Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

The Center of Excellence for Emerging Threats (CEVT) at LSU Health Shreveport continues to offerCOVID-19 vaccinations at the North Campussite located at 2627 Linwood Avenue, Monday Friday, 10 a.m. 6 p.m.

All vaccinations take place without an individual needing to leave the vehicle.No appointments are needed for vaccinations.It is recommended that individuals who received their first and second dose of the vaccine from a non-LSUHS location should pre-register for a booster dose appointment atwww.lsuhs.edu/covid19/vaccine.Individuals should provide ID and insurance information when they arrive at any LSUHS vaccine distribution site. Those that are without insurance are still eligible to receive the vaccine.

COVID-19 TESTING REMINDER:COVID-19 testing is no longer available at the North Campus site as of Tuesday, April 19. Testing is still available at many pharmacies, primary care facilities, health units, and urgent care facilities. For a list of COVID-19 testing sites in your area, visitldh.la.gov/coronavirus.

MAY 2022 LSUHS COVID-19VACCINATIONSITES

LSU Health Shreveport vaccination sites will beCLOSEDonMonday, May 30in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Vaccination sites will resume all regularly scheduled operation on Tuesday, May 31.

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LSU Health Shreveport COVID-19 Vaccination Schedule Thru May 20 - Bossier Press-Tribune Online

Study shows that 10% of minorities refused COVID-19 vaccines because of past racial discrimination experiences

One in ten people from ethnic minority groups who refused a vaccine experienced racial discrimination in a medical setting since the start of the pandemic. They also experienced twice as many incidents of racial discrimination compared to those who were vaccinated, according to a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The study authors said that this illustrates how the effects of racial discrimination creates low confidence in the health system to handle the pandemic, which led to vaccine refusal.

The study participants included 633 adults belonging to ethnic minority groups who were offered a COVID-19 vaccine between December 2020 and June 2021. 6.69% of participants who had refused the vaccine reported they had experienced poorer service or treatment than other people in a medical setting because of their race or ethnicity.

The researchers said that the findings underscore how government agencies must work to regain trust from ethnic minority groups to increase vaccination rates among these diverse groups. Public health campaigns to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates should not only focus on building trust in the vaccines, but also to prevent racial and ethnic discrimination and support people who have experienced it.

They also pointed out that failure to tackle racial discrimination would lead to a widening of systemic inequalities putting more ethnic minority lives at risk.

This article was originally published by sister publication Medical Economics.

Read more:

The relationship betweem racism in health care and vaccine hesitancy in minority groups - Contemporary Pediatrics

The BA.2.12.1 variant of COVID-19 makes up about 37% of new coronavirus cases across the country, according to the latest data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

The growth of BA.2.12.1 and other variants is to be expected, health experts said.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is constantly changing and accumulating mutations in its genetic code over time. New variants of SARS-CoV-2 are expected to continue to emerge. Some variants will emerge and disappear, while others will emerge and continue to spread and may replace previous variants, the CDC said.

BA.2.12.1 is a descendant of the BA.2 virus, a subvariant of the omicron strain of COVID. BA.2.12.1 has the ability transmit easier than its predecessors and experts said it could become the dominant strain of COVID-19 within a few weeks.

READ MORE:

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CDC tracked phones to see if Americans followed COVID lockdowns

What are symptoms of BA.2.12.1?

Like the previous BA.2 variant, BA.2.12.1 most often presents with upper respiratory symptoms similar to that of the flu. Original COVID-19 symptoms include:

The omicron variant most often presented with sneezing, coughing and sore throat. Additional symptoms from BA.2 include fatigue and dizziness.

.The best way to lessen the effects of COVID and its variants is vaccinations, experts said.

Breakthrough infections in people who are vaccinated are expected, but being up to date on recommended vaccines is effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death. The emergence of the Omicron variant further emphasizes the importance of vaccination and boosters, the CDC said.

See the original post:

BA.2.12.1 COVID variant: Here are the symptoms to look out for - AL.com

Online articles shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media claim the global outbreak of severe hepatitis in children is linked to Covid-19 vaccines, citing an April 2022 study as evidence. But health authorities and independent experts dismissed the idea that the shots are to blame, saying most of those affected were too young to be vaccinated and that the study refers to the case of an adult with a different type of hepatitis.

"New Study confirming COVID Vaccine causes Severe Autoimmune-Hepatitis is published days after W.H.O issued Global Alert about new Severe Hepatitis among Children," says the headline of an April 28, 2022 article from The Expose, a website with a history of circulating inaccurate health information.

The story cites a case study of a 52-year-old male who developed autoimmune hepatitis following Covid-19 infection and vaccination, then says: "The findings come just days after the World Health Organization issued a 'global alert' about a new form of severe hepatitis affecting children."

Screenshot of an online article taken on May 5, 2022

A severe hepatitis strain of unknown origin has been identified in nearly 230 children in 20 countries, including three in Indonesia who died from the condition.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a notice on the topic April 23, which dismissed the hypothesis that the illness could be a side effect from Covid-19 vaccines because "the vast majority of affected children did not receive Covid-19 vaccination."

The organization told AFP: "There is nothing to suggest a link."

UK health authorities also alerted the public to an increase in hepatitis cases in children, describing a "sudden onset" that had been identified since January 2022.

A Public Health England spokesperson said: "There is no link to the coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine. None of the currently confirmed cases in under-10-year-olds in the UK is known to have been vaccinated."

Story continues

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a health advisory "to notify clinicians and public health authorities about a cluster of children identified with hepatitis and adenovirus infection."

Nine young children from Alabama affected by hepatitis all tested positive for a common pathogen called adenovirus 41, a study from the health agency released on April 29 said.

"At this time, we believe adenovirus may be the cause for these reported cases, but other potential environmental and situational factors are still being investigated," the CDC said in a statement accompanying the study.

Regarding claims that the cases are connected to Covid-19 vaccination, CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said: "The ages for the cases ranged from 11 months to five years and 9 months, most of which are not eligible for a Covid-19 vaccination."

Everyone five years of age and older is currently eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States.

A similar claim appeared on The Gateway Pundit, another website that has repeatedly spread inaccurate information.

"Madrid's Deputy Minister for Public Health Claims Cases of Hepatitis on Young Kids are 'Related to Covid-19 Vaccine'" says the headline of the April 27 article on the site.

Screenshot of an online article taken on May 5, 2022

A Spanish health agency spokesperson clarified that Deputy Minister Antonio Zapatero had actually said the opposite, and referred to a media report that said Covid-19 vaccines had been ruled out as a cause for the pediatric hepatitis cases.

Sara Hassan, a pediatric transplant hepatologist with Mayo Clinic Children's Center, said the illness in young children being flagged by health agencies is different from the one described in the study used as evidence for the claim.

"This study was performed on an adult trying to link Covid-19 vaccines and autoimmune hepatitis, which is a distinct separate entity" from the hepatitis impacting children, she said.

Rima Fawaz, medical director of pediatric hepatology at Yale University School of Medicine, said the acute severe hepatitis reported in children is thought to be infectious, while autoimmune hepatitis -- experienced by the man in the study -- is not.

Autoimmune hepatitis is "an immune dysregulation, where your body has an abnormal response and you attack your liver," and is treated by suppressing the immune system, she explained.

By contrast, the sick children are presenting with infectious symptoms such as fever, and receive different treatment, Fawaz said.

She concluded that evidence does not support the idea that the pediatric hepatitis case spike is connected to Covid-19 vaccines. "To say this is related to Covid vaccination doesn't make any sense," Fawaz said.

Infectious diseases expert John Swartzberg agreed, saying that the outbreak of hepatitis among children and the one case of autoimmune hepatitis found in a man who was vaccinated against Covid-19 are "completely unrelated" and "have nothing to do with each other."

Swartzberg, an emeritus professor at UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said that the case of autoimmune hepatitis following Covid-19 vaccination reported in the study should "absolutely not" deter people from getting the shots.

"The risks of getting Covid... far, far, exceed the risks of getting the vaccine based upon any of the complications we've seen for the vaccine," he said.

AFP has debunked hundreds of other examples of inaccurate information about Covid-19 here.

Go here to read the rest:

Hepatitis outbreak in children misleadingly linked to Covid-19 vaccination - Yahoo News

A longitudinal study among a Polish sample has uncovered a consistent, bidirectional relationship between prosociality and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Toward the end of the study period, conspiracy mentality and right-wing authoritarianism emerged as negative predictors of willingness to receive the vaccine. The findings were published in the journalPersonality and Individual Differences.

Although COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered to billions of people around the world, a significant portion of the population remains wary of their safety and effectiveness. As COVID-19 variants continue to emerge, scientists say this distrust of vaccines presents a serious public health problem.

Study authors Tomasz Oleksy and team opted to conduct a longitudinal study to explore predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Contrary to most previous studies, the analysis would allow researchers to explore causality by observing how different variables change across different time points. The study focused on Polish individuals, a population with particularly low confidence in vaccines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has required various preventive measures, ranging from individual efforts, such as maintaining social distance and wearing masks, to complex collective policies, such as lockdowns, said Oleksy. While many of these measures are proven to be effective in slowing down the spread of the disease, increasing COVID-19 vaccination coverage remains the most effective way to achieve control of the pandemic. However, anti-vaccine movements are growing worldwide and considered one of the greatest threats to public health.

We were interested in testing what were social predictors of vaccine hesitancy (e.g. lack of prosocial motivation, authoritarianism and conspiracy thinking). Knowing what predicts anti-vaccine attitudes we can plan interventions that may help increase willingness to vaccinate.

A representative sample of 1,130 Polish people completed an initial online survey roughly two months after the first COVID-19 case in Poland, between May 4 and 7, 2020. Participants were then invited to retake the survey at three additional time points: between June 4 and 17, 2020, between July 7 and 17, 2020, and between December 3 and 22, 2020. Notably, COVID-19 vaccines were not yet available during the study period, although the Polish government was beginning to create a vaccination plan during the final time point.

The surveys assessed willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine with the question, If there was a possibility to get vaccinated against the coronavirus now, would you do it?. There was also a measure of prosociality, which included items related to the pandemic like, I have helped those around me to deal with the difficulties and obstacles associated with the pandemic. Conspiracy mentality and right-wing authoritarianism were also assessed.

The researchers used an approach called a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to see how changes in a persons typical level of one variable would predict future changes in other variables. The analysis revealed a consistent, positive within-subject association between prosociality and willingness to get vaccinated at every wave.

For the first three waves, this association was bidirectional, meaning that increases in a persons level of prosociality were followed by increases in their willingness to be vaccinated and vice versa. At the fourth wave, the relationship was only significant in one direction willingness to receive the vaccine positively predicted prosociality.

From the third to the fourth wave, right-wing authoritarianism negatively predicted willingness to get the vaccine. This may reflect the relation between right-wing authoritarianism a construct that involves submission to authority and the endorsement of traditional values and conservatism, which is linked to vaccine skepticism. Also from the third to fourth wave, conspiracy mentality negatively predicted willingness to get vaccinated. This may reflect the growing circulation of conspiracy theories at this time.

In general, willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine decreased over time. The researchers suggested that fears about the vaccine may have increased as the prospect of getting vaccinated became more real. People may have also grown fearful and uncertain due to the speed with which the vaccines were developed and the increasing amount of misinformation online.

As the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate, scientists say encouraging people to take booster doses will be important. Eliciting prosocial motivation to vaccinate can be vital in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, Oleksy told PsyPost. Appealing to prosocial motivations can also more efficiently combat vaccine hesitancy than appealing to social norms or authorities as our research shows that there was no evidence of a direct relationship between submission to authorities and vaccination intention.

But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. Our study was limited to only one country, it is worth comparing these results with reports from other countries even though the pandemic situation in most European countries was, to some extent, similar, Oleksy said. And actual behavior, not only declarative opinions should be measured in future studies.

The study, Barriers and facilitators of willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19: Role of prosociality, authoritarianism and conspiracy mentality. A four-wave longitudinal study, was authored by Tomasz Oleksy, Anna Wnuk, Magorzata Gambin, Agnieszka y, Kamilla Bargiel-Matusiewicz, and Ewa Pisula.

More:

Longitudinal study finds that prosociality is consistently associated with greater willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine - PsyPost

CHARLESTON, WV Gov. Jim Justice and members of the West Virginia COVID-19 pandemic response leadership team held another news briefing today to update the public on the states latest pandemic response and vaccine distribution efforts. OVER 6,400 WEST VIRGINIANS GET FIRST DOSE WITHIN PAST MONTHDuring Fridays briefing, Gov. Justice and West Virginia Joint Interagency Task Force on Director Jim Hoyer announced that 6,481 West Virginians opted to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine just within the past month.

These people took time to get educated on the value of the vaccine and they went out and got it, Hoyer said. Its a big reason why the Governor continues to press his efforts to educate people.

Its never too late to make a decision that could save your life, Gov. Justice said. Out of these thousands of people, who knows how many lives we might save. It could be one. It could be 60. But what we do know is that every life is worth saving.

Second booster shots have now been authorized by the FDA and recommended by the CDCfor those ages 50 and over who are also at least four months removed from their first booster dose, as well as certain younger immunocompromised individuals ages 12 and older.

All West Virginians who qualify can immediately get this dose anywhere vaccines are available.

The states newCOVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculatorhas been updated to determine whether people are eligible for a second booster dose.

Read more about vaccines at Vaccinate.wv.govand atCDC.gov.

COVID-19 Dashboard | Coronavirus.wv.gov

An updatedbreakdown of the West Virginia County Alert Map is as follows:Red (0)|Orange (0)|Gold (0)|Yellow (7)|Green (48)

The main threat will be possible isolated flash flooding due to heavy downpours or steady rain, with storms forecast for much of the state today and throughout the weekend.

The Governors declaration directs the State Emergency Operations Center and its partner agencies to prepare to respond ahead of this significant rainfall event, posturing personnel and resources to mobilize a response to any emergency that may develop.

We expect there to be the possibility of flooding in some areas, so I urge everyone to be really, really careful, Gov. Justice said.

Click here to read more

In January, Gov. Justice announced that Nucor would be investing $2.7 billion into this state-of-the-art sheet steel mill making it the largest in West Virginia history, as well as the largest single investment Nucor has ever made.

This incredible facility is going to bring an unbelievable amount of jobs and goodness to our state, so Im excited that we were able to get this process done quickly, Gov. Justice said. We dont have to be like every other state in the country where it takes forever and a day to get anything done. We get stuff done in West Virginia and we do it right.

I thank all those at Nucor for working with our DEP, and I thank our DEP for working diligently and thoroughly to get this done.

The interchange would serve the new Morgantown Industrial Park and other businesses and homes in the Harmony Grove area of Monongalia County, just south of Westover.

I really believe we can get this done. It will only make things better, Gov. Justice said. We know that Morgantown is growing like crazy and it is the perfect area for us to build more and more opportunities, so Im fully supportive of this project.

Click here to read more

Veloxint expects to create 200-300 new jobs over the next four years at its new location. Positions will include research engineers, laboratory technicians, metallurgists, and machinists.

This company is doing so many high-tech things, its off the chart, and its all happening in West Virginia, Gov. Justice said. It sounds like a Silicon Valley project, but its happening in West Virginia, because companies like Veloxint are seeing how business friendly we are and how we are the diamond in the rough that everybody missed.

Click here to read more

West Virginia University at Parkersburg (WVUP) and Chemours developed the new incumbent worker training program to provide associate degrees for hourly employees at the Wood County site of Chemours. The initiative will provide the opportunity for workers to earn a degree in four industry-driven areas: Production Technician, Area Maintenance Technician, Electrical and Instrumentation Maintenance Technician, and Lab Technician.

The program curriculum is inclusive of and responsive to employer-identified needs and real-life workplace scenarios. Program participants will complete courses each semester while working full-time. Participants will receive a pay increase upon successfully completing the program.

I thank companies like Chemours who are willing to step up and do more goodness for the communities where they operate, Gov. Justice said. This program is going to make their workers better-trained. Its a great partnership for all involved.

Click here to read more

Upgrades at Pipestem include nearly $4.4 million in renovations to the parks two lodges, cabin upgrades, and more than $3.6 million in infrastructure improvements to the parks tram, wastewater treatment plant, and campground waterline.

The updates are truly spectacular, Gov. Justice said. Some of the views from the rooms in the renovated lodge are beyond all comparison.

Click here to read more

These upgrades represent a small portion of $151 million in improvement projects that have been completed or started at every state park and forest in West Virginia since Gov. Justice took office.

Weve invested in our parks and weve already gotten a return on our investment multiple times over because our parks are slammed with people that want to see what West Virginia has to offer,, Gov. Justice said. And not only that, but many of those people are spending their dollars here or even deciding to move here. The ripple effects are off the charts because we are changing our image.

Read the rest here:

COVID-19 UPDATE: Over 6,400 West Virginians have received their first vaccine dose within the past month - Governor Jim Justice

International travel with no restrictions: A country-by-country guide to where you can travel with no COVID-19 test required

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UPDATED: A country-by-country guide to where you can travel with no COVID-19 test and/or vaccine required - The Points Guy

What do available data tell us about COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against infection, hospitalization, and death, including during the emergence of new variants like Omicron?

All available data show that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines continue to meet their primary goal: prevention of severe outcomes from COVID-19, including hospitalization and death, among children and adults. Protection against severe disease is highest in those who receive a booster dose.[1,2,3]

Although the level of protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection after COVID-19 vaccination has declined in all ages with the emergence of the Omicron variant, vaccination still reduces the risk for infection and COVID-19associated hospitalization and death, especially among people who receive a booster dose.

CDC uses a multilayered approach to understand how well COVID-19 vaccines work in the real world. This approach includes ongoing analyses of surveillance data and studies of vaccine effectiveness. Surveillance data allow us to monitor rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths by vaccination status. This information can signal potential changes in vaccine effectiveness that can be further studied through more robust, controlled vaccine effectiveness studies conducted by CDC or our partners. These studies provide vaccine effectiveness estimates that help us better understand how well the vaccines work in different groups of people, against different outcomes, and different variants.

CDC uses the following platforms and methods to collect and analyze surveillance data on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths by vaccination status:

Case surveillance: CDC collaborates with 30 public health jurisdictions that actively link immunization registry and case surveillance data to monitor rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths by vaccination status, including receipt of a booster dose.

COVID-NET: CDC tracks COVID-19 hospitalizations by vaccination status using COVID-NET. COVID-NET is a population-based, sentinel surveillance system that collects reports of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19associated hospitalizations in 99 counties in 14 states.

National Healthcare Safety Network: Infections in long-term care facility residents by vaccination status are reported through a network of approximately 15,000 medical facilities called the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

Vaccine effectiveness studies build on surveillance data by collecting extra information on cases (eg, individuals with COVID-19) and controls (eg, individuals without COVID-19) in more defined settings, such as specific hospitals, allowing for comparisons of these groups. Information such as a history of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and underlying conditions (eg, cancer, diabetes) collected as part of these studies helps CDC gain more precise estimates and a better understanding of how well vaccines are working. Vaccines were initially prioritized for healthcare providers who were at higher risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2, as well as older adults. Vaccine effectiveness studies allow us to compare differences among people who are vaccinated and those who are not vaccinated to ensure we account for how differences such as age or risk for exposure affect, or bias, estimates of vaccine effectiveness. This is why we often present vaccine effectiveness data by age group or by specific populations, such as healthcare personnel.

CDC works with partners to study COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness using several data collection platforms and study designs. Vaccine effectiveness studies vary on the basis of outcome (eg, infection, hospitalization), population (eg, focusing on residents of long-term care facilities), and study design. For example, CDC partners with the VISION Network, which includes 306 emergency department and urgent care clinics and 164 hospitals in 10 states, to study how well vaccines protect against COVID-19associated emergency department/urgent care visits and hospitalizations in children and adults. Another study platform, Overcoming COVID, monitors vaccine effectiveness in children aged 18 years or younger who are hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19. Results from these ongoing studies are regularly published in CDC's MMWR , as well as other scientific journals.[4] The Overcoming COVID platform can also evaluate vaccine effectiveness in children younger than 5 years, should COVID-19 vaccines become available for this younger age group.

For more information on the current and planned vaccine effectiveness studies that CDC is currently conducting with partners, visit COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Research.

CDC uses multiple important sources for data. No single study or surveillance system can provide all the information needed to understand how well COVID-19 vaccines work in real-world conditions over time, which is why this multilayered approach is so important.

CDC's multijurisdictional surveillance data, which tracks rates of COVID-19 cases and associated deaths by vaccination status, is extensive, covering more than 65% of the US population. The volume of this data allows for analysis of outcomes over time, such as COVID-19associated deaths. However, although these data signal potential changes in vaccine effectiveness, they cannot control for all factors that may affect the rates being tracked for example, prior infection.

Conversely, the smaller study populations included in vaccine effectiveness studies allow us to control for some of these variables. However, sometimes the small number of outcomes observed within certain age and vaccination categories reduce the precision of vaccine effectiveness estimates. Although this isn't ideal from a data analysis standpoint, it can sometimes be a good thing from a public health perspective. For example, when there are so few hospitalizations among vaccinated children in a study population that researchers can't calculate statistically significant vaccine effectiveness estimates, we can take that as an indication that these vaccines are likely succeeding at what they were designed to do keeping children from getting sick enough to need hospitalization.

CDC's multilayered approach to monitoring has also allowed us to quickly identify how different variants affect vaccine effectiveness, including during the Omicron wave. Researchers can stratify analyses by variant period, allowing CDC to compare vaccine effectiveness estimates or rates of cases and hospitalizations by vaccination status during different variant periods. Some vaccine effectiveness studies have also used whole-genome sequencing to confirm which variants are associated with the different COVID-19 outcomes being studied.

Studies show that, in general, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) provide higher levels of protection against all outcomes than the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.[5] Although analyses of jurisdictional surveillance data may appear to suggest that protection has recently increased among people who received the Janssen vaccine to similar levels as in those who received an mRNA vaccine, many Janssen vaccine recipients have received a booster dose of an mRNA vaccine or have received additional protection through infection with COVID-19 which could potentially bias surveillance results.

A separate vaccine effectiveness study[5] found that people who received the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine as both their first dose and booster dose had lower levels of protection against COVID-19associated emergency department and urgent care visits during Omicron compared with those who received an mRNA booster dose. In addition, people who received an mRNA primary series and booster had the most protection against COVID-19associated hospitalization.

CDC recommends mRNA COVID-19 vaccines over the Janssen vaccine for primary and booster vaccination for all eligible people in most situations. However, offering the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine is preferable to not providing any COVID-19 vaccine.

At this point, most of your patients have either heard about or experienced SARS-CoV-2 "breakthrough" infections with the highly contagious Omicron variant, which can understandably weaken confidence in the effectiveness of vaccination. Helping them understand the difference between preventing infection and preventing severe disease which can cause hospitalization and death is a good way to start to frame the conversation when people question vaccine effectiveness.

Although people frequently consult family members, friends, and webpages for information on vaccines, doctors are consistently ranked as the most trusted source for vaccine information. With this unique position, your strong recommendation is critical for patient education and vaccine acceptance.

COVID-19 vaccines are continuing to meet their primary goal: keeping people out of emergency rooms, hospitals, and intensive care units, as well as preventing death. Although people who are vaccinated may still get infected, they are much less likely to get severely ill compared with unvaccinated people.[6]

Make sure you and your eligible family members stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccines. Staying up-to-date protects you and your eligible children from severe outcomes related to COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.

It also helps your family and your community directly. Hospitals need to have the ability to treat and manage all kinds of diseases. If they are overwhelmed with patients with COVID-19, it can jeopardize healthcare for anyone who needs intensive care or has a medical emergency like a heart attack.

Boosters work. We know that, for adults, booster doses do exactly what it sounds like "boost" the immune system's protection against serious illness. We don't have enough data yet to know whether kids aged 5-11 years will need boosters, but as your healthcare provider, I encourage you and your family to stay up-to-date on your COVID-19 vaccines.

Vaccine and masking recommendations can change when we get new data, especially with a new disease like COVID-19 and when new variants arise. When CDC and scientists learn that people might need booster doses, or new variants emerge, they look very carefully at the data to make or change vaccine recommendations. I feel strongly that staying up-to-date on your COVID-19 vaccines, including getting boosters when they are recommended, is one of the best ways to protect you and your family from severe COVID-19.

CDC COVID Data Tracker: Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status

CDC COVID Data Tracker: Rates of Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations by Vaccination Status

CDC COVID Data Tracker: COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness

COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Case Investigation and Reporting

The Possibility of COVID-19 after Vaccination: Breakthrough Infections

Benefits of Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine

COVID-19 Vaccines Work

Original post:

What We Know About COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Against Variants - Medscape

MONDAY 5/2/2022, 1:53 p.m.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has reported 1,419,124 total positive coronavirus test results in the state and 12,884 total COVID-19 deaths.

The number of known cases per variant is no longer tracked as The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has updated its website, deleting that section.

Unable to view the tables below?Click here.

The DHS announced an attempt to verify and ensure statistics are accurate, some numbers may be subject to change. The DHS is combing through current and past data to ensure accuracy.

Wisconsins hospitals are reporting, that the 7-day moving average of COVID-19 patients hospitalized was 213 patients. Of those,29 are in an ICU. ICU patients made up 14.4%of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reports that 9,467,692 vaccine doses and 2,010,368 booster doses have been administered in Wisconsin as of May 2.

Unable to view the tables below?Click here.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is using a new module to measure COVID-19 activity levels. They are now using the Center for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) COVID-19 Community Levels. The map is measured by the impact of COVID-19 illness on health and health care systems in the communities.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports two counties in Wisconsin are experiencing high COVID-19 community levels. none of them are in northeast Wisconsin.

Five counties in Wisconsin are experiencing medium COVID-19 community levels, including Green Lake in northeast Wisconsin.

Every other county in Wisconsin is experiencing low COVID-19 community levels.

For more information on how the data is collected, visit the CDCs COVID-19 Community Levels data page.

Follow this link:

3.75M Wisconsinites have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine - WeAreGreenBay.com

It might not look like much a plastic box that fits in the hand, with tiny tubes jutting out the top and bottom. Too simple to be cutting edge. Too humble to save so many lives.

But for 20 years, researchers in Robert Prudhommes lab have fine-tuned this little box that has revolutionized drug manufacturing, enabling everything from mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines to malaria drugs. The life-saving molecules that treat those diseases are fragile, and they must survive an epic voyage from a lab bench, through the supply chain, into a blood cell. Encapsulation gives them a secure vehicle and a final heading. Its a delicate craft backed by complex mathematics, and over the arc of his career, Prudhomme has become a master craftsman.

From mRNA vaccines to antimalarial drugs, vast global health initiatives depend on nanoparticle technologies to deliver key molecules to target cells. For 20 years, Robert K. Prudhomme has led a team of Princeton University researchers in developing a simple way to formulate these medicines in a precise, scalable process called flash nanoprecipitation.

Produced by Orangebox Pictures and Princeton Universitys School of Engineering and Applied Science

In a 2003 paper, Prudhomme, professor of chemical and biological engineering, and Brian Johnson, a 2003 Ph.D. alumnus, described a technique called "flash nanoprecipitation" that mixes liquids to create precise solids perfectly sized, perfectly shaped, perfectly layered polymer grains, one million times smaller than a grain of table salt. To accomplish it, the researchers created a device called a confined impinging jet mixer that takes in two unlike liquids, mixes them in a flash of turbulent swirling, and pumps out a stream of bespoke nanoparticles. Each particle contains an active ingredient such as a drug molecule, a strand of RNA, or a protein wrapped in a package that delivers the payload to its target, whether blood cells, liver cells, or a metastasizing tumor.

The secret to this mixing, said Prudhomme, lies in empty space.

You need a confined volume where the turbulence can evolve, he said. Think of stirring cream into a coffee cup. That stretching, swirling process is how turbulence does the mixing.

Other methods either take the coffee cup analogy too literally, stirring the solutions in vessels, or use a T-shaped geometry to flow two streams together and sluice them out the bottom. The vessel approach limits production to single batches at a time and fails when applied to large volumes. The T-mixer gets clogged easily at both large and very small scales. Both approaches, while fine for research, produce inconsistent and unstable particles when used at large commercial scales.

The confined impinging jet mixer avoids the limitations of either approach to produce precision medicines at global scales. It allows the continuous flow of large volumes for long periods of time, while avoiding clogging by engineering a cavity where the two liquid jets strike each other in the middle of the open space, away from the walls. The particles form and drop out of the device in less than 50 milliseconds hence the "flash" in "flash nanoprecipitation."

The real innovation was in how to make small particles in large volumes, said Rodney Fox, a leading fluid-dynamics expert and professor at Iowa State University. Fox headed a team that later simulated the process in molecular detail and proved how it worked computationally. He said the rapid timing put Prudhommes technique in a class by itself. If mixing doesnt happen fast enough, particles clump together. But with flash nanoprecipitation, the complex particles form before they can clump. Prudhomme had figured out how to combine materials that normally refuse to combine: by mixing them so fast they dont have time to react otherwise.

What people had generally used to generate these types of particles were less sophisticated mixing systems, said Marian Gindy, a 2008 Ph.D. alumna and an executive at pharmaceutical giant Merck who worked with Prudhomme at Princeton. Where before you couldn't necessarily make the small molecule drugs and get them to stabilize in this nanoscale form, you now can. That tiny size is a big advantage when trying to get drugs to the right part of the body, she said.

The method has led to its widespread adoption. Since 2016, the Gates Foundation has sponsored workin the Prudhomme laboratory to produce low-cost and highly effective drugs for use in global health applications. They have demonstrated production of highly stable treatments for malaria, diarrhea and tuberculosis. One of the worlds largest contract research organizations, WuXi AppTec, is building a manufacturing capability based on this technology. Merck has also adopted for its work with RNA cancer therapies.

Mike McDermott, Pfizers chief of global supply, has described the impingement jet mixer as the heart of this whole machine producing the COVID-19 vaccine.

While scientists and engineers around the world have continued the development of this technology, it originated in Prudhommes lab, Fox said. Hes the father of this idea."

Carsten Losch, chief executive of KNAUER Wissenschaftliche Gerte GmbH, the Berlin-based company that encapsulated the COVID mRNA vaccines, said his firm had invested a lot of effort perfecting the devices to meet the exacting specifications of the pharmaceutical industry.

The basic research of Professor Prudhomme resulted years later in a technology that manufacturers of lipid nanoparticles use in a similar way today, Losch said.

Prudhomme also co-founded a startup company called Optimeoswith Shahram Hejazi, a lecturer at Princeton's Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. Optimeos focuses on bringing next-generation RNA-based therapies to market to treat cancer, diabetes and other fatal diseases using the technology developed in Prudhommes lab.

It is incredibly rewarding to be a part of the path from fundamental academic research to major advances in public health, Prud'homme said.

Editors note: This article first appeared on pages 10-11 of the Spring 2022 E-Quad News

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Our COVID-19 vaccines would not exist without this unsung Princeton technology - Princeton University