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WHO Says COVID Will Mutate Like the Flu and Is Likely Here to Stay

CNBC reported:

COVID-19 is likely “here to stay with us” as the virus continues to mutate in unvaccinated countries across the world and previous hopes of eradicating it diminish, global health officials said Tuesday.

“I think this virus is here to stay with us and it will evolve like influenza pandemic viruses, it will evolve to become one of the other viruses that affects us,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press briefing.

Joe Rogan Slams CNN Over Controversial Drug Ivermectin

The Hill reported:

Joe Rogan is considering suing CNN, specifically for what its White House correspondent Jim Acosta said in regards to the podcaster’s COVID-19 treatment.

As Changing America previously reported, Joe Rogan contracted the coronavirus on Sept. 1, and he has tried a multitude of medications and treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies, Ivermectin, the steroid prednisone, an antibiotic Z-Pak and a vitamin drip.

The controversy is that Ivermectin is used both in people for parasitic infections and, in typically higher doses, in animals such as horses and cows. The FDA has warned the public against using it to treat COVID-19, as it is not approved for that use.

The Pandemic Has Set Back the Fight Against HIV, TB and Malaria

The New York Times reported:

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely set back the fight against other global scourges like H.I.V., tuberculosis and malaria, according to a sobering new report released on Tuesday.

Before the pandemic, the world had been making strides against these illnesses. Overall, deaths from those diseases have dropped by about half since 2004.

“The advent of a fourth pandemic, in COVID, puts these hard-fought gains in great jeopardy,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit organization promoting H.I.V. treatment worldwide.

Novavax Begins Early-Stage Trial for Combined Flu/COVID Vaccine

NBC News reported:

Vaccine developer Novavax said on Wednesday it has initiated an early-stage study to test its combined flu and COVID-19 vaccine.

The trial, to be conducted in Australia, will enroll 640 healthy adults between the ages of 50 and 70 years and who have either been previously infected with the coronavirus or given an authorized COVID-19 vaccine at least eight weeks prior to the study.

Participants will receive a combination of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, and its Influenza shot NanoFlu along with an adjuvant or vaccine booster.

WHO Extends Call for Moratorium on COVID Booster Doses Until End of Year

CNBC reported:

The World Health Organization has extended its call for a moratorium on COVID-19 booster doses until at least the end of the year.

The WHO previously urged world leaders to hold off on booster doses until the end of September.

“There has been little change in the global situation since then, so today I am calling for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40% of its population,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing Wednesday.

Pfizer Booster Likely to Be Ok’d by Sept. 20, But Moderna’s May Lag, Fauci Says

MarketWatch reported:

The Pfizer-BioNTech shot will likely be the only COVID-19 vaccine booster available by Sept. 20, the Biden administration’s target date to begin offering them, but Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that Moderna’s shot shouldn’t be too far behind.

Speaking Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Fauci, the White House’s top pandemic adviser, said Moderna’s MRNA, -2.44% booster might not have approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by that date.

“We were hoping that we would get both the candidates, both products, Moderna and Pfizer, rolled out by the week of the 20th. It is conceivable that we will only have one of them out, but the other would likely follow soon thereafter,” Fauci told host Weijia Jiang.

America Needs to Decide How Much COVID-19 Risk It Will Tolerate

Vox.com reported:

More than a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, America still doesn’t agree on what it’s trying to accomplish.

Is the goal to completely eradicate COVID-19? Is it to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed? Is it hitting a certain vaccine threshold that mitigates the worst COVID-19 outcomes but doesn’t prevent all infections? Or is it something else entirely?

At the root of this confusion is a big question the U.S., including policymakers, experts, and the general public, has never been able to answer: How many COVID-19 deaths are too many?