Author: Claudinne Miller
Pandemics Don’t Really End—They Echo
Time Magazine The public health emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic officially ended on May 11, 2023. It was a purely administrative step. Viruses do not answer to government decrees. Reported numbers were declining, but then started coming up again during the summer. By August, hospital admissions climbed to more than 10,000 a week. This was nowhere […]
Aug 29, 2023
Long COVID Recovery Remains Rare. Doctors Are Struggling to Understand Why
Time Magazine Since August 2020, David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, has helped treat more than 3,000 people with Long COVID. These patients, in his experience, fit into one of three groups. A small number, no more than 10%, have stubborn symptoms that don’t get better, no matter what […]
Aug 29, 2023
How Bad Could BA.2.86 Get?
Atlantic Until the future of the new COVID variant becomes clear, three scenarios are still possible. Since Omicron swept across the globe in 2021, the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has moved at a slower and more predictable pace. New variants of interest have come and gone, but none have matched Omicron’s 30-odd mutations or its ferocious growth. Then, about two […]
Aug 29, 2023
Scientists at Johns Hopkins research malaria transmission following a positive case in Maryland
CBS News A team of scientists at Johns Hopkins Hospital are leading research efforts behind malaria transmission. Maryland health leaders earlier this month reported a resident tested positive for malaria despite not traveling outside of the United States or to another state with recent malaria cases. It’s the first case of malaria of that kind in decades. […]
Aug 29, 2023
Majority of US dog owners now skeptical of vaccines, including for rabies: study
The Hill A new study found that dog owners in the U.S. are growing more skeptical of vaccinating their four-legged friends — including to help prevent rabies. The study, published Saturday in the medical journal Vaccine, found that 53 percent of dog owners had some concern about the safety, efficacy or necessity of canine vaccines. Additionally, […]
Aug 29, 2023
Not Over Yet: Late-Summer Covid Wave Brings Warning of More to Come
NYT Hospitalizations are still low but have been rising in recent weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A late-summer wave of coronavirus infections has touched schools, workplaces and local government, as experts warn the public to brace for even more Covid-19 spread this fall and winter. Hospitalizations have increased 24 percent in a […]
Aug 29, 2023
Wait, Is That Rapid Test Really Expired?
NYT As Covid cases rise, at-home tests are a critical tool to keep yourself and others safe. Here are answers to a few common questions about when and how to use them. Since the public health emergency expired, lab P.C.R. tests — the gold standard for detecting Covid-19 — have become more expensive and less accessible for many people. […]
Aug 29, 2023
Accelerated evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging white-tailed deer
Nature The zoonotic origin of the COVID-19 pandemic virus highlights the need to fill the vast gaps in our knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 ecology and evolution in non-human hosts. Here, we detected that SARS-CoV-2 was introduced from humans into white-tailed deer more than 30 times in Ohio, USA during November 2021-March 2022. Subsequently, deer-to-deer transmission persisted […]
Aug 29, 2023
Latest Covid Twist: Coronavirus Is Spreading In Deer, Study Finds—And Many Are Getting It From Humans
Forbes Researchers have discovered dozens of white-tailed deer infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 in Ohio, suggesting that spillover of the virus between humans and animals is less rare than previously believed, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Communications—news that comes as doctors are tracking a new Covid-19 variant in humans. […]
Aug 29, 2023
This Fall’s Covid Variant Might Really Be Different
WSJ What to know about BA.2.86, or ‘pirola,’ from where it’s spreading to whether vaccines will work against it. Scientists have their eye on a different variant than the XBB variants, such as EG.5, that are driving the summer Covid-19 bump. BA.2.86—dubbed “pirola” by a group of scientists on social media who name notable variants—has been […]
Aug 29, 2023