Category: Covid-19

The Biden administration is appealing a judges order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs. The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week.

The CDC says it is its continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.

People in Philadelphia could be excused if they felt a sense of whiplash Friday as the city abandoned its indoor mask mandate just days after becoming the first U.S. metropolis to reimpose compulsory masking in response to an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. City officials who had previously stressed the need to head off a new wave of coronavirus infections by requiring people to mask up indoors abruptly called it off after what they said was an unexpected drop in the number of people in the hospital and a leveling-off of infections.

Meantime, Boston urged people to start wearing masks after the Boston Public Health Commission noted a rise in hospitalizations, as well as a 65% increase in cases and an even larger spike in COVID-19 levels in local wastewater samples. It also stressed that the guidance was merely a recommendation, not an order.

Los Angeles County bucked national trends and said Thursday it will still require masks on public transit including trains, subways, buses, taxis and rideshares. Cases have risen in the past week and hospitalizations have plateaued after falling the previous two months.

The country is wrestling with how to deal with the next phase of the pandemic and find the right balance in enacting health measures at a time when many Americans are ready to move on after two exhausting years.

A federal judge in Florida this week threw out a national mask mandate on mass transportation, and airlines and airports responded swiftly Monday by repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. That put the Biden administration in the position of trying to navigate an appeal that could have sweeping ramifications over the power that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has in regulating future health emergencies.

The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn the judges order.

The CDC said in a statement that it is its continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.

It remained unclear whether the Biden administration would ask the appeals court to grant an emergency stay to immediately reimpose the mask mandate on public transit. An emergency stay of the lower courts ruling would be a whiplash moment for travelers and transit workers. Most airlines and airports, many public transit systems and even ride-sharing company Uber lifted their mask-wearing requirements in the hours following Mondays ruling.

After a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant that prompted record hospitalizations, the U.S. has seen a significant drop in virus spread in recent months, leading most states and cities to drop mask mandates.

In Canada, unvaccinated children aged 5 to 11 traveling with a fully vaccinated adult will no longer need a COVID-19 test to enter Canada beginning Monday. Pre-entry tests will still be needed for partially vaccinated or unvaccinated travelers over the age of 12 who are eligible to travel to Canada. Children under five years of age dont currently require a COVID-19 test to enter Canada. Government officials announced several other small changes to ease restrictions for international travelers taking effect on Monday. Fully vaccinated travelers, and children under 12 accompanying them, will no longer need to provide their quarantine plans when they enter the country.

If you are traveling

What do you do if you are traveling? Dr. John Brooks, the CDCs chief medical officer for the COVID-19 response, has some practical advice:

Arm yourself. Get vaccinated, and if youre fully vaccinated, get boosted. If youve had two or three shots of Pfizers Comirnaty or Modernas SpikeVax vaccine and its been four months since your last shot, another dose is advised. Give yourself a week or so for another jab to refresh your immune systems supply of antibodies.

If you have certain medical conditions, cant be vaccinated, or take medications that weaken your immune systems ability to fight off infections, see if you can get a dose of Evusheld, a form of passive defense that can help protect you.

Patients in active treatment for cancer, or people who received a stem cell transplant for blood cancer in the past two years, may not have mounted a strong response to the vaccine. They need the extra boost of immunity that the monoclonal antibodies in Evusheld provide. Patients who take long courses of high-dose steroids or a range of other medications to treat auto-immune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis may be in the same boat. And anyone who has had a solid organ transplant needs more protection to compensate for the powerful medications they take to prevent rejection.

Slightly more than a million doses of the protective medication have been distributed, mainly to hospitals and health care systems across the country. That wont cover everyone who probably needs it. If you think it could help you, the rheumatologist, oncologist or transplant team that treated you is best positioned to help you get it.

Do wear your mask, and make sure its a good one. In a crowd, the more people are masking, the less virus will be suspended in the air to be breathed in, so more masking is better. But correct and consistent wearing of a mask that molds close to your face can protect you from breathing in those lingering viral particles, or limit how much you take in. That, in turn, could mean the difference between warding off infection and becoming ill.

Youve heard this before, but its worth repeating: A cloth mask wont cut it, given how readily the omicron variant spreads. If you love your cloth mask, put a disposable surgical mask over it: theyre designed to draw in and trap virus on their surface. But your best bet is to wear an N95 respirator, which pinches around your nose and has ear loops or head straps that hold the mask tight to your face.

Before you go on an airplane, practice at home to make sure you can wear it comfortably, correctly and consistently, Brooks said. Theyre itchy and scratchy and the air is hot for some people. But millions of health care providers have learned how to wear them, and you can too.

Mind the transitions, and take a direct flight if you can. The filtration systems of most commercial jets are fully engaged when theyre traveling above 10,000 feet, Brooks said, and they are powerfully effective at cleaning the air under those conditions. But when jet engines are idling on the ground (and passengers are boarding or deplaning), those systems are not doing that job. And the efficiency of those air filtration systems also suffers as the plane ascends or descends.

So be sure to wear your mask during those transitions. And taking direct flights where possible limits the amount of time youre sitting in a crowded metal tube with a filtration system thats going to let more virus slip through than it will at cruising altitude.

Reserve a window seat, board last, and sit near the front so you can deplane quickly. The principle here is to spend the least amount of time possible on a plane thats still on the ground, Brooks explained. You also want to sit where any virus emitted by passengers and staff in the aisles is least likely to reach you.

Seeking special favors from airlines is either costly or difficult. But most will let you choose your seat for an extra charge, and if you can do that, look for one that gives you some distance from passers-by but also lets you make a fast get-away.

Eat or drink with caution. Youll probably be hungry and thirsty if youre taking a long trip. But if other travelers are largely unmasked, your snack or swig of soda is an opportunity for their virus to enter your respiratory tract.

Brooks notes that a straw can be inserted right under a mask, limiting the broken seal. He suggests eating in the airport rather than on the plane, and munching your meal in an unpopulated corner of the gate area. Wash your hands before eating.

Know the community transmission level where youre going, and behave accordingly. Going to a hotspot of new cases, or passing through one on the way to your destination? Find out before you go so you know where masking and social distancing are still a good idea and where you can afford to loosen up. Visit the CDCs community website and click on the counties youll be traveling from, to and through.

Stock up on rapid tests and prepare to spring into action if you have a positive result. It makes sense to test yourself before you travel, to make sure youre good to go. But bring another test and take it four days or so after youve been in a high-exposure situation like an airport, or if you develop COVID-19 symptoms.

Getting the earliest possible indication of infection is all the more important because antiviral medications such as Paxlovid and molnupiravir are now available, and they can shorten the duration and/or lessen the severity of an infection. But they must be taken as soon as symptoms start, and no more than five days after symptom onset.

--The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed to this report

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COVID-19 mask updates: A week of whiplash as U.S. appeals judges ruling - OregonLive

RALEIGH, N.C.On a Monday morning, employees arrive at Raleigh software firm Pendo and grab coffee at a company-provided bar staffed with baristas. Later, at lunch, Pendo sends them down the street with $15 vouchers to spend at a local food hall, where they can throw axes for fun while ordering lobster, tacos or fish and chips.

In 2020, the pandemic emptied out Raleighs central business district. Some downtown businesses kept plywood boards covering their windows for months, after protests following the death of George Floyd sparked vandalism downtown. More than 10,000 tourism jobs were lost in the surrounding county, dealing a major blow to one of the countrys strongest economic regions.

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How Raleigh Rallied From the Covid-19 Pandemic - The Wall Street Journal

Fraud stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a criminal enforcement priority for the US Department of Justice (DOJ). On April 20, DOJ announced a new round of criminal charges against 21 defendants that stem from over $149 million in allegedly fraudulent billing to federal healthcare programs and pandemic assistance programs. The new cases raise DOJs total COVID-19-related enforcement stats to 35 defendants and over $290 million in fraudulent billing across 16 federal districts.

The allegations detailed in DOJs recent press release involve schemes related to COVID-19 testing, telehealth, and misappropriation of Provider Relief Fund (PRF) payments. These schemes are nearly identical to DOJs first COVID-19 enforcement action announced last May. Unsurprisingly, DOJs criminal enforcement activities have focused on individuals taking advantage of the rapidly constructed infrastructure surrounding the countrys response to the pandemic. While an important enforcement priority, the conduct involved has been relatively unsophisticated. In one matter involving a manufacturer of fake COVID-19 vaccination cards, the defendant even told an undercover federal agent, until I get caught and go to jail Im taking the money, ha! I dont care.

The real story, however, may be in what lies ahead. DOJs recent announcement shows that it is continuing to pursue schemes designed to be quickly and easily profitable. But given the massive size of federal programs designed to combat COVID-19 (the PRF is $178 billion, of which nearly $120 billion has been distributed to healthcare providers), DOJs focus may eventually turn toward more complex and sophisticated schemes. Many of these may be the result of qui tam complaints or based on Office of Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services investigations and audits.

Stakeholders in the healthcare and life science industries should attempt to get ahead of this anticipated wave of enforcement and audit activity. This includes carefully evaluating your organizations involvement with COVID-19-related programs (e.g., did your organization receive PRF funds or Paycheck Protection Program funds?), as well as compliance with the myriad terms and conditions of each of these programs. Particularly for enterprise organizations that may have received PRF funds across multiple providers, evaluating and documenting the use of those funds remains an important risk mitigation activity.

Notably, reflecting the rapid evolution of these programs, the federal government is continuing to update its policies on PRF reporting and other COVID-19 programs. For instance, the Health Resources & Services Administration recently announced that providers experiencing extenuating circumstances may be able to submit PRF reports late. As has occurred in other major emergency situations, it can be particularly challenging for providers to identify changes made by government entities to regulatory requirements and obligations, which can lead to significant risk exposure after the dust has settled.

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DOJ Announces New COVID-19 Fraud Takedown But Will It Expand Enforcement to More Complex Schemes? - JD Supra

Today, WHO made a strong recommendation for nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, sold under the name Paxlovid, for mild and moderate COVID-19 patients at highest risk of hospital admission, calling it the best therapeutic choice for high-risk patients to date. However, availability, lack of price transparency in bilateral deals made by the producer, and the need for prompt and accurate testing before administering it, are turning this life-saving medicine into a major challenge for low- and middle-income countries.

Pfizers oral antiviral drug (a combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir tablets) is strongly recommended for patients with non-severe COVID-19 who are at highest risk of developing severe disease and hospitalization, such as unvaccinated, older, or immunosuppressed patients.

This recommendation is based on new data from two randomized controlled trials involving 3078 patients. The data show that the risk of hospitalization is reduced by 85% following this treatment. In a high-risk group (over 10% risk of hospitalization), that means 84 fewer hospitalizations per 1000 patients.

WHO suggests against its use in patients at lower risk, as the benefits were found to be negligible.

One obstacle for low- and middle-income countries is that the medicine can only be administered while the disease is at its early stages; prompt and accurate testing is therefore essential for a successful outcome with this therapy. Data collected by FINDshow that the average daily testing rate in low-income countries is as low as one-eightieth the rate in high-income countries. Improving access to early testing and diagnosis in primary health care settings will be key for the global rollout of this treatment.

WHO is extremely concerned that -- as occurred with COVID-19 vaccines -- low- and middle-income countries will again be pushed to the end of the queue when it comes to accessing this treatment.

Lack of transparency on the part of the originator company is making it difficult for public health organizations to obtain an accurate picture of the availability of the medicine, which countries are involved in bilateral deals and what they are paying. In addition, a licensing agreement made by Pfizer with the Medicines Patent Pool limits the number of countries that can benefit from generic production of the medicine.

The originator product, sold under the name Paxlovid, will be included in the WHO prequalification list today, but generic products are not yet available from quality-assured sources. Several generic companies (many of which are covered by the licensing agreement between the Medicines Pool and Pfizer) are in discussion with WHO Prequalification but may take some time to comply with international standards so that they can supply the medicine internationally.

WHO therefore strongly recommends that Pfizer make its pricing and deals more transparent and that it enlarge the geographical scope of its licence with the Medicines Patent Pool so that more generic manufacturers may start to produce the medicine and make it available faster at affordable prices.

Along with the strong recommendation for the use of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, WHO has also updated its recommendation on remdesivir, another antiviral medicine.

Previously, WHO had suggested against its use in all COVID-19 patients regardless of disease severity, due to the totality of the evidence at that time showing little or no effect on mortality. Following publication of new data from a clinical trial looking at the outcome of admission to hospital, WHO has updated its recommendation. WHO now suggests the use of remdesivir in mild or moderate COVID-19 patients who are at high risk of hospitalization.

The recommendation for use of remdesivir in patients with severe or critical COVID-19 is currently under review.

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WHO recommends highly successful COVID-19 therapy and calls for wide geographical distribution and transparency from originator - World Health...

Around seven in 10 people in England are likely to have had coronavirus since the early months of the pandemic, new figures suggest.

An estimated 38.5 million people in private households - or 70.7% of the population - have had at least one infection since the end of April 2020.

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England Covid-19 Cases: 70% of Country Has Been Infected - Bloomberg

As China tries to restart manufacturing in areas hit by Covid-19 lockdowns, companies are discovering that reopening their factories is not so simple.

Tesla Inc. restarted production in Shanghai Tuesday after a three-week halt, part of a government trial to keep core pockets of its economy humming as coronavirus cases appear to have plateaued in the city.

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China Wants to Reopen Factories After Covid-19 Lockdowns. It Isnt That Easy. - The Wall Street Journal

As mask mandates end, figuring out what to do if you have a case of COVID-19 but no symptoms has been confusing for many in the U.S.

In California, officials recently lifted the five-day quarantine requirement for asymptomatic people who tested positive for COVID-19. But certain localities in the state have already announced theyll continue following the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. The CDC recommends staying at home in quarantine for at least five days whether or not you have symptoms.

Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate at home for at least five full days and then test to see if they are still infectious.

William Holubek, MD, Chief Medical Officer at University Hospital in New Jersey, insisted that states, agencies, and industries with different masking and quarantine rules only cause confusion.

He explained that the mission of the CDC is to protect America from health threats by fighting disease and supporting communities and citizens to do the same.

The CDC still recommends isolation for any individual who tests positive for COVID-19, whether they have symptoms or not, he said. For the health, protection, and well-being of our friends, family, and community, we should continue to follow these recommendations.

When we dont have a unified approach to a global pandemic, it is difficult to understand why things go wrong when they do, noted Holubek.

Robert Lahita, MD, director of the Institute for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Disease at St. Josephs Health, said, ideally, you should stay home until symptoms are gone.

Then, I would recommend they [isolate] for an additional five days, he advised.

That was what we did in 2020 and 2021, you were positive, and if you didnt wind up in the hospital, and your fever abated, you stayed home for an additional five days, and you wore a mask wherever you went, he continued.

If you interact with someone who has COVID-19, whether or not you need to quarantine depends on your vaccination status.

Current CDC guidelines specify that people who are not vaccinated and are exposed to the virus should stay home, quarantine for at least five full days, and test on day five.

But if you are vaccinated, you can avoid quarantine and just monitor yourself for symptoms.

As a nurse scientist, I ascribe to the CDCs guidelines of quarantine for five days after exposure to someone with COVID if you are unvaccinated, said Catherine Curley, PhD, RN, Interim Director, Center for Global and Public Health, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University.

However, she said if someone is vaccinated, they should be cautious and look out for COVID symptoms. Masking in that time period is also suggested, she added.

Despite lower cases we are still in a pandemic, and the more safety measures such as masking and isolating with exposure, the better the chances that we can stop the spread, said Curley.

According to Lahita, were relying on the honor system that people adhere to isolation and quarantine rules and take steps to avoid exposing others to the illness if they have to go out.

Its this way; you get an upper respiratory infection, sore throat its horrible, youre running a slight temperature of about a hundred, youre achy all over, but you need to go out for milk, he said. So you put the mask on, and you go.

However, that isnt the best way to prevent disease transmission.

But the honor system is if that happens, your milk will have to wait. You shouldnt go out at all, said Lahita. If they have the home test and they test positive, then for sure, they should not go out.

In March, the Biden Administration launched a nationwide Test to Treat initiative to give people rapid, free access to potentially life-saving treatment for COVID-19. People can go to certain pharmacies for a COVID-19 test, and then if they qualify, they can get access to antiviral medications.

Due to limited supply, only people at high risk for severe COVID-19 are being given the anti-virals.

If you test positive and youre very symptomatic, its test to treat, said Lahita.

These antiviral medications have been very successful in studies in reducing the risk of hospitalization. Paxlovid was found to be 90 percent effective at reducing the risk of severe COVID-19 in studies.

You use it for five days and it keeps you out of the hospital and from using monoclonal antibodies, said Lahita. It keeps you from going to the emergency room.

Figuring out who is truly asymptomatic can be difficult.

The symptoms of COVID-19, especially the dominant and highly infectious Omicron variant, can mirror those of more mild conditions, like colds or allergies.

According to a recent meta-analysis, of nearly 30 million people, a significant amount of people with COVID-19. They found among people with confirmed COVID-19, over 40 percent of cases were asymptomatic. The researchers said that the high percentage of asymptomatic infections highlights the potential transmission risk these cases can bring to communities.

Lahita said if you have a very bad cold or flu-like illness, which looks like COVID, its best to stay home and not mingle with other people you might infect even if you havent been tested yet.

But when youre dealing with the public, your belief system is that people will do the right thing, and that is not necessarily the case, Lahita cautioned.

Lahita warned that were going to find out, although the Omicron variant presents some challenges to the reporting system.

The unfortunate thing with Omicron is that you can test positive and stay home, and nobody will know that youve been positive, he said. Because you dont go to the hospital, you dont get admitted, you dont go to your doctors office, so youre just positive, and youre staying home.

Lahita said those numbers arent included in the official tally of positive cases.

He emphasized that wastewater testing will be the best indicator.

The only way we know the numbers are really going through the roof is by measuring wastewater, Lahita said.

California has lifted the five-day quarantine requirement for asymptomatic individuals, causing confusion.

Experts say asymptomatic people can potentially still spread the disease and ideally should still isolate according to CDC guidelines.

They also say while this may be unnecessary for vaccinated people who test positive without symptoms, they should still mask around others and watch out for signs of COVID.

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Do You Need to Isolate if You Have COVID-19 but No Symptoms? - Healthline

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEApril 22, 2022

COLUMBIA, S.C. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported new data Thursday that show COVID-19s impact on vaccination and school attendance rates for kindergartners across the United States and is calling for parents to get their children vaccinated against common diseases that impact education. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) continues to support safe and effective vaccines for kids that prevent illnesses and help keep them in school.

According to Thursdays CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), vaccine coverage among kindergarteners dropped from 95 percent to below 94 percent during the 2020-2021 school year, which amounts to more than 35,000 children who entered kindergarten without documentation of complete vaccination against common diseases like measles, whooping cough, and chicken pox. In addition, enrollment in kindergarten dropped by 10 percent which means around 400,000 fewer children entered kindergarten than expected.

While these rates are on a nationwide scale, they also reflect what South Carolina is experiencing in terms of increased sickness, recent outbreaks of preventable diseases like chickenpox, and lower school attendance, said Dr. Edward Simmer, DHEC Director. We encourage parents to talk to a trusted medical professional to get their questions answered so they can make informed health decisions for their child.

Longstanding vaccinations, such as ones for chicken pox and measles, as well as the newer and rigorously tested COVID-19 vaccination, are incredibly important now that most schools have returned to in-person learning. DHEC continues to emphasize that the classroom is the best place for children to interact and learn, especially younger students who thrive by having in-person interaction with teachers, staff, and friends. Staying up-to-date with your childs vaccinations will help ensure they are able to stay healthy and in school.

DHEC offers several low-cost vaccination programs for children and adults, so please do not let vaccine costs keep you or your child from getting vaccinated. To see if youre eligible and to apply, visit our eligibility page or call 1-888-277-4687.

You can make an appointment to receive certain vaccines, including flu, pneumonia, varicella (chicken pox) and tetanus, at one of DHECs county health departments or by calling 1-855-472-3432.

For more information on vaccine requirements, frequently asked questions, and which vaccines are due at certain ages, please visit the DHEC website onchildcare and school-required vaccines.

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CDC Report Highlights COVID-19 Impact on Kindergarten Vaccination Rates and Attendance - SCDHEC

CNN

Although a federal judge struck down the Biden administrations mask mandate for public transportation Monday, some experts say you dont want to throw out your mask just yet. No matter the form of public transportation planes, trains, trams, subways, buses or even rideshares good ventilation can help reduce the spread of Covid-19, but masks work best.

You cant engineer your way out of a problem like this, said Krystal Pollitt, an assistant professor of epidemiology and assistant professor in chemical and environmental engineering at the Yale Institute for Global Health.

Someone infected with Covid-19 releases aerosols that contain the coronavirus when they talk, laugh or simply exhale. If the person isnt wearing a mask to block those aerosols, they can hang in the air and be inhaled by other people nearby.

Outdoors, viral particles may disperse with even a light wind. But indoors, where there is no wind, particles tend to concentrate and hang around. Good ventilation can help break up the concentration of viral particles, but it cant do everything.

Ventilation is great, but we know if we are outside, the risks are lower. Being able to re-create the same amount of airflow that you would have with just your natural wind patterns in a confined indoor space thats heavily occupied is incredibly hard to do, Pollitt said. Outside of putting yourself into, say, a wind tunnel, which obviously wouldnt be comfortable for many reasons or energy-wise, we have to think about whats realistic.

On public transportation of any kind, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system sucks in air from outside, treats it and pushes it into the cabin or car. Its a closed-loop system that can pull a little bit of fresh air.

A bus or subway car can have 10 to 18 air exchanges per hour on the low side, according to Jim Alosi, a former Massachusetts secretary of transportation who is now a lecturer on transportation policy planning at MITs Department of Urban Studies and Planning; on the high side, it might have 40 to 50.

Everything depends on the age of the equipment, Alosi said. Older systems are not as efficient as newer ones.

Ventilated air that is well-mixed has good circulation and is relatively safe, said Varghese Mathai, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who has done studies on how the coronavirus spreads in an environment.

But when ventilation is not as good, the air is not so well-mixed, and there can be zones inside a room with a higher concentration of particles.

One cant really predict where these zones are not well-mixed in a room. Really, its a multidimensional problem, and its not easy to predict in a not-so-well-mixed room how safe it is to stay for an extended duration of time, Mathai said.

And if the transportation system wants maximum efficiency to cool or heat the air in a cabin, it can shut off the air intake and use whats already inside, explained Aly Tawfik, director of the Fresno State Transportation Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Geomatics Engineering at California State University, Fresno.

Buses have filters, just like the ones inside our vehicles, Tawfik said. But they are not designed for viruses like the coronavirus or the flu virus.

In May 2020, Tawfik and his team did an experiment to see how a virus could spread through buses with a typical ventilation system.

Using nontoxic colored candles and steam, they simulated how air flowed in a variety of buses. They found that HVAC systems are extremely efficient and hold cool or the warm air inside a bus a lot longer than some may expect.

When the team introduced smoke, they saw that it spread in seconds and filled the whole cabin. Even when they opened the doors and introduced fresh air into the HVAC systems, the smoke lingered for minutes. The researchers think the virus behaves like the smoke did and could linger even after an infected person has left a bus.

These were unpleasant findings, because it means that opening the doors and windows doesnt help much, Tawfik said. The systems were designed to treat air fast and keep it inside the cabin for a long period of time.

With another experiment, the team tried to see if they could treat the air to make it safer. They tested the buses with three viruses that were similar to the coronavirus.

Cooling the air mitigated an average of about 80% of the viruses, and heating was at about 90%.

That does not necessarily mean that its safe, because this 10% is still millions of viruses, Tawfik said. For one thing, its not clear how much of the virus virus it takes to infect someone.

HEPA filters mitigated about 94% of the viruses. Ionizers were a little less efficient, but photocatalytic oxidation and UV lights were better. UV lights in the HVAC system removed about 99% of the viruses.

Northern Californias BART system and New Yorks Metro system are among those that have introduced some of these technologies during the pandemic.

People can catch Covid-19 on planes, especially when an infected person isnt wearing a mask, studies have shown, but a planes air system is much stronger than one on a bus or train.

Airplanes use HEPA filters that can capture about 99% of particles in the air. They also have better air circulation when flying. Air is typically fed in through the top of the cabin, extracted by floor vents, fed through those filters and eventually sent back into the cabin.

Planes bring in air in a top-to-bottom direction about 20 to 30 times per hour, creating a 50-50 mix of outside and recirculated air and reducing the potential spread of the virus. So the risk of getting sick is low, the experts say.

However, people are usually on planes a lot longer than they may be on a subway or on a bus, and more time in a crowded plane can increase someones exposure.

When a plane is parked, it does not have that superior circulation.

Airplane systems are a little similar to bus systems when they are on the ground, Tawfik said. Thats why youll notice the temperature isnt as well-regulated then, and its also when there isnt the same amount of fresh air circulating. Its then dealing with the same challenges.

Uber and Lyft have dropped their mask mandates, and many taxi companies have stopped requiring masks.

Infection in a car is certainly possible, studies show.

You can always wear a mask, and some experts suggest opening car windows and keeping talk to a minimum. Keep in mind that shorter rides are also better than longer ones.

Alosi said there are things that transportation systems could do to mitigate some of the risk. Trains and buses could run more often so there arent as many people on board, for instance.

He says it could help to require people to show proof of vaccination if they want to get on a train or plane. That probably wouldnt work with subways or buses, though, nor would it fly politically.

Alosi thinks public transportation has been unfairly stigmatized. If youre not up in arms about people being unmasked in the grocery store, you should chill out about public transit, he said.

Even before masks were mandatory on public transportation, studies have found, mass transit systems dont seem to be major drivers of viral spread.

And although its not mandatory, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends that people wear masks in indoor public transportation settings.

When you spend significant duration indoors, you obviously inhale, and if you have co-occupants who are potentially infected, you can inhale these tiny droplets that can get you sick, Mathai said.

Ventilation absolutely helps, he said, but protecting yourself can take multiple tools of mitigation. Masks really reduce the momentum of these released aerosol droplets.

A mask can even protect you when others arent wearing them.

Just wearing a mask is a such a simple solution to increasing the level of safety, Pollitt said. Putting one on, its an easy thing to do.

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Ventilation helps make public transit safer from spread of Covid-19, experts say, but masks are better - CNN

Norwegian health authorities say they are open to giving people aged 80 and above a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine but see no cause for a general recommendation for that age category to get a fourth shot

ByThe Associated Press

April 20, 2022, 1:14 PM

1 min read

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Norwegian health authorities said Wednesday they are open to giving people aged 80 and above a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, but see no cause for a general recommendation for that age category to get a fourth shot.

Geir Bukholm, assistant director at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said the agency believes this can be assessed and chosen by the individual.

However, the agency urged more people with severely weakened immune systems to take a booster shot of the vaccine.

The agency said the updated assessment was in line with guidelines by the European Infection Control Agency and the European Medicines Agency.

In neighboring Sweden, authorities this month recommended a fourth vaccine dose for people 65 and over and for those living in nursing homes or getting home care, down from an earlier recommendation for people 80 and older. The recommendation also includes fourth shots for those aged 1864 with moderate to severe immune deficiency.

Follow all of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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Norway is open to 4th COVID-19 shot to people over 80 - ABC News