Category: Corona Virus

The number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the United States and the world. To slow down the spread of the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends testing often, especially if youve recently been in contact with people who have symptoms or test positive.

When it comes to at-home testing, the BinaxNOW COVID-19 test is one of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized at-home COVID-19 tests under emergency use authorization (EUA).

You can use this test whether you have symptoms. If you dont have symptoms, the manufacturers advise you to take the test twice in 3 days.

Heres what you need to know about this test kit, safety precautions, price, and more.

The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test is an FDA-authorized at-home test kit for detecting active infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in people with and without symptoms.

According to the company, this test kit can screen for many SARS-CoV-2 strains, including the Delta and Omicron variants.

The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test is a rapid test that uses a shallow nasal swab sample to check for the presence or absence of proteins from the virus that causes COVID-19.

Heres how it works:

Healthline senior associate Sydney Hanan tested out the BinaxNOW COVID-19 kit and found it to be fairly similar to other at-home testing kits that are available.

It came with pretty much everything I needed to take the two tests, including two test cards, two dropper bottles, two swabs, and an instruction sheet, she said. The only thing I needed to provide myself was a time, which was easy enough to do on my phone.

Sydney noted that shes taken different types of at-home COVID-19 tests and that BinaxNOW was straightforward and easy.

[It] takes about 20 minutes in total (5 to perform the test, and 15 to get the results), she said.

According to the CDC, if your results are positive, you can trust the accuracy of an at-home COVID-19 test kit. This includes the BinaxNOW COVID-19 test.

However, you may not be able to rely on this test kit (or similar at-home options) if your results show negative. You might still have COVID-19, especially if youre showing COVID-19 symptoms.

The manufacturers recommend testing again after 24 to 48 hours to confirm your results. If it still shows negative despite your symptoms, its best to consult your doctor.

If you see an invalid result, the test didnt work, and youll need to take another test.

The FDA highlighted a study that found that the BinaxNOW COVID-19 test kit was 91.7% accurate at detecting positive cases and 100% reliable at finding negative cases.

That being said, the FDA also stated that because the study was small, it estimates that the kit can correctly identify 73% to 98.9% of positive cases.

Another study that tested people who had been showing COVID-19 symptoms for at least 7 days saw that the kit was 84.6% accurate at correctly identifying a person with COVID-19. It was also 98.5% accurate at detecting a person without COVID-19.

Other studies suggest that you can rely on the kit to detect the Omicron and Delta variants, and other variants of concern (VOC).

BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test is a product of Abbott Laboratories, an internationally recognized healthcare technology company.

However, Abbott Laboratories is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau and currently has a rating o 1.06 out of 5 stars. In the past year, the company has closed 65 complaints. Most complaints are about products other than the BinaxNOW COVID-19 test, but some note that the companys customer service is poor.

The test kit is rated 4.7 out of 5 stars from 10,540 global ratings on Amazon. Most of the reviews were positive, noting that the kit was easy to use and worked well for detecting COVID-19.

A few complained about the boxs contents. Some said that the box came with only one kit instead of two. Another mentioned that the boxs seal had already broken on arrival.

You can get the BinaxNOW COVID-19 test at retailers like:

According to the FDA, you can get a negative result even when you have COVID-19 (this is called a false negative). Still, the company doesnt mention the possibility of getting a false-positive result. Although there arent any reported false-positive cases with this test kit, its still something that you should be aware of.

A 2021 study observed that rapid COVID-19 tests detected infection with SARS-CoV-2 in 72% of people with symptoms and 58% without symptoms.

As of early 2022, people with a health plan or health insurance can get any FDA-authorized at-home test for free or be reimbursed for paying for the at-home test. You can contact your provider for more information.

People 15 years and older, vaccinated or unvaccinated, with or without COVID-19 symptoms, can take this test. But if youre without symptoms and your results show negative, take another test in 24 to 48 hours.

An adult can administer the test for children 2 years or older.

At-home rapid COVID-19 test kits are quick, cost-effective ways of testing to see whether you have COVID-19. You can also take these tests wherever you are and get your results in minutes.

The BinaxNOW COVID-19 test is an FDA-authorized COVID-19 test kit under a EUA that can detect whether you have the virus. Your results will be available within 15 to 30 minutes.

While this test kit is FDA-authorized, it isnt 100% accurate and can still reflect false or inconclusive results. You can consult your doctor or take an in-person PCR test for more accurate results.

Frances Gatta is a freelance healthcare writer with experience writing on general health, womens health, healthcare technology, mental health, and personalized nutrition. You can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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BinaxNOW COVID-19 Test Reviews: What You Should Know - Healthline

New Jersey on Thursday reported another 3,532 confirmed COVID-19 positive tests and 12 confirmed deaths as positive tests have begun to rise again after declining through June.

The states seven-day average for confirmed positive tests increased Thursday to 2,792, a 24% increase from a week ago and 14% increase from last month.

The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Saturday the most recent day with available data was 18.16%. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers positivity rates above 10% to be high. However, the positivity rate is substantially lower than its peak of 40.83% on Jan. 1 during the height of the omicron variant.

New Jerseys rate of transmission was 1.06 on Thursday, up from 1.05 Wednesday. When the transmission rate is above 1, that means each new case is leading to at least one additional infection. A transmission rate below 1 is an indication that the coronavirus outbreak is declining.

The states coronavirus dashboard had incomplete numbers for hospitalizations on Thursday with just 60 of 71 hospitals reporting data. Hospitals reported 1,013 patients as of Tuesday night, the highest number since Feb. 20.

There were 1,013 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported across the states 71 hospitals as of Tuesday night. Thats the highest number of patients since Feb. 20.

Despite the recent rise in cases however, hospitalizations remain significantly lower than when they peaked at 6,089 on Jan. 10 during the omicron wave.

Six New Jersey counties are now considered high risk for COVID-19 transmission Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Monmouth and Morris. Those in high-risk areas are recommended to wear a mask indoors in public and on public transportation and stay up to date on vaccinations, according to the CDC.

The states 15 other counties are in the medium-risk category: Bergen, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. Masks are not recommended in the medium- and low-risk regions.

New Jersey has reported 2,164,884 million total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the more than two years since the state reported its first known case March 4, 2020.

The Garden State has also recorded 370,183 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases. And there are numerous cases that have likely never been counted, including at-home positive tests that are not included in the states numbers.

The state of 9.2 million residents has reported 34,145 COVID-19 deaths 31,055 confirmed fatalities and 3,090 probable ones.

New Jersey has the seventh-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S. behind Mississippi, Arizona, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee and Oklahoma as of the latest data reported July 4. Last summer, the state had the most deaths per capita in the nation.

More than 6.96 million people who work, live, or study in the Garden State have reached fully vaccinated status.

Over 7.86 million have received a first dose since vaccinations began in the state on Dec. 15, 2020.

More than 4 million people in the state eligible for boosters have received one. That number may rise after the Food and Drug Administration approved booster shots for healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11. U.S. regulators authorized the booster for kids, hoping an extra vaccine dose will enhance their protection as infections continue to spread.

At least 9,375 of the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data.

Of the active outbreaks at 367 facilities, there are 4,655 current cases among residents and 4,735 cases among staff, as of the latest data.

As of Wednesday, there have been nearly 600 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys coronavirus database, and more than 6.36 million people have died because of the virus.

The U.S. has reported the most COVID cases (more than 89.2 million) and deaths (at least 1.02 million) of any nation.

There have been more than 11.8 billion vaccine doses administered globally.

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N.J. reports 3,532 COVID cases, 12 deaths as positive tests start rising once again - NJ.com

Patient deaths: 1,021,306

Total vaccine doses distributed: 774,307,105

Patients whove received the first dose: 260,327,743

Patients whove received the second dose: 222,455,652

% of population fully vaccinated (both doses, not including boosters): 67%

% tied to Omicron variant: 100%

% tied to Other: 0%

Originally posted here:

Coronavirus Omicron variant, vaccine, and case numbers in the United States: July 14, 2022 - Medical Economics

Covid infection levels in the UK have risen by almost 30% in a week, with an estimated 3.5 million people thought to have had the disease in the first week of July, as a leading epidemiologist called for a return of free lateral flow tests.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics based on swabs collected from randomly selected households show that 2,873,600 people in the community in England are estimated to have had Covid in the week ending 6 July about one in 19 people. The week before, the figure was 2,154,000 people or about one in 25.

Increases were also seen in other parts of the UK with an estimated one in 16 people in Scotland and one in 17 in both Wales and Northern Ireland thought to have had Covid in the most recent week.

Overall, about 3,498,700 people across the UK are thought to have had Covid in the most recent week, according to the survey estimates, up from 2,714,900 the week before a rise of 28.9%.

Infections are showing no signs of decreasing, with rates approaching levels last seen in March this year at the peak of the Omicron BA.2 wave, said Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the Covid-19 Infection Survey.

Rates have continued to increase across the UK and among all age groups. We will continue to closely monitor the data.

While not yet reaching peak infection levels seen earlier this year, when about one in 13 people in England had Covid, the latest estimates are the highest yet for a summer month.

At present, infection levels are highest in the east of England, with an estimated 5.9% of people thought to have Covid in the most recent week, and among those aged from school year 12 to age 24, for which the figure was 6.5%.

Prof Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, said it is unclear how much of the rise can be attributed to the wider circulation of Covid variants and how much may be down to a decline in vaccine-induced immunity or increased transmissibility of variants such as BA.4 and BA.5. Factors such as increases in contact, Kao added, are also expected to play a role.

A slow decline in rates in Scotland does [suggest] that this is a wave that will decline again but we may be subject to further waves, especially as variants of concern will likely continue to arise, said Kao.

We may never experience the severe impacts of the first few waves of Covid, but we may experience several severe bumps in the road going forward, especially if Covid is combined with rises in other respiratory infections in the winter, which is likely.

Concerns have also been raised as a result of increasing hospitalisations involving people with Covid, with hospital admissions figures approaching the peaks seen in previous waves this year. Figures for patients primarily being treated for Covid are also increasing, with data from NHS England showing a rise from 2,165 on 21 June to 4,693 on 12 July.

My fear is that we shall now routinely face summer pressures of a kind only previously seen during winter, said Dr Naru Narayanan, president of the HCSA, the hospital doctors union. In the short term, we need more stringent infection controls, but lets be clear that much of the current crisis predates the pandemic.

Kao cautioned against behaving as though Covid doesnt exist any more, noting those who are eligible should get their booster jab, while it is still important for people to isolate if they are infected.

He added that making lateral flow tests free once more would be enormously valuable, so long as people were also encouraged to use them especially when entering risky situations such as going to crowded locations or on public transport. Kao also backed the use of protective FFP2 masks in places with a high risk of contact.

Continued here:

UK Covid infections soar by almost 30% in a week - The Guardian

Coronavirus cases and deaths among nursing home residents rose statewide for the second straight month after a long period of decline, according to data from AARP Virginia, the state chapter of the national advocacy group for Americans aged 50 and older.

Rates are still far lower than in the early days of the pandemic, when the virus swept through long-term care facilities largely unchecked. From late April to mid-June, resident case rates in Virginia increased from 2.74 per 100 to 4.14, while death rates increased from .04 per 100 to .06, according to a Thursday news release.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicates that just over 84 percent of nursing home residents in Virginia are fully vaccinated and boosted, and the states continued low death rate among those vulnerable patients speaks to the strong protection vaccines convey against severe disease and death. But the rise is still concerning, advocates say, amid the continued spread of highly infectious subvariants. Until the most recent increase over the last two months, both cases and deaths had been steadily declining in nursing homes following the states historic winter surge.

Rising deaths and cases of COVID-19 among nursing home residents and staff nationally show that for their sakes, we must remain vigilant, David DeBiasi, the advocacy director of AARP Virginia, said in a statement. And we must hold nursing homes accountable for providing high quality care and safe environments.

For much of the pandemic, cases and deaths in nursing homes have been a bellwether for spread in the broader community. When transmission is high, it increases the risk of staff members catching and spreading the virus to elderly patients.

Eighteen counties and localities in Virginia are currently seeing a high level of transmission, including the city of Richmond, according to data from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. And statewide, case numbers are still on the rise, driven largely by the highly infectious omicron subvariant BA.5, which shows signs of being able to evade immunity from previous vaccines and infections.

The New York Times reported that the subvariant is driving a new wave of cases, reinfections and hospitalizations across the country, and theres also been a rise in COVID admissions statewide, according to data from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association. Deaths currently remain at their lowest level since the start of the pandemic, based on reporting from the Virginia Department of Health.

But on average, case rates across Virginia are roughly four times higher than they were last summer, according to the most recent report from UVAs Biocomplexity Institute, which provides modeling and projections to state health officials. Hospitalization numbers are also rising more quickly than cases, which thanks to the proliferation of at-home testing are going unreported to a much larger degree than earlier in the pandemic.

AARP Virginia said the increase of cases and deaths among some of the most vulnerable Virginians heightened concerns that a new surge is upon us. But health experts continue to emphasize that COVID-19 vaccines are still highly protective against severe disease and death, even with immune-evading subvariants.

In late June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration directed vaccine manufacturers to develop booster doses that targeted newer omicron variants. Those shots are expected to be released in the fall, and UVA researchers urged anyone already eligible for a fourth dose to get one as soon as possible.

BA.4 and BA.5 are both capable of causing reinfections among those with natural and vaccine-induced immunity, they wrote. Models suggest these two subvariants may cause a small case surge in the coming months.

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COVID-19 cases and deaths in Virginia nursing homes rise for the second consecutive month - Virginia Mercury

Impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on breastfeeding during and at discharge from neonatal care: An observational cohort study  Wiley

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Impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on breastfeeding during and at discharge from neonatal care: An observational cohort study - Wiley

KANSAS (KSNT) A new grant project will allow more than 21,000 Kansas homes and businesses to receive high-speed internet for the first time.

This grant is the first of its kind and comes from an $83.5 million program through the Kansas Department of Commerces Office of Broadband Development.

The program is a result of Kansas Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, which was approved by the U.S Department of Treasury. The Capital Projects Fund is a way to support the expansion of work and schools.

The Capital Projects Fund represents the largest grant opportunity to date from the Office of Broadband Development,Jade Piros de Carvalho, Director of the Office of Broadband Development said. We are excited about partnering with providers to make a positive impact in communities that have fallen in the digital divide.

The entities that are eligible to apply for the program include internet service providers, cities, counties and non-profit organizations.

The window to apply will be open July 18 and last four weeks. The application will be available by clicking here.

Download the KSNT 27 News to stay updated on the go.

Sign up for KSNT 27 News email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox.

Find todays Top Stories on KSNT.com for Topeka and Northeast Kansas.

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Coronavirus money used to expand internet in Kansas - KSNT News

In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers described the role of local governments in responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic across 25 cities.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was initially detected in the Wuhan city of China toward the end of December 2019 and has demanded responses from all government strata (including governments of states, provinces, districts, and the nation). Responses to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have underpinned the importance of local government involvement in pandemic management.

The substantial societal risks posed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have been recognized by public health communities. Due to the presence of a dense population and high connectivity, cities can be considered a gateway to enhancing or limiting the transmission of infectious organisms. Therefore, understanding infectious disease detection, responses, and management in cities is a key public health concern.

In the present survey-based study, researchers described the involvement of local governments in 25 global cities in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic responses to improve understanding of the implementation and coordination of activities in cities for responding to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

The study included local public health authorities of cities which were in partnership with healthy cities (PHC) for (i) understanding the government levels that were accountable for particular activities as part of COVID-19 pandemic responses; (ii) documenting the implementation of activities for pandemic response; (iii) characterizing the challenges in performing activities as part of pandemic responses; and (iv) inquiring about preparedness for the pandemic and epidemics.

In particular, seven cities were included to ensure diversity of context, which were: Addis Ababa, Accra, Bandung, Bengaluru, Kampala, London, and Lima. A questionnaire was developed for surveying and characterizing the coordinated efforts in activities performed for responding to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the implementation of response activities for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and the level of challenge in performing pandemic response activities.

The questionnaire comprised 30 questions in several formats such as free-responses, Likert scale-based questions, matrices-based questions, and questions with multiple choices for the answer. The questionnaire was translated to Spanish and French for improved comprehensibility and distributed to local authorities in June 2021.

Responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) matrices were used, and descriptive statistical analysis was performed to summarize urban experiences in the COVID-19 pandemic responses. In addition, few study participants were interviewed online from June 2021 to August 2021 to improve the validity of the study findings.

Responsible was defined as the government level in which work required for activity completion was implemented; accountable as the government level which oversewed thorough and correct activity completion; consulted as the government level that engaged in communications (two-way) for providing necessary data for activity completion; and informed as the government level updated in terms of a particular activity.

The cities that completed the surveys were Addis Ababa, Accra, Amman, Athens, Bandung, Bangkok, Barcelona, Bengaluru, Buenos Aires, Cali, Colombo, Guadalajara, Kampala, Kigali, Kumasi, Lima, London, Lusaka, Medelln, Ouagadougou, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Vancouver, and Yangon. RACI matrices analysis showed several coordinated structures for responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In cities like Santo Domingo, Amman, and Kumasi, national-level governments were primarily authoritative. In cities such as Vancouver, Buenos Aires, and Santiago, the primary authority lay with subnational-level governments. For cities like Medelln, Bengaluru, and Kampala, the local governments were primarily authoritative.

National-level government authorities were responsible for most pandemic response activities; however, local-level governments were also responsible for key pandemic response activities, particularly the communication of risks and coordination with civil society organizations and community-setting organizations.

Further, the majority of activities as part of pandemic responses were implemented following the confirmation of COVID-19 in cities, many activities were challenging for local-level governments, and almost all local governments envisioned greater engagement in COVID-19 preparedness and responses to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Regarding pandemic preparedness, local governments were involved with communication of risks, mandating behavioral changes in individuals, and coordinating with civil society and community-based organizations. Local governments implemented activities such as mandating the closure of schools and businesses, imposing lockdowns, providing diagnostic SARS-CoV-2 testing, providing quarantine services, contact tracing, improving surging care, and conducting vaccination campaigns. Of the activities, mandating the closure of businesses and behavioral changes such as social distancing and facemask use were considered the most challenging. In addition, local governments reported to be open to financial, technical, material, and personnel assistance.

Overall, the study findings highlighted the increasing importance of involving local authorities in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings could be an essential contribution to the expanding literature, which emphasizes improving responses to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and potential future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks.

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

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What role did local governments have in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic? - News-Medical.Net

WASHINGTON The Biden administration is considering whether to expand second coronavirus booster shots to adults under 50 in an effort to counter the latest, highly contagious variant, which has driven up hospitalization rates and deepened worries about waning immunity among those vaccinated or boosted at least six or so months ago.

Expanding eligibility for a fourth dose of vaccine to younger adults would require regulatory approval; more discussions with officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected in the coming days, according to people familiar with the situation.

The administration decided in March to offer second booster doses to everyone 50 or older, along with some younger individuals who have immune deficiencies. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a leading infectious disease expert and the chief medical adviser to the White House, has forcefully argued for broadening eligibility to all younger adults.

Two federal officials said that Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the White House coordinator for the pandemic response, also favors that approach. The discussions were reported earlier by The Washington Post.

In an interview on Monday, Dr. Fauci said there was not enough clinical data to strongly recommend that those under 50 get a second booster shot. But he said many in that age group received their last shot in November or December, so their protection against the virus is waning.

Although it is up to the F.D.A. and the C.D.C. to decide, Dr. Fauci said, I think there should be flexibility and permissiveness in at least allowing a second booster for younger adults.

Other federal officials seem more skeptical and anxious to see more data to justify the decision. Some have argued that the administration should be trying harder to persuade Americans to accept the initial round of Covid vaccines, rather than pursuing diminishing benefits with those who are already at least somewhat protected.

There are also concerns that by promoting second boosters for all adults now, the administration could weaken its argument for reformulated booster shots in the fall, when it hopes to offer boosters that better combat the latest versions of the virus. The F.D.A. recently recommended that the vaccines be redesigned to better combat the fast-spreading Omicron variants of BA.4 and BA.5.

The June 30 decision came just two days after the agencys committee of independent vaccine experts overwhelmingly voted for regulators to pursue more advanced vaccines tailored to forms of Omicron, an acknowledgment that the current shots may no longer be as protective by the time a possible fall or winter surge arrives.

The two most recent Omicron subvariants have driven up rates of hospitalization and death, though both remain far lower than at the height of the winter Omicron wave. The same subvariants have sent hospital admissions climbing in Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium and Israel.

The White House has scheduled a news briefing for Tuesday on the state of the pandemic and the threats posed by the latest Omicron subvariants.

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Biden Administration May Offer Second Coronavirus Boosters to All Adults - The New York Times

Good evening. Im Karen Kaplan, and its Tuesday, July 12. Heres the latest on whats happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.

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Whos looking forward to a third consecutive winter surge that causes hospitals to fill with COVID-19 patients and sends the death toll spiraling?

Not me. And neither are the good folks at the Food and Drug Administration.

Theyre looking to head off another disastrous winter by tweaking the formula for the nations COVID-19 booster shots.

The vaccines and boosters currently available in the U.S. were designed with a particular strain of SARS-CoV-2 in mind one that left China way back in January 2020. Since then, the World Health Organization has recognized five major variants of concern and eight additional variants of interest. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all of the coronaviruses now circulating in the United States are some version of the Omicron variant.

In other words, the coronavirus has changed, but our shots havent.

So last month, the FDA convened a meeting of its vaccine advisory committee to get advice on how to proceed. Dr. Peter Marks, the FDAs vaccine chief, told the panel that all options entail some degree of risk.

If the agency decided to update the formula, the new shots would become available without being subjected to the extensive clinical trials used to vet the original vaccines. The agency decided long ago that modifications to COVID-19 vaccines it had already authorized or approved would be evaluated using a streamlined process. In the unlikely event that an update created a safety problem, it would be up to the FDAs surveillance systems to detect it in a timely manner.

On the other hand, Marks warned, if no changes are made, Americans who are fully vaccinated and boosted could find themselves with significantly less protection than they have had in years past. One study found that three doses of mRNA vaccine offered half as much protection against Omicron as they did against Delta, the variant that preceded it.

The Alex Theatre in Glendale.

(Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)

If new vaccines are warranted, theres the non-trivial matter of deciding which strain (or strains) should replace the original. This is a lot trickier than it may sound.

Lets say you pick BA.5, currently the countrys dominant Omicron subvariant. As of Tuesday, 65% of the coronaviruses spreading in the U.S. were of the BA.5 variety. But a month ago, BA.5 accounted for just 17% of the viruses in circulation, and BA.2.12.1 had a 57% market share. Given how quickly things change, whos to say whether BA.5 will still be a factor by the time a fall booster campaign gets underway?

Getting a timely and accurate fix on all this is truly a challenge, and it is science at its hardest, Marks said.

It sounded more like black magic to Dr. Arnold Monto, the chair of the vaccine advisory committee. Were being asked, essentially, to have a crystal ball, he groused.

A version of this goes on twice a year, when the World Health Organization decides on the composition of the influenza vaccine for the coming flu season. Like the coronavirus, the flu virus changes from year to year, and experts take those changes into account when deciding which strains the flu shot should target.

They dont always come up with an accurate forecast and the consequences can be serious. During the 2014-15 season, bad guesses about the influenza A viruses expected to show up in North America diminished the shots effectiveness, contributing to 758,000 flu hospitalizations among the elderly and 148 deaths among children, my colleague Melissa Healy reports.

After the advisory committee adjourned its meeting, FDA officials announced their choice: New COVID-19 boosters should prime the immune system to recognize both the original coronavirus strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which share the same spike protein.

The choice has its detractors. Dr. Paul Offit, a committee member from the University of Pennsylvania, said there was insufficient evidence that redesigned boosters would prevent serious illnesses and death more effectively than the current versions, whose safety is well established. Exposing Americans to the risks of a tweaked vaccine is not OK when those benefits arent clear, he told Healy.

In the long run, the solution is to devise a vaccine that keeps working even as the coronavirus evolves. Ideally, a universal vaccine would target some part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that doesnt mutate the way the spike protein does, but thats a lot easier said than done.

Scientists around the world have been pursuing this goal for well over a year. One research group thats trying to make this happen announced last week that it was making plans to test its candidate vaccine in humans in a Phase I clinical trial.

The team members, from Caltech and Oxford University, created a nanoparticle adorned with pieces of SARS-CoV-2, along with seven related coronaviruses. Mice and monkeys inoculated with the vaccine were protected against a range of viruses, including ones that the shot hadnt introduced to their immune systems.

Weve had three pandemics or epidemics in the past 20 years: first SARS, then MERS, then SARS-CoV-2, Caltech biochemist Pamela Bjorkman told my colleague Corinne Purtill. More outbreaks sparked by spillover events are inevitable, she said, and we want to protect now against the future spillover.

California cases and deaths as of 6:10 p.m. on Tuesday:

Track Californias coronavirus spread and vaccination efforts including the latest numbers and how they break down with our graphics.

Amid all the talk about Paxlovid, molnupiravir and monoclonal antibodies, theres one COVID-19 remedy that doesnt get the respect it deserves.

Its safe, free and abundant to those who are willing to take advantage of its healing properties.

Im talking about rest.

Doctors told my colleague Emily Alpert Reyes they were dismayed to see so many COVID-19 patients discount or dismiss their need to rest.

Sleep equals immunity, said Dr. Susan Cheng, a cardiologist and researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. You want to have your immune system not distracted by anything else while its trying to rid your body of the coronavirus. That includes distractions caused by work.

You really want your body to recover, she added. Give it as much rest as possible, to recover as fully as possible.

Lest you dismiss Cheng as an outlier, listen to what Dr. Caitlin McAuley, a family medicine specialist at USCs Keck School of Medicine, had to say.

Getting adequate sleep lets the immune system rebalance, she said. In any acute illness and COVID especially we know that rest is important.

That definitely includes taking a break from work, she added: At a minimum, you really should unplug for three to five days.

And if youre still not convinced, heres some advice from Dr. Timothy Brewer, an infectious diseases specialist at UCLA.

Your body is pretty good at telling you what it needs, he said. So if youre feeling tired and youre sick with COVID, thats probably your body saying, Get back in bed.

Sometimes this is easier said than done. Many hourly workers cant afford to take time off because clocking in is the only way to get paid. Surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that roughly 1 in 10 workers had gone to their jobs after theyd been exposed to the coronavirus or had developed COVID-19 symptoms because they needed the money. People from households with less than $40,000 in annual income were far more likely than their higher-income peers to go to work after an exposure, by a margin of 29% to 6%.

Thats not necessarily unique to COVID-19. Researchers with the Shift Project at the Harvard Kennedy School reported that two-thirds of service workers said theyd worked while ill because they needed to hold on to their jobs. It wasnt just the income to be gained by powering through a few miserable shifts; it was the fear of being reprimanded or fired if they called in sick.

(This ought to be less of a problem in California thanks to a law that guarantees 80 hours of paid sick leave to workers trying to recover from COVID-19. The benefit is available to people who work in companies with at least 26 employees.)

White-collar employees are guilty of working while sick with COVID-19 too. Its tempting because the pandemic has made working from home a normal part of life.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies virtually during a Senate hearing on the federal response to COVID-19.

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

Dr. Anthony Fauci assured the nation that he would continue working from his Washington, D.C., home when he contracted a mild case of COVID-19 last month. The following week, while still isolated at home, he donned a suit jacket and tie to join a Senate hearing on the governments pandemic response via video.

He wasnt the only government official to prioritize work over rest. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg pledged to work remotely when he came down with COVID-19. San Francisco Mayor London Breed conducted meetings from home when she tested positive. And when a spokesman for Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Sunday night that his boss had a mild case of COVID-19, he said the majority leader would continue with his robust schedule and remain in near constant contact with his colleagues.

Workaholics like these are setting a bad example by encouraging others to think, If I have the virus, I can just push through it, said David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York.

If you must work while sick, its infinitely better to work from home. But youd be much better off not working at all. Mental exertion uses energy, and even a partial workload can strain your immune system and hamper your recovery.

It might even make you sicker. Cheng pointed to studies of mice that were infected with run-of-the-mill viruses. Some were forced to swim; others were not. The swimmers fared much worse than their counterparts who were able to rest.

See the latest on Californias vaccination progress with our tracker.

As noted earlier, BA.5 is the big fish in the pond right now. People who managed to dodge the coronavirus before are getting caught in its clutches. The experts who track everything COVID are piecing together a picture of why this subvariant has, ahem, gone viral.

One reason is that the BA.5 strain is able to produce far more copies of itself than its predecessors. And it looks like its able to do that because its much more effective at getting inside of cells. Thats a key advantage, because once inside, it hijacks the cells machinery to pump out copies of itself. Those copies then go on to infect new cells.

This cycle may help explain why this version of the virus has caused a lot of trouble, more than other Omicron subvariants, Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, explained in a blog post.

Another factor is the speed with which new strains overtake older ones. Back in the day, variants like Alpha and Delta climbed to the top of the CDCs Nowcast chart and stayed there for weeks or months. But in the 14 weeks represented in the chart right now, three distinct strains BA.2, BA.2.12.1 and BA.5 have all been dominant, with BA.5 rising the fastest.

With such rapid turnover, the immunity gained by an infection has a shorter shelf life. People whove been infected can be reinfected sooner. And many have been.

California reported about 10,400 coronavirus reinfections per week between mid-May and mid-June, a period when BA.5 and its close cousin BA.4 began circulating widely. For the sake of comparison, the state had about 2,300 weekly reinfections between early March and early May.

Overall, California had 278 official cases per 100,000 residents in the week that ended Thursday. Thats down more than 10% from the prior week, but reporting delays over the long Fourth of July weekend might explain the drop.

In Los Angeles County, the official case rate is up to 323 per 100,000 residents per week. (Both figures are surely lowballs, since the results of at-home tests arent always reported to health officials.)

More ominously, statewide hospitalizations of coronavirus-positive patients hit 4,277 Tuesday, the highest single-day total since late February. In L.A. County, the coronavirus-positive patient census was 1,153 as of Tuesday, up 54.4% in the past two weeks. The county is averaging 13 deaths per day over the past week nearly double the rate from two weeks ago.

L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said it looks like well once again have a high COVID-19 community level by the end of the month. The statistic thats likely to seal our fate is the number of new coronavirus-positive patients admitted to county hospitals. Right now, the CDC says that number is 9.7 patients per 100,000 residents per week. Thats only slightly below the threshold of 10 patients per 100,000 per week.

However, Ferrer said the CDC combines hospitalization numbers for L.A. and Orange counties, and if you break them apart, you see that the actual figure in the O.C. is around 13, while the one for L.A. is 8.4. Given the discrepancy, Ferrer said she would use the countys statistics to determine when L.A. has a high COVID-19 community level.

After that happens, if L.A. County remains in the high zone for two consecutive weeks, the indoor mask mandate will return, Ferrer said.

Masks are required at Malibu City Hall after four of the 85 people who work there became infected in the span of two weeks. Those infections qualified as a worksite case cluster, which prompted county health officials to impose a mask rule. It will remain in effect until at least two weeks after the last case.

A spokesman for Malibu said none of the infected people caught the coronavirus at work, nor did they spread it to coworkers.

With so many Americans coming down with COVID-19, the FDA announced a new policy last week thats intended to make it easier to get a prescription for Paxlovid. Now pharmacists can prescribe the antiviral pill, which was previously available only from a doctor.

Since Paxlovid must be taken within five days after symptoms begin, authorizing state-licensed pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid could expand access to timely treatment, said FDA drug center director Patrizia Cavazzoni.

In the early months of the pandemic, before there were COVID-specific medications, doctors frequently prescribed antibiotics to hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Antibiotics dont treat viral infections, but the hope was that they would ward off bacterial infections that might hinder a patients recovery.

A new report from the CDC suggests that practice might have fueled a 15% increase in drug-resistant superbug infections in 2020. Prior to the pandemic, superbug infections had been on the decline, and deaths fell 18% between 2012 and 2017.

Antibiotic use dropped in 2021, and CDC experts expressed hope that when the data come in, theyll see that the number of superbug infections followed suit.

And finally, a new version of Omicron has emerged in India, and scientists are concerned that its rapid growth and quick spread to other countries could make it the successor to BA.5.

The new subvariant, BA.2.75, appears able to dodge immunity from vaccines and past infections, just like its Omicron cousins. Its too soon to say whether it makes people sicker.

At least three cases involving BA.2.75 have been identified in the U.S., including two on the West Coast.

Its still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions, said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase.

Todays question comes from readers who want to know: How can I protect myself against the super-contagious BA.5 subvariant?

Compared to other versions of the coronavirus and even other versions of Omicron BA.5 seems particularly difficult to evade. Its spike protein has changed enough that prior coronavirus infections dont offer much in the immunity department, which explains why so many people are experiencing back-to-back illnesses.

COVID-19 vaccines are also less effective at blocking infections with BA.5, though theyre holding up when it comes to preventing severe illness and death.

BA.5 is a different beast, Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of UC San Franciscos Department of Medicine, wrote on Twitter last week.

The virus might be different, but the measures you can take against it are the same as for other versions of SARS-CoV-2.

Get vaccinated and boosted. Staying up-to-date on your vaccinations is essential, especially considering evidence that being fully vaccinated but not boosted offers little protection against Omicron strains. Only 58% of Californians who completed their primary vaccination series have received their first booster shot, according to the state Department of Public Health. Nationwide, just 48% of Americans eligible for their first booster have received it.

Wear a mask. Face coverings are required in Los Angeles County if youre on a bus, train, ride-share vehicle or other form of public transit. The same goes for transportation hubs like airports and train stations. For now, mask use is voluntary in most other settings statewide, but if you opt to wear one, itll be easier to keep BA.5 out of your airways. Bonus: Youll be protecting the people around you too. Your best bet is a high-quality mask with a good seal around your nose and mouth.

Be careful at gatherings. If your summer just isnt complete without barbecues and beach outings, there are things you can do to minimize your risk. Spending time outdoors is safer than being indoors. If you do go inside, wear a mask and make sure the space is well ventilated by opening doors and windows. Avoid dining indoors since you cant eat with your mask on. Asking everyone to take a rapid coronavirus test before your gathering will make it less likely to become a superspreader event.

We want to hear from you. Email us your coronavirus questions, and well do our best to answer them. Wondering if your questions already been answered? Check out our archive here.

(Julia Nikhinson / Associated Press)

This is not a scene from a mass wedding of Moonies. The folks in the photo above were part of a do-over for couples whose marriage ceremonies became casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Five hundred couples took part in the multicultural event Sunday at New York Citys Lincoln Center. The weddings werent legally binding, but they did feature bouquets, a procession, music, dancing and kissing just like the real thing.

A reverend, an imam and a rabbi offered words of inspiration, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams addressed the happy couples. The hourlong ceremony ended with a unity ritual. Then the group reception got underway. It was a symbolic second chance to reclaim what the coronavirus had taken.

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Originally posted here:

Coronavirus Today: Will an Omicron vaccine prevent another winter surge? - Los Angeles Times