Category: Corona Virus

SINGAPORE An article in a reputable journal that media outlets around the world have reported as linking Covid-19 vaccines with excess deaths has drawn flak from doctors and scientists, and has resulted in the journal tweeting a statement that the media have misinterpreted the article.

The piece, which appeared on June 3 in BMJ Public Health, one of the titles published by The BMJ, said the 47 Western countries the authors looked at had the highest number of excess deaths in 2021, when both containment measures and vaccines were used.

The article was submitted by three paediatric oncologists from the Princess Maxima Centre for paediatric oncology in the Netherlands and an independent researcher.

They also spoke of the lack of transparency when batch-dependent levels of toxicity were discovered in the mRNA vaccines in Denmark, a well as the simultaneous onset of excess mortality and Covid-19 vaccination in Germany.

The BMJ posted on X on June 7 to say that while various news outlets have claimed the research implies the vaccines had caused excess deaths, the study does not establish any such link.

On June 11, the childrens cancer centre said on its website: The Princess Maxima Centre distances itself from the publication Excess mortality across countries in the Western World since the Covid-19 pandemic: Our World in Data estimates of January 2020 to December 2022.

It said serious questions have arisen regarding the publication, so it will further investigate the scientific quality of this study and it regrets the impression that the importance of vaccinations was being questioned.

It said the focus of the piece had shifted from the original, which was to look at the impact of Covid-19 measures on deaths in children with cancer in low-income countries in a direction that we felt was too far from our expertise: paediatric oncology. We are not experts in epidemiology, nor do we want to give that impression.

It added: We should have been more alert to the formation and results of this publication and will further investigate the way it was created. If it turns out that carelessness was involved in the realisation of this publication, it will of course be withdrawn.

The Straits Times had run an article on the piece on June 8 quoting several experts here who said it was unbalanced and had pointed out that correlation is not the same as causation.

The Ministry of Health had also weighed in to say: Numerous studies have demonstrated how Covid-19 vaccination had lowered the risk of death as compared with not being vaccinated.

Retraction Watch, a blog that reports on retractions of scientific papers, said that scientists had critiqued the studys methodology.

It quoted Mr Ariel Karlinsky, an economist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, whose work the study cited, saying on X: The onus here is on BMJ Public Health, which published a really bad paper with a misleading title.

Professor Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases consultant who is vice-dean of global health at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, wrote to Professor Helena Legido-Quigley, chair of the advisory board of BMJ Public Health, expressing his unease with the piece.

In an e-mail sent on June 10, parts of which ST has seen, he said: I am somewhat surprised and dismayed that the BMJ Public Health editorial team allowed the article to be published as it currently stands... The discussion is replete with misleading statements and conclusions that the data and results do not strongly support (or even support).

He pointed out several such statements, including the claim that scientific consensus on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions in reducing viral transmission is currently lacking. He said: This is so clearly wrong, given the plethora of original research and meta-analyses.

He added that the researchers also quoted articles that have been debunked.

On why he sent the e-mail to the journal, Prof Hsu said: I felt the authors written conclusions were not supported by the data and authors own analyses, and also because the article given the high publicity by major news outlets could potentially further undermine confidence in vaccines both specific to Covid-19 and in general.

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BMJ journal says media misconstrued article, no claim linking Covid-19 vaccines to excess deaths - The Straits Times

Test results, case totals and wastewater analysis all show that San Diego County, like much of the country, is experiencing an increase in coronavirus activity.But experts say the trend looks like the typical summer uptick that has occurred, to one extent or another, since COVID-19 arrived in 2020.

In its latest respiratory report released Thursday, the county shows that 8 percent of lab-performed COVID-19 tests came back positive in the first week of June, a number that is about double what it was in May. And the amount of coronavirus material detected at the Point Loma sewage plant has also increased, from an estimate of about 1.9 million copies of viral genetic code in late May to 3.9 million in early June.

But those moves come nowhere near hitting highs set during the COVID-19 pandemic and, thus far, hospitals report that they are taking the increase in stride.

Dr. Craig Uejo, chief quality officer at Scripps Health, said this week that while the organizations five hospitals do have more patients with COVID-19 admitted, the increase has been a blip.

We were running in the low single digits for quite a few weeks there since the winter ended, and were up to about 16 now, Uejo said. So, its a slight increase but those numbers would have to be much, much higher to scare us.

As hospitals are no longer required to report daily COVID-19 patient totals to public health departments, it is not clear whether Scripps experience is the case at other providers, though officials with Sharp HealthCare and UC San Diego Health said this week that their admission totals have been essentially flat.

We have seen an uptick in COVID cases in the community, but hospitalizations have remained low even lower than this time last year, said Dr. Chris Longhurst, chief medical officer at UC San Diego Health.

According to the countys monthly COVID-19 tracking report, the region averaged 58 confirmed COVID-19 cases per day in the first full week of June compared to 25 per day in the first full week of May. That average case volume, noted Dr. Wilma Wooten, the countys public health officer, is actually slightly lower than it was during the same week June 2 through June 8, last year. Indeed, county records that track cases by date of symptom onset, show that the county average was 63 cases per day during the same week last year.

For the past four years weve had summer surges of COVID-19 and, while we will have a surge this year, it may not be as high as last year just as last year was not as high as the prior summers surge, Wooten said.

Virologists say a new coronavirus subvariant dubbed PK.3 is driving the current increase in activity due to a fresh set of mutations to its spike protein, the structure on the viruss surface that controls its ability to enter human cells.

Computational biologist Karthik Gangavarapu, an expert who works with immunologist Kristian Andersen at San Diegos Scripps Research, noted that just like the subvariants that have caused surges in previous summers, PK.3 is a stepwise evolution of the original Omicron strain that caused the pandemics biggest surge in cases in late 2021 and early 2022.

I think this is what we would expect from a new variant, two mutations primarily in the spike region that are sort of conferring this variant to evade immunity better than the previously, but this is not a dramatic shift, he said.

This falls booster shot, which is still being formulated, he said, is likely to confer significant protection even if the type of virus circulating in the fall is not a perfect match to the genetic fingerprints used to make the vaccine.

The protective antibodies that vaccines cause a persons immune system to produce, he noted, are not binary. Those that are a close but not perfect match still help.

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COVID-19 cases rising in San Diego San Diego Union-Tribune - The San Diego Union-Tribune

In a recent study published in the International Journal of Impotence Research, a group of researchers assessed the relationship between Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) and ischemic priapism in patients treated at three university hospitals in Egypt between April 2020 and June 2022. Ischemic priapism is a rare condition where blood gets trapped in the erection chambers of the penis.

Study:The relationship between Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) and ischemic priapism: a case-control study. Image Credit:Design_Cells/ Shutterstock

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The disease has profoundly impacted medical, social, economic, and environmental aspects of life, leading to widespread lockdowns. By March 24, 2024, the WHO reported 775,132,086 confirmed cases and 7,042,222 deaths. COVID-19 symptoms vary widely, with fever, cough, and anosmia being common. Severe cases often exhibit hypercoagulability, increasing the risk of thromboembolic complications, including ischemic priapism, a urological emergency caused by sinusoidal thrombosis. Further research is needed to determine whether the association between COVID-19 and ischemic priapism is causal or merely coincidental.

The present study retrospectively reviewed patients with priapism at three university hospitals from April 2020 to June 2022. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all emergency department patients were assessed for COVID-19 using chest computed tomography (CT), complete blood count (CBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), and D-dimer tests, followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for suspicious cases. A positive PCR test confirmed COVID-19 positivity.

Priapism patients were evaluated for duration, pain, drug history, trauma, systemic disease, and recurrence. After informed consent, cavernosal aspiration was performed by inserting a needle into the penile cavernosal tissue, aspirating blood, and irrigating with saline and Ephedrine hydrochloride until detumescence. Blood samples were analyzed, and a distal shunt procedure was performed if detumescence was not achieved within an hour.

Data collected included age, co-morbidity, priapism type, episode duration, cavernous blood gases, chest CT findings, lymphocyte percentage, CRP, D-dimer levels, COVID-19 course, priapism management, and follow-up erectile function. Patients were classified into two groups based on COVID-19 presence, and criteria were compared, including erectile function assessed using the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5). Statistical analysis used the Kolmogrov-Smirnov Z, t-tests, Mann-Whitney U, and Chi-square tests, with significance at p 0.05.

During the study period, 43 patients with ischemic priapism were diagnosed, with a median age of 36 years and a median priapism duration of 8 hours. Among these patients, 2.3% had chronic kidney disease, 6.97% had hypertension, and 16.3% had diabetes. The patients were divided into two groups: 30 patients with ischemic priapism only (Group I) and 13 patients with both ischemic priapism and COVID-19 (Group II).

Cavernosal aspiration was successful in 83.3% of patients in Group I and 92.3% in Group II, showing no significant difference (P = 0.4). Recurrence of priapism occurred in 16.7% of patients in Group I, while no recurrences were observed in Group II (P = 0.1). At the last follow-up, moderate erectile dysfunction (ED) developed in 6.7% and severe ED in 13.3% of patients in Group I. In Group I, those with severe ED were managed with a distal shunt and prepared for penile prosthesis placement, except for one patient who developed moderate ED after the distal shunt. In Group II, one patient (7.7%) developed severe ED after distal shunting and was also prepared for penile prosthesis implantation. The median duration of ischemic priapism was significantly longer in patients with severe ED compared to those without (19 vs. 7 hours, P = 0.01).

There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of age (P = 0.8), required priapism management (P = 0.4), priapism recurrence (P = 0.1), and ED severity (P = 0.5).

In Group II, priapism was the main presenting symptom in 30.8% of patients, leading to the incidental diagnosis of COVID-19. Other patients presented with varying degrees of COVID-19 symptoms: mild in 5 patients, moderate in 2 patients, and severe in 2 patients. Patients with priapism and mild COVID-19 symptoms were treated with home isolation and supportive care, including vitamin C, zinc, lactoferrin, acetylcysteine, paracetamol, and ivermectin. Those with moderate symptoms received similar treatment along with intravenous ivermectin, anticoagulants, and steroids, while severe cases were referred for hospital isolation. All COVID-19 patients recovered completely after treatment.

Patients with mild and moderate COVID-19 symptoms responded well to cavernosal aspiration, maintained erectile function, and did not experience priapism recurrence. Those with severe COVID-19 symptoms also responded well to cavernosal aspiration, with one patient developing mild ED.

To summarize, this study, the largest on ischemic priapism in COVID-19 patients, found that priapism occurred across all COVID-19 severity levels. COVID-19 did not alter priapism treatment protocols or post-treatment erectile function. The findings suggest a coincidental rather than causal relationship between COVID-19 and ischemic priapism.

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Study confirms no causal link between COVID-19 and ischemic priapism - News-Medical.Net

Californias COVID-19 numbers are on the rise thanks in part to new subvariants, suggesting an earlier-than-normal start to the summer season.

The percentage of COVID tests coming back with positive results in the state rose to 5.3% for the week that ended June 3, up from 2.2% the month before.

The numbers are still relatively low last summers peak positive test rate was 13.1% but the increases have the attention of doctors and health officials as the summer travel season begins.

Numbers are definitely going up, said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Among Kaisers 4.8 million Southern California members, the increase in COVID-19 is mostly among non-hospitalized people.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported an average of 106 COVID cases for the week ending June 2. Thats up from 67 cases a day for the week that ended May 12.

We have seen this happen over the last 4 years. We know we tend to see another wave around this time, Hudson said. This one started a little bit earlier, so it may crest a little earlier, and oftentimes we dont see those hospitalized cases until a little further in.

COVID levels also are rising in wastewater. In Los Angeles County, sewage levels were at 16% of the winter peak for the week that ended May 25, up from 8% for the week that ended May 4. In Santa Clara County the Bay Areas most populous county COVID levels in wastewater are considered high from San Jos to Palo Alto. There also is a notable rise in samples in San Franciscos sewage.

Across California, COVID in wastewater entered the high level for the week that ended June 1, the first time since February.

New subvariants are increasingly making a mark nationwide. For the two-week period that ended Friday, 55% of estimated COVID specimens in the U.S. were of the FLiRT variants up from 28.6% a month earlier. Another upstart, LB.1, is estimated to make up 14.9% of specimens nationwide, up from 6.7% last month.

The parent of the FLiRT and LB.1 subvariants, the winter dominant strain JN.1, now accounts for an estimated 3.1% of strains nationwide. LB.1 is similar to the FLiRT subvariants known officially as KP.1.1,KP. 2 and KP.3 and none are very different from JN.1, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at UC San Francisco.

Theyre different enough so that theyre increasing and theyre probably exploiting vulnerabilities, and theyre very transmissible, but not so different from JN.1 that they pose a higher risk of severe disease, Chin-Hong said.

Still, doctors remain concerned about the risk of serious illness and death among seniors and immunocompromised people especially those who havent received an updated vaccine since September. More than 44,000 COVID deaths have been reported since October; by contrast, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions weekly flu surveillance report estimates 24,000 flu deaths during the same time.

One report published in March by the CDC, which looked at adults with immunocompromising conditions, found that only 18% had received an updated COVID-19 vaccine since September.

The CDC urges everyone 6 months and older to get vaccinated with the updated shot, and for those 65 and older, two shots as long as four months have passed since their first.

But with only 36% of Californias seniors having received any COVID shots since September, doctors say its important the remaining population 65 and older get one shot now.

A number of racial and ethnic groups have started to see even lower vaccination rates among seniors. In California, only 31.6% of Black seniors, 29.9% of Asian American seniors and 22.8% of Latino seniors have received an updated COVID-19 vaccination.

Senior vaccination rates also vary by region below the statewide average in much of Southern California, and highest in the San Francisco Bay Area. Los Angeles County reports 30.8% of its seniors with an updated vaccination; in San Diego County, 38.6%; Orange County, 34.2%; Riverside County, 28.1%; San Bernardino County, 26.3%; Ventura County, 37.4%; and Santa Barbara County, 40.4%.

The percentage is about 46% in Santa Clara County, more than 50% in San Francisco County and nearly 60% in Marin County.

So many people havent even gotten one shot. How about just even making sure that happens? Chin-Hong said of seniors. Everybody over 65 should probably get a shot before the new one comes out in the fall.

If a senior got a COVID vaccination now, there would still be enough time to get this falls upcoming formulation around Halloween, which is a good time to get vaccinated to protect against the winter rise in COVID infections, Chin-Hong said.

For those who are more vulnerable, I would certainly recommend getting either that first shot or that second, Hudson said.

Chin-Hong said the patients he has seen hospitalized for COVID have not had an updated shot in the last year.

There continues to be good data demonstrating the vaccines effectiveness, even though the last version was designed against the XBB.1.5 subvariant, which was supplanted by JN.1 in the winter.

In a report to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee last week, CDC epidemiologist Ruth Link-Gelles said Septembers vaccine brought increased protection against symptomatic illness as well as COVID-associated hospitalizations and emergency-room and urgent care visits, compared with those who didnt get an updated shot.

But scientists also have observed weakening immunity over time no surprise, given the same phenomenon has been seen in prior COVID vaccines. As before, the most durable protection afforded by the new vaccine guarded against critical illness, Link-Gelles said.

The latest vaccine provides protection against JN.1, although perhaps less than if someone is exposed to an XBB subvariant, Link-Gelles said.

The FDAs Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee last week voted unanimously to recommend that this autumns updated COVID vaccine formula be designed against JN.1 rather than FLiRT or another descendant of JN.1.

Gambling on one of the later descendants like FLiRT might make for a bad match if another descendant overtakes that one. But sticking with a shot that guards against the parent strain may ensure a better match this winter.

COVID vaccination still really does provide really good protection against severe disease and against folks ending up in the hospital, Hudson said. But COVID is very, very new to us as a species, still, and just by nature of what coronaviruses do, they tend to mutate quickly. So its not something that would be unexpected to see that with time, the protection that you would get via that COVID vaccine would tend to wane a bit.

One promising development that still is not available is getting a flu and COVID vaccine in one shot. That probably wont happen until autumn 2025, but its unveiling could be a game-changer that could improve COVID vaccination rates. An estimated 22.5% of adults nationwide reported receiving the latest COVID vaccine, according to survey data reported to the CDC, compared with an estimated 48.5% for the flu.

If you can get two things with one needle, Im all for that, Chin-Hong said.

The Moderna version of the combined flu-and-COVID shot was actually more effective than getting COVID and flu shots separately, Hudson said. Other manufacturers are expected to develop combined flu-and-COVID shots as well.

The L.A. County Department of Public Health reported a small increase in new COVID hospital admissions an average of 19.6 a day, up from 16.9 a day about three weeks ago. Nine percent of hospitalized patients are in intensive care, but deaths remain relatively low and stable, with an average of one daily death, the agency said.

Previously, the mid-year COVID rise in cases and hospitalizations in L.A. County began in early July in 2021 and 2023 but in early May in 2022.

With traveling and gatherings increasing during summer, protection from COVID-19 infection remains important as a new group of variants has begun to circulate nationwide, the Public Health Department said. Summer plans can easily be disrupted by COVID-19 illness and increased transmission continues to pose more risk for the elderly.

Besides getting up to date on vaccinations, officials suggest commonsense steps to reduce the risk of spreading disease and getting sick: having sick people stay home and washing hands often, especially before eating and after sneezing or coughing. Testing for COVID is important to help limit spread of the illness, and can also help people know when they should ask for anti-COVID medicine such as Paxlovid, which can reduce the risk of severe illness or death among higher-risk people.

People with COVID who are contagious should stay home, and if they need to be around others, should wear a mask. Those who want to reduce the risk of getting infected can wear a mask in indoor public settings and crowded areas.

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COVID cases rising in L.A. County and California as new subvariants make mark - Los Angeles Times

A new coronavirus variant is rising to dominance across the U.S. as experts are warning of a potential "summer wave" of COVID-19 cases.

Nicknamed "FLiRT," due to the positions of the mutations in their spike proteins, the new class of COVID subvariants has quickly spread through the U.S.

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In May, one of these new variants, named KP.2, took over as the most dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 in America, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, since the beginning of June, a new FLiRT variant, named KP.3, has taken the lead and now represents 25 percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. KP.2 still follows as a close second, representing 22.5 percent of cases.

So should we be concerned about these new variants?

"Both KP.2 and KP.3 are descendants of the JN.1 subvariant [which was the major viral lineage circulating this previous winter] and belong to the FLiRT family of genetic changes," Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist and professor of biostatistics at the University of South Australia, told Newsweek.

"They are very similar in terms of disease severity, and an ability to evade our immune systems.

"The difference between them is that KP.3 has an additional mutation called F456L, which is located in the spike protein. This mutation allows the virus to more easily latch on to our ACE2 receptorsthis is called binding affinitymaking it more infectious. This is why KP.3 is now starting to dominate."

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So what does this mean for vaccinations?

"Even though the FLiRT subvariants are now quite genetically distant from the XBB subvariantsthe current vaccine is based on XBB.1.5the vaccine will still give some cross-immunity against them," Esterman said.

"[However,] there will be a new vaccine available around September, based on either JN.1 or one of the FLiRT subvariants, that will give much better protection."

As for disease severity, Vanderbilt University's William Schaffner told Today that, from what we have seen so far, the new FLiRT variants do not generally cause severe disease. However, as we have seen over the last few years, viruses can change quickly.

At present, Schaffner said that the new variants are unlikely to cause "very distinctive symptoms."

According to the CDC, the main symptoms of COVID-19 to look out for are:

At present, CDC data suggests that, while COVID-19 infections are rising in the U.S., deaths and hospitalizations are down.

"We need to keep monitoring the spread of this variant," Lawrence Young, a virus expert and professor of molecular oncology at the U.K.'s University of Warwick, previously told Newsweek.

Is there a health issue that's worrying you? Let us know via health@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.

Update 06/13/2024 05:05 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include exclusive comment from Professor Esterman.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Originally posted here:

New COVID Variant: What To Know About KP.3 - Newsweek

A new COVID-19 variant called KP.3 has surged to dominance in the United States, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As of June 8, KP.3 accounted for 25% of cases, per the CDC. The variant has surpassed the previous dominant variant, KP.2, which now makes up about 22% of cases. Both have knocked down JN.1, the top strain circulating this past winter.

With SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, mutating consistently, its natural to be concerned each time a new variant rises to prominence.

Heres what you need to know about KP.3, including whether experts are worried about its speedy spread.

JulPo / Getty Images

KP.3 is part of a newly identified group of variants dubbed FLiRT, which are part of SARS-CoV-2s Omicron lineage. In addition to KP.3, the FLiRT variants also include KP.2 and KP.1.1. They all descend from JN.1.

KP.3 is similar to JN.1 in its structure except for two changes in the spike protein, Carlos Zambrano, MD, a board-certified infectious disease physician and the head of the COVID-19 Task Force at Loretto Hospital in Chicago, told Health.

The spike protein is located on the viruss surface and facilitates its entry into human cells.

One change was observed in the XBB.1.5 lineage, which was predominant in 2023, he said. The second change was observed in viruses circulating in 2021.

According to C. Leilani Valdes, MD, a pathologist and medical director at Regional Pathology Associates in Victoria, Texas, the KP.3 variant has become the frontrunner because it spreads quickly and easily.

It is very good at jumping from one person to another, she said. This means more people are getting infected with KP.3 compared to other variants.

Both experts agreed that there is currently no clear evidence that KP.3 causes more severe illness than other strains, including the JN.1 strain or its derivatives. As such, people who contract KP.3 can expect to experience symptoms characteristic of other recent COVID variants.

KP.3 symptoms resemble typical COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, cough, fatigue, and loss of taste or smell, Valdes said. Some individuals may also experience a sore throat, headache, or muscle pain.

COVID cases are on the rise, and we can expect the number of cases to continue to increase, especially with the KP.3 variant spreading quickly, Valdes said.

The CDC reported last week that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 30 states and territories. Cases are stable or uncertain in 18 others and are likely declining in oneOklahoma.

Per Zambrano, all three COVID vaccine manufacturersPfizer, Moderna, and Novavaxhave said that their new vaccines slated for August 2024 will target the JN.1 variant.

Because the JN.1 variant is closely related to the FLiRT variants, experts have said that matching the vaccines to JN.1 will offer better protection.

Valdes stressed that vaccination remains one of the most effective tools against COVID. Staying up to date with booster shots significantly reduces the risk of severe illness and hospitalization, she said. Wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping distance from others can help prevent the spread.

The most important takeaway as we head into the summer is that KP.3 spreads easily, she added, so its important to be careful.

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COVID Variant KP.3 Surges to DominanceHere's What You Need to Know - Health.com

Just in time for summer vacation season, COVID-19 seems to be creeping back in the U.S.

Nationally, the amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater is still low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but levels have been gradually increasing in recent weeks. COVID-19 hotspots have already emerged in parts of the Northeast, West, and South, as well as Hawaii, wastewater data show.

The increase is apparently driven by the so-called FLiRT variants, which began circulating in the U.S. earlier this spring. FLiRT variants now account for the majority of new U.S. cases, according to CDC monitoring, and seem to be driving an increase in transmission as well as a 16% rise in COVID-related emergency-department visits. Hospitalization and death rates are, for now, holding steady.

Its not surprising that the U.S. would see a summer COVID-19 spike, says Dr. El Hussain Shamsa, an internal-medicine physician at University Hospitals in Ohio. In fact, as a 2023 study that Shamsa co-authored shows, thats been the pattern in previous years: a big winter wave, followed by smaller upticks in the spring and summer.

In their study, Shamsa and his colleagues concluded that that pattern cant be totally explained by external factors like weather, human behavior, or public-health campaigns, which suggests theres something inherent to the virus that makes it flare at certain times of year. Thats what you see in many different types of viruses, Shamsa says.

But why does COVID-19 seem to spread throughout much of the year, when other common respiratory viruseslike those that cause the flu and common coldare predominantly fall and winter problems? The science isnt settled, and not all experts are convinced those patterns will hold true in the future.

Read More: The Isolation of Having Long COVID as Society Moves On

SARS-CoV-2 is still a new virus thats evolving quickly, says Ilan Rubin, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Healths Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. Its possible that it will settle into a more traditional seasonal pattern over time, with most of its spread concentrated in winter, Rubin says.

For now, though, summer peaks seem to be happening not only because the virus is new and evolving, but also because immunity to COVID-19 seems to wane fairly quickly after a previous infection or vaccination. While vaccines shield against severe disease and death for a long time, studies have shown that their ability to protect against all symptomatic cases drops significantly after about six months.

If everybodys getting vaccinated in November and December and then everyone is getting sick in December and January, the population is all becoming susceptible around the same time in the summer, Rubin explains. Throw in increased travel and socializing during the summer, and you have perfect conditions for whatever variant happens to be circulating at the time to start an increase [in cases], he says.

Its not clear yet whether the FLiRT variants will cause a significant summer spike or a smaller blip, Rubin says, but there are some reasons for optimism. The FLiRT variants are similar to JN.1, the previous dominant variant, which also overlapped with the older XBB. Thats a good thing, Rubin says, because even if our immunity is lapsing, we probably had some exposure to something similar in the past, which should help minimize the new variants impact.

Its never possible to predict exactly what SARS-CoV-2 will do, but Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious-disease specialist at North Shore University Hospital in New York, says hes not anticipating a massive surge this summer. Right now, compared to where weve been in the past with the pandemic, the rates are very low in spite of the uptick, he says. Transmission rates may be rising a bit, but they started from one of the lowest points of COVID-19 spread since the pandemic began, he says.

People at increased risk of severe disease, such as elderly adults and people with underlying health conditions, may want to consider taking extra precautions as the virus begins to circulate more widely, Hirschwerk says. But for most people, he says, theres no need to take drastic measures.

Its an individual decision, Hirschwerk says. But for the vast majority of people, they can go on without worrying about thingsat least the way they are on June 12, 2024.

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Are We Headed for Another Summer COVID-19 Wave? - TIME

If youve been sick with COVID-19, you may have some protection against certain versions of the common cold.

A new study suggests previous COVID-19 infections lower the risk of getting colds caused by milder coronavirus cousins, which could provide a key to broader COVID-19 vaccines.

We think theres going to be a future outbreak of a coronavirus, said Dr. Manish Sagar, senior author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Vaccines potentially could be improved if we could replicate some of the immune responses that are provided by natural infection.

The study looked at COVID-19 PCR tests from more than 4,900 people who sought medical care between November 2020 and October 2021. After controlling for things like age, gender and preexisting conditions, Sagar said he and his colleagues found people previously infected with COVID-19 had about a 50% lower chance of having a symptomatic coronavirus-caused common cold compared with people who were, at the time, fully vaccinated and hadnt yet gotten COVID-19.

Several viruses cause colds; coronaviruses are thought to be responsible for about 1 in 5 colds.

Researchers linked the protection against coronavirus-caused colds to virus-killing cell responses for two specific viral proteins. These proteins arent used in most vaccines now, but researchers propose adding them in the future.

Our studies would suggest that these may be novel strategies for better vaccines that not only tackle the current coronaviruses, but any potential future one that may emerge, said Sagar of Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas who was not involved in the study, said the findings shouldnt be seen as a knock against current vaccines, which target the spike protein studding the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

These vaccines, he said, are still your best defense against severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death.

But he added: If we can find targets that cross-protect among multiple viruses, we can either add those to specific vaccines or start to use those as vaccine targets that would give us broader-based immunity from a single vaccination. And that would be really cool.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Past COVID infections may help protect against certain colds. Could it lead to better vaccines? - The Associated Press

L.L. Bean has just added a third shift at its factory in Brunswick, Maine, in an attempt to keep up with demand for its iconic boot.

Orders have quadrupled in the past few years as the boots have become more popular among a younger, more urban crowd.

The company says it saw the trend coming and tried to prepare, but orders outpaced projections. They expect to sell 450,000 pairs of boots in 2014.

People hoping to have the boots in time for Christmas are likely going to be disappointed. The bootsare back ordered through February and even March.

"I've been told it's a good problem to have but I"m disappointed that customers not getting what they want as quickly as they want," said Senior Manufacturing Manager Royce Haines.

Customers like, Mary Clifford, tried to order boots on line, but they were back ordered until January.

"I was very surprised this is what they are known for and at Christmas time you can't get them when you need them," said Clifford.

People who do have boots are trying to capitalize on the shortage and are selling them on Ebay at a much higher cost.

L.L. Bean says it has hired dozens of new boot makers, but it takes up to six months to train someone to make a boot.

The company has also spent a million dollars on new equipment to try and keep pace with demand.

Some customers are having luck at the retail stores. They have a separate inventory, and while sizes are limited, those stores have boots on the shelves.

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Summer surge? South Bay health officials keep close eye on COVID-19 concentrations - NBC Bay Area

Updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that a recent COVID-19 variant is now making up the plurality of cases throughout the U.S., just as emergency room visits associated with the virus increase.

According to CDC data, COVID-19-related emergency room visits for the week ending June 7 were up 16.2% compared to the week before. As of June 7, COVID-19 was responsible for 0.5% of all emergency room visits in the U.S., the CDC said.

As of June 8, the CDC said that variant KP.3 now makes up a plurality of cases. The CDC estimates that KP.3 now comprises 25% of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S. KP.2 made up 22.5% of cases. JN.1, which was the dominant COVID-19 strain in February, now makes up 3.1% of cases.

KP.2 and KP.3 are known as FLiRT variants, because of their specific positions in the spike protein.

Health

8:17 AM, Jun 10, 2024

Andy Pekosz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in molecular microbiology and immunology, said in a Q&A last month that these variants aren't more or less severe than previous variants, but more people have antibodies through vaccines and prior infection to better fight off an infection.

"The period of infectiousness for these FLiRT variants remains the same as with JN.1 and previous omicron variants: After exposure, it may take five or more days before you develop symptoms, though symptoms may appear sooner," Pekosz said. "You are contagious one to two days before you experience symptoms and a few days after symptoms subside. And as with previous variants, some people may have detectable live virus for up to a week after their symptoms begin, and some may experience rebound symptoms."

Both the KP.2 and KP.3 variants evolved from JN.1. Last week, advisers from the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee recommended that Fall 2024 vaccines target the JN.1. variant.

Link:

New COVID variant emerges as ER visits rise in the US - ABC 10 News San Diego KGTV