Newshub can reveal that the Government is seeking to extend COVID-19 restriction powers for another two years.
Newshub has just been leaked a proposal. It's documentation in which the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet proposes that the legislation which underpins COVID-19 restrictions stay in place until 2025.
It wants the Act extended from its expiry date of May next year to May 2025.
It says this will ensure that the powers required to respond to COVID-19 - including new variants - remain available to the Government.
This comes as most countries are winding back their COVID-19 responses and it's likely going to cause upset among the business community.
Newshub asked the Prime Minister about when restrictions would end.
"I've always been cautious about making too many predictions about COVID," she said.
"What I can tell you is we are in a very different place than where we were a year ago. Highly vaccinated, anti-virals and we know so much more. You won't see things like some of those more necessary but harsh measures, they are off the table, but we do still ask people who are sick to stay home."
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister later said"we intend to announce the next steps shortly".
"Ministers have been reviewing the COVID-19 Act to ensure it is fit for purpose now that we're through the emergency response," they told Newshub.
"The Government's plan is to remove powers from the Act that are no longer required for the response, while still ensuring we can practically manage the ongoing impact of COVID."
(The Center Square) A coalition of leading House Republicans is raising the alarm and demanding answers after the Biden administration approved another round of grant funding for research on coronaviruses and bats in Asia.
The lawmakers sent a letter to Anthony Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and serves as the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden.
We have grave concerns that one of your last acts at NIAID is to send even more taxpayer dollars to an organization whose prior involvement in the very same subject may have contributed to a global pandemic, the letter to Fauci, who is ending his decades-long role with the federal government in December, said. We write seeking information about your decision, including whether anyone at NIH has a financial or other non-official interest in EcoHealth continuing to receive taxpayer funds.
EcoHealth Alliance is the group that received funding to study bats and coronaviruses via the infamous lab in Wuhan, China. The contract with that lab has been severed, in large part due to international scrutiny and questions about its role in the origin of the pandemic.
Your decision to fund EcoHealth is especially galling because the company continues to stonewall information gathering about the grant-funded work it previously financed at the WIV, the letter said. NIH has requested all U.S. taxpayer-funded laboratory notebooks and experiment results from EcoHealths research conducted at the WIV. As of today, however, EcoHealth has yet to supply the records sought by NIH.
House Republican Whip and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Ranking Member Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and House Committee on the Judiciary Ranking Member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent the letter to Fauci.
The lawmakers called for more transparency, especially regarding the labs potential role in the COVID-19 pandemic, an issue still in dispute.
It is outrageous that the results of U.S. taxpayer-funded experiments are unavailable to the U.S. government, particularly when those experiments could shed light on the origins of a virus that has killed more than one million Americans, the letter said. It is unconscionable that you would choose to continue to fund a company that has violated its NIH grant terms in a manner that helps to keep this valuable information from the U.S. government and American taxpayers.
Based on the totality of circumstances surrounding EcoHealth and the WIV that have transpired over the past two and a half years, your decision to continue funding this entity is downright shocking, the letter adds.
Fauci announced earlier this year he would resign in December.
It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges, Fauci said in the announcement of his resignation. I am very proud of our many accomplishments.
In April 2020, tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo made the news when they came down with Covid-19. In the months following these surprising diagnoses, researchers and veterinarians found SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in nearly a dozen other species, both in captivity and in the wild.
How are so many animals catching the coronavirus? And what does this mean for human and animal health?
We are veterinary researchers who investigate animal diseases, including zoonotic diseases that can infect both humans and animals. It is important, for both human and animal health, to know what species are susceptible to infection by the coronavirus. Our labs and others across the world have tested domestic, captive, and wild animals for the virus, in addition to conducting experiments to determine which species are susceptible.
The list of infected animals so far includes more than a dozen species. But in reality, infections may be much more widespread, as very few species and individual animals have been tested. This has real implications for human health. Animals can not only spread pathogens like the coronavirus but also can be a source of new mutations.
White-tailed deer and mink are the only two species of animals that have been found harboring the virus in the wild. sandra standbridge/Moment/Getty Images
As of February 2022, researchers and veterinary diagnostic labs have confirmed that 31 species are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. In addition to pets and zoo animals, researchers have found that a number of nonhuman primates, ferrets, deer mice, hyenas, wood rats, striped skunks and red fox are among the animals that are susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2.
White-tailed deer and mink are the only two species of animals that have been found harboring the virus in the wild. Fortunately, most animals dont appear to experience clinical disease like humans do, with the exception of mink. However, even animals that dont appear sick may be able to transmit the virus to each other and, potentially, back to people. Still unanswered are many questions about which animals can contract the virus and what, if anything, that means for people.
There are three ways to study zoonotic diseases: by looking at pets or captive species like animals in zoos, testing wild animals for the coronavirus, or by exposing animals to the virus in a lab.
During the early stages of the pandemic, when a few pet owners or zoo caretakers observed animals with breathing problems or coughing, they arranged with veterinarians to get them tested for the coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coordinate Covid-19 testing and management in animals. The same process of taking a sample and running it through a PCR machine to test for the coronavirus works just as well for animals as it does for people, though swabbing the nose of a lion or even a pet cat requires a bit more training and finesse. Veterinary diagnostic laboratories like our own run hundreds of thousands of tests for animal diseases each year, so we were able to easily begin testing for SARS-CoV-2.
Relying on previous research, scientists have been able to make some guesses as to which animals are susceptible and have been testing these hypotheses. Cats, hamsters, and ferrets were all infected during the first SARS outbreak in 2002, so researchers suspected they would be susceptible to the new coronavirus. Sure enough, research showed that SARS-CoV-2 readily infected these species in laboratory experiments. Mink are closely related to ferrets, and during the summer and fall of 2020, mink farms across the U.S. became sites of huge outbreaks after people passed the coronavirus to the animals.
Using computer models, scientists were also able to predict that the coronavirus could easily infect some species of deer using key proteins on their cells. Based on these predictions, researchers began testing white-tailed deer for the coronavirus and first reported positives in August 2021.
Most recently, on Feb. 7, 2022, researchers published a preprint paper showing that deer on Staten Island, New York, are infected with the omicron variant. Since this is the virus infecting most New Yorkers, this provides strong evidence that humans somehow transmitted the virus to deer. How deer in at least six states and Canada initially came in contact with SARS-CoV-2 remains a mystery.
Finally, to understand how the coronavirus affects animals, researchers have been conducting carefully controlled exposure experiments. These studies evaluate how infected animals shed the virus, whether they have clinical symptoms, and whether and how much the virus mutates in different species.
The risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 from an animal is, for most people, far lower than being exposed to it by another human. But if the coronavirus is living and spreading among animals and occasionally jumping back to humans, this process known as spillover and spillback poses its own threats to public health.
First, infection of animals simply increases the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in an environment. Second, large populations of animals that can sustain the infection can act as a reservoir for the virus, maintaining it even if the number of infections in humans decreases. This is particularly concerning with deer that live in high numbers in suburban areas and could transmit the virus back to people.
Finally, when SARS-CoV-2 spreads from humans to animals, our laboratorys own work indicates that the virus very rapidly accumulates mutations. Viruses adapt to the unique characteristics body temperature, diet and immune composition of whatever animal they are living in by mutating. The more species infected, the more mutations occur. Its possible that the new variants emerging in people could infect new animal species. Or its possible that new variants could initially arise from animals and infect humans.
The story of SARS-CoV-2 in animals isnt over yet. According to the CDC, six of every 10 human infectious diseases can be spread from animals to people, and around three-quarters of new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals. Research has shown that investing in the study of zoonotic diseases could vastly reduce the costs of future pandemics, and this type of complex research has historically been underfunded. Yet despite this, in 2021, the CDC allocated only $193 million toward the study of emerging zoonotic infectious diseases less than a quarter of 1 percent of the CDCs total budget.
There are still many unknowns about how viruses transfer between humans and animals, how they live and mutate in animal populations, and the risks of species-jumping viruses. The more researchers know, the better health officials, governments, and scientists can prepare and prevent the next pandemic.
This article was originally published on The Conversation by Sue VandeWoude, Angela Bosco-Lauth and Christie Mayo at Colorado State University. Read the original article here.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY.
Concern is rapidly growing over emerging omicron coronavirus variant BQ.1 and its sibling BQ.1.1, which experts say appear to be strong candidates for a winter surge in the U.S. and could knock the BA.5 variant out of its dominant spot.
The BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants, descendants of BA.5, were first identified in mid-July, according to UC Berkeley infectious disease expert John Swartzberg. They were first detected in the U.S. just a month ago and each rose quickly to account for 5.7% of cases sequenced nationwide for the week ending Oct. 15, according to updated estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions variant tracker.
Meanwhile, BA.5, which has dominated the U.S. coronavirus picture since the summer, has been on the decline, dropping from its Aug. 20 height of 86.5% of sequenced cases to 67.9% on Oct. 15
BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are worrisome because they both appear to be more transmissible, and could possibly be more immune evasive than earlier variants.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Bidens chief medical adviser, expressed concern over the two new variants last week. When you get variants like that, you look at what their rate of increase is as a relative proportion of the variants, and this has a pretty troublesome doubling time, he said in an interview Friday with CBS News.
Infections from BQ.1.1 have been doubling weekly since mid-September in the United Kingdom, leading to a significant increase in hospitalizations.
BQ.1.1 has an estimated growth advantage of 15% compared to BA.5, according to UCSF infectious disease expert Peter Chin-Hong. In a recent Chronicle story about emerging variants that could cause a winter surge, Stacia Wyman, senior genomics scientist at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, noted that BQ.1.1 has a growth advantage of 14% over BA.5.
The BQ.1.1 variant, which is increasing in New York and Germany as well as other European countries, is perhaps the most immune evasive subvariant circulating, Swartzberg said. This makes it the leading contender to overtake BA.5 in the next few weeks."
Chin-Hong said some BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 mutations in the receptor binding domain (where the spike protein attaches to the body) may be associated with antibody evasion, and some lab studies support that finding. In addition, BQ.1 is the first variant to prove resistant to the two available antibody therapies Evusheld and bebtelovimab, he said.
However, I must emphasize that (the therapies) will still be protective and that we dont know if it is truly immune evasive until we see what happens in real life, not just the laboratory, he added. We also need more studies about BQ.1 specifically.
That BQ.1 is a grandchild of omicron and a child of BA.5 bodes well for the effectiveness of vaccines, especially the new bivalent booster shots, both Chin-Hong and Swartzberg said.
It is highly likely that an omicron-updated booster which target BA.5 will provide excellent protection against infection, and continue to provide spectacular protection against serious disease and death, Chin-Hong said.
Against infection from these new variants, the boosters will possibly provide protection for only two to three months, but protection against serious disease will continue for many, many months if not years, Chin-Hong said.
He added that antivirals such as Paxlovid and remdesivir work without regard to the spike protein appearance so they will continue to work very well.
The BQ.1 sublineage was first reported in Nigeria in July, and has since been found in a number of European countries and Japan, but is not yet dominant anywhere, Chin-Hong said.
He explained that some variants stay off the global radar until multiple countries report them, they get mentioned on social media, or they show up on global COVID variant tracking site GISAID.
Thats why BQ.1 seemed to suddenly burst on the scene, to the surprise of many virus watchers, he said.
It likely came out of nowhere because they were all classified as BA.5 previously, because that is the parent sub-lineage, he said. With these sub-sub-variants (or grandchildren) you cant often find them until you actually sequence for, and look for them.
Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, head of the COVID Risk Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute, tweeted Thursday about the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants and suggested the CDC might have been holding onto the BQ variant data, as they only just showed up on the agencys tracker.
Chin-Hong said that while the CDC gets data only once a week and says it doesnt include any variants with a proportion under 1%, it appears that (BQ.1 and BQ.1.1) were surprisingly retroactively added, and he personally was shocked when CDC site was updated.
I kept reading and re-reading the figures, adding up the percentages, and pinching myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming, he said.
Omicron subvariants with similar mutations to the spike protein are proliferating because of convergent evolution, Swartzberg said.
Its like all these different Omicron viruses are settling on the same strategy, he said. They have found something they like.
The high transmissibility and growth advantage of the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants make it seem increasingly likely that they will eventually become dominant in the U.S., and lead to a surge in cases and hospitalizations later this fall and winter, Chin-Hong said.
Swartzberg said BQ.1.1 was likely to come out on top. It is perhaps the most immune evasive subvariant circulating, he said. This makes it the leading contender to overtake BA.5 in the next few weeks.
Unvaccinated, elderly and immunocompromised individuals would likely have the worst outcome of the surge, Chin-Hong said.
I dont think hospitalizations and deaths will approach what we have seen in the last two winters, because the overall population is very immunologically experienced at this time, he said. However, Many people may become infected, or re-infected, and this could be disruptive to the community even though many of these will be mild clinically.
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
Washington, D.C. (PAHO) A social media video from an unidentified source unlawfully using the logo and name of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is circulating in English-speaking Caribbean countries as a Public Warning Alert on COVID-19 vaccination in children.
PAHO would like to inform the public that the message does not reflect the position of the Organization, and that it contains false and defamatory information regarding PAHOs activities, projects, and funding.
Furthermore, the misinformation contained in the video that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous to children, cause infections and can lead them to become sterile is not based on scientific evidence. If this misinformation is followed by parents and guardians, childrens health will be put at serious risk.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and can lead to severe disease in people at any age, especially those with underlying medical conditions. The virus has caused over 17,500 deaths in English-, Dutch- and French-speaking Caribbean countries and territories since 2020.
COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and provide strong protection against serious illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19.
PAHOs COVID-19 vaccination strategy follows the advice of World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization and PAHOs Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for Vaccines and Immunization in the Americas.
SAGE and TAG comprise independently appointed experts who review the clinical evidence on vaccine safety and effectiveness before making a recommendation.
Both currently recommend that people get vaccinated against COVID-19 to prevent severe disease and death, with vaccines approved under WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
SAGE and TAG recommend that countries must achieve at least 70% coverage with a primary vaccination series among the general population and 100% in high-risk priority groups.
PAHO reiterates the importance of implementing comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination strategies to reach these targets.
The Organization is working with Caribbean Governments and other partners to inform the population of the Caribbean and to encourage mothers to protect their children with the COVID-19 vaccine.
PAHO condemns the unauthorized and fraudulent use of its name and logo to spread any misinformation.
Stonewalk Covid Memorial Procession
Volunteers push the 5000-pound Stonewalk Global Pandemic memorial stone through Hyannis from Cape Cod Hospital to Barnstable Town Hall
Steve Heaslip, Cape Cod Times
Massachusetts had 7,865newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, increasing the total number of cases to 1,894,995 since the pandemic began, the state Department of Public Health reported on Thursday.
In their weekly report, state officials also noted 1,099 new probable cases of coronavirus for a statewide total of 174,853.
As of Oct. 12,293 patients were primarily hospitalized with COVID-19-related illnesses and 856total patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the state agency reported.
Seventy patients were in intensive care units, or ICUs, and 27 patients were intubated.
More: 314 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths reported on Cape and Islands
Closer to home, in Thursday's weekly report, state health officials said Barnstable County posted 335new coronavirus cases, for a total of 44,826 since the pandemic started. Dukes County (Martha's Vineyard) reported 19new coronavirus cases, for a to-date total of 4,171. Nantucket County reported threenew cases, for a total of 3,750.
Case numbers are higherthan last weeks report, which showed 314 new cases on the Cape and Islands.
The states 14-day positivity rate was 7.87%. The 14-day positivity rate for Barnstable County came in at 10.75%, and 5.86% for Dukes and Nantucket counties.
More: Unable to respond: Adam Howe's death raises questions about prisoner, mental health facilities
Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis was treating 17 patients with coronavirus, none of whomwere in the ICU. Falmouth Hospital reported eightpatients, with none in the ICU. Marthas Vineyard Hospital and Nantucket Cottage Hospital had no patients being treated for coronavirus.
State health officials said Thursday there were 60new deaths statewide among people with confirmed cases of COVID-19, increasing the total deaths to 20,401 since the pandemic began.
There were 10 deaths statewide from probable cases of COVID-19. The number of deaths from probable cases is 1,440 in Massachusetts.
More: Health equity, vaccines, food insecurity among goals for Cape's human rights coordinator
Barnstable County posted no new deaths, the state agency reported. The total probable and confirmed deaths from COVID-19 is 660 in Barnstable County. There were no new deaths in Dukes and Nantucket counties combined, for a total fatality count of 22 since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The two-week COVID-19 case count, total case count and 14-day testing positivity rate for Cape Cod towns follows:
Gain access to premium Cape Cod Times content by subscribing.
A new study has found that the COVID antiviral Paxlovid can interact badly with certain heart medications, raising concerns for patients with cardiovascular risk who test positive.
The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and found the reaction involved such medications as blood thinners and statins. As patients who are hospitalized with COVID are at elevated risk of heart problems, they are likely to be described Paxlovid, which was developed by Pfizer PFE, -0.28%.
Co-administration of NMVr (Paxlovid) with medications commonly used to manage cardiovascular conditions can potentially cause significant drug-drug interactions and may lead to severe adverse effects, the authors wrote. It is crucial to be aware of such interactions and take appropriate measures to avoid them.
The news comes just days after the White House made a renewed push to encourage Americans above the age of 50 to take Paxlovid or use monoclonal antibodies if they test positive and are at risk of developing severe disease.
White House coordinator Dr. Ashish Jhatold the New York Timesthat greater use of the medicine could reduce the average daily death count to about 50 a day from close to 400 currently.
I think almost everybody benefits from Paxlovid, Jha said. For some people, the benefit is tiny. For others, the benefit is massive.
Yet a smaller share of 80-year-olds with COVID in the U.S. is taking it than 45-year-olds, Jha said, citing data said he has seen.
On Thursday, the White House extended its COVID pubic health emergency through Jan. 11 as it prepares for an expected rise in cases in the colder months, the Associated Press reported.
The public health emergency, first declared in January 2020 and renewed every 90 days since, has dramatically changed how health services are delivered.
The declaration enabled the emergency authorization of COVID vaccines, as well as freetestingand treatments. It expanded Medicaid coverage to millions of people, many of whom will risk losing that coverage once the emergency ends. It temporarily opened up telehealth access for Medicare recipients, enabling doctors to collect the same rates for those visits and encouraging health networks to adopt telehealth technology.
Since the beginning of this year, Republicans have pressed the administration to end the public health emergency.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has urged Congress to provide billions more in aid to pay for vaccines and testing. Amid Republican opposition to that request, the federal government ceased sending free COVID tests in the mail last month, saying it had run out of funds for that effort.
Separately, the head of the World Health Organization urged countries to continue to surveil, monitor and track COVID and to ensure poorer countries get access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments, reiterating that the pandemic is not yet over.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said most countries no longer have measures in place to limit the spread of the virus, even though cases are rising again in places including Europe.
Most countries have reduced surveillance drastically, while testing and sequencing rates are also much lower, Tedros said in opening remarks at the IHR Emergency Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic on Thursday.
This, said the WHO leader, is blinding us to the evolution of the virus and the impact of current and future variants.
U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where the data are not being collected.
The daily average for new cases stood at 38,530 on Thursday, according toa New York Times tracker, down 19% from two weeks ago. Cases are rising in six states, namely Nevada, New Mexico, Kansas, Maine, Wisconsin and Vermont, and are flat in Wyoming. They are falling everywhere else.
The daily average for hospitalizations was down 7% at 26,665, while the daily average for deaths is down 7% to 377.
Coronavirus Update:MarketWatchs daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began
Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has urged German states to reintroduce face-mask requirements for indoor spaces due to high COVID cases numbers, the Local.de reported. Lauterbach was launching his ministrys new COVID campaign on Friday. The direction we are heading in is not a good one, he said at a press conference in Berlin, adding its better to take smaller measures now than be forced into drastic ones later.
Health officials in Washington and Oregon said Thursday that a fall and winter COVID surge is likely headed to the Pacific Northwest after months of relatively low case levels, the AP reported. King County (Wash.) Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin said during a news briefing that virus trends in Europe show a concerning picture of what the U.S. could soon see, the Seattle Timesreported.
Kevin Spaceys trial on sexual-misconduct allegations will continue without a lawyer who tested positive for COVID on Thursday, Yahoo News reported. The American Beauty and House of Cards star is on trial in Manhattan federal court facing allegations in a $40 million civil lawsuit that he preyed upon actor Anthony Rapp in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Jennifer Kellers diagnosis comes after she spent about five hours cross-examining Rapp on the witness stand over two days a few feet away from the jury box without wearing a mask.
A man who presents himself as an Orthodox Christian monk and an attorney with whom he lived fraudulently obtained $3.5 million in federal pandemic relief funds for nonprofit religious organizations and related businesses they controlled, and spent some of it to fund a lavish lifestyle, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Brian Andrew Bushell, 47, and Tracey M.A. Stockton, 64, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions, the U.S. attorneys office in Boston said in a statement, as reported by the AP.
Heres what the numbers say:
The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 623.9 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.56 million,according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. leads the world with 96.9 million cases and 1,064,821 fatalities.
TheCenters for Disease Control and Preventions trackershows that 226.2 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.1% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 110.8 million have had a booster, equal to 49% of the vaccinated population, and 25.6 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 39% of those who received a first booster.
Some 14.8 million people have had a shot of the new bivalent booster that targets the new omicron subvariants.
Dear Advice Team: Do medical experts have any idea yet how long immunity from the bivalent COVID booster will last? I know that previous boosters showed waning immunity over time, and Im wondering what this means for vulnerability around the holidays. Also, are there any rumblings about if/when the next round of boosters will be available?
Welcome to Pandemic Problems, an advice column that aims to help Bay Area residents solve their pandemic and post-pandemic conundrums personal, practical or professional. As COVID evolves into an endemic disease, we know readers are trying to navigate the new normal. Send your questions and issues to pandemicproblems@sfchronicle.com.
Todays question is fielded by The Chronicles Anna Buchmann.
Dear Reader: Your questions about the new COVID-19 vaccine boosters are very timely. We are just six weeks into the rollout of the bivalent shots so-called because they target two coronavirus strains, the ancestral version plus the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants currently circulating and as you note, many of us are making holiday plans that involve travel and gathering with others.
Meanwhile, bivalent booster eligibility has already expanded to include younger children as of Wednesday, everyone ages 5 and up may receive one dose of Pfizers bivalent mRNA booster (for the Moderna version, its 6 and up) at least two months after completing their primary vaccine series or at least two months after their last dose of the original monovalent booster.
Health officials are urging people to get the new boosters to help head off a potential winter COVID-19 surge, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showing less than 6% of eligible people had gotten the bivalent shot as of Monday. The CDC now says you are up to date on COVID vaccination after receiving a primary series and the most recent booster dose recommended.
With that context, your first question was about the immunity we get from the bivalent booster and how long it lasts.
Compared with the original booster, the bivalent boosters nearly double the levels of antibodies that can prevent omicron from infecting cells, according to Dr. Nadia Roan, a UCSF immunologist and investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. But in the real world, its not currently clear how much more protective the bivalent booster is, she said via email.
As for immunity duration, if BA.4 and BA.5 stay dominant, the new booster could give excellent protection against even a mild infection for four to six months, UCSF infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said in an email. However, if more immune-evasive variants gain a greater foothold, the booster could grant maximum protection for about two to four months, decent protection for about four to six months, and less protection after six months, he said.
Both Roan and Chin-Hong agreed that those up to date on their vaccinations will have long-lived protection against serious disease and death from COVID perhaps more than a year without further boosters, Chin-Hong said.
You asked specifically about the holiday season. By that time, those who received the bivalent booster at the start of the rollout can expect full protection against serious disease and death for sure and likely substantial protection against even a mild infection for that time period provided the variant mix (all flavors of omicron) stays similar, Chin-Hong said.
If you have not had COVID or received one of the original boosters in the past few months, I would suggest getting the bivalent soon, Roan said. Thats because after boosting, antibody levels spike in about a week and stay elevated before declining steadily, she said. Those antibodies decrease your chances of infection.
So if you wanted (to) maximize protection for the holiday season, it could be timed 2-3 weeks before then, she said.
Chin-Hongs advice was to get the bivalent booster by Halloween.
Not only will it make you more confident about trick-or-treating, you will optimize your protection against infection for when we expect cases to increase, he said.
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Full protection will kick in within two weeks, he said. This will increase your chances of not missing Thanksgiving dinner, that family reunion or long-awaited vacation trip.
Your final question was about a possible next round of boosters. Both Roan and Chin-Hong said they had not yet heard any discussion on that front, though Chin-Hong said its possible we may get updated COVID boosters annually, like the flu vaccine.
Any reformulation of the boosters for next winter, possibly by September 2023, would depend on what happens with variants, Chin-Hong said. If omicron continues to dominate, the formula might not change.
But it is very likely that COVID will continue to mutate, he said.
Pandemic Problems is written by Chronicle Advice Team members Annie Vainshtein, Kellie Hwang and Anna Buchmann, combining thorough reporting and guidance from Bay Area experts to help get answers and find a way forward.
In recent weeks many children have returned to in-person learning and resumed after-school activities and sports. Some public health measures used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 such as masks and social distancing, which are also effective against other respiratory viruses, have been lifted in many schools across the United States. While all of this has brought back a much-needed sense of normalcy for children and their families, it has also come with some challenges, including a significant increase in respiratory illnesses among kids.
Childrens hospitals in major U.S. cities have been reporting unusually high numbers of sick patients with respiratory illnesses caused by viruses other than the coronavirus. These include respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), enteroviruses(EV) and rhinovirus(RV), which mostly cause coldlike symptoms such as a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and fever.
Normally, these viruses emerge in the winter months. During this time, also known as respiratory viral season, pediatricians and hospitals are prepared to deal with an influx of patients sick with these viruses. However, this year the season started sooner than expected, and the number of children needing hospitalizations has been so high that in some areas hospital systems are already overwhelmed.
In general, pediatric hospitals operate relatively close to their capacity, Dr. Michael Chang, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at UTHealth Houston and Childrens Memorial Hermann Hospital, told Yahoo News. So when you see patients needing hospitalization for respiratory viruses at unusual times of the year, then it's easy to kind of reach capacity for hospitals.
In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted public health departments and doctors treating pediatric patients about some of these respiratory viruses. The agency issued a health advisory warning about an increase in the number of pediatric hospitalizations for severe respiratory illness where patients were testing positive for rhinovirus and/or enterovirus, including enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) which has been linked to a rare but serious condition called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM. The main purpose of the advisory, the CDC said, was for doctors to keep this information top of mind when diagnosing and treating respiratory illnesses in children, as some of these viruses can have clinically similar presentations and be indistinguishable from one another.
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Chang said his home state of Texas is in the middle of a big RSV surge right now, which started a couple of weeks ago and wasnt expected until at least late October. We have something like 20% of our tests for RSV are positive, which is well above the 10% threshold that we consider kind of the epidemic level of RSV, he said.
Cases of enterovirus D68 have also gone up and are at a higher rate than baseline, according to Chang. He noted that the numbers for enterovirus are not as high as those seen in previous surges. However, he said doctors are not exactly sure how far into the surge they are because this is happening at an unusual time.
In addition, doctors in the state have started to see a number of flu cases again, earlier than expected. COVID-19 cases, however, are going down, Chang said.
Why are these respiratory viruses surging right now?
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted not only peoples lives but also historical seasonal patterns for other common respiratory viruses. Chang said these patterns have completely changed, and while its unclear why, it likely has a lot to do with human behavior.
We were really focused on those infection prevention techniques, which again, not only do they work for SARS-CoV-2, but they really work for most of the respiratory viruses, he said. We knew that those infection prevention techniques could work for the flu and RSV. It's just that we never executed them on such a global scale, right? Like we never did it in such a widespread fashion where so many people were wearing masks, so many people were isolating, so many people were physical distancing. So we never got to see the impact that those types of preventions on such a large scale could have for RSV and flu, but were obviously very effective.
Chang explained that the past two winters were among the mildest influenza seasons on record. Similarly, doctors didnt see much RSV in the winter of 2020-21, when the country was facing a COVID-19 surge and there were tight public health restrictions in place. However, as some of these pandemic restrictions were loosened last summer, there was a major surge of RSV. He said two things were unusual about it: how early it happened well before winter and how severe some of the cases were.
This year, RSV is once again surging earlier than usual, and flu cases have also started to increase in some parts of the country, particularly the Southeast and South Central U.S. According to health experts, we could face a severe flu season that coincides with a winter surge of COVID-19.
Another explanation for why these winter respiratory viruses are affecting us more now, experts say, is not necessarily because theyve changed but because we have less immunity against them.
Basically for two years, two winters where kids and adults would have been infected by RSV or by the flu, they didnt have it, and so some of that immunity that we would have had from infection before, we don't have now, Chang explained.
Which symptoms should parents be on the lookout for?
For most parents, all these viruses are pretty much going to be indistinguishable, Chang told Yahoo News. Common symptoms are a runny nose, sore throat and coughing. These, the pediatrician said, can last three to five days, sometimes peaking on day five, just before they start to subside.
Most children, he said, recover fully from these viruses with no long-term complications. However, parents of children with asthma or reactive airway disease (when asthma is suspected but not confirmed)need to be more cautious about these viruses, particularly enterovirus D68, which can cause more severe disease.
Certainly any time that you notice that theyre having difficulty, like with shortness of breath at rest, or if theyre having trouble completing their sentences, if theyre wheezing a lot, coughing is more severe, any type of shortness of breath and then any type of chest pain, you are going want to ... seek medical attention, Chang said.
Infants and younger children, particularly if they were born premature or have a history of underlying congenital heart disease, are at increased risk of severe illness from RSV, he explained.
The main things you want to look out for are difficulty with feeding, difficulty with catching their breath if they're taking a bottle or breastfeeding. Certainly decreased feeding, decreased appetite, he said.
How can parents best protect children right now?
There are currently no vaccines available for RSV, enterovirus D68 or rhinovirus. But Chang said the best way to protect children this winter is to make sure parents and children are vaccinated against those viruses that we do have vaccines for, such as flu and COVID-19.
Everybody who qualifies for [a] flu shot, which is pretty much everyone from 6 months to adult, should go and get their seasonal flu vaccine as soon as possible, Chang said.
He also urged those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get their shots.
The best way to minimize the risk of severe illness and hospitalization, whatever your age, whatever your underlying conditions, is to get vaccinated and be fully up to date on your SARS-CoV-2 immunizations, including the new bivalent boosters.
Cover thumbnail photo: Peter Cade via Getty Images
The Covid-19 vaccine registration program has already started in our country. Honble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Covid-19 vaccine registration program. Those who want to get Covid-19 vaccine have to apply through pre-registration. So those who want to get the Covid-19 vaccine have to register online or through apps. No person will be vaccinated without a pre registration.
Anyone can register for vaccination at home. There are currently two methods for registering to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. One is to register the Covid-19 vaccine using the Surokkha app and the other is to register by visiting the website https://surokkha.gov.bd/. Bangladeshs ICT department has launched the Covid-19 vaccine management system shurokkha app. The Covid-19 vaccine registration program will be completed in 2 steps. Two Language are available in registration for vaccination. One is Bengali and the other is English.
Are you a National University student? Submit your information for getting Covid Vaccine.
To get the Covid-19 vaccination registration form, first visit https://surokkha.gov.bd/After entering the website, you have to click on the registration button. Then one by one registration form will be available by following the given steps. The forms are provided below.
The first step in the Covid-19 vaccine registration process is:
And the citizen class must be selected. This means that the person who wants to be vaccinated has to decide what class or profession he belongs to. The categories that fall within the citizen category are given below.
The Covid-19 vaccine registration process details how to register for the vaccine. Therefore, there is nothing new to say about this. The registration process for vaccination is very simple. So those who are interested in registering for vaccination must follow the prescribed procedure.
After registration for Covid-19 vaccine, the vaccination card has to be collected. To collect the card, you have to download the vaccine card by clicking on the vaccine card download button. An OTP SMS in the form of notification will be sent to the mobile number while downloading the vaccine card.
There will be a number to give SMS, you have to provide that number and download the vaccine. The main reason for this is that no unwanted person other than a certain person can download the vaccine card. The date and place of vaccination will be informed later via SMS or in the form of notification to those who use the app.
Vaccine Covid-19 vaccine has been distributed in almost all healthcare complexes in Bangladesh since February 8. Almost a million people have already been vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine. So far no side effects have been reported from this Covid-19 vaccine.
Various types of propaganda have been carried out through various social media. As a result, negative perceptions have been created among the public about the Covid-19 vaccine. Due to which many people have expressed reluctance to take the vaccine. But now many are coming out of this idea. At present, there is such a reaction among the people who are interested in getting the vaccine. However, in some cases, the side effects of the Covid-19 vaccine may occur. They are described below.
Like all other medicines or vaccines, this vaccine has the potential for some side effects. However, in most cases, they are very mild, such as pain, swelling, redness at the injection site, muscle and joint pain, weakness, nausea, fever, fatigue, etc. No serious side effects have been reported so far, according to clinical trials. However, if you have any problem, you must go to the nearest hospital immediately and seek the advice of a doctor.
But there is nothing to worry about. The above symptoms are not uncommon.
The latest news regarding the registration and delivery of Covid-19 vaccine is mentioned below.
What to do if OTP is not received at the last step of the registration process?
You can resend OTP. If you unfortunately close the OTP providing screen, can re-register.
If I want to register for Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine, how do I register online?
You can register by logging on to www.surokkha.gov.bd web portal or by downloading the Surokkha app from Google Play Store. See Manual on the web portal for details.
I have registered for the vaccine online, what should I do next?
Download Vaccine Card from www.surokkha.gov.bd web portal. Later, the date and center of the vaccine will be informed via SMS on the mobile phone.
How to check the Registration status for Covid-19 vaccine online?
You can know the status of registration by verifying the national identity card and mobile number from the Registration Status menu on the web portal www.surokkha.gov.bd.
How can I get a vaccine card for receiving the Covid-19 vaccine?
You can Download Vaccine Card by verifying National Identity Card and Mobile Number from the Vaccine Card Download menu at www.surokkha.gov.bd
How do I know the center and date for receiving the vaccine?
After the successful registration for the vaccine, the date and center of the vaccine will be informed via SMS on the mobile phone at a later time.
How many doses of Covid-19 vaccine should be taken?
Two doses of Covid-19 vaccine should be taken.
How can I get a vaccine certificate after completion of Covid-19 vaccine?
After completion of two doses of Covid-19 vaccine, you can collect the vaccine certificate by verifying the national identity card and mobile number from the Vaccine Certificate Download menu at the web portal www.suraksha.gov.bd
Who can receive Covid-19 vaccine?
According to the National Covid-19 immunization and action plan, everyone will be vaccinated according to the priority list.
Someone asked, my grandfather is 70 years old but cant get out of bed as paralyzed, how can my grandfather get vaccinated?
Covid-19 immunization activities are service based, so the intended person has to come to the immunization center and get vaccinated.
Who cannot be vaccinated in this campaign?
Covid vaccine cannot be given to any person other than the target population of the registered / included in the line listing. Pregnant mothers and lactating mothers, under 18 years of age, sick and hospitalized, need to request a vaccination from the designated immunization center as advised by the doctor. Vaccination cannot be done against the will of the person.
One asked, will a pregnant woman get this vaccine?
Pregnant women will not be given Covid-19 vaccine for the time being.
NID card is lost, how do I register?
This Covid-19 vaccine will be brought under online registration through National Identity Card. The Covid-19 vaccine will be given to everyone in phases. So come next with an NID or National Identity Card.
No vaccination card has been brought, no information can be seen on the mobile; What to do now?
The vaccinator will ask him to reprint the card and bring it back
Earlier affected by Covid-19 and recovered after treatment, can I get Covid-19 vaccine?
Covid-19 vaccine will be given if listed on priority basis.
28 years old, 5 months pregnant. She works at Covid Hospital; Will Covid-19 get vaccinated?
As the effect of Covid-19 vaccine on pregnant women is not confirmed, pregnant women will not be given Covid-19 vaccine for the time being.
A frontline worker goes home every day after work. So will everyone at home get this vaccine?
Vaccination will be given only on the basis of priority list.
If a person from another center / area comes to get vaccinated during vaccination, can he be vaccinated?
If he/she is included in the list, then he/she can be vaccinated. The vaccinator must update online.
I have to take pressure medicine every day; Can I be vaccinated?
Covid-19 vaccine will be given if listed on priority basis.
I had a heart operation 15 days ago; Can I be vaccinated?
Covid-19 vaccine will be given if healthy and enrolled on priority basis.
Does this vaccine have any side effects?
Like all other medicines or vaccines, this vaccine has the potential for some side effects. However, in most cases, they are very mild, such as pain, swelling, redness at the injection site, muscle and joint pain, weakness, nausea, fever, fatigue etc. No serious side effects have been reported so far, according to clinical trials. However, if you have any problem, you must go to the nearest hospital immediately and seek the advice of a doctor.
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