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‘A Cry for Help’: CDC Warns of a Steep Decline in Teen Mental Health
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of an accelerating mental health crisis among adolescents, with more than 4 in 10 teens reporting that they feel “persistently sad or hopeless,” and 1 in 5 saying they have contemplated suicide, according to the results of a survey published Thursday.
“These data echo a cry for help,” said Debra Houry, a deputy director at the CDC. “The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental well-being.”
The findings draw on a survey of a nationally representative sample of 7,700 teens conducted in the first six months of 2021, when they were in the midst of their first full pandemic school year. They were questioned on a range of topics, including their mental health, alcohol and drug use, and whether they had encountered violence at home or at school. They were also asked whether they had encountered racism.
Pregnant People at Much Higher Risk of Breakthrough COVID, Study Shows
Pregnant people who are vaccinated against the coronavirus are nearly twice as likely to get COVID-19 as those who are not pregnant, according to a new study that offers the broadest evidence to date of the odds of infections among vaccinated patients with different medical circumstances.
The analysis, based on medical records of nearly 14 million U.S. patients since coronavirus immunization became available, found that pregnant people who are vaccinated have the greatest risk of developing COVID among a dozen medical states, including being an organ transplant recipient and having cancer.
The analysis found that the 110,000 pregnant individuals included in the study were 90 percent more likely to have been infected with coronavirus than the same number of people who were not pregnant.
The findings do not explain the reason behind the risk levels. Denise Jamieson, a specialist in infectious diseases during pregnancy, called the high risk of infection among vaccinated pregnant people an “interesting and intriguing finding.”
WHO Unveils Plan to End Global COVID Emergency in 2022
The World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a new strategic plan on Wednesday that lays out a path toward ending the global emergency of COVID-19.
In its third strategic preparedness and response plan on COVID-19, the WHO acknowledged the pandemic remains an acute global crisis but charted a path to end the global emergency if key measures are implemented rapidly.
The organization outlined two key objectives: reducing coronavirus infections and diagnosing and treating COVID-19 cases effectively to reduce deaths. The WHO said that can be achieved by increased surveillance and monitoring, improving global vaccine equity, bolstering healthcare systems and supplies, as well as upgrading research and data analyses.
Many People Eligible for Second Booster Shot Don’t Need to Race, Experts Say
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized a second COVID-19 booster shot for people ages 50 and older, but several public health experts said younger, healthier members of that group don’t necessarily need a fourth shot as soon as they become eligible.
“This is one of those where I don’t think anyone needs to race,” Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told NBC’s “TODAY” show on Wednesday. “This is one of those things where people should think thoughtfully.”
While older adults and those with underlying health conditions should seriously consider the newly available booster soon, others could determine the timing based on their own risks and circumstances, said Dr. Prathit Kulkarni, an infectious disease expert and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, who described a sliding scale of vaccination need.
In About Half of U.S. Counties, Less Than 10% of Children Ages 5 to 11 Are Fully Vaccinated Against COVID
The youngest group eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the U.S., children ages 5 to 11, is also the least vaccinated one.
In about half of U.S. counties, less than 10% of children 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, according to a CNN analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Even though they’ve been eligible for vaccination for nearly five months, less than 28% of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated. Of more than 3,100 counties in the U.S., only a few dozen have fully vaccinated more than half of this age group.
Biden Warns U.S. Won’t Have Enough COVID Vaccine Shots This Fall if Congress Fails to Pass Funding
President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the U.S. will not have enough COVID vaccine shots this fall to ensure free and easy access for all Americans if Congress fails to pass the $22.5 billion in additional funding the administration has requested.
Biden said the U.S. has enough supply to ensure people eligible for fourth shots have access to them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week recommended an additional Pfizer or Moderna dose for people ages 50 and older, as well as certain younger individuals who have compromised immune systems.
Biden also warned the U.S. will not have the money to surge testing, monoclonal antibody treatments and antiviral pills if another COVID wave sweeps the U.S.
The president also unveiled a new government website, COVID.gov, where Americans can find out where they can obtain masks, tests, vaccines and treatments.
COVID Pandemic’s End May Bring Turbulence for U.S. Healthcare
When the end of the COVID-19 pandemic comes, it could create major disruptions for a cumbersome U.S. healthcare system made more generous, flexible and up-to-date technologically through a raft of temporary emergency measures.
The array of issues is tied to the coronavirus public health emergency first declared more than two years ago and periodically renewed since then. It’s set to end on April 16 and the expectation is that the Biden administration will extend it through mid-July. Some would like a longer off-ramp.
Transitions don’t bode well for the complex U.S. healthcare system, with its mix of private and government insurance and its labyrinth of policies and procedures. Healthcare chaos, if it breaks out, could create midterm election headaches for Democrats and Republicans alike.
Why People Are Acting So Weird
Everyone is acting so weird! The most obvious recent weirdness was when Will Smith smacked Chris Rock at the Oscars. But if you look closely, people have been behaving badly on smaller stages for months now.
During the pandemic, disorderly, rude and unhinged conduct seems to have caught on as much as bread baking and Bridgerton. Bad behavior of all kinds — everything from rudeness and carelessness to physical violence — has increased, as the journalist Matt Yglesias pointed out in a Substack essay earlier this year.
Americans are driving more recklessly, crashing their cars and killing pedestrians at higher rates. Early 2021 saw the highest number of “unruly passenger” incidents ever, according to the FAA. In February, a plane bound for Washington, DC, had to make an emergency landing in Kansas City, Missouri, after a man tried to break into the cockpit.
One likely explanation for the spike in bad behavior is the rage, frustration and stress coursing through society right now.
Missouri Governor Declares `the COVID Crisis Is Over’
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday declared “the COVID-19 crisis is over,” announcing that the state will soon begin handling the coronavirus like influenza and other ongoing diseases that occasionally flare up.
Parson said the state will officially start treating the coronavirus as an endemic on Friday. One result is that the public will receive less frequent updates about the number of deaths, hospitalizations and cases attributed to COVID-19.
“The COVID-19 crisis is over in the state of Missouri, and we are moving on,” the Republican governor said at a Capitol news conference, a little over two years since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
Novavax Asks EU Regulator to Clear COVID Vaccine for Teens
The pharmaceutical developer Novavax says it has asked the European Medicines Agency to extend the authorization of its coronavirus vaccine to children aged 12 to 17 amid a surge of disease across the continent.
In a statement on Thursday, Novavax said its request is based on data from research in more than 2,200 adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the U.S., which found its vaccine to be about 80% effective against COVID-19. The study was done when the Delta variant was the predominant virus in the U.S. The main side effects reported were pain at the injection site, headache and tiredness.
The EMA has previously OK’ed vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for use in children from age 6.
U.S. CDC Scraps COVID Warning for Cruise Travel After 2 Years
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday removed its COVID-19 notice against cruise travel, around two years after introducing a warning scale showing the level of coronavirus transmission risk on cruise ships.
The move offers a shot of hope to major U.S. cruise operators such as Carnival Corp (CCL.N), Royal Caribbean Group (RCL.N), and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH.N) that have struggled to bring in revenue since the pandemic started.
Cruise operators had also said the health agency was discriminating against the industry, when hotels and airlines could operate with limited or no restrictions.
Analysis: Governments Want COVID Vaccine Developers to Aim Higher in Hunt for Better Shots
As governments prepare to live with COVID-19, some are questioning how much to rely on drugmakers to adapt vaccines to ward off future virus variants amid signs of tension between companies and regulators over the best approach, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
Some vaccine experts say government agencies should fund and help develop a new generation of COVID shots, and seek innovation from smaller developers, as they did to identify current vaccines.
Some health officials question whether companies that have reaped tens of billions of dollars from first-generation COVID shots and stand to earn billions more from repeated boosters are willing to spend the money to find vaccines offering much broader and longer-lasting protection, which could take years.
Early Use of High-Titer Plasma Reduced COVID Hospitalizations
In a largely unvaccinated population, high-titer convalescent plasma given early after the development of COVID-19 reduced hospitalizations, a randomized controlled trial showed.
COVID-19-related hospitalization or death within 28 days occurred in 2.9% of transfusion recipients compared with 6.3% of recipients of control plasma (P=0.005), for a relative 54% risk reduction that was entirely accounted for by hospitalization.
The magnitude of the effect was on par with that of monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 during the Alpha variant wave, noted David J. Sullivan, MD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“We encourage healthcare professionals to keep SARS-CoV-2 antibody-rich blood plasma available in their blood banks as part of the treatment arsenal against early-stage COVID-19,” Sullivan said in a statement.
