Category: Covid-19

More than 40 utilities statewide report a steady increase in coronavirus found in wastewater. Only three report a drop, according to the state's COVID-19 dashboard.

The increase is likely being driven by new circulating variants that have advantages over older strains, said state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy.

At this time of year when the weather gets really hot, people move indoors, she said, and we know that indoor environments do facilitate ready transmission of this virus.

The number of people now hospitalized with confirmed cases rose eight from 87 this week to 95. The number watched closely as a sign of a surge in illness in the broader community, has remained below 100 since mid-March. It dropped to 73 in mid-May but has risen since.

In addition to the number of hospitalizations, nearly all of the other COVID-19 gauges are headed up, according to a state website, including cases and the rate of positive cases.

In the most recent Colorado data, from May, more than 35 variants were circulating with the strains called JN and KP making up nearly half of variants detected through genome sequencing. Similar trends are being reported in national data, along with the emergence of a new variant, called LB.1, according to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They're just extremely transmissible. There's no evidence that they're more virulent at all, said Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor and expert in infectious diseases at UC Berkeley. So it's a more risky time for people at higher risk now than it was in April or even in May.

This summer COVID-19 cases have been rising in the U.S., with spikes in wastewater being reported elsewhere in Western states.

We're in a summer swell. I won't give it the title of a surge at this point, but we're in a summer swell coming off very low numbers, Swartzberg added. There's no question that the West in particular, which Colorado and California are both in, has some of the highest numbers in the country, a little bit New England too.

Herlihy disagrees about the semantics.

We do certainly appear to be in the middle of a summer COVID surge. This is not uncommon. Most summers since the pandemic began, we actually have seen a surge in infections occur, Herlihy said.

Whether you call it a summer swell or a summer surge, the increase is clear and echoes trends elsewhere in the U.S.

Last summer was actually an exception where Colorado really did not see a clear wave of COVID during the summer.

I think we're still trying to understand patterns, seasonality of this virus, but it does look like there is an increase occurring right now, Herlihy said.

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COVID-19 showing up in dozens of Colorado wastewater facilities as summer cases tick up - Colorado Public Radio

COVID-19 vaccination may help protect children aged 5 and older against symptomatic asthma, according to a Nemours Children's Healthledresearch team.

The team calculated state-level changes in parent-reported asthma symptoms for 2020 and 2021 compared with 2018 to 2019, evaluated state-level time trends, and linked trend associations with state-level variables from the same time.

The observational study used state data on parent-reported asthma symptom rates in children from the National Survey of Children's Health 2018-2019 and 2020-2021; age-adjusted COVID-19 death rates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2020 and 2021;percentage of the population aged 5 years and older who completed the COVID-19 primary vaccination series in 2020 or 2021; and indoor face-covering requirements through August 2021 from 20 states and Washington, DC.

"Social distancing measures in 2020 were associated with lower rates of emergency visits and hospitalizations for asthma among children," the researchers wrote. "Individual-level risk of COVID-19 infection was reduced with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 for adults and children in 2020 and 2021, and several states sustained other infection prevention efforts (eg, face mask requirements) into 2021."

The findings werepublished this week in JAMA Network Open.

Average state-level rates of parent-reported asthma symptoms decreased from 7.77% in 2018 to 2019 to 6.93% in 2020 to 2021. The absolute average change score was 0.85 percentage points.

The average age-adjusted state COVID-19 death rate was 80.3 per 100,000 people in 2020, rising to 99.3 per 100,000 in 2021. The average state COVID-19 primary vaccination series completion rate was 72.3% through December 2021.

Anything we can do to help kids avoid flare-ups is beneficial.

Linear regression showed that, with each increase of 10 percentage points in COVID-19 vaccination coverage, the prevalence of childhood asthma symptoms fell by 0.36 percentage points. The asthma symptom rate was not tied to state COVID-19 death rates or face-covering mandates. State COVID-19 vaccination rates were inversely correlated with state COVID-19 death rates in 2021 but not 2020 and were positively correlated with face-covering requirements.

"Whether asthma is mild or severe, it affects children's quality of life," lead author Matthew Davis, MD, said in a Nemoursnews release. "So anything we can do to help kids avoid flare-ups is beneficial."

"In this study, which is the first population-level parent-reported childhood asthma symptom prevalence and COVID-19 vaccination study we know of, we found that higher COVID-19 vaccination rates may confer protection against symptomatic asthma," the researchers wrote.

In addition to COVID-19, they said, vaccination may also protect against infection with other human coronaviruses through cross-reactive antibody responses.

"Community-level immunity in states with higher vaccination rates may have helped reduce children's asthma risk," they wrote. "In contrast, neither concurrent exposure to high population-level burden of COVID-19attributed disease nor sustained state-level face mask requirements were associated with concurrent trends in parent-reported symptomatic childhood asthma."

The authors cautioned that they couldn't assess differences in symptomatic asthma among vaccinated versus unvaccinated children because state data on COVID-19 vaccine uptake among children with a history of asthma were unavailable.

"Nonetheless, reduction in symptomatic asthma among children in 2020and overall individual-level COVID-19 mortality reduction with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2offer external support for our state-level findings," they concluded. "Moreover, the absence of association of COVID-19 vaccination (administered predominantly in 2021) with population-level COVID-19 mortality in 2020 serves as a negative control."

They added that the results should be further studied to determine whether asthma symptom rates in children could be driven down through continued efforts to improve COVID-19 vaccine coverage in this age-group.

Ongoing vaccination against COVID-19 may offer direct benefits for children with a history of asthma, but this must be confirmed with further research.

"Ongoing vaccination against COVID-19 may offer direct benefits for children with a history of asthma, but this must be confirmed with further research," coauthor Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD, of Endeavor Health in Evanston, Illinois, said in the release. "It also raises the question of whether broader population-level COVID-19 vaccination among children and adults can help protect children with asthma, too."

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Kids vaccinated against COVID may have lower rates of asthma symptoms - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

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COVID-19 vaccination is generally very safe, and except for extremely rare cases, there is no evidence that it contributes to death. Social media posts about a now-published, but faulty review of autopsy reports, however, are repeating an unfounded claim from last summer that 74% of sudden deaths are shown to be due to the COVID-19 vaccine.

How safe are the COVID-19 vaccines?

More thanhalf a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered in the U.S. and only a few, very rare, safety concerns have emerged. The vast majority of people experience only minor, temporary side effects such as pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, or muscle pain or no side effects at all. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, these vaccines have undergone and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history.

A small number of severe allergic reactions known as anaphylaxis, which are expected with any vaccine, have occurred with the authorized and approved COVID-19 vaccines. Fortunately, these reactions are rare, typically occur within minutes of inoculation and can be treated. Approximately 5 per million people vaccinated have experienced anaphylaxis after a COVID-19 vaccine, accordingto the CDC.

To make sure serious allergic reactions can be identified and treated, all people receiving a vaccine should be observed for 15 minutes after getting a shot, and anyone who has experienced anaphylaxis or had any kind of immediate allergic reaction to any vaccine or injection in the past should be monitored for a half hour. People who have had a serious allergic reaction to a previous dose or one of the vaccine ingredients should not be immunized. Also, those who shouldnt receive one type of COVID-19 vaccine should be monitored for 30 minutes after receiving a different type of vaccine.

There is evidence that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines may rarely cause inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) or of the surrounding lining (pericarditis), particularly in male adolescents and young adults.

Based on data collected through August 2021, the reporting rates of either condition in the U.S. are highest in males 16 to 17 years old after the second dose (105.9 cases per million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine), followed by 12- to 15-year-old males (70.7 cases per million). The rate for 18- to 24-year-old males was 52.4 cases and 56.3 cases per million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, respectively.

Health officials have emphasized that vaccine-related myocarditis and pericarditis cases are rare and the benefits of vaccination still outweigh the risks. Early evidence suggests these myocarditis cases are less severe than typical ones. The CDC has also noted that most patients who were treated responded well to medicine and rest and felt better quickly.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been linked to anincreased risk of rare blood clots combined with low levels of blood platelets, especially in women ages 30to 49. Early symptoms of the condition, which is known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS, can appear as late as three weeks after vaccination andincludesevere or persistent headaches or blurred vision, leg swelling, and easy bruising or tiny blood spots under the skin outside of the injection site.

According to the CDC, TTS has occurred in around 4 people per million doses administered. As of early April,the syndrome has been confirmed in 60 cases, including nine deaths, after more than 18.6 million doses of the J&J vaccine. Although TTS remains rare, because of the availability of mRNA vaccines, which are not associated with this serious side effect, the FDA on May 5 limited authorized use of the J&J vaccine to adults who either couldnt get one of the other authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines because of medical or access reasons, or only wanted a J&J vaccine for protection against the disease. Several months earlier, on Dec. 16, 2021,the CDC had recommended the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna shots over J&Js.

The J&J vaccine has also been linked to an increased risk of Guillain-Barr Syndrome, a rare disorder in which the immune system attacks nerve cells.Most peoplewho develop GBS fully recover, although some have permanent nerve damage and the condition can be fatal.

Safety surveillance data suggest that compared with the mRNA vaccines, which have not been linked to GBS, the J&J vaccine is associated with 15.5 additional GBS cases per million doses of vaccine in the three weeks following vaccination. Most reported cases following J&J vaccination have occurred in men 50 years old and older.

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Last July, an unpublished paperauthoredby several physicians known for spreading COVID-19 misinformationbrieflyappearedon a preprint server hosted by the prestigious British medical journal the Lancet.

The paperclaimedto have reviewed autopsy reports and found in the opinion of three of its authors that 73.9% of the selected deaths were directly due to or significantly contributed to by COVID-19 vaccination. Those conclusions, however, wereoften contraryto the original scientists determinations. Moreover, abundant evidence contradicts the suggestion that the COVID-19 vaccines are frequently killing people.

The preprint repository quicklyremovedthe manuscript because, it said, the studys conclusions are not supported by the study methodology, and indicated that the preprint had violated its screening criteria.

Social media soon flooded with posts highlighting the purported findings and alleging censorship, with many falsely stating that the paper had been published in the Lancet.

Multiplescientistsandfactcheckersdetailednumerous problems with the preprint and the resulting social media posts. As Dr. Jonathan Laxton, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Manitoba who frequently debunks misinformation online,wrote at the timeon Twitter, this is not a conspiracy, the paper was literally biased hot garbage and the Lancet was right to remove it.

Despite these efforts, the same claims are back this summer after the paper waspublishedin the journal Forensic Science International on June 21. Capitalizing on the papers now-published status,numerouspostsareonceagainspreading the reviews supposed findings and realleging censorship.

Largest autopsy series in the world. Censored by what was the most reputable peer reviewed journal, readsonepopular Instagram post. 74% of the 325 Suddenly Died Autopsies point the cause to the dart, it added, using coded language to refer to the COVID-19 vaccines.

Anotherpost, from Dr.Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopathic physician in Ohio known for her opposition to vaccines and her false claim that the COVID-19 vaccines magnetize people, also repeated the falsehood that the paper had been previously published in the Lancet.

Bottom line results: 74% of sudden deaths are shown to be due to the COVID-19 vaccine, the post went on to say. This paper is a game changer. Sadly, it was censored for ONE YEAR. Just think of all the lives that could have been saved.

As weve explainedbefore, publication in a peer reviewed journal does not necessarily mean a paper is accurate or trustworthy, although the process can improve manuscripts and weed out bad science. In this case, the published paper is highly similar to the previously criticized manuscript. Experts say its conclusions are unreliable and misleading.

The vast majority of these cases do not show a causal, but coincidental, effect, wrote Marc Veldhoen, an immunologist at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular Joo Lobo Antunes in Portugal, in a thread on X, addressing the papers central claim. This certainly does not apply to the general population!

When asked about the published paper, Dr. Cristina Cattaneo,co-editor-in-chiefof Forensic Science International, told us the journal was currently looking into the matter.

For their review, the authors searched the medical literature for published autopsy studies related to any kind of COVID-19 vaccination. After excluding duplicates and studies without deaths, autopsies, or vaccination status information, the authors were left with 44 studies comprising 325 autopsies. Three of the authors then reviewed the described cases and decided for themselves if the deaths were vaccine-related; if at least two agreed, the death was counted as being attributable to COVID-19 vaccination.

In the end, the authors thought 240, or nearly 74%, of the reviewed autopsies were vaccine-related (rounded to one decimal, 240 out of 325 is actually 73.8%, not 73.9% as reported in the paper). Among these deaths, 46.3% occurred after a Sinovac vaccine, 30.1% after a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, 14.6% after an AstraZeneca vaccine, 7.5% after a Moderna vaccine and 1.3% after a Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

As others havepointed outbefore, theres reason to suspect that the authors may have been biased in their determinations. All three adjudicators, including Dr.Peter McCullough, are well known for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. Dr. William Makis, a Canadian radiologist, haspreviously claimed, without evidence, that 80 Canadian doctors died from COVID-19 vaccines. The only pathologist, Dr. Roger Hodkinson, incorrectlyclaimedin 2020 that COVID-19 was a hoax and just a bad flu.

Hodkinson and McCullough, along with five other authors, are also affiliated with and have a financial interest in The Wellness Company, a supplement and telehealth company thatsells unproven treatments, including for purported protection against vaccines.

Perhaps most tellingly, the scientists who conducted many of the autopsy studies came to opposite conclusions than the review authors. Of the 240 cases, for example, 105 come from a singlepaperin Colombia, whose authors found [n]o relation between the cause of death and vaccination.

Similarly, the review authors counted 24 of 28 autopsies from astudyfrom Singapore as vaccine-related, even though the original authors identified no definite causative relationship to mRNA vaccines.

The authors of a Germanstudyalso attributed 13 of 18 autopsy deaths to preexisting diseases, but the review authors decided 16 cases were vaccine-related.

In aLinkedIn postdebunking the preprint, Dr.Mathijs Binkhorst, a Dutch pediatrician, went back to each cited paper, and found that of the 325 autopsies and one heart necropsy the review authors said were vaccine-related, only 31, or 9.5%, were likely related and 28, or 8.6%, were possibly related. The rest 267, or 81.9% were unlikely, uncertainly, or not related to vaccination.

In other words, even among a set of studies that is more likely to identify some vaccine involvement, less than a fifth of deaths were possibly or likely vaccine-related.

Even if the authors arent biased, this type of study is not able to provide information on how frequently COVID-19 vaccination leads to death, and whether the risks outweigh the benefits.

They only looked at published autopsy and necropsy reports relating to COVID-19 vaccination, Veldhoensaidof the published study on X. If you look only at autopsies of those related (in time) with drugX: X-involvement is then a high proportion of all cases.

Indeed, as Binkhorst noted, the autopsy reports come from 14 countries that collectively administered some 2.2 billion vaccine doses. If the COVID-19 vaccines truly were as dangerous as the review authors contend, this would be evident in other data sources but its not.

Vaccine safety surveillance systems and other studies from across the globe have found that serious side effects can occur, but they are rare.

The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, for example, can in very rare cases cause a dangerous and sometimes fatal blood clotting condition combined with low blood platelets.

Rarely, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have caused inflammation of the heart muscle or surrounding tissue, known as myocarditis or pericarditis. In almost all cases, however, those conditions are not deadly.

There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination increases the risk of death and has led to excess deaths or a large number of deaths. Instead, a wealth of data supports the notion that COVID-19 vaccines protect against severe disease and death from COVID-19. The flawed autopsy review doesnt change this.

Roley, Gwen. Misinformation swirls around unpublished paper on Covid-19 vaccine risks. AFP. 14 Jul 2023.

Hulscher, Nicolas et al. A Systematic REVIEW of Autopsy findings in deaths after covid-19 vaccination. Forensic Science International. Available online 21 Jun 2024.

Binkhorst, Mathijs. McCulloughs misinformation. LinkedIn post. Archived 4 Sep 2023.

Laxton, Jonathan (@dr_jon_l). McCullough et al attempted upload a preprint to the Lancet server, and it was removed because it was hot garbage. However, I feel going through this paper for you guys will help you spot dodgy science X. 6 Jul 2023.

Payne, Ed. Fact Check: A Lancet Study Does NOT Show COVID Vaccine Caused 74% Of Deaths In Sample Lancet Rejected Paper And Its Methods. Lead Stories. 7 Jul 2023.

Carballo-Carbajal, Iria. Flawed preprint based on autopsies inadequate to demonstrate that COVID-19 vaccines caused 74% of those deaths. Health Feedback. 31 Jul 2023.

Jaramillo, Catalina. Review Article By Misinformation Spreaders Misleads About mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines. FactCheck.org. 16 Feb 2024.

Veldhoen, Marc (@Marc_Veld). Does We found that 73.9% of deaths were directly due to or significantly contributed to by COVID-19 vaccination. Hold? No. The vast majority of these cases do not show a causal, but coincidental, effect. This certainly does not apply to the general population! X. 22 Jun 2024.

Cattaneo, Cristina. Co-Editor-in-Chief, Forensic Science International. Email to FactCheck.org. 26 Jun 2024.

No evidence that 80 Canadian doctors died from COVID vaccinations. Reuters Fact Check. 22 Dec 2022.

Lajka, Arijeta. Pathologist falsely claims COVID-19 is a hoax, no worse than the flu. AP. 2 Dec 2020.

Yandell, Kate. Posts Push Unproven Spike Protein Detoxification Regimen. FactCheck.org. 21 Sep 2023.

Chaves, Juan Jos et al. A postmortem study of patients vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia. Revista Espaola de Patologa. 31 Oct 2022.

Yeo, Audrey et al. Post COVID-19 vaccine deaths Singapores early experience. Forensic Science International. 19 Jan 2022.

Schneider, Julia et al. Postmortem investigation of fatalities following vaccination with COVID-19 vaccines. International Journal of Legal Medicine. 30 Sep 2021.

Yandell, Kate. Study Largely Confirms Known, Rare COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects. FactCheck.org. 27 Feb 2024.

Selected Adverse Events Reported after COVID-19 Vaccination. CDC. Accessed 5 Jul 2024.

COVID-19 vaccines: key facts. European Medicines Agency. Accessed 5 Jul 2024.

Robertson, Lori. A Guide to Johnson & Johnsons COVID-19 Vaccine. FactCheck.org. 27 Feb 2021.

Lai, Francisco Tsz Tsun et al. Prognosis of Myocarditis Developing After mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination Compared With Viral Myocarditis. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 5 Dec 2022.

Yandell, Kate. No Evidence Excess Deaths Linked to Vaccines, Contrary to Claims Online. FactCheck.org. 17 Apr 2023.

McDonald, Jessica. Flawed Analysis of New Zealand Data Doesnt Show COVID-19 Vaccines Killed Millions. FactCheck.org. 15 Dec 2023.

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Flawed Autopsy Review Revives Unsupported Claims of COVID-19 Vaccine Harm, Censorship - FactCheck.org

Gov. Hochul updates on COVID progress: Hospitalizations up from last year, down from 2022

Gov. Hochul updates on COVID progress: Hospitalizations up from last year, down from 2022 (FILE)

NEW YORK STATE (WRGB)

Governor Kathy Hochul provided New Yorkers an update on COVID-19 Saturday, as new variants contribute to increases in hospitalizations in parts of New York state and around the country.

With social gatherings increasing during summer months, and high temperatures forcing people indoors, Gov. Hochul reminds New Yorkers to get tested if they have symptoms, follow the usual precautions including current CDC guidance, stay current with COVID-19 vaccines and seek appropriate treatments if necessary.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are currently well above the rates seen at this time last year, but well below the rates seen during the same period in 2022.

To view current COVID guidance, see here.

New York State Department of Health continues to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 isolation guidance.

Most health insurance plans will cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccines, without the need for co-pays. Those who are uninsured, or whose insurance does not cover the updated vaccine, will have access to the shots free of charge through community health centers; local, tribal, or territorial health departments; and pharmacies participating in the HHS Bridge Access Program.

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Gov. Hochul updates on COVID progress: Hospitalizations up from last year, down from 2022 - CNYcentral.com

Lets do prevention before we get into a crisis, said Dr. Rhea Rowser, a Kettering Health primary care doctor. We know that the vaccine works.

The updated CDC recommendations for the COVID vaccine say everyone ages 6 months and older should receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine this fall. This simplifies the previous instructions from last fall that included different time tables and varying numbers of shots depending on when previous shots were received and the ages of the patients.

Updated COVID-19 vaccines will be available from Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer later this year, the CDC says. This recommendation will take effect as soon as the new vaccines are available.

In Montgomery County, 11.51% of the population got the most recent COVID vaccine, compared to 12.07% in Greene County and 9.54% in Clark County, according to data from the Ohio Department of Health. The county with the lowest percentage of residents who got the latest vaccine was Preble County with only 6.73%.

In Butler County, 9.75% of the population got the most recent COVID vaccine, and 11.87% of Warren County got the vaccine.

Nationwide in 2023, more than 916,300 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and more than 75,500 people died from COVID-19, the CDC says. During the 2023-2024 flu season, more than 44,900 people are estimated to have died from flu complications, also according to the CDC.

Our top recommendation for protecting yourself and your loved ones from respiratory illness is to get vaccinated, said CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen. Make a plan now for you and your family to get both updated flu and COVID vaccines this fall, ahead of the respiratory virus season.

COVID is continuing to spread now in Ohio, though doctors are not seeing the severity of symptoms from previous strains.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have even seen an increase of COVID in our office, Rowser said.

Patients would come in, suspecting a sinus infection, but they found it was actually COVID, she said.

The symptoms doctors are seeing are more related to sinuses, as well as body aches, headaches and congestion, she said.

Its looking more like the flu or an upper respiratory tract infection, so were not seeing the intense symptoms that we were seeing early on, Rowser said.

Ohio reported 83 hospitalizations related to COVID over the last week, up from the three-week average of 72. One ICU admission was reported and eight deaths were reported over the last week, which is not a change over the three-week average, according to data from the Ohio Department of Health.

Nationwide, 0.9% of emergency room visits are diagnosed as COVID, according to the CDC. While a small percentage, this is an increase of 23.3% in the most recent week.

Hospitalizations have not increased or decreased over the most recent week with 1.5 hospitalizations related to COVID being reported per 100,000 people, the CDC says.

COVID-related deaths make up 0.8% of deaths in the U.S. currently, which is an increase of 14.3% over the most recent week.

Youre still seeing COVID out there, so you still need to protect yourself against it, just like you do the flu, Rowser said.

Everyone 6 months of age and older should get an updated flu shot this fall as well, the CDC says. The CDC is encouraging health care providers to begin their influenza vaccination planning efforts now and to vaccinate patients once 2024-2025 influenza vaccines become available.

September and October remain the best times for most people to get vaccinated, the CDC says.

Its right around the corner. Were already in July, Rowser said.

Flu vaccination in July and August is not recommended for most people, but there are several considerations regarding vaccination during those months for specific groups, such as certain young children who qualify for two doses of the flu vaccine.

Pregnant people who are in their third trimester can get a flu vaccine in July or August to protect their infants from flu after birth, when they are too young to get vaccinated, the CDC says.

The CDC also updated its recommendations for RSV vaccinations for adults, changing the previous recommendation that people 60 and older get the RSV vaccine to saying people 75 and older should get the vaccine.

The CDC has updated its RSV vaccination recommendation for older adults to prioritize those at highest risk for serious illness from RSV, Mandy Cohen said. People 75 or older, or between 60-74 with certain chronic health conditions or living in a nursing home should get one dose of the RSV vaccine to provide an extra layer of protection.

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While fewer than 12% of Ohioans got the last COVID vaccine, the CDC is looking ahead at the fall - Dayton Daily News

Last updated July 1, 2024

MD Anderson continues to monitor COVID-19 cases in our community and may change our processes to ensure they best protect our patients, their families and our workforce.

Before your visit, review our current safety and visitation rules below.

Read more about patient visitation and know what to expect before you arrive.If you have questions about our visitor policy, contactPatient Advocacy.

Patients and visitors may enter at the following locations on our Texas Medical Center campus:

Download the MD Anderson Directions app to find your way to your appointments.

Patients who have symptoms should reach out to their care teams in MyChart.

If you choose to be tested outside of MD Anderson, remember to send the results to your care team. You can take a picture of your results and send them in a MyChart message or fax them. The photo must include:

Your care team will review the results to make sure they meet criteria.

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The Tennessee COVID-19 Vaccination Reporting dashboard and downloadable COVID-19 vaccine datasets will no longer be available after January 1, 2024. Please use the TDH data request form to request access to updated data in the future. COVID-19 vaccine coverage rates will be included on Immunization Coverage Rate Dashboards for all age ranges starting January 31, 2024. COVID-19 vaccines are available in all 95 counties. Visithttps://www.vaccines.gov/searchto locate a facility vaccinating.

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Any parent of young children can tell you kids are more susceptible to common colds than adults. But a new study suggests that susceptibility to a variety of respiratory infections may be part of what protected children from severe COVID-19.

In a new study, Yale researchers found that the presence and preponderance of respiratory viruses and bacteria in childrens noses was associated with stronger nasal immune responses, which, they say, could be part of why kids were less likely to get severe COVID-19 during the pandemic.

The findings were published July 1 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, children have been, somewhat puzzlingly, less affected than adults. Researchers have been trying to understand why this might be. Over the last couple of years, several studies have shown that children have stronger nasal activation of their innate immune response a broad, general anti-infection defense system than do adults, with or without SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The prior studies showed that there was something different about kids in terms of having better defenses at the barrier where the virus tries to penetrate the body, said Ellen Foxman, associate professor of laboratory medicine and immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study. But the unanswered question was, why do kids have better defenses?

To better understand what drives heightened nasal immune responses in children, researchers collected over 600 nasal swabs that had been administered to children with and without respiratory symptoms in 2021 and 2022. Those swabs had been used to test children for COVID-19 prior to elective surgeries or as part of COVID-19 screening in the emergency department. The samples were frozen at the time and recently used to examine other nasal infections and innate immune responses.

For the new study, researchers tested the swabs for 15 additional respiratory viruses and three types of bacteria that can cause respiratory illness. They also tested for proteins that indicate innate immune activation.

In samples from the summer of 2021 and from January 2022, respiratory viruses were found in about one-third of children, and bacteria in one-fourth to one-third of children. In June and July 2021, common cold viruses were found most often, whereas during the Omicron surge in January 2022, SARS-CoV-2 was the most frequent virus detected. However, many other viruses and bacteria were also detected in childrens noses during both seasons. Rates were highest in the youngest children, with 90% of symptomatic children and about half of asymptomatic children under the age of five testing positive for viruses, bacteria, or both.

We also found that heightened innate immune defenses directly correlated with the type and amount of microbes in the nose, said Foxman. So for kids that had viruses in their noses, the antiviral defenses were heightened. And the more virus they had in their noses, the higher those antiviral defenses were.

Children with disease-causing bacteria also showed heightened antibacterial immune defenses.

Overall, the findings showed that increased nasal innate immune defenses in children were a reaction to the viruses and bacteria present, said Foxman.

To better understand if nasal defenses change over time in the same child, the researchers also swabbed the noses of 20 one-year-olds during healthy well child check-up appointments and then re-swabbed them one to two weeks later.

Of the 20 children tested, only four children had no virus detected in either sample. Many children had viruses detected in one sample but not the other.

We could see that the change in viral load corresponded to the change in antiviral defenses in the same child across the two tests, said Timothy Watkins, a graduate student in Foxmans lab and the lead author of the study. Our results show that children are getting mild or sometimes asymptomatic infections quite often, leading to heightened barrier defenses.

Innate immunity is the broad, non-specific defense system that protects against many different pathogens that enter the body. Adaptive immune responses, such as antibodies, are those that the body develops over time, and they protect against specific pathogens the body has been exposed to in the past.

Adults have been exposed to common seasonal respiratory viruses quite a bit over their lifetimes and have, therefore, developed antibodies against many of them that prevent specific infections. But thats not the case for children who have had fewer prior exposures. This is one of the reasons common cold viruses cause more infections in young children, leading to nasal innate immune responses being triggered more often.

However, when SARS-CoV-2 came into our population, no one had prior exposure, said Foxman. We hypothesize that heightened nasal innate immune responses in children due to other common childhood infections helped protect them from severe COVID. This is one of the differences between children and adults which may have contributed to reduced severity in kids during the pandemic.

Going forward, Foxman and her colleagues aim to better understand how patterns of innate immune activation in children influence responses to different types of childhood infections and vaccines.

Other authors include Alex Green, Julien Amat, Nagarjuna R. Cheemarla, Katrin Hnsel, Richard Lozano, Sarah N. Dudgeon, Gregory Germain, Marie Landry, and Wade Schulz.

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Kids' susceptibility to seasonal viruses may protect them from COVID-19 - Yale News

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