The coronavirus daily diary

30/01/2023

People who are immunocompromised, perhaps because of blood cancer treatment or an organ transplant, are unlikely to mount a strong response to a COVID-19 vaccine.
Federal agencies recommend that these people stay up to date on vaccines, but there are additional measures they can take to avoid infection.

The Food and Drug Administration officially announced that Evusheld is no longer authorized to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection in the US.

30/01/2023

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday unanimously endorsed retiring the original coronavirus shot in favor of one that targets both the original strain of the coronavirus and the omicron variant.

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday unanimously endorsed retiring the original coronavirus shot in favor of one that targets both the original strain of the coronavirus and the omicron variant. The recommendation, if adopted by the FDA, will have minimal impact on most people, a...

01/01/2023

Canada to require COVID tests for passengers from China

15/12/2022

After a lull throughout much of the summer and fall, Covid cases have risen notably in recent weeks, worrying health officials that the U.S. could be on the verge of another wave. The White House now plans to announce that it's reopening access to its stockpile of tests for a limited time as part of a broader "winter preparedness plan" it will roll out on Thursday.

The popular mail-order program for the home kits will start as part of a broader winter preparedness plan.

15/12/2022

More than 3,500 Americans have died due, at least in part, to long Covid, according to new data from the CDC. The agency’s findings underscore the potential severity of a condition that continues to impact millions but is still poorly understood and — in some cases — dismissed entirely.

The agency’s report comes as Congress is considering whether to fund research and treatment.

15/12/2022

Last week, in one fell swoop, China cut away most of the tenets governing its stifling zero-COVID policies, effectively ending its war on the pandemic. It has since turned to re-educating people on the harmlessness of Omicron and pushing the idea of self-care, a dramatic U-turn from quarantine camps and crushing lockdowns that sparked recent, rare public protests.

On Nov. 21, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, in charge of China's war on COVID-19, said infections had to be brought down to zero as they emerged. Nine days later, she said the Omicron strain of the virus had "weakened" even though new cases in the Chinese capital hit a high. Last week, in one fell swoop,....

02/11/2022

In a worst-case scenario, a Delta-Omicron hybrid could be as deadly as the Delta variant—which killed about 3.4% of those it infected, nearly double the fatality rate of Omicron, according to a 2022 study published in Nature Reviews Immunology. It could also feature the record-setting transmissibility of Omicron.

The so-called Deltacron variant is back this fall, with the potential to be the next big thing in COVID viral evolution, scientists say.

21/10/2022

Thiswill helppeople allergic to Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Today the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the use of the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted (NVX-CoV2373) as a booster for adults. This recommendation gives...

21/10/2022

Good move.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel voted Thursday to include the COVID-19 vaccine on the list of routine immunizations for adults and children as young as 6 months. The agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) unanimously voted to add the coronavi...

17/10/2022

"Omicron spawn BQ.1 and its offspring—the highly immune-evasive BQ.1.1—are coming in hot in the U.S.

The duo comprises more than 11% of COVID cases, according to updated projections released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Which means they'll be the dominant strains in the US within a month if the previous trends for new strains displacing older strains continue. And there's no reason to expect that to change. If you're not allergic, get the bivalent booster now.

BQ.1.1's extreme immune evasiveness "sets it up to be the principal driver of the next U.S. wave in the weeks ahead," a leading expert said Friday.

20/09/2022

Covid 19 USA, 9/19/2022

We wondered whether the new variant would bring a big spike in deaths. t didn't. While daily new deaths did rise fro an average of about 300/day in July to nearly 500/day in late August, we've returned to under 300/day as of yesterday and today. Nothing to be happy about, to be sure, but nothing like the spike we saw last year, same time frame. The big difference? The great majority of the country (roughly 70%) are vaccinated, while many more have some immunity due to living with milder cases of the virus. However, he US still leads the world in daily deaths from the virus. We still need to get more people vaccinated to save more lives.

18/09/2022

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that over 1 in 5 COVID-19 survivors under the age of 65 could develop long COVID. And those odds increase the older you get — among patients 65 and older, 1 in 4 could develop the protracted symptoms associated with the condition, the study found.

What to know.

11/08/2022

The World and Covid 19, 8/11/2022

I've been having discussions with a friend about the impact of the new Omicron subvariant, and whether it would be causing an increase in death rates. It turns out there's some indications of a fall spike having started in August, but thankfully, not as badly or widespread as previous spikes.
Looking at Worldometer, it turn out there's been a slight increase in US deaths, but barely noticeable, as the US has been seeing over 300 daily new deaths on average for months. In the first week of August, it's inched up by another 50+ daily deaths, but nothing like previous spikes. Likewise, Brazil and India have seen minor increases in daily new deaths, but between vaccination and community spread, all three of those countries have protected, or exposed, most of their populations to Covid.
Japan, however, had done one of the most stringent lockdowns outside of China, and having reopened, had a severe spring spike, and is once again having another spike. Smaller spikes are also happening in many western European nations.

11/07/2022

Covid 19 USA, 7/11/2022
The same question today that we've been asking all year: is the pandemic over? My best answer at this point: we'll know better in a month. Reason being: trend lines of daily new deaths in the US now, versus a year ago. We've been hopeful for the last couple of months because daily new deaths has been trending down. However, the same held true last year at this time, right before it began another upswing. The difference between then and now: more people vaccinated, and more people who've had mild cases. In theory, this means fewer people who are likely to die if they get Covid this year. All we can do is wait, see, and hope. Oh, and get vaccinated or boosted. Those last two make a big difference.

23/06/2022

Nearly 1 in 5 American adults who reported having COVID-19 in the past are still having symptoms of long COVID, according to survey data collected in the first two weeks of June, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.

Overall, 1 in 13 adults in the United States have long COVID symptoms lasting for three months or more after first contracting the disease, and which they did not have before the infection, the data showed.

https://news.yahoo.com/nearly-1-5-adults-had-215427345.html

23/06/2022

Parents and caregivers have two different vaccine brands to choose from: Pfizer and Moderna. While both vaccines work, they're not exactly the same thing.

Pfizer's three-shot vaccine course uses a smaller dose of mRNA, and has less frequent side effects, while Moderna's two-shot vaccine course is both shorter and faster-acting.

https://news.yahoo.com/one-chart-shows-differences-between-202414535.html

23/06/2022

Late-stage clinical trial results found the updated shot elicited about a fivefold increase in antibodies against BA.4 and BA.5 in previously vaccinated and infected individuals, according to the company.

However, the shot did not generate as many antibodies as it did against the original omicron variant, the company said, eliciting antibodies against the two subvariants that were about threefold lower.

https://news.yahoo.com/moderna-says-bivalent-vaccine-appears-155451664.html?.tsrc=374

18/05/2022

Covid 19 USA, 5/18/2022
The USA has reached, by at least 3 sites measuring it, a grim milestone - over 1 million Americans dead from Covid. Worldometer, Johns Hopkins, and NBC each recorded the USA passing that mark in the last 2-3 weeks, with Johns Hopkins the latest to show that number. At current daily death rates, the CDC total should reach that level by the end of the month.
While the daily death rate is now at a point not much higher than the flu during flu season, Covid has no season. We can still cut the ongoing death toll if we get more people vaccinated, and get the vaccinated boosted. The vaccines are saving lives. Not taking them defies reason, science, and a commitment to life.

03/05/2022

Covid 19 USA, 5/2/2022

Is Covid-19 finally becoming endemic?

We live in a nation where the flu kills between 30,000 and 60,000 people per year, depending on the severity of the flu, and those deaths largely occur in people with weakened immune systems who don't get the flu vaccine each year during flu season. This translates to a daily death toll of approximately 90 to 180 people per day.

The daily death toll from Covid 19 is beginning to reach that level on a consistent basis. If it stays at that level on a consistent basis, Covid will be endemic.

30/04/2022

2 year flashback. Hard lessons forgotten.

(W) A small reminder to those itching to 'return to normal'... that's the curve of the Spanish Flew pandemic.

30/04/2022

Two years after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, new research suggests around 18.2 million people have died worldwide as a result. That toll is more than three times higher than the WHO's tally of nearly 6 million officially reported COVID-19 deaths through the end of 2021.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-pandemic-deaths-18-million-study/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h

A new study of "excess deaths" estimates the pandemic's true toll has already surpassed 1 million in the U.S.

30/04/2022

Daily cases in South Africa are over 6,000 per day, up from a few hundred just a few weeks ago. A new omicron subvariant, BA.4, is likely responsible.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/south-africa-covid-surge-ba4-omicron-subvariant-rcna26662

Daily cases in South Africa are over 6,000 per day, up from a few hundred just a few weeks ago. A new omicron subvariant, BA.4, is likely responsible.

27/04/2022

2 year flashback.

18/04/2022

Disease trackers are monitoring the spread of new, highly transmissible versions of the omicron variant in New York state and Europe, the latest evidence of the coronavirus's ability to overhaul its genetic profile and pose a fresh threat.

https://news.yahoo.com/highly-transmissible-forms-omicron-may-194229998.html

Disease trackers are monitoring the spread of new, highly transmissible versions of the omicron variant in New York state and Europe, the latest evidence of the coronavirus's ability to overhaul its genetic profile and pose a fresh threat. It is too soon to predict how far the new subvariants might....

16/04/2022

Covid 19 USA: Flashback to this day, 2020, NY State, Westchester County

MAP: 796 confirmed positive cases in White Plains. See map for details across Westchester. (An earlier version of this post mistakenly stated the 796 figure was for Peekskill).

12/04/2022

There are already four coronaviruses in the human population: 229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1. These are a few of the viruses that cause the common cold. (I’m easing back on terminology here: 229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1 = “Coronavirus 1-4.” “Coronavirus 5” = COVID-19. Just easier.) Donald Trump may have spoken clumsily, but he was right when he said that COVID-19 is just a common cold. That is what it eventually will become. The “eventually” part is the problem.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-does-covid-19-pandemic-044059354.html

Emergency room doctor: Let's stop letting social media companies monetize our differences. Let us study this fascinating, new phenomenon.

09/04/2022

On Wednesday, an independent advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration — the agency entrusted with ensuring the country's COVID-19 vaccine supply is not only safe, but also useful and well-updated — met to discuss the future of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. It was a departure from the committee's previous meetings during the pandemic, which have focused more deliberately on OK'ing specific COVID-19 vaccine candidates for different age groups, as well as booster shots.

https://news.yahoo.com/fda-advisors-call-end-never-134636660.html

"We simply can't be boosting people as frequently as we are," the FDA's Peter Marks acknowledged on Wednesday. New strategies are being explored.

09/04/2022

The WHO wants 70 percent of every country's population vaccinated by July.

But records are uneven.

Nearly 80 percent of France's population, for example, has received two doses. But only 15 percent of the population on the continent of Africa is fully vaccinated, according to Oxford University data.

An average of 42 percent of the population of 92 low- and middle-income countries participating in Covax have had two doses.

https://news.yahoo.com/vaccine-supply-outstrips-demand-access-103953862.html

After two years of racing to vaccinate the world against Covid-19, the number of available doses now surpasses demand in many areas.

08/04/2022

Solutions to the issue of uptake are critical because they not only affect us now, but are a problem that we will likely have to confront for years to come as COVID becomes endemic in the population. This may mean more frequent boosters until we are able to develop an annual multiple-part immunization package, having a combined COVID and influenza vaccine, for instance.

https://news.yahoo.com/5-ways-increase-covid-19-102100133.html

Although the Food and Drug Administration recently recommended a second COVID-19 vaccine booster dose for older Americans, the country has had to confront an ongoing struggle -- problems getting initial vaccination series, let alone first booster shots into arms. This may mean more frequent boosters...

06/04/2022

Erika Edwards
Tue, April 5, 2022, 11:53 AM·4 min read
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided more clarity on who should — or perhaps should not — consider getting a second Covid-19 booster vaccine, saying that a recent infection may in fact act as a "natural boost" in immunity.

People who have had the two-dose mRNA vaccine series plus one booster don't need a second booster if they recently were infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told NBC News.

https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-director-clears-confusion-2nd-155331376.html

Do I need a 2nd booster shot? CDC director says omicron infection may act as 'natural booster'.

05/04/2022

This lockdown could turn out to be particularly costly for the world's second largest economy.

As well as being a major focus of the financial industry, Shanghai is a hub for semiconductor, electronics and car manufacturing. It is also the world's busiest shipping port.

https://news.yahoo.com/shanghai-lockdown-economy-shaken-zero-233927601.html

Shanghai is a major financial centre and port as well as a hub for manufacturing electronics and cars.

05/04/2022

COVID-19 cases in China’s largest city of Shanghai are still rising with millions isolated at home under a sweeping lockdown, as the draconian “zero tolerance” approach to the pandemic increasingly draws complaints from residents fed up with the restrictions.

Health officials on Sunday reported 438 confirmed cases over the previous 24 hours, along with 7,788 asymptomatic ones. Both figures were up slightly from the day before, while the northeastern province of Jilin posted a combined 4,455 cases Sunday, also marking an increase from Saturday.

https://news.yahoo.com/covid-19-cases-rise-shanghai-041347858.html

COVID-19 cases in China’s largest city of Shanghai are still rising with millions isolated at home under a sweeping lockdown, as the draconian “zero tolerance” approach to the pandemic increasingly draws complaints from residents fed up with the restrictions. Health officials on Sunday reporte...

28/03/2022

In a Pfizer trial published in December and conducted before the omicron wave, Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization and death in high-risk, unvaccinated people by 88% when given within five days of symptom onset.

Molnupiravir, however, has been shown to be less effective. One analysis from Merck, also published in December, showed that it reduced the risk of hospitalization and death in high-risk, unvaccinated adults with COVID-19 by only 30% if taken within five days of symptom onset.

https://news.yahoo.com/antiviral-pills-help-treat-covid-152335608.html?.tsrc=374

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced an initiative called “test to treat,” which would allow people to visit hundreds of qualified pharmacy-based clinics, community health centers and long-term care facilities across the country to get tested for the coronavirus and, if positive, re...

16/03/2022

Among the countries with the biggest recent surges are Finland, where new cases jumped by 84 percent in its weekly case total, to nearly 62,500 weekly cases; Switzerland, whose weekly total rose by 45 percent, to 182,190; and the United Kingdom, which had a 31 percent increase, to a weekly total of 414,480 new cases. Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy have also recorded double-digit percentage increases in their weekly tallies.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-cases-rising-uk-what-to-expect-us-rcna19891

Nearly half of European countries have recorded increases in new Covid cases over the last week. The U.S. could follow suit, but cases are still declining for now.

16/03/2022

Multiple studies have shown that the protection from the initial booster dose begins to wane after several months, particularly against the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

https://news.yahoo.com/pfizer-seek-authorization-2nd-covid-181346715.html

Pfizer-BioNTech is expected to seek authorization this week for a second Covid-19 vaccine booster for people 65 and older, a source says.

16/03/2022

Since January, Omicron has made up virtually all new infections in the U.S. Like in many countries abroad, most cases in the U.S. had been caused by a sub-lineage of Omicron known as BA.1. But while both BA.1 and BA.2 can be traced back to some of the earliest samples gathered of Omicron, BA.2 has only recently begun to climb in prevalence.
https://news.yahoo.com/ba-2-sub-variant-now-224400800.html

Prevalence of this Omicron sub-lineage, sometimes misleadingly nicknamed a "stealth variant," now appears highest in the Northeast.

10/03/2022

In its latest report on the pandemic issued on Wednesday, the U.N. health agency said new COVID-19 infections dropped by 5% in the last week, continuing a declining trend that started more than a month ago. Deaths were also down by 8% and have been falling globally for the last two weeks.

https://news.yahoo.com/covid-19-cases-deaths-continue-105442726.html

The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths globally have continued to fall in the past week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, with only the Western Pacific reporting an increase in COVID-19. Only the Western Pacific saw a rise in coronavirus cases, reporting a 46% increase. Elsewher...

06/03/2022

The updated data, which show that nearly everyone in the country lives in areas with low to medium risk for Covid, were released days after the agency issued new guidance that tweaked how it measured that risk.

Instead of relying on case rates, the CDC now considers hospitalizations and hospital capacity as key metrics.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cdc-numbers-show-90-percent-people-us-can-ditch-masks-rcna18663

The updated figures indicate that nearly everyone in the country lives in areas with low to medium risk for Covid.

05/03/2022

Just over half (53.1%) of those with positive tests said they had experienced either mental or physical exhaustion, sleep problems or cognitive problems within the 6 to 12 months after infection. That compared to 11.5% in the control group.

https://news.yahoo.com/almost-third-people-report-lingering-162711214.html

Almost a third of people report at least one ongoing symptom between 6 and 12 months after their coronavirus infection, a survey of 152,000 people in Denmark has found. The study includes one of the largest groups yet of people who were not hospitalised with COVID, and followed them for longer than....

02/03/2022

the White House sees the program as a step toward a deeper, yet more elastic, testing infrastructure that will accommodate demand surges and remain on standby when cases wane. "We totally intend to sustain this market," Dr. Tom Inglesby, testing adviser to the COVID-19 response team, told The Associated Press. "We know the market is volatile and will come up and down with surges in variants."

https://www.foxnews.com/health/nearly-half-biden-500-million-free-covid-tests-unclaimed

Nearly half of the 500 million free COVID-19 tests the Biden administration recently made available to the public still have not been claimed as virus cases plummet and people feel less urgency to test.