We've come a long way since the pandemic began, but COVID is still a threat.
Stay up to date on your COVID vaccines to reduce your risk of severe illness and hospitalization from COVID.
Find free updated COVID vaccines at https://t.co/jDq2UIHFmT. #WeCanDoThis pic.twitter.com/CRXUuHMcae
— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) June 13, 2023
COVID-19 vaccines being developed and manufactured for the 2023-2024 campaign should target one of the currently dominant XBB variants, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) staff reviewers said on Monday. https://t.co/D3nrEBgcdU
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) June 12, 2023
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: June 7, 2023
A new study from the CDC suggests that 96% of Americans have some degree of immunity against #Covid https://t.co/xg7hxxiuON pic.twitter.com/iqkoGgwjUu
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) June 2, 2023
Novavax Inc's head of research and development on Monday said an updated COVID-19 vaccine the company is already producing is likely to be protective against other fast-growing coronavirus variants circulating in the U.S. https://t.co/itJXYmJeEj
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) June 6, 2023
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Cue Health's at-home COVID-19 test, the first coronavirus test to get marketing authorization using a traditional premarket review, the agency said. https://t.co/XuFOZbxANF
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) June 7, 2023
The bad news: There’s a drive to ‘forget’, or at least minimize, just how bad this global pandemic got here in the United States. No worse than a bad flu season! Govt overreach! Panicky lie-brals getting over their skis!…
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: May 31, 2023
… For the first time, preliminary figures from the CDC totalled just 8,256 COVID-19 hospitalizations for the past week, marking a record low for this key remaining indicator to track the threat posed by the virus.
The CDC’s data, updated late Thursday, has never before fallen below 9,000 weekly admissions of COVID-19 patients, since it first began tracking this metric over the summer of 2020, early during the pandemic.
COVID-19 hospital admissions are one of the few remaining metrics the CDC is relying on to track the spread of the virus and make recommendations, in the wake of the public health emergency’s end earlier this month.
Hospitals are still required to report a slimmed down list of COVID-19 metrics at least weekly to the CDC until April 2024, though recent changes in hospital testing practices recommendations mean fewer infections might be counted by some health care systems.
When COVID-19 hospital admissions reach “high” levels in a county, the agency still plans to urge residents to don masks and take other precautions to curb a surge…
The Biden administration is trying to protect $5 billion in funding for the next generation of coronavirus vaccines and treatments. They are also looking to preserve more than $1 billion to offer free covid shots to uninsured Americans. https://t.co/xMU5s8vMTC
— NYT Science (@NYTScience) May 28, 2023
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: May 24, 2023
I’m tempted!
If you want to make sure all your bases are covered- or just give someone a fun get-well-soon gift, the 'Lucky' Negative Rapid Antigen Test Necklace is also in stock😄https://t.co/zCTHzTKTYe pic.twitter.com/Pb5wWDnwBu
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) May 21, 2023
The tsunami wave has rolled back, and we’re starting to clean up the debris. It’s going to be a loooong job, and the next wave will (probably) get here sooner than we expect…
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: May 24, 2023Post + Comments (38)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: May 17, 2023
"The cycle of panic and neglect is not the best way to be prepared for [a] #publichealth emergency." — @BrentEwig, of the @AIMimmunization, on #pandemic lessons about the nation's ability to vaccinate large swaths of the public.@joycefr @MedPageIDhttps://t.co/UgtPEHlxHF
— MedPage Today (@medpagetoday) May 15, 2023
Gift link, so everyone can read the whole thing:
Nearly 380 times as many people have died in the United States from covid-19 than from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those killings sparked sweeping reforms to defend Americans from violence. In contrast, little has been done to make the country less vulnerable to deadly pathogens.
On Thursday, the United States officially ended its covid-19 health emergency. In public, many policymakers shy away from acknowledging their pandemic missteps and calling out the need for solutions that are politically complicated, such as raising low wages. But in private, they speak. After dozens of such conversations over the past few years, I compiled this to-do list.
These fixes are neither exhaustive nor simple — it is a mistake to think that any could be. But they are urgent because the drumbeats of epidemics seems to be increasing.
1 – Put tests everywhere…
2 – Staff hospitals…
3 – Reward data…
4 – Protect workers…
5 – Reduce incarceration…
6 – Develop and distribute drugs and vaccines…
7 – Commit to international solidarity…If the United States fails to defend itself in the seven ways set out here, the toll of the next emergency could dwarf that of covid, as climate change, urbanization, migration and political instability make outbreaks of infectious diseases bigger and more frequent — from cholera to avian influenza to viruses yet unknown.
Yes, of course, our ‘conservative’ Republicans are allergic to every single one of theses steps. The eighth bullet point should read Elect more Democrats.
Sleep apnea patients are prone to higher #LongCovid risk. New research suggests close monitoring of adults with obstructive sleep apnea https://t.co/wgTX9n1RVm
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) May 13, 2023
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: May 10, 2023
The report shows an overall drop of 5.3 percent in the death rate from all causes, a signal that the country last year had exited the worst phase of the pandemic. Deaths from covid dropped 47 percent between 2021 and 2022. https://t.co/rOLa79jRuk
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 4, 2023
Friday Evening Open Thread: Programming Note / Pandemic Milestones
Biden interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle airs tonight https://t.co/DFoU27copv
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 5, 2023
Per The Hill:
President Biden on Friday will sit down with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle for his first interview since announcing his reelection bid last week, the network announced.
The two will discuss, “the administration’s infrastructure agenda, the 2024 campaign and recently announced reelection bid, the shaping GOP field, looming debt ceiling crisis, and more,” the network said in a news release. The interview will air Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
Biden’s sit down with Ruhle is the first time he will speak at length about his reelection bid since it was announced last week. The president has had a relatively light public schedule in the time since, attending the White House correspondents’ dinner last Saturday and hosting a few events at the White House this week…
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Per Medical News Today, “WHO says COVID-19 health emergency is over as mortality rates reach all-time low”:
On May 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in a virtual media briefing that COVID-19 is no longer a “public health emergency of international concern.”
The decision to end the pandemic’s emergency status after more than three years followed the 15th meetingTrusted Source of the WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on May 4.
The WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a media briefing the pandemic has been on a downward trend for more than a year, as population immunity has increased from both vaccination and infection, while mortality rates have decreased and overall pressure on health systems have eased…
More than three years since the WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency in January 2020, millions of people — estimates of around 7 million or more — have died. However, Dr. Tedros said those estimates could be closer to 20 million deaths, warning the virus still posed a significant global threat…
Dr. Katherine O’Brien, director of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals at the WHO, said in a media briefing the high risk of severe illness and death is still low in many countries around the world, particularly in those with high COVID-19 vaccination rates.
“Vaccines have played a really important role in protecting populations,” she said, noting the WHO’s announcement does not mean the fight against the virus is over. “The work remains essential for the life-saving nature of the vaccines,” she said…
From the Los Angeles Times, “The CDC is changing the way it monitors COVID-19 in the U.S. “:
Acknowledging that it is losing some of its eyes and ears across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week unveiled a scaled-down COVID-19 surveillance system for the post-pandemic era.
The CDC’s new monitoring network won’t have the fine resolution on the coronavirus that the agency strove for during earlier stages of the pandemic. But it will lash together a raft of new and existing tools to keep an eye on the virus while also keeping broader tabs on the public’s health.
With the federal government’s three-year-old public health emergency set to expire next Thursday, the agency will begin to track COVID-19 cases alongside other respiratory illnesses, said Dr. Nirav D. Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director. New cases of the pandemic virus, which has caused 1.1 million deaths in the United States and 6.9 million deaths worldwide, will eventually be lumped together with influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and other infections that can cause pneumonia and death in humans.
The CDC will still be able to alert communities to upticks in coronavirus spread based on its continued tracking of emergency department visits, COVID-19 hospitalizations and wastewater surveillance from local sewage plants. Reliable statistics on COVID-19 deaths will lag behind other data…
We’ll probably be discussing this in my next Covid Update, but that’s not till Wednesday and I know not every commentor sees it.
Friday Evening Open Thread: Programming Note / Pandemic MilestonesPost + Comments (66)