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White House Faces Uphill Challenge Getting Kids Under 5 Vaccinated + More
White House Faces Uphill Challenge Getting Kids Under 5 Vaccinated
The Biden administration faces an uphill battle to convince parents to give COVID-19 shots to children under 5 years old.
More than a year and a half after the first vaccines were authorized for adults, federal regulators and outside advisory panels will finally meet on Wednesday to examine data from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech about their shots’ effectiveness in the youngest children.
If all goes well and the vaccines get authorized, the administration is planning a massive public education campaign to help make sure parents can have their questions answered and learn about the importance of getting their children vaccinated.
Military Official Predicted mRNA COVID Vaccines Might Be Paused Over Heart Inflammation
A U.S. military official predicted a pause in the administration of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines could happen if more cases of post-vaccination heart inflammation were detected, according to newly obtained emails.
Harry Chang, a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, made the prediction on April 27, 2021 — the same day the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the agency was not seeing a safety signal when it came to heart inflammation experienced after getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
Chang noted the pause in the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over blood clots and said an increased number of heart inflammation issues could trigger a similar action. “Increased reported numbers and media attention is likely to trigger a safety review pause by ACIP/FDA,” he added, referring to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the CDC on vaccines, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which decides whether to clear immunizations.
Chang was talking to Tricia Blocher, an official at the California Department of Public Health, and other California and military officials. He was reacting to a story about the U.S. Department of Defense detecting a higher-than-expected number of cases of heart inflammation in troops following COVID-19 vaccination.” The email was one of 19 pages of messages obtained by The Epoch Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Pfizer, Moderna COVID Vaccines Are Effective in Young Children, FDA Says — Here’s How They Differ and What Happens Next
Three doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and a two-doses of Moderna’s shot are safe and effective in preventing illness from COVID-19 in young children, according to assessments provided by the Food and Drug Administration, in a possible signal that the agency is gearing up to approve COVID vaccinations for the youngest Americans later this week.
In a briefing document published on Sunday, the FDA said the three doses appeared to be 80.4% effective in preventing illness in the age group. In its assessment, the FDA noted the available data supported the effectiveness of Pfizer’s three-dose regimen in preventing COVID illness in children under the age of five.
In a similar assessment released on Friday, the drug regulator found two doses of Moderna’s vaccine to be safe and effective for use in children under the age of six. Moderna’s two doses reported a much lower 50.6% efficacy in preventing illness.
A key caveat in the Pfizer findings was that only 10 participants — eight in the placebo group and two in the vaccinated group — reported illness during the trial, which is below the threshold required to accurately determine efficacy. Additionally, the efficacy may not be directly comparable as the vaccine trials were carried out during different times.
A New Test Can Help Reveal if You’re Immune to COVID
How much protection do you currently have against COVID-19? The answer depends on so much: whether you’ve already had COVID-19 (and if so, how long ago); whether you’ve been vaccinated (and if so, how many times, and how recently); whether you have any medical conditions that could weaken your immune system; and so on. Even antibody testing only approximates immunity to COVID-19, so there’s no simple way to know.
But an international group of researchers recently developed a different tool to help assess COVID-19 immunity: a blood test that can measure T cells, white blood cells that work alongside virus-fighting antibodies to mount an immune response. Their work is described in a new study published in Nature Biotechnology.
T-cell testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus isn’t totally new — the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency-use authorization to another T-cell test, called T-Detect, last year — but it tends to be labor- and time-intensive, says study co-author Ernesto Guccione, a professor of oncological sciences at New York City’s Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai. His group aimed to simplify it by using technology that is widely accessible and can turn around results in less than 24 hours.
The Mental Health Crisis Afflicting American Youth Demands Healthcare Reforms
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a stark warning in December: America’s youth are in the midst of a “devastating” mental health crisis, suffering from skyrocketing rates of depression and anxiety.
Our healthcare system, which for too long has slighted mental healthcare, is woefully unprepared for the heartbreaking surge in troubled kids arriving in emergency rooms and psychiatric facilities: Lower insurance reimbursement rates for mental healthcare providers and hospitals have translated into fewer providers and less access. And as weak as the mental healthcare system is for adults, for children and adolescents it’s even worse.
Decades of overlooking mental healthcare can’t be overcome quickly. But the surgeon general’s warning ought to be a wake-up call to regulators and insurance companies that higher payments for mental health providers can’t wait any longer.
The statistics are grim. Average wait times for initial assessment, ongoing therapy and medication services are all longer for children than for adults. While an adult may typically wait 12.7 weeks for therapy, a child may be delayed by more than 15 weeks.
Many Baby Formula Plants Weren’t Inspected Because of COVID
U.S. regulators have historically inspected baby formula plants at least once a year, but they did not inspect any of the three biggest manufacturers in 2020, according to federal records reviewed by The Associated Press.
When they finally did get inside an Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Michigan after a two-year gap, they found standing water and lax sanitation procedures. But inspectors offered only voluntary suggestions for fixing the problems, and issued no formal warning.
Inspectors would return five months later after four infants who consumed powdered formula from the plant suffered bacterial infections. They found bacterial contamination inside the factory, leading to a four-month shutdown and turning a festering supply shortage into a full-blown crisis that sent parents scrambling to find formula and forced the U.S. to airlift products from overseas.
The gap in baby formula plant inspections, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, is getting new scrutiny from Congress and government watchdogs investigating the series of missteps that led to the crisis.
COVID Funding Pries Open a Door to Improving Air Quality in Schools
Many U.S. schools were in dire need of upgrades — burdened by leaking pipes, mold and antiquated heating systems — long before the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the importance of indoor ventilation in reducing the spread of infectious disease.
So, one might assume school districts across the nation would welcome the opportunity created by billions of dollars in federal COVID-relief money available to upgrade heating and air-conditioning systems and improve air quality and filtration in K-12 schools.
But a report released this month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found most U.S. public schools have made no major investments in improving indoor ventilation and filtration since the start of the pandemic. Instead, the most frequently reported strategies to improve airflow and reduce COVID risk were notably low-budget, such as relocating classroom activities outdoors and opening windows and doors, if considered safe.
The CDC report, based on a representative sample of the nation’s public schools, found that fewer than 40% had replaced or upgraded their HVAC systems since the start of the pandemic. Even fewer were using high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters in classrooms (28%), or fans to increase the effectiveness of having windows open (37%).
Understanding Long COVID Will Take the Lived Experiences of Long Haulers
I went from training for the Big Sur 21-miler to barely being able to climb a flight of stairs in just six months. The cause? COVID-19 or, more specifically, long COVID.
As a researcher, I want to know how this happened and, more importantly, how to fix it. I’m not alone. The “fix it” question is on the minds of as many as 23 million Americans and 100 million people worldwide who have experienced long COVID, which has emerged as a new chronic illness.
Understanding COVID-19 and long COVID requires the kind of gold-standard research that has been fielded for other conditions, like HIV and Guillain-Barré syndrome. But it will also take the lived experiences that people with it have accumulated, along with so-called real-world evidence. Only with this combination can the scientific and public health communities arrive at real answers that finally bring the support and long-term care needed by people with this perplexing condition.
Far From Being ‘Post-Pandemic,’ U.K. COVID Cases Are on the Rise Again
U.K. COVID-19 cases have risen for the first time in two months, according to new data, which warns of a possible further spike ahead. It comes at a time when Health Secretary Sajid Javid has dubbed the country “properly post-pandemic.”
Javid on Saturday told The Times newspaper that COVID-19 was “no longer a pandemic,” describing it as “endemic” like the flu and other viruses. “We should be proud as a country of how we tackled it,” he added.
The uptick recorded by the ONS was likely driven by the original Omicron variant BA.1 and the newer variants BA.4 and BA.5.
Sanofi Says Next-Gen COVID Booster Shot Has Potential Against Main Variants
French drugmaker Sanofi (SASY.PA) said on Monday an upgraded version of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate it is developing with GSK (GSK.L) showed potential in two trials to protect against the virus’s main variants of concern, including the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 strains, when used as a booster shot.
While the two companies’ first experimental COVID shot is undergoing review by the European Medicines Agency, Sanofi and GSK have continued work on a vaccine that is molded on the now-supplanted Beta variant, hoping still that it will confer broad protection against future viral mutations.
Sanofi said this new vaccine candidate was shown to significantly boost antibody levels against a number of variants of concern, when given to trial participants who had an initial course of mRNA vaccines, a type made by BioNTech-Pfizer (22UAy.DE)(PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O).
Valneva Shares Plunge as European COVID Vaccine Deal Flounders
Valneva (VLS.PA) shed around a quarter of its market value on Monday after the French drugmaker warned that the future of its COVID-19 vaccine was in jeopardy.
Valneva has been trying to salvage a deal with the European Commission (EC) which has indicated it would terminate an advance purchase agreement for up to 60 million doses.
China Calls COVID ‘Lab Leak’ Theory a Lie After WHO Report + More
China Calls COVID ‘Lab Leak’ Theory a Lie After WHO Report
China on Friday attacked the theory that the coronavirus pandemic may have originated as a leak from a Chinese laboratory as a politically motivated lie, after the World Health Organization recommended in its strongest terms yet that a deeper probe is needed into whether a lab accident may be to blame.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also rejected accusations that China had not fully cooperated with investigators, saying it welcomed a science-based probe but rejected any political manipulation.
He also reiterated calls for an investigation into “highly suspicious laboratories such as Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina” in the United States where China has suggested, without evidence, that the U.S. was developing the coronavirus as a bioweapon.
The WHO’s stance in a report released Thursday is a sharp reversal of the U.N. health agency’s initial assessment of the pandemic’s origins. It comes after many critics accused WHO of being too quick to dismiss or underplay a lab-leak theory that put Chinese officials on the defensive.
Why America Doesn’t Trust the CDC
People don’t trust the CDC. Here’s one example illustrating why. Two weeks ago, with no outcomes data on COVID-19 booster shots for 5-to-11-year-olds, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) vigorously recommended the booster for all 24 million American children in that age group. The CDC cited a small Pfizer study of 140 children that showed boosters elevated their antibody levels — an outcome known to be transitory.
When that study concluded, a Pfizer spokesperson said it did not determine the efficacy of the booster in the 5-to-11-year-olds. But that didn’t matter to the CDC. Seemingly hoping for a different answer, the agency put the matter before its own kangaroo court of curated experts, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
I listened to the meeting, and couldn’t believe what I heard. At times, the committee members sounded like a group of marketing executives. Dr. Beth Bell of the University of Washington said “what we really need to do is to be as consistent and clear and simple as possible,” pointing out that the committee needed “a consistent recommendation which is simple.”
From ‘Open-Minded’ to ‘Underwhelming,’ Mixed Reactions Greet Latest COVID Origin Report
“Further studies needed.” That’s the main message in a preliminary report released today by a scientific advisory group convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) to clarify the cloudy origin of COVID-19. But in stark distinction to a report from an earlier WHO committee, which drew controversy in 2021 by all but dismissing that SARS-CoV-2 might have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, this panel recommends more investigations into the lab-leak scenario possibility.
All hypotheses must remain on the table until we have evidence that enables us to rule certain hypotheses in or out,” said WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a speech today to member states. “This make[s] it all the more urgent that this scientific work be kept separate from politics.”
Initial reactions to the report’s less than conclusive message have been mixed. “It’s open-minded, summarizes what is known but also importantly what still isn’t known, pays attention to source and provenance of data, and suggests some reasonable concrete next steps,” says Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has argued that the lab-leak possibility deserves more serious attention than it has received.
Teen Screen Time Goes Hand in Hand With Wacky Bedtimes During the Pandemic — Girls Spent More Time on Social Media and Boys on Video Games
Early adolescents not only spent more time on screens since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic — they also started going to bed later and sleeping less, according to longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.
Among this group, recreational screen time was up during the first year of the pandemic, with 45 minutes more spent on social media and 20 minutes more on video games, compared with the pre-COVID era. Girls, in particular, gravitated toward increased social media use, whereas boys tended to be the ones spending more time gaming, reported Orsolya Kiss, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at SRI International in Menlo Park, California.
In turn, greater screen time was associated with later bedtimes during the summer of 2020, when morning wake-up times were delayed before returning to normal upon the return to school in the fall. This resulted in a shorter time in bed in the latter part of 2020 and early 2021, Kiss told the attendees of the annual SLEEP meeting, hosted jointly by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.
Sufficient sleep is important to adolescents still undergoing cognitive, physical, social and emotional development. In a study of teenagers ages 14 to 18, one night’s sleep deprivation resulted in worse neurobehavioral performance and sleepiness the next day.
Marathon U.S. Hearings to Decide Fate of COVID Shots for Tots
Parents anxious to finally vaccinate their youngest children against COVID-19, strap in: A lot is set to happen over the next week. On Wednesday, both Moderna and Pfizer will have to convince what’s essentially a science court — advisers to the Food and Drug Administration — that their shots work well in babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
Kids under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. If the agency’s advisers endorse one or both shots for them — and the FDA agrees — there’s still another hurdle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must recommend whether all tots need immunization or just those at high risk from the virus.
Adding to the complexity, each company is offering different dose sizes and numbers of shots. And the week won’t even start with the littlest kid debate: Moderna first will ask FDA’s advisers to support its vaccine for older children.
Only a handful of countries, including China and Cuba, have offered different types of COVID-19 vaccinations to children younger than 5. Here’s a primer to help keep all the developments straight.
Diseases Suppressed During COVID Are Coming Back in New and Peculiar Ways
The COVID-19 pandemic has abated in much of the world and, with it, many of the social restrictions implemented to curb its spread, as people have been eager to return to pre-lockdown life.
But in its place have emerged a series of viruses behaving in new and peculiar ways.
Take seasonal influenza, more commonly known as the flu. The 2020 and 2021 U.S. winter flu seasons were some of the mildest on record both in terms of deaths and hospitalizations. Yet cases ticked up in February and climbed further into the spring and summer as COVID restrictions were stripped back.
And flu is just the beginning.
A Negative COVID Test Has Never Been so Meaningless
In early May, 27-year-old Hayley Furmaniuk felt tired and a bit congested, but after rapid-testing negative for the coronavirus two days in a row, she dined indoors with friends. The next morning, her symptoms worsened. Knowing her parents were driving in for Mother’s Day, she tested again — and saw a very bright positive. Which meant three not-so-great things: She needed to cancel with her parents; she had likely exposed her friends; a test had apparently taken three days to register what her vaccinated body had already figured out.
Tests are not and never have been perfect, but since around the rise of Omicron, the problem of delayed positivity has gained some prominence. In recent months, many people have logged strings of negatives — three, four, even five or more days in a row — early in their COVID-symptom course. “I think it’s become more common,” says Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease physician at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Experts aren’t sure why delayed positives are happening; it’s likely that population immunity, viral mutations, and human behavior all have some role. Regardless, the virus is “acting differently from a symptom perspective for sure,” says Emily Martin, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.
That’s worth paying attention to. The start of symptoms has always been a bit of a two-step: Is it COVID, or not? If SARS-CoV-2 is re-choreographing its moves, we must too — or risk losing our footing.
Does It Seem Like People Are Catching COVID for the First Time Now? Here’s What We Know
The Kansas City Star reported:
Have you recently contracted COVID-19 for the first time during the pandemic? Those who have avoided the virus for more than two years may be disappointed to catch it during the current, relatively mild wave. But there are a variety of factors contributing to this unofficial, anecdotal trend.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist at The University of Kansas Health System, spoke with The Star about these so-called COVID “first-timers” and what we can all do to stay safe. “I’ve heard more and more anecdotes of people who survived two years without having been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and now they are getting infected,” he said in a news briefing.
Hawkinson added that while retrospective data about “first-timers” may be available in the future, it would likely take a year or more to gather and report.
Are These Cocoa Krispies-Loving Hamsters a Key to Cracking Long COVID?
In late 2020, Justin Frere, a wiry M.D./Ph.D. student dressed in head-to-toe white Tyvek, picked up a clear pipette, methodically reached into the cages of 30 unsuspecting, sedated hamsters and drip-dropped 1,000 infectious coronavirus particles down each of their nostrils.
Then, he waited. Days for some. A whole month for others.
The waiting was essential. His goal was to make a tool experts say will be critical to understanding and perhaps one day effectively treating long COVID, the debilitating and still scarcely understood constellation of symptoms that afflict many COVID-19 patients long after their initial infection has passed.
Frere and his adviser, New York University virologist Benjamin tenOever, were trying to make one of the first animal models for long COVID. They reported the first results from the experiment this week in Science Translational Medicine, showing the hamsters mimic some symptoms and molecular changes observed in humans and pointing to several plausible explanations for the disease.
U.K. Plans to Burn Billions in Wasted Pandemic Protective Gear
The British government plans to burn billions of pounds (dollars) in unusable personal protective equipment purchased in haste during the coronavirus pandemic, a public spending watchdog said Friday.
The idea of burning the face masks, gowns and other equipment to generate power has not impressed the watchdog committee. The panel is investigating how the government came to spend 4 billion pounds ($5 billion) on protective gear that has to be dumped because it is defective or does not meet U.K. standards.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said the government planned to dispose of 15,000 pallets a month of the gear “via a combination of recycling and burning to generate power.”
Vaccines for Littlest Kids Have Already Flopped + More
Vaccines for the Littlest Kids Have Already Flopped
Next week, the FDA and CDC are expected to finally, finally green-light two vaccines for kids under 5 — a milestone that millions of parents have been waiting for since their own adult shots came through. But reality won’t match the vision many once had of this moment.
Closer to the pandemic’s start, when the vaccines were fresh and inoculation lines still stretched impossibly long, an idealized version of herd immunity still seemed possible; maybe, just maybe, vaccinating some 60% to 90% of Americans — including a hefty fraction of the nation’s 74 million kids — would quash the outbreak for good.
For months, the number of Americans who opted for their initial doses has held at just above 250 million, or about 79% of the population. And those numbers are unlikely to budge: A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that less than a fifth of parents are eager to vaccinate their infants and toddlers right away, with the rest unsure about the shots or outright opposed.
During the delays in rolling out COVID vaccines for infants and toddlers, doubts about the shots ballooned, and misinformation seeped into data gaps. Parents watched SARS-CoV-2 hopscotch through their families.
FDA Decision on Novavax’s COVID Shots Could Be Delayed to Review Changes in Manufacturing
The Food and Drug Administration needs to review changes to Novavax’s manufacturing process before it can authorize the biotech company’s COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., an agency spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The FDA’s committee of independent vaccine experts on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to recommend Novavax’s vaccine for use in the U.S., after an all-day meeting in which they reviewed data on the shot’s safety and its effectiveness at preventing COVID.
The FDA, in a statement to CNBC, said Novavax informed the agency of changes to its manufacturing process on June 3, days before the committee was scheduled to review its vaccine’s safety and efficacy data.
Novavax, in a statement, said it shared updated information with the FDA about improvements to its manufacturing process. The biotech company wouldn’t provide any further specifics.
Officials: Millions of COVID Shots Ordered for Youngest
Millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses have been ordered for small children in anticipation of possible federal authorization next week, White House officials say. The government allowed pharmacies and states to start placing orders last week, with 5 million doses initially available — half of the shots made by Pfizer and the other half the vaccine produced by Moderna, senior administration officials said.
As of this week, about 1.45 million of the 2.5 million available doses of Pfizer have been ordered, and about 850,000 of available Moderna shots have been ordered, officials said. More orders are expected in the coming days.
It’s not clear how popular the shots will be. A recent survey suggests only 1 in 5 parents of young children would get their kids vaccinated right away. And public health officials have been disappointed at how many older U.S. children, who have been eligible for shots for months, have yet to be vaccinated: Less than one-third of kids ages 5 to 11 have gotten the two recommended doses, according to government figures.
An FDA advisory committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday and Wednesday to review data from the two companies. Officials say they expect an FDA decision shortly after that meeting. A CDC advisory committee is scheduled for next Friday and Saturday, with a CDC decision expected soon after.
Pandemic’s Origins Obscured by Lack of Chinese Data — WHO Panel
The World Health Organization said on Thursday its latest investigation into the origins of COVID-19 was inconclusive, largely because data from China is missing, another blow to its years-long effort to determine how the pandemic began.
The missing data, especially from China, where the first cases were reported in December 2019, meant it was not possible to identify exactly how the virus was first transmitted to humans.
The findings are likely to add to doubts it will be possible to determine how and where the virus emerged.
U.S. Has a ‘Very Serious’ Problem With COVID Vaccine Uptake
The United States has a “very serious” problem with COVID-19 vaccination uptake, a top health official has warned.
Unlike many less developed countries, the U.S. has enough doses to vaccinate everyone as well as the necessary infrastructure to support the rollout. The problem: not everyone wants the shot.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 48.7% of people over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated and received at least one booster dose in the U.S.
That is a lower rate than in other countries with similar access to vaccines. For example, 69.6% of people over the age of 12 have been boosted in the United Kingdom and 55.5% in Canada. Across the 27 European Union countries, 62.6% of adults have been boosted.
White House Expects COVID Vaccine Orders for Children Under 5 to Pick up
Pre-orders of vaccines for children under age 5 have been slow, but Biden administration senior officials say they are not alarmed and expect the pace to pick up after federal approvals later this month.
The administration expects vaccinations of young children to begin in earnest as early as June 21, if the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approve the vaccines in separate meetings slated for next week, officials told reporters on Wednesday.
The vaccines will be distributed to pediatricians, children’s hospitals, local pharmacies and local health clinics, officials said. Thus far, 58% of the available 2.5 million Pfizer vaccines have been ordered and just 34% of the Moderna vaccines, officials said.
America Begins Rationing COVID Resources
With existing pandemic funds dwindling and no new money from Congress in sight, the Biden administration is redistributing $10 billion from testing and other preparedness programs to ensure new COVID vaccines and existing treatments remain available this fall.
With Congress unwilling to approve new spending, the White House is making tough choices to avoid being caught short if new, more dangerous COVID variants emerge.
The Biden administration is redirecting $5 billion to purchase doses of updated versions of the vaccine for the fall.
Another $4.9 billion will be redirected to buy 10 million courses of Pfizer‘s Paxlovid oral antiviral treatment, while $300 million will be reallocated for more monoclonal antibody treatments, the official said.
Two New Omicron Subvariants Gain Ground in U.S.
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading rapidly in the United States, but it’s not yet clear if they’ll trigger a new wave of infections or a surge in hospitalizations and deaths, experts say.
The subvariants now account for 13% of new coronavirus cases nationwide, compared with 7.5% a week ago and 1% in early May, according to new estimates released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That suggests that BA.4 and BA.5 could outcompete two other Omicron subvariants, BA.2 and BA.2.12.1, which together account for most cases at the moment, according to Denis Nash, epidemiologist, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy.
WHO: COVID Cases and Deaths Falling Nearly Everywhere
The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported globally fell everywhere last week except in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the continuing decline of COVID-19, which peaked in January, as “a very encouraging trend.” Still, he warned that the pandemic was not yet over and urged caution, even as many countries have dropped their coronavirus protocols and shifted into trying to live with the virus.
Americans Keep Getting Reinfected With COVID as New Variants Emerge + More
Americans Keep Getting Reinfected With COVID as New Variants Emerge, Data Shows
Despite a rather unpleasant bout with COVID-19 this past January, Jennifer McDonnell was relieved to think that she, and her family, could finally return to normal life, with a potentially strong immune protection stemming from both vaccination and past infection.
“We had been cautious, but once we [got COVID-19] we thought, ‘We’re good,’” McDonnell, who lives in Illinois, told ABC News. “We were vaccinated, boosted. We had natural immunity. We thought that we didn’t need to wear a mask.”
However, four months later, McDonnell was met with an unwelcome surprise, when she awoke in the middle of the night to a high-grade fever and a sore throat. Now, three weeks after testing positive, McDonnell said that she still does not feel like herself, with this second round of COVID-19 feeling “way worse” than the first.
Moderna’s New Omicron-Targeting COVID Vaccine Is Company’s ‘Lead Candidate’ for a Fall Booster
Moderna released data Wednesday showing its newest combination COVID-19 vaccine protects against the highly transmissible Omicron variant, calling the vaccine its “lead candidate” for a booster this fall.
The new booster, called mRNA-1273.214, combines the company’s original vaccine with one designed to target the Omicron variant. Results from a trial involving 437 people showed the combination booster was more protective against Omicron and earlier variants compared to the original vaccine.
In April, the company announced results showing another combination booster candidate targeting the Beta variant protected well against a range of coronavirus variants, including the Beta, Delta and Omicron variants.
Moderna chief executive officer Stéphane Bancel appeared to favor the Omicron-targeting combination booster in a company statement released Wednesday.
As White House Continues to Push Jabs for Kids, FL Surgeon General Questions Safety
As we’ve noted for some time, COVID-19 vaccines have limited efficacy vs. the dominant (and thankfully more mild) strain, Omicron — with CDC researchers finding in one study that Pfizer‘s jab was just 20% effective against symptomatic illness after 60 days for those aged 12-15 years old, and 0% effective after five months.
One Danish study from the University of Copenhagen found that Omicron actually spreads faster in vaccinated individuals vs. Delta, the previous dominant strain.
Yet, despite clear and convincing evidence that Omicron is mild compared to its predecessor strains, the Biden administration continues to peddle fear. As Stanford health policy professor Jay Bhattacharya wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday — White House COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha is engaging in “scare-mongering about the danger of COVID to children.”
On Friday, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo openly questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. During a press conference to announce an agreement with the Special Olympics to lift a vaccine mandate, the Florida Department of Health boss said: “People will say oh, you know, millions of people have taken these vaccines, they must be safe,” adding “Well, you can’t know the answer to that when it is taboo to talk about having a reaction after vaccines.”
U.S. Diverts COVID Funds to Secure Vaccines Amid Stalemate
The Biden administration said Wednesday that a funding crunch is forcing it to divert more than $10 billion in coronavirus relief from test procurement and other efforts as it tries to come up with the money to secure the next generation of vaccines and treatments for some high-risk Americans.
The White House said it has been left with “no choice” but to cut back on orders of at-home rapid tests that have supported a domestic manufacturing base for the easy diagnostic tests. It also is scaling back funding for research and development of new COVID-19 vaccines and limiting orders of personal protective equipment in an effort to maintain some stockpiles of vaccines and treatments for Americans heading into the winter.
Even then, the Democratic administration says, there will only be enough money available to provide treatments and vaccines to some people. It urged Congress to act to provide enough money to secure doses for all who might want or need them.
Biden Administration Seeks to Suppress Hospital Safety Data
Consumer groups are pushing back against a Biden administration proposal that would block public access to key hospital safety data such as infection rates, falls and incidence of bed sores.
Medicare is accepting comments from the public through June 17 on the rule, saying it is proposing the data suppression “due to the impact of the COVID-19 [public health emergency.]”
“The public has a right to know what happened during the pandemic. We have a right to know when lives are at risk and which hospitals did the best job of protecting their patients,” said Leah Binder, CEO of the Leapfrog Group, an organization that grades hospital care.
A number of studies have shown an increase during the pandemic in preventable hospital-acquired infections, including central line infections.
Hopkins Doctor: This COVID Surge Not as Bad as the Last but Prepare for Another. And Monkeypox.
The country’s latest COVID-19 surge appears to have crested well before reaching anywhere near the pandemic peak seen in January. But the pandemic isn’t done, and new variants already are emerging around the country that could mean another wave this summer or fall and everyone ought to be ready.
So says Dr. Tom Inglesby, a public health expert who just returned to his post at Johns Hopkins University from a COVID-19 advisory position at the White House.
Inglesby said there could be another surge over the summer, as two newer Omicron sub-variants — BA4 and BA5 — have taken root around the country, supplanting the B2.12.1 sub-variant now fueling cases. He and others already say emerging patterns suggest there will be a fall or winter surge.
Inglesby said the nation also needs to better prepare for more cases of monkeypox, a disease that isn’t normally found in the United States. It began emerging after cases were discovered last month in the United Kingdom.
COVID Airborne Transmission v. Monkeypox: Key Differences Between Viruses
More than 1,000 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed around the world in several countries where the disease is not usually found — including the United States — raising questions about how the virus is spreading.
But can monkeypox, a rare disease that is usually restricted to parts of Central and West Africa, spread via airborne transmission like the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic?
SARS-CoV-2 spreads through exposure to respiratory fluids containing the infectious virus, and, while it was not clear in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we now know that this can include aerosols.
With monkeypox, however, not much is known about whether or not the disease can spread via airborne aerosols, although this does not seem to be the primary route of transmission.
COVID Might Raise Odds for Psychiatric Disorders Later: Study
U.S. News & World Report reported:
People who’ve been through a bout of COVID may be more vulnerable to mental health disorders in the months following their infection, a new study warns.
Researchers analyzed data on more than 46,000 people in the United States who tested positive for COVID-19 and an equal number of people with other types of respiratory infections. None had a previous known psychiatric disorder.
COVID-19 patients were about 25% more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition in the four months after their infection than those with other types of respiratory infections (3.8% vs. 3%), the study found.
When they focused on anxiety and mood disorders, the investigators discovered a minor but significant increase in risk for anxiety disorders among COVID-19 patients, but no increased risk of mood disorders.
Hospital Studying Long-Term Effects of COVID in Kids
Adriana Vaughan tested positive for COVID-19 in October 2021. Eight months later, the 12-year-old has a string of new medical issues: fatigue, headaches, stomach problems and more.
Vaughan is one of more than 70 kids being treated in the long COVID clinic at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Dr. Alexandra Yonts, an infectious disease specialist who runs the clinic, said fatigue is the top complaint among patients young and old.
“Kids tend to have less respiratory complaints and more gastrointestinal symptoms,” she said of how their symptoms are different than adults.
China Fears Wind Is Blowing COVID Virus in From North Korea
Officials in a Chinese city on the border with North Korea say they can’t figure out where persistent new COVID-19 infections are coming from — and suspect the wind blowing in from their secretive neighbor.
Despite being locked down since the end of April, daily cases have been trending up in Dandong, a city of 2.19 million. Most of the infected people found in the community during the past week hadn’t been outside of their housing compounds for at least four days prior to their diagnosis, according to the city’s Center for Disease Control.
While the virus is flaring elsewhere in China, including in its northern regions, officials say they’re unable to establish a chain of transmission. Their suspicions have instead settled on their neighbor, with authorities urging residents living by the Yalu River that runs between the two countries to close their windows on days with southerly winds, according to a government notice.
COVID Vaccine Rights Waiver Within Reach, WTO Chief Says Ahead of Meeting
An international agreement on waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines is within reach ahead of a global trade meeting next week, the head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday.
Since she was appointed more than a year ago, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian minister and chair of the GAVI vaccine alliance board, has prioritized a long-sought deal on a waiver for intellectual property rights for COVID-19 shots.