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We Need to Stop Indiscriminately Testing for COVID. It’s Harming Our Kids.
There is a pervasive notion in the United States that doing more to fight any disease is always better. It’s a sentiment that’s only grown during the pandemic. In truth, we live in a world of tradeoffs with downsides to most medical interventions — which means that the ability to test is not always a reason to test.
Screening school children for COVID-19 is an obvious example of intervention where the harms appear to clearly outweigh the benefits. Screening asymptomatic children for COVID-19 whether they have been in contact with someone with COVID or not has not been shown to reduce viral spread or improve child or community health.
What it has been shown to do is result in unnecessary school days lost and excessive burdens on school districts and working families. And it diverts resources from pressing educational and public health needs, things like the pandemic-related educational achievement gap and the growing mental health crisis among children.
Matthew Broderick Says Getting COVID After Being ‘So Careful’ Was ‘Really Disappointing’
The Hollywood Reporter reported:
Matthew Broderick says that he and Plaza Suite costar Sarah Jessica Parker had avoided contracting COVID-19 for so long — and despite other cases in his family — that he began to believe he “was one of these people who doesn’t get it.”
The actor appeared on SiriusXM’s Jess Cagle Show to talk about his experience starring opposite his wife, Parker, in the Broadway production. During the conversation, he opened up about missing several performances of the Neil Simon play after having to quarantine due to testing positive for COVID-19.
While speaking to Cagle and cohost Julia Cunningham, Broderick went on to explain that he first noticed symptoms the day he got a booster shot. “I got a booster — a second booster — and that day I thought I must be sick because of my booster, but then I was coughing and every time I looked up side effects from the booster shot, there was nothing about having a cough,” he said. “So anyway, I got a booster and COVID on the same day.”
Millions of COVID Shots Set to Go to Waste, as Vaccine Rollout Slows
While top U.S. health officials are urging some Americans to get yet another coronavirus booster shot, local health departments across the country are grappling with a growing dilemma — how to address a declining demand for vaccines, while minimizing the waste of unused millions of doses currently in state stockpiles and at risk of expiring.
Since the emergency use authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. last winter, federal data shows that states received a staggering 720 million doses, and more than 570 million of those shots have been administered.
However, an ABC News analysis of state-provided data found that millions of those shots have not ended up in arms, largely due to a significant decline in the number of individuals willing to get vaccinated — with many vaccine doses now left unused in refrigerators or discarded in trash cans across the country.
ABC News contacted officials from health departments in all 50 states, and in analyzing state-provided data, found that millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses have either gone to waste, remain unused, or will expire in the coming weeks and months.
COVID Outbreak Hits Another Bay Area Cruise Ship Voyage
Scores of passengers aboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship became sick with COVID-19 on a San Francisco to Hawaii voyage that ended last week and followed a trip to Panama in which dozens of passengers also were stricken with the virus on the same ship.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health said 143 passengers aboard the Ruby Princess’ San Francisco to Hawaii round trip that ended April 11 tested positive for the virus, nearly twice as many as the 73 reported sick with COVID-19 after the ship’s March 27 return to San Francisco from Panama.
“It was quite clear that there were a large percentage of passengers that were sick, but unless you self-reported, you were free to keep going and infect other passengers,” said Ted Vomacka of Antioch, who said he was among the passengers who tested positive on the ship and was forced to quarantine in separate quarters from from his wife, Larisa, who eventually tested positive after they returned home.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health said the crew and passengers of the Ruby Princess’ Panama Canal and Hawaii trips were 100% vaccinated, and that “the vast majority of individuals who tested positive for COVID experienced mild or no symptoms.”
NYC COVID Cases Are Starting to Drop in Hopeful Sign for Latest Wave
The recent resurgence of COVID-19 in New York City may be relatively muted compared with the huge spike earlier this year, if recent patterns hold.
The largest U.S. city is seeing a downturn in COVID-19 cases for the first time since early March, local government data show, in what could be a positive sign for the rest of the country. In Manhattan, where case counts have been the highest recently, the seven-day average of cases dropped for four days in a row through April 19. In Philadelphia, local health officials ended a mask mandate this week, citing data showing cases leveling off.
White House Official: U.S. Must Respond to Rising COVID Cases ‘With Care and Caution, but Not Overreacting’
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha on Sunday said the U.S. should respond to the rising number of coronavirus cases “with care and caution, but not overreacting.”
Jha on Sunday also told Bash that he expects Moderna to submit an application to receive emergency use authorization for its vaccine for children five years old and younger next week.
Continued Student Struggles Are Weighing on Teachers in the Third Year of the Pandemic
The Boston Globe via MSN reported:
With full-time in-person learning back and the coronavirus seemingly on the wane, 2021-2022 was supposed to be a return to normal at public schools. But if anything, this school year has been even harder than the previous, as teachers and counselors say a cascade of problems and issues are testing the limits of their endurance and resolve.
Already conditioned to multitasking, teachers say the issues they are juggling have multiplied in number and, as important, in severity. More students are struggling academically and emotionally. Schools are dealing with abnormal amounts of disruptive behavior and widespread lack of motivation, while staff are spending time teaching social-emotional skills students should have learned earlier.
While some districts such as Boston have added mental health services for students, teachers say it is not enough to ease the pressure on them, especially since many are grappling with their own pandemic-related mental health issues.
Second COVID Vaccine Boosters: Getting It Now Versus Waiting Until Fall
You may be wondering whether to get the second COVID-19 booster now or hold on a second, so to speak, and wait until Fall. That may be because messaging about the booster part deux hasn’t exactly been super duper clear.
There has been talk of new COVID-19 vaccines, such as those more specific to the Omicron variants, becoming available sometime in the Summer. So the question is what should you do about a second booster?
Of course, the first thing that you should do is determine whether you are actually 50 years and older since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized in late March second booster doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for that specific age range. That means if you are currently 49 years and 364 days old or younger then you don’t have to worry about a second booster, at least not for another day.
If you aren’t sure whether you are 50 years or older, check your past Facebook or Instagram photos and count how many candles were on your last birthday cake.
Biden Admin to Promote Availability of COVID Antiviral Pill
President Joe Biden and his administration want Americans and their doctors to know that the country has an ample supply of the life-saving COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid and that it no longer needs to be rationed.
First approved in December, supply of the Pfizer regimen was initially very limited, but as COVID-19 cases across the country have fallen and manufacturing has increased it is now far more abundant. The White House is now moving to raise awareness of the pill and taking steps to make it easier to access.
Paxlovid, when administered within five days of symptoms appearing, has been proven to bring about 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.
LA Company Allegedly Faked COVID Test Results; Agrees to Pay $22.5 Million
A Los Angeles, California based COVID-19 testing company has agreed to fork over a $22 million settlement after being accused of forging test results and engaging in false advertising.
A complaint alleged that the company, which did business under the name “Sameday Health,” falsely advertised that it could deliver test results in 24 hours despite knowing it was not capable of doing so, according to a press release from Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer.
When that promise could not be fulfilled, the company allegedly forged the results for at least 500 customers by tampering with old PDF lab reports and in some cases sent the fake results to customers before their samples had even been delivered to a lab for testing.
Japan’s Shionogi Says COVID Pill Shows Rapid Clearance of Virus
An experimental treatment from Shionogi & Co Ltd (4507.T) has shown rapid clearance of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to new data, the Japanese drug maker said on Sunday.
The pill, S-217622, “demonstrated rapid clearance of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus”, Shionogi said in a statement, citing Phase-2b results from the Phase II/III clinical trial of the drug.
The company has global aspirations for the antiviral pill, which is now being evaluated by Japanese regulators.
