Category: Covid-19

Commuters, one wearing a mask, ride the subway in New York, Friday, June 14, 2024. New York Governor ... [+] Kathy Hochul says she is considering a ban on face masks in the New York City subway system, following what she described as concerns over people shielding their identities while committing antisemitic acts. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The CDC has just changed its assessment of Covid-19 risks from saying it is primarily a seasonal, winter respiratory infection to noting that there are also summer peaks. It is, therefore, even more disturbing that a number of cities and states are choosing to promote mask bans. Heres where those policies have taken hold.

In North Carolina, the General Assembly passed bill HB 237, previously called Unmasking Mobs and Criminals. It said it is illegal to mask in public unless you have a contagious disease. (Note: There is no exemption for preventing disease, asthma, or other medical problems). Republicans said the law was passed as a response to masking at college campuses by protestors against the war in Gaza. The law also increases the penalties if a person commits a crime while wearing a mask. Yet if they obtained a permit, the KKK could hold masked rallies.

Democratic State Rep. Maria Cervania is an epidemiologist as well as a legislator. In an interview, she said that the worst part is that any property owner or occupant of that property can tell you you need to take off your mask. Further, law enforcement can ask you to take off your mask for any reason. The Democratic Governor, Roy Cooper, vetoed this bill, and the GOP legislature overrode his veto.

The GOP knows that this is not based in medical facts, Cervania added. It's not based on individual rights and freedoms. It's not based on people being able to make their own decisions about their health, the health of their loved ones. This is all politics, Cervania concluded, and passing this doesnt protect our people.

In Chicago, Alderman Raymond Lopez proposed language identical to North Carolinas. It has yet to advance.

The Defender Association of Philadelphia, a non-profit group of attorneys, offered different perspectives. They counter that these dress code solutions are ineffective crime deterrents. They also give additional pretext for law enforcement to surveil young people of color, leading to more incarceration and compromising their socioeconomic futures. Some of the young people wear ski masks as a fashion statement, they note. Sadly, many wear them at times because theyre afraid of being recognized by other people who intend to do them harm.

Eric Adams, New York Citys Democratic mayor, has long been a proponent of facial recognition and surveillance cameras. In June, Adams stated, "I'm a strong supporter of the decision of stopping of masks on our subway system, masks in protest, and masks in other areas where it's not health related." Ignoring health concerns, Adams said "people have hid under the guise of wearing a mask for COVID to commit criminal acts and vile acts. I think now is the time to go back to the way it was pre-COVID.

But even early in 2023, Adams urged store owners to not allow people to enter the store without taking off their face mask. At that time, NYC still reported a daily average of 611 new cases and 24 new hospitalizations per week. The citys health department stated, We strongly recommend everyone to wear masks in all indoor public settings. Requiring immunocompromised people to unmask would likely violate the Americans With Disabilities Act.

In response to a pro-Palestinian threat on the NYC subway, Governor Kathy Hochul has strongly supported mask bans. She said, We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior, adding, On a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes. She indicated the ban was a response to antisemitic attacks and came as a response to demands from some Jewish leaders, particularly in the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Community Relations Council.

Such arguments, however, dont account for the fact that subways and other closed or crowded spaces are precisely where you might want to protect yourself from Covid-19, for example.

But Julie Lam, founder of Mask Together America, understands this and is a seemingly tireless advocate for masking and protecting immunocompromised people. Her site and X (Twitter) stream is full of suggestions for activism. For example, she suggests sending letters to all your elected officials and offers a template. Similarly, her advocacy group has an extensive toolkit, Stop Mask Bans, as does Covid Advocacy NY here.

Prompted by a pro-Palestinian protest at an Los Angeles synagogue that turned violent, the citys mayor, Karen Bass, is the latest to join the anti-mask bandwagon. Ironically, just a few days later, Bass became ill with Covid-19. She has the luxury both of working from home and having sick leave.

Because of the change in seasonality, CDC recommends that vulnerable people, such as those who are age 65 or older, immunocompromised, or pregnant receive an additional Covid-19 vaccination this summer. They will likely recommend boosters every six months for these groups. Despite the fact that Covid-19 has airborne spread, they only recommend masking under additional strategies, yet place handwashing as a core strategy. They came out with this latest advice at a time when Covid-19 cases are again steadily rising.

Lack of masking remains a particular problem in hospitals, where immunocompromised patients risk getting a hospital-acquired Covid-19 infection. Some hospitals, like Massachusetts General and UCSF, have made masking for staff optional.

First, addressing the claim that mask bans are necessary for facial recognition and societal safety, growing data shows that face masks are less effective than sunglasses in masking face identity. Another study claims Convolutional Neural Networks are highly capable of learning features and accurately identifying the image, even when the only fully visible part of the face is the eyes.

There has been widespread opposition to the proposed mask bans on a number of grounds. A Los Angeles Times editorial says a ban would probably violate the 1st Amendment right to expression. It notes that many would want to avoid police surveillance and protect their privacy.

Lucky Tran, Ph.D., a science communicator based in New York and an organizer with COVID Advocacy NY., summed up the mask ban succinctly:

He points out a number of fallacies in the pro-mask arguments. For one, people of color wear masks at a higher rate, and it is a societal norm in some Asian countries. In an interview, Tran noted, There is no evidence bans increase safety, but there is considerable data that it increases anti-Asian attacks.

The lack of coverage of this issue in the media plays into the larger minimization of the pandemic and ongoing impacts of Covid, Tran added. Mask bans stigmatize mask wearing. Health exemptions are very vague and narrow, and they put too much power into authorities who are likely to abuse that, he added. It will lead to criminalization and further marginalization of impacted communities.

Tran reserved his most biting criticism for the proposed bans coming at the same time that Hochul and Adams are professing concern about climate changeNew York City is suffering from a heat wavestating, It seems absolutely hypocritical that they're banning masks at a time that theyre warning people about air quality, since masks are one of the best ways to protect yourself against wildfire smoke.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, echoed Trans concerns. In terms of immunocompromised people, she said (via email), As we continue to grapple with COVID-19, a mask ban might well make subways more dangerous, exile people at high risk from public spaces, and open up people trying to protect themselves to harassment.

She urged New Yorkers to demand their elected officials listen to their constituents. Making calls and sending letters and emails reminding their local legislators and the Governor of the harms of a mask ban can make a real difference. A mask ban is a dangerous overreach that would stifle political speech, criminalize dissent, and, if past is prologue, lead to arbitrary, selective enforcement against people of color and protestors the police disagree with.

Finally, there is a thoughtful, open letter from Jews for Mask Rights, in response to Hochul claiming the bans are being demanded by Jewish leaders in response to rising antisemitism, signed by more than 1,030 Jews, of whom 140+ are leaders. They summarize:

"Jewish tradition prioritizes the sanctity and protection of life, above all else. Jews are not permitted to endanger our own or others lives or behave in ways likely to spread illness or cause death. We have an obligation to protect the life and health of others. The principle of pikuach nefesh saving a life prioritizes preserving human life over virtually all else. ...Wearing a mask is a mitzvah [good deed]. Forbidding it puts Jews at odds with our tradition, violating both our religious freedom and physical safety."

Governor Kathy Hochul, Eric Adams, and the CDC did not respond to requests for comment about the mask bans.

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Mask Bans Grow, Threatening Public Health And Immunocompromised People - Forbes

Count Pennsylvania among the states tracking an increase in COVID cases, but because of high vaccination rates, hospitalizations and deaths from the infection remain low.

Thats according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, which shows the annual summer surge in infection rates.

As of June, the CDC estimates that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 44 states, including Pennsylvania. Infection rates are declining or likely declining only in Hawaii; and are stable or uncertain in five states.

While COVID-19 cases are no longer required to be reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the CDC provides information regarding positive infection tests among other data points on its COVID Data Tracker.

It is not unusual for there to be fluctuations in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over time in Pennsylvania and across the nation, but due to effective vaccinations and treatments, as well as the evolution of the virus, COVID-19 has become a much less severe illness for most of the population and the number of hospitalizations and deaths have dropped dramatically since the height of the pandemic, department officials said in an email to PennLive.

According to CDC data, Pennsylvania had approximately 1,600 COVID hospitalization cases heading into January, the peak in about eight months. As of July, hospitalizations due to COVID numbered less than 200.

Its important to note that data collected after May 1 was done so on a voluntary basis to the CDC. Mandatory reporting ended on April 30.

CDC guidance notes that people ages 65 years and older should receive one additional dose of any updated COVID-19 vaccine at least four months following the previous dose.

For people 75 or older who have had the primary vaccination course, the recommended booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine should be every 6 months. For people 18 74 who are severely immunocompromised, the recommended booster doses is every 12 months.

The Health Department recommends that Pennsylvania residents stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations and continue fundamental health and hygiene practices, like handwashing, staying home when sick, and avoiding contact with people who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

The department also recommends taking COVID tests if you think you might have COVID-19 and seeking treatment to reduce the chances of being hospitalized, department officials said.

The state health department provides a variety of data points, including emergency department visits, which are available on its Respiratory Virus Dashboard.

According to the latest CDC data, nationwide hospitalizations and deaths as a result of COVID remain low. Wastewater surveillance, a reliable way to track infection rates, shows COVID levels rising in the Midwest, Northeast and South.

Moreover, a new Johns Hopkins Medicine study finds that regular booster doses of a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine can help people who are the most susceptible to the damaging effects of the coronavirus fight the virus.

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, finds enhanced immunity to a variety of COVID strains among organ transplant recipients who have repeated boosters of a messenger RNA bivalent vaccine. The Baltimore Sun reported on the study results.

Updated COVID vaccines have led to better protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death, as reported by Yale Medicine. The updated vaccines target XBB.1.5, a subvariant of Omicron, which surged across the country and the world from November 2021 until last year.

According to the CDC, the updated vaccines should also work against currently circulating variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus; and JN.1, the current dominant strain in the U.S, Yale Medicine reports.

In general, COVID has more recently led to mild illness, although infectious disease specialists warn that the disease can still lead to hospitalization and death.

The CDC notes that updated vaccines are not expected to prevent all cases of COVID, but rather reduce severe illness, hospitalization, and death from infection.

The CDC recommends people aged 12 and older who got Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID vaccines before September 12, 2023, or Novavax vaccine before October 3, 2023, should get 1 updated Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Novavax vaccine.

Wondering if you should be wearing a mask?

Public health experts generally agree that masks provide protection against respiratory viruses, lowering exposure to infections like COVID-19 and the flu, among others.

Masks are strongly recommended:

People who are at higher risk for severe respiratory infections include:

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COVID-19 cases rising in Pa. but hospitalizations, deaths remain low - PennLive

Anthony Fauci cant pinpoint the most meaningful dinner hes ever had every time you mention one, theres another memory of another supper with another legend waiting in the wings. Was it the private, casual get-together with former President George W. Bush? Or the time he got to eat with his boyhood baseball hero, Yogi Berra? Or even the time he was with singer and AIDS activist Bono, wishing he could share the secretive news about the latest project he was working on, the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

In a special edition of the First Opinion Podcast, STAT executive editor Rick Berke and senior writer Helen Branswell interviewed the countrys former top infectious disease expert about some of the insights and revelations from his new memoir, On Call: A Doctors Journey in Public Service.

Conversation topics include when Fauci knew that Covid-19 was a real threat; when another AIDS activist, Larry Kramer, called him the consummate manipulative bureaucrat in an interview with STAT; how quickly national health risk can skyrocket when it comes to pathogenic viruses; and which former president Fauci has the most affection for.

Be sure to sign up for the weekly First Opinion Podcast onApple Podcasts,Spotify,Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. And dont forget to sign up for theFirst Opinion newsletter to learn about each weeks First Opinion essays. Next week is our last episode for the season.

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Listen: Anthony Fauci on presidents, bird flu, and turning down a multimillion-dollar job - STAT

High angle view looking down at the hands of an unrecognizable black man holding the test strip of a covid rapid test while waiting for the test results.

HONOLULU (KHON2) More than 1,000 Hawaii residents have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week, and the numbers continue to increase.

Data from the Department of Health revealed the newly updated numbers of both confirmed and probable cases from each island between July 3 and July 10.

Oahu showed the biggest increase in COVID cases with 607 cases confirmed through laboratory evidence and 100 cases with a positive antigen test result.

On Hawaii island, officials reported 88 COVID cases were confirmed while 70 cases were reported probable.

Maui showed 117 new COVID cases throughout the week, confirming 59 of them.

Molokai and Lanai each saw two confirmed cases to bring Molokais total case count to 1,504 and Lanais to 856.

Kauai saw a 100-case increase. Two out-of-state visitors reported they tested positive for COVID, leaving only one probable case for the week.

According to the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, there are still about 100 positive patients each day.

As numbers continue to rise, experts warn the public to take proper precautions to stay safe and to avoid getting sick.

If youre gonna be at an event and you dont wanna catch anything, wear a mask, wash your hands. If youre sick and dont wanna pass it on, stay home, advised Dr. Tony Trpkovski from Doctors of Waikiki.

For more information or to keep track of new COVID case counts, visit the DOHs website.

While COVID vaccine shots are currently limited in the state, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to release a new vaccine for the 2024 fall season.

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DOH: Hawaii sees more than 1k increase in COVID cases - KHON2

For a brief moment, speculation that COVID-19 originated in a lab had been upgraded in the discourse from a conspiracy theory to a serious possibility worthy of serious inquiry.

No longer.

In an op-ed published in STAT on Tuesday, AIDS activist Peter Staley bemoans the "witch hunt" being carried out by an "anti-science mob" against EcoHealth Alliancethe New Yorkbased nonprofit that had been using federal funds to do gain-of-function work on potential pandemic pathogens at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

EcoHealth has been the subject of immense bipartisan controversy in recent months.

Thanks to the work of congressional investigators and investigative journalists, we know that EcoHealth was creating SARS-like coronaviruses in Wuhan and had even proposed in grant applications to create viruses that bear a striking resemblance to SARS-CoV-2.

In grant proposal drafts, the nonprofit's president, Peter Daszak, proposed to do this work at Wuhan because of its "cost-effective" lower biosafety precautions and tried to obscure from federal funders how much of the organization's work would be conducted at Wuhan.

Republicans and Democrats on the House's Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic have criticized Daszak and his organization for their lack of transparency and failure to properly oversee their Wuhan partners' experiments.

The Biden administration has since stripped EcoHealth of its federal funding and launched a debarment investigation that could see it banned from receiving future grants. former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci has said he agrees with that decision. So has former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins.

According to Staley, all the bipartisan sanctions and scrutiny applied to EcoHealth are part of a right-wing "McCarthyite" crusade to stop the crucial basic research the group does into identifying likely sites of the next disease outbreak.

"It scares meand should scare youthat conspiracy theorists are winning. And because of them, we will be less prepared for the next pandemic," he writes.

He needn't be so worried.

The actual history of the pandemic suggests that EcoHealth's work wasn't useful in spotting the next pandemic or preparing people to respond to it. This is true even if one dismisses the credible accusations that the nonprofit's work led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

As Staley recounts in his piece, EcoHealth's mission is to surveil areas of the globe where animal viruses are mostly likely to spill over into human populations and cause the next pandemic.

It received millions in NIAID grants to collect viruses in human and animal populations across China, and sequence and study those viruses at Wuhan to identify likely future pandemic pathogens.

If one believes in a natural origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, one also has to believe that EcoHealth was caught totally by surprise by the outbreak of a coronavirus pandemic in its backyard. All its taxpayer-funded disease surveillance would seem to be naught.

Staley compares sanctions on EcoHealth to stripping funding from a New York City firefighting company because a fire brought down the World Trade Center.

A more accurate analogy would be that we're stripping funding from a firefighting company that failed to respond to a massive conflagration that destroyed the building next door.

Indeed, this was a mainstream criticism of EcoHealth's work prior to the pandemic. There are so many viruses circulating in nature that the chances that disease surveillance will identify the one that will evolve into the next human pandemic are infinitesimally small.

Staley is on firmer ground when he says that Fauci and Collins are throwing EcoHealth under the bus by agreeing with the Biden administration's decision to strip the nonprofit of its funding.

If EcoHealth failed to properly oversee its Wuhan work, NIAID and NIH (which funded EcoHealth's work) also failed to properly oversee the nonprofit's grant work.

Fauci and Collins' position, supported by Democrats in Congress, that they are totally blameless for EcoHealth's scandals is a remarkable exercise in blame-shifting. If EcoHealth deserves the sanctions they've received, NIH and NIAID have a lot to answer for as well.

Congress' investigations into COVID's origins are ongoing. In time, perhaps the organizations that funded gain-of-function research on pandemic pathogens in Wuhan will face some accountability for failing to properly police the risky research they knew was happening there.

The worst thing one can say about EcoHealth's work is that it helped create a pandemic it was supposed to prevent. The best thing that can be said about its work is it proved totally useless at stopping a pandemic it was supposed to nip in the bud.

In either scenario, it's hardly anti-science to question the value taxpayers are getting by funding this work.

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The Media Is Back to Deriding the Lab Leak as a 'Conspiracy Theory' - Reason

Angle down icon An icon in the shape of an angle pointing down. Jeff Bridges said that he's "feeling great" three years after his illness, and still loves doing fight scenes. Taylor Hill/Getty Images

Jeff Bridges is more than ready to go ahead with the season two premiere of his FX series "The Old Man," three years after he contracted COVID-19 while undergoing chemotherapy.

Bridges appeared on Wednesday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour alongside his "Old Man" costar John Lithgow and executive producers Jonathan Steinberg, Dan Shotz, and Warren Littlefield. Bridges spoke about the show's upcoming second season and gave an update on his health.

"I'm feeling great now. I'm coming back for more punishment," Bridges said.

Bridges announced in October 2020 that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma. Early the following year he said he caught COVID-19 while undergoing chemotherapy. Bridges was in the hospital for five weeks, and told People that he was "pretty close to dying."

In "The Old Man," Bridges plays Dan Chase, a former CIA operative haunted by his past. The show's first season went on a production hiatus after Bridges' diagnosis. It resumed production in 2022 after he announced in September 2021 that he was in remission, Deadline reported.

"In the first season when I was doing these fight scenes, I had a 9-inch by 12-inch tumor in my body, in my stomach, that didn't hurt at all," Bridges said. "So that's surprising to me, but I'm feeling great now."

Bridges praised "The Old Man's" stunt coordinators for helping him pull off some fight scenes. His costar, Lithgow, recommended that people watch Bridges in the 1972 film "Bad Company" to better "appreciate" the work he's doing now.

"Some of the greatest scenes in 'The Old Man' are Jeff's fight scenes, an old man having to summon up the strength and skill he had 50 years ago," costar Lithgow said.

Season two of "The Old Man" will premiere on FX on September 12.

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Jeff Bridges is 'feeling great' three years after COVID-19, cancer - Business Insider

Two days after the Fourth of July, the email arrived: Governor Hochul Updates New Yorkers on Recent Increase in Covid-19 Activity.

Emails with a subject line similar to that were a near-daily occurrence during much of 2020, 2021 and 2022. First from the office of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and later from the current governor, Kathy Hochul, the emails contained detailed and often sobering sometimes even startling information about the spread of the virus across New York.

When the state dropped the frequency of the emails to weekly in early 2023, and ultimately ended their regular distribution on May 12 of that year, the feeling was gratifying.

Maybe, just maybe, we were done with Covid-19.

We were done with the pandemic in May 2023. Thats when the World Health Organization declared it over. But much like influenza didnt leave us after the 1918 pandemic, Covid-19 is here to stay.

The governors update email last week indicated infection numbers are rising again. You should be aware, but not alarmed.

Heres a look at the situation:

What exactly did the states update email say?

Everywhere we turn, people are feeling sick. Not always terribly sick, but just stuffy, groggy, Id-rather-stay-in-bed sick.It seems inescapable. Is an extra-sniffly winter going to be our new normal?

Nothing overly nerve-racking for most people, but it was a clear reminder that Covid-19 hasnt gone away. Some new variants a series of them called FLiRT, and another called LB.1 are spreading and causing increases in hospitalizations in some parts of New York state and around the country, according to the state update.

Those rising hospitalization numbers are still relatively low compared to other years, but just enough of a blip on a chart to warrant noticing: On July 3, the statewide average of Covid-19 hospital admissions was .72 per 100,000 people. Thats higher than the number from one year ago .31 per 100,000 people but noticeably lower than the figure from this time in 2022, 1.66 per 100,000.

More telling are the charts that track hospitalizations in different parts of the state. If you click on New York City or Long Island, you will notice that the trend has been steadily upward in recent days. In Western New York, the chart has short peaks and small valleys, indicating low numbers and less of a trend.

An informal check-in by The Buffalo News with some Western New York-based hospital systems didnt reveal anything different, either. A spokesman for Kaleida Health, for example, said the numbers are low, with three inpatients apiece at Buffalo General Medical Center and Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, and most of them admitted with Covid not as a primary diagnosis.

Erie County Medical Center has seen few Covid cases in recent weeks, but no sign yet of an uptick.

So the news seems positive, so far, from inside regional hospitals.

These are all good things, said Dr. John Sellick, an infectious diseases specialist with the University at Buffalo and Kaleida Health, and that doesnt mean its not going to change next week or the week after.

Dr. Thomas Russo, left, and Dr. John Sellick, two leading experts in the study of Covid-19, at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, say a new uptick in related cases is something to keep an eye on, especially if youre higher risk for a potentially challenging infection.

So we can feel OK about it?

Generally yes, in the same way you can feel OK about any other virus going around. Feel free not to worry, especially if your health is good, but do take notice.

To me, this is just the same kind of evolution that weve always seen with flu viruses or with norovirus, in that a strain that becomes fit for transmission is going to win out, Sellieck said. Theres a bunch of viruses meaning variants that are able to transmit, but theres still no evidence that the disease is getting more severe.

Its worth keeping an eye on the numbers, he said. Its also worth remembering that at multiple points throughout the pandemic, upstate New Yorks trend lagged behind New York City, so we could still see an uptick.

What if Im in a more vulnerable category?

If you are older, or have certain comorbidities that increase your risk of Covid-19 complications, or are immunocompromised, its wise to revisit some of the basic precautions: Consider avoiding crowded situations, especially indoors. Open air, or even open windows, are a good thing. Practice good hand hygiene, and have a mask with you for when you need it, or even simply want it.

If you fall in that high-risk category, depending how risk-averse you are, think about whether you want to be going out for dinner. Do you want to be going to a bar? said Dr. Thomas Russo, chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalos Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Weddings obviously could be very important, so if youre high risk, you want to weigh that, or if you do attend, can you wear a mask most of the time? If its patio dining, obviously thats safer. Theres a way to decrease risk with some modifications of those activities.

Registered nurse Colleen Danaher readies the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent Covid-19 vaccine for a patient in the Town of Tonawanda in 2022. A Buffalo infectious disease expert says those concerned about an uptick in Covid cases may want to consider a booster shot if they have not received one in the last year or so.

Lets go back to masks. Is it time to be wearing them?

Thats a purely personal choice, but given how rarely we see masks worn nowadays, it can be difficult to know when its wise to consider putting one on. For help on navigating those nuances, we reached out to one of the worlds most prominent experts on air quality and safety.

Linsey Marr is a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech and a MacArthur Fellow who is leading the development of a rapid test designed to detect the presence of airborne Covid-19 virus particles in a given space. During the pandemic, she told The Buffalo News that she was avoiding eating indoors altogether. In an email this week, we asked Marr, How do you make decisions nowadays about whether to enter a crowded restaurant, shop or other similar gathering spot?

Her response: I have been going into crowded indoor areas without a mask for a while now. If I hear someone coughing, I move away from them, put on a mask, or leave. I have been wearing an N95 respirator on airplane flights during the current uptick in cases.

Reported Covid-19 cases have climbed in recent days, raising the specter that those at higher risk may want to consider wearing a mask indoors.

What else can we do to maximize our safety?

As with all things Covid-related, this depends on your situation. Russo offered a couple of tips:

Whether you get that Covid shot now or wait till fall, when new formulations are likely to be released, is also a nuanced choice.

If youre in that highest-risk group, and particularly if you didnt get that shot in the fall, and you have an important wedding or anticipate doing some of these high-risk activities, then I think its not too late to get the formulation thats available right now, Russo said, adding that you could still get the new shots in the fall. If youre otherwise healthy, very low risk, and particularly if you might have been infected in the last six months, then I think you could probably hold off.

Follow Tim OShei on Twitter @timoshei .

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Pandemic Lessons: You probably haven't thought about Covid in a while. Is it back? - Buffalo News

Over the past several months, Violet Affleck has earned fans among COVID-conscious people for being one offew prominent faces still wearing a mask in public. On Tuesday, Jennifer Garner and Ben Afflecks 18-year-old daughter appeared in front of a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting and revealed in an impassioned speech that she wears a mask because she has a post-viral condition. She called on the officials to protect others with the illness.

I contracted a post-viral condition in 2019, Affleck said after introducing herself by her full name, noting her age and that shes a first-time voter. Im okay now, but I saw firsthand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown that into sharper relief.

Affleck spoke during a portion of the meeting dedicated to community comments, which allows residents to address the board for one minute. Its unclear if she dealt with long COVID or another illness, as she didnt give any additional details about her condition. After sharing her own experience, she called on officials to do more to help those suffering from long COVID in government buildings and hospitals. I demand mask availability, air filtration, and far-UVC light in government facilities, including jails and detention centers, and mask mandates in county medical facilities, she said.

Affleck, who graduated from high school in May and is heading to Yale, spoke quickly to make sure her statement fit into the minute-long slot allowed. We must expand the availability of free tests and treatment and, most importantly, the county must oppose mask bans for any reason. They do not keep us safer, they make vulnerable members of our community less safe and make everyone less able to participate in Los Angeles together. We dont know what Affleck plans to major in, but public health could be a good place to start.

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Violet Affleck Reveals She Contracted a Post-Viral Condition - The Cut

AMA Update covers a range of health care topics affecting the lives of physicians, residents, medical students and patients. From private practice and health system leaders to scientists and public health officials, hear from the experts inmedicineon COVID-19, medical education, advocacy issues, burnout, vaccines and more.

Featured topic and speakers

What is the new COVID variant? How many variants are there? How long does long COVID last? How long do COVID GI symptoms last? Which states have bird flu?

Our guest is AMA's Vice President of Science, Medicine and Public Health, Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.

Unger: Hello, and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast. Today we have our weekly look at the headlines with the AMA's Vice President of Science, Medicine, and Public Health, Andrea Garcia. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer. Welcome back, Andrea.

Garcia: Thanks, Todd. It's great to be here.

Unger: Well, a little bit of a surprisebut coming out of this past holiday, Fourth of July, weekend, the story seems to be about COVID. And as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, health officials are predicting a "drift upwards" after the Fourth of July. Andrea, are we seeing that?

Garcia: Well, as we've talked a little bit about before, Todd, our COVID surveillance systems certainly are not what they once were. So it's a little difficult to say if this is a bigger surge or that drift upwards. We're certainly seeing an increase in cases. We know that both test positivity and ED visits, which are early indicators, are increasing. And hospitalizations are also up by about 13%.

I think it is worth noting, though, that hospitalizations and deaths are low compared to the peaks that we saw in previous years. We did see CDC issue a bulletin last Wednesday, just prior to the holiday, which noted that there is no distinct COVID-19 season like there is for flu and RSV. That's because the emergence of new variants has been associated with COVID-19 surges. Over the past few weeks, some of those surveillance systems have shown small national increases in COVID. It was also noted in that bulletin that widespread surges, as well as local surges, are possible over the summer months.

Unger: Interesting pattern, or lack thereof. But to the point about geographic patterns, are we seeing certain parts of the country being hit harder than others right now?

Garcia: That recent data shows infections are rising or most likely rising in about 39 states, particularly in the west. We've seen a substantial rise in people being diagnosed in Hawaii and then, to a little bit of a lesser extent, Arizona, New Mexico and Washington. There was an article published over the weekend that reported that Florida is also seeing a surge in ED visits for COVID. And that's nearing what they experienced during the worst of last winter's peak. The most recent stats put Florida among the highest of states experiencing COVID right now. Key metrics from wastewater and nursing homes there have climbed steeply.

Overall, CDC says that nationwide, COVID activity remains low. And nationally, coronavirus activity in wastewater remains low but it is increasing. Experts do say that wastewater is best interpreted as a way of understanding which way the virus is trending. In this case, all indicators are pointing to up at this point.

Unger: Andrea, do we have any idea about what is driving the increase, say, in Florida and the other states that you mentioned?

Garcia: Well, in previous years, we've seen COVID activity pick up at least twice a year since the pandemic began, once during the summer or early fall after a lull during the spring and then again during the winter, driven by new variants of the virus. CDC data does show that COVID diagnoses have been ticking upwards since early May, when we were at an all-time low. I think that occurrence of extreme heat events may contribute to COVID outbreaks in the summer as people head indoors or head to cooling centers.

We also know that this uptick is tied to a handful of variants we've talked about before, known as KP.2 and KP.3 or the FLiRT variants. Those are now dominant nationwide. And they're driving nearly half of new cases in recent weeks. And behind them, there's a mix of other variants that have accelerated. So LB.1 is the next largest at about 10% of cases. And in the regions spanning New Mexico through Louisiana, CDC estimates that a new variant called KP.4.1 surged to about 17.9% of infections through June 22so certainly something to watch there.

Unger: Absolutely. And Andrea, from what I understand, there's also an overlooked symptom that's hard to believe after all these years when it comes to COVID. Tell us more about that.

Garcia: Now, that's something that The New York Times reported on late last week. And according to that article, gastrointestinal issues are a common, but often unrecognized, sign of COVID infection. I think many of us don't think of COVID when we have stomach issues. But to be clearthat this is not a new symptom of COVID. In fact, as the article pointed out, it can be traced back to that first patient documented with COVID in the U.S. That patient experienced a cough and fever, but also had two days of nausea and vomiting. People can also experience GI issues in isolation without any of the telltale signs we've come to associate with COVID.

Unger: So Andrea, if this has been around since the very first case in the U.S., why are we just talking about it now?

Garcia: Well, as the article points out, as COVID cases rise, it's important for us to be aware of those lesser known symptoms and how to spot and address them. According to a physician quoted in the article, those GI symptoms can hit during the first few days of an infection as a precursor to other symptoms or on their own. Diarrhea is common. People can also lose their appetite, experience nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting.

And I think it's also important for people to remember that COVID doesn't look the same every time. For example, you may have experienced respiratory symptoms one time and GI symptoms the next. And I think it's also important to remember that Paxlovid, which is the oral antiviral pill for treating COVID, can also cause some symptoms like diarrhea.

Unger: So Andrea, what should we take away from all of this information?

Garcia: Well, if you're experiencing GI symptoms or other symptoms of COVID, it's certainly important to stay hydrated. It's also really important to test so you know whether you're experiencing COVID or something else and that you can take proper precautions.

As we talked about back when we started to see the hints of a summer wave, anyone can get COVID. Most cases will be relatively mild. But older people, people who are immunocompromised, do remain at heightened risk for more severe outcomes from COVID-19. That's why we're seeing CDC recommend everyone six months and older receive that 2024-2025 COVID vaccine once it becomes available later this fall. And that's, of course, to both protect themselves and the people around them.

Unger: All great information. Andrea, one thing we haven't talked about in a while is long COVID. Any updates there?

Garcia: There was a recent article in the Washington Post. And it noted that with most people being spared from experiencing hospitalization and death from COVID at this point, long COVID has become one of the larger threats from the virus to the general public. As we know, long COVID encompasses symptoms that last weeks to years. They may include debilitating fatigue or brain fog, persistent cough and chest pain.

As the article notes, anyone who gets COVID can develop long COVID, even people who are otherwise healthy who have mild cases. But that risk does increase for people who experience severe illness, who've never been vaccinated, or who have underlying conditions or are 65 years of age and older. And I think while long COVID has become lessa less common outcome of infection than earlier in the pandemic, long COVID patients are calling for a more aggressive response to COVID to minimize transmission because of the lasting impacts of long COVID.

Unger: And I know that research is continuing in this area, as well, which is something we're going to continue to track as it progresses. Andrea, let's turn now to another virus that we've been talking about for the past few months. And that's bird flu. Any news there?

Garcia:So we did see a fourth person test positive for A(H5) bird flu, this time in Colorado. That case was reported on July 3. Like the previous three cases, one from Texas and two in Michigan, this person is also a dairy worker who had exposure to sick cows. That patient reported eye symptoms only. They received antiviral treatment and have since recovered.

I think based on that information, the CDC's current human health risk assessment for the general public does remain low. On the animal health side, the USDA is reporting 139 dairy cow herds, up from 132 herds the prior week, who have been infected. Those herds are still in the same 12 states. Of those 12 states, Colorado currently does have the worst outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle in the country. I think that's somewhat surprising, given that Colorado's dairy production is lower than many of the other states involved in the outbreak. About a quarter of Colorado's herds are now infected, most of which were identified in the last month. Of course, that increase there could also be a reflection of increased monitoring and testing in that state.

Unger: Andrea, have there been any updates on a potential bird flu vaccine?

Garcia: We did hear last week that the U.S. government announced that it would be providing $176 million in funding to Moderna to accelerate development of a pandemic influenza vaccine that could be used to prevent bird flu in people. According to coverage by the Associated Press, Moderna already does have a bird flu vaccine that is in the early stages of testing. That vaccine would use the same mRNA technology that is used to create COVID vaccines.

The development of this vaccine would, of course, help bolster the nation's pandemic flu capacity, which currently relies on the older, more traditional vaccine platforms. The new funds from HHS include continued development of the vaccine as well as a late-stage trial next year if those early study results are positive. HHS stressed that the project could be quickly redirected to target another form of influenza if a different threat were to emerge.

Meanwhile, we know that the fill and finish activity does continue on vaccine from bulk stocks of that traditional vaccine. And those first 4.8 million doses will be available in the middle of July, with production continuing through August, which is faster than the government anticipated. But if, when, and how those doses will be distributed remains to be seen.

Unger: Well, that's something we'll obviously continue to track. And that's it for today's episode. Thanks so much, Andrea, for being here and sharing all this information and updates.

If you found this discussion valuable, you can support more programming like it by becoming an AMA member at ama.assn.org/join. You can always find all our videos and podcasts at ama.assn.org/podcasts. Thanks for joining us today. Please take care.

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Is COVID on the rise again? The latest COVID news, FLiRT variant symptoms and bird flu outbreak 2024 - American Medical Association

COVID-19 cases are rising in several regions of the United States as summer gets underway.

For the week ending June 29, the latest date for which data is available, COVID test positivity was 9% across the U.S., an increase of 0.8% from the previous week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is higher than levels seen during early May 2024 but lower than several points during the pandemic.

Test positivity was highest in the Southwest and western U.S. with 15.7% positivity in the region comprised of Arizona, California and Nevada, CDC data showed.

MORE: What to know about the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines

Additionally, wastewater data from the CDC shows that COVID viral activity is low nationally but has been steadily rising over the last month-and-a-half. For the week ending June 22, levels were classified as "high" in the West and "moderate" in the South.

Wastewater tracking is often used as an early detection tool for monitoring potential future upticks, although it can be inconsistent.

Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the country has traditionally seen increases in COVID every summer, so a "bump" at this point in the year was to be expected, as experts had predicted.

"We had anticipated that there would be something of a summer bump because we have seen that in the past ... COVID hangs around during the summer and even gets a little more active, unlike influenza, which virtually disappears during the summertime," he told ABC News. "Now this bump will go down, and then, of course, we'll get the conventional winter surge later."

Weekly hospitalizations are still near record lows but have been ticking up over the past few weeks, according to CDC data. The highest rates are among those aged 65 and older with a rate of 7.7 per 100,000 for the week ending June 15, the latest date for which data is complete.

Comparatively, adults between ages 18 to 49 and children aged 4 and under have a rate of 0.5 per 100,000, the data showed.

Schaffner said the groups making up hospitalizations are those with chronic illnesses -- such as heart disease or lung disease -- or those who are immunocompromised.

MORE: KP.2 is now the dominant COVID variant. Experts say US may see a summer increase in cases

"Particularly older people with chronic illnesses, the immune-compromised, particularly if they are not up to date in their vaccination, that's the population we see now contributing to that bump in hospitalizations," he said.

Meanwhile, deaths have been steadily dropping since January of this year and continue to remain low, CDC data indicate. For the week ending June 8 -- the latest date for which complete data is available because deaths are subject to reporting delays -- just 283 COVID deaths were reported, which is a record low.

Currently, KP.2 and KP.3, offshoots of the omicron variant, are the dominant COVID-19 variants in the U.S. making up nearly half of all cases.

CDC officials told ABC News in a statement on Monday that there is "no evidence that KP.2, KP.3, or any other recent variant, causes more severe disease."

The CDC added that it is tracking all variants and recommended vaccination as the most effective way to prevent severe illness from COVID-19.

Schaffner agreed that the best way to prevent severe illness is to be up to date on vaccinations. High-risk groups that haven't received a COVID-19 vaccine since last fall are currently eligible for another dose to carry them through the summer.

"Be sure this fall, when we have yet another updated vaccine, to get that vaccine along with your influenza vaccine," he said. "We update both of them now on an annual basis, and that should be certainly a fall routine for all of us, but especially people in high-risk groups."

He recommended those in high-risk groups, or people who will be around high-risk groups, to consider masking in indoor crowded areas, and if they test positive to receive early treatment with antiviral medication such as Paxlovid.

ABC News' Youri Bendadjaoud contributed to this report.

Where COVID cases are increasing in the US amid summer 'bump' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

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