‘Well Past The Time’? Officials Play Catch-Up In Warning Public Over BA.5
The AP reports that BA.5, the highly transmissible covid variant now spreading across the U.S., accounts for 65% of cases. In other news on the pandemic: reinfection risk, loss of smell, mask mandates, and more.
AP:
Experts Rue Simple Steps Not Taken Before Latest COVID Surge
“It’s well past the time when the warning could have been put out there,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who has has called BA.5 “the worst variant yet.” … Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said federal health officials need to be push harder on masks indoors, early detection and prompt antiviral treatment. “They are not doing all that they can,” Mokdad said. (Johnson, 7/13)
ABC News:
Experts Reveal How Likely Reinfection Is From COVID With Spread Of Omicron Subvariant BA.5
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevailing theory was that if someone was infected with the virus, they were immune — at least for a while. But a growing number of Americans seem to be contracting the virus more than once. A recent ABC News analysis of state data found that, as of June 8, there have been more than 1.6 million reinfections across 24 states, but experts say the number is likely much higher. (Kekatos, 7/14)
Modern Healthcare:
Health Systems Watch For Next COVID Surge Amid Rising Cases
The strains, including BA.4, BA.5 and, most recently, BA.2.75, are highly transmissible, evading vaccines and immune responses. The seven-day moving average for new cases topped 118,000 this week, compared with about 31,000 cases three months ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recent case numbers are largely underreported, however, because of the availability of at-home tests. (Hudson, 7/13)
ABC News:
COVID Hospitalizations Forecast To Increase Amid Concerns Over New Omicron Subvariants
For the first time since May, COVID-19-related hospital admissions are forecasted to increase again in the U.S., as highly infectious omicron subvariants continue to spread, according to updated forecasting models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Mitropoulos, 7/13)
NBC News:
BA.5 Symptoms: Is Loss Of Smell More Common?
Doctors note that what they’re seeing during the current rise in cases — fueled by the hyperinfectious BA.5 omicron subvariant — is still based on anecdotal evidence. But health care providers like Valentina Parma, a psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who works with Covid patients, are noticing more patients reporting loss of smell. (Sullivan, 7/13)
In covid news from California —
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Deaths In L.A. County Rising As Ultra-Contagious Subvariants Spread Infections
The number of weekly COVID-19 deaths reported in Los Angeles County has doubled over the last month — the first significant increase in fatalities since the winter surge. Over the last week, the nation’s most populous county tallied roughly 100 COVID-19 deaths, the highest total in three months. A month ago, the county was reporting about 50 deaths a week. (Money and Lin II, 7/13)
AP:
Masks Could Return To Los Angeles As COVID Surges Nationwide
Los Angeles County, home to 10 million residents, is facing a return to a broad indoor mask mandate later this month if current trends in hospital admissions continue, county health Director Barbara Ferrer said this week. (Johnson and Weber, 7/14)
San Francisco Chronicle:
COVID In California: Invented ‘Centaurus’ Nickname For New BA.2.75 Subvariant Catches On
… Ed Yong, a writer for The Atlantic, commented, “It is wild to me that some random guy on Twitter decided that the BA.2.75 variant was going to be known as ‘Centaurus’ and it completely worked.” The World Health Organization, which names COVID variants using the Greek alphabet, has not yet given BA.2.75 an official designation. (Vaziri, Buchmann and Allday, 7/13)
Also —
CIDRAP:
Co-Infection With Influenza Could Suppress Replication Of SARS-CoV-2
A study yesterday in the Journal of Virology suggests that, while co-infection with influenza A and SARS-CoV-2 does not change the trajectory of influenza A, contracting influenza A first could suppress any COVID-19 infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. (7/13)
Bloomberg:
WHO Panel Advises Against Generic Antidepressant To Treat Covid
The drugs, fluvoxamine and colchicine, could potentially cause harm, the group of experts said in the BMJ medical journal Thursday. The panel didn’t give advice for severe illness, saying there was a lack of data. (Fourcade, 7/13)
Study Finds Children Have Stronger Immune Response To Covid
Researchers in Italy find that in families that have had mild infections from the virus, children showed higher levels of antibodies than did the adults. A possible link between covid and Type 1 diabetes, slow demand for vaccines for kids, and teen sports betting are also in the news.
CIDRAP:
Study: Kids Have Stronger COVID-19 Antibody Response Than Adults
A new prospective study of 252 families with members diagnosed as having mild COVID-19 in Italy finds that, while all age-groups had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies up to 1 year after infection, children—especially those younger than 3 years—had higher antibody levels than adults at all intervals tested. (Van Beusekom, 7/13)
Salt Lake Tribune:
Utah Doctors Studying Why Kids Are Getting Diabetes After COVID
The first thing Mallory Rogers noticed was that she couldn’t keep a dry diaper on her daughter. She would change Addie and then 10 minutes later, she’d have to do it again. Six diapers for her 2-year-old every hour, which felt like some kind of Guinness World Record for moms. (Tanner, 7/12)
In related news about pediatric vaccines —
Politico:
Low Demand For Young Kids’ Covid Vaccines Is Alarming Doctors
States where parents have hesitated to inoculate their children against Covid-19 are now ordering fewer doses of the vaccines for children under 5 than others, underscoring the challenge facing the Biden administration as a highly transmissible variant sweeps the nation. (Mahr and Gardner, 7/14)
CIDRAP:
Routine US Childhood Vaccines Confer Profound Health, Economic Benefits
Two studies today in Pediatrics detail the health and economic benefits of routine childhood immunization in the United States. Both studies were led by scientists from RTI Health Solutions and Merck. One study examined the incidence of 14 vaccine-preventable illnesses with and without universally recommended vaccines for children 10 years and younger over 5 recent years. Routine immunization lowered the incidence of all studied diseases, from 17% for flu to 100% for diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), measles, mumps, polio, and rubella. These decreases correspond to more than 24 million averted cases of vaccine-targeted illnesses for the 2019 US population of 328 million people. (7/13)
On parechovirus, birth asphyxia, and heart health in children —
CIDRAP:
CDC Urges Clinicians To Be On Alert For Parechovirus In Babies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday sent a Health Alert Network (HAN) advisory to health providers warning that parechovirus (PeV), a childhood pathogen with infections ranging from asymptomatic to severe, is circulating in the United States. Since May, multiple states have reported PeV infections in newborns and young infants. (7/13)
Stat:
Study: Treatment For Fatal Condition In Newborns Fails To Improve Outcomes
For babies born with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, commonly called birth asphyxia, doctors have limited options. And a treatment that many had hoped would be effective turns out not to be. (Chen, 7/13)
Bay Area News Group:
Campbell School District Becomes First In California To Screen All Student Athletes For Heart Conditions
Student athletes in the Campbell Union High School District will now be screened for heart conditions this school year through a partnership with a Los Gatos-based nonprofit. The district’s board of trustees partnered with the Kyle J. Taylor Foundation to screen its student athletes in grades 9 and 11 for heart abnormalities or conditions to prevent sudden cardiac arrest. (Kanik, 7/13)
On teenage mental health —
Stateline:
As Sports Betting Grows, States Tackle Teenage Problem Gambling
Although the legal age for gambling ranges from 18 to 21 depending on the state, between 60% and 80% of high school students report having gambled for money in the past year, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. The group says the pandemic and easy access to online gambling have heightened risks for young adults. And 4% to 6% of high schoolers are considered addicted to gambling, the group says. (Mercer, 7/12)
KHN:
Kids Want To Put Montana On Trial For Unhealthy Climate Policies
For her birthday every October, Grace Gibson-Snyder and her family explore the Lamar Valley just inside the northern border of Yellowstone National Park. Carved long ago by meandering glaciers, the valley is home to bison and bald eagles, grizzly bears and gray wolves. Gibson-Snyder has seen them all. She calls it “my favorite place.” “I know how special it is to have this in my life,” said Gibson-Snyder, an 18-year-old from Missoula, Montana, “and I don’t want it to go away.” (Ehli, 7/14)
