COVID, omicron: Why risk of COVID-19 is now higher in 3 Utah counties – Deseret News

COVID, omicron: Why risk of COVID-19 is now higher in 3 Utah counties – Deseret News

CMS boosts oversight of hospitals with COVID-19 outbreaks – Becker’s Hospital Review

CMS boosts oversight of hospitals with COVID-19 outbreaks – Becker’s Hospital Review

May 28, 2022

CMS is investigating hospitals in which a high number of patients likely contracted COVID-19 while seeking care, part of an effort to increase oversight since relaunching routine inspections last year, Politico reported May 26.

The agency is zeroing in on facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks and is also considering patients and healthcare workers' safety complaints, according to Jon Blum, CMS principal deputy administrator and COO. The strategy marks a shift from the agency's "less rigorous" approach early in the pandemic, he told Politico.

"We are holding the [healthcare] system accountable," he said. "We do not see ourselves as simply putting out rules and hoping the healthcare system responds to those rules. We have really pivoted to a world where we are going to be surveying and holding facilities compliant."

Mr. Blum did not reveal how many hospitals the agency has cited for inadequate COVID-19 precautions.

CMS won't publicly share hospitals' COVID-19 transmission rates but will publish staff vaccination rates this fall to help consumers determine a hospital's COVID-19 risk.


Read the original post: CMS boosts oversight of hospitals with COVID-19 outbreaks - Becker's Hospital Review
Utah’s Hogle Zoo is giving some of its animals COVID-19 vaccines and boosters – FOX 13 News Utah

Utah’s Hogle Zoo is giving some of its animals COVID-19 vaccines and boosters – FOX 13 News Utah

May 28, 2022

SALT LAKE CITY How do you give a lion a COVID-19 test? Very, very carefully.

When the lion pride at Utah's Hogle Zoo came down with COVID-19 last year, the zoo took a number of precautions to test and treat them.

"A long swab just like you get when you go get your test," said Dr. Erika Crook, the director of animal health for Utah's Hogle Zoo. "We did it with a long handled forcep. We did it behind a barrier and we did it while we were feeding them their meat. We used full PPE and a meat stick, and luckily the animals really have a great relationship with the keepers and we did it very safely."

Most of the lion pride was diagnosed. Only one lioness refused a nasal swab, even when her keepers used a stick with meat on it to try to entice her. Dr. Crook described that one as "grumpy."

Now, the zoo is rolling out vaccines to some of its animals. The vaccine, specially created for animals by a division of Pfizer, is still in an experimental stage. So far, the zoo has vaccinated three snow leopards, five Amur leopards, two tigers and a gorilla. More apes will be vaccinated as doses become available. Dr. Crook said they share data with the vaccine maker and so far, no animal has had an adverse reaction.

Utah's Hogle Zoo is rolling out the vaccine to its big cats first, because they are highly susceptible to COVID-19 and some are endangered species. Snow leopards have been removed from public view because they are most at risk (some have died in other zoos from the virus).

"Once theyre fully vaccinated, we cant wait to put them back on exhibit for our guests to be able to come and enjoy," Dr. Crook said.

Video of a vaccination shared with FOX 13 News shows keeper Jerica Tulls enticing Sasha, an Amur Tiger, with a stick with meat on it. Then keeper Melanie Kuse sticks Sasha in the hip with a long pole with a syringe at the end. Sasha looks back briefly, but otherwise is not distracted by the jab.

"I never needed to get out my dart gun," said Dr. Crook. "It was all done very positively and they were vaccinated. We vaccinated over 10 animals in just over an hour."

The Utah Department of Health & Human Services is also participating in research on COVID-19 and the impact on animals. Dr. Willy Lanier, the state's public health veterinarian, is involved in studies on the virus and has been collecting samples from zoo animals.

"We know the risk of the virus passing from animals to humans is really quite low. Theres a much greater chance it goes the other direction," he told FOX 13 News. "But theres a lot of unanswered questions about the virus in animals. Which species are susceptible? How do they get it? How do they pass it to each other in an animal population and how might the virus change in an animal population?"

Those studies are ongoing, Dr. Lanier said, but it is hoped the research will provide more data about COVID's impact on animals and humans.

"The health of animals, and people and the environment are all inter-connected," he said. "So when animals have a disease issue, a potential for that to have other effects on other species, including humans. So we want to learn as much about that as possible."


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Utah's Hogle Zoo is giving some of its animals COVID-19 vaccines and boosters - FOX 13 News Utah
Winning the web: How Beijing exploits search results to shape views of Xinjiang and COVID-19 – Brookings Institution

Winning the web: How Beijing exploits search results to shape views of Xinjiang and COVID-19 – Brookings Institution

May 28, 2022

Executive Summary

As the war in Ukraine unfolds, Russian propaganda about the conflict has gotten a boost from a friendly source: government officials and state media out of Beijing. In multiple languages and regions around the world, Chinas wolf warrior diplomats and state media routinely amplify Kremlin conspiracy theories rationalizing President Vladimir Putins invasion, and undermining the credibility and appeal of the United States, NATO, and independent media even as China declines to endorse the Kremlins adventurism wholesale. This spring, for example, Chinas messengers promoted the baseless Russian claim that the United States has been supporting a biological weapons program in Ukraine at times, more aggressively than Russia itself.

Because Russian state media have been de-amplified or banned by multiple Western social media platforms, Beijings messaging could play an outsized role in channeling Kremlin talking points to audiences around the world.

These narratives do not just spread on social media. Beijings state-funded publishers have considerable success in a domain that has received comparatively little attention: search results.

For months, our team has been tracking how China has exploited search engine results on Xinjiang and COVID-19, two subjects that are geopolitically salient to Beijing Xinjiang, because the Chinese government seeks to push back on condemnation of its rights record; COVID-19, because it seeks to deflect criticism for its early mishandling of the pandemic. In both cases, Beijing is quite focused on positioning itself as a responsible global leader and softening perceptions to the contrary.

To evaluate these concerns, we compiled daily data over a 120-day period on 12 terms related to Xinjiang and COVID-19 from five different sources: (1) Google Search; (2) Google News; (3) Bing Search; (4) Bing News; and (5) YouTube.

We found that:

To address these findings, we propose that companies:

Other actors can play a role too. In particular:

By taking these steps, companies, content creators, and authoritative outlets can ensure that Beijing is not able to dominate search results for terms related to its geopolitical interests, and that users have the information they need to contextualize the propaganda they encounter.


Read the original: Winning the web: How Beijing exploits search results to shape views of Xinjiang and COVID-19 - Brookings Institution
For the first time during the pandemic, I tested positive for COVID-19. So, Dr. Fauci and I had a chat – CBS News

For the first time during the pandemic, I tested positive for COVID-19. So, Dr. Fauci and I had a chat – CBS News

May 28, 2022

After 26 months of playing what I came to regard as viral dodgeball, this Sunday I tested positive for Covid-19. That is noteworthy only to my family and employer. But it's part of a larger pattern of the pandemic in America now.

People like me are getting infected even though they are at some level vaccinated and boosted. In my case, I have received two vaccines and two boosters all of them Pfizer. My most recent booster was administered May 9.

I tested positive 13 days later.

My positive test, of course, plunged me into isolation. An entire week of work assignments and there were more than a few disappeared. My podcast, "The Takeout," has not failed to produce an original show each week in its history (dating back to January 2017). We scrubbed the in-person show we had planned and booked Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser.

"You're the personification of this," Dr. Fauci told me Thursday, referring to rising infection rates more than 100,000 cases per week nationally for the first time since February. "This is a highly transmissible virus. And it is very likely that if you were not vaccinated and double-boosted, then you would have had a much more severe outcome than you have right now. And you and I, I think very unlikely, Major, we'd be speaking to each other right now."

Fauci could see me via Zoom. I looked and sounded well enough for an interview. My symptoms were fatigue, headache, low-level fever and night sweats. Fatigue was my first, most noticeable symptom. I felt it Saturday afternoon as I tried to play golf. I was winded in an utterly unfamiliar way. It's a common symptom, Fauci told me.

My symptoms have been manageable. I've had worse. I've had pneumonia and double pneumonia, and both were much worse.

And yet, even with four doses of vaccine in my system, Covid still felt like real sickness. To Fauci's point, I thought about how much worse things might have been had I not been vaxxed and boosted.

Fauci asked me if I had sought any antiviral therapy. My primary-care physician prescribed Paxlovid. I began a five-day regimen Tuesday evening and felt noticeably better Wednesday morning.

That was the right course of action, Fauci told me, and he said that taking Paxlovid as soon as possible after testing positive is also something the government is trying to get the general public to do and physicians treating SARS-Co-V-2 patients to do.

Fauci praised Paxlovid as "an anti-viral drug that has a very good capability to the tune of almost 90% of preventing people from requiring hospitalizations and going on to severe disease."

As it happened, that very day the federal government was ramping up availability of Paxlovid.

"We are doubling the number of sites that have packs of it available from 20,000 to 40,000. Just today we've announced the first of the federally supported test and treat sites are opening up in Rhode Island, soon to be followed by Minnesota, New York and other locations."

Three Paxlovid tablets, twice a day, gave me no side effects, outside of a faint metallic taste.

"It blocks the replication of the virus," Fauci said. "When you block the replication of the virus, you essentially interfere with the kind of effects that you experience the chills, the fatigue, the headache, the feeling that you were very much under the weather."

Most U.S. Covid cases now (at least 58%) are linked to the BA 2.1.2.1 variant of SARS-Co-V-2. This mutation, Fauci said, echoing my own doctor, is more of an upper respiratory virus. The majority of protection afforded by vaccines and boosters is related to lower-respiratory illness.

"The one thing that has held strong is protection against systemic disease, particularly lung disease," Fauci said. "However, the upper airway has become a vulnerable target."

As such, Fauci repeated the current CDC advice on wearing masks in places where "you are having an upsurge of cases," which is to don them indoors while in large groups.

I asked Fauci if the country was experiencing its fifth Covid wave.

"We are certainly having a number of cases that have increased," Fauci said, noting the U.S. is still way down from its harrowing peak of 900,000 cases a day, along with tens of thousands of hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. "The daily average is now over 100,000 a day. Should we be calling that a wave? I'm not so sure. I think it's a bit of semantics. I think we should say we are seeing an increase of infection. That's the sobering news."

But Fauci also pointed to promising signs.

"The somewhat encouraging news is that the parts of the country that had increases earlier are starting to plateau and come down. That's New York City particularly. That's the Chicago area. That's the Washington, D.C., area."

According to available data, an unvaccinated person is 68 times more likely to die from Covid than a vaccinated person.

"If you look at hospitalizations among individuals who are unvaccinated, compared to the hospitalizations and deaths among those who are vaccinated and boosted, the curves are separated by a large amount," Fauci said.

"The likelihood of getting into trouble is multi-fold more if you're unvaccinated compared to vaccinated."

I reminded Fauci I was boosted (my second) on May 9 and still tested positive within two weeks.

"Vaccines are not necessarily geared at...giving you sterilized immunity or preventing even the slightest bit of infection," Fauci said. "That's the point. The main purpose is to prevent you from getting ill. Prevent you from being in the hospital. Preventing you from dying. So I don't want to be making any predictions of what might have happened, but it is entirely conceivable that, given the fact that you had some significant symptoms, even though you were vaccinated, you could have gotten into some serious trouble had you not been vaccinated."

Fauci brought up the rough political climate when I asked him it if was wise, as some have suggested, for insurers to increase premiums for those who chose not to receive Covid vaccinations, much as is already done with premiums for those who smoke.

"I prefer not to," Fauci said, "because through no fault of your own, the people who inappropriately and incorrectly say I'm encroaching upon one's freedom will jump all over that and that will just give them some legs on something that is distracting from what we are really want, which is to get people vaccinated."

In that light, I asked Fauci if he would stay in his White House post if Republicans take control of Congress in the mid-term elections. Several Republicans have suggested they would investigate Fauci's actions during the pandemic.

"I don't know," Fauci said. "I haven't given that a thought. Right now, I'm focusing on getting us through this increase that we're in now. That's what I worry about when I go to be at night. I don't worry about what I'm going to be doing six months from now."

I asked if he feared Republicans' investigations or requests for documents.

"Absolutely not at all," Fauci said. I have nothing to hide. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm an open book."

Executive producer: Arden Farhi

Producers: Jamie Benson, Jacob Rosen, Sara Cook and Eleanor Watson

CBSN Production: Eric SoussaninShow email:TakeoutPodcast@cbsnews.comTwitter:@TakeoutPodcastInstagram:@TakeoutPodcastFacebook:Facebook.com/TakeoutPodcast

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View post: For the first time during the pandemic, I tested positive for COVID-19. So, Dr. Fauci and I had a chat - CBS News
COVID-19 Vaccine Parental Disputes  Is There Really A Difference Between Arguing Against The Initial Shot and The Booster – JD Supra

COVID-19 Vaccine Parental Disputes Is There Really A Difference Between Arguing Against The Initial Shot and The Booster – JD Supra

May 26, 2022

If you follow the COVID-19 news cycle, you know that there is approval for the COVID-19 vaccine booster for children ages 5-11. What happens when a parent who was granted authority for the initial vaccine for a child in that age range and now wants to get the child their booster? Does the initial decision automatically mean the child obtains the booster? Maybe not

In a recent Pennsylvania case, mom was granted authority to choose whether to have the child obtain the initial two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, for a child in the age range of 5-11, over dads objection. Dad filed an appeal, seeking to have the order stayed (not in effect pending the appellate decision) and part of his argument was moms ability under the order to obtain another shot for the child (presumably, an ambiguous ability that wasnt explicitly stated in the order but its written word could be interpreted that way). Dads application was denied because mom already had the child vaccinated; thus, his request was moot per the panel of judges who heard the matter. However, the panel specifically indicated that the request was moot because the two doses were complete AND the child was ineligible for a booster.

Coincidentally, the day before the decision was released, the Pfizer booster was approved for the age range. This begs the question, can mom now use the initial order to get the child a booster, and not just in this case, but in all cases to date where a parent was given sole authority to make a decision about the COVID-19 vaccine for a child. In the Pennsylvania matter, the transcript should specify the courts intent for only the two initial shots, and not the booster given that the court specifically pointed to the childs ineligibility at the time, even if the Order does not explicitly carve out the exception.

However, in other matters where it may not be so clear, did the court overshoot its intention with a broad order, such as if a court did not carve out specifics with respect to the amount of shots, or limiting the decision to the initial vaccine, or even if it simply granted sole legal custody to make a vaccination decision? On the flip side, perhaps a court in such a case anticipated that a booster would be available and wished to avoid an annual argument over the vaccine if vaccinated individuals get a yearly shot, like we do for the flu. These are the types of questions raised by the attorneys who worked on the Pennsylvania matter and are interesting to think about.

As practitioners, we should all go back and look at the wording of the COVID-19 vaccine orders received to date, and be sure to seek specific language for such orders in the future, regardless of the side you are arguing.

Another interesting aspect is how quick the vaccinating parent acts after the orders entry. A party filing an emergent appeal could be stopped in their tracks if the vaccine (even shot 1) is already complete. But if the vaccine has not been given yet, and the appellate court agrees that the trial court made a mistake + that its emergent, then the parent who disagrees with the vaccine may have another shot (pun intended).

At the end of the day, in my jaded opinion, I have to assume that the court will likely allow the booster for the same reasons it allowed the initial vaccine, absent proof that its unhealthy for children (which the FDA/CDC doesnt seem to support). The initial order sets precedent. But finding the creative argument as to why the court should stray from that order is where good representation comes in.

Like many issues over the COVID-19 pandemics impact on family law matters, only time will tell.

[View source.]


Read more here:
COVID-19 Vaccine Parental Disputes Is There Really A Difference Between Arguing Against The Initial Shot and The Booster - JD Supra
COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against the omicron (BA.2) variant in England – The Lancet
Has the US Damaged Africa’s COVID-19 Vaccination Drive? by Ebere Okereke – Project Syndicate
COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Locations Associated With Vaccine Efficacy Results – Technology Networks

COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Locations Associated With Vaccine Efficacy Results – Technology Networks

May 26, 2022

A new study by a University of Arkansas information systems researcherand his colleague at the University of Waikato in New Zealand shows that COVID vaccine trials conducted in geographic locations with low infection rates had higher efficacy results, compared to trials in locations with high infection rates.

Puzzled by efficacy rates of approved COVID-19 vaccines ranging from 95% to 45%, Abhijith Anand, assistant professor in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, and Rajeev Sharma, professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, wondered if the prevalence of COVID-19 infection rates at the locations where pharmaceutical companies conducted trials might have had something to do with the differences in observed efficacies.

The researchers based their hunch on the fact that higher infection rates generally imply more mutant strains, which are likely to lead to more breakthrough infections and, consequently, reduce the efficacy of the vaccines observed in the trial.

A lot of important decisions were being made by legislators, politicians and even the general public based on the reported vaccine efficacy numbers, said Anand. The reported vaccine efficacy numbers varied a lot across different vaccines. We were interested in why there was a disparity.

Using data from the World Health Organization, McGill University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Vaccine Centre, scientific publications, clinicaltrails.gov and others, Anand and Sharma tracked the pharmaceutical companies that had reported efficacy results from Phase 3 trials of their COVID-19 vaccines. The researchers then pulled all publicly available data on the pharmaceutical companies, focusing on location, conduct and efficacy results of Phase 3 trials.

The database that Sharma and Anand compiled represents the entire current publicly available global evidence on the efficacy of approved SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Relying on the data, the researchers examined whether there was a connection between the prevalence of COVID-19 infection rates at trial sites and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Geographic location was found to have a significant association with the observed efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine trials conducted in locations with a low infection rates reported higher efficacy, while trials conducted in locations with high infection rates reported lower efficacy.

The findings have important implications for shaping public policy, patient care and individual choices. Public health organizations advise individuals, organizations, medical professionals, and governmental agencies about the efficacy of vaccines based on the results of clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies. That advice is often the launching point for legislation and/or policies for the public, corporations, schools, medical clinics and governmental oversight.

Most of the advice comes from well-established and respected governmental agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization, which also work in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies that develop and test vaccines.

The researchers argued that vaccine efficacy can be validly interpreted only in conjunction with the level of pandemic prevalence, and that Phase 3 trials should include analysis of participant samples of mutant strains, which could lead to breakthrough infection and a high level of the virus.

When efficacy results of Phase 3 trials are reported, they should include the level of pandemic prevalence at the trial locations, Anand said. That would provide more meaningful information for policy makers, as compared to the current practice of reporting efficacy results only.

The researchers study was published inPLOS ONE, a Public Library of Science publication.

Reference: Sharma R, Anand A. The effect of pandemic prevalence on the reported efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. PLOS ONE. 2022;17(4):e0266271. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266271.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.


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COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Locations Associated With Vaccine Efficacy Results - Technology Networks
Study Finds Nearly 70,000 US Hospitalizations, 110,000 Deaths Prevented With Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine – Pharmacy Times

Study Finds Nearly 70,000 US Hospitalizations, 110,000 Deaths Prevented With Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine – Pharmacy Times

May 26, 2022

The vaccine is also credited with saving more than $30 billion in health care costs and more than $40 billion in lost productivity.

Researchers have found that the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech has had significant health and economic impacts in the United States, according to data published in the Journal of Medical Economics.

In 2021, experts estimated that the vaccine prevented 8.7 million symptomatic cases of COVID-19, as well as 690,000 hospitalizations and more than 110,000 deaths. The vaccine is the most widely used COVID-19 vaccine in the United States and is also credited with saving more than $30 billion in health care costs and more than $40 billion in lost productivity.

The analyses show that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine contributed substantial public health impact in the US in 2021 and had a deep effect on the trajectory of the pandemic, said researcher Manuela Di Fusco, MSc, in a press release.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first COVID-19 vaccine available in the United States and was given to almost 6 in 10 Americans who were fully vaccinated in 2021, according to estimates from the CDC. In the new study, researchers used a model in addition to real-world and trial data to estimate how many symptomatic COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths would have occurred in 2021 if the vaccine had not been available. They also estimated how much these infections would have cost the health care system and the wider economy.

Data used in the model includes information on the number of individuals vaccinated, the efficacy of the vaccine in different age groups, and the probability of catching COVID-19, developing symptoms, and being hospitalized. The impacts of long COVID-19 were also taken into account, in addition to the number of working days likely to have been lost due to short-term illness and the economic cost of premature deaths.

Not only did the researchers find health benefits from the vaccine for millions of Americans, but they also found an estimated $30.4 billion in savings in health care costs and $43.7 billion of savings in productivity losses.

[The vaccine] was estimated to prevent millions of COVID-19 symptomatic cases, thousands of hospitalizations and deaths, and generated billions in societal economic value in the US in 2021, Di Fusco said in the press release.

She added that the results, highlight the opportunity to continue widespread vaccination uptake to prevent COVID-19 related disease and generate societal benefits.

The investigators noted several limitations of the study, which could have potentially led to their findings being an underestimate. These include not factoring in the potential of the vaccine to reduce transmission, the severity of cases, and the overall impact of long COVID-19.

They also acknowledged that the findings cannot be generalized to other COVID-19 vaccine brands, indications, and populations not specifically analyzed. The model also excluded the Omicron variant, which emerged at the end of the study period.

REFERENCE

Nearly 700,000 US hospitalizations and 110,000 deaths prevented from the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, national study finds. News release. EurekAlert; May 16, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/952615


Original post: Study Finds Nearly 70,000 US Hospitalizations, 110,000 Deaths Prevented With Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine - Pharmacy Times
Economic Considerations in COVID19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Refusal: A Survey of the Literature* – John Wiley