SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) COVID-19 is constantly showing us that its here to stay. 22News spoke with a health expert who talks about how we can protect ourselves from the disease this summer.
The COVID-19 summer wave is making its way across the U.S. as temperatures warm up. More people across the nation are starting to come down with the disease as they spend more time out at large gatherings. This COVID surge comes as temperatures warm up, which increases the transmission of the disease.
While COVID cant survive long in high temperatures, those warm temperatures cause more people to head inside where its much cooler. Diseases like COVID are able to spread quicker in low temperatures.
Dr. Robert Baldor with Baystate Health told 22News that many people think that COVID is gone but it is in fact still here and it is coming with a series of different strains and variants including KP.2, KP.3 and LB.1.
As COVID-19 spreads, older adults over the age of 65 and those who are immunocompromised are at higher risk of getting severely sick from COVID-19.
Dr. Baldor says its important for this group to take the proper safety precautions, Those people are more at risk. They should be thinking about masking and staying away from places at least for a little bit until we figure out what is going on. This is happening and its not clear if we are going to have a big breakout or not. I do not think it is going to be as bad because so many of us have been vaccinated.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, COVID-19 reported cases have increased since the end of April but only by a small amount. Last year, reported cases between July and September nearly tripled.
Dr. Baldor says vaccinations are another way to protect yourself from getting sick. He says a new vaccination is coming later this fall. In the meantime, if you are feeling sick it is important to stay inside to prevent others from getting sick.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
A Texas group is blasting the Supreme Courts rejection of their lawsuit over the FDAs emergency authorization of the COVID vaccine.
The group claimed the shot was dangerous, and criticized what it referred to as federal pro-vaccine propaganda. The activists were backed by the Childrens Health Defense, a nonprofit founded by presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the group had no legal standing in its lawsuit.
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A House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday addressing the "politicization" of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the pandemic exposed how the Biden administration allegedly pressured medical professionals to expedite the COVID-19 vaccine for children before enough testing was completed to confirm or deny its safety.
At the onset of the subcommittee hearing, "Follow the Science?: Oversight of the Biden COVID-19 Administrative State Response,"Chairman Thomas Massie, R-Ky., read from past testimony of Dr. Marion Gruber, the former director of the FDAs vaccine office, regarding conversations she had with Dr. Peter Marks, the agencys top vaccine regulator, about the efficacy of the COVID vaccine in children. Massie said Gruber expressed a need for more trial testing in the pediatric population, specifically among males ages 12 to 17, but Marks allegedly pushed to further compress the schedule to license the vaccines so they could be mandated.
"Right when they were getting the warnings that myocarditis and pericarditis are real and serious side effects to the vaccine, the top scientists at FDA had already agreed to compress the schedule as much as possible, right when they got the message that there were serious side effects," Massie said. "And Peter Marks, instead of telling them, 'Were going to give you more time to study this,' he told them to compress the schedule even more.
"And when they said that compressing the schedule was not possible, he fired them. He took them off the job, he assigned them to other duties. The top vaccine officials who had been there for 30 years, taken off the job because they wanted more time to study the effects of the vaccines. And they were told they needed to do this quickly because they needed to be mandated.
COVID VACCINE COMPANIES TOLD TO FOCUS ON KP.2 VARIANT FOR FALL SHOTS, PER FDA ANNOUNCEMENT
Chairman Thomas Massie, R-Ky., delivers his opening statement before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (Handout)
"The Biden administration was mandating the vaccine on the military and young people going to school despite a lack of testing and data, despite growing reports of vaccine injuries. This kind of decision made by the administrative state is concerning. The FDA should not have approved a vaccine for children, EOA or otherwise, without proper testing. Injury from COVID vaccination is real."
During a separate line of questioning, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked the witnesses, "Would you agree that the biggest reason for vaccine hesitancy is because of what the United States government told us about COVID and about the vaccine itself?"
"I agree," Dr. Jordan Vaughn, an internist at a private practice in Birmingham, Alabama, said. "They were told one thing and, fairly, most people, once the opposite happens, usually start to question whoever told them that."
"The cause of vaccine hesitancy, the reason this got so political, in my judgment, is because our government told us time and time again things that were not accurate," Jordan said.
Vaughn testified earlier in the hearing that, since 2022, he has treated more than 2,000 "unique patients" with complications from the COVID-19 vaccination, including more than 30 service members.
He provided six specific examples of otherwise healthy members of the military who, upon receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and mandated booster shots, were suddenly hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, chest pain or shortness or breath. Some needed emergency surgery to remove a pancreas, some became too weak to walk or were eventually discharged after being deemed no longer physically fit enough to serve. In one case, one man had a cardiac arrest and died on his bathroom floor.
A nurse practitioner holds a COVID-19 vaccine card at a New York Health and Hospitals vaccine clinic in the Brooklyn borough of New York Jan. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)
"Especially in those with vaccine injury, their faith in medicine and public health is shattered. Many of those patients were holdouts from getting vaccinated because they either knew their own immune systems' sensitivities or already had a prior infection of COVID-19," Vaughn said in his opening statement.
"However, it was under the August 2021 military service member, federal employee and OSHA mandate these individuals faced a decision to either vaccinate against their conscience and common sense or lose a career and gainful employment. Disabled from the adverse effects of these mandated injections, the profession they once held dear is an afterthought to just hoping for a diagnosis and possible treatment. Among the most egregious is our service members needlessly harmed through the mandate.
"Knowing the emerging data in the spring of 2021 around the hearts of young athletic individuals and myocarditis from the mod mRNA COVID-19 injections," Vaughn said, "the FDA and the Biden administration sought to speed up approval and mandate it to the military in the name of military preparedness."
Witnesses are sworn into the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing June 26, 2024. (Handout)
CDC WARNS OF DUAL MUTANT FLU STRAIN THAT COULD EVADE ANTIVIRAL DRUGS: NEED TO CLOSELY MONITOR
Later, Jordan told Vaughn, "Tell me about that relationship, and how politics played into the relationship thats supposed to exist between the doctor and their patient."
"I think the biggest trust was lost when they were mandated to get something against their conscience, and I think that is one of the things that needs to be especially when you talk about a physician who knows his patient there are certain patients that dont need to have their immune system, in a sense, poked," said Vaughn, also the founder of the Microvascular Research Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding treatments for vaccine injury and long COVID.
"That knowledge is what a physician and their patient have and the relationship that exists. It is not something that is found in a parking lot when you roll down your window."
Among the witnesses was Aaron Siri, a vaccine litigation expert handling lawsuits over COVID-19 vaccine injury.
Dr. Jordan Vaughn testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust June 26, 2024. (Handout)
He told Jordan "billions of dollars were on the line for these pharmaceutical companies, and that really affected the way that these vaccines were rolled out. Thats a financial conflict of interest, especially when they didnt have to pay for any injuries, and they knew it beforehand because the federal government contractually agreed that immunity applied to every single vaccine that was rolled out."
Along with Gruber, his former boss, Dr. Philip Krause, former Deputy Director, FDA Office of Vaccines Research & Review, testified before the hearing Wednesday that he quit the FDA after 30 years of employment in various roles within the agency in protest over political pressure from the Biden administration to authorize vaccine boosters in young people in 2021.
"The rapid move to mandates, which was foreshadowed by other Biden administration comments, suggested that the rapid review of the vaccine was motivated more by a desire to mandate vaccine than by other public health considerations," Krause said in his opening statement.
A nurse prepares a COVID vaccine. (Getty Images)
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"It would be unrealistic to assume that politicians would have no interest in vaccine policy in the middle of a pandemic," he added. "Of course, they might hope to influence decision-making in a way that might increase their political capital. But every time this happens, there is collateral damage to trust. Now, if politicians were to own their decisions and state that they were responsible for them, that would at least be transparent and wouldnt affect the trust in the public health agencies.
"But if politically appointed and Senate-confirmed agency heads announce these decisions as though they were the result of the normal processes, it becomes almost impossible for the public or for physicians to figure out which decisions are public health based and which are politically motivated."
In 2021, anecdotal reports about changes in menstrual cycles following COVID-19 vaccination appeared on social media and in the news. To understand if and how COVID-19 vaccination affected menstruation, NIH prioritized research on this topic. Findings from NIH-funded research include the following:
Although the vaccine is safe for menstruating people to receive, research showed that the COVID-19 vaccine may cause minor, temporary changes in cycle length and bleeding level/flow.
The changes did not require additional health or medical care, and they went away on their own one or two cycles after vaccination.
Most people experienced no changes in any aspect of their menstrual cycle.
Cycle length is the number of days from the first day of bleeding in one menstrual period, to the first day of bleeding in the next menstrual period.
Source: Study confirms link between COVID-19 vaccination and temporary increase in menstrual cycle length
Bleeding level or flow refers to how much a person bleeds during the menstrual period. Typically, heavy describes days with more bleeding, and light describes days with less bleeding.
Source: Science Update: Women report small, temporary increase in menstrual flow after COVID-19 vaccination, NIH-funded study suggests
Infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may affect menstruation in ways similar to the vaccine. Studies showed that some menstruating people who got COVID-19 experienced a slight increase in cycle length and heavy flow. Again, these changes were minor and temporary.
Source: Science Update: Slight menstrual cycle length increase seen with SARS-CoV-2 infection, NIH-funded study suggests
Research showed that mRNA vaccines and traditional vaccines affected menstrual cycles similarly. Some people who got the vaccineregardless of the kind of vaccinereported minor, temporary changes in cycle length and flow.
There were no reports of changes to cycle regularity, number of bleeding days, or menstrual pain among those who received any kind of COVID-19 vaccine.
Source: Science Update: NIH-funded study finds no effects of COVID-19 vaccine on menstrual cycle regularity, bleed length, or menstrual pain
Research on vaccination timing and menstrual cycle changes is limited to one study, which found that receiving the vaccine during the first half of the cycle (sometimes called the Follicular Phase) was associated with minor, temporary changes in menstrual cycle length.
Vaccination during the second half of the cycle (called the Luteal Phase) was not associated with changes in cycle length.
This study also found that other menstrual changes, such as number of bleeding days or flow, were unlikely to be associated with timing of the vaccine during the menstrual cycle.
Source: COVID-19 vaccination and menstrual cycle length in the Apple Womens Health Study
One study showed that people with a history of endometriosis experienced similar menstrual changes after COVID-19 vaccination as people without endometriosis.
Another study showed that people with a history of endometriosis were at greater risk for Long COVID following COVID-19 illness.
Because of this connection, people with a history of endometriosis may want to consider the benefits of preventive measures, such as COVID-19 vaccination.
Source: Association of laparoscopically-confirmed endometriosis with long COVID-19: a prospective cohort study
Studies on the effects of COVID-19 vaccination on menstrual cycles are primarily focused on adult biologically female persons of reproductive age.
Understanding the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine in subpopulations, including teenagers or people using hormonal birth control methods, requires further research. At this time, we do not know if certain groups of menstruating people are more or less likely to experience menstrual changes after vaccination.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
A study by the Kinder Institute at Rice University shows that Asians and Latinos are the most supportive of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Partnering with UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, Rice surveyed 900 participants in the fall of 2021. As residents of the San Antonio region waited in line to get the vaccine, each participant was asked if they would support a vaccine mandate.
"When we asked the question, we found out that not everybody would support a vaccine mandate, which was interesting. We found that 59% of participants thought that it was a positive thing. But, when we started digging a little more into the data, we found that there were important racial and ethnic differences that we needed to start looking at and learning more about that, said Luz Garcini, Assistant Professor and Interim Director at Rice Kinder Institute. She also co-authored the study. 80% of the people of Asian background reported the potential support of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, compared to other ethnic groups. The next one to follow were the people of Latino origin."
She said to better understand the responses of specific communities to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to consider the context in which the responses occurred. She says the Asian and Latino cultures tend to be high in collectivistic values.
"Your own behavior has implications for the people around you and you are always looking for the common good. So, if we start thinking in the collectivistic approach, it will also make sense if they believed the vaccination is the way to go, regardless of their opinion, they would be supportive of that," Garcini said.
The survey also showed groups between 16 to 25 years old and those older than 55 were also more likely to support vaccine mandates. She explained, likely because younger people want to be social, and the older group is concerned about the risk of getting COVID-19 with pre-existing conditions. The report also showed single participants as compared to married participants showed more support for the vaccine mandate, Garcini said also likely due to the social aspect. Less significant differences were documented between individuals with varying education levels. 66% of the respondents with an education level of high school or below supported mandates compared to 59% of individuals with any kind of higher education (including trade school).
"Sometimes I say knowledge can be a curse, the more you know, the more you start asking questions. You start evaluating alternatives, she said. The data does not tell us the whole story. I think the bigger message here, is the importance of listening to people's stories, understanding what influences their decisions and their behaviors, so that we can be prepared, God forbid, in case of future emergencies."
More than 4m people have now received their spring COVID-19 booster from the NHS just 10 weeks after bookings officially opened as part of the latest vaccination campaign.
Around 7m people are eligible for a spring COVID-19 jab this year, including those aged 75 and over, those with a weakened immune system and older adult care home residents, and the latest stats published today show 4,042,920 vaccines have been delivered by the NHS.
The vaccine offer formally opened to everyone outside of a care home on 22 April, but NHS staff have been going into older adult care homes since 15 April, with nearly two thirds of care home residents having received their protection.
With just one week left of this years spring COVID-19 vaccine programme, the NHS is urging all eligible people who havent yet had their top-up to come forward and get protected before 30 June 2024.
Dr Alex Degan, a GP in Devon and primary care medical director at NHS Devon, said: It is fantastic that 10 weeks since the launch of the spring COVID-19 vaccination campaign, so many vulnerable people have already come forward to receive their vital protection, with NHS staff also having vaccinated nearly two thirds of care home residents.
COVID-19 can still be dangerous for those most vulnerable, so it is vital people come forward for a top up jab if eligible the NHS is making it easier than ever to get vaccinated with the new joint booking option, and its not too late. You can still book in through the NHS App, by calling 119, or by visiting the NHS website where there is a list of walk-in sites across the country that you can go to without an appointment.
Vaccination sites in Devon includeGreendale near Exeter,Home Park in Plymouth, some community pharmacies and GP practices.
For the first time, joint bookings can be made for those who use the online booking system or NHS 119 to get their jab. By selecting ajoint booking, two eligible people aged 18 and over can get the COVID-19 vaccine in the same location at the same time, making it easier than ever to get protected.
Depending on the vaccination site,those who have booked a joint appointmentmay be vaccinated at the same time or may have back-to-back vaccination slots.
Statistics from the UK Health Security Agency on last years spring covid-19 vaccination programme showed that those who received a vaccine were up to 50% less likely to be admitted to hospital with covid-19 for three to four months after vaccination, compared to those who did not receive one.
More details on people eligible for covid-19 vaccines and how to book a jab are available atnhs.uk/conditions/covid-19/covid-19-vaccination/getting-a-covid-19-vaccine
Dr. Anthony Fauci sat down with the co-hosts of "The View" to discuss advising Former President Donald Trump during the pandemic's peak, serving under seven presidents as NIAID director and the Latin phrase that has guided his work.
Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. During the pandemic, he was a key White House Coronavirus Task Force member and initially had a good working relationship with Trump.
However, the dynamics of their relationship shifted when Trump began say things that were "not true," according to Fauci. Fauci, driven by what he said is a strong sense of personal and professional integrity, found himself at odds with the former president, a situation he says was not easy for him to navigate.
As Fauci attempted to implement policies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he claimed that Trump and his supporters opposed him.
ABC News sat down with Fauci to talk about his deteriorating working relationship with Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABC NEWS: So before we start, people are so glad to see you. They are so glad to see you.
FAUCI: Thank you.
ABC NEWS: So thank you for coming on the show and for everything. Everything you've done from the very beginning. It's extraordinary. And you're no worse for the wear. You look good.
FAUCI: Thank you.
ABC NEWS: You say empathy has always guided you as a physician and a public servant, but there's also a Latin phrase that has consistently come up for you and I'd love you to share it and tell everybody what it means.
FAUCI: Well, when I was getting my education in high school, Latin and Greek was an important part of our classical training. It was actually at Regis High School, a few blocks from here, a Jesuit school. And one of the things that they mentioned to us when things got down and you felt the world was caving in on you was Illegitimi non carborundum, which means 'Don't let the bastards wear you down.' Boy did that hold true.
ABC NEWS: You know, you look, you are probably one of the classiest people I've ever watched move around in Washington, D.C.
FAUCI: Thank you
ABC NEWS: So and -- you know, I just want to raise my dreads to you. But I don't want to take up too much time, Alyssa.
ABC NEWS: Well, Dr. Fauci, it's so good to see you. Before retiring from government in 2022, you served under seven presidents and bipartisan administrations. Fighting diseases like AIDS, Ebola, and, of course, COVID-19, where you and I got to know each other. You had addressed so many of these ailments before and never faced the backlash that you did from part of the country when you were working on COVID. Did you see that coming? We watched it in real time.
FAUCI: No, it was really unexpected. Because, as Alyssa said, I served and advised seven presidents, Democrat and Republican, both sides of the aisle. There are always disagreements, of course. But that's why we have a great country because you have people with different ideological views.
But the disagreements were always associated with civility, with respect for each other and respect for institutions in the government. So you could have a disagreement, but at the end you try and compromise. What happened with COVID, as I think was represented by the hearing a few weeks ago, was just pure ad hominem and vitriol. And that really took me by surprise. I thought there would be the give and take and respect each other's disagreements.
That's the thing that worries me not only about what I have to face, but also about the direction of the country and the social order of the democracy. It's very threatening I think.
ABC NEWS: It's in jeopardy. It's in jeopardy, I think. So you dedicate a chapter of your book to your dealings with Trump, the chapter is called "He loves me, he loves me not" and you describe some angry ranting expletive-filled phone calls. He would berate you and flatter you in the same breath. I'm wondering: you said you worked with seven other presidents. Did any one of them ever speak to you the way he does or did?
FAUCI: No, of course not. Not even close. What I meant by loves me, loves me not. Early on in the beginning -- he is an engaging character and we had a certain rapport with each other. I was trying to figure out what it was. I think it was two guys from New York City. He was from Queens, I was from the Bronx and we kind of had that New York -- he calls it swagger -- with each other, that was fine.
And all that was really good in the beginning. Until you know, he wished and hoped that the outbreak would disappear because it clearly was getting in the way of both the economy and then, as a result of that, into the election cycle. So he started to say things that actually were not true. And I just felt that I had a responsibility for my own personal and professional integrity, but also my responsibility to you, the American public, so had to contradict him.
It was very difficult for me to do that. Once I did that, then things got really dicey. Because I don't think he went away from the fact that we did have a good relationship, but he was really very upset about the fact I had to get up and say, no, it's not going to disappear like magic and no, hydroxychloroquine doesn't work no matter what Laura Ingram is telling you. I mean that's the problem.
ABC NEWS: He doesn't like when people disagree with him. That's why cohorts in the Republican Party are kowtowing to him because they know it displeases him.
ABC NEWS: Well, speaking of hydroxychloroquine, countless of Americans lost loved ones to COVID. My husband lost both of his parents, two doctors, within three days of each other from the pandemic.
We remember those pandemic briefings. I remember the injection of bleach, perhaps. The hydroxychloroquine. Dangerous recommendations. You were particularly disturbed, I read, by his refusal to wear a mask.
What was this time like for you having to contradict the president of the United States? And what should everyone know about how he handled the crisis? Because I blame him for my in-laws' death.
FAUCI: Well, the people who became very angry with me, people on his staff like Peter Navarro and Mark Meadows, and others thought that I was doing that because I had some sort of antipathy to the president and I did not. It was very painful for me. I have a great deal of respect for the presidency of the United States of America. I served seven presidents; it wasn't like 'wow, isn't this cool I'm contradicting the president.' It was very very painful, but I had to do it.
With regard to the masks, the thing that was a problem, is that when the CDC came out and made the recommendations -- indoors we should be wearing masks. That was at a time when the infections were going like that. And what he got up and said it's recommendation but I'm not going to do it; I choose not to do it. I consider that a missed opportunity to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to get people to do things that was for their own safety.
He has millions and millions of followers who are very loyal to him. All he had to do is say the CDC is recommending masks; we know it's going to save lives, do it. He missed an opportunity.
ABC NEWS: I remember telling him he looked cool in the masks because I thought that might be like, 'Fine. I'll wear it.' Didn't work.
FAUCI: Nice try, Alyssa.
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And while the rise is not too surprising with people traveling and gathering indoors where its cooler, health experts and doctors expect this seasons illnesses to be milder than some past versions of the virus. But the latest iterations of the ever-evolving coronavirus seem to be more contagious.
Dr. Luke Lathrop, chief medical officer at SmartMED Drive-Thru Medical Care in Roswell, said he has seen a small but notable rise in COVID cases in recent days. Of the roughly 30 patients seen there Monday, seven tested positive for the virus. Thats up from one or two a day in recent months.
Credit: custom
Credit: custom
Symptoms from the latest variants circulating are familiar and include sore throat, runny nose, coughing, head and body aches, fever, fatigue, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath.
For many people who have already had COVID, a reinfection is often milder than an earlier case. But people who are 65 and older, pregnant or immunocompromised remain at higher risk of serious complications from COVID. Lathrop said he has sent a few older patients with COVID to the ER due to their low oxygen levels.
I think the early predictions from the experts and the CDC were right on in that it seems to be ending up like being another influenza where there will be some seasonality to it, said Lathrop. The symptoms overlap and some people get very ill. And for some people, its a mild cold.
So its almost like a new flu out there and its not going away. We are going to have to deal with it, said Lathrop. It affects everybody in different ways.
While ER visits for COVID increased 14.7% in the past week nationally, they still only account for 0.7% of ER visits, according to CDC. In Georgia, the share of COVID patients in the ER is even lower.
Since April, less than 0.5% of emergency department patients in Georgia were diagnosed with COVID. Thats in line with last years trend, which saw an increase during the months of July and August.
This is a far cry from past summer peaks. During last summers peak, 2.5% of emergency department patients were diagnosed with COVID. COVID accounted for 3.5% of emergency patients in 2022, and 7% during the summer of 2021.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Experts say the COVID vaccines still provide some protection but their protection wanes over time. The latest variants have mutations thought to make it easier for them to evade immunity among people who received the most recent updated vaccine or who were infected several months ago.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Dr. Jayne Morgan, executive director of health and community education for Piedmont Healthcare, said the new JN.1 variant is both stealthy and contagious, but overall the symptoms remain mild.
This could result in more infections with mild symptoms and with many of these illnesses being ignored or dismissed as another virus. While some will continue to be hit hard by the virus, the upside to a mild yet contagious virus is that it could boost immunity levels in the general population, she said.
The CDC recommended people over 65 who already had one dose of the updated vaccine get an additional shot at least four months later. Doctors say vaccines remain the best way to protect against the worst outcomes of COVID.
For now, the publics interest in updated COVID vaccines has been cool. According to the CDC, as of May 11, only 22% of adults reported having received an updated 2023-24 vaccine since September 14, 2023.
In a new poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this month asking how much of a threat the coronavirus poses to the nation, 47% of respondents said it was a minor threat, while only 13% considered it a major threat.
In addition, health officials say getting the vaccine formula and production schedule just right can be tricky.
The Food and Drug Administration recently decided to request drug makers update the COVID vaccines to target the KP.2 strain, a descendent of the JN.1 variant that started circulating widely in the U.S. over the winter months. The announcement came a week after an FDA advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend the fall vaccine be designed to target the JN.1 variant or one of its descendants.
Dr. Peter Marks, director for FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said last week during a discussion about seasonal flu and COVID vaccines that his agency and the CDC work to follow the evolution of the coronavirus in order to update the COVID vaccine formula.
The optimal protection is making sure we get closest to what is actually circulating, he said.
Early this year the JN.1 (omicron) variant was circulating, but as the FDA and CDC got closer to the time when they needed to choose a strain to include in this falls vaccine, other descendants of JN.1 began to appear.
Now public health experts are hoping to formulate the shot to target one of those variants KP.2. But even that variant is already being outpaced by another offshoot, KP.3.
And then, by the time fall rolls around and the COVID boosters are made available, the updated vaccine might have lost some of its effectiveness against the mutating virus.
Despite these difficulties, public health officials say a fall rollout of the vaccine still seems to make the most sense.
Its anticipated that COVID will, over time, settle into a more traditional seasonal pattern in line with other respiratory viruses, with seasonal peaks in the fall and winter months, according to Morgan.
But the reality is because the coronavirus evolves so rapidly and doesnt retreat as weather warms, immunity to COVID may not last until the following fall and winter season, lending to the current summer increases that we see, she said.
Data reporter Stephanie Lamm contributed to this article.
So youve got COVID and arent sure whether to stay home? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March updated its guidelines on when people can return to their normal activities after any viral illness such as the flu or COVID.
You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:
o Your symptoms are getting better overall, and
o You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).
When you go back to your normal activities, take added precautions over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and testing yourself when you will be around other people indoors.
o Keep in mind that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are likely to be less contagious at this time, depending on factors like how long you were sick or how sick you were.
o If you develop a fever or you start to feel worse after you have gone back to normal activities, stay home and away from others again until, for at least 24 hours your symptoms are improving overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication). Then take added precautions for the next 5 days.
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images
Donald Trumps 2016 campaign and his four years in office contained so much daily weirdness, wackiness, and horror that the human brain couldnt comprehend it all. As Trump gets close to the White House again, That Happenedbrings you the surreal moments you might have forgotten or blocked from your memory.
The first debate of the 2020 presidential cycle is probably best remembered for Donald Trumps bizarro even for him performance. The former president spent much of the evening interrupting and talking over both Joe Biden and beleaguered moderator Chris Wallace, rendering the event a farce (and paving the way for the conditions CNN insisted on in this weeks debate, like the ability to mute candidates). Biden spoke for much of the viewing audience when he turned to Trump and pleaded, Will you shut up, man?
What may be less often remembered is that as Trump spat out his Hunter Biden insults and told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by, he was also expelling coronavirus particles into the air and that he knew full well he could have infected his opponent, who stood 13 feet away, at any time.
The debate took place at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland on September 29, several weeks before any COVID-19 vaccine became available. The conditions reflected that precarious moment: Only 300 audience members were allowed at the event, and the Cleveland Clinic, which partnered with Case Western Reserve on the debate, instituted safety measures including social distancing, masking, and proof that candidates and their entourages had tested negative for COVID.
Such protocols were obviously necessary. Three days earlier, the White House had held an event celebrating the unveiling of Trumps Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett. Guests at the event blithely mingled with one another indoors sans masks, the still-very-much-untamed pandemic be damned. The results were grotesquely predictable: The party was likely a superspreader event. Six days later, and three days after the debate, on October 2, Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania had tested positive for COVID, and a wave of Republican legislators and White House staffers who had attended the event also fell ill. And Trump did not have a mild case. He spent three nights at Walter Reed Hospital, receiving experimentaltherapies, and it later emerged that he was sicker than his staff let on. As he memorably put it at the time, I could be one of the diers.
For a while, it seemed that Trump had merely displayed callous indifference about his possible COVID status at the previous weeks debate. That indifference was perfectly in character, of course, for a man who repeatedly predicted that the virus would simply disappear and whose disastrous June rally in Tulsa had probably led to Herman Cains death.
But in 2021, the even-worse truth came out. A memoir released by Trumps final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, revealed that Trump had tested positive for COVID days before the debate with Biden and that Trump had probably contracted COVID earlier than anyone suspected. Unless Meadows was lying which, knowing him, remains a distinct possibility this casts Trumps behavior around the debate in a far more disturbing light. Per The Guardian:
Meadows says Trumps positive result on 26 September was a shock to a White House which had just staged a triumphant Rose Garden ceremony for the supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett an occasion now widely considered to have been a Covid super-spreader event.
Despite the president looking a little tired and suspecting a slight cold, Meadows says he was content that Trump traveled that evening to a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
But as Marine One lifted off, Meadows writes, the White House doctor called.
Stop the president from leaving, Meadows says Sean Conley told him. He just tested positive for Covid.
It wasnt possible to stop Trump but when he called from Air Force One, his chief of staff gave him the news.
Mr President, Meadows said, Ive got some bad news. Youve tested positive for Covid-19.
Meadows wrote that Trump quickly took a second COVID test, this time with the Binax system, as opposed to a supposedly outdated kit the first time around. The Binax test came back negative, which was good enough for Trump to pretend he had never heard about the positive result: He continued with his busy schedule, which included a meeting with military families and an indoor press conference.
Then it was off to the debate, where Trump & Co. appeared to exploit a slight loophole in the Cleveland Clinics rules: The campaigns were responsible for vetting the candidates negative tests, not debate organizers. That left it up to the famously trustworthy Trump campaign to promise scouts honor that Trump was virus-free. As ABC News reported, the presidents advisers and family exhibited typically cautious COVID behavior:
Several members of the presidents family, along with White House and Trump campaign staff, were seen without masks in Cleveland ahead of the debate, and some took off their masks while seated watching the debate, violating protocol.
At one point, a doctor approached the Trump family and their guests to ask them to wear masks, but someone shook their head when she approached, according to a pool reporter traveling with the Biden campaign.
Thats all you can do, a debate staffer was overheard telling the doctor.
Bidens team was displeased with this aggressively anti-social conduct (though it is unclear whether any of the unmasked actually knew Trump had tested positive). But there was nothing they could do but wait to see if their candidate fell ill, which he did not. If he had contracted COVID, he probably would have survived he was a spring chicken of 77 at the time, after all, and in good health otherwise. But it would have kept him off the campaign trail during the last month of a close campaign, a time when Republicans regularly accused him of running for president from his basement. Instead, the second Biden-Trump debate was canceled, and the third one actually went a bit more smoothly than the first.
Like almost everyone else in America, Biden did end up getting COVID, but not until a year and a half after the vaccine era.
The stakes of Thursday nights debate are extremely high for the candidates and for the country. But the chance that one candidate will physically harm the other through sheer recklessness seems meaningfully lower than it did four years ago. Whether you think thats a good thing is another question.
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