies Fauci’s Claim That NIH Never Funded Gain-of-Function Research Is ‘Demonstrably False’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) convened a first-of-its-kind Senate hearing on gain-of-function research Wednesday, during which expert witnesses contradicted Dr. Anthony Fauci’s public statements that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) never funded gain-of-function research.
“The statements made on repeated occasions to the public, to the press and to policymakers by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, Dr. Fauci, have been untruthful. I do not understand why those statements are being made because they are demonstrably false,” Rutgers University molecular biologist Dr. Richard Ebright testified in response to a question from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
Ebright was one of three scientists who testified that gain-of-function research needs more oversight at a Homeland Security subcommittee that focuses on emerging threats and spending oversight. This controversial field of research studies how pathogens might be enhanced to cause new, potentially deadlier infectious diseases.
Gain-of-function experiments involve taking a pathogen that was found in nature and altering it in a lab.
Biden stays COVID positive in test on Thursday
U.S. President Joe Biden tested positive again for COVID-19 on Thursday but he was feeling “very well,” his physician Kevin O’Connor said in a memo released by the White House.
Biden was still experiencing a “very occasional” cough, but the cough was improving, O’Connor said in the memo. Biden will continue in isolation.
Biden, 79, had just emerged from isolation on Wednesday last week after testing positive for COVID for the first time on July 21. He tested positive again on Saturday in what O’Connor described as a “rebound” case seen in a small percentage of patients who take the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
Are ‘Novids’ Special or Just Lucky at Avoiding COVID?
If you consider yourself a “Novid,” in other words, someone who has never had COVID-19, are you mistaken, special, or just plain lucky? Researchers are trying to answer that question.
It’s estimated that more than 70% of Americans have been infected at some point during the pandemic, but we all know someone who says they’ve never had it. Data suggests millions of Americans who think they’ve never had COVID in fact have had it but didn’t get tested because they had no symptoms or simply thought they had a regular cold or allergies.
That said, there are some people who have managed to avoid COVID and researchers are studying them to try to find out why. For example, people who work from home, consistently wear masks and continue to socially distance are actively protecting themselves.
But others may have genetic or immune system advantages that offer greater protection. Others may have had prior exposure to similar viruses or take drugs for other conditions that provide some defense.
Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Monkeypox Outbreak
With anxiety, frustration, and “pandemic fatigue” remaining at high levels after two and a half years of watching COVID disrupt everything — from businesses to education to travel and much more — it is understandable that many people are worried that we are in the early stages of the next pandemic with the current monkeypox epidemic.
Especially considering the regular headlines, the unusual name, and the recent World Health Organization (WHO) designation of monkeypox as a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC).
It doesn’t help that former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, who presided over the nation’s initial response to the COVID pandemic, recently induced some panic when he tweeted, “I hate to tell you all this, but COVID is still a pandemic, and now monkeypox is too. And both are gonna get a LOT worse before they get better… just wait till schools — including colleges — reopen in a few weeks…” before later admitting that this is not actually the case.
At this point in the monkeypox epidemic, when case numbers are relatively few and infections are concentrated among well-defined communities, we have a unique and narrow window of opportunity to adopt lessons we have learned from the COVID pandemic and enact focused protection of those who are at risk to both protect those individuals and halt the broader spread of the virus.
South Africa Reports First Death Causally Linked to COVID Vaccine
South Africa’s health regulator reported on Thursday a causal link between the death of an individual and Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine, the first time such a direct link has been made in the country.
The person presented with rare neurological disorder Guillain-Barre Syndrome soon after being given J&J’s vaccine, after which the person was put on a ventilator and later died, senior scientists told a news conference.
“At the time of illness no other cause for the Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) could be identified,” Professor Hannelie Meyer said.
The person’s age and other personal details were not disclosed for confidentiality reasons.
Rich Countries Put Billions Into Global COVID Responses. Low-Income Countries Wish They Could Spend It on Bigger Problems
Wealthy nations, including the United States, have treated the COVID-19 pandemic as a once-in-a-century threat to public health that necessitated an unprecedented response, both in sped-up vaccine development and counter-measures like lockdowns.
But health leaders in many lower-income countries see the coronavirus differently, as just one of many out-of-control contagions — and often not the deadliest one in their borders.
They are increasingly questioning Western donors who want them to put COVID-19 at the top of their priority lists, arguing that the donors’ money would be better spent on a holistic approach to disease.
They’re also frustrated with the pace of vaccine and therapeutic development for COVID-19, expressing resentment about how long they’ve waited for effective treatments for other diseases prevalent in low-income countries but not rich ones.
U.S. Regulators Defend Requiring More Data on Monkeypox Drug
As U.S. monkeypox cases rise, U.S. health agencies in a medical journal article published on Wednesday defended their decision to require human trial data to show that SIGA Technologies’ experimental drug TPOXX is safe and effective to treat the virus.
U.S. agencies have been under pressure to ease access to the drug, which is being distributed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under a special “compassionate use” access that requires doctors to request it from the agency or their health department and enroll each patient in a study.
As of July 22, 223 people have been treated with the drug, compared with more than 6,000 known cases in the United States.
COVID Vaccine Injuries Quietly Being Compensated Around the World, Are You Eligible? + More
COVID Vaccine Injuries Quietly Being Compensated Around the World, Are You Eligible?
Programs in countries around the world have begun quietly compensating people who have been injured by or died as a result of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Humans are biologically diverse, with respect to both genetic makeup and past environmental exposures. Because of this, explained neurologist Dr. Robert Lowry, people can react very differently to the same medication or vaccination. Whenever a new drug or biologic hits the market, some people will have bad reactions and others may even suffer serious adverse events as a result.
Even under the best testing conditions, rare reactions will be missed. This is especially true for any product which is fast-tracked or authorized for emergency use before all the phases of necessary testing are complete.
COVID-19 vaccines are no exception. Despite the fact that we are constantly and consistently assured that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, and that severe adverse reactions are “very rare,” the FDA and the CDC with its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, as well as the scientists and executives at each of the participating drug companies, know that some people will become permanently disabled or even die as a result of vaccination.
Moderna Considering Creating an mRNA Monkeypox Vaccine Amid Growing Demand for Shots
Amid growing concerns over the potential threat of monkeypox, executives from Moderna said Wednesday they have initiated a research program to consider whether the company could create a monkeypox vaccine with mRNA technology.
“We’re obviously very aware of the monkeypox concern and obviously very sensitive to recent announcements,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said during an investor call.
He went on, “We did initiate a research program. We are tracking that very closely and obviously, given the recent public health announcements and increasing concern about availability of vaccine supply, we are beginning to look at what it would take for us to use our platform and to provide a monkeypox vaccine — both [to] intervene in the current and the current epidemic but also to try and address long-term issues of supply in this public health threat.”
Domestically and globally, officials have been vocal in their concern that there are not enough monkeypox vaccines to address the emerging crisis. With demand increasing, officials from the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) have reported that a total of 1.1 million doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for monkeypox, a two-dose regimen, will be allocated to states and jurisdictions across the country. Approximately 1.5 million Americans are currently considered eligible for vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told ABC News last month.
COVID-19 Vaccine Sales Push Moderna Past Expectations in Q2
Better-than-expected COVID-19 vaccine sales pushed Moderna past Wall Street’s second-quarter forecasts. The company said that its Spikevax vaccine brought in $4.53 billion during the quarter. Analysts were looking for around $3.6 billion, according to FactSet.
Moderna shares surged Wednesday after the company also announced another $3 billion share buyback plan.
Moderna’s vaccine sales in the second quarter represent a drop from the nearly $6 billion that the vaccine brought in during the year’s first quarter, when a virus surge through the United States pushed more people to seek protection. But those sales could pick up again later this year.
Moderna has developed an updated version of its vaccine for a fall booster campaign that combines the original shot with protection against the omicron variant.
The company announced last week that it reached a deal with the U.S. government for an initial purchase of 66 million doses of the booster shot for up to $1.74 billion. The government also has an option to purchase more doses.
Rapid COVID Test Still Positive After 5 Days? You May Not Be Contagious, Study Suggests
Some 50% of people who test positive for COVID-19 on a rapid test after five days of infection are likely no longer contagious, a Journal of the American Medical Association study released on Wednesday suggests, after the Centers for Disease Control has received criticism from some experts for recommending a quarantine period of five days without using testing to determine when to end isolation.
All of those who tested negative for COVID with a rapid antigen test on day 6 of their infection — 25% of study participants — had a negative viral culture, indicating they were likely no longer infectious and suggesting a negative rapid test could be a good way to confirm an end to isolation, researchers concluded.
But half of the three quarters of participants who tested positive for the coronavirus on a rapid test on day six of their infection also had a negative viral culture detected through a nasal and oral swab, according to the study, which researchers noted was limited by a small, mostly young and vaccinated sample group of 40 people.
The study comes several months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shortened the required quarantine period from ten days to five — with five days of mask-wearing — for those who are asymptomatic or have improving symptoms and suggested rapid tests on day 6 as an optional measure.
EU Says Novavax COVID Shot Must Carry Heart Side-Effect Warning
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is recommending Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine carry a warning of the possibility of two types of heart inflammation, an added burden for a shot that has so far failed to win wide uptake.
The heart conditions — myocarditis and pericarditis — should be listed as new side effects in the product information for the vaccine, Nuvaxovid, based on a small number of reported cases, the EMA said on Wednesday.
Novavax said no concerns about heart inflammations were raised during the clinical trials of Nuvaxovid and that more data would be gathered, adding that the most common cause of myocarditis is viral infections.
“We will work with the relevant regulators to assure our product information is consistent with our common interpretation of the incoming data,” U.S. vaccine developer Novavax added.
COVID Rebound Not Limited to Those Who Took Paxlovid
COVID rebound, which struck both President Joe Biden and White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci recently, doesn’t just happen in those who take Paxlovid, a new study finds.
Rebound symptoms were spotted in 27% of COVID-19 patients who hadn’t taken the antiviral pill, with about 12% testing positive again, researchers report.
“It happens all the time. People who are untreated with COVID who then feel better can get symptoms afterward,” study co-author Dr. Davey Smith, chief of infectious diseases and global public health at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, told NBC News.
The study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
San Diego County Declares Monkeypox Public Health Emergency
San Diego County has declared a public health emergency for monkeypox, two days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared one for the entire state.
Wilma Wooten, a public health officer for the county, made the declaration based on a limited vaccine supply being available, the large population and geographic area of the county, the global spread of the virus and the confirmed and probable local cases.
Officials have confirmed 27 cases of monkeypox and consider an additional 19 cases as likely to be monkeypox as of last Friday, according to the declaration.
Federal Reports on Long COVID Fall Short of Offering Solid Plans to Help Patients
Two highly anticipated federal reports on long COVID released Wednesday fail to address the immediate needs of patients, according to doctors and advocacy groups. They also say the reports neglected to include many of their recommendations for how to address the long COVID crisis.
The reports, produced in response to an executive order from President Joe Biden, go into great detail about all that remains unknown about long COVID that affects up to 23 million Americans, including the cause, effective treatments or even a specific definition of the illness.
And while the reports do commit to establishing a long COVID office within the Department of Health and Human Services to answer those questions, the reports offer no details on how such an office would be funded and staffed, nor do they offer any timeline for such a setup.
Advocacy groups say that while the reports are a good start, they are woefully inadequate in addressing the very questions patients and their physicians have had for more than two years, when long COVID was first identified.
5th Child Tests Positive for Monkeypox in US: What Parents Should Know
As monkeypox continues to spread across the U.S., the number of children infected with the virus is growing as well.
At least five children have tested positive for monkeypox since July, including two each in Indiana and California.
The other case was reported in an infant, a non-U.S. resident, who was tested while traveling through Washington, D.C., federal officials confirmed last month.
Children under the age of 8 are among those whom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers at “increased risk” for developing more severe illness if infected with monkeypox, along with pregnant people, people who are immunocompromised and those who have a history of atopic dermatitis or eczema.
Discovery of Separate Monkeypox Strain Suggests Two Outbreaks Are Happening + More
Discovery of Separate Monkeypox Strain Suggests Two Outbreaks Are Happening
A monkeypox strain has been spotted that is different from the one behind the ongoing outbreak in the West, raising questions about just how long the virus could have been around.
A total of 23,620 confirmed cases of monkeypox were reported globally as of August 1 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of an ongoing global health emergency that scientists are still working to understand.
Monkeypox is a virus first discovered in 1958 in colonies of monkeys kept for research. Since then the virus has remained endemic to West and Central Africa, with only a handful of cases ever discovered elsewhere. Even then, almost all such cases were linked to international travel to countries where the disease commonly occurs or through imported animals.
This year is different, with monkeypox spreading widely across the globe in people with no reported travel links to endemic countries for the first time.
Tennis-Djokovic Likely to Miss U.S. Open Over COVID Vaccine Status
There is a petition circulating to allow Novak Djokovic to play at the U.S. Open but the Serbian appears likely to miss the entire North American hardcourt swing barring a sudden change in COVID protocols in the United States and Canada.
Djokovic has refused to take the COVID vaccine yet the 21-times Grand Slam winner remains on the entry lists for the ATP 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati that serve as tune-ups for the Aug. 29 – Sept. 11 U.S. Open in New York.
In the case of the U.S. Open, which does not have a vaccine mandate, organisers previously said that per the Grand Slam Rule Book, all eligible players are entered into the main draw based on their ranking 42 days prior to the first Monday of the event.
U.S. Open organizers also said that while they do not have a vaccination mandate in place for players, they will respect the U.S. government’s position regarding travel into the country for unvaccinated non-U.S. citizens.
Monkeypox: Here Are the Places Declaring Health Emergencies — and What It Means
California and Illinois became the latest governments to declare monkeypox a public health emergency on Monday, following in the footsteps of several cities and New York state, while President Joe Biden named a new White House coordinator for monkeypox as the U.S. struggles to contain a spike in infections.
Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) Monday declared a state of emergency to help “bolster the state’s vaccination efforts” and coordinate a “whole-of-government response” to monkeypox as the state had 827 confirmed cases as of August 1.
Also on Monday, in Illinois, which has the third most infections in the U.S., Gov. U.B. Pritzker said he was declaring a monkeypox emergency to prevent the spread of a “rare but potentially serious disease.”
New York City — which has the most cases of any U.S. city — and San Francisco were the first two cities to declare public health emergencies last week to strengthen government responses to the outbreak.
U.S. Rules out Summer COVID Boosters to Focus on Fall Campaign
U.S. regulators said Friday they are no longer considering authorizing a second COVID-19 booster shot for all adults under 50 this summer, focusing instead on revamped vaccines for the fall that will target the newest viral subvariants.
Pfizer and Moderna expect to have updated versions of their shots available as early as September, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. That would set the stage for a fall booster campaign to strengthen protection against the latest versions of omicron.
The announcement means the U.S. won’t pursue a summer round of boosters using the current vaccines for adults under 50, as some Biden administration officials and outside experts previously suggested. They had argued that another round of shots now could help head off rising cases and hospitalizations caused by the highly transmissible omicron strains.
Biden Names Team to Manage U.S. Monkeypox Response as Outbreak Grows
President Joe Biden on Tuesday named a team of disaster management and health officials to lead the U.S. response to the monkeypox outbreak as infections continue to rise.
Biden appointed Robert Fenton, an administrator with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as the head of U.S. efforts to quash the outbreak. Fenton currently leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) region that includes California, one of the states hardest hit by monkeypox.
The president named Demetre Daskalakis, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) division of HIV prevention, as the U.S. deputy monkeypox response coordinator. Daskalakis is an expert on health issues affecting the LGBTQ community, the White House said.
COVID: Is Omicron Less Lethal Than Delta?
Death certification data support an intrinsically lower case fatality rate for omicron
Soon after the omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern was first reported to the World Health Organization on Nov. 24, 2021, preliminary observational studies in South Africa suggested this highly transmissible variant was associated with lower hospital admission and mortality rates in people with COVID-19 infection. However, given omicron’s increased propensity to cause reinfections and vaccine breakthrough, it was unclear if this effect was due to previous immunity in the population or an inherent property of the genetically divergent variant.
Subsequent analyses further supported a lower risk of severe outcomes in infections with omicron compared with delta, although these data were limited to all cause deaths within 28 days of diagnosis. Additionally, many public health measures previously enacted to curb SARS-CoV-2 transmission were being relaxed in early 2022, potentially resulting in more infections in relatively low risk populations. These limitations complicated efforts to assess the true risk of severe disease and mortality associated with omicron infection.
The linked retrospective cohort study by Ward and colleagues takes a further step towards addressing this question. The study reported new evidence that mortality rates were lower for infections with the omicron BA.1 subvariant than for the delta variant of concern, even after controlling for patient demographics, previous infection, and vaccination status.
NorthShore Agrees to Pay $10.3 Million Settlement in COVID Vaccine Lawsuit Over Religious Exemptions
NorthShore University Health System has agreed to pay $10.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by employees who alleged the hospital system wouldn’t let them keep their jobs after they objected to getting COVID-19 vaccines for religious reasons.
Fourteen workers — including nurses, a pharmacy technician and a senior application analyst all named anonymous in the lawsuit — sued NorthShore in October alleging that NorthShore refused to grant them true exemptions from the mandate that all its workers get vaccinated.
NorthShore is not admitting to any wrongdoing as part of the proposed settlement agreement, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The agreement must still be approved by a judge.
As part of the settlement, NorthShore is agreeing to re-hire workers who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated for religious reasons.
Biden COVID Case Highlights Confusing CDC Guidance on Ending Isolation
Before President Biden emerged from coronavirus isolation Wednesday, he made double-sure he was no longer contagious. He received negative tests Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. To test at all meant Biden was going above and beyond the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for exiting isolation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has built that guidance around a timeline — a prescribed minimum number of days of isolation — rather than the direct, personalized evidence of virus shedding that rapid antigen tests provide. But the usefulness of these tests was highlighted anew Saturday when Biden, who had taken the antiviral during his illness, tested positive again and returned to isolation in the White House residence.
More than 2 1/2 years into the pandemic, and with a highly contagious version of the virus circulating, the CDC guidelines for what to do when falling ill — and when to return to public life — continue to stoke as much confusion as clarity. That’s a reflection of the changing nature of the virus, the inherent unpredictability of an infection, and the demands and expectations of work and home life.
How Some Parents Changed Their Politics in the Pandemic + More
How Some Parents Changed Their Politics in the Pandemic
They waved signs that read “Defeat the mandates” and “No vaccines.” They chanted “Protect our kids” and “Our kids, our choice.”
Almost everyone in the crowd of more than three dozen was a parent. And as they protested on a recent Friday in the Bay Area suburb of Orinda, Calif., they had the same refrain: They were there for their children.
Most had never been to a political rally before. But after seeing their children isolated and despondent early in the coronavirus pandemic, they despaired, they said. On Facebook, they found other worried parents who sympathized with them. They shared notes and online articles — many of them misleading — about the reopening of schools and the efficacy of vaccines and masks. Soon, those issues crowded out other concerns.
“I wish I’d woken up to this cause sooner,” said one protester, Lisa Longnecker, 54, who has a 17-year-old son. “But I can’t think of a single more important issue. It’s going to decide how I vote.”
Ms. Longnecker and her fellow objectors are part of a potentially destabilizing new movement: parents who joined the anti-vaccine and anti-mask cause during the pandemic, narrowing their political beliefs to a single-minded obsession over those issues. Their thinking hardened even as COVID-19 restrictions and mandates were eased and lifted, cementing in some cases into a skepticism of all vaccines.
Flies, Roaches Probably Don’t Spread COVID
You may not have even considered the possibility, but new research finds that flies and roaches are not likely to spread COVID-19.
According to study co-author Gabriel Hamer, an AgriLife Research entomologist in Texas A&M’s department of entomology, insects are known to transmit a variety of infectious diseases to people, so determining their potential contribution to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was given priority in the early stages of the pandemic.
“We were sampling insects in homes with recent human COVID-19 cases, some of which also had dogs and cats actively infected with SARS-CoV-2,” Hamer explained in a university news release. “We suspected these were high-risk environments where insects may be able to become contaminated with the virus if they were contacting the infected humans, animals or contaminated surfaces. Instead, we did not detect evidence of the virus in the sampled insects from these homes.”
Having Kids Around Might Shield You From Severe COVID: Study
Folks with young kids at home may be less likely than others to develop severe COVID-19, a new study suggests.
Children bring home colds from day care and school and give them to their parents, and it’s thought those lower-level infections may ultimately defend Mom and Dad from the worst of COVID. Both common colds and COVID-19 are coronaviruses, so the theory goes that getting one might offer some protection from the other, researchers said.
“One hypothesis that people batted around was maybe people that had a lot of common colds in the past few years may have some built-up immunity to cope with COVID-19, and then either not get an infection at all or get only a mild infection and not a severe one,” said lead researcher Dr. Matthew Solomon, a cardiologist in the research division at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland.
“This idea of the kind of built-up immunity really resonated with a lot of people. And we thought, well, maybe we can look in our database and see if we can identify a signal of that,” Solomon said.
This study can’t prove that having a common cold protects you from severe COVID-19, only that it may confer some immunity. But the research team said the concept merits further exploration.
Three Months After COVID, Individuals Are More Prone to Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease
In a recent study published in the journal PLOS Medicine, researchers warn that three months after recovering from a COVID-19 infection, hospitalized patients are at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Scientists hypothesize that because the SARS-CoV-2 virus triggers pathways that could result in inflammation, being infected can affect different organs of the body. In their study, lead authors Emma Rezel-Potts, Martin Gulliford, and colleagues of King’s College London, United Kingdom, investigated whether a group of former COVID-19 patients developed diabetes or cardiovascular disease in the following year after being infected compared to those who had never contracted COVID-19.
They gained access to the medical records of more than 428,000 COVID-19 patients and even people who had not tested positive before. The researchers’ investigation revealed that COVID-19 patients had 81% more diagnoses of diabetes merely four weeks after they got infected with the virus. Their risk of developing diabetes also shot up by 27% for up to 12 weeks after infection.
The researchers also found a link between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases. A prior infection exposed people to a six-fold greater risk of suffering from arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats and pulmonary embolism or blood clots forming in the lungs.
More Monkeypox Cases Found in Kids as School Return Looms
Three more monkeypox cases have been confirmed in children as the back-to-school season looms.
Monkeypox continues to spread rapidly throughout the globe. According to CDC data, 22,141 monkeypox cases have now been reported, since the outbreak first began in May.
Most, but not all, monkeypox cases have been concentrated in the gay community, among men who have sex with men. However it spreads primarily through close, physical contact with an infected person, meaning anybody can catch it.
Cases in children have been of concern recently, ever since the U.S. reported its first two. On July 22, the CDC confirmed that two children had come down with monkeypox in two unrelated cases.
Biden Feeling Well, Isolating After Rebound Case of COVID
U.S. President Joe Biden is feeling well and continuing his isolation measures after again testing positive for COVID-19, his physician said in a memo released by the White House on Sunday.
Biden tested positive for COVID again on Saturday in what the White House doctor described as a “rebound” case seen in a small percentage of patients who take the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
“Given his rebound positivity which we reported yesterday, we continued daily monitoring. This morning, unsurprisingly, his SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing remained positive,” the physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in the memo on Sunday.
Biden tested positive for COVID for the first time on July 21 and previously described his experience with the coronavirus as mild, saying he was able to continue working while in isolation and attributed his relative ease with the disease to vaccines and other treatments.
Tweets Show Americans Eating Healthier in Pandemic
Whether it’s fact or brag, tweets suggest people ate healthier during COVID lockdowns and restaurant closures, a new study finds.
Tweets about healthy foods rose 20% between May 2020 and January 2021, while those about fast food and alcohol dropped 9% and 11%, respectively, researchers found.
The switch from fast food to salad or an apple was just one of the dietary changes that people claimed to make during the pandemic’s first year.
Although lockdowns and restaurant closures significantly altered how people got food and alcohol, the analysis suggests that some Americans deliberately embraced healthier eating habits.
New York Governor Hochul Declares State Emergency Over Monkeypox
The governor of the State of New York Kathy Hochul late on Friday declared an emergency in the state over the continued spread of monkeypox.
“I am declaring a State Disaster Emergency to strengthen our ongoing efforts to confront the monkeypox outbreak,” Hochul tweeted.
She added that more than one in four monkeypox cases in the United States are in New York, also having a disproportionate impact on at-risk groups.
As of July 29, New York state had a total of 1,383 confirmed orthopoxvirus/monkeypox cases, according to New York Department of Health’s website.
Monkeypox Can Survive for Weeks in Water and on Refrigerated Food
The monkeypox virus can remain stable for days and even weeks on refrigerated food and in water, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate.
The report describes monkeypox as “very stable” in the environment and says it can live “for days to weeks in water, soil, and on refrigerated food.” It adds that the virus can live for months to years inside of scabs.
The report does not say how long the virus can survive on surfaces, but the CDC said investigators found the live virus 15 days after a patient’s home was left unoccupied, according to one study.
Spain Reports 2nd Death From Monkeypox
Spain reported Saturday a second death in as many days from monkeypox. These are believed to be the first confirmed fatalities from the disease in Europe since its recent spread beyond Africa.
The ministry based in Madrid said both fatalities were young men. It reported its first death on Friday, the same day that Brazil also reported its first death from monkeypox.
The global monkeypox outbreak has seen more than 22,000 cases in nearly 80 countries since May. There have been 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo, where a more lethal form of monkeypox is spreading than in the West.
In the U.S. and Europe, the vast majority of monkeypox infections have happened in men who have sex with men, though health officials have stressed that anyone can catch the virus.
The deaths outside Africa come one week after the World Health Organization declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.