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Tag: United States

Topic: CaliforniaView all posts for the topic: California

COVID is coming for Calif., and it’s already hitting the Bay Area the hardest

Published June 12, 2024

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Published by: SFGATE
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By Ariana Bindman

If you or any of your friends have gotten sick with COVID-19 recently, you’re not the only ones: Case rates are rising in the Bay Area and the proof is in the pipes. According to the California Department of Public Health, the region now has the most viral wastewater than anywhere else in California.

In an email to SFGATE, Amanda Bidwell, a wastewater researcher and data analyst at Stanford, said that over the past 21 days “consistently high concentrations” of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in wastewater samples collected across San Francisco.

“Currently we are seeing some of the highest concentrations we’ve ever measured” at these locations, Bidwell continued. And across San Francisco, the levels are approaching those last seen in December and January. Because individuals shed the virus before getting tested, this method of monitoring wastewater helps predict upcoming surges while including data from those who are asymptomatic.

Continue readingCOVID is coming for Calif., and it’s already hitting the Bay Area the hardest
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Report: More than 200 symptoms tied to long COVIDElectron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. Image captured and colourized at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana. Photo by: NIAID. Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.
Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Report: More than 200 symptoms tied to long COVID

Published June 5, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

Today a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine presents a number of conclusions about long-COVID diagnosis, symptoms, and impact on daily function, including that the condition can cause more than 200 symptoms, and that a positive COVID-19 test is not necessary to make a long-COVID diagnosis.

The findings are meant to guide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and are published one week before the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is set to offer a new single definition of long COVID that can be used across US governmental groups as a way to streamline treating the condition in the years to come.

“This report offers a comprehensive review of the evidence base for how Long COVID may impact a patient’s ability to engage in normal activities, such as going to work, attending school, or taking care of their families,” said Victor J. Dzau, MD, president of the National Academy of Medicine, in a National Academies press release. “Its findings will be useful to anyone attempting to understand how Long COVID may affect the millions of people in the U.S. who have reported symptoms.”

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

COVID can cause new health problems to appear years after infection, according to a study of more than 130,000 patients

Published May 30, 2024

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Published by: Fortune
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By Carolyn Barber

Even as national institutions struggle to coordinate meaningful trials for possible long COVID treatments, researchers continue to tally the damage. New findings suggest that the disease’s reach isn’t merely long—it’s still growing.

Three years after their initial bouts with COVID-19, patients who’d once been hospitalized with the virus remained at “significantly elevated” risk of death or worsening health from long COVID complications, according to a paper published May 30 in Nature Medicine.

Even among those whose initial cases didn’t require a hospital stay, the threat of long COVID and several of its associated issues remained real, the researchers found. And cumulatively, at three years, long COVID results in 91 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) per 1,000 people—DALYs being a measure of years lost to poor health or premature death. That is a higher incidence than either heart disease or cancer.

Continue readingCOVID can cause new health problems to appear years after infection, according to a study of more than 130,000 patients
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Topic: North CarolinaView all posts for the topic: North Carolina

North Carolina wants to tighten mask restrictions. Disabled residents are concerned.

Published May 23, 2024

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Published by: ABC News
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By Kiara Alfonseca

Disabled North Carolina residents say a mask restriction that is under consideration in the state legislature would make it harder for them to access parts of their communities, pushing them back into isolation.

“This law says to them that you are not welcome in our community and we don’t value your presence to accommodate your need to wear a mask,” Tara Muller, a policy attorney at Disability Rights North Carolina, told ABC News.

House Bill 237, dubbed the “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals” bill, would repeal a COVID-19 pandemic exception that allowed people to wear a face mask in public. It allows exceptions for holiday costumes, rituals or ceremonies, theatrical productions, gas masks or employment-based usage, but would remove the ability for someone to wear a mask to ensure “the physical health or safety of the wearer or others.”

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Topic: North CarolinaView all posts for the topic: North Carolina

Mask ban bill shot down in North Carolina House

Published May 22, 2024

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Published by: WFMY News 2
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By Blair Barnes, Tom Santaniello

The North Carolina House voted against a bill that would’ve banned mask-wearing in public Wednesday.

The Senate passed it last week as part of an effort to crack down on people who wear masks at protests so they can commit crimes.

Lawmakers in the House worried it went too far, saying the law may be unfairly enforced against people who wear masks for health concerns.

Leaders in the House and Senate will soon meet to try to iron out a compromise.

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Topic: North CarolinaView all posts for the topic: North Carolina

North Carolina House pauses passage of bill that would ban masking for health reasons

Published May 22, 2024

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Published by: The Associated Press
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A North Carolina bill partially meant to address mask-wearing at protests was under review Wednesday after some House Republicans raised issue with the legislation’s impact on people who wear masks for health reasons.

The state House voted not to accept changes made to the bill by the state Senate that would remove a pandemic-era masking exemption for health purposes.

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Topic: Cue HealthView all posts for the topic: Cue Health

San Diego COVID-19 testmaker Cue Health is shutting down

Published May 21, 2024

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Published by: The San Diego Union-Tribune
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By Natallie Rocha

Cue Health, the once high-flying San [Diego] biotech supplying rapid COVID-19 test kits to the NBA and others, is shutting down this week.

Cue’s closure comes a week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to throw out any of its COVID-19 test kits because they could give false results. The San Diego firm said it has stopped selling the COVID-19 tests, which was its only fully FDA-approved commercial product.

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Topic: variantsView all posts for the topic: variants

New virus variants threaten a summer Covid-19 wave, but experts say the risk remains uncertain

Published May 17, 2024

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Published by: CNN
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By Deidre McPhillips

Covid-19 levels are about the lowest they’ve ever been in the United States, but another new crop of virus variants once again threatens to disrupt the downward trend as the country heads into summer.

KP.2 — one of the so-called FLiRT variants — has overtaken JN.1 to become the dominant coronavirus variant in the United States, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data through May 11 shows that it’s responsible for more than a quarter of cases in the country, which is nearly twice as many as JN.1. A related variant, KP.1.1, has caused about 7% of cases, CDC data shows.

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Topic: North CarolinaView all posts for the topic: North Carolina

North Carolina lawmakers push bill to ban most public mask wearing, citing crime

Published May 15, 2024

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Published by: The Associated Press
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By Makiya Seminera

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza that have included masked protesters camped out on college campuses.

The legislation cleared the Senate on Wednesday in a 30-15 vote along party lines despite several attempts by state Senate Democrats to change the bill. The bill, which would raise penalties for someone who wears a mask while committing a crime, including arrested protesters, could still be altered as it heads back to the House.

Opponents of the bill say it risks the health of those masking for safety reasons. But those backing the legislation say it is a needed response to the demonstrations, including those at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that escalated to police clashes and arrests. The bill also further criminalizes the blockage of roads or emergency vehicles for a protest, which has occurred during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Raleigh and Durham.

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Topic: mortality rateView all posts for the topic: mortality rate

Four Years On, Covid-19 Remains a Worse Killer Than the Flu, US Study Finds

Published May 15, 2024

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Published by: Bloomberg
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By Jason Gale

We did the 2024 Covid-versus-flu rematch thinking that we may find that risk of death in Covid may have sufficiently declined to become equal with the risk of death from flu. But the reality remains that Covid carries a higher risk of death than the flu. […]

Overall, I think this means that we still need to take Covid seriously. Trivializing it as an inconsequential ‘cold,’ as we often hear, doesn’t mesh or align with reality.

— Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly
Continue readingFour Years On, Covid-19 Remains a Worse Killer Than the Flu, US Study Finds
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COVID virus can infect your eyes and damage visionIllustration of an eye with a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle; with blue, black and coral pink colours. Illustration by Monika Jurczyk / Adobe.
Topic: vision lossView all posts for the topic: vision loss

COVID virus can infect your eyes and damage vision

Published May 15, 2024

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Published by: Futurity
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By Rochita Ghosh / University of Missouri

The virus that causes COVID-19 can breach the protective blood-retinal barrier, leading to potential long-term consequences in the eye, new research shows.

The blood-retinal barrier is designed to protect our vision from infections by preventing microbial pathogens from reaching the retina where they could trigger an inflammatory response with potential vision loss.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

CDC launching wastewater dashboard to track bird flu virus spread

Published May 13, 2024

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Published by: STAT
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By Megan Molteni, Helen Branswell

Reluctance among dairy farmers to report H5N1 bird flu outbreaks within their herds or allow testing of their workers has made it difficult to keep up with the virus’s rapid spread, prompting federal public health officials to look to wastewater to help fill in the gaps.

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to unveil a public dashboard tracking influenza A viruses in sewage that the agency has been collecting from 600 wastewater treatment sites around the country since last fall.

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Topic: metforminView all posts for the topic: metformin

Common diabetes drug lowers SARS-CoV-2 levels, clinical trial finds

Published May 3, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

Today, researchers from the University of Minnesota published evidence that the common diabetes drug metformin decreases the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the body and helps reduce the risk of rebound symptoms if given early in the course of non-severe illness.

The study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggests metformin may also help prevent long COVID.

The researchers tested metformin against a placebo in 999 adults infected with COVID-19. More than 50% of the study enrollees were vaccinated, and treatment took place when the Omicron variant was the most dominant strain in the United States.

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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

Trump Threatens to Shut Down Pandemic Preparedness Office Launched by Biden

Published April 30, 2024

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Published by: Time
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By Brian Bennett

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign criticized Donald Trump on Tuesday for saying that, if elected, he would close an office in the White House tasked with making sure the country is better prepared for the next pandemic.

In an interview with TIME published Tuesday, Trump said he would disband the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), which opened last summer after Congress approved a bill in 2022 with bipartisan support to mandate its creation. The office most recently responded to an outbreak of bird flu in dairy farms, coordinating with the Food and Drug Administration to ensure milk remains safe to drink, and working with farmers to contain the virus.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

What we’re starting to learn about H5N1 in cows, and the risk to people

Published April 30, 2024

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Published by: STAT
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By Helen Branswell, Megan Molteni

The H5N1 bird flu virus has been around for decades, and the damage it wreaks on chickens and other poultry is well documented. But the recent discovery that the virus has jumped into dairy cattle — whose udders seem to be where the virus either infects or migrates to — has dumbfounded scientists and agricultural authorities.

Questions for which there are pretty clear answers when it comes to birds are suddenly unsettled science in cows. How are they getting infected? Are they transmitting the virus cow to cow, or are human actions — activities that are part of the day-to-day of farming — serving as an unrecognized amplifier of viral transmission? In the interface between infected cows and humans, how might people be at risk? Does consuming milk laced with live H5 virus pose a hazard?

Continue readingWhat we’re starting to learn about H5N1 in cows, and the risk to people
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