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Biden Has Tested Positive for COVID and Is Fully Vaccinated and Boosted. Just 22.7% of Americans His Age Have Kept up to Date With Their Shots.

Insider reported:

President Joe Biden — who is fully boosted and vaccinatedtested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, becoming the second U.S. president to get infected by the virus.

And as the country sees a steady rise in daily new COVID-19 infections, just 22.7% of Americans in his age bracket have kept up to date with their vaccination shots, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a Thursday statement, the White House said Biden has begun taking the treatment drug Paxlovid.

U.S. health officials have continued to stress the importance of staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations as the country battles a rise in cases fueled by the infectious Omicron subvariant BA. 5, which infectious disease experts say can reinfect those who already had COVID-19.

New York City COVID Cases Surge as Unvaccinated Take the Brunt

ABC News reported:

COVID-19 cases are continuing to surge in New York City and unvaccinated residents are bearing the brunt. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, as of Wednesday, the Big Apple has a seven-day case rate of 369.8 per 100,000, the second-highest rate in the United States, only behind California.

Doctors say that more than a year-and-a-half into the vaccine rollout, the majority of those getting sick, hospitalized and dying are unvaccinated people.

“The BA. 5 variant is accounting for a significant number of infections,” said Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of the division of infectious diseases at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine. “This almost all certainly due to BA.5.”

Evidence has shown that BA.5 is better at evading protection from both vaccines and previous infection including antibodies from BA.1 — the original Omicron variant — and BA.2, the first subvariant.

Could Vaccines Make Omicron Infection Worse? Scientists Weigh in on Antibody-Dependent Enhancement

The Epoch Times reported:

Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE) happens when non-neutralizing antibodies generated from vaccination exacerbate viral infection, making the disease the vaccine is supposed to prevent worse for some people.

Of particular note was an article by an international team of scientists, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. This article outlined the characteristics and mechanisms of ADE, before the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out.

The scientists explained that “ADE and ERD (enhanced respiratory disease) have been reported for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV both in vitro and in vivo.”

We know now that it is common for people vaccinated against COVID-19 to be infected and re-infected by SARS-CoV-2. The antibodies generated from the vaccines are not sterilizing (that is, they are not clearing infection), and are non-neutralizing.

What Are the COVID BA.5 Symptoms? Everything About the New Variant

Newsweek reported:

As COVID Omicron BA.5 continues to spread in the U.S., some may be wondering if the variant might cause distinct symptoms that set it apart from other Omicron variants.

Scientists think that BA.5 is even more transmissible than the already highly-infectious earlier forms of the Omicron variant. However, there are still many unknowns, such as whether or not it causes more severe disease.

There have been reports that BA.5 might be causing slightly different symptoms from earlier Omicron types.

Professor Luke O’Neill from Trinity College Dublin told an Irish radio station recently that “one extra symptom from BA.5 I saw this morning is night sweats,” according to the British newspaper The Independent.

Officials Reorganize HHS to Boost Pandemic Response

The Washington Post reported:

The Biden administration is reorganizing the federal health department to create an independent division that would lead the nation’s pandemic response, amid frustrations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The move elevates a roughly 1,000-person team — known as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, or ASPR — into a separate division, charged with coordinating the nation’s response to health emergencies, according to seven people briefed on the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.

The reorganization allows the division “to mobilize a coordinated national response more quickly and stably during future disasters and emergencies while equipping us with greater hiring and contracting capabilities,” Dawn O’Connell, who leads ASPR and would run the new division, wrote to staff members Wednesday afternoon.

Feds Pay NYC $4B in COVID Relief Funds After Push From Sen. Schumer

New York Daily News reported:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid New York City $4 billion in COVID relief funds after a push from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

The cash covers spending for personal protective equipment and to run testing, vaccination and emergency operation centers in the five boroughs, Schumer said Thursday.

The reimbursement comes before the end of the city’s fiscal year, beating a crucial deadline for officials to plan for future fights against the virulent BA.5 sub-variant and other strains of the deadly virus.

‘I’m Over It.’ Many in LA Shrug off COVID Wave Despite Super-Infectious Subvariants

Los Angeles Times reported:

As summertime temperatures flirted with 100 degrees this week, families and teenagers crowded into the indoor mall, soothed by its air conditioning. But there was nary a mask in sight, even though coronavirus infections are skyrocketing because of the ultra-infectious Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Amid the carefree atmosphere, few seemed concerned.

The number of coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized in L.A. County as of Wednesday was 1,328 — up 44% from two weeks ago. But the majority of those patients — about 60%, according to public health officials — were hospitalized for other medical issues while testing positive for the disease.

The virus — which is widespread and overwhelmingly causing mild illness right now — simply does not scare people like it used to.

WHO Again Considers Declaring Monkeypox a Global Emergency

Associated Press reported:

As the World Health Organization’s emergency committee convened Thursday to consider for the second time within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists said the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.

African officials say they are already treating the continent’s epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can’t be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.

There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases worldwide. While the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has already killed more than 70 people. Rich countries haven’t yet reported any monkeypox deaths.