When the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, nearly everything about the novel coronavirus was an open question: How was it spreading so quickly? How sick would it make people? Would a single bout buy you protection from future cases?
In the four years since, scientists have unraveled some of the biggest mysteries about Covid. We now know far more about how it spreads (no, standing six feet apart isnt surefire protection), why it doesnt seem to make children as sick as adults and whats behind the strange symptoms it can cause, from brain fog to Covid toe. Heres a look at what weve learned.
By now, most Americans have had Covid at least once. While the majority of those infected have been hit with flulike symptoms, some have been hospitalized with serious respiratory issues, and others have had no symptoms at all.
Part of this can be explained by the amount of virus we are exposed to, but our bodies also play a big role. People who are older or have existing health problems tend to have more severe symptoms because their immune systems are already weakened. In some cases, the body can fight off the virus before it replicates enough to cause symptoms, or clear it so quickly that a person never tests positive. Theres also strong evidence that vaccination makes illness less severe.
Experts said that most likely, people who have never been infected are fully vaccinated, very cautious about avoiding exposures (through masking and avoiding crowds) or work from home.
Scientists have been trying to investigate if theres something biologically unique about Covid superdodgers that gives them immunity to infection. But the closest they have come is finding that mutations in the human leukocyte antigen which signals to the immune system that cells are infected can help clear out the virus so quickly that a person might be completely asymptomatic.
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STATUS CODE: 500
(WKBN) It has been four years since the COVID-19 shutdown began across the nation. Things had changed very quickly in a rather short period of time.
It started as a two-week extended spring break for people who were in college at the time. Then things began to shift rapidly, and a fear of the unknown settled across the nation.
Phrases like social distancing and essential businesses became part of our daily communication.
On March 9, 2020, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced a state of emergency after three Ohioans had tested positive for Coronavirus. A few days later DeWine spoke to the state in his what became normal 2 p.m. briefings.
He banned gatherings of more than 100 people. Ohio schools would have a three-week spring break. By March 16, most public spaces besides parks were closed.
Across the country, the same measures were taking place.
The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 6, 2020. That is when the now former Governor Tom Wolf signed the Disaster Declaration.
By March 18, Pennsylvania officials confirmed its first death from the virus. March 19 is when non-essential businesses closed. The stay-at-home order was put in place days later for some Philadelphia area counties.
By April 1, all Pennsylvania counties were under the stay-at-home order.
The world went on pause.
The first reported case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was in January. The case came from Washington state.
The first death was reported in February.
On March 11, the World Health Organization officially said COVID-19 was a pandemic. By this time there were over 100,000 cases in 114 countries. More than 4,000 people had died.
Fast forward to early 2021 vaccinations were widely available, but came with significant pushback. Vaccinations, masking and social distancing all were things many debated about even today.
COVID-19 cases today have overall become less deadly and more treatable for most.
CDC simplifies federal COVID-19 guidance, only 18% of people in WA up to date on vaccines
by Lee Stoll, KOMO News Reporter
Moving day, Sept. 21, 2020: Laboratory technical assistant Elena Boucher unpacks equipment in the extraction room. (OHSU)
WASHINGTON
As we march out of winter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is relaxing its federal COVID-19 recommendations.
"We saw from the beginning of this season, for those who went to the hospital, 95% of them didn't have an updated vaccine," said CDC Director, Dr. Mandy Cohen.
According to the latest information from the Washington Department of Health, more than 1.575 million COVID-19 vaccines have been given over the last eight months,
Only 18.1% of people in our state are fully up to date with all the CDC-recommended doses.
"We have those tools to protect each other, we just need to use it," said Dr. Cohen.
The good news is we are now seeing week-to-week double-digit drops in the number of people ending up in the ER for COVID-19, flu, and RSV.
The number of people hospitalized this season for COVID is lower than in the last two years, but hospital stays for flu and RSV are higher.
"Remember though, COVID isn't a strictly seasonal disease like flu is. Flu has a particular defined season over the winter. Now COVID is worse during the winter, but we can still see COVID through these next months and into the summer," said Dr. Cohen.
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Published on March 08, 2024
While COVID-19 remains a threat, today it is far less likely to cause severe illness. We now have widespread immunity and improved tools to prevent and treat the disease. The CDC has simplified its recommendations because the health impacts of COVID-19 now resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV.
The CDC is using a unified approach to limit the spread of respiratory illnesses. The new updates still encourage everyone to protect themselves from getting sick by staying up to date with routine vaccinations. However, if you are sick, the new guidance recommends you:
This guidance is especially important to protect those most at risk for severe illness, including those over 65 and people with weakened immune systems.
On March 8th, 2020, a new disease was reported for the first time in Lexington, according to Kevin Hall, spokesman for the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.
In those four years, we've had 132,025 confirmed cases. And unfortunately, we've had 828 deaths. So whether you believe in COVID or you think it's overhyped, you still cannot take away that 828 families have been irreversibly changed in the last four years. And so our hearts go out to them.
Across the commonwealth, nearly 20,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19.
Lexingtons four-year anniversary came one week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new recommendations for COVID-19 and other potentially deadly respiratory illnesses. Hall says theyre intended, in part, to reduce the strain on medical providers.
The biggest takeaway with the new recommendations is that you can return to normal activities when symptoms have improved after 24 hours. This is a really important part if a fever is present, it needs to be gone at least 24 hours without the use of a fever reducing medicines.
Hall notes case numbers dont reflect positives from home COVID tests. He says hospitalizations and deaths are down compared to this time last year or the year before, and theres one big reason for that and a lesson for the future.
What that tells us public health officials is that the vaccine works. We said all along that the vaccine is not going to necessarily keep you from getting COVID. A, it will provide protection, but if you do get COVID, your symptoms will be less severe, and you are far less likely to end up hospitalized from this.
CDC March 1 respiratory illness guidance
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Four years removed from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, a pair of Defense Department health officials on Thursday testified that DOD remains committed to protecting service members' health, while also continuing to monitor and learn from the effects of COVID-19.
Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, and Shauna Stahlman, senior managing epidemiologist and technical lead in the field of epidemiology and analysis at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division, provided insight into the Pentagon's ongoing monitoring of COVID-19-related issues during a roughly 45-minute appearance before a House Armed Services Committee.
"Today, four years after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 virus, it continues to circulate in our military communities and evolve into new variants, presenting and ongoing health threat capable of harming service members and affecting operations," Martinez-Lopez told members of the Subcommittee on Personnel. "The department remains committed to protecting the health of the force and to better understand these impacts."
In addressing some of the specific ways in which DOD is attempting to get a leg up on COVID-19, Martinez-Lopez pointed to a pair of databases that medical analysts are using to investigate data and trends related to COVID-19. One is the Defense Medical Surveillance System, or DMSS, which is a relational database that is continuously expanding with the documentation of service members' individual medical experiences throughout their careers; the second is the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database, which provides limited remote access to DMSS information.
"Data to formulate policy is critical to us, especially when it comes to clinical policy," said Martinez-Lopez. "Our ongoing data surveillance will help inform future DOD policy on force health protection, improve readiness, and help prepare for and mitigate against future health threats."
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, DOD has worked with and provided support to the Department of Health and Human Services in efforts to combat COVID-19, while generating numerous force health protection advisories intended to help service members stay ahead of the often-mutating virus.
Health experts want to give extra protection to older people, so a committee of medical advisers to the CDC in February recommended a spring COVID-19 booster shot for everyone who is 65 and older. Photo: Getty Images.
Its spring, the season for sweet strawberries, colorful tulips, crisp vegetables and a COVID-19 booster shot.
What? A spring dose of the COVID-19 vaccine?
Yes.
Health experts with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently recommended an extra dose of the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine for all people in the U.S. ages 65 and older.
Why? Simple. Hospitalizations and COVID-19 death rates for people who are 65 and older have been significantly higher than COVID deaths and hospitalizations among younger people over the last several months, and vaccine effectiveness is waning over time.
Health experts want to give extra protection to older people, so a committee of medical advisers to the CDC in February recommended a spring COVID-19 booster shot for everyone who is 65 and older.
To help you sort out the details about the new spring COVID-19 booster shot, we consulted with Dr. Michelle Barron, UCHealths senior medical director of infection prevention and control.
CDC experts recommended the booster for everyone ages 65 and older. In addition, people who are immunocompromised also have been eligible for extra doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, said Barron, who is also a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
At this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults are having a tougher time when they get a bad case of COVID-19. Thats not surprising because immune systems in older people arent as strong as they are in the young, aside from younger people who are immunocompromised.
Here are some reasons why medical advisors to the CDC recommended a spring COVID-19 booster shot.
Youll want to wait at least four months since the last time you had a COVID-19 vaccine, Barron said.
No, if youve recently gotten sick with COVID-19, you should wait about three months.
You dont want to get your new shot until its been 90 days since your last COVID-19 episode, Barron said.
No, dont wait for the fall vaccine. Unless youve recently been sick with COVID-19, you should not wait to get a spring booster dose. If you are 65 or older, or you are immunocompromised, you should go ahead and get a booster of the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine now. (Learn all about the 2023-2024 vaccine that came out last fall.)
Vaccine makers and experts at the CDC are planning for newly formulated COVID-19 vaccines for the fall of 2024, but you shouldnt wait to get that version. Anyone who gets a booster this spring will also be eligible to get a dose of the newest COVID-19 vaccine this fall.
Yes, its very wise to get another dose, Barron said.
She and other researchers have done a study that is due to be published soon that shows why booster doses are so valuable for at-risk older adults.
Hospitalizations are high in this group, Barron said.
Just like typical flu shots, the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines are not perfect, but they do help prevent deaths and reduce hospitalizations, Barron said.
Vaccine efficacy is about 50-to-60%, Barron said.
Some people might argue that that level of vaccine effectiveness isnt great, Barron said.
But Barron, who works hard every day to keep people healthy and out of UCHealths 14 Colorado hospitals, said vaccines that can keep as many as two-thirds of people from getting severely ill are incredibly valuable.
Thats pretty compelling, Barron said.
These vaccines may not keep you from getting sick, but if they prevent you from dying and being hospitalized, simple logic tells you thats a really good thing, she said.
So Barrons bottom-line advice to her older patients and relatives is quite simple: go get your spring booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. And, no matter your age, if you never got a 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine, you can still go get vaccinated.
Yes. Its true that vaccine effectiveness wanes over time. Thats why its wise for people who are ages 65 and older to get a booster shot this spring.
And even though vaccine effectiveness wanes over time, Barron said its still tremendously helpful to get COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots because they significantly reduce deaths and hospitalizations.
Barron is a co-author on an important new CDC study that evaluates how COVID-19 vaccines work over time.
According to the study, vaccine effectiveness for the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine (which people started receiving last fall and will get this spring) was strongest in the first seven to 59 days after people received a dose of what was called the monovalent shot. Vaccine effectiveness decreased to about 43% in the two to four months following vaccination, the researchers found. While not perfect, the vaccines nonetheless continue to provide some protection over time.
We continue to see as many cases of COVID-19 as we do for flu, Barron said. (Its also possible for patients to get both flu and COVID-19 or RSV at the same time. Read more about that.)
COVID-19 is still a significant component of the respiratory illness pathogens that are requiring hospitalization now, Barron said.
Yes, absolutely. Barron said many people dont think much about flu or COVID-19, but these respiratory illnesses can cause death and can make people very sick.
People can die and do die from the flu. Thats also true, of course, for COVID-19, Barron said.
Thankfully, we know that the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 now are just going to feel sick and stay home and recover. Or you may just have a minor infection, and thats great, Barron said. But for some people especially those who are older or immunocompromised you can have some really terrible impacts from these viruses.
Barron thinks the newest CDC guidelines simplify things.
The message I have for all of this is to use good old-fashioned common sense. If you are sick, please dont visit your grandmother and grandfather who are older and vulnerable. Also, please dont spend time with your friend who is just finishing cancer treatments or visit a brand new baby, Barron said. All of those people are at risk for having complications if they get sick, regardless of the virus that were talking about.
So, be smart, Barron said. We all understand the concept of protecting people from viral infections.
If you feel sick, and youre coughing, sneezing or cant eat or drink, you should stay home. Your coworkers will be appreciative if youre not hacking all day long again, Barron said.
Whatever the cause, if you have a fever, you should not be at work or at school until youve no longer had a fever for at least 24 hours without taking anti-fever medications like Tylenol or ibuprofen, she said. Thats actually a rule at most schools, and its not new. Its just good old-fashioned common sense. If youre sick, you should be home, and you dont want to spread whatever you have to someone else.
Medical experts advise people to stay home and avoid contact with other people until at least 24 hours after they have symptoms like a fever, bad cough or other signs of illness.
Once a persons fever breaks, they should still be cautious about exposing others since some people can remain contagious later. CDC experts encourage people to use good hygiene practices like frequent hand washing and wear a mask if theyre in crowded indoor settings. Its also wise to keep your distance from vulnerable people and take steps to be in well-ventilated areas.
Under the old guidelines, CDC experts encouraged people to isolate for at least five days. Now that more people have built up some immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 through vaccines and prior infections, fewer people are getting severely ill from coronavirus infections. Guidance for people in health care settings may be different. Read some Frequently Asked Questions about the new guidelines for COVID-19.
Barron thinks the new guidance is simpler because its the standard advice that we should all be using if were sick, regardless of whether we have COVID-19, the flu, RSV, norovirus or another infectious illness.
If youre sick, stay home. If you have symptoms of an illness, dont expose others, especially vulnerable people.
People who had an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, showed measurable cognitive impairment compared with those who have not had COVID-19, a new study from Imperial College of London in the United Kingdom shows.
While the cognitive and memory deficits were small for people who had mild infections or did not go on to develop long COVID, the effect of more severe infections that resulted in admission to intensive care units was associated with a more pronounced effect.
The researchers found that vaccination had a protective effect, however.
The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, used a multiple regression analysis to focus on the results of 112,964 adults in England.
Study participants who had recovered from COVID-19 and whose symptoms resolved in less than 4 weeks or at least 12 weeks had small cognitive deficits compared with those in the noCOVID-19 group, who had not ever been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, or had unconfirmed infection.
People who had symptoms occurring over 12 weeks after recovery from the initial infection such as chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulty, or neurological issues had greater cognitive deficits, as did people who had become infected with early variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Even though the researchers did not attach a long COVID diagnosis to these participants, such persistent symptoms are common in people with this post-viral condition.
By using an innovative cognitive test which has also been completed by people who did not have COVID-19, this important and well-conducted study provides the first accurate quantification of the scale of cognitive deficits in people who had COVID-19, Dr. Maxime Taquet, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry, University of Oxford, who was not involved with the study, commented.
Dr. Taquet added that the disparity was the most obvious at the extremes:
The risk of having more severe cognitive problems was almost twice as high in those who had COVID-19 compared to those who did not, and three times as high in those who were hospitalised with COVID-19. A few key questions remain open: Do these cognitive problems persist or improve in the years after infection? What is their biological explanation? How does it affect peoples everyday life and their ability to work?
The mental and psychological effects of COVID-19 have been the focus of study since evidence emerged they were linked to SARS-CoV-2 infections in 2020.
Long COVID has been associated with longer periods of anxiety, poor memory, or struggles with concentration or thinking, but this study did not draw any significant conclusions about the neurocognitive impact of long COVID.
The authors emphasize that further study is required here.
We focused on symptoms that had persisted for at least 12 weeks, and we did not depend on a diagnosis of long Covid, which may require clinical assessment, the study authors wrote. In the absence of baseline cognitive data before infection, we could not assess cognitive change, and the observational nature of the data means that we could not infer causality.
Dr. Scott Kaiser, MD, a board-certified geriatrician and director of Geriatric Cognitive Health for the Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today that it helps fill out some of the ongoing uncertainty around brain fog.
This study reinforces the idea that the experience of cognitive impairment following COVID is quite frequent and is striking in the extent to which this impairment may persists for many months following infection, even in cases that were not that severe, Dr. Kaiser said.
As far as the true long-term consequences its just too soon to tell. While it appears that most cases gradually resolve even if it takes several months its unclear if a subset of people may continue to have lingering symptoms across an even longer time horizon. Similarly, it remains unknown whether this could actually increase ones ultimate risk of a major neurocognitive disorder dementia later in life.
Dr. Scott Kaiser
The study found that participants who had received two or more vaccinations and had minimal repeat infections of COVID-19 had less cognitive decline.
Similarly, those who were infected with later variants of SARS-CoV-2 had better cognitive abilities than those who were infected during the alpha stage of the pandemic.
The authors of the study also note that the delta variant occurred in a highly vaccinated population.
Dr. Kaiser advised that anyone experiencing brain fog should reach out to a medical professional and seek guidance, given that at this stage in the pandemic there are more resources available and better opportunities to understand what long-term effects the SARS-CoV-2 virus has on cognition.
Because this is all a relatively new phenomena the overall understanding continues to evolve. There are many potential pathways reduced oxygen delivery, reduced blood flow, an attack by the immune system on healthy brain cells or an actual invasion of infectious cells into the brain, or inflammation affecting brain cells and a combination of multiple factors may be at play, Dr. Kaiser said.
Additional factors associated with having COVID may indirectly contribute as well increased stress and anxiety, depressed mood, changes in diet, medications, decreased physical activity, poor sleep quality, or even social isolation and feelings of loneliness, he added.
And while its possible that certain cases have very different causes, overall, there does appear to be a clear physiologic pathway by which infection with the virus induces an inflammatory response which actually causes inflammation in the brain neuroinflammation which can, in turn, can cause cognitive dysfunction.
Dr. Scott Kaiser
March 8, 2024 1:33 PM EST
March 8 is your last day to order free rapid COVID-19 tests, as the U.S. government prepares to suspend its at-home test program. Households in the U.S. can receive at least four rapid antigen tests, free of charge, simply by entering a name and address.
The federal government has been shipping free tests since early 2022. The program was suspended for a few months in 2023, after the U.S. government stopped considering COVID-19 a public-health emergency, but was reinstated this past fall, as new variants began to spread and cause upticks in infections and hospitalizations. Now, the free testing initiative is again coming to an end.
Today is the last day the U.S. Postal Service will accept orders, here. Households that have not ordered any tests since the program was reinstated in September 2023 can place two orders of four tests each, while those that have ordered more recently can get one set of four tests.
Rapid tests will also remain for sale in retail stores, and may be available for free through certain community organizations, after March 8.
The end of the government's free testing program is the latest in a string of public-health decisions that signal officials are moving on from COVID-19. On March 1, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ended its long-standing recommendation that people isolate themselves from others for at least five days when they have COVID-19. Instead, the agency now recommends that people stay home until theyve been fever-free for at least 24 hours and their other symptoms are improvingan approach that brings COVID-19 guidance in line with that of the flu and other common respiratory diseases.
