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Eating Disorders Among Teen Girls Doubled During Pandemic, CDC Study Shows
Emergency room visits for eating disorders among 12- to 17-year-old girls doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a troubling existing trend that was likely worsened by the stress of living through the prolonged crisis.
Among teen girls, aged 12 to 17, ER visits for eating disorders and tic disorders increased in both 2020 and 2021. There were also more visits for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder among teen girls in 2021.
There were also increases in ER visits related to behavioral health conditions among children 5 to 17, including self-harm, drug poisonings, socioeconomic and psychosocial concerns, and — among adolescents only — symptoms of mental health conditions and substance use.
Sudden Hearing Loss After COVID Shot: Slight Risk or Just Noise?
U.S. data continued to show no association between sudden sensorineural hearing loss and COVID-19 vaccines, but a population-based study in Israel hinted at something different.
Data from Israel, also published in JAMA Otolaryngology, suggested a slight increased risk of sudden sensorineural hearing loss after a Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) shot.
“Together, these two studies involving almost 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses suggest that further investigation of the potential association between COVID-19 vaccination and sudden sensorineural hearing loss may be warranted,” wrote Angela Ulrich, PhD, MPH, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and co-authors in an accompanying editorial.
Anxiety, Depression Rampant Among Children Even Before the Pandemic
An extensive new look at anxiety and depression among children and teenagers finds the mental health concerns were a major public health problem even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that 1 in 5 teenagers in the United States had at some point experienced an episode of major depression: unshakeable and worrisome feelings of sadness and hopelessness lasting for at least two weeks.
The report didn’t include, however, data from 2020 onward, a time that saw startling increases in stress and anxiety among children due to the pandemic. A previous CDC report found that emergency room visits related to children’s mental health rose dramatically in 2020, compared with 2019.
The mental health problems detailed in the new CDC report go far beyond typical teenage moodiness that comes and goes. Nearly 1 in 5 teens had seriously considered dying by suicide. About 7 in 100,000 children and teens, 10 to 19 years old, died by suicide in 2018 and 2019.
FDA Ups Dose of Preventive COVID Therapy Due to Omicron Subvariants
A higher initial dose of the monoclonal antibody combination tixagevimab-cilgavimab (Evusheld) may be needed to prevent cases of Omicron subvariants, BA.1 and BA.1.1, the FDA announced on Thursday.
The agency revised the emergency use authorization (EUA) to increase the initial dosing regimen from a 150 mg injection of each drug separately to a 300 mg injection of each drug.
This treatment is indicated as COVID pre-exposure prophylaxis for individuals ages 12 and up who are either moderately or severely immunocompromised and may not mount an adequate response to COVID vaccination, or individuals who are allergic to components of the vaccines.
CDC Relaxes Mask Guidelines for 70% of U.S. as COVID Cases Fall
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday it would change its recommendations to remove or ease mask mandates in communities it deems at lower risk of COVID-19 spread.
Under the new guidelines, more than half of counties in the United States will be reclassified as low or medium risk. About 70% of the U.S. population lives in these counties, CDC officials told reporters.
The guidelines will remove indoor mask requirements in the lower-risk counties, including in schools.
Canada Authorizes First Plant-Based COVID Vaccine
Canada has become the first country to authorize use of a plant-based COVID-19 vaccine. Canadian regulators said Thursday Medicago’s two-dose vaccine can be given to adults ages 18 to 64, but said there’s too little data on the shots in people 65 and older.
The decision was based on a study of 24,000 adults that found the vaccine was 71% effective at preventing COVID-19 — although that was before the Omicron variant emerged. Side effects were mild, including fever and fatigue.
Medicago uses plants as living factories to grow virus-like particles, which mimic the spike protein that coats the coronavirus. The particles are removed from the plants’ leaves and purified. Another ingredient, an immune-boosting chemical called an adjuvant that is made by British partner GlaxoSmithKline, is added to the shots.
France’s Valneva Expects Recommendation on COVID Vaccine by End-March
Valneva (VLS.PA) expects to start delivering its vaccine in Europe soon after it is recommended for conditional approval by the end of March, the French vaccine maker said on Friday as it received an initial regulatory assessment.
The group now expects a recommendation for conditional approval for adults aged 18 to 55 by the end of March, and if this is granted, to start shipments to Europe early in the second quarter of the year.
Hong Kong Domestic Workers Left Homeless After Being Fired for Contracting COVID
Live-in domestic workers in Hong Kong have been left homeless after they were diagnosed with COVID-19 and their employers fired them or refused their return to the residence, support groups have said.
Many of the workers, who are mostly women from Indonesia and the Philippines, were also left without insurance to cover their medical bills.
The problem is exacerbated by strict policies of mandatory isolation for patients and close contacts, with tens of thousands of people unable to find accommodation. They have instead been told to isolate at home, but in the cases of dozens of domestic workers, their employers have refused to let them.
