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Americans’ Optimism About COVID Plunges, Poll Finds — but They’re Still Getting Back to Normal Anyway

Forbes via MSN reported:

Americans’ outlook on the COVID-19 pandemic has become increasingly pessimistic in recent months, a new Gallup poll found, with a growing share believing things are getting worse instead of better — but despite thinking they’re now more at risk for catching the virus, Americans are taking fewer precautions and more are getting back to their normal lives.

The poll, conducted from July 26 to August 2, found that 41% of U.S. adults believe the coronavirus situation in the U.S. is “getting better,” down from 63% in April.

The share of those who believe it’s getting worse has gone up from 15% to 30%, while the percentage of those saying it’s “staying about the same” has gone from 21% to 29%.

While most Americans (55%) said their lives are only “somewhat” back to normal compared with pre-pandemic and 56% still report their lives being disrupted by COVID-19, the share of those saying their lives are “completely” back to how they were went up from 21% in April to 24% now.

FDA Authorizes Monkeypox Vaccines for Emergency Use

Axios reported:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization on Tuesday for the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine to allow intradermal injection for people 18 years and older who are at high risk for infection.

The alternative approach lets healthcare providers stretch out vaccine supplies, by administering one-fifth of the Jynneos shot into the skin rather than injecting a full dose into underlying fat.

Facing vaccine shortages and almost 9,000 U.S. cases, the agency says the authorization will increase the number of available doses by up to five-fold while maintaining the same level of efficacy.

The authorization also allows people younger than 18 who are at high risk of infection to access vaccines. People will still need to get two doses four weeks apart for full protection.

New Booster for COVID: Here’s the Fall 2022 Vaccine Plan

CNET reported:

The U.S. government is expected to roll out vaccine boosters based on need: People most at risk will be eligible for a new booster first, with other groups following in an order still to be determined by health officials.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday announced that it had ordered 66 million doses of Moderna‘s bivalent booster candidate, purchased with reallocated money meant for other COVID-19 resources as health officials have failed to secure more funding from Congress.

While the U.S. has also secured a previous order of 105 million doses of Pfizer, that isn’t enough doses for all people in the U.S., the HHS said in the press release. Agreements with both vaccine companies would open up millions more doses, but this “can only be exercised” with more funding from Congress.

All Children Aged 1 to 9 in London to Be Offered Polio Vaccine Booster

The Guardian reported:

All children aged one to nine in London should receive a polio vaccination in the coming weeks, public health experts have said, as a new booster program was announced.

The U.K. Health Security Agency said that, since early February, 116 polioviruses had been identified in 19 sewage samples from boroughs in north-east and central London including Barnet, Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.

Experts say it is unclear how many people may have been infected but that, to date, no cases of polio — or related paralysis — had been reported.

While a small number of polioviruses are detected in sewage in the U.K. each year, the large number detected over recent months is unusual and appears to reflect the transmission of the virus in the community.

U.K. Will ‘Run out of Monkeypox Vaccine in 10 to 20 Days’

The Guardian reported:

The U.K. will run out of the monkeypox vaccine despite having one of the biggest number of cases worldwide, triggering warnings that the illness could become endemic.

The country looks likely to exhaust stocks of the vaccine in the next two to three weeks, and then face a delay of almost a month before the next supplies arrive in late September.

The U.S. Is on a COVID Plateau, and No One’s Sure What Will Happen Next

CNN Health reported:

The United States seems to have hit a COVID-19 plateau, with more than 40,000 people hospitalized and more than 400 deaths a day consistently over the past month or so.  And there are big question marks around what might happen next, as the coronavirus’ evolution remains quite elusive 2.5 years into the pandemic.

“We’ve never really cracked that: why these surges go up and down, how long it stays up and how fast it comes down,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research. “All these things are still somewhat of a mystery.”

BA.5 remains the dominant subvariant in the U.S. for now, causing most new cases as it has since the last week of June.

It’s hummed along at a high level because it continues to find people whose immunity from vaccination or infection has waned over time — something that will continue to happen, said William Hanage, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Most COVID Patients Who Lose Sense of Smell Regain It Within 2 Years

U.S. News & World Report reported:

One of the most disturbing symptoms of COVID-19 has been the sudden loss of taste and smell. Worryingly, some people don’t regain these senses after recovering from their infection, raising the question of whether they’d ever again be able to taste and smell.

Now there’s good news on that front — about 9 out of 10 patients will regain those senses within two years of their COVID infection, a new study reports.

Tracking about 170 Italian COVID patients who’d all lost their sense of smell or taste, researchers led by Dr. Paolo Boscolo-Rizzo, from the University of Trieste in Italy, found that those senses had returned in 89%.

New Langya Virus That May Have Spilled Over From Animals Infects Dozens

The Washington Post reported:

An international team of scientists identified a new virus that was likely to have been transmitted to humans after it first infected animals, in another potential zoonotic spillover less than three years into the coronavirus pandemic.

A peer-reviewed study published in the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the discovery of the Langya virus after it was observed in 35 patient samples collected in two eastern Chinese provinces.

The researchers — based in China, Singapore and Australia — did not find evidence that the virus was transmitted between people, citing in part the small sample size available. But they hypothesized that shrews, small mammals that subsist on insects, could have hosted the virus before it infected humans.

The first Langya virus sample was detected in late 2018 from a farmer in Shandong province who sought treatment for a fever. Over a roughly two-year period, 34 other people were found to have been infected in Shandong and neighboring Henan, with the vast majority being farmers.

South Africa’s Aspen to Halt COVID Vaccine Output as J&J Orders Dry up

Reuters reported:

South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare (APNJ.J) will stop making COVID-19 vaccines from the end of this month due to a lack of orders, a senior executive said, further undermining Africa’s already meager capacity to produce doses.

Aspen currently produces vaccines for Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N). In March, it struck a deal to produce, price, and sell its own-brand version of the shot for African markets.

That deal was considered a game-changer for a continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts. But, while only a fifth of adults in Africa are fully vaccinated, according to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, demand for shots has failed to materialize.

Aspen has had no orders for its Aspenovax vaccine and has not received orders from Johnson & Johnson beyond August.

EU Regulator Begins Review of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Variant-Adapted COVID Shot

Reuters reported:

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has started a rolling review of a variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech (22UAy.DE), it said on Tuesday.

The so-called bivalent vaccine targets two strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus behind COVID — the original strain first identified in China, and the Omicron offshoots BA.4/5 that are currently behind most cases in Europe.

A rolling review means the EMA assesses the data as it becomes available, and the process continues until there is enough data for a formal marketing application.

Last month, the EMA said it had begun a rolling review of another version of the companies’ shot which targets the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and Omicron subvariant BA.1.