People, wearing protective face masks, walk below the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, France, February 11, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - France is facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections fuelled by new variants of the disease, French vaccination chief Alain Fischer said on Wednesday, as daily new cases reached an almost two-month peak the day before at more than 95,000.
Speaking on France 2 television, he said there was no doubt there was once again an upsurge of the pandemic in the country, adding he was personally in favour of reinstating mandatory face mask wearing on public transport.
"The question is: 'what intensity does this wave have?'" Fischer said.
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Other European countries, especially Portugal, are also seeing an increase, due two new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, are likely to become dominant in the region. read more
The variants do not appear to carry a higher risk of severe disease than other forms of Omicron but as they are somewhat more infectious than the latter, it could lead to an increase in hospitalisations and deaths, the ECDC said. read more
There is traditionally a two-week delay between cases and hospitalisation trends and then a similar delay regarding COVID-deaths.
New infections have been steadily rising since the end of May in France, with the seven-day moving average of daily new cases almost tripling between the May 27 figure of 17,705 and Tuesday's 50,402.
That total is nonetheless still seven times lower than the 366,179 record reached at the start of the year.
The number of people hospitalised for the disease fell to a six-month low of 13,876 on Saturday but it has increased by 458 over the last three days, at 14,334, an almost three-week high.
France's COVID death toll rose by 56 over 24 hours on Tuesday, to reach 149,162.
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Reporting by Myriam Rivet and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of June 21, 2022, there are currently 1,905 active COVID-19 cases statewide. There has been one death reported since the last report, with a total of 7,018 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
DHHR has confirmed the death of a 79-year old female from Berkeley County.
As we continue the fight against this pandemic, we are saddened by the loss of another West Virginian, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. West Virginians believe in taking care of each other, and we must continue keeping the health of our neighbors and friends in mind through prevention including vaccination and booster shots.
CURRENT ACTIVE CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (14), Berkeley (119), Boone (25), Braxton (18), Brooke (22), Cabell (73), Calhoun (9), Clay (7), Doddridge (2), Fayette (41), Gilmer (11), Grant (14), Greenbrier (50), Hampshire (11), Hancock (14), Hardy (23), Harrison (91), Jackson (20), Jefferson (71), Kanawha (162), Lewis (34), Lincoln (16), Logan (39), Marion (91), Marshall (33), Mason (45), McDowell (22), Mercer (79), Mineral (35), Mingo (12), Monongalia (128), Monroe (26), Morgan (8), Nicholas (22), Ohio (34), Pendleton (3), Pleasants (9), Pocahontas (4), Preston (17), Putnam (51), Raleigh (93), Randolph (25), Ritchie (7), Roane (39), Summers (13), Taylor (17), Tucker (4), Tyler (6), Upshur (26), Wayne (22), Webster (6), Wetzel (24), Wirt (5), Wood (82), Wyoming (31). To find the cumulative cases per county, please visit coronavirus.wv.gov and look on the Cumulative Summary tab which is sortable by county.
West Virginians ages 6 months and older are recommended to get vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19. Those 5 years and older should receive a booster shot when due. Second booster shots for those age 50 and over who are 4 months or greater from their first booster are recommended, 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.
Visit the WV COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator, a free, online tool that helps individuals figure out when they may be due for a COVID-19 shot, making it easier to stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccination. 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.
To locate COVID-19 testing near you, please visit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Spinning and floating in the breeze, thousands of pieces of paper tied to clear lines grace the trees outside the building that hosts the Lake Effect Church and Sudanese Grace Episcopal Church in northwest Grand Rapids.
They are weathergrams, a Japanese form of art that typically features haikus on paper left to weather outside. Instead of poetry, these paper strips feature the names of people who died from COVID-19 or suicide during the pandemic.
Artist Donna Kemper came up with the idea for the installation and did the calligraphy for many of the weathergrams herself.
Social media has been so toxic, and there have been so many people who have denied that there is even a pandemic. There have just been so many unkind things posted, she said. I just spent time in prayer and said, What can I do?'
Kemper wanted to represent each person who has died from COVID-19 and came up with the idea of the weathergrams.
People say youll get over grief, but you dont. It changes and it weathers, but it will always be with you. The concept was to remember each person lost because they represent a family, friends, a community. Our nation is grieving and hasnt really had a chance to address that.
Kemper still has people calling her, asking if the installation is up because they want to add names to it. Other artists have submitted many of the strips of paper as well.
The U.S. reached the milestone earlier this year of a million deaths due to COVID-19. Although Kemper does not have a million pieces of paper, she does have nearly 2,000.
To see it actually up and twirling in the wind, its even better than I imagined. Im hoping that people will reconsider the idea that this hasnt been a big deal that visually seeing each piece of paper will affect people by seeing something more visual, rather than just statistics and numbers.
Jack Systema is the pastor at Lake Effect Church and helped Kemper install the strings of paper outside. His congregations share the building with the Sudanese Grace Episcopal Church congregation.
The Rev. Zacharia Char leads that church and has also supported the project.
I feel this is really good. This can be a special prayer that can involve everybody to walk around and have a moment of silence or a moment of prayer about someone we lost. The million people that we lost here in America, said Char.
The installation is outside the church building at 1550 Oswego St. NW in Grand Rapids.
Kemper and the pastors will hold a prayer service to dedicate the installation at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. It is open to the public.
You may have seen recent media coverage about nine children in Nebraska who fell ill with hepatitis. There has been a fair amount of speculation revolving around the cause of the pediatric hepatitis cases and the possibility of links to COVID-19 or the COVID-19 vaccination. There are conflicting theories about what may cause otherwise healthy children to become severely sick with acute liver inflammation.
"To be honest, we don't have a perfect sense of the rate or causes of this type of disease in kids at baseline. However, It does seem clear that we are seeing an unusual spike in pediatric cases of hepatitis of unknown cause in the last nine months across Europe and North America," says James Lawler, MD, MPH, Nebraska Medicine infectious diseases doctor and co-executive director of the Global Center for Health Security.
Public health investigations are pursuing a number of theories, but we don't yet know what is causing a rise in cases. We need more research before we can draw definitive conclusions. "What is clear, however, is that COVID-19 vaccines are not causing these cases," says Dr. Lawler. Most cases are in children under 5, who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19."
Among theories that are being investigated:
"We can't completely rule out that COVID-19 may play a role in this," says Dr. Lawler. "One plausible theory related to the cause of pediatric hepatitis is prior COVID-19 infection leading to inflammation of the liver, similar to what we see in MIS-C. We think many post-COVID syndromes (long-COVID) may be due to a dysregulated immune response after a COVID infection. Studies consistently show that kids get long-COVID and a myriad of problems after recovering from even mild acute infection. And, we know that most children have had COVID-19 in the last nine months."
We haven't seen a link to COVID-19 vaccination in these cases. There isn't a documented risk of severe liver disease in adults associated with the COVID-19 vaccines, and there is no reason to suspect this connection in kids.
Also, keep this in mind: Most of these particular hepatitis cases are occurring in children under 5 years old. "We're not yet vaccinating children under 5," says Dr. Lawler. "The UK isn't either, and they have the most cases per capita than any country. In fact, nobody in the world has been vaccinating kids under 5."
While every vaccine has potential side effects, the COVID-19 vaccine side-effect profile is well within the bounds of what we consider normal for any vaccine. With almost 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines given worldwide over the past 30 months, there's as much legitimate data on these vaccines as any other vaccine given in history. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of education on the risks of COVID-19 on children's health, and why the vaccine is important for them, as well as an incredible amount of misinformation spread online that is simply not based on the facts.
"The COVID-19 vaccine is undoubtedly as safe as any vaccines we use routinely," says Dr. Lawler. "The reality is this: most kids have already had COVID-19 at least once, but there is still a significant risk of reinfection. Prior infection doesn't give highly protective, long-lasting immunity, particularly against new variants. Reinfection, however, carries a risk of post-COVID syndromes, hospitalization or death just like a primary infection. Vaccination guards against this risk and protects family members and the community around children."
A vaccine for kids from 6 months to 5 years old will soon be available.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a traffic-related pollutant gas released when burning fossil fuels.
Long-term exposure to NO2 causes many health problems and is linked to a higher risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and respiratory-related death.
A study conducted with healthcare data from 4,443 fatal cases of COVID-19 in 2020 found that long-term exposure to high levels of nitrogen dioxide correlates to increased mortality risk from COVID-19.
Knowing how long-term nitrogen dioxide exposure affects COVID-19 outcomes could help policymakers better allocate resources to treat the condition.
Recently, researchers investigated the effects of long-term NO2 exposure and the need for ICU and mechanical ventilation treatment for COVID-19.
They found that long-term NO2 exposure was linked to an increased need for ICU care and mechanical ventilation.
Researchers presented the findings at the Euroanaesthesia Congress in Milan, Italy.
The researchers gathered air pollution data from 2010 to 2019 for 392 of Germanys 402 counties for the study. They used this data to calculate long-term annual mean levels of NO2, ranging from 4.6 g/m to 32 g/m. The lowest levels were in Suhl and the highest in Frankfurt.
They also gathered data on the number of occupied ICU beds and the need for mechanical ventilation from the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine registry from April 16, 2020, to May 16, 2020, when government officials lifted lockdown restrictions.
Next, they analyzed the data and adjusted their findings for demographic factors such as population density, age and sex distribution, socioeconomic factors, and health parameters such as pre-existing health conditions affecting COVID severity.
Altogether, they noted that there were 169,840 cases of COVID-19 in Germany until May 16, 2020, and 8,433 COVID-related deaths.
Their data analysis found that an increase of 1 g/m3 NO2 was linked to a 3.2% higher need for ICU care and a 3.5% higher need for mechanical ventilation.
When asked what might explain the studys findings, Dr. Tia Babu, Acting Assistant professor in the Divison of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington, not involved in the study, told Medical News Today:
Nitrogen dioxide exposure is associated with a myriad of effects to the lungs, including lung injury, decreased lung function, and inflammation, Dr. Babu said. Perhaps the chronic exposure to nitrogen dioxide leads to decreased pulmonary function or an abnormal local lung immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
MNT also spoke with Dr. Fady Youssef, a board certified pulmonologist, internist, and critical care specialist at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach, California. Dr. Youssef was not involved in the study.
He said pollutants can promote a proinflammatory state in the lungs that can have an additive effect on inflammation triggered by COVID-19.
Dr. Susanne Koch, a professor at the Department of Anaesthesiology & Intensive Care, Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin, Germany, lead author of the study, explained this additive effect to MNT:
[A protein called] ACE-2 helps put the brakes on inflammation, but exposure to air pollutants triggers inflammation or releases the brakes. And again, when the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to ACE-2, these brakes are removed, which leads to an additive effect, more severe inflammation and a more severe course in COVID-19.
The researchers concluded that individual risk for COVID-19 morbidity is influenced by long-term exposure to NO2.
When asked about the studys limitations, Dr. Koch told MNT that due to the cross-sectional, epidemiological design of the study, their research does not guarantee causal relations. She also noted that as many risk factors for COVID-19 may be triggered by air pollution, their models may underestimate its impact on health.
Dr. Youssef added: There are many other variables that can be associated with environments where NO2 levels are elevated that could be responsible for the correlation, [although] the study did control for some of them.
Babu noted that examples of these other variables, including differences in medical practices in urban areas such as increased ICU care capacity, may have contributed to the studys observations.
Liuhua Shi, ScD, Assistant Professor at Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Emory University, further explained that NO2 might also serve as a proxy for unexamined traffic-related air pollutants such as soot, trace metals, and ultrafine particles.
Dr. Shi added that the study did not assess real-time exposures and that country-level features may not represent the features of individual COVID-19 patients, meaning that their adjustment for socioeconomic, health and demographic factors may be inadequate.
When asked about what this study means for the environment, Koch explained:
While the COVID-19 pandemic may end by reaching herd immunity through infection or vaccination, exposure to ambient air pollution will continue to affect peoples health. The only remedy is reducing emissions.
The transition to renewable energy, clean transportation, and sustainable agriculture is urgently needed to improve air quality, which will also help mitigate climate change, to improve population health and quality of life around the world, she concluded.
It is safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has left a mark in every aspect of our lives. Taking the economy for example, the destruction trail left by the virus is made clear when 38 million US citizens apply for unemployment benefits (compared to the 5.8 million that applied pre-covid), or when the stock market goes through a roller coaster motion every other hour.
While the financial turmoil is widely discussed by politicians and experts, other consequences of the pandemic receive little to no attention from the authorities. For instance, the emotional toll brought by the sudden change in educational formats. Leaving both teachers and students in an academic limbo, the transitioning to the online system was turbulent. As the COVID-19 cases rose, so did the number of dropout students due to financial complications, demotivation, or lack of future perspective.
Unfortunately, few institutions put effort into making online school an enjoyable and valid format of learning, but the ones that did paved the way for quality education solutions.
A good example is the inverted classroom method, which got popular in Brazilian High Schools and kept students from dropping out, ensuring them independence to learn on their own way. In this method, the teacher shares reliable sources and leads the class so they can study by themselves. After the students have read the material, an online meeting is held, the subject is discussed, and eventual doubts are solved.
The inverted classroom encourages healthy studying habits, stimulates the establishment of a routine, and makes learning a much more personalized and rewarding experience. The teacher assumes a tutor role, rather than an authority one, and helps each student with their own necessities.
Another solution found by Brazilian public school teachers was to designate some students as tutors to help younger students struggling with their learning process. The tutor receives a monthly stipend, in exchange of correcting other students homework, providing extra material, and giving an online review weekly.
In addition to such methods, teachers could implement new evaluation mechanisms, leaning on exercises, summaries, text productions, and experiments, rather than on tests. This trade would benefit students, as they practice on what they have learnt.
The public schools that successfully implemented online teaching methods were recognized by the Brazilian National Council of Secretaries of Education. In December 2020, 5 schools were awarded with the School Management Award, including one in a rural area. The first place was awarded with a 30 thousand Brazilian Reais prize to invest in equipment.
As a public-school student, I have seen my teachers struggle with switching from one method to another, fighting to assure proper equipment to those who did not have it. It is refreshing to know the effort will not go to waste. The newly adopted methods (and the ones that are to be) will continue to improve learning and its accessibility, by combining technology and passion for education.
Announcing winners of the fourth World Bank Group and Financial Times youth blog competition
As the monkeypox outbreak evolves, hospitals are reflecting on the early days of their COVID-19 response.
Globally, there have been more than 2,500 confirmed monkeypox cases as of June 17. In the U.S., there have been 113 cases across 20 states and Washington, D.C.
Amid the possibility that more hospitals will treat patients infected with the monkeypox virus, Becker's asked physician leaders the following question: How have lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic shaped your preparation and response to other infectious disease outbreaks?
Four responses:
Editor's note: Responses are lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Ohm Deshpande, MD. Vice President of Population Health and Clinical Financial Services at Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health: Our coordinated systemwide COVID-19 response that began in 2020 was key to our ability to move nimbly, iterate our treatment pathways quickly in response to emerging research, and scale them across our 2,600 inpatient beds and hundreds of ambulatory sites. The effectiveness of our coordinated infrastructure was proven by the fact that COVID-19 mortality for our entire system, inclusive of our quaternary care academic center and our four smaller hospitals, was among the lowest in the nation and by far the lowest in Connecticut. Our Care Signature clinical convergence/standardization initiative was instrumental to coordinating our clinical experts and implementing their wisdom into front-line clinical workflows. For monkeypox, and future infectious disease outbreaks, we are leveraging our Care Signature approach to ensure the most up-to-date clinical management algorithms are easily accessible at the point of care. Doing so will ensure patients are appropriately navigated, our clinicians are well supported, and that we can identify and safely and effectively manage the patients and communities we serve.
Soniya Gandhi, MD. Associate Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles): The COVID-19 pandemic has created many important opportunities for growth that will improve our response to future infectious disease outbreaks. COVID-19 forced us to collaborate across disciplines that are often siloed within healthcare organizations. Clinicians and operational leaders had to nimbly meet the ever-changing needs of patients and employees while working with communications professionals to share new information with these audiences. The pandemic also made it clear that healthcare organizations must be prepared to quickly meet an increased demand for services. This ability to scale up services requires a robust supply chain, a reliable pipeline for PPE and a plan to expand capacity. Lastly, our providers have become accustomed to using enhanced PPE. This familiarity should make them feel more comfortable and capable when responding to future outbreaks.
Susan Kline, MD. Infectious Disease Expert at M Health Fairview and the University of Minnesota Medical School (Minneapolis): I will always remember that an emerging infectious disease could surprise us and carry a greater pandemic potential than might be apparent at the outset. We need to stay especially humble at the outset of an outbreak, especially if it is with a novel pathogen. That new pathogen may not follow the patterns of previous infectious disease outbreaks.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the new monkeypox outbreak have proven that we are more closely interrelated than ever before in human history. Diseases that were previously in one country or continent can now easily spread around the world. To be better prepared for the next unusual and emerging infectious diseases, we need to make it easier for primary care clinics and hospitals to detect these illnesses rather than centralizing diagnostics at a small number of specialized labs with difficult patient access.
Additionally, we must continue to invest in research of infectious diseases and expand our capability for treatment and prevention of these emerging infections with vaccines and therapeutic agents. And we must carefully consider and prepare for the unintended consequences that disease mitigation strategies may have on the economy, education, patient care and mental health.
Colleen Kraft, MD. Associate CMO at Emory University Hospital (Atlanta): At Emory Healthcare, we have been thinking about preparation and response to pandemics and healthcare employee safety since 2002. Our multidisciplinary teams within Emory's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit/Program based at Emory University Hospital can rapidly mobilize and access a multitude of resources, which can extend to the rest of our system when needed. With every surge during the pandemic thus far, having that bedrock has helped us in clinical decision-making and healthcare worker support.
There are several manuscripts published about Emory's close involvement with the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center, which was established in 2015 to prepare and care for patients with Ebola virus disease and other special pathogens in the United States. Emory Healthcare is one of 10 Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers, which undertook readiness activities that enabled them to play a pivotal role in the nation's COVID-19 pandemic response. A second paper illustrates the value of biocontainment units in the current pandemic and their potential role in preparing healthcare facilities and health systems for future infectious disease threats
As Novavax clears a key step on the path to FDA authorization, researchers with the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases hold hope for a COVID-19 vaccine that can address vaccine inequity and demand.
Dr. Cindy Gay, associate professor of infectious diseases in the infectious diseases division in the School of Medicine, led the phase 3 Novavax study at Carolina and is co-chair for the overall study. She answers questions about the vaccine in a new UNC Health video.
There are different ways to design a vaccine. The Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines use a strategy whereby the vaccine delivers an instruction code that gets delivered inside our cells. Then, our own cells are instructed to make a piece of the virus to elicit an immune response which provides protection against COVID-19 illness.
Novavax is a protein-based vaccine using a much more traditional vaccine platform. Several vaccines approved for infections have been using this platform for decades. With this strategy, the vaccine itself delivers the piece of the COVID-19 virus that we want to elicit the immune response to. Its the same spike protein that is eliciting a response with the other COVID-19 vaccines, but in this case, its being delivered directly in the vaccine.
The Novavax vaccine was 90.4% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 illness. The data submitted to the FDA covers an early period in the study, including when the delta variant was circulating and when the omicron variant had yet to emerge.
However, Novavax looked at immune responses to the omicron variant and, more importantly, neutralizing responses. The Novavax vaccine did elicit immune responses to the omicron variant, but it provided less protection compared to the initial Wuhan strain and the other variants, as weve seen with all of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines. Studies also looked at responses after a booster dose, provided in this phase 3 study. Results showed substantial increases in response, including to the omicron variant.
UNC was a site for the phase 3 study of the Novavax vaccine through the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases. This is a two-year study, and we are continuing to follow participants for safety monitoring and additional immunological testing. In addition, UNC was a site for the enrollment of adolescents on the study, from age 12 to 17, and we continue to follow them as well.
Given where we are with vaccination rates in the U.S., its most likely that Novavax, if approved for emergency use authorization, would be used as a booster dose. However, emergency use authorization submission and approval would be for an initial or primary series. Many of us are hopeful that individuals who remain unvaccinated and concerned about newer mRNA vaccines will be willing to try this more traditional approach to a vaccine. Its already been approved in several other countries, including the European Union, and cleared by the World Health Organization. There have been no safety issues with the phase 3 study in the U.S. and Mexico, or in a large U.K. study.
One key advantage is that Novavax does not have to be frozen. In many ways, this will make it a much more accessible vaccine once it becomes widely available, as transportation and access to freezers can be an issue with other COVID-19 vaccines. The logistics and storage required to deliver the Novavax vaccine to rural settings and low resource countries would be much easier, making this is an important vaccine for getting more individuals vaccinated while addressing vaccine inequity.
Learn how the built-in infrastructure of Carolinas Clinical Trials Unit in the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases brought COVID-19 vaccine trials to UNC-Chapel Hill, starting with Moderna.
HONG KONGChinas hosting of a major United Nations conference on biodiversity has already been pushed back four times because of the countrys tight Covid-19 travel restrictions. Now, the conference will be moved outside China, making it the latest casualty of strict pandemic controls that have hampered Beijings ability to project its diplomatic and cultural clout on the world stage.
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the U.N. body that stages the biodiversity conference, said Tuesday that the meeting, known as COP15 and originally slated to be hosted in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, would be moved to Montreal and held in December.
