Inside the Oak Cliff Government Center sat people facing uncertainty and some facing evictions.
Hopefully with having the agencies here, like United Way, and the county and the city, it might help them expedite the application process, said Juan Jasso, Justice of the Peace.
Jasso and other city officials and leaders organized the clinic to help people get financial assistance.
There has always been a need, but I think the pandemic has exacerbated the need because people obviously lost their jobs, had their salaries cut, and they fell behind, said Jasso.
Community agencies guided over 100 families who showed up, unsure of what to do.
We also have attorneys from North Texas Legal Aid. Its to give people an opportunity to come and get some legal advice, but also to apply for rental assistance, said Jasso.
Its a one-stop shop clinic full of resources and hope.
The latest news from around North Texas.
All of us have been affected by COVID-19, and all of us have been affected by the rising prices in the grocery stores and in rent. So thats where the rubber meets the road, right here, said Theresa Daniel, Dallas County Commissioner District 1.
Landlords were also able to get assistance and information at the Eviction Clinic.
City leaders say more events are planned for the future.
>> THANK Y.OU THE RECENT RISE OF COVID-19 LEVELS IN LOCAL WASTEWATER MAY BE LEVELING OFF. >> HERE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS IS DR. EMILY HYLE, AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST AT MASS GENERAL HOSPIT.AL GOOD MORNING. YOUVE BEEN TRACKING THIS DATA CLOSELY. ARE YOU SEEING ANY EARLY SIGNS THAT THIS WAVE MAY BE PEAKING? >> I THINK IT IS PROBABLY EARLY TO SAY ALTHOUGH YOU CAN SEE FROM THE WASTEWATER THAT THERES A LITTLE LEVELING OFF. I WONDER ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF PEOPLE POTENTIALLY BEING AWAY FOR PART OF THE RECENT SPRING WEEK, SO IFT I GETS -- SO IT GETS HARD TO KNOW. NEXT WKEE WILL BE INTERESTING AND HELPFUL TO SEE WHETHER THE PATTERN OF LEVELING OFF OR DECLINE CONTINUES OR WHETHER THINGS GO UP AS PEOPLE RETURN TO BOONST OR DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF MIXING HAPPEN AFTER THE HOLIDAYS. >> THIS WEEK WAS A VACATION WEEK FOR MANY FAMILIES AND MASSACHUSETTS -- IN MASSACHUSETTS, SO ARE THERE CONCERNS FOR A NEW SEARCH WHEN EVERYBODY RETURNS? >> IT IS UNCERTAIN. I WOULD SAY THERE ARE DEFINITELY SOME CCEONRNS, ESPECIALLY WITH PEOPLE TRAVELING TO SEE FRIENDS AND FAMILY. DOI THINK THAT NOW IS A REALLY SMART TIME TO BE A LITTLE CAUTIOUS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE PARTILACURLY VULNERABLE TO SEVERE COVID INFECTION, OLDER PEOE,PL PEOPLE WITH IMMUNOSUPPRESSION WERE MULTIPLE COMORBIDITIES. I DO THINK IT IS AN IMPORTANT TIME, IF YOU ARE FEELING A LOT ALL, TO GET TESTED, GET A RAPID OR PCR TESTS, OR IF YOU HAVE TRAVELED RECENTLY AND ARE GOING TO SEE SOMEBODY YOU DONT NORMLYAL SEE, EVEN IF YOU FEEL WELL, TEST, BECAUSE WE KNOW THERETHS E TIME BEFORE SYMPTOMS START WHERE YOU C PANOTENTIALLY BE INFECTIOUS TO OTHERS. >> HAVE SEEN A CHANGE IN MASK POLICIES THIS WEEK. LOGAN AND MANY AIRLINES ARE ALL NOW MASK OPTIONAL. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE TIMING OF THAT DECISION? >> WELL, I PERSONALLY THINK IT IS STILL A GOOD TIME TO CONTINUE MASKING INDOORS BECAUSE WE ARE CERTNLAIY SEEING IN OUR REGION A RISE IN CASES AND I DO THINK WITH A LOT OF MIXING ON AIRLINES OR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION LIKE US IS AND TRAINS -- LIKE BUSES AND TRAINS, IT IS SMARTOT CONTINUE MASKING TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS. >> THERE ARE PLACES WHERE YOU WILL CONTINUE TO WEAR A MASK EVEN IF IT IS NOT REIRQUED? >> I CONTINUE TO MASK IN ALL DOINOR SPACES. I HAVE AN UNDER-FIVET A HOME WHO IS UNABLE TO BE VACCINATED YET BECAUSE THERES NO ELIGIBLE VACCINE AND HAVE MANY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO ARE OLDER OR IMMUNOSUPPRESSED SO I PERSONALLY CONTINUE TO WEAR MASKS INDOORS TO PROTECT MYSELFND A OTHERS IM AROUND. >> OK. DR. EMILY LEHY, AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST AT
Mass. doctor on signs recent COVID-19 wave may have peaked
Updated: 10:28 AM EDT Apr 23, 2022
Dr. Emily Hyle, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, examines if Massachusetts wastewater data shows that this recent COVID-19 wave may be peaking."I think it's probably a little early to say, although you can see from the wastewater that there's a little bit of leveling off," Hyle said Saturday. Hyle said she wonders about what the influence of people potentially being away for part of the recent spring week will have on COVID-19 case counts. "I think it's really hard to know," Hyle said. "I do think the next week will be really interesting and really helpful to see whether that pattern of leveling off or declining continues -- or whether things go up a little bit as people return to the Boston area or different patterns of mixing happen after the spring holidays."I do think that now is a really smart time to be a little cautious, especially if you live with people who are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infection," Hyle said. "It's a really important time, if you're feeling ill at all, to get tested," Hyle said. "Do a rapid test, get a PCR test, or if you have traveled recently or are going to see somebody you don't normally see or who would be at high risk, to test before seeing them, even if you feel well."
Dr. Emily Hyle, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, examines if Massachusetts wastewater data shows that this recent COVID-19 wave may be peaking.
"I think it's probably a little early to say, although you can see from the wastewater that there's a little bit of leveling off," Hyle said Saturday.
Hyle said she wonders about what the influence of people potentially being away for part of the recent spring week will have on COVID-19 case counts.
"I think it's really hard to know," Hyle said. "I do think the next week will be really interesting and really helpful to see whether that pattern of leveling off or declining continues -- or whether things go up a little bit as people return to the Boston area or different patterns of mixing happen after the spring holidays.
"I do think that now is a really smart time to be a little cautious, especially if you live with people who are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infection," Hyle said.
"It's a really important time, if you're feeling ill at all, to get tested," Hyle said. "Do a rapid test, get a PCR test, or if you have traveled recently or are going to see somebody you don't normally see or who would be at high risk, to test before seeing them, even if you feel well."
More COVID-19 restrictions are removed for visitors to Canada
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Patients suffering from respiratory and neurological symptoms, including loss of taste and smell.
Long-haul sufferers who struggle to muster the energy to return to work.
A pandemic with a penchant for attacking the elderly and obese with particular force.
Sounds a lot like COVID, right?
Its not.
Rather, its the Russian Flu, the worlds first well-documented pandemic, occurring as modern germ theory rose to prominence and miasma theory dispelled, ushering in the era of modern medical science and public health.
A quick check of the textbooksthe few that actually mention the thingwill inform you that the pandemic, which killed an estimated 1 million worldwide, lasted from 1889 to 1890.
Experts will tell you it likely hung around much longerand might still lurk, in some form, today.
Predating the now oft-discussed Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million worldwide, the Russian Flu likely wasnt a flu at all, some contend.
Instead, its symptoms more closely resemble a coronavirusa category of viruses named for their crown-like appearance under a microscope, of which COVID-19 is a member.
Coronaviruses typically cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory infections in humans and are responsible for a handful of common colds. But some have turned deadly, including COVID-19; SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), an epidemic that emerged in 2002 and killed hundreds; and MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome), another epidemic that emerged in 2012 and killed hundreds.
The epidemiology and clinical symptoms of the Russian Flu are much more in line with COVID than what we know about influenza pandemics, said Dr. Harald Bruessow, editor of Microbial Biotechnology and a guest professor at KU Leuven in Belgium who has studied and published extensively on the esoteric ailment.
You have respiratory infection, but at the same time there are strong neurologic symptoms, he said of both the Russian Flu and COVID. Theres also something like Long COVID that was observed following the Russian Flu pandemic. These people were incapacitated for a really long time, with an increase in suicide rate and an inability to return to full work capacity.
Story continues
All this stuff makes one think that one is dealing with a coronavirus infection in the 1880s.
Lets say the so-called Russian Flu was a coronavirus. Does it serve as a better lens through which to view the current pandemic than the Spanish Flu? What lessons can we learn? Does it offer any clues to how the COVID-19 pandemic might endor linger, rather, as viruses tend to?
"If we say maybe the Russian Flu went extinct by a deus ex machina event, the odds are much lower for COVID," Dr. Arijit Chakravarty, Fractal Therapeutics CEO and COVID researcher, toldFortune.
"We're past that point."
When "nobody really dared to predict the trajectory of the COVID pandemic, how it will develop or end"frustrated by short-term computer simulations with a tendency toward inaccuracyand looking to glimpse into a COVID-19 crystal ball, Bruessow turned to the past.
What pandemic might serve as the best paradigm for COVID? He first examined the Spanish Flubut that was a different virus, he reasoned. Traveling backward in history from there, his options were limited, with the Russian Flu being the next chronological optionand, ironically, the first pandemic for which data was collected en masse.
As it turns out, it was a great fit.
The Russian Flu was actually the best case I could figure out of a respiratory pandemic of a comparable size to COVID that was sufficiently medically documented, Bruessow said of the disease, thought to have originated in cattle in Turkestan before enveloping the Russian empire and sweeping the world.
While considered a flu at the time, scientists did not yet have a solid grasp on what caused disease, with germ theory arising nearly simultaneously and duking it out with the miasma theory, the pre-scientific notion that disease was caused by "bad air" rising from the ground.
In one of his articles on the ailment, Bruessow refers to a 344-page doctors report from 1891 London, which describes Russian Flu patients as suffering from a hard, dry cough, fevers of 100-105 degrees, frontal headache of special severity, pains in the eyeballs, general feeling of misery and weakness, and great depression of spirits, and weeping, nervous restlessness, inability to sleep, and occasional delirium.
As with COVID, children seemed relatively spared, often only mildly affected, if they fell ill at all. Those who were elderlyin addition to those with pre-existing conditions like heart disease, tuberculosis, or diabeteswere more apt to take a fatal course, Bruessow wrote.
And theres more: Nearly 10% of cases saw continued symptoms, referred to by European doctors of the time as long enduring evil effects.
As with COVID, it was noted that patients were likely infectious before developing symptoms, and were occasionally reinfected, as was the case with a patient who fell ill with the flu in December 1889 in France, and then again a month later in January 1890 in England.
Dr. Tom Ewing, a history professor and associate dean at Virginia Tech who has published extensively on the topic, considered the Russian Flu an apt comparison during the first three months of the COVID pandemic due to its quick spread and global efforts to track symptoms.
He now considers the Spanish Flu to be a better comparison due to the body count: It's thought to have killed about 650,000 people in the U.S. in eight months, and COVID has killed nearly a million in the U.S. in a little over two years. In contrast, the Russian Flu is thought to have killed a million worldwide, in sum.
"I think where the useful comparisons are is, how do people react?" Ewing said. "How do they respond to first reports? How do physicians deal with a new threatening scale of disease? What we're all living with right nowat what point do you say it's all over?
The Russian Flu is typically considered to have lasted from 1889 through 1890, but in reality, it lasted much longerthrough 1894, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicineand nearly a decade, depending on whom you talk to. Major mortality peaks, as seen in public health data from the United Kingdom, continued through 1899 or 1900, Bruessow said, adding that the mortality peaks in England during that period are nearly as high as they were during what was likely the first phase of the Russian Flu.
It is unknown if later deaths were from additional waves of the Russian Flu or something else. But reports of symptoms from potential later waves, found in The Lancet and other British medical journals, are strikingly similar, and contemporary researchers were formulating the suspicion of an up-flair, he said.
All this makes me think that we should consider the possibility that the Russian Flu agent was evolving and hanging around and even causing a major mortality peak in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, he concluded.
While its unknown if the Russian Flu was indeed a coronavirus, some believe it lives on today as OC43, a common human coronavirus that often causes upper-respiratory track illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While its presentation is often mild, the pathogen is known to cause bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia in children and the elderly, as well as immunosuppressed patients, and its presentation may be easily confused with that of COVID-19, according to a 2021 article in The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles.
The thought that the Russian Flu endures as OC43 is a fascinating hypothesis, developed when scientists realized how genetically similar OC43 is to bovine coronavirus and projected a common ancestor arising around 1890the Russian Flu era, and a time of major cattle pandemics that may have spread to humans.
If theyre correct, the Russian Flu is still circulating, and it's still occasionally deadlya 2021 study published in Nature found a 9.1% mortality rate for those hospitalized with confirmed cases of OC43, though it only tracked 77 patients between 2012 and 2017 at one Korean hospital.
The Russian Flu may indeed be "still killing people off, and we're just not paying attention to it, which is totally plausible," Chakravarty said. "We used to think the Epstein-Barr Virus was harmless," and now we know it raises the risk of developing multiple sclerosis by more than 30 times.
"There's a lot of sort of 'dark matter' in the infectious disease world that we haven't fully mapped out."
Such a future may await COVID, Bruessow contends.
This is what virologists working in the viral evolution field are thinking we should expect from SARS-CoV2, he said regarding the potential of COVID to persist well into the future. Some people think the Omicron variant that dominates now is already going a bit in this direction, because this variant is much less affecting the lung and much more targeting the upper respiratory tract.
Bruessow hopes Omicron is the last hoorah of COVID-19s acute phasethe Russian Flus lasted about three yearsbut hes well aware this may not be the case.
Personally, I would be a bit skeptical that Omicron would be the end of this, he said. The virus will still occupy our societies for a while.
Even if the Russian Flu eventually became less severe, theres no reason to necessarily think COVID-19 will go the same route, Bruessow cautions, nor is the Russian Flu's presumed attenuation necessarily permanent.
Viral evolution is really neutral with respect to virulence," he said. "The indication is that [COVID-19] will try to escape from the immune response, simply to infect the maximum number of people, and the virus with the highest efficiency will replace less efficient viral types.
This is the dynamic we are seeing, of increasing transmission. Theres no guarantee that the next wave wont be a virus that has, once again, increased virulence, like Delta.
Among Chakravarty's take-aways from the Russian Flu: "The body count can still pile up" over several years, even if a disease isn't incredibly transmissible and has a relatively low fatality rate, as was the case with the Russian Flu.
Even so, "mortality bounced around," he said. "There wasn't a steady decrease toward endemicity."
Regardless, COVID is "much more contagious" than the Russian Flu was, Chakravarty cautionsand the world is much better connected than it was in the industrial era, allowing for greater ease of disease spread.
COVID has a "screamingly high" transmission rateone person with Omicron infects, on average, eight to nine others, making it nearly as infectious as mumpsand the duration of immunity is low, he cautioned.
"You can sneeze in Wuhan in the morning and someone can be really ill the next day in Frankfurt."
The potential Russian Flu wave of 1900 is the last mention of the illness Bruessow sees in medical literature. There seem to have been seasonal, legitimate influenza outbreaks up until the onset of the Spanish Flu in 1918, after which major respiratory pandemics were all influenza related.
After that, theres no indication of a coronavirus causing a major epidemic in the 20th century," he said.
It's possible that a "very mild" coronavirus continued to circulate throughout the 20th century but was less impactful due to improvements in public health and quality of life, Ewing said.
During the early 20th century "health was getting better, mortality rates were decreasing, life expectancy was going up." This, in addition to tuberculous public health campaigns encouraging people to beware of coughing, sneezing, and spitting in public, may have blunted any circulating coronaviruses, he said.
While the Spanish Flu may not be the best lens through which to view COVID-19, it does contain pertinent lessons, Bruessow contends.
While the Spanish Flu is generally thought to have subsided in 1919 after three waves, later waves occurred periodically in the late 1920s into the 1940ssome as virulent as the initial Spanish Flu, with even higher mortality, he contends.
As U.S. COVID czar Dr. Anthony Fauci and colleagues pointed out in a 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article, "It is not generally appreciated that descendants of the H1N1 influenza A virus that caused the catastrophic and historic pandemic of 1918-1919 have persisted in humans for more than 90 [now 100] years and have continued to contribute their genes to new viruses, causing new pandemics," including the 2009 H1N1 "swine flu."
"We are living in a pandemic era that began around 1918," they wrote 13 years agolong before the advent of COVID-19.
Bruessow agrees with Fauci and his colleagues that viruses do not simply disappear."
"They change and hopefully they adapt and behave," Bruessow said. "But there are still some escapes, and we might see a return with higher virulence.Vigilance is indicated.
Chakravarty is of a similar mindset but cautions that one can't draw too many inferences from any particular pandemic, regardless of similarities.
"Each new pandemic, new plague is a new chapter in the history books," he said. "Your mileage may vary."
But one thing remains constant.
"There's no two-year timeline for pandemics," he warned.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
OAKLAND, Calif. The Oakland As reinstated left-handed pitcher Kirby Snead and outfielder Stephen Piscotty from the Covid-19 injured list, the club announced today. The As also placed infielder Drew Jackson on the Covid-19 IL and returned left-handed pitcher Sam Selman to Las Vegas.
Snead had a 5.40 ERA in four relief appearances when he was placed on the restricted list April 15. He was transferred to the Covid-19 IL on Monday.
Piscotty was 4-for-14 (.286) with two walks in five games when he was placed on the Covid-19 IL on April 15.
Jackson was added to the As roster as a substitute player on April 15 and was 0-for-3 in three games.
Selman was added to the As roster as a substitute player on Monday and made his As debut last night, tossing 2.2 scoreless innings and striking out a career-high five.
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed historic pressures on the veterinary field and pet owners across the country.
These challenges impact patients, especially at a provider like VCA Animal Hospitals, which has more than 1,000 locations across the United States and Canada that care for more than 4 million pets each year. Consider these tips to help navigate this new reality and ensure your pet has access to the care needed to stay healthy.
Establish a relationship with a veterinarian. Establishing a relationship with a veterinary hospital means your pet will have a team to help that is familiar with his or her medical history and can identify concerns early to improve chances of a positive outcome. Just like your own health, dont wait until something goes wrong to visit your pets veterinarian.
Book appointments in advance and outside peak hours. The best appointments to book early include annual and semi-annual wellness check-ups, vaccinations, dental cleanings and elective surgeries. If youre unsure which appointments to schedule, ask your veterinarian. Booking your pets next recommended exam while youre checking out from your last one is an easy way to find an appointment time that works best for you.
Have a financial plan. Veterinary care for unexpected events and emergencies can often be costly, just like human health care. Owners should consider the total cost of caring for a pet and create an emergency fund to use should something happen to your pet. Obtaining pet insurance or enrolling in a wellness plan are other strategies that can help lighten the financial load.
Know where to go for emergency care. Its important to know where you can take your pet in case of an emergency. Know where several veterinary emergency hospitals are in your area just in case your pets primary care doctor is unable to see you. You can also ask if your veterinary hospital offers tele-triage or other virtual care options. For example, through the myVCA app, you can access 24/7 live chat with licensed veterinary professionals to help answer questions and offer advice.
Be patient. Veterinary medicine is undergoing a surge in demand. Remember that caring for pets is not just a career, but a passion for veterinarian professionals. They are working to ensure you and your pets receive world-class medicine and hometown care you expect and deserve, even with the increased patient load.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of April 22, 2022, there are currently 544 active COVID-19 cases statewide. There has been one death reported since the last report, with a total of 6,823 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
DHHR has confirmed the death of a 93-year old male from Mason County.
As we send sympathies to this family, I urge everyone in West Virginia to do their part to stop the spread of this virus and prevent further loss of life, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Please schedule your COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot today.
CURRENT ACTIVE CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (6), Berkeley (43), Boone (8), Braxton (6), Brooke (9), Cabell (26), Calhoun (11), Clay (0), Doddridge (0), Fayette (9), Gilmer (1), Grant (3), Greenbrier (14), Hampshire (10), Hancock (4), Hardy (4), Harrison (18), Jackson (3), Jefferson (24), Kanawha (35), Lewis (4), Lincoln (6), Logan (8), Marion (14), Marshall (23), Mason (8), McDowell (4), Mercer (18), Mineral (13), Mingo (0), Monongalia (46), Monroe (2), Morgan (11), Nicholas (3), Ohio (15), Pendleton (5), Pleasants (0), Pocahontas (1), Preston (11), Putnam (30), Raleigh (22), Randolph (10), Ritchie (2), Roane (0), Summers (3), Taylor (10), Tucker (1), Tyler (1), Upshur (6), Wayne (6), Webster (0), Wetzel (3), Wirt (0), Wood (14), Wyoming (10). To find the cumulative cases per county, please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov and look on the Cumulative Summary tab which is sortable by county.
Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more detailed information.
West Virginians ages 5 years and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination; after the primary series, first booster shots are recommended for those 12 and older. Second booster shots for those age 50 and over that are 4 months or greater from their first booster have been authorized by FDA and recommended by CDC, as well as for younger individuals over 12 years old with serious and chronic health conditions that lead to being considered moderately to severely immunocompromised. To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, or to find a vaccine site near you, visit vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965.
Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Braxton, Cabell, Clay, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Jefferson, Lewis, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Taylor, Upshur, Wayne, and Wood counties.
Barbour County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Community Market, 107 South Main Street (across the street from Walgreens), Philippi, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVBBC)
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue, Junior, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Berkeley County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Airborne Church, 172 Creative Place, Martinsburg, WV
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM, Shenandoah Community Health, 99 Tavern Road, Martinsburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Braxton County
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Braxton County Memorial Hospital (parking lot), 100 Hoylman Drive, Gassaway, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=Braxton)
Cabell County
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Marshall University Campus (parking lot), 1801 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Cabell-Huntington Health Department (parking lot), 703 Seventh Avenue, Huntington, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Clay County
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM, Lizemores Volunteer Fire Department, 13175 Clay Highway, Lizemores, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVClayCounty)
Fayette County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Fayette County Health Department, 5495 Maple Lane, Fayetteville, WV
Gilmer County
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Minnie Hamilton Health System (parking lot), 921 Mineral Road, Glenville, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMHCT11)
Grant County
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Petersburg City Parking Lot, South Main Street (across from Walgreens), Petersburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Greenbrier County
9:30 AM - 3:00 PM, State Fair of WV, 891 Maplewood Avenue, Lewisburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVGBC)
Hampshire County
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Hampshire Memorial Hospital, 363 Sunrise Boulevard, Romney, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Hancock County
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Hancock County Health Department, 100 North Court Street, New Cumberland, WV (optional pre-registration: https://roxbylabs.dendisoftware.com/patient_registration/)
Jefferson County
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Hollywood Casino, 750 Hollywood Drive, Charles Town, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Lewis County
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM, City Parking Lot, 95 West Second Street, Weston, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavLewis1)
Logan County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Town of Man Fire Department, Administration Building, 110 North Bridge Street, Man, WV
12:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Old 84 Lumber Building, 100 Recovery Road, Peach Creek, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Marion County
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Dunbar School Foundation, 101 High Street, Fairmont, WV
Marshall County
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Cameron City Building, 46 Main Street, Cameron, WV
Mason County
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM, Krodel Park, 1186 Charleston Road, Point Pleasant, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavCOUNTY12)
Morgan County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, The Blue (of First United Methodist Church), 440 Fearnow Road, Berkeley Springs, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavMorgan1)
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way, Berkeley Springs, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Nicholas County
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Summersville Regional Medical Center, 400 Fairview Heights Road, Summersville, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVNL)
Ohio County
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Ohio Valley Medical Center (back parking lot at the top of 22nd Street), 2000 Eoff Street, Wheeling, WV (optional pre-registration: https://roxbylabs.dendisoftware.com/patient_registration/)
Putnam County
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Putnam County Health Department (behind Liberty Square), 316 Putnam Village Drive, Hurricane, WV
Raleigh County
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Beckley-Raleigh County Health Department, 1602 Harper Road, Beckley, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=MavBeckleyRaleigh)
Randolph County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Davis Health Center, 812 Gorman Avenue, Elkins, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVRDC)
Taylor County
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Grafton-Taylor Health Department, 718 West Main Street (parking lot at Operations Trailer), Grafton, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Upshur County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Buckhannon Fire Department (parking lot), 22 South Florida Street, Buckhannon, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVUSC)
Wayne County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Wayne County Health Department, 217 Kenova Avenue, Wayne, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Wood County
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Vienna Baptist Church, 3401 Grand Central Avenue, Vienna, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavWood1)
Please check with the testing site, DHHRs social media pages and the COVID-19 website https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx for any last minute cancellations, and to find other free testing opportunities across West Virginia.
Policymaking aside, clinical trial findings involving the immunocompromised can bring about benefits at the individual level. This is what will happen with Ubuntu, says Ivy Fikelephi Kaunda, who works with Caprisa to help recruit participants for clinical trials. Based outside the east coast city of Durban, Kaunda spends much of her time engaging on healthcare issues with residents in the surrounding townships, where over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, she says she has encountered resistance when encouraging people to take the vaccine. "The ones who are HIV positive will turn and say 'Oh, this is not for us, because we are HIV-positive'." This fear is rooted in the fact that people living with HIV often feel like they are left out, she explains, because they are routinely told that regular treatments are not suitable for them.
But according to Kaunda, this changed with the launch of the Ubuntu trial. When, during her community rounds to recruit participants, Kaunda was able to explain that the trial was tailor-made for people living with HIV, she noticed increasing enthusiasm for the study. Now "when you go to the community people are saying 'I'm part of Ubuntu'... People understand that we also have something for them, and they'll say 'I was part of this change'."
Kaunda speculates that feeling represented by the trial might ultimately encourage more HIV-positive people to get the vaccine which could be a positive stimulus for vaccination rates.
There's another benefit to the trial, which may play out in the longer term: knowing the precise effectiveness of a vaccine can lay a foundation for improved general healthcare, Bekker believes. "It becomes great advocacy to say to people that the vaccine works, but it's better if your immune system is fully constituted therefore it's another reason to get tested and to take your [antiretroviral drugs]," she says. "So it's sort of a secondary public health outcome that is ideal in many ways."
Back at the health centre in Masiphumelele, the circle of women fan themselves with wads of paper consent forms that they need to fill in before the vaccinations can begin. In the centre of the ring, a nurse explains the process, which could take most of the day and will stretch over lunch, which is cooking fragrantly in the nearby kitchen. Their willingness to devote hours of their time could perhaps be taken as an indication that, at the very least, the trial's focus on inclusion is paying off.
"In a world where we recognise that people are marginalised, stigmatised, left behind in clinical research," says Bekker, "we should do our bit to say we don't want to leave people behind."
*This article was supported with funding from the European Journalism Centre, through the Global Health Security Call. This programme is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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Fewer than one in three people who have been hospitalised with Covid-19 have fully recovered a year after they succumbed to infection.
That is the shock finding of a survey into the impact of long Covid in the UK. The team of scientists and doctors at Leicester University also found that women had poorer recovery rates than men after hospitalisation, while obesity was also likely to hinder a persons prospects of health improvements.
Among the symptoms reported by patients a year after their initial infection were fatigue, muscle pain, poor sleep and breathlessness.
Given that more than 750,000 people have been hospitalised in the UK with Covid-19 over the past two years, it is clear from our research that the legacy of this disease is going to be huge, said Rachael Evans, one of the studys authors.
The team stressed their results show there is now an urgent need to develop ways to tackle long Covid. Without effective treatments, long Covid could become a highly prevalent long-term condition, said Professor Chris Brightling, another author.
The research, which will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon on Sunday, involved the analysis of more than 2,000 individuals from 39 NHS hospitals who had been admitted after contracting Covid-19. Follow-up assessments of their health were made after five months and then again after one year.
We found that only 25% of people who had been hospitalised with Covid-19 had fully recovered five months after they had been discharged, a figure that increased only slightly to 29% after a year, said Evans. That was a very limited rate of recovery in terms of improvements in mental health, organ impairment and quality of life. It was striking.
Being female, being obese and having had mechanical ventilation while in hospital were all associated with even poorer rates of recovery. If you are a man, you are more likely to be hospitalised if you get Covid-19 but have a [higher] chance of feeling better when you get out, added Evans. We found being female and obese were major risk factors for not recovering after a year.
A critical factor in these poor rates of recovery was the lack of treatments that exist for long Covid, added Professor Louise Wain, who was also involved in the study. No specific therapeutics exist for long Covid and our data highlights that effective interventions are urgently required.
The researchers also found that many of those reporting impairment in the wake of their hospitalisation were suffering from persistent inflammation. That suggests these groups might respond to anti-inflammatory strategies, added Wain.
The widespread impact of Covid-19 on the health of Britain was underlined last week when the Office for National Statistics published figures suggesting that more than seven in 10 people in England have now been infected with the disease since the start of the pandemic. This estimate, based on testing a sample of more than 500,000 individuals, indicates that 71% of the population in England had caught Covid between 27 April 2020 and 11 February 2022.
However, this figure is likely to be an underestimate, given the impact of the most recent Omicron wave of infections which reached their highest prevalence after February. The number of infected people was rising rapidly when the data stopped. The bottom line is the majority of people in the UK have had Covid-19, said Prof James Naismith, the director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford.
The ONS also revealed that Covid cases are falling across the country, indicating that the latest wave of the disease has peaked. About 3.8 million people were estimated to be infected last week, compared with a peak of 4.9 million a month ago when case numbers reached their highest level since the pandemic began.
For a second year in a row, coronavirus was the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 was associated with roughly 460,000 deaths in the country from January to December 2021, accounting for 13.3% of all deaths in the United States last year, marking an increase from 10.4% the year before, the CDC noted in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Friday. Comparatively, heart disease caused 693,021 deaths in the U.S. last year, and cancer caused 604,553.
The year 2021 saw the highest death rate since 2003, with increases in many leading causes of death, including COVID-19 and unintentional injuries, the CDC said in its report. Unintentional injury deaths were largely driven by drug overdose deaths, and likely contributed to the increased death rate in younger populations.
The provisional number of COVID-19 and other deaths by week of death in 2021 compared to 2020. (CDC)
The CDCs report presents an overview of provisional mortality data for 2021, including a comparison of death statistics between 2021 and 2020. Last year, there were around 3.458 million deaths in total in the U.S., up by roughly 75,000 deaths from the year before.
Of the total number of deaths in 2021, roughly 460,513 involved coronavirus, marking an increase of nearly 76,000 from 2020. Last year, COVID-19 death rates were lowest among people ages 1-4 and 5-14 and highest among those ages 85 and above. Coronavirus death rates increased from 2020 to 2021 for all age groups, except for those ages 85 and above.
Looking at race and ethnicity, demographic patterns in COVID-19-related death rates for 2021 were similar to those in 2021. However, certain populations experienced shifts. While coronavirus death rates decreased among Asian, Black and Hispanic individuals, rates increased for American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as well as white people.
The 10 leading causes of death in 2021. (CDC)
Rates did not just increase for deaths caused by COVID-19, but for other leading causes of death as well. Unintentional injuries, for example, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States in both 2020 and 2021, rose from causing 200,955 deaths in 2020 to 219,487 last year, according to the CDC.
Other leading causes of death in the U.S. maintained the same ranking from 2020 to 2021, except for kidney disease and influenza and pneumonia, with kidney disease rising to the ninth leading cause of death and influenza and pneumonia dropping from ninth to 11th. Suicide, which was not among the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. in 2020, was the 10th leading cause in 2021, accounting for 47,458 deaths, the CDC said.
The four other leading causes of death in the United States last year included: stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer disease and diabetes.
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