Get the shot now, with the latest COVID outbreak sweeping the country, or hold it in reserve for the winter wave?
It's a COVID shot quandary: Get the new one now or wait until closer to the holidays and the inevitable winter wave? Here are some things to consider.
While the newly formulated vaccines are better targeted at the circulating COVID variants, uninsured and underinsured Americans may have to rush if they hope to get one for free. A CDC program that provided boosters to 1.5 million people over the last year ran out of money and is ending Aug. 31.
Nassau county banned masks, now disabled people are suing
In New York's Nassau County, you need a cop's permission to mask up.
“This mask ban poses a direct threat to public health and discriminates against people with disabilities,” said Timothy A. Clune, the group’s executive director, in a press release.
New Covid Vaccines Are Coming. Here’s What to Know.
The F.D.A. approved one vaccine from Pfizer and one from Moderna. Representatives from the drug companies said that their shots were ready to ship immediately after approval.
Both vaccines target KP.2, a strain of the coronavirus that started to spread widely this spring. The variants that are most prevalent in the United States right now are very similar to KP.2, and so the vaccines should protect against them.
The biotechnology company Novavax is waiting for the F.D.A. to authorize its retooled vaccine, which will target JN.1, a variant that is also close to the strains circulating widely now.
University of Houston researchers make nasal vaccine that prevents COVID from spreading
A team of researchers from the University of Houston have developed a new vaccine to treat and prevent the spread of flu and multiple coronavirus strains.
Through two nasal sprays — an immune activating therapeutic treatment and a new vaccine — the team of UH researchers have not only broken ground on vaccinating against SARS-CoV-2 and the flu virus, but also on creating a universal coronavirus vaccine.
COVID-19 making worrying comeback WHO warns
COVID-19 infections are surging worldwide - including at the Olympics - and are unlikely to decline anytime soon, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
Data from our sentinel-based surveillance system across 84 countries reports that the percent of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been rising over several weeks,” she said. “Overall, test positivity is above 10 per cent, but this fluctuates per region. In Europe, percent positivity is above 20 per cent,” she added.
What’s different about this summer’s FLiRT COVID wave
COVID could be a staple of summer, experts say
COVID is the “two-humped camel.” Indeed, this isn’t the first time COVID has made a splash in summer. August 2021 marked the COVID comeback, as did a surge in summer 2022 and then there was 2023’s “hot COVID summer.”
Mask Bans Insult Disabled People, Endanger Our Health, and Threaten Our Ability to Protest
Mask bans in cities like LA and New York are a dangerous prospect, putting people’s health at risk and allowing cities to identify protesters who wish to remain anonymous.
In my opinion, the ableist, fascistic, and eugenic nature of proposed mask bans under consideration in New York City and Los Angeles is bleak. But what is happening now is not new or surprising; the hate is more explicit, that’s all.
COVID-19 is on the rise with wide-ranging symptoms
Interview: Epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera, Montclair State University
new variants of the coronavirus — called FLIRT variants — have found a way to evade immunity, affecting even people who have previously had COVID-19. And symptoms can be hard to spot
‘Playing COVID roulette’: Some infected by FLiRT variants report their most unpleasant symptoms yet
COVID cases and hospitalizations rise in L.A. County — and some of those recently reinfected with the FLiRT variants are finding the latest bout the worst yet.
“The dogma is that every time you get COVID, it’s milder. But I think we need to keep our minds open to the possibility that some people have worse symptoms,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert. [...]
anecdotally, including on social media sites, people are expressing shock at how sick they’ve become from the latest subvariants, which have been collectively nicknamed FLiRT.
NYC COVID cases up 250% in 2 months — and this variant's harder to duck
The increases is driven by the new FLiRT variant.
New York City data shows an average of 687 cases of COVID reported per day during the week ending on June 22, 250% higher than the amount reported two months prior. That same week, there was an average of 53 COVID-related hospitalizations each day
CDC finds that COVID-19 can surge throughout the year
COVID-19 peaks in the winter, like many other respiratory virus illnesses, but can also surge at oth
Many respiratory virus illnesses peak during the winter due to environmental conditions and human behaviors. COVID-19 has peaks in the winter and also at other times of the year, including the summer, driven by new variants and decreasing immunity from previous infections and vaccinations. You can protect yourself from serious illness by staying up to date with vaccinations, getting treated if you have medical conditions that make you more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, and using other strategies outlined in CDC's respiratory virus guidance.
A covid summer uptick is underway as FLiRT and LB.1 variants ascend
Covid infections are growing in nearly all states -- with the sharpest increases in the West, according to CDC data. The FLiRT and LB.1 variants are most common.
“We have consistently seen over the past three years that there is a winter surge and there is also a summer surge,” Marlene Wolfe, program director for WastewaterSCAN, a private initiative that tracks municipal wastewater data, and an assistant professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. “Right now we are waiting to see whether we actually will see a downturn over the next couple of weeks and we’ve hit the peak here, or whether those levels will actually go up.”