Coronavirus updates February 2022

[missy]

Happy February!

@wildcat03 please share the good update.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Hoping to go out shortly to get my boster
Yesterday they reduced the time between the 2nd and 3rd shots from 4 to 3 months

 

[SparklieBug]

Happy February!

@wildcat03 please share the good update.

Well, now my curiosity is in overdrive....

 

[missy]

Well, now my curiosity is in overdrive....

Here’s what wildcat shared in the January thread today.

Pfizer Asks F.D.A. to Clear 2 Vaccine Doses for Young Children as a Start (Published 2022)

The Food and Drug Administration asked to review Pfizer’s data on two doses now, while the company continues to assess whether three doses would be more effective.

www.nytimes.com

This belongs in a February thread, but I'll put it here. WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

 

[missy]

Hoping to go out shortly to get my boster
Yesterday they reduced the time between the 2nd and 3rd shots from 4 to 3 months

Good luck Daisy!

 

[DAF]

Army to immediately begin discharging soldiers who have not gotten COVID-19 vaccine

The Army will immediately begin discharging soldiers who have refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine,

www.wkbw.com

 

[wildcat03]

Thanks for sharing, @missy ! I didn't see this until now. So excited that vaccines may be available for the littles soon.

 

[missy]

Thanks for sharing, @missy ! I didn't see this until now. So excited that vaccines may be available for the littles soon.

Yes! Excited about this.

Pfizer Asks FDA to Authorize COVID Vaccine for Kids Under 5​

Carolyn Crist
February 01, 2022

"
Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted a request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to amend their emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine to include children between the ages of 6 months to under 5 years old, according to the companies.
The application is for the first two lower-dose (3 micrograms each) vaccines as part of an eventual three-part primary regimen. The companies say they plan to file for the third dose in the coming months.

"Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children 6 months through 4 years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants. If two doses are authorized, parents will have the opportunity to begin a COVID-19 vaccination series for their children while awaiting potential authorization of a third dose," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a prepared statement.

The FDA has set a February 15 date for a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to consider the request. While the FDA does not have to follow the group's advice, the agency could authorize the vaccine by the end of the month for this age group.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory group is also expected to meet to consider the data.
Children under 4 have accounted for 1.6 million COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the companies, which prompted the FDA to urge Pfizer/BioNTech to submit the application to begin reviewing data for the two-shot process.

Data supporting the submission is yet to be released. The companies say they plan to admit additional information to the FDA for the third dose in the primary series in the coming months. Pfizer and BioNTech have been testing the third dose for the young age group in recent months. In December, an analysisshowed that the two-shot plan is safe but didn't trigger an immune response for ages 2-4 as strong as the one seen in teens and adults. But the two doses did create a protective immune response for children between ages 6 months and 2 years.
A Biden administration official told the The Washington Post that federal health officials are interested in "seeing this move forward." On Friday, Pfizer presented updated clinical trial data to federal health officials about the shots, the newspaper reported.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said parents with children under 5 are facing "an especially challenging moment in this pandemic."
"We understand the urgent need for a safe and effective vaccine for that age group," Mark Del Monte, chief executive of the group, told the Post.

"We are eager to see the data and will continue to follow the science," he said.

Vaccinations among children who are already eligible has been slow, the newspaper reported, and some health officials are worried that it could be even lower for the youngest age groups.

In areas where shots have been available to ages 5-11 since early November, about 28% of children have received at least one dose, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The vaccination rates varied by state, ranging from about 11% in Mississippi to 63% in Vermont last week.

Sources:

Pfizer/BioNTech press release, Feb. 1, 2022.

The Washington Post: "Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children under 5 could be available by the end of February, people with knowledge say."

Pfizer: "Pfizer and BioNTech Provide Update on Ongoing Studies of COVID-19 Vaccine," Dec. 17, 2021.

Kaiser Family Foundation: "Update on COVID-19 Vaccination of 5-11 Year Olds in the U.S."

• "

 

[missy]

Children and COVID-19: The Omicron Tide May Have Turned​

Richard Franki
February 01, 2022

"

The Omicron-fueled surge appears to have peaked as new cases of COVID-19 in U.S. children dropped for the first time since late November 2021, dipping back below the 1 million mark for the week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
The case count for Jan. 21-27 was just over 808,000, down by almost 30% from the previous week’s 1.15 million. The total number of cases in children was up to 11.4 million as of Jan. 27, with children representing 18.6% of all cases reported since the pandemic started, the AAP and CHA said in their weekly COVID-19 report.

As children remain the largest reservoir of unvaccinated Americans, their share of the COVID case load continues to rise quickly. Just 2 weeks ago, children made up 17.8% of the cumulative number of cases, and at the end of December it was 17.4%, the AAP/CHA data show.


The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that trends for admissions and emergency department visits reflect the decline in new cases. New admissions of children aged 0-17 years with diagnosed COVID-19 peaked at 1.25 per 100,000 population on Jan. 15 and were down to 0.95 per 100,000 on Jan. 29.
Daily ED visits for COVID-19, measured as a percentage of all ED visits, peaked at 13.9% on Jan. 14 for children aged 0-11 years and on Jan. 9 for both 12- to 15-year-olds (14.1%) and 16- to 17-year-olds (13.8%). By Jan. 28, the rates were down to 5.6% (0-11), 3.1% (12-15), and 3.3% (16-17), the CDC reported based on data from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program.
Trends involving more severe illness support observations that Omicron is milder than earlier variants. Children hospitalized with COVID-19 were less likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit over the last 2 months than during the Delta surge in the late summer and early fall or during the winter of 2020-2021, the CDC said based on data from the BD Insights Research Database, which includes 229,000 patients and 267 hospitals.
Those data show that the highest monthly rate occurred early on, in May of 2020, when 27.8% of children with COVID-19 ended up in the ICU. The rates for December 2021 and January 2022, by comparison, were 11.0% and 11.3%, respectively, the CDC said.

Vaccination Lags in Younger Children​

As reports surface about Pfizer-BioNTech filing an emergency use request to extend vaccine coverage to children aged 6 months to 5 years, it does appear that prevention efforts could use the proverbial shot in the arm.
As of Jan. 30, just 30.4% of children aged 5-11 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and only 21.6% are fully vaccinated. At a comparable point in their timeline – just short of 3 months after approval – the respective numbers for children aged 12-15 were about 42% and 31%, CDC data show.
In the younger group, both initial doses and completions rose slightly in the first 2 weeks of January but then dropped in each of the last 2 weeks. There was a more significant surge in interest among the 12- to 17-year-olds in mid-January, but the last full week of the month brought declines of more than 50% in both measures, according to a separate AAP analysis."

 

[missy]

Novavax Seeks FDA Authorization for COVID Vaccine​

Carolyn Crist
February 01, 2022

"
Novavax announced Monday that it has formally submitted a request to the FDA for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine for ages 18 and older.

The request includes results from two large clinical trials that showed an overall efficacy of about 90% and a "reassuring safety profile," the company said.

"We believe our vaccine offers a differentiated option built on a well-understood protein-based vaccine platform that can be an alternative to the portfolio of available vaccines to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic," Stanley Erck, the president and CEO of Novavax, said in the statement.


Known as NVX-CoV2373, the vaccine is protein-based and engineered from the genes of the first strain of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus. With technology like that of the flu vaccine, it uses antigen from the coronavirus spike protein to trigger immunity. Two doses are given 21 days apart.


Novavax announced in June 2021 that the vaccine had an overall efficacy of 90% in late-stage clinical trials in the US and Mexico. The trials took place before the Omicron variant was dominant in the US, according to CNN. In December, the company said it completed its final submission package for the FDA application.

The two clinical trials enrolled 30,000 people in the US and Mexico and 15,000 in the UK. In both trials, serious and severe adverse events were low, and the most common bad reactions included headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, joint pain, fatigue, and pain where the shot was given.

The vaccine can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius, or about 35 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, and it has a shelf life of about 9 months. Erck told CNN in November that the company could ship the first 100 million doses of the vaccine once the FDA gives authorization.


In November, Indonesia was the first country to grant emergency use authorization for Novavax's vaccine, CNN reported. Since then, regulators in Australia, the European Union, India, the Philippines, and South Korea have granted authorization.

Novavax has also applied for authorization in other countries, according to the news outlet, including Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. If authorized by the FDA, the Novavax vaccine would be the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccine in the US.

Novavax is also studying its vaccine in ages 12-17 and testing a third dose as a booster.

"

 

[missy]

Infectious Disease>COVID-19 Vaccine

Omicron Hospitalizations Up to 23 Times Higher for the Unvaccinated​

— Boosters conferred the most protection, California data showed​

by Molly Walker, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today February 1, 2022


"

During the Omicron wave, unvaccinated adults were 23 times more likely to be hospitalized, and nearly four times as likely to be infected as vaccinated adults who had also received a booster, according to data from Los Angeles County.
And compared to fully vaccinated but non-boosted adults, unvaccinated individuals were more than five times more likely to be hospitalized, and about twice as likely to be infected during this time, reported Sharon Balter, MD, of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and colleagues.

Moreover, unvaccinated adults were significantly more likely to require ICU admission, intubation for mechanical ventilation, or die compared to vaccinated adults with or without a booster, they stated in an early edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
They examined data from COVID surveillance and the California Immunization Registry 2 from Nov. 7, 2021 to Jan. 8, 2022 by both vaccination status and variant predominance. Dec. 11, 2021 was the last week of Delta predominance in the area.
There were 422,966 COVID infections throughout the entire time period, 53% among vaccinated/non-boosted adults, 34% among unvaccinated adults, and 13% among fully vaccinated/boosted adults.
Overall, unvaccinated adults were more likely to be hospitalized (2.8%), admitted to an ICU (0.5%), and require mechanical ventilation (0.2%). Rates were far lower in fully vaccinated persons without a booster (1.0%, 0.12%, and 0.05%, respectively) and with a booster (0.7%, 0.08%, and 0.03%).
And 0.3% of unvaccinated adults died versus less than 0.1% of vaccinated and vaccinated/boosted adults.
During the Delta period, unvaccinated adults were 83 times more likely to be hospitalized and 12 times more likely to be infected than vaccinated/boosted adults, and almost 13 times more likely to be hospitalized and 4 times more likely to be infected versus vaccinated but not boosted adults.

Balter and colleagues concluded that their research shows the importance of being up to date on COVID vaccination, noting that, "these findings align with those from recent studies, indicating that COVID-19 vaccination protects against severe COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron."
CDC recommends that all adults receive a booster dose of vaccine at least 5 months after their initial Pfizer or Moderna two-dose primary series.

"

 

[missy]

BA.2 Blitzes Through Households, Even More Than Original Omicron​

— Preprint study finds increased risk of infection with subvariant​

"
Omicron subvariant BA.2 was associated with higher susceptibility of infection among households, regardless of vaccination status, than the original BA.1 variant, Danish researchers found.

Compared with the original variant, BA.2 was linked with more than two times higher odds of infection among unvaccinated individuals (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.58-3.04), vaccinated individuals (OR 2.45, 95% CI 1.77-3.40), and boosted individuals (OR 2.99, 95% CI 2.11-4.24), reported Frederik Plesner Lyngse, MD, of University of Copenhagen, and colleagues.



Indeed, unvaccinated primary cases in BA.2 households were associated with more than two times higher odds of transmission (OR 2.62, 95% CI 1.96-3.52) compared to BA.1 households, the authors wrote in a preprint on medRxiv.

Not surprisingly, the authors found lower transmissibility in both BA.1 and BA.2 households when the primary case was vaccinated with or without a booster.

While there was significantly increased transmissibility associated with BA.2 households versus BA.1 when the primary case was unvaccinated, it was non-significant when the primary case was vaccinated and non-boosted or boosted, according to the authors.

BA.2 has recently garnered media attention due to its higher transmissibility. Lyngse's group noted that the two variants "differ by approximately 40 mutations."

Lyngse's group said the increasing number of BA.2 cases led them to explore two issues through their study: "Is there a difference in the household transmission patterns between ... BA.1 and BA.2; and ... if there is a difference, is it due to a difference in susceptibility, transmissibility, or both, and could this indicate a difference in immune evasiveness between the subvariants?"



They used Danish registry data that included households with two to six members, from Dec. 20, 2021 to Jan, 11, 2022, with a 7-day follow-up period until Jan. 18, 2022.

Primary cases were identified via RT-PCR, followed by whole-genome sequencing to determine if the variant was BA.1 or BA.2. Households were identified as BA.1 or BA.2 depending on the sequencing of the primary case.

Overall, there were 2,122 BA.2 households, with a total of 4,587 potential secondary cases and, of those, 1,792 tested positive for an estimated secondary attack rate of 39%. There were 6,419 BA.1 households, with a total of 13,358 potential secondary cases and, of those, 3,910 tested positive for an estimated secondary attack rate of 29%.

Notably, a 14-day follow-up found similar patterns, with a secondary attack rate of 42% for BA.2 versus 36% for BA.1.

"A potential mechanism for the higher transmissibility of unvaccinated individuals infected with BA.2 compared to BA.1 could be a higher viral load," the authors wrote, adding because no such difference was found in vaccinated non-boosted or boosted individuals, this "could be a result of a lower viral load in vaccinated individuals with a breakthrough infection."

Limitations to the data include that it was collected over Christmas and New Year's, when families held communal gatherings, so some co-primary cases were most likely misclassified as secondary cases, the authors noted."

 

[missy]

"

Experimenting with a vaccine mandate​

A new law in Austria puts police and judges alongside doctors and nurses on the front line of the pandemic fight. While a number of European countries have stigmatized people who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid-19, Austria is going a step further and has started criminalizing holdouts in a dramatic public-health experiment. As of Tuesday, police began checking the vaccination status of people on the street and during traffic stops. Beginning in mid-March, offenders who haven’t had a shot will face fines rising to as much as 3,600 euros ($4,030). The law, which received a record number of public comments before being passed, runs through 2024 and has catalyzed a broad sweep of protesters. Political and public-health analysts suggest the compulsory vaccine policy is replete with risk, and almost 100,000 Austrians have registered their opposition, with some lawyers arguing the mandate could violate fundamental rights. But for European governments, which are starting to rapidly roll back Covid restrictions, getting as many people vaccinated as possible is seen as key to returning life to normal. Denmark, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, last week reclassified Covid as no longer a threat to society. Austria’s initial announcement of the mandate, along with the rollout of vaccines for children, led to a bump in shots in November, but the pace has since slowed again. About 76% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to a Bloomberg tracker, ahead of the European Union average but behind leaders such as Portugal, Spain and France. At the same time that Austria penalizes vaccine holdouts, it is also starting to loosen other restrictions—allowing nightclubs to stay open later and phasing out obligatory vaccine checks at retail shops. The government is also introducing lotteries to reward people who’ve gotten the jab. Determining whether the measures succeed in building back trust will take time, according to Maria Hofmarcher-Holzhacker, a health economist who’s written a history of Austrian public health. Austria’s Covid battle has at times been dominated by tensions between the government’s tough stance and opposition from powerful regional leaders. It’s also suffered from mixed messages. “The legislation is compensating for that failure,” she says. “I’m not sure if this is something for other countries to replicate.”—Jonathan Tirone ​ ​ ​ ​ Track the recovery​ Contract Nurses Are Fighting Back​ More than 1 in 6 U.S. health-care workers has quit their job since the start of the pandemic. Hospitals are leaning harder than ever on underpaid contract staffers, many from the Philippines. One of them has filed a proposed class action, accusing a health-care staffing agency of human trafficking. Although “trafficking” evokes images of people brutally beaten or chained in captivity, the legal definition is much broader and includes trying to coerce someone to do something by threatening serious harm or abuse of the legal process. Read the full story here.

 

[missy]

"
Unvaccinated people are 97% more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated and boosted.

That's according to new information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky presented data Wednesday at a White House COVID-19 Response Team meeting.

The findings are based on information collected in early December.


"

 

[DAF]

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Gloria27]

news:

-Countries accepting that we will have to live with covid and scrapped (or will scrap) all restrictions whatsoever : Denmark, Sweden, Spain, UK, etc.
-People take to the streets to protest against mandates: Canada, France, UK (NHS staff mandates), etc
-More and more "breakthrough cases" among the vaccinated, in fact check out the studies coming from Israel. No, not gonna post them, do your own homework.
- "mysterious" myocarditis and heart attacks among athletes

 

[missy]

N95, KN95 masks provide best protection against covid, CDC study shows​

By Lenny Bernstein
and
Frances Stead Sellers

Yesterday at 1:00 p.m. EST|Updated yesterday at 1:07 p.m. EST




"
Wearing any kind of mask indoors is associated with significantly better protection from the coronavirus, with high-quality N95 and KN95 masks providing the best chance of avoiding infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.

In indoor public settings, surgical masks reduce the chances of testing positive by 66 percent, the CDC estimated. Top-of-the-line N95 and KN95 masks, the tightfitting face coverings often worn by health-care workers, cut the odds of infection by 83 percent, the health agency said.
Wearing a cloth mask appeared to lower the odds of testing positive by 56 percent, but the findings were not statistically significant.
“These data from real-world settings reinforce the importance of consistently wearing face masks or respirators to reduce the risk of acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 infection among the general public in indoor community settings,” the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.


Mask-wearing has been a flash point for conflict from the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, when health officials told the public not to buy masks, which they said at the time should be conserved for medical professionals. The government soon reversed course on masking against the airborne virus and urged everyone to wear face coverings.
Arguments over whether to mandate mask-wearing, who has the authority to order it and under what circumstances have endured to this day.
“There are still people who say masks don’t work,” said Linsey C. Marr, an expert on airborne virus transmission at Virginia Tech who was not involved in the new research. She said the CDC report bolsters the well-known value of mask-wearing by providing additional real-world data.
Similarly, Jose-Luis Jimenez, a professor of chemistry at the University of Colorado who did not take part in the study, said in an email that it “adds more evidence to what we already know: this is mainly an airborne virus, and for that reason we have an indoor pandemic. Wearing masks indoors reduces transmission, with the protective effect increasing for better mask quality and fit.”


The research was conducted by the California Department of Public Health between Feb. 18 and Dec. 1, 2021 — before the omicron variant wave hit the United States. Researchers surveyed 652 people who had recently tested positive for the virus and matched them with 1,176 who had tested negative. All were asked whether they had been in stores, churches, schools, restaurants and other indoor public settings in the 14 days before their test, whether they had worn a mask and how often. They also were matched by their vaccination status, among other characteristics.
In the last three months of the survey, 534 of the participants were asked what kind of mask they wore.
The researchers acknowledged that relying on participants’ recall of their behavior in multiple public indoor settings may have limited the reliability of the results, though they took steps to minimize the impact. They also did not account for other preventive steps participants may have taken, such as physical distancing.
Nevertheless, the advantages of mask-wearing were found to be substantial. They reinforced laboratory and other real-world testing that shows masks are an effective barrier to the coronavirus.
“What this shows is if you pay attention and wear a good mask and wear it all the time, you have a significantly lower risk of testing positive for covid-19,” Marr said.

"

 

[missy]

New Zealand announces plan to reopen to the world after nearly two years of coronavirus travel restriction​

By Andrew Jeong



February 3, 2022 at 4:01 a.m. EST

"

New Zealand will ease its covid border restrictions starting this month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday.
The country will first allow in New Zealand citizens, residents and some visa holders who are fully vaccinated and coming from Australia, without requiring them to undergo a minimum 10-day quarantine at government-managed facilities, starting Feb. 27. But they must self-quarantine elsewhere and must have been in Australia for 14 days before arrival in New Zealand.
Two weeks later, the country aims to welcome New Zealanders from anywhere in the world, as well as skilled workers. In gradual steps, the country is set to lift all of its pandemic travel restrictions by October.
The plan marks the first time since early 2020 that New Zealand will open its borders to travelers without requiring them to undergo quarantine at government-managed facilities, minus a short-lived, quarantine-free travel corridor with Australia. Officials had recently suspended new bookings into the country’s mandatory quarantine system for returning citizens, worried the coronavirus would leak out into the community from those government-run facilities.


Just a week ago, a pregnant journalist from New Zealand drew attention to the country’s strict coronavirus rules for citizens living abroad after she said she chose to stay in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan because her native country did not allow her to return. She later said that the government reversed course and approved her emergency application for entrance, and that she would be going home in March.
Ardern credited the strict border restrictions for helping the country avoid large-scale deaths. But now, with the great majority of New Zealand’s 5 million people fully vaccinated, the prime minister said it was time to open up.
“We must turn to the importance of reconnection. Families and friends need to reunite. Our businesses need skills to grow. Exporters need to travel to make new connections,” she said.



Ardern’s approval ratings have fallen recently, and she has acknowledged the strain her country’s restrictions have put on its citizens. “I still feel really confident knowing that people know we’ve made those tough decisions for all the right reasons,” Arden told New Zealand’s 1News in January. “Yes, that will have an impact on things like polls. It doesn’t change the decisions we’ve made, the importance of them and how well they’ve served New Zealand.”
Ardern won a landslide reelection in October 2020 in a resounding show of support for her successful handling of the early months of the pandemic.
New Zealand’s restrictions gave it time to build its defenses, Ardern said Thursday, and become one of the “most vaccinated countries in the world.”
About 93 percent of New Zealand residents who are 12 or older are fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry. About 40 percent of children ages 5 to 11 have received a first dose. About a quarter of its people have received booster shots, figures compiled by Our World in Data show.


New Zealand has been experiencing an uptick in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, driven by an outbreak of the omicron variant that led to Ardern canceling her upcoming wedding celebrations. But deaths remain low in comparison to other countries. The case fatality rate, the ratio between confirmed covid-19 deaths and confirmed coronavirus cases, stood at 0.32 percent this week — one of the lowest rates in the world.

"

 

[missy]

CDC to expand wastewater monitoring to help track coronavirus trends​

The agency plans to use the system to find other deadly pathogens​

by Lena H Sun
Yesterday at 3:05 p.m. EST




"
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to expand a system that detects the coronavirus in wastewater to better predict surges and declines of the virus and, eventually, wants to harness the network’s early-warning power to find other deadly pathogens and control outbreaks of food-borne disease.

Research suggests that 40 to 80 percent of people infected with the coronavirus shed viral genetic material in their feces even if they don’t have symptoms. It’s one of the first signs of an infection.
Increases in wastewater virus levels generally take place four to six days before health officials see a corresponding rise in case counts or hospitalizations.
“These data are uniquely powerful because they capture the presence of infections from people with and without symptoms and are not affected by access to health care or availability of clinical testing,” Amy Kirby, who leads the agency’s wastewater surveillance system, said during a briefing Friday.


Wastewater surveillance can be used to track other diseases and health concerns, Kirby said. Officials are working to expand surveillance to gather data on other pathogens by the end of the year, with targets including antibiotic-resistant bacteria, norovirus, influenza, a deadly fungal pathogen called Candida auris and food-borne infections caused by E. coli and salmonella.
In response to the pandemic, the agency launched a national wastewater surveillance system in September 2020. Sewage surveillance has been used for years around the world to identify polio outbreaks. Several other countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, have been monitoring sewage systems for the coronavirus.
The CDC gets data from about 400 testing sites that measure the coronavirus in wastewater. Some health departments are also able to conduct advanced genetic sequencing to track variants of concern. California, Colorado, New York City and Houston were the first to detect evidence of the omicron variant in community wastewater.



Participating states have used wastewater data to make public health decisions, Kirby said, such as directing mobile testing to certain vaccination sites and readying additional equipment and other resources for hospitals in communities where cases are forecast to increase.
Universities, colleges, states and cities, and commercial testing companies collect samples from sewage pipes to monitor the spread of the virus. Cities including Boston were able to identify impending case surge and conclude that the omicron variant had peaked.
The CDC until 2020 did not have a national system to track infectious diseases through wastewater. The agency has since provided money to 37 states, four cities and two territories for utilities to collect sewage samples, for laboratories to get those samples tested and for state officials to send the data to the CDC. Many of these states are still implementing their systems.


On Friday, the CDC said it was making public on its website the data it has received from 28 states and the District of Columbia. Some states have that data available on their websites, but the CDC data allows consumers to compare data across states.
More than 34,000 samples have been collected from communities representing about 53 million people. The CDC plans to add 255 testing sites in the next few weeks and additional sites during the next few months, expanding the reach of the program “to look into most states” and territories and tribal communities, Kirby said.
Kirby said her team is working with the rest of the agency’s coronavirus response to “find ways that wastewater surveillance can help provide situational awareness for what’s going on in the community, as well as serving as that early warning system that a new increase may be coming in a community.”


In Ohio, a color-coded map on the state health department’s website shows the increase or decrease in virus levels in wastewater for an area. Substantial increases in virus levels trigger an email notification to health districts, utilities and community health leaders, according to a CDC report last fall.
In Utah, wastewater data is one of the main components of a ranking system to determine where to dispatch mobile testing teams.
Out of 255 surveillance systems with data, 70 percent showed a decline in the virus over the past 15 days, while the remainder reported increases. No clear patterns emerged from the data, and in many cases treatment plants showing increases are next to plants with decreases.

"

 

[missy]

Infectious Disease>COVID-19

Brits Search for Antiviral Help; 'Cryptic' Clues to Next Wave; FTC Probes Biogen​

— A daily roundup of news on COVID-19 and the rest of medicine​

by Charles Bankhead, Senior Editor, MedPage Today February 4, 2022

"

British researchers plan to screen dozens of existing antiviral drugs in a search for therapies that might be repurposed for treating COVID. (Reuters)
Ongoing studies of "cryptic" variants of the novel coronavirus isolated from New York City wastewater could point scientists in the direction of the next major pathogenic variant. (University of Missouri, Nature Communications)
Timely reading: The Mayo Clinic has published a timeline tracing the history of major infectious disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics, as well the impact of vaccine development and research.

As of Friday at 8 a.m. EST, the unofficial U.S. COVID toll consists of 75,994,966 cases and 897,377 deaths, increases of 313,657 and 3,061, respectively, versus this time a day ago.
Although COVID cases and hospitalizations have declined recently, 99.9% of U.S. counties still meet criteria for indoor masking. (NBC News)
A primer on the who, when, and how of at-home COVID testing. (CNN)
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals announced that a federal court ruled that the FDA approval of Jacobus Pharmaceutical's amifampridine (Ruzurgi) for pediatric Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome violated Catalyst's exclusivity for amifampridine (Firdapse), effectively invalidating the marketing approval granted to Jacobus.
In other pharma news, Biogen noted in its annual report that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating the approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm), the company's drug for Alzheimer's disease. (Reuters)
As the pandemic recedes in Spain, government officials may drop the national outdoor facemask mandate. (Reuters)
The Union for International Cancer Control will livestream cancer informationthroughout today in recognition of World Cancer Day.

A Listeria outbreak related to Dole prepackaged salads (sold under various names) has sickened 17 people in 13 states and caused two deaths, according to the CDC.
A pandemic-driven shortage of home health aides has left many home-bound patients without necessary healthcare services. (CNN)
Australia may turn to military personnel for help at the nation's resource-strapped nursing homes. (Reuters)
As many nations consider loosening COVID-related restrictions, the Austrian Parliament put the final stamp of approval on Europe's first -- and so far only -- nationwide vaccination mandate. (AP)
Your body image -- how you see yourself -- can affect your health and well-being. (Everyday Health)
More than a week after testing positive for COVID, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin returned to a New York City courtroom to resume a trial over libel allegations against the New York Times. (AP via ABC News)
The nation that gave birth to the COVID-19 pandemic opened the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (AP)

"

 

[Gloria27]

British researchers plan to screen dozens of existing antiviral drugs in a search for therapies that might be repurposed for treating COVID. (Reuters)


"

This is what they (everyone not just the Brits) should have done 2 years ago but it's good news nonetheless.

 

[dk168]

Nothing much to report except life is slowly getting back to normal for the majority, and I am learning to live with Covid.

Antivaxxers have no sympathy from me if they catch Covid.

DK

 

[missy]

In this week's edition of the Covid Q&A, we look at how to tell which variant of the virus you have—and whether that even matters. In hopes of making this very confusing time just a little less so, each week Bloomberg Prognosis picks one reader question and puts it to experts in the field. This week’s question comes to us from Juan in Mexico City. He asks: Everyone is talking about the delta variant being more deadly or omicron being more transmissible. How can I find out which variant I have? If you contract Covid-19, there are a lot of reasons why you might wonder which variant you caught. Early data suggest, for example, that an omicron infection provides better immunity against not only another case of omicron, but also other variants like delta. And it’s true that omicron, while highly contagious, appears to be less severe than other strains. On a national and global scale, of course, there’s much interest in tracking which variants are spreading fastest. That’s why many nations, including the U.S., U.K. and South Africa—where omicron was first identified—have scaled up virus-sequencing efforts. Knowing which variant is dominant, and understanding its characteristics, can help us better respond to the pandemic. A technician uses a sequencer to test samples at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in New Delhi, India. Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg But in the U.S., says Jeremy Kamil, a microbiologist and immunologist at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport, current federal guidance actually prevent labs from informing patients or their physicians about the specific genome-sequencing results from their samples. The exception, he says, is Oregon, where a law stipulates that if a state lab orders your sample sequenced, you can get the result. But that would mean your sample had to have been sequenced in the first place. The U.S. is sequencing only a fraction of samples from patients. Standard Covid tests can determine only if you’re positive or negative. “No tests can tell you for sure what variant you have without full viral genome sequencing,” Kamil says. But he says there are a host of reasons why we should be giving people that information. “No doubt these regulations, though well-intended, are holding back genomic surveillance in the United States,” Kamil says. “We want people to share samples. So it’s got to be disempowering not being able to give them any data back.” And if you do get very ill from the virus, he says, sequencing data could be life-saving. Most monoclonal antibody treatments authorized in the U.S., for example, still work on delta but not omicron. “Knowing someone is hospitalized with delta and not omicron could open up access to a life-saving therapy,” he says. That means we need to also make sequencing more common. “Frankly, it’s embarrassing that we are not taking advantage of latest rapid sequencing technologies to save lives,” he says. Thanks to all of you for writing in this week! Next Sunday, we'll be answering the best question we receive again. So if you have any, we want to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected]—Kristen V. Brown

​ ​ ​ ​ Track the vaccines​

More Than 10.2 Billion Shots Given​ In total, 130 doses have been given for every 100 people around the world—but the distribution has been lopsided. Countries and regions with the highest incomes are getting vaccinated more than 10 times faster than those with the lowest. See the latest here.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

One of my former students has died of COVID. I had him when he was in junior high, he died at 17 years old. He was a young man with Down Syndrome. The vulnerable are still vulnerable, even now. As his family has said, Rest In Power Ziaire.

 

[missy]

I am so sorry @Asscherhalo_lover

 

[missy]

"

The workforce is moving on​

After two years of lockdowns, the notion of spending Mondays to Fridays commuting into the office appears all but over. The likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and HSBC Holdings are embracing hybrid working divided between home and headquarters, while Citigroup is spending over 100 million pounds ($136 million) revamping its London skyscraper so it’s fit for today’s flexible working patterns. At the furthest end of the spectrum, fintech companies such as Revolut and Eigen Technologies have agreed to let their staff work from their kitchen desks permanently. Firms and managers toying with a full-time return face an uncomfortable reality, experts say: Without significant pay incentives that only the richest firms can offer, staff are increasingly likely to look elsewhere. And with city house prices sky-high and workers keen to spend more time with their families, a return to pre-pandemic habits looks unlikely. A woman works from home. Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg “Everybody really did have an expectation that it would all go back to normal. And I think now is a dawning realization that it isn’t,” says Julia Hobsbawm, author of “The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future,” to be published in the U.K. this month and the U.S. in April. “There is no wholesale return to the office that will stick.” More than two-thirds of people (68%) now prefer a hybrid working model, according to Future Forum’s latest quarterly survey of almost 11,000 knowledge workers in Australia, France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. In addition, 95% of respondents want flexibility over times when they work. That’s not to say there won’t be costs to the new normal. Some bankers fret that it will be harder to build company culture and a sense of shared mission over Zoom, and for new hires to get settled in. And there are a host of gyms, sandwich shops and bars around financial districts that for years have depended on bankers showing up for work, which may struggle as the government’s pandemic support is pared back. Eigen’s decision to let staff work permanently from home “was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” says co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Lewis Liu. “At the same time I recognize that as a workforce we are moving on.” — William Shaw

​ ​ ​ ​ Track the virus​

Pandemic Restrictions Coming to an End​ The era of coronavirus restrictions is fading away, but that doesn’t mean Covid-19 is gone. Governments are racing to scrap the last remaining pandemic measures, eager to reset the world after two years of dramatic upheaval. Even slow-mover Germany is planning to unwind curbs next week, despite setting records for infections on a daily basis. Read more here. "

 

[missy]

"

FDA Puts COVID Vaccine for Toddlers in Timeout​

— Agency attributes sudden decision to needing more data on third dose​

by Molly Walker, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today February 11, 2022
Last Updated February 11, 2022

FDA is postponing their scheduled advisory committee meeting on Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to 4 years, which now may not happen for a few more months, agency officials said on Friday.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) was slated to meet on Tuesday, February 15, to discuss Pfizer's application for their COVID vaccine in this age group. However, an FDA media briefing indicated that it could take months to get the new data needed to go forward.

A statement from FDA noted that Pfizer recently told them about "additional findings from its ongoing clinical trial," which led the agency to postpone the meeting. As previously reported, a two-dose vaccine series failed to meet immunobridging criteria among the youngest children.
Pfizer itself released a statement, explaining that a third dose "may provide a higher level of protection in this age group," based on findings from booster dose studies that showed that three doses boosted neutralizing antibody levels and "real-world protection."
In a hastily arranged media briefing on Friday, Peter Marks, MD, PhD, director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, noted that the Omicron variant has sickened a large number of children, which compelled the agency to act with urgency. However, they ultimately came to the conclusion that "additional time regarding a third dose should be considered."
Prior media reports indicated this was all but a done deal, and that the vaccine could be authorized for this age group by President's Day.



When reporters pressed Marks for details, he explained that "the data that we saw made us realize that we needed to see data from a third dose in the ongoing trial in order to make the determination that we could proceed with doing an authorization."

Marks added that it was a safe assumption that when the additional data are reviewed, they will be clinical data on infection and not merely immunobridging data.

He promised that FDA would review the data "in an expeditious manner" as it came in.

"For the next few months, while these additional data are gathered, parents will have to rely on what they've come to do well," including the use of masks and ensuring that all other family members are vaccinated, Marks said.

"

 

[missy]

A New Solution for Long-COVID Brain Fog?​

Pauline Anderson
February 10, 2022

"

Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) that uses alternating microcurrents appears to rapidly and effectively improve cognitive and visual deficits related to "long COVID," a small case series shows.

SARS-CoV-2 infections impair blood flow to the eyes and brain, causing visual and cognitive deficits, and the stimulation restores normal blood flow, lead study investigator Bernhard A. Sabel, PhD, professor of medical psychology, University of Magdeburg, Germany, told Medscape Medical News.

"Oxygen and glucose is delivered again to nerve cells, so they can do their job of firing electric signals to the brain, and the patient can think better, their cognition is better, and their vision is improved."


The benefits for those affected with long-term cognitive problems occur within days, said Sabel. "This Is the fastest solution that I'm aware of ― much faster than with the standard neurological rehabilitation."


The study was published in a recent issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.

No Effective Treatments​

Many COVID-19 patients report ongoing fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction, a syndrome often referred to as "long COVID." Symptoms may be of new onset following recovery from acute COVID-19 or persist from the initial illness and may fluctuate or relapse over time.




An estimated 20% to 30% of COVID-19 patients develop significant cognitive problems long after acute symptoms of the infection resolve. However, the risk is higher in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, with about 60% experiencing cognitive decline within 4 months.
COVID-19 causes swelling of the blood vessels, reducing their diameter, which leads to abnormal neuronal response, said Sabel.
"When a neuron fires a signal, it needs oxygen and glucose, but if the blood vessel doesn't open up, it's like you're stepping on the accelerator but the car isn't driving because it's not getting gas."
If patients are stressed, that could reduce the blood vessel diameter even further, added Sabel.

There are no effective treatments to improve cognitive and visual impairment in patients with long COVID. Physiotherapy and rehabilitation are the only current approaches, but they take weeks or months, and improvement is less than satisfactory.

The study included two relatively healthy and active women, one age 40 and the other 72, experiencing long-COVID-19 symptoms. One of them had a history of migraines, but neither had any other significant comorbidities.

One patient developed symptoms after SARS-Cov-2 infection, although she didn't require hospitalization, while the other noticed symptoms after vaccination. For both patients, there was the typical delay before long-COVID symptoms presented.

"Dramatic" Symptoms​

These symptoms included headache, fever, fatigue, visual changes, loss of balance, and cognitive impairment, which involved compromised memory, concentration, attention deficits, and difficulty finding words, making it difficult to participate in conversation.


The symptoms were "quite dramatic" and affected the patients' everyday function and quality of life, said Sabel. He added that both women found it difficult to carry out daily household and other tasks and had to stop working.

NIBS has been used to enhance or suppress specific neurologic function, such as locomotor behavior. It has also been shown to enhance visual and cognitive dysfunction.

Sabel and his colleagues have had previous success in improving vision in glaucoma patients using NIBS treatment and hypothesized that the treatment could induce visual and cognitive recovery in COVID patients.

The intervention involved transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) using a neuromodulation device. During the procedure, the patients were seated comfortably in a chair, and an electrode was placed on the side of each eye near the forehead.

This area, said Sabel, is close to the frontal cortex, which MRI studies show is most affected by reduced blood flow.

The electric current rapidly alternates between electrodes, "so it kind of flips back and forth," said Sabel. "It basically passes from one eye to the other but also goes through the skull into the frontal cortex."

Potential Mechanism​

Each stimulation session lasted 30 to 45 minutes. One patient received 13 sessions and the other, 10. Sabel noted that both patients underwent stress reduction therapy prior to the stimulation sessions.
Both patients tolerated the treatment well and reported feeling only a tingling sensation. There were no adverse or serious adverse events.

Before and after therapy, researchers assessed cognition subjectively by interview and quantified visual fields using perimetry. They also assessed one patient with a cognitive test battery and with a retinal dynamic vascular analyzer, a surrogate marker of vascular dysregulation in the brain.

In both patients, the visual problems caused by lack of blood supply to the eyes markedly improved, said Sabel.

They also experienced improved cognitive performance. "What was completely astonishing was that within 3 to 4 days, cognitive impairment improved significantly," he said.

One patient requested and underwent objective cognitive testing. Her results showed a greater than 30% improvement in reaction time in a test for alertness and greater than 60% improvement in reaction time for testing of executive function. She also experienced improved memory.

The second patient reported subjective cognitive improvements, including being more alert, no longer struggling for words, and being better able to plan and remember things.

Recovery from vascular dysregulation (central and peripheral retinal vessel dilation and constriction response to flicker light) was done on one patient. Observations from this test provided evidence that blood flow was restored to a normal level. This, said Sabel, indicates a mechanism for the positive visual and cognitive effects.

Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2021:39:393-408. Full text

"

 

[missy]

"

Trucker revolt puts world’s eyes on Canada​

Canada just had one of its worst months for Covid-19 deaths, but the eyes of the nation aren’t on its hospitals. They’re on noisy groups of protestersin Ottawa and other places who want an immediate end to vaccine mandates and other restrictions. The demonstrations have captured global attention for a few reasons. Among them is the bullhorn of Fox News, the Trump family, the alt-right and the anti-vaxxer movement — all of which have hailed the truckers and protesters as heroes. Another is the compelling image of the metal involved. Several hundred semi trucks are parked in front of Canada’s parliament, on major roads and in residential areas of the capital. They’re loud. They’re impossible for police to move. They’ve been there for almost two weeks, bringing the city to a standstill. Nobody is certain what it will take to get them to leave. Protesters against vaccine mandates are grabbing attention in other ways, too. On Monday night, they blocked the Ambassador Bridge connecting connecting Detroit with southern Ontario, a vital artery for the movement of goods. They’ve halted traffic at other border posts too. Demonstrators on a balcony in Ottawa watch protesters amid rows of parked trucks. Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg What’s going on? Most Canadians support vaccination and they don’t like the protesters’ tactics. The demonstrators include people who are devoted to anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and speak of their cause as though it’s a great wartime battle. At the same time, polling shows there is some public support for the idea that restrictions have gone too far. Covid fatigue runs deep in a country that locked down much harder, and for much longer, than the U.S. did. Vaccine mandates were adopted, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won last September’s election on a pledge to make them even tougher. He required proof of shots for government workers, air travelers and truckers. About 80% of the population is fully vaccinated. Thousands lined up in the winter cold to get booster shots. The question is, what’s to be gained by imposing ever-harder vaccine mandates to persuade the other 20%? The leaders of some provincial governments now say they see diminishing returns. Oil-rich Alberta is dropping its vaccine passport, which has kept unvaccinated people out of restaurants and other public places. Saskatchewan, a conservative-leaning western province, is doing the same. When he announced the move last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe implored residents to stop obsessing about the virus. “Have dinner with your friends,” he said. “Go to the movies. Go to your kids’ games, most importantly. You should do all of these things without constantly assessing if your every activity is absolutely necessary.” Trudeau can’t deliver that same message. So the protesters are staying, for now. — Derek Decloet "

 

[missy]

From the NYT Feb 14, 2022

"

Good morning. We offer a guide to protecting vulnerable people — the elderly, immunocompromised and unvaccinated — from Covid.​

N95 masks were distributed to farm workers in Oregon.Jordan Gale for The New York Times​

Precision tools​ ​

With the Omicron wave receding, many places are starting to remove at least some of their remaining pandemic restrictions.​

This shift could have large benefits. It could reduce the isolation and disruption that have contributed to a long list of societal ills, like rising mental-health problems, drug overdoses, violent crime and, as Substack’s Matthew Yglesias has written, “all kinds of bad behavior.”​

But the removal of restrictions has downsides, too. Millions of Americans remain vulnerable to Covid. The largest group of the vulnerable, by far, is the unvaccinated, who have the ability to protect themselves and have chosen not to.​

Another group of people, however, have done what they can to stay healthy — by getting vaccinated — and yet remain vulnerable. They include the elderly and people with immunodeficiencies that put them at greater Covid risk. According to the C.D.C., more than 75 percent of vaccinated people who have died from Covid had at least four medical risk factors.​

Today’s newsletter focuses on five steps that can help protect the vulnerable as society moves back toward normal.​

At this point in the pandemic, there is a strong argument that a targeted approach — lifting restrictions while taking specific measures to protect the vulnerable — can maximize public health. The right approach, Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me, involves “moving away from broad, blunt tools to more precision tools.”​

The public conversation often misses this middle ground. It can sometimes seem to be a debate between doing everything to slow the spread of Covid and doing nothing, said Katelyn Jetelina of the University of Texas, who writes a helpful newsletter about public health. In truth, she said, “There has to be a balance.”​

1. Vaccines and boosters​ ​

I want to start by emphasizing the importance of the vaccines, including the booster shots. Consider this chart, based on C.D.C. data:​

Based on data from 14 U.S. jurisdictions. | Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention​

Yes, some Americans remain so opposed to a Covid vaccination that there is little chance of persuading them. But others may still choose to receive shots if they are readily available. Booster shots are vital, too, to overcome waning protection. Boosters are especially important for the vulnerable vaccinated — the elderly and immunocompromised.​

“Vaccination is the most valuable intervention we can do,” William Hanage, an infectious-disease expert at Harvard, told me.​

2. High-quality masks​ ​

For the vulnerable vaccinated, the best approach is what epidemiologists calls “the Swiss cheese model.” It’s a multifaceted approach in which each strategy, including vaccines, has holes. But when the strategies are layered on top of one another, the holes tend to disappear.​

One such layer is masking with an N95 or KN95 medical mask, even if others are maskless. “One-way masking works,” as Olga Khazan of The Atlantic has written.​

Joseph Allen of Harvard has argued that somebody wearing an N95 mask and talking to an unmasked person is at less risk than somebody who’s wearing a standard surgical mask and talking to another person wearing a standard mask. “Let’s dispense with the notion that masks are only protective if everyone is wearing them,” Allen wrote in The Washington Post.​

Here’s a Wirecutter guide to buying N95 and KN95 masks, and here’s how to spot a fake.​

3. A preventive drug​ ​

In December, the F.D.A. authorized a drug called Evusheld, made by AstraZeneca. It is designed to be an additional layer of protection on top of the vaccines, to prevent Covid in immunocompromised people.​

The Biden administration has bought 1.7 million doses, which is not enough to protect every American who could benefit but is significant. A larger immediate problem is confusion around the distribution. Many people don’t know Evusheld exists or don’t know how to find out if they’re eligible and how to get a shot.​

Rob Relyea, an engineer at Microsoft whose wife has cancer, has created an online resource, in the absence of information from official sources. The country needs a “better communication plan around Evusheld,” Relyea tweeted. “Each hospital should proactively reach out to immunocompromised patients.”​

The confusion around Evusheld is another example of how the fragmented U.S. health care system harms people.​

4. Rapid tests​ ​

One piece of recent good news is the increased availability of rapid Covid tests, at drugstores and elsewhere.​

Rapid tests are an important tool for allowing the elderly and immunocompromised to socialize confidently with friends and family. Stefanie Friedhoff of Brown University’s School of Public Health has written about a friend of hers who leaves a batch of tests in her hallway for people to take before they visit her husband, who has Parkinson’s disease.​

5. Post-infection treatments​ ​

Rapid tests can also help vulnerable people find out when they have contracted Covid — and quickly begin a treatment to reduce its severity. “Time is critical, as close to symptom onset as possible,” Dr. Paul Sax of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston notes.​

Although some post-infection treatments no longer work against Omicron, others, like remdesivir, seem to. The most effective treatment may be Paxlovid, a Pfizer drug designed to fight Covid.​

Unfortunately, these treatments can also be difficult to locate. My colleague Rebecca Robbins has written about her maddening search to find one for her mother, who’s 73 and has had cancer. Rebecca had to locate Paxlovid herself, at a Rite Aid 60 miles from her mother’s home, and hire an Uber driver to pick it up.​

The supply of Paxlovid, in both the U.S. and other countries, will expand rapidly in coming months, which should help. Yet some of the logistical hurdles will surely remain. (Related, from Times Opinion: “Covid drugs may work well, but our health system doesn’t.”)​

The bottom line​ ​

Vulnerable people — and their families — can take some big steps to protect themselves, including high-quality masks and rapid tests. But government agencies, hospitals and doctor’s offices can also play a crucial role, helping people locate potentially lifesaving treatments. “It’s incumbent upon policymakers to give people the tools to do that,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former F.D.A. commissioner, said on CBS yesterday.​

One final point: Some of these issues are not unique to Covid. The flu, for example, kills more than 30,000 Americans a year, most of them elderly or immunocompromised. If Covid can focus the country on finding better ways to protect them in the future, it would be one silver lining from a tragic pandemic. "​