Category: Covid-19

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in my practice caring for persons living with dementia, I witnessed awful sufferings. The necessity of social distancing isolated my patients from vital services and supports such as adult day activity programs and, for those in hospital or residential facilities, nurturing visits from family and friends. Their disabilities worsened. Many died. Their family caregivers were overwhelmed with the added work of care and grief.

I confess, though, Im reluctantly grateful for one consequence of social distancing. Before March 2020, some of my patients couldnt see me at my office. And then, abruptly, I began seeing them. The visits were at my virtual office. Video or audio telemedicine gave them access to care, made possible when, in response to the public health emergency, Medicare waived limitations on its practice.

Unfortunately, as the public health emergency fades, this waiver will expire. This shouldnt happen. Telemedicine has the potential to revolutionize the care of the 8.8 percent of adults age 65 and older, or approximately 3.8 million Americans, living with dementia. It will also accelerate Americas goal of early diagnosis and treatment of the diseases that cause dementia, such as Alzheimers disease, Lewy Body disease, vascular disease and frontotemporal lobar disease.

Among my patients who benefitted from telemedicine were those whose caregivers, typically adult children, lived far from my Philadelphia office. Others were persons living with advanced stages of dementia, requiring caregivers to provide lifes basic needs, such as dressing, eating and moving about. Some, despite the best efforts to stimulate and calm their mind, develop anger and aggressiveness, making even short-distance travel intensely traumatic.

Before telemedicine, these patients simply stopped coming to see me, or their caregivers would resort to telephoning me. I managed, but I did so with notable limitations. Medicare didnt recognize a call with a patient as a physician visit. True, I prescribed care and wrote a chart note, but this work was unbillable. For most clinicians, this structure was an understandably frustrating exercise in delivering care with limited, if any, compensation.

The pandemic abruptly changed this. The COVID-19 public health emergency allowed Medicare to recognize a telemedicine visit as a billable office visit. The health care system where I practice installed a user-friendly digital dashboard. It organizes visits, addresses concern of privacy and security, and allows me to text the patient and family if Im running late. Multiple family members in different locations can participate. On one screen, I see them, and on another, I have the chart opened. Im able to screen share images and other information.

As the pandemic wanes, however, my colleagues and I fear well return to the old system. Fortunately, Congress is considering the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID19 Act of 2022. This bill would authorize Medicare to continue telemedicine until Dec. 31, 2024. The bill passed the House by a lopsided 416-to-12 vote. It now awaits a vote in the Senate. It ought to become law.

The bill has several valuable provisions. It allows for audio-only (telephone) visits. This is of tremendous advantage for persons who lack access to internet services and other technologies necessary for video and also for visits that really dont need video, particularly for behavioral health.

Another benefit of the bills provisions is increased access to care. Telemedicine has been shown to be a notable benefit to persons living in rural areas and other regions with limited access to medical care. In dementia diagnosis and care, access is an enormous problem. There simply arent enough of the essential professionals, such as physicians, speech-language pathologists, psychologists and social workers, to meet the need. The bill begins to address this. It covers the services of several of these specialists.

As the COVID-19 public health emergency winds down, America still faces another public health emergency: the slow burning problem of dementia. A system of telemedicine coverage for visits with health care professionals is just a start. America needs to integrate this practice into an internet of care. Or, in short, a system of telehealth care.

One of the most common and important question my patients and families ask me is what to expect in the future. Implicit is really several questions: Whats wrong now, how will it change, and what should I do moving forward? Unfortunately, most persons dont have access to the multi-disciplinary team needed to answer these questions. Telehealth care promises access to this team and to enhance the data it needs to deliver early and accurate diagnosis and quality care.

One promising opportunity is monitoring a persons day-to-day function. Taking longer to complete or making errors in activities such as preparing a meal or paying bills often reveals emerging cognitive problems caused by diseases such as Alzheimers. Ordinary household appliances can monitor daily function, which is key to early diagnosis, and then tracking and managing function.

A smart refrigerator can track the comings and goings of food and, therefore, declines or other changes in shopping and eating. Among the earliest predictors of worsening cognitive abilities is a decrease in life space, the frequency and distance a person travels outside the home. A smartphone that counts steps or a device in a car can easily track these data. Computers, smart phones and watches and tablets can of course directly assess cognition, but even more intriguing is interrogating these devices day-to-day use to predict decline.

These are just examples. Truly, the list is growing. Combining these real-world data into a persons medical record with telemedicine access to experts will revolutionize care.

Telehealth care faces numerous structural challenges related to data integration, privacy, scope of practice and reimbursement. An immediate one is reforming state licensure laws. During the pandemic, these were waived. I could care for patients wherever they resided. Now, as a physician licensed in Pennsylvania, I can no longer practice telemedicine with a patient who lives just across the Delaware River in New Jersey. This makes no sense. A national problem like dementia needs a national solution.

This vision of telehealth is a great experiment whose costs, quality and equity must be evaluated. But if it succeeds, it will launch a revolution in health care that could benefit all Americans.

Jason Karlawish is a professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Perlman School of Medicine and author of The Problem of Alzheimers: How Science, Culture and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It. Follow him on Twitter @jasonkarlawish.

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Advancing telemedicine beyond COVID-19 is the beginning of a revolution in dementia care - The Hill

If you already have some at-home COVID-19 test kits, be sure to check the expiration date.

The FDA has extended the shelf lives of some COVID-19 testing products. To find out whether your at-home COVID-19 test has a new expiration date and what it is, go to the FDAAt-Home OTC COVID-19 Diagnostic Testswebsite and scroll down to find your brand. Then click on the link in the right-hand column to find the new expiration date for your batch. Tests, including iHealth, BinaxNOW, and Flowflex, now have shelf lives of up to 16 months. You may want to write the new expiration date on the box.

The program for getting free COVID-19 tests will end soon.

Ordering through the program will be suspended on Friday, Sept. 2, because Congress hasnt provided additional funding to replenish the nations stockpile of tests. Click Here to order your kits. If you receive a new test kit, you should use the above process to determine the proper expiration date.

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Government program for free COVID-19 tests will end soon - Villages-News

The latest covid-19 surge, caused by a shifting mix of quickly evolving omicron subvariants,appears to be waning, with cases and hospitalizations beginning to fall.

Like past covid waves, this one will leave a lingering imprint in the form of long covid, an ill-defined catchall term for a set of symptoms that can include debilitating fatigue, difficulty breathing, chest pain, and brain fog.

Although omicron infections areproving milderoverall than those caused by last summers delta variant, omicron has also proved capable of triggering long-term symptoms and organ damage. But whether omicron causes long covid symptoms as often and as severe as previous variants is a matter of heated study.

Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, is among the researchers who say the far greater number of omicron infections compared with earlier variants signals the need to prepare for a significant boost in people with long covid. The U.S. has recorded nearly 38 million covid infections so far this year, as omicron has blanketed the nation. Thats about 40% of all infections reported since the start of the pandemic, according to theJohns Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center.

Long covid is a parallel pandemic that most people arent even thinking about, said Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale University. I suspect there will be millions of people who acquire long covid after omicron infection.

Scientists have just begun to compare variants head to head, with varying results. Whileone recent studyin The Lancet suggests that omicron is less likely to cause long covid, another found thesame rate of neurological problemsafter omicron and delta infections.

Estimates of the proportion of patients affected by long covid also vary, from4% to 5% in triple-vaccinated adultstoas many as 50% among the unvaccinated, based on differences in the populations studied. One reason for that broad range is that long covid has been defined in widely varying ways in different studies, ranging from self-reported fogginess for a few months after infection to a dangerously impaired inability to regulate pulse and blood pressure that may last years.

Even at the low end of those estimates, the sheer number of omicron infections this year would swell long-covid caseloads. Thats exactly what we did find in the UK, said Claire Steves, a professor of aging and health at Kings College in London andauthor of the Lancet study, which found patients have been 24% to 50% less likely to develop long covid during the omicron wave than during the delta wave. Even though the risk of long covid is lower, because so many people have caught omicron, the absolute numbers with long covid went up, Steves said.

Arecent studyanalyzing a patient database from the Veterans Health Administration found that reinfections dramatically increased the risk of serious health issues, even in people with mild symptoms. The study of more than 5.4 million VA patients, including more than 560,000 women, found that people reinfected with covid were twice as likely to die or have a heart attack as people infected only once. And they were far more likely to experience health problems of all kinds as of six months later, including trouble with their lungs, kidneys, and digestive system.

Were not saying a second infection is going to feel worse; were saying it adds to your risk, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and education service at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.

Researchers say the study, published online but not yet peer-reviewed, should be interpreted with caution. Some noted that VA patients have unique characteristics, and tend to be older men with high rates of chronic conditions that increase the risks for long covid. They warned that the studys findings cannot be extrapolated to the general population, which is younger and healthier overall.

We need to validate these findings with other studies, said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, director of the Yale New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. Still, he added, the VA study has some disturbing implications.

With an estimated82% of Americanshaving been infected at least once with the coronavirus as of mid-July, most new cases now are reinfections, said Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Of course, peoples risk of reinfection depends not just on their immune system, but also on the precautions theyre taking, such as masking, getting booster shots, and avoiding crowds.

New Jersey salon owner Tee Hundley, 43, has had covid three times, twice before vaccines were widely available and again this summer, after she was fully vaccinated. She is still suffering the consequences.

After her second infection, she returned to work as a cosmetologist at her Jersey City salon but struggled with illness and shortness of breath for the next eight months, often feeling like she was breathing through a straw.

She was exhausted, and sometimes slow to find her words. While waxing a clients eyebrows, I would literally forget which eyebrow I was waxing, Hundley said. My brain was so slow.

When she got a breakthrough infection in July, her symptoms were short-lived and milder: cough, runny nose, and fatigue. But the tightness in her chest remains.

I feel like thats something that will always be left over, said Hundley, who warns friends with covid not to overexert. You may not feel terrible, but inside of your body there is a war going on.

Although each omicron subvariant has different mutations, theyre similar enough that people infected with one, such as BA.2, have relatively good protection against newer versions of omicron, such as BA.5. People sickened by earlier variants are far more vulnerable to BA.5.

Several studieshave found thatvaccination reduces the riskof long covid. But the measure of that protection varies by study, from as little as a15% reductionin risk to a more than50% decrease. Astudypublished in July found the risk of long covid dropped with each dose people received.

For now, the only surefire way to prevent long covid is to avoid getting sick. Thats no easy task as the virus mutates and Americans have largely stopped masking in public places. Current vaccines are great at preventing severe illness but do not prevent the virus from jumping from one person to the next. Scientists are working on next-generation vaccines variant-proof shots that would work on any version of the virus, as well as nasal sprays that might actually prevent spread. If they succeed, that could dramatically curb new cases of long covid.

We need vaccines that reduce transmission, Al-Aly said. We need them yesterday.

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KAISER HEALTH NEWS: COVID-19 unraveling the interplay of Omicron, reinfections, and long Covid - Tahlequah Daily Press

Dear Campus Community,

Today I am writing to alert you to a sharprise in confirmed positive COVID-19 caseswithin our student body. We realize that this can be an alarming and stressful time, and we want to reiterate some public health practices that can help mitigate a further rise in COVID-19 cases.

Last year we took extra steps in our public health policies such as face coverings indoors, frequent hand hygiene, and responsible social interactions to help control the spread of COVID-19. I am once again asking students, faculty, and staff to follow these public health guidelines.

Currently, we areSTRONGLY ENCOURAGINGstudents, staff, and faculty to wear face coverings while indoors to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 on our campus. We understand that this can be a hard transition, but our goal is to keep campus healthy, open, and thriving.

As a reminder testing is available for students, faculty, and staff at Boothroyd Hall during the hours of Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.- 5 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday, 12 p.m. 4 p.m. Other local testing options include pharmacies, urgent care facilities, and the Cayuga Health Systems testing site at The Shops at Ithaca Mall. Please be honest and mindful of your personal health if you dont feel well, keep your distance from others, wear a face covering, and seek out testing or medical guidance as soon as possible.

Anyone can direct questions about testing options tocaremanager@ithaca.edu.

Being responsible in our actions and interactions, both on and off campus, will be essential in our efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 as we continue the semester.

At this time, we are not changing our Green: Lower Risk operating status. Ithaca College will continue to monitor this developing COVID-19 situation and will provide timely updates to the campus community as needed. Thank you for your understanding and your cooperation. For more information, please visit ournew public health website.

Sincerely,

Samm SwartsAssistant Director, Emergency Preparedness and Response

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College Strongly Encouraging Face Coverings to Contain Spread of COVID-19 on Campus - Ithaca College

Washington, DCToday,Mayor Muriel Bowserand DC Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Lewis Ferebeereminded DCPSfamilies that all students and staff will need to provide proof of a negativeCOVID-19test result before the start of the 2022-2023 School Year.DCPS K-12families mustadminister their students test and upload theirtest results toDCPSstrong.com/testingon Sunday, August 28.Pre-Kfamiliesmust administertheir students test and upload their test results on Wednesday, August 31.

We are excited to welcome our students, families, and staff back to school for this critically important school year,said Mayor Bowser.A strong school year starts with a strong first day, and weare grateful to families for once again helping us ensure a safeand healthyreturn to school.

This month, the Office of the State Superintendent for Education (OSSE) also distributed antigen tests kits to all public charter local education agencies (LEAs) in the District to facilitate participation in test to return. Each LEA received enough tests for every student, teacher, and staff member.

To start the school year strong, DCPS families will need to:

DCPS families may choose to utilize their own antigen or PCR test results,but tests administered beforeSunday, August 28for K-12 students and before Wednesday, August 31 for Pre-K students will not be accepted.

DCPS families should report their childs results by:

Our commitment at DC Public Schools is to foster a safe environment for our students to learn, grow and thrive, said Chancellor Ferebee. We appreciate the partnership of our familiesand staff in taking this important step as we all work together to start the school year strong.

Update and Submit Your Immunization RecordsDistrict law requires students in all DC schools including private, parochial,and independent schools, to be fully compliant with required vaccinations to attend school, and that schools verifyimmunization certification for allstudents aspart of enrollment and attendance.Families can download the Universal Health Certificate and the DC Oral Health Assessment Formhere.

TheCoronavirus Immunization of School Students and Early Childhood Workers Amendment Act of 2021,which the Council passed in 2021,requires students ages 12 and older to be vaccinated againstCOVID-19in order to attend school. Families can access free vaccinations at a local COVID Center. Finda scheduleatcoronavirus.dc.gov/COVIDCenters.

The best place for DC families to access required childhood immunizations is through their primary medical provider.However, DC Health and its partners are also offering special vaccination opportunitiesacross the District.These include:

For the latest schedules and locations of these clinics, as well aspediatric clinic locations, visitdchealth.dc.gov/immunizations.

To learn more, please visitDCPSstrong.com.

Social Media:Mayor Bowser Twitter:@MayorBowserMayor Bowser Instagram:@Mayor_BowserMayor Bowser Facebook:facebook.com/MayorMurielBowserMayor Bowser YouTube:https://www.bit.ly/eomvideos

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Mayor Bowser and DCPS Remind Families to Take and Submit COVID-19 Tests Before Returning to School | mayormb - Executive Office of the Mayor

Educators in Connecticut are hoping for the most normal return to learning since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, but say pandemic-related challenges continue to impact public school districts.

Before the first day, heres what students and families can expect for the 2022-2023 school year:

For the first time in nearly 15 years, Connecticuts steady enrollment decline was interrupted by a slight increase in the student population during the 2021-2022 school year, but a recovery to pre-pandemic numbers remains a ways away.

Connecticut public schools experienced a steep enrollment decline at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2006, enrollment loss has fluctuated from a low of 0.5% to a high of 1.2%. During the 2020-2021 period, statewide public school enrollment dropped by 2.8%, losing 14,750 pupils and ending the year with a student population of approximately 513,000 statewide.

White students accounted for 93% of the enrollment drop, despite representing about 50% of the total public school population.

The 2021-2022 school year saw a meager boost in numbers, gaining 536 more students than the previous year.

Data collection for 2022-2023 will determine whether the upward trend will continue.

As the statewide shortage of school bus drivers continues, transportation providers say they are looking to extend route consolidation efforts which can potentially result in longer and more crowded bus rides for some students.

There still is a pretty serious shortage. Its not as bad as it was last year, but every single company in the state still has open bus driver positions that we are looking to fill, said Jean Cronin, the executive director of the Connecticut School Transportation Association.

[Connecticut faces school bus drivers shortage; drivers needed at every location in the state]

Cronin said anyone interested in becoming a bus driver should apply with their local company. Openings remain for drivers and substitutes facilitating school transportation and transit for field trips and sport games.

Im encouraging parents to be patient with their school districts and their school bus companies for those situations where we do not have as many drivers as wed like, Cronin said. If the school bus route is a little bit longer or it takes your child a little longer to get to and from school, we please ask that you just be patient and work with us.

Roadway safety also is a key concern. Cronin said that with the start of the new school year, motorists should budget additional time to get to their morning or afternoon destinations.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation recommends that students and parents use caution when crossing the street or approaching the bus. Students are advised to avoid bus blind spots where they cannot see the driver. The DOT also suggests that students increase their visibility with bright or reflective colors on their clothes or backpack. Additional DOT recommendations can be found at https://bit.ly/3ApLzg4.

Connecticuts teacher shortage continues to impact the educational landscape, hitting low-income and urban districts the hardest.

As of Friday, the Connecticut Regional Education Applicant Placement Program reported nearly 1,500 classroom teacher openings. Other districts advertised hundreds more vacant positions on their individual posting sites.

After a school year marked by reported unprecedented levels of staff burnout, teachers in Connecticut hope that better days are ahead in 2022-2023.

Educators are refreshed and energized for the new challenges ahead, and we must all work together to support our dedicated professionals, so that our children have the highly qualified teachers they deserve today, tomorrow and in the future, said Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias in a back-to-school statement for the CSDE 2022-23 School Year Kick Off held this month.

But at the same event, Jan Hochadel, the president of the Connecticut branch of the American Federation of Teachers, demanded that public school stakeholders further their support for teachers, paraeducators and staff by addressing the teacher respect issue a problem that U.S. Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona publicly recognized as a cause in nationwide teacher shortages.

No one wants a successful academic and social-emotional experience for Connecticuts students more than our member teachers, paraeducators and school-related personnel. They know firsthand how important that will be after two and half years of disrupted learning and are ready to rise to the occasion, Hochadel said. As union leaders, we are prepared to support them every step of the way.

Hartford Superintendent of Schools Leslie Torres-Rodriguez said that the district had vacancies in 14% of all positions, despite having hired 190 new teachers since the start of the hiring season.

Torres-Rodriguez also noted the importance of attendance in her back-to-school message to parents. In the 2020-21 school year, 44.4% of Hartford students were chronically absent, a nearly 75% increase from pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the state Department of Education.

Start the year off right and make attendance a priority from day one. Children who miss two days of school per month are five times more likely to fall behind in reading, writing and math, the note to parents said. While some absences may be unavoidable, limiting your childs absences puts them on the path to future academic success.

The federal free meal program that kept students fed during the pandemic expired at the close of the 2021-2022 year, but, thanks to a $30 million state grant, the majority of students in Connecticut will continue to receive free breakfast and lunch for now.

The states new free meal program will last only as long as its funding.

Some food service directors estimate that the money will last their districts through December, but changing demand and popularity of free meals keep the programs end date in flux.

Families with an annual income that meets the federal threshold for free or reduced-price meals are encouraged to fill out an application with their district as soon as possible. Eligibility for the USDA Child Nutrition Program by household size and income can be found at https://bit.ly/3Cy3inZ.

In addition to ensuring that students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals dont pay once district funds run out, applying for USDA Child Nutrition Programs at the start of the school year can extend the life of free meal offerings for all students.

Connecticuts free meal grant supplements free and reduced-price meal reimbursements from the federal government. More students signed up for free and reduced-price lunch means more federal funding, which helps the state grant last longer.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health, state Department of Education and Office of Early Childhood have recommended an optional Test-Mask-Go strategy as a way to minimize school year interruptions.

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We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning.

Under the recommendations, students and staff with mild respiratory disease symptoms can continue to participate in-person if they test negative for COVID-19, wear a mask, are fever-free and have not lived with anyone who has had COVID-19 in the past two weeks.

Connecticut will distribute approximately 5 million individual COVID-19 test kits to the states school districts. A supply of personal protective equipment also will be available for districts to order, free-of-charge.

In an effort to continue in-person learning, the DPH recommends that students and staff remain up-to-date on their COVID-19 and seasonal influenza vaccines.

Approximately 45% of children under age 15 in Connecticut have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the most recent DPH data.

We continue to drive home the message that all the tools are in place to combat this virus. Our toolbox includes vaccines, first and second boosters, Test to Treat locations, therapeutics, self-tests and state-supported testing, said DPH Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani in a statement released by the CSDE.

Our key strategies for the school year include starting healthy with vaccination, maximizing in-person learning with symptom awareness and at-home testing, and using available prevention tools, primarily the CDC Community Levels Map.

Alison Cross can be reached at across@courant.com.

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Back to school in COVID-19s 'new normal' in Connecticut. Here's what you need to know. - Hartford Courant

Chinas industrial profit dropped in the first seven months of the year, reversing a year-on-year increase in the first half of the year, as sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks and bad weather weighed on the worlds second-largest economy.

Industrial profit dropped 1.1% from a year earlier in the January-to-July period, offsetting a 1% increase reported in the first half of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Saturday.

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Chinas Industrial Profit Falls on Covid-19 Measures, Bad Weather - The Wall Street Journal

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This week Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Bidens chief medical advisor, announced he will be retiring at the end of the year. While Faucis federal career is coming to an end, congressional oversight of his efforts to possibly conceal the origins of COVID-19 is just getting started.

The American people have many questions for Fauci, and we are determined to get answers. For the past two years, Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee have called for Fauci to testify before the committee and provide documents and information related to our investigation into COVID-19 origination. However, Democrats have shielded Fauci from any meaningful congressional oversight and have refused to invite him to appear before the committee.

The origin of COVID-19 a virus with a death toll surpassing 1 million Americans and 6 million globally is a question that must be answered. Discovering the origin is vital to providing accountability and protecting Americans in the future.

FAUCI SLAMMED FOR DENYING SCHOOL LOCKDOWNS IRREPARABLY DAMAGED KIDS: NO REMORSE

This is why the actions of Fauci and Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are so concerning. These experts claim to follow "the science," but, in reality, they colluded with other scientists to diminish the mounting evidence pointing to a lab leak in Wuhan, China, preferring the natural origin narrative. To date, their motives are unknown.

A security person moves journalists away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

"The science" may be inconvenient for Fauci, but it must be followed to unlock answers about COVID-19. If the American people grant us the majority in November, Republicans on the Oversight Committee will use the power of the gavel to pursue our investigation into the origins of this virus.

From the few unredacted emails weve already reviewed, we know that Faucis closest advisers including some that he awards millions of dollars to per year warned in February 2020 that the virus appeared to be genetically manipulated and pointed to a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These warnings were never relayed to President Donald Trump, the COVID-19 task force, or any other federal agency. Why didFauci and Collins hide this information?

Weve also learned that these same scientists who warned of genetic manipulation and a lab leak rapidly changed their tune after a secret conference call with Fauci. In fact, within a span of three days, four of the scientists on the call authored a paper using taxpayer dollars awarded directly by Fauci that concluded that "[COVID-19] is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus." A conclusion supported by zero evidence then, and zero evidence now.

We also know that NIHs Collins wished this paper would squash the lab leak theory and wondered to Fauci if there was more that could be done to diminish it. The next day, Fauci cited this paper from the White House podium as unequivocal evidence against the lab leak.

So why did these scientists do a 180-degree flip-flop in a matter of hours after speaking with Fauci? Weve called on these scientists to provide answers to us, but they have not been cooperative with our investigation.

It appears that following the COVID-19 origination science would expose Fauci and Collins cozy relationship with EcoHealth Alliance, an NIH grantee that conducted gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, and "disrupt international harmony," as Collins opined in an email reviewed by Republicans.

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We know that Fauci and his associates at NIH allowed EcoHealth to violate its grant terms for years without consequence. Specifically, Fauci allowed EcoHealth to shield the Wuhan Institute of Virology from any transparency by concealing its dangerous experiments on bat coronaviruses from the U.S. government. Experiments that may have resulted in a once a century pandemic that killed millions.

The pandemic world is a very different one. Children are years behind in reading and math, violence is on the rise across our nation, mental health is more fragile than ever, substance abuse has increased, and small businesses and the associated livelihoods have collapsed. There must be accountability for the harms.

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We need all of Faucis emails and communications surrounding the origin of COVID-19, the NIHs documents on experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as well as EcoHealth Alliances involvement. These will establish what Fauci knew and when he knew it, and what, if anything, we could have done differently to guard against the harms Americans have endured. Whether American lives could have been saved. The American people deserve accountability, and Republicans are determined to provide it when we take back the House of Representatives in 2023.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM REP. JAMES COMER

Republican JamesComer represents Kentucky's 1st congressional district where he is ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.

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Fauci owes Americans answers about COVID-19 origin, and House GOP is determined to get them - Fox News

Home as the new frontier for the treatment of COVID-19: the case for anti-inflammatory agents  The Lancet

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Home as the new frontier for the treatment of COVID-19: the case for anti-inflammatory agents - The Lancet

Yesterday, members of the White House Monkeypox and COVID-19 response teams, as well as representatives from the CDC, met virtually with college presidents, campus health officials, and student affairs professionals from across the country to discuss best practices and measures for colleges and universities to take to curb the spread of Monkeypox and COVID-19. The virtual meeting included over 1,000 stakeholders from the higher education community, with additional participation via livestream. Federal officials offered practical guidance on how to keep higher education institutions safe this fall, including strategies colleges can use to identify and stop the spread of Monkeypox, and answered questions on how to respond to incidents of Monkeypox and communicate clearly to students on vaccines, testing, and treatments. The discussion also focused on the need for colleges and universities to encourage students, staff, and faculty to remain up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines, including planning to get campus communities boosted with the upcoming, updated vaccines this fall, pending FDA and CDC decisions. Today, the CDC also launched a new landing page for college and universities and students with resources around Monkeypox.

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Readout of Meeting with Colleges and Universities on Monkeypox and COVID-19 Guidance for a Safe Return to Campus - The White House