NEW YORK (PIX11) Sandra Lindsay is best known as the first American to get the COVID-19 vaccine in 2020. The nurse was on the front lines of the pandemic and became a symbol of hope.
The Jamaican immigrant said that becoming the leader she is today was not an easy journey. Its one of the many stories she talks about in her book First in Line.
Watch the video player for more on this story.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reported a recently identified case of measles in a Macomb County child the states sixth case to date in 2024.
The child was diagnosed on July 3. The childs exposure to measles is being investigated. There is no known international travel associated with this case.
Preventing measles is simple all residents should get vaccinated to prevent this disease, said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive. Vaccination can prevent illness and provide peace of mind in case you or your family member is exposed. As we get ready for back-to-school season, now is a great time to check with your health care provider to make sure you are current with all your vaccines.
Michigan residents can contact their health care provider or visit their local health department for additional information on ways to obtain the vaccine and schedule an appointment. Children eligible for the Vaccines for Children program may receive the vaccine from a provider enrolled in that program.
MDHHS and MCHD are also alerting the public to the possibility of exposures from this case in parts of Southeast Michigan, from June 24 through July 2. Because the measles virus can stay in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area, individuals who were present at the following places may have been exposed:
MCHD is currently conducting contact tracing to identify other exposure sites within this time frame. Exposed staff members at the Motel 6 and Childrens Hospital locations have been notified and are undergoing health monitoring by the local health departments.
If you believe you were exposed at one of these locations, contact your health care provider or MCHD at 586-783-8190 for vaccination information and health guidance. In addition, anyone potentially exposed should monitor for symptoms such as fever, respiratory illness or rash for 21 days. If symptoms develop call ahead before visiting a doctor, urgent care or emergency room so they can take precautions to avoid exposing others.
Measles is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease that is spread by direct person-to-person contact and through the air. Measles is so contagious that 90% of unvaccinated people who are exposed will become infected. Those infected can spread measles before noticing symptoms, including from four days before through four days after the rash appears.
The virus can live for up to two hours in the air where the infected person was present. Symptoms of measles usually begin 7-14 days after exposure, but can appear up to 21 days after exposure and may include: high fever (may spike to over 104F); cough; runny nose; red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis); tiny white spots on the inner cheeks, gums and roof of the mouth (Koplik Spots) two to three days after symptoms begin; a rash that is red, raised, blotchy that usually starts on face, spreads to trunk, arms and legs three to five days after symptoms begin.
For more information on measles in Michigan, visit Michigan.gov/Measles.
If health problems disappeared as quickly as they emerged, it would save patients a lot of stress and heartache, and pull a cash-strapped healthcare system back from the brink.
Alas, we do not live in that world. Until we do, paying a visit to the doctor is the first step in what can be a long and gruelling process.
The snag here is the impossibility of seeing a doctor. Thankfully, GB News has a virtual workaround: submitting your questions to celebrity NHS Doctor Rene Hoenderkamp via health@gbnews.uk each week.
In this week's Q&A, Doctor Hoenderkamp provides advice on treating complications associated with Covid vaccination, what a raspy and strained voice could mean and how to treat Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
Last week, our resident doc shed light on the relationship between vitamin E supplementation and cancer risk, how to put type 2 diabetes into remission and the best exercise for easing back pain.
It's important to remember that the advice given below is general and not individual and you should always seek individualised health care from a doctor.
With those caveats aside, see below Doctor Hoenderkamp's answer's to GB News members' burning questions.
I am so sorry to hear that you are still suffering after four months of Ramsey Hunt Syndrome. This is a sad and debilitating complication of shingles.
If you have ever had chickenpox, even as a child, the virus remains with you for life, sheltering in the nerve roots of the spinal cord. As an adult, it can reactive and for most people a case of shingles causes a rash and pain around a nerve. This is why shingles is almost always on one side of the body the reactivation happens from one nerve root and spreads out from the spine along that nerve.
A complication of shingles is a syndrome called Ramsey Hunt and this is where the reactivation affects the facial nerve and can cause symptoms from the ear to the nose on one half of the face that include:
Duration
For most people, the symptoms will resolve after a few weeks but for others, this can take longer, and an unlucky few will have it for life. The key - by no means a guarantee - to complete recovery is starting treatment within three days of the first symptoms. This is the best way to preserve the nerve. Estimates for full recovery vary from 50-70 percent which isnt great and sounds like where you are.
The normal treatment includes steroids to reduce inflammation, antivirals to get on top of the viral reactivation, painkillers and lubricating eye drops. You may have to tape your eyelid closed to prevent ulcers developing on the eye surface.
In terms of anything that you can do. I would look to making sure your vitamins are topped up, especially those involved in nerve health which include vitamins B12, B6, D, E and magnesium and zinc. There are some dietary changes you can make and I have included a link here.
I am so sorry not to have more definitive help but dont give up hope. Nerves can take months to years to repair and there is always the hope that yours is just taking its time.
I hope that this helps.
I am so sorry to hear that you have had a heart attack and that you feel the Covid vaccine was the cause. There is evidence linking Covid vaccines to inflammation of the heart muscle and this takes the form of myocarditis and pericarditis.
It's very hard to find any evidence regarding heart attacks after the vaccine but there is a paper making the connection in people over 75.
To focus on your question regarding reversing the damage following your heart attack, this really falls firmly in to the realms of heart rehabilitation. When you have a heart attack the heart muscle is starved of oxygen and some cells die, this causes scar tissue. How quickly you received treatment and how extensive the damage was will predict the recovery that your heart can make.
Having said this, whilst the scarred tissue cannot be repaired there are things that can be done to help maximise heart function and future health.
1. Cardiac rehabilitation
This should have been offered already but if not please chase your doctor. A guided and personalised exercise, education and support program.
2. Medication
Lower your risk of future heart attacks with medication that can help do this and remodel heart tissue. These include beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors/angiotensin II receptor blockers, hydralazine plus nitrates, aldosterone inhibition with spironolactone.
3. Manage risk factors
It is important to manage risk factors to prevent further damage or another heart attack. This means keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose in normal range. This can be done with lifestyle changes such as eating healthy food, exercising regularly, particularly aerobic exercise, maintaining a healthy weight with a BMI under 25, quitting smoking and using the meds your doctor recommends that can affect heart remodelling.
I am aware that you likely know all of this so looking specifically at your concerns around the vaccine. There are no resources that I can find that are specific to post vaccine heart attacks but I would suggest looking at the UKCV Family support group who have a page on managing your injury here.
I hope that this helps and sorry to be unable to find more but the overriding message is to do as much as you can personally do to improve your heart health and be one of the many who live a long enjoyable life after a heart attack.
Good luck!
What you are describing is known as hoarseness and approximately one in three people will suffer at some point in their lifetime.
It often affects smokers and those who use their voice more than usual, singers, teachers, public speakers etc. It can take many forms and include symptoms such as:
Normally this is caused by simple and self-resolving issues such as laryngitis, common colds and vocal cord strain.
Sometimes there are more serious things that will need some medical attention such as chronic acid reflux, nodules, cysts, polyps on your vocal cords, vocal cord paralysis, neurological diseases, and rarely cancer.
In terms of your hoarseness, the important things are how quickly it came on, how long it has persisted, what other symptoms you have and if you smoke. Having said all of this, whilst I understand that you have had blood tests, this would not be my first approach.
If you have had the issue for more than three weeks I would want to send you immediately for a Chest X-ray/two-week wait (2ww) referral to exclude anything more serious such as cancer. This would involve not only the X-ray but also a camera to have a look down your throat to your stomach. So please ask your GP to do an urgent referral under the 2WW pathway.
In the meantime, it may well be your reflux getting worse or the damage from reflux finally showing itself. So it is important to tackle some potential causes of reflux.
Avoid the following:
Make sure you shift any weight that has crept on as this increases intra-abdominal pressure and pushes the stomach up and stomach acid can enter the oesophagus and can reach as high as the vocal cord where it causes a cough or hoarseness. Aim for a BMI of under 25.
You could also increase your reflux medication while you do all of the above.
I hope that this helps and good luck!
You're not alone if you suddenly have more friends or colleagues saying they have COVID.
Epidemiologists for Public Health Madison & Dane County say that while COVID-19 levels are low compared with last winter's peak, they have noticed infection rates are trending upward.
Those observations follow national trends. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows thatCOVID-19 test positivity rates are rising nationwidethe percentage of cases reported to the CDC increased from 3.1% in mid-May to 9% at the end of June.
In Wisconsin, emergency department visits for people with diagnosed COVID-19 have increased by 10.2%, what the CDC calls a "moderate increase." The overall rate of COVID among patients in emergency rooms is still minimal, however, at 0.7% of all visitors for the week ending on June 29.
In Dane County, that percentage of ER patients with COVID is slightly higher at 0.93% for the same time period, according to theRespiratory Illness Dashboard from the Public Health Madison & Dane County office.
Thats consistent with data captured by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
"The amount of COVID-19 found in wastewater surveillance remains low, however, there is an identified increase noted statewide," Jennifer Miller of the DHS communications team told the Cap Times via email.
Wastewater numbers can give a better picture of the current state of COVID-19, which can detect the presence of the virus before someone experiences symptoms, or if they're asymptomatic, or never tested to confirm they have COVID.
The DHS describes Madison ashaving low concentrations of the COVID-19 virus in wastewater, but the city has been experiencing an uptick starting in mid-May. The state agency also reports a38% increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations for Wisconsin's south-central region between June 16 and June 29.
Local and state health professionals recommend staying up to date on the COVID vaccine you can still receive a dose of the 2023-2024 dose before an updated version comes out, anticipated for fall. Experts also find themselves shifting away from words like boosters and encouraging people to think about COVID-19 like other respiratory illnesses such as the flu.
COVID-19 is "still circulating and continuing to mutate on a fairly regular basis," said Dr. Jim Conway, medical director of the UW Health immunization program.
Doctors and public health officials continue to track new variants, but all are mutations of the Omicron variant, he said.
Morgan Finke, communications coordinator for Public Health Madison & Dane County, said she understands that people might be confused about the current state of the virus, particularly regarding updated vaccines and the use of the word "boosters."
"When the vaccines first came out, we had the original formulation. Then (the next recommended dose) was called a booster. It was boosting up that original formulation, but then we started to update the vaccine itself," she said.
The term "booster" might have implied that getting the vaccine simply "boosts" immunity rather than being a new formulation of the COVID-19 vaccine that also offers protection against new variants. "It may help some of the confusion to do away with calling them boosters, Finke said.
Along with information about immunity post-infection, Conway said he sees how people might be unsure if they needed an updated shot.
"I think everybody knew that if you got the first wave of vaccines and if you caught COVID-19 along the way, that combination gave you pretty good protection," he said.
Finke said to think about the COVID-19 vaccine like the flu vaccine. The flu vaccine gets updated every year to best protect folks against this season's flu variants," she said.
Currently, the CDC recommends that everyone 5 and older receive at least one dose of the 2023-2024 vaccine. Further recommendations may be suggested based on age, past vaccination status, and for people who are immunocompromised.
In particular, Conway notes that the CDC recommended that people 65 and older were encouraged to get an additional dose of the 2023-2024 vaccine. We noticed that immunity from it was actually fading and we started seeing people that were in those high-risk groups getting sick again, he said.
The 2023-2024 vaccine targets specific sub-variants of the Omicron variant and "could restore protection against severe COVID-19 that may have decreased over time," the CDC website says.
But Conway said getting people to get the updated vaccine has been challenging.
"We said everybody should get that last fall, and then we know it fell on deaf ears, and a lot of people didn't get it," he said.
The CDC estimates that22.5% of adults 18 and older got the 2023-2024 updated COVID-19 vaccine. Wisconsin estimates are higher than the national average at 28.6%.
The CDC recently adopted recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the 2024-2025 season. Once an updated COVID-19 vaccine is available, which Finke and Conway anticipate will happen in the fall, the CDC will recommend everyone 6 months and older get a dose.
As was the case with the 2023-2024 dose, people 65 and older and people who are immunocompromised may be encouraged to get more than one dose.
The recommendation might signal a change in how public health officials communicate concerns and suggestions about COVID-19, likening it to other respiratory illnesses.
Registered nurse Nancy Wanek fills syringes with doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination clinic at Alliant Energy Center in Madison in April 2021. Public health officials recommend people continue to receive annual COVID vaccinations, as they should for the flu or RSV.
Conway said he's seeing messaging focused on getting people prepared annually for COVID-19, the flu and RSV, all of which are respiratory illnesses.
"Kind of the dream scenario would be someone goes to their primary care physician once a year, and they get all three taken care of at once," he said.
One of the struggles of thinking about COVID like the flu is that the flu has highly predictable spikes, usually in the fall. COVID spikes can happen anytime although in the past, COVID cases have risen in the fall and winter with modest summer spikes.
But that doesnt mean the recommendation to treat COVID like a respiratory illness changes and it doesn't mean you should ignore the 2023-2024 dose if you haven't gotten one yet.
"If someone is looking to get their vaccine this summer, they're more than welcome to do that if they're eligible," Finke said.
If residents are confused about their vaccination status or what version of the vaccine they need, they can check theWisconsin Immunization Registry. The database keeps track of vaccination records for COVID-19 and other illnesses like the flu and RSV and gives scheduling recommendations for updated vaccines.
The CDC'sBridge Access Program, which provides free COVID-19 vaccines for people without insurance or whose coverage doesn't cover the cost of the shot, is set to end in August. Finke recommends people look now to get the 2023-2024 vaccine if they haven't yet.
"I would come sooner than later. We do have doses at our clinics right now, and we're ordering more to get us through September," she said.
"We usually tell people that to minimize side effects, they should try to wait 28 days from when they get one version of the vaccine, but I don't think there's any chance that we're going to see the new vaccines any sooner than the end of August. It's only July, so this is the time," Conway said of people who haven't gotten the 2023-2024 vaccine.
In the meantime, Finke encourages people to consider COVID-19 like any respiratory illness.
"I think the bottom line is if you're dealing with any respiratory symptoms, whether it's coughing, sneezing, you're feeling feverish, that could really be any respiratory virus you could be dealing with the flu, you could be dealing with COVID. It's best to stay home and keep to yourself."
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A patient is given a flu vaccine Oct. 28, 2022, in Lynwood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TND)
It may not be the next pandemic, but scientists are warning its proof were not ready for when the next one comes: the bird flu.
Avian influenza a cousin of the seasonal influenza we deal with every year is not new. Its believed to have been around hundreds of years before the 1918 Spanish avian flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide.
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There have been numerous outbreaks of avian influenza in various countries among various animal species over the years, as its not just birds that get infected.
The latest outbreak surfaced in 2020 when a severe variant of the H5N1 avian influenza strain (referred to as H5) started spreading in animals around the world. In February 2022, the virus started causing sporadic outbreaks in backyard and commercial poultry flocks in the U.S.
As of May 2024, more than 90 million chickens and turkeys in 47 states have been killed since the outbreak began, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The virus is typically fatal to birds within days of infection, and farmers have to euthanize flocks to stop the spread.
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Its also infected alpacas, sea lions, house cats, skunks and more during this most recent outbreak.
But up until this year, it had never infected cows.
As of this week, there have been more than 135 dairy herds in a dozen states reported with H5 infections.
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Cows are largely spared of the virus severity; the infection concentrates in the udders of lactating animals, meaning their raw milk is contaminated.
And thats where human H5 infections come in.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, four human cases of the bird flu have been reported in the U.S. from exposure to dairy cattle since March 2024. Three of those four got conjunctivitis, otherwise known as pink eye, and the other had mild respiratory symptoms.
Experts say they were likely exposed when milking cows if milk happened to squirt in their eyes.
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To date, there havent been any signs of human-to-human transmission.
These do appear, at this point, to be dead-end infections, which is reassuring, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. But because of whats happened with other flu pandemics, were always on the lookout for bird flu viruses behaving differently: infecting more poultry; infecting mammalian species, because that gives these bird flu viruses the opportunity to evolve and become more efficient at infecting humans.
Adalja joins a chorus of scientists who are sounding the alarm that this could be another pandemic slowly unfolding.
On its website, the CDC says the current risk to the general public from bird flu viruses is low, and surveillance so far hasnt shown any unusual influenza activity in people. Dairy farmers and other animal workers are at the highest risk, but even when they contract the virus, they experience very mild symptoms. Some might not even notice.
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Experts remind people to never drink unpasteurized milk, which can carry not just the bird flu, but a host of other pathogens and bacteria.
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The Food and Drug Administration released a first-of-its-kind study last month further confirming pasteurization is effective at inactivating H5 in milk. The FDA did find traces of the virus in 20% of dairy products sampled from grocery shelves nationwide, but there were no signs of live infectious virus in those samples.
Not all countries have central pasteurization, so if the outbreak becomes more widespread globally, some experts say it could have concerning implications. Raw milk is legal in several European countries.
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Because the bird flu is not new, the U.S. already has a strategic national stockpile of two different vaccines against it. The federal government also just paid drug manufacturer Moderna $176 million to develop another one, using the same mRNA technology Moderna used for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Shah says theres no recommendation for use of the H5-specific vaccine right now, and the regular flu season shot will not protect against the bird flu.
Still, he says the CDC is monitoring for any changes in the virus: increased severity; human-to-human transmission; infection in people not exposed to livestock, etc. Any of these would be turning points, and he anticipates, if we get to that point, the CDC would recommend vaccination for risk groups (likely farmworkers and their families), and then move out in concentric rings.
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Testing for avian influenza is just like getting tested for regular influenza, meaning we have plenty of tests stockpiled just in case. Adalja says the U.S. has tests that can distinguish between different flu strains.
Adalja and federal agencies agree theres not a need right now for the general public to be tested.
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According to Reuters, state health officials say 99 people have been tested for bird flu in Michigan, Texas, Idaho, Colorado and New Mexico. Several other states with bird flu outbreaks either didnt report their human testing data or said they hadnt tested anyone.
Meanwhile, the CDCs website says between March 2024 and now, there have been at least 1,390 people monitored for H5 (asymptomatic people who may have been exposed) and at least 61 people tested for H5 (symptomatic). Four positive cases have been identified.
Whats really of concern for Adalja and other scientists is the testing of cattle themselves, which is up to farmers. The federal government can only test herds before they cross state lines, and state testing efforts are currently inconsistent because, according to experts, some farmers arent quick to want to reveal that their herds might have an outbreak.
Many farm workers are reluctant to be tested and dont want the stigma of testing positive, Adalja said. Theres economic considerations that are constraining their ability. This is occurring in a commodity, and states dont want to have any kind of disruption to the economy.
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Adalja points to the negative effects a stigma like this can have in April, Colombia became the first country to officially restrict imports of U.S. beef due to bird flu in cows. The U.S. Meat Export Federation called the restriction unworkable and misguided, arguing the rest of the United States trading partners are following the science, and havent restricted any imports.
But without accurate reporting to show the full scope of the virus spread, Adalja says this creates a lack of situational awareness about the bird flu in the country.
There are likely more dairy cattle herds that are infected across this country. We also expect that there have been more humans that have been infected, he said. Anecdotally, there have been reports of people with flu-like illness or eye infections that did not get tested. In the initial first case acquired from a cow in the U.S., the family members refused to be tested.
Shah says this is an issue public health officials have always dealt with, and when a virus changes or infects a new animal species, it takes time to build up trust among industry workers to agree to testing.
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Still, as it stands, H5 does not cause severe illness in humans, which raises the question: if only four people have gotten it and had mild symptoms; if it doesnt impact our commercial milk supply; if sick cows generally recover; and if theres no human-to-human transmission, why risk the negative stigma and cause the economy to take a hit?
Scientists point to the H1N1 virus, often called the swine flu, which was declared a pandemic in 2009, and killed more than 280,000 people worldwide. It had previously spread among pigs and birds, but the different viruses combined to create a more severe strain that started infecting people.
Experts say more surveillance of that virus could have helped authorities prepare and possibly save more lives.
The same goes for the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal agencies have admitted their missteps: taking years to declare the virus as airborne; recommending measures to prevent the spread that werent backed by science; implying vaccines would stop transmission; and failing to prepare hospitals and nursing homes adequately.
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A bipartisan group called the COVID Crisis Group published a report on the mistakes made during that pandemic. The primary author, Philip Zelikow, told USA Today, We went into a 21st-century pandemic with a 19th-century system. Weve come out of that pandemic essentially retaining the 19th century structure.
Adalja said many in the public health community agree they dont have a lot of confidence in our current system.
The point is that there will be avian flu viruses in the future that will cause pandemics, just like what happened in 1918, Adalja said. I think what we want to do is think of this bird flu outbreak in cows almost as a trial run and if we cant iron out the differences between agriculture and human health and commerce with a less forgiving virus, its not going to be a good situation."
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Shah says the CDC has learned lessons from COVID-19, and state, county and local health officials are checking in with farmers across the country every day. Yet, theres only so much federal agencies can track and require, which is something Shah says his agency has discussed with the scientific community.
One of the challenges with outbreak response is, unfortunately, you never have all the data you want at the time that you need it in order to move forward. And thats the situation were in right now, he said. We absolutely wish that there was more testing happening. We wish we had better data and what is unfolding in real-time. Thats the goal that were moving to. Unfortunately, testing can be a challenge. Testing fundamentally takes trust.
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While government data that tracks COVID-19 isnt as robust as it used to be, its clear that were in the middle of a summer wave. Contributing to the uptick is the newest COVID variant, LB.1.
Right now, emergency room visits due to the virus are up more than 23% than they were during the previous week and hospitalizations are up more than 13%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The latest variant hasnt gotten a lot of attention so far, but its been steadily causing issues in the U.S. since late spring.
Meet the experts: Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
So, what is LB.1 and does it have unique symptoms? Infectious disease experts break it down.
LB.1 is the third most common COVID-19 variant in the U.S. right now, per CDC data. Its a descendant of JN.1, along with common variants KP.2 and KP.3, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
LB.1 is another Omicron variant, says Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Its also a FLiRT variant, along with KP.2, KP.3, and KP.1.1, he points out.
Its a little bit different from KP.2 and KP.3 in that it has a deletion in the spike protein, says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. (In case youre not familiar with it, the spike protein is what SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, uses to attach itself to your cells and infect you.)
LB.1 first emerged as a blip on the CDCs radar back in April but has become more dominant over the past few weeks.
Its hard to say at this point. There is some lab data to suggest it may be more infectious than KP.2 and perhaps KP.3, Dr. Russo says. It appears to be more immune-evasive.
But Dr. Adalja points out that there seem to be fewer COVID-19 cases caused by LB.1 in the latest CDC surveillance data released than in the previous round of data.
It seems to be more common in the East and Southeast, Dr. Russo says.
There is chatter online about people having a really intense sore throat with COVID-19 lately, and its possible thats due to LB.1 (although tricky to know for sure). But doctors say that COVID-19 symptoms are largely the same as theyve been over the past year or two.
Theres not enough data to report any differences in symptoms, Dr. Adalja says. Each variant has certain symptoms anecdotally attributed to it, but they are mostly all still part of the same spectrum of illness of all versions of the virus.
According to the CDC, those symptoms may include:
It depends on how you look at it. Dr. Russo notes that the COVID-19 vaccine is imperfect at keeping people from getting the virus. However, it can help lower the risk youll end up getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and dying from the virus.
Dr. Adalja agrees. The current vaccine is not very effective at durable protection against infectionand that has been the case for some timewith the current slew of variants, though it is protective against severe disease, he said.
Thats why Dr. Russo still recommends getting the updated COVID-19 vaccine, if you havent already. It will afford more protection than not being vaccinated, he says.
The best way to lower your risk of getting LB.1 is the same as its always been, although the steps to take really depend on your risk tolerance, Dr. Adalja says.
High-risk individuals should keep up to date with vaccinations and the extremely high-risk immunocompromised individuals should discuss the monoclonal antibody Pemgarda with their physician, he says.
If youre high risk for getting sickmeaning youre pregnant, an older adult, immunocompromised, or have certain underlying health conditionsits also a good idea to mask up in crowded indoor settings, like when you go to the grocery store, Dr. Russo says. Youll also want to avoid indoor settings where you cant wear a mask, like restaurants, until were on the back side of this wave, he adds.
Dr. Rusos says its likely that the summer wave wont die down until the end of the season. Soon after, a new COVID-19 vaccine thats better targeted to the FLiRT variants like LB.1 should be available.
Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Mens Health, Womens Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a masters degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.
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In a recent study published in eClinicalMedicine, researchers examined the influence of pre-existing sleep disturbances on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) susceptibility, severity, and long-term effects.
The study found that pre-existing sleep disturbances elevated the risk of susceptibility to COVID-19, as well as hospitalization, mortality, and long COVID, with age and sex playing a role.
Study:Pre-existing sleep disturbances and risk of COVID-19: a meta-analysis. Image Credit:PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock.com
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant global morbidity and mortality, with long COVID emerging as a major concern, affecting at least 65 million people worldwide.
Long COVID encompasses a range of symptoms and new-onset diseases, posing ongoing health and economic burdens. Sleep disturbances, such as insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), were prevalent during the pandemic, affecting 40.49% of the global population. These disturbances are known to be linked to immune deficiency and inflammation, exacerbating the impact of COVID-19.
While previous studies have shown that OSA increases the severity and mortality of COVID-19, other sleep disturbances and their role in long COVID remain less explored.
Conflicting evidence exists regarding the relationship between sleep disturbances and long COVID, with some studies indicating a positive association between conditions like OSA and insomnia, while others find no significant link.
Comprehensive research is needed to understand these connections and effectively address long COVID. Therefore, researchers in the present meta-analysis aimed to examine the effect of pre-existing sleep disturbances on COVID-19 outcomes.
A total of 48 relevant observational studies with 8,664,026 participants were included from databases including Web of Science, PubMed, and Embase. The studies investigated COVID-19 susceptibility (22), hospitalization (12), mortality (16), and long COVID (11).
Case reports, brief communications, letters, reviews, and preprints were excluded. Most studies were conducted in the United States of America, and up to 72% of the participants were male. The studies focused on four sleep disturbances: OSA, insomnia, abnormal sleep duration, and night-shift work.
Two researchers extracted and assessed data. They collected basic information (author, year, study design, region, sample size, age, gender), types of sleep disturbances, and COVID-19 outcomes.
Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated from available data or other ratios if necessary. Quality was evaluated using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for cross-sectional studies and the NewcastleOttawa Scale for cohort/case-control studies.
Statistical methods included pooled ORs, heterogeneity assessment, subgroup analysis, sensitivity analyses, Egger's test, and the trim-and-fill method for publication bias evaluation.
Participants with pre-existing sleep disturbances were more susceptible to COVID-19 (OR = 1.12). Specific disturbances like OSA, abnormal sleep duration, and night shift work also increased COVID-19 occurrence.
Higher susceptibility was found in low- and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries and in studies with unadjusted ORs. Younger individuals with sleep disturbances showed increased susceptibility (OR = 1.20), while older individuals did not.
Further, patients with pre-existing sleep disturbances had a higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization (OR = 1.25), with all sleep disturbances except insomnia contributing to this increased risk. The association was stronger in patients younger than 60 years.
Pre-existing sleep disturbances were also found to increase COVID-19 mortality (OR = 1.45), mainly due to OSA. This risk was higher in older patients and males. Diabetes was found to be a significant source of heterogeneity, with a stronger association between sleep disturbances and COVID-19 mortality in diabetic patients as compared to the general population.
Moreover, pre-existing sleep disturbances significantly increased the risk of developing long COVID (OR = 1.36). The association was stronger for long COVID defined as symptoms lasting 3 months compared to 1 month.
Subgroup analysis confirmed that OSA increased long COVID risk in both definitions (3-month: OR = 1.75, 1-month: OR = 1.12). Therefore, OSA may be a potential risk factor for long COVID, but further research is warranted to confirm these findings.
Asymmetric funnel plots indicated potential publication bias for COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, and mortality studies. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses aligned with the main findings, confirming the robustness of the study.
The study highlights the importance of addressing sleep disturbances in COVID-19 management and prevention strategies. It is the first meta-analysis to investigate the impact of all sleep disturbances (not only OSA) on the total clinical course of COVID-19. However, the study is limited by high heterogeneity among outcomes, the observational nature of all included studies, and the inability to confirm causal relationships.
In conclusion, sleep disturbances, particularly OSA, significantly heightened the risks of COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, death, and long COVID, with these effects influenced by age and gender.
Therefore, the study urges healthcare professionals to conduct early examinations and timely intervention for patients with sleep disturbances to alleviate the immediate and long-term impact of COVID-19.
Data suggests that the U.S. has been experiencing a Covid-19 Summer surge since early June. Here ... [+] people visit The Edge observation deck for New York City's 48th annual Macy's 4th of July fireworks on July 4, 2024. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
You could say that the U.S. is more than flirting with yet another Covid-19 surge. Chances are that a surge has already been occurring for at least a monthsince early June. And the FLiRT variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been front-and-center of this surge.
Now, the U.S. still doesnt have a comprehensive surveillance system that can catch surges before they happen or soon after they start happening even though its been over four and a half years since the the SARS-CoV-2 first surged in the U.S. Plus, nowadays, you dont see the public health alerts about Covid-19 surges that you saw during the first three years of the pandemic. So, these days if you want to know whether Covid-19 is surging, you have to rely on checking Covid-19-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths to see if a surge has already been occurring with an emphasis on the words has already been.
Indeed, emergency room visits due to Covid-19 from June 16 through June 22thats two weeks agowere up 23.3% from the previous week, according to data posted on the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention. Also, Covid-19-related hospitalizations during the week of June 9 through 15 were 13.3% higher than they were than the week before. Recall that it can take a week or two after someone gets infected to develop symptoms severe enough to require an emergency room visit or a hospitalization. All of this suggests that Covid-19 cases were rising throughout most of June.
It shouldnt be too surprising that yet another Covid-19 Summer surge has been happening. Many political and business leaders are not advocating for Covid-19 precautions such as face mask use and indoor air filtration and purification. And take a wild guess as to what may happen to a virus thats still spreading and mutating when you dont really do much to prevent its spread. The answer is not that it will go away on its own. Moreover, its been about 10 months since the last Covid-19 vaccine update was rolled out last fall, and protection offered by the vaccine tends to wane significantly after four to six months.
Then there are the FLiRT variants, a new group of SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants that have two key mutations in their spike proteins. If you recall, the spike proteins are what makes the virus looks like a spiky ball and help the virus latch on to your cells to then invade them. The name FLiRT is derived from the actual amino acid changes that result from the pair of mutations: a switch of a phenylalanine (F) for a leucine (L) at position 456 and arginine (R) for threonine (T) at position 346 in the spike protein.
These FLiRTs are descendants of the JN.1 variant that was dominant in the United States earlier this year and encompass a group of variants with names that begin with the letters JN and KP. In the first week of June, KP.3 accounted for an estimated 33.1% of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the U.S., KP.2 for an estimated 20.8% and KP.1.1 for an estimated 9%. And these percentages have been growing, which is not surprising since preliminary data has suggested that the Rethe effective reproduction numberfor KP.2 may be 1.22 times higher than the Re for JN.1.
Whenever new variants emerge, the big question is whether they will be able to evade the existing protection that you may have from vaccination or previous Covid-19 infections. Well, the two mutations in the FLiRT variants do affect important locations in the spike proteinnamely where antibodies against the virus typically bind. Nevertheless, so far, theres no indication that vaccination will not be effective against the FLiRT variants. Butand this is big but, one cannot liemore data are needed to determine how effective vaccination will be against the FLiRT variants.
Covid-19 is less of a concern now than it was in the earlier days of the pandemic. Your immune system is probably more used to the spike protein and the virus now. You are likely less likely to get hospitalized and suffer more severe consequences when infected with SARS-CoV-2. But the risks of more severe outcomes are still there. There is still a significant chance of suffering long Covid. Therefore, it is a good idea to maintain appropriate precautions such as making sure that indoor locations are well-ventilated and wearing a face mask when you may come into close sustained contact with others who may be infected. And a summer surge does increase the latter possibility.
