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U.S. Extends COVID Public Health Emergency Even Though Biden Says Pandemic Is Over
The U.S. has extended the COVID public health emergency through Jan. 11, a clear demonstration that the Biden administration still views COVID as a crisis despite President Joe Biden’s recent claim that the pandemic is over.
The public health emergency, first declared in January 2020 by the Trump administration, has been renewed every 90 days since the pandemic began. The powers activated by the emergency declaration have had a vast impact on the U.S. healthcare system and social safety net, allowing hospitals to act more nimbly when infections surge and keeping millions enrolled in public health insurance.
Biden, in a September television interview, claimed the “pandemic is over” though he said COVID will continue to present a health challenge. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August said high levels of immunity in the U.S., combined with the wide availability of vaccines and treatments, has significantly reduced the threat that COVID poses to the nation’s health.
Poor Mental Health in U.S. Teens Exacerbated by Negative Experiences During COVID Pandemic, Survey Finds
Poor mental health among teens in the United States was a concern before the COVID-19 pandemic, and major disruptions to school and social life since early 2020 have only exacerbated the situation.
A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most adolescents experienced negative events during the COVID-19 pandemic — and those experiences were linked to a higher prevalence of poor mental health and suicide attempts.
Nearly three-quarters of high school students in the U.S. reported experiencing at least one adverse childhood experience in 2021, such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, food insecurity or loss of a parent’s job during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also included were electronic bullying, dating violence and sexual violence.
Adolescents experiencing one or two adverse events were more than twice as likely to report poor mental health and nearly six times more likely to report a recent suicide attempt compared with those who did not experience any adverse events.
The Next U.S. COVID Wave Is Coming. Why It Will Be ‘Much Weirder Than Before.’
Unless you’re a real-life virologist — or unless you enjoy playing one on Twitter — it has become pretty much impossible to keep up with all of the latest coronavirus variants. First, they were named after Greek letters, like Omicron. Easy enough. Then came a few short, Star Wars-esque alphanumerics, like BA.5. Fine. But in recent weeks, COVID trackers have suddenly been subjected to a dizzying barrage of BA.4.6s and BF.7s and BA.2.75.2s and BQ.1.1s. There’s even an ominous new sublineage called XBB.
For most Americans — the bulk of whom appear to be “over” COVID anyway — that’s far too many numbers and letters to grasp. Easier to just tune it all out, they say. Call me when there’s another wave on the way. Well, now there might be.
Under the surface, something new — and potentially dangerous for the most vulnerable among us — has been happening: Omicron has started to “splinter.”
What scientists are seeing now is a bunch of worrisome Omicron descendants arising simultaneously but independently in different corners of the globe — all with the same set of advantageous mutations that help them dodge our existing immune defenses and drive new waves of infection.
Fall COVID Surge Could Happen in Pacific Northwest
Health officials in Washington and Oregon said Thursday that a fall and winter COVID surge is likely headed to the Pacific Northwest after months of relatively low case levels.
King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin said during a news briefing that virus trends in Europe show a concerning picture of what the U.S. could soon see, The Seattle Times reported.
“We’re already seeing increasing COVID-19 activity and hospitalizations in many European countries, even before any of the new variants have become dominant,” Duchin said. “This means that the waning immunity, the increasing gathering and the return to pre-COVID activity are leading to a surge in COVID in Europe. This should be a clear warning for us because, in the past, major surges in Europe have been a good predictor of what we can expect to see in the U.S. in about four to six weeks.”
Scientists Find Gene Variant Tied to Better COVID Shot Response
Scientists have identified an immunity gene variant in people with strong responses to COVID-19 vaccines who were less likely to get breakthrough infections, a finding that could improve future shot design.
Individuals carrying the specific gene version generated more antibodies against the coronavirus after receiving vaccines from AstraZeneca Plc or the alliance of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, according to the study published Thursday in the Nature Medicine journal. The same people were less likely than those with different versions of the same gene to get infected with COVID months later, the research found.
Around 3.3 Million Americans Received Updated COVID Boosters Last Week — CDC
Nearly 3.3 million people in the United States received updated COVID-19 booster shots over the past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday.
The CDC said 14.8 million Americans had received the shot as of Oct. 12, in the first six weeks of the booster being available, just 6.9% of the people aged 12 or older who are eligible for the vaccine.
The shots are being administered at a slower pace than last year when the United States initially authorized COVID boosters just for older and immunocompromised people. Over 20 million people had received their third shot in the first six weeks of that vaccination campaign.
On Wednesday, U.S. health regulators authorized the use of Omicron-tailored COVID-19 booster shots from Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O) and Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) in children as young as 5 years, a move that is expected to expand the government’s fall vaccination campaign
Uptick in COVID-Related Blood Clots: Is It Real? — What Experts Say About Concerning Social Media Posts From the U.K.
Since the beginning of the year when Omicron took hold in the U.S., physicians across the country have reported seeing fewer instances of blood clotting linked to COVID-19.
However, recent social media postings from members of the medical community in the U.K. — which have served as a harbinger for what’s to come in the U.S. throughout the pandemic — have raised the possibility of a reversal of this trend.
Last week, Graham Lloyd-Jones, MBBS, MRCP, a radiologist with the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K., wrote the following on Twitter, sparking an extended thread from other healthcare professionals: “To all #radiologists. Have you seen the typical #COVID pulmonary vasculopathy on CXR/CT in the last week? We’ve not seen this since Omicron became dominant in Feb. ’22. I’m concerned we have a new variant which causes the same clotting in the lungs as Delta/pre-Delta.”
Responses to the post were mixed, with some saying that they had once again seen serious lung involvement with recent COVID cases and others saying they hadn’t yet observed what Lloyd-Jones had alluded to. Even more responded with general concern and questions.
The Masks We’ll Wear in the Next Pandemic
For some pandemic-prevention experts, the takeaway here is that pharmaceutical interventions alone simply won’t cut it. Though shots and drugs may be essential to softening a virus’s blow once it arrives, they are by nature reactive rather than preventive. To guard against future pandemics, what we should focus on, some experts say, is attacking viruses where they’re most vulnerable before pharmaceutical interventions are even necessary.
Specifically, they argue, we should be focusing on the air we breathe. “We’ve dealt with a lot of variants, we’ve dealt with a lot of strains, we’ve dealt with other respiratory pathogens in the past,” Abraar Karan, an infectious-disease physician and global health expert at Stanford, told me. “The one thing that’s stayed consistent is the route of transmission.” The most fearsome pandemics are airborne.
Numerous overlapping efforts are underway to stave off future outbreaks by improving air quality. Many scientists have long advocated for overhauling the way we ventilate indoor spaces, which has the potential to transform our air in much the same way that the advent of sewer systems transformed our water. Some researchers are similarly enthusiastic about the promise of germicidal lighting.
Retrofitting a nation’s worth of buildings with superior ventilation systems or germicidal lighting is likely a long-term mission, though, requiring large-scale institutional buy-in and probably a considerable amount of government funding. Meanwhile, a more niche subgroup has zeroed in on what is, at least in theory, a somewhat simpler undertaking: designing the perfect mask.
Bavarian Nordic Wins Monkeypox Vaccine Order From Switzerland
Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO) said on Friday the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and the Swiss Armed Forces had jointly ordered 100,000 doses of its MVA-BN smallpox and monkeypox vaccine.
The Danish company said in a statement it would seek regulatory approval of the vaccine in the country as part of the deal, and deliveries would start imminently.
Flu off to an Early Start as CDC Warns About Potentially Severe Season
Reports of flu and other respiratory illnesses are higher than what would normally be seen in the U.S. at this time of year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
“We’ve noted that flu activity is starting to increase across much of the country,” especially in the Southeast and south-central U.S., the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, told NBC News.
Walensky’s warning comes ahead of a CDC report on flu spread expected Friday. It is anticipated that the agency will say that flu and similar viral illnesses are notably high in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
