The first case of a new strain of swine flu has been detected in a human in the UK. The last swine flu pandemic killed 457 people in Britain alone. A leading testing expert says this strain looks to be very different but is urging Brits to take precautions.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has revealed a British person has contracted a new strain of so-called swine flu influenza A (H1N2)v. Its the first detection of this strain of flu ever found in a human in the UK, although it is similar to flu viruses currently circulating in British pigs.
The concern is that the patient is not known to have worked with pigs. The UKHSA says: As is usual early in emerging infection events,UKHSAis working closely with partners to determine the characteristics of the pathogen and assess the risk to human health.
Dr Avinash Hari Narayanan (MBChB), Clinical Lead atLondon Medical Laboratory, says:Its known this specific strain of swine flu can be passed from ill pigs to humans, but it would be rare for the H1N2 strain to be passed from human to human without initial exposure to pigs. The fact that the patient, who lives in North Yorkshire, has no known contact with infected animals is leading to a wider investigation.
Influenza A (H1N2)v is very different to the influenza A H1N1/09 strain of swine flu that killed 457 people in the UK back in 2009/10. Even so, close contacts of the patient are being followed up byUKHSAand partner organizations.The UKHSA says: The source of their infection has not yet been ascertained and remains under investigation.
For this reason, we recommend people who become unwell consider being tested, particularly if they have had direct or indirect exposure to pigs or contaminated environments.
In humans, the symptoms of swine flu to look out for include:
However, these symptoms are very similar to seasonal flu and also some strains of Covid-19 and to RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), the latter producing cold-like symptoms but generally not a high temperature.
Other symptoms of swine flu may include:
Pregnant women are considerably more likely to develop serious complications from swine flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that up to 10% of all hospitalized patients with swine flu are women who are more than three months pregnant.
The early identification of this British case underlines how vital routine testing for flu and Covid remains. The individual was tested by their GP after experiencing respiratory symptoms and the virus was identified as part of routine national flu surveillance undertaken byUKHSAand the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). The UKHSAused polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a method of testing.
With health services under strain this winter, it is not always easy to access a flu test. However, it may be important for people to identify exactly which virus they are suffering from. Private tests are available, such as London Medical Laboratorys pioneering 4-in-1 Covid, RSV, influenza A and B test. This is particularly useful for people who wish to differentiate whether they are suffering from a strain of flu or Covid-19. Its still the recommendation of the NHS that people should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if they, or their child, have symptoms of Covid.
Remember, the current strains of flu that are circulating may produce only mild illness in one person but may cause severe symptoms and even prove fatal to others. This is particularly important in people with pre-existing health conditions and long-term diseases. Similarly, while the RSV virus may only produce chesty cold symptoms in some people, it can severely affect elderly people and children.
All of these viruses, including swine flu, display very similar initial symptoms to the common cold, but these symptoms may quickly escalate. For this reason alone, many people will want the peace of mind a test result can bring, ensuring they are not endangering anyone in their family this festive season.
The revolutionary Covid, RSV and flu A and B, 4-in-1 PCR Testcan be takenat one of over 95 selected pharmacies, drop-in clinics and health stores nationwide or, for convenience, at home through the post.
With memories fresh regarding the outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan, China, it is not surprising that some are concerned about a substantial spike in hospitalizations due to cases of pneumonia among children in China.
Experts say, however, that this is likely not a possible pandemic but rather the result of a few predictable, non-worrisome factors.
This is Chinas first winter without COVID-19 protections in place since 2020, and Reuters reports that WHO China said Chinese health authorities advised that the current numbers they are observing is not greater than the peak in the most recent cold season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some individuals have claimed the increase in pneumonia cases seen is due to immunity debt, the idea that children were not exposed to usual childhood infections during lockdowns, and will get those infections at a later date as they have not encountered those bacteria and viruses to build up an immunity to them.
However, it is not necessarily the case that they will experience a worse infection. A paper published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in January 2023 attempted to quantify the scale of immunity debt on cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., a virus that causes common childhood respiratory infections.
However, it is an unproven concept which has been blamed for previous outbreaks, such as the hepatitis outbreak seen among children in the U.K. in spring 2022, and the outbreak of Group A Strep in many countries in winter 2022.
The common strain of pneumonia, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, that is currently widespread is a walking pneumonia that is not typically life threatening and can be treated with antibiotics.
There are also breakouts of M. pneumoniae in Denmark and the Netherlands.
Some U.S. news outlets have been reporting on a mysterious white lung pneumonia syndrome cropping up in children in Ohios Warren County in the U.S. as being connected to the Chinese pneumonia outbreak.
Experts agree that white lung syndrome, which is a medical buzzword to describe the way that affected lung look on an x-ray, is unconnected to what is going on in China.
White lung syndrome is not caused by a novel pathogen, can be treated with antibiotics, and most patients do not require hospitalization.
The recent surge in pneumonia cases among children in China is a concerning trend, said pediatrician Dr. Daniel Ganjian, as it has led to overcrowding in hospitals and strained healthcare resources.
However, it is important to note that this is not a new phenomenon; there have been similar spikes in pneumonia cases among children in previous winters, he reminded.
Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine, also suggested there is little cause for alarm.
I think the communication between the Chinese public health authorities and the World Health Organization made clear that they have not discovered a distinctive new viral cause for this, rather than an array of viral and one bacterial pathogens are the causes, he told Medical News Today.
In addition to M. pneumoniae, cold and flu viruses and R.S.V., are the culprits in most recorded cases in China this winter.
Epidemiologist Dr. Zuo-feng Zhang predicted, If the Chinese children had had high vaccine coverage for COVID-19, flu, RSV [respiratory syncytial virus], and pneumonia there is no vaccine for mycoplasma the outbreak would not be so severe because a high proportion of the cases with mycoplasma have mixed infections with other respiratory infectious agents.
Respiratory virus expert Dr. Andrew Pekosz noted that A younger-aged population is protected from infection with a number of different viruses and bacteria during public health lockdowns.
When those lockdowns are removed, there is a larger portion of the population that lacks immunity to those pathogens and are therefore more susceptible to infection, he told MNT.
That children encounter so many common pathogens is not a bad thing. It helps them build much-needed antibodies that will serve them well throughout life.
Dr. Schaffner said that children acquire infections and spread them among themselves very readily because they play on top of each other, almost literally, and are not very hygienic. Children have the distribution franchise for the environment, and thats normal.
Even though Im a physician dealing with sick patients, I never got sick until our firstborn went to day care and brought home to daddy a whole series of viral infections, he said.
Children who have viral infections can also have complicated bacterial infections such as M. pneumoniae, although it is more common in a hospital setting.
In fact, The high incidence of pneumonia is probably due to the overloaded childrens hospitals. Since many sick children were in the crowded hospitals, there are opportunities for cross-infection, leading to mixed infections of respiratory agents. Both could lead to an increased incidence of pneumonia, said Dr. Zhang.
Dr. Schaffner said viruses create inflammation in the respiratory tract, and then the bacteria which you are normally carrying back in your throat can take advantage of that, get through the barrier of the mucus membranes, and get into the lung and cause pneumonia.
Dr. Ganjian addressed the possibility that in some cases, the under-treatment of viruses has resulted in pneumonia cases in China.
This is because parents may be more likely to seek medical attention for their children if they have symptoms of pneumonia, he said, which can be more severe than symptoms of a common cold or flu.
At the same time, M. pneumoniae does not require a preceding infection.
Mycoplasma pneumonia is everywhere and always has been everywhere, said Dr. Schaffner.
This is not something new. Its just not discussed as much. [In] the United States, [it is] certainly not one of the illnesses thats routinely reportable by state regulation to public health authorities. So we dont have as much data on mycoplasma pneumonia that usually comes from studies done by academic medical centers, he explained.
M. pneumoniae, similar to other infections, is becoming increasingly antibiotic-resistant.
A May 2023 study found that M. pneumoniae was between 70% to 90% resistant to one commonly prescribed type of antibiotics, macrolides, in Beijing.
We need to be worried about the high antibiotics-resistance rate of mycoplasma pneumonia globally. The resistance rate of mycoplasma to antibiotics in Asia is about 90%, but in the U.S. is about 10%, Dr. Zhang cautioned.
You have to go to alternate antibiotics, said Dr. Schaffner.
However, Dr. Zhang added that we do need to worry about potential transmission through international travel which might lead to an increased proportion of the mycoplasma-infected individuals with resistant strains and will be difficult to be treated.
Dr. Pekosz said that antimicrobial resistance was a major public health issue for a number of bacteria.
We need to invest in next-generation antibiotics that have broader activity, as well as be mindful of how antibiotics are being prescribed. We need to move forward on multiple fronts to stem the problem of antimicrobial resistance, he added.
October, which was a good time to get it, the best time to get vaccinated is as soon as you can after October. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images) Getty Images
It may be too late to dress up like Barbie or Ken for Halloween. It may be too late to dress up like Barbie or Ken for Thanksgiving dinner, too. But as long as its still either the fall or winter season, it is definitely not too late to get the flu shot. As long as you are somewhere in the October through March timeframe, you probably want to get vaccinated against influenza as soon as you can.
Thats because the influenza season in the Northern Hemisphere can extend all the way from as early as October to as late as May the following calendar year. In fact, until youve gotten well into the New Year, chances are you and everyone around you havent even seen the worst of the flu season yet. Flu activity is typically highest from December through February with peak influenza virus activity most commonly occurring in February. Thats why its good idea to always secure your protection well in advance of Valentines Day.
Now, flu activity can follow very different patterns each season. In the four decades from the 1982-1983 flu season through the 2021-2022 flu season, the peak of the flu season has been in February a total of 17 times. December has been the next most common peak month at seven times. January and March tied for third place at six times apiece. And October, November and April have been the peak months only once each, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Theres a saying among epidemiologists that if youve seen one flu season, youve seen just one flu season. Every year can be different from previous years. Unless you have a DeLorean that serves as a time machine or some other way of traveling to and from the future, its impossible to predict exactly what this current flu season will look like. You cannot be sure when peak flu activity will occur, how bad things will be or whether this will be the season when there is a surge in cases in the later spring.
If you havent yet been vaccinated, its a good idea to get the flu vaccine as soon as possible. Keep in the mind that the flu vaccine isnt like a trench coat and doesnt start protecting you the moment you get it. Your immune system has to first see the weakened or inactivated flu particles from the vaccine, essentially say, WTF is this? This doesnt belong in my body! and then mount an immune response against them, which can take up to two weeks.
This two-week lag time to protection is a big reason why its important to get the flu vaccine now without further delay. This will help protect you in time for the last two weeks of December, which may be filled with interactions with other people, objects and surfaces, especially if you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years Eve, New Years Day and the annual unofficial holiday of going to stores to return all the presents that you didnt want but somehow received.
Late September to mid-October is typically the best time to get vaccinated against the flu to make sure you are protected before flu activity really starts to increase, as demonstrated by computer modeling studies published by our PHICOR Team in the scientific journals Vaccine, the American Journal of Managed Care and Medical Care. It is is possible to get vaccinated a bit too early, such as in August, since the protection offered by the flu vaccine may start waning after six months, leaving you less protected the following May when the flu may still be around.
Keep in mind that while the flu vaccine can offer good protection against the flu, it wont offer you 100% protection. Instead, its protection can vary from 30% to 60% depending on how well the flu virus strains put in the vaccines in the leadup to flu season end up matching the strains that actually circulate that season. So just because you got the flu shot already doesnt mean that you should stop washing your hands frequently and thoroughly, begin hugging and kissing people who may be coughing, sneezing, feeling run down or hot (hot temperature-wise, that is) and abandon all other infection prevention measures. Otherwise, your New Years Eve may turn out to be a Flu Years Eve.
Of course, reducing your chances of getting infected is not the only benefit of the flu shot. Even if you do end up getting infected, being vaccinated can significantly reduce the severity of your symptoms and your chances of getting hospitalized and dying. Most commonly, the flu will result in four to seven days of fevers, chills, coughing, a sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea or other not very pleasant symptoms. They can be so unpleasant that you end up missing school or work.
Things can get even worse, though, especially if you have a weaker immune system. Each year from 2010 through 2022, somewhere between 9.4 million and 41 million people have gotten sick from the flu, between 100,000 and 710,000 people have been hospitalized and between 4,900 and 52,000 people have died. Catching the flu is not the same as catching the common cold. The flu could leave you a lot more sick with some potentially terrible consequences.
Finally, even if you think youve had the flu already this year, it is still a good idea to get the flu shot. Many different microbes can cause flu-like illnesses such as respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV) and adenoviruses. So, unless you actually got tested for the flu, you cannot be sure if youve actually had the flu, meaning that its probably still worth a shot.
I am a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, computational, AI, and digital health expert, medical doctor, avocado-eater, and entrepreneur, not always in that order. Currently, I am a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health, Executive Director of PHICOR (@PHICORteam) and Center for Advanced Technology and Communication in Health (CATCH), and founder and CEO of Symsilico. My previous positions include serving as Professor By Courtesy at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Executive Director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) at Johns Hopkins University, Associate Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Associate Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh, and Senior Manager at Quintiles Transnational, working in biotechnology equity research at Montgomery Securities, and co-founding a biotechnology/bioinformatics company. My work has included developing computer approaches, models, and tools to help health and healthcare decision makers in all continents (except for Antarctica). This has included serving as the Principal Investigator of over $60 million in research grants from a wide variety of sponsors such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National Science Foundation (NSF), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, USAID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Global Fund. I have authored over 250 scientific publications and three books. In addition to covering health, healthcare, and science for Forbes, I maintain a blog "A Funny Bone to Pick" for Psychology Today, a Substack entitled "Minded by Science"and have written articles forThe New York Times, Time, The Guardian, The HuffPost, STAT, the MIT Technology Review and others. My work and expertise have appeared in leading media outlets such as The New York Times, ABC, USA Today, Good Morning America, Tamron Hall Show, BBC, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, CBS News, Businessweek, U.S. News and World Report, Bloomberg News, Reuters, National Public Radio (NPR), National Geographic, MSN, and PBS. Follow me on Twitter (@bruce_y_lee) but dont ask me if I know martial arts.
Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) Over half of the inbound travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macao who voluntarily took tests on arriving at one of four airports in Taiwan over the past week were positive for flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Tuesday.
Starting Nov. 26, arriving travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macao have been encouraged to take tests at airports in Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung if they display influenza-like symptoms.
Between Nov. 26 and Dec. 4, 68 of 88 arriving travelers who took tests were positive for respiratory illnesses, with 48 having contracted influenza and no cases of mycoplasma pneumoniae, the CDC said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), provinces in northern China have reported a jump in influenza-like illnesses for consecutive weeks since mid-October, likely driven by a combination of mycoplasma pneumoniae, RSV, COVID-19 and seasonal flu.
The CDC said in addition to the 48 flu infections, the remaining 20 travelers tested positive for other diseases, including nine confirmed COVID-19 cases, six adenoviruses cases, two rhinovirus cases and one parainfluenza virus case, while one individuals contracted both flu and COVID-19.
According to CDC Deputy Director General Lo Yi-chun () at a weekly press briefing, so far the confirmed cases have been mild.
In addition, regarding the situation in China, Lo said according to data released by Chinese health officials last week, both northern and southern provinces have seen an increase in respiratory diseases.
Lo said that among the cases, the positivity rate for influenza has increased across the country, with the rate in the north jumping from 27.6 percent to 36.9 percent, and the figure in the south rising from 34.5 percent to 44.3 percent.
Lo added that influenza A virus H3N2, which is dominant in Taiwan, is also dominant in China, indicating that flu cases will continue to grow, though a decline has been seen in mycoplasma pneumoniae infections.
However, Lo said, as the temperatures drops more and more people in China could catch flu.
As a result, current tests implemented at airports in Taiwan for the diseases will remain in place, with health officials making adjustments to the policy depending on the evolving situation, Lo said.
Also at the briefing, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching () said a man in his 40s died six days after testing positive for the illness in mid-November.
Lin said the man developed cardiogenic shock and multiple organ failure after testing positive for the disease, and died four days after being hospitalized.
From Nov. 28 to Dec. 4, 31 people died of COVID-19, the highest weekly number in four weeks, Lo said.
According to CDC data, over 7,000 people have died from COVID-19 this year, making the disease the 7th leading cause of death for Taiwan nationals.
(By Tseng Yi-ning and Evelyn Yang)
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DHEC stresses need for flu shots during National Influenza Vaccination Week (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
SOUTH CAROLINA (WCIV)
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is urging residents to get their annual flu shot, as National Influenza Vaccination Week is in effect Dec. 4-8.
The flu vaccine is recommended for everyone over the age of six months, and is safe for pregnant people and those who wish to become pregnant.
Since the flu virus changes every year, officials say it's important to receive an updated vaccine annually.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said that the influx of flu cases illustrate how crucial it is for South Carolinians to get their updated shots.
Weve seen widespread flu activity across the state over the past several weeks, with an increase in both flu cases and hospitalizations, Bell said. Its critical that South Carolinians make a point to get their flu shots now if they havent already in order to protect themselves and slow the spread of influenza in the community.
DHEC's flu watch page shows 7,229 cases of the flu so far this season.
It is especially important that people get updated vaccines for respiratory illnesses, including the flu and COVID, as we enter the holiday season, Bell said. This is the time when we gather with our friends and families in large groups indoors, which can increase the spread of these viruses. Getting your vaccines and practicing healthy habits will help protect you and your loved ones from the flu and other viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
More information about the flu and vaccines can be found on DHEC's website.
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State health officials declared Wednesday that flu is prevalent across New York and ordered health care workers who are not vaccinated against the infectious disease to wear masks.
The declaration, ordered by state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald, impacts health care workers at numerous facilitiesincluding hospitals and nursing homes as well as those at certified home health agencies and diagnostic and treatment centers.
Lab-confirmed influenza cases have been steadily ticking up across the state, with an increase of 34% outside of New York City and 21% in the five boroughs over the previous week as of Nov. 25. This year is relatively mild compared last year, but worse than two years ago. There were more than 27,000 lab-confirmed cases across the state for the week ending Nov. 26, 2022, compared to 4,061 this year. There were 1,137 lab-confirmed cases for a similar week in 2021.
We have now declared that flu is prevalent in New York State, which means health care personnel who are not vaccinated against the flu this season need to take extra precautions and wear a mask in health care facilities, as they are exposed to sick patients and come into close contact with those most vulnerable to the flu, McDonald said in a statement.
Nationally, there have been at least 1.8 million illnesses, 17,000 hospitalizations and 1,100 deaths from the flu this season, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said eight pediatric deaths have been recorded so far this season as a result of the flu.
We are seeing sporadic cases of the flu but I wouldnt call it prevalent here yet, said Dr. Neal Shipley, medical director at Northwell-GoHealth Urgent Care. We are expecting, as the holidays come and people are gathering together and getting on airplanes, that we will see a rise in all of the upper respiratory viruses flu, COVID-19 and RSV.
Shipley said vaccine fatigue and hesitancy might be preventing more people, particularly children and adults,from getting this years flu vaccine, even though its the best way to stave off serious illness from the virus.
The flu virus changes every year and people need to get the vaccine to protect themselves and others, he said.
Shipley said health care workers at Northwell-GoHealth who are not vaccinated against the flu are already required to wear masks as part of the systems own policy.
Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.
Not enough people are getting vaccinated for COVID-19.
Thats according to a Western University professor involved in the Ontario COVID-19 Waste Water Survey Program.
What we have is a lot of people that harbour the virus for periods of time, then transmit it to someone else, said Canada Research Chair in HIV Pathogenesis and Viral Control, Eric Arts.
He said that while there is some immunity in the population from previous infections and previous vaccine doses, it can only last for so long.
Just not enough people are getting vaccinated, and that means that we will just have wave after wave after wave, he explained. And so it really wont end. Thats the problem. Its endemic now in the population.
The warning comes as the latest Ontario Public Health wastewater survey results indicate the prevalence of COVID-19 in Ontario is more than twice what it was one year ago.
The wastewater signal now stands at 2.1, up from 0.98 at this time last year. Southwestern Ontario, which stretches from Grey-Bruce down to Windsor, is at 3.2 thats more than six times higher than it was one year ago when the signal was 0.5.
Arts said were very much into a COVID-19 wave.
Now the southwest has quite exploded in terms of what we see in wastewater, reflecting the number of cases there are in the southwest. And you can see that as well in London, Ontario, where theres a huge increase, said Arts.
Doctors said transmission of both COVID-19 and influenza will peak over the holiday season. Thats why they said the next week will be critical for people to get vaccinated, who havent already, as it takes about two weeks to develop immunity.
Dr. Ninh Tran, medical officer of health for Southwestern Public Health, said both COVID-19 and influenza are on the uptick.
Our flu activity went from low to high in the last week or so. Weve got seven cases. And flu season, once it starts it keeps going up for about four to six weeks, she explained. So were expecting peak transmission of these two viruses around the holiday season.
Tran said vaccination clinics can be found on the Southwestern Public Health website, while vaccination information for London and Middlesex can be on its website.
Residents of the South Meadows neighborhood in Burlington gather free produce from the Peoples Farmstand on June 30. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Toward the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, one thing was made quickly and strikingly clear: To survive a crisis, people need each other. For the thousands of Vermonters who helped galvanize a swell of grassroots mutual aid efforts that year, that was a reality worth acting upon.
Since then, roughly one third of those groups have continued operating in Vermont, responding to crises that have continued beyond the flashpoint of the early pandemic, according to research conducted by VTDigger.
The term Mutual aid refers to local networks through which people crowdsource and redistribute food, supplies, skills, money and other resources on a grassroots level.
With origins in Black and Indigenous liberation movements and anarchist theory, mutual aid networks often arise explicitly in response to the failures of established systems to support people, according to Linus Owens, a professor of sociology at Middlebury College.
While organizers and participants vary in their personal political perspectives on the practice, mutual aid traditionally involves non-hierarchical and reciprocal forms of organizing aimed explicitly at disrupting the unequal power dynamics that mainstream forms of charity often reinforce.
Almost always in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, rather than people turning against each other, we see a kind of flowering or proliferation of neighbors taking care of neighbors, strangers taking care of strangers, Owens said. But it doesnt necessarily last super long.
Before 2020, only a handful of mutual aid networks existed in Vermont. Yet as Vermonters sought more ways to meet each others needs during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, 50 new groups burgeoned across the state, mirroring a national surge in the radical practices mainstream popularity.
By the middle of 2020, at least 53 distinct networks were operating across all 14 counties, according to a survey conducted by VTDigger.
Since then, 21 of the networks VTDigger identified have closed. Another 13 showed signs of having shut down, like a lack of active internet presence. Others have become less consistently active, rekindling energy during new crises, such as this summers historic flooding.
Five additional mutual aid networks began operating between 2021 and 2023. All of those, plus nearly one-third of the networks that were founded in 2020, have operated steadily since then, continuing or shifting their focus toward ongoing crises, such as poverty, homelessness and racism, which acute crises intensify.
At the Marketplace Garage one summer afternoon in Burlington, dozens of people gathered around containers of salad and homemade mac and cheese. As people talked and ate, someone began playing music. Burlington resident Alex Olsen requested the song The Greatest by Sia and started dancing.
Just weeks before, Olsen was among the 800 Vermonters who were evicted from the states pandemic-era hotel and motel programs. Amid the tumult, Olsen said, Food Not Cops was a constant source of caloric and social nourishment.
Food Not Cops, a grassroots mutual aid group that ignited in 2020 as a Burlington offshoot of Food Not Bombs, began when a swell of volunteers many of whom experienced food insecurity themselves began cooking meals to distribute outside daily. Food Not Cops continues to host free lunches daily, making it one of several mutual aid groups in Vermont whose work has not ended.
Sam Bliss, an organizer at Food Not Cops, said the pandemic and coinciding Black Lives Matter protests that summer were examples of how acute crises can illuminate how, on an everyday basis, the state fails to meet peoples needs.
Food Not Cops is prefigurative, which means were creating the world that we want to live in, right here as best we can, Bliss said.
In the world that Food Not Cops imagines, receiving free food is not shameful but liberating. While organizers encourage people experiencing food insecurity to join meals, they also hope those with more resources will as well.
(There are) benefits of food being a gift in terms of the sorts of relationships that it creates and the community resilience that come from those relationships, Bliss said.
While participation in Food Not Cops has decreased since a surge in 2020, Bliss said, specifically among members of the white middle and upper classes, its daily meals are part of a growing grassroots effort to provide free food, especially as pandemic-era programs like Everyone Eats and extra SNAP benefits have ended.
Once the pandemic started, the need for food and meals just went way up, said FaRied Munarsyah, a member of the Peoples Kitchen, another mutual aid group that has distributed weekly free meals in Burlington since 2012. The world was ending, but we were thriving. I dont know what that means for the world were living in.
Food Not Cops isnt the only group that has struggled with consistent community participation since pandemic restrictions were lifted and many people with the resources to do so returned to their previous lives and schedules.
Stacy Raphael, a Vergennes resident who organized with Addison County Mutual Aid, and Kim Souza, who worked with The Upper Valley Response Team, described the increasing lack of volunteers free time that foreshadowed the end of their networks activity. Members of Winooski Mutual Aid announced their decision to dissolve in April 2022, citing similar reasons.
But for Raphael, the spirit of mutual aid is still present in Addison County, even though its formal structure has fallen away.
I would argue that in a million different ways, it was like creating an underground root system. Everywhere we look, manifestations of mutual aid pop up, Raphael said.
Part of the legacy of mutual aid in Vermont might be connected to how it has resurfaced when new crises strike, Raphael said. When floods devastated Vermont in July, Vermonters mobilized mutual aid responses by the first night of the storm. Similarly, when Vermonters were evicted from the states motel program this summer, people turned to mutual aid.
However, activist Brenda Siegel said Vermonters neighborly desires to help one another dont always transcend their conscious or unconscious social bigotry.
What we often see is that Vermonters are like, we love to come together and help our neighbors, and actually, in this (eviction) crisis, that is not whats happening, Siegel said over the summer. Towns themselves are rejecting people and telling them they dont even deserve to sleep somewhere, even in a tent. Thats making mutual aid a lot harder.
At Food Not Cops, things have also felt harder and more thankless, Bliss said last month, describing how a shrinking volunteer base, colder weather, increased homelessness and other factors have strained peoples capacity to show up to one another.
To keep going, he said, mutual aid requires sustained commitment beyond moments of extreme crisis, from people with capacity and time. Otherwise, networks can be crushed by the same systemic struggles they work to resist.
Theres always edible food thats not sellable, (but) if it turns out that crucial resource of (peoples) time is no longer available eventually (Food Not Cops) will be one more thing that started during Covid that no longer exists, Bliss said.
Maeve McCurdy, a coordinator with Old North End Mutual Aid, said many of her groups challenges reflect needs that have only intensified along class lines as state-run responses to the pandemic have expired.
Old North End Mutual Aid began in spring 2020, initially as a disaster-response group, McCurdy said. The group circulates an online request form, summarizes peoples requests, and then invites responses from community members via email and Instagram.
Early in the pandemic, McCurdy said it was common for Old North End Mutual Aid to receive smaller requests from people across the economic board. But now, she said, the requests have gotten bigger, increasing from asks for $50 to requests for thousands.
The number of requests has also increased over time, which caused the group to temporarily close their form in late October to catch up on responding to inquiries. The network received a total of 197 requests in 2020, 432 in 2021 and 567 in 2022. McCurdy said the group has responded to 215 requests and redistributed thousands of dollars so far this year.
I think, in an ideal world, people wouldnt have to go to mutual aid for housing or food but could go there for help with a gardening project, McCurdy said. Anecdotally, I would say a lot of the requests were getting right now are for housing.
As Owens, the Middlebury professor, put it, everyone wanted to get back to normal (after Covid-19), but for a lot of people, normal wasnt great.
For Owens, McCurdy and other members of active mutual aid groups in Vermont, the social, political and environmental crises that Covid-19 helped illuminate did not end when the pandemic purportedly did. Instead, they said, these crises are ongoing and deeply connected to the normal reality that the pandemic itself disrupted.
For these organizers, mutual aid belongs both in a utopian world and also along the road to get there.
I think it both over-inflates the success of the current system and under-inflates the value of mutual aid to write it off as something that (only) works in (acute) crisis, Owens said. Mutual aid asks the question of (whether) we can be more or less autonomous, more or less free.
In Vermont, examples of mutual aid have flourished long before the terms recent surge in popularity from the labor radicalism of Barres granite workers in the 1920s to volunteers formation of a fund for abortion access in 2002 to Migrant Justices formation of a solidarity collective in 2009.
Historically, mutual aid has most often developed in communities neglected or criminalized by the state, according to Zion Wilcox, an activist who organized at the 2020 Battery Park encampment in Burlington.
Despite mutual aid often being viewed as an Anarchist concept with communist origin, Black and brown communities across the globe have practiced it in the past, Wilcox wrote in an Instagram message to VTDigger.
The Black Panthers and other unions of color were (and still are) criminalized and targeted for practicing mutual aid, which often is not included in this conversation of mutual aid history, Wilcox said. The legacy of mutual aid as a form of resistance cultivated in communities of color continues in Vermont, where many organizers see it as essential to justice movements.
On Nov. 4, at a rally in Battery Park in support of a cease-fire in Gaza, Burlington resident Nour El-Naboulsi, of the Peoples Farmstand, spoke about his relationship to mutual aid as a Palestinian American.
(At the Peoples Farmstand,) we want to show our refugee neighbors, our neighbors of color, our houseless neighbors, our queer neighbors, that you are welcome here and you are loved, El-Naboulsi said, standing on a stage before about 1,200 protesters, to the left of a Peoples Kitchen pop-up.
As a Palestinian, Ive felt alone and out of place my whole life, El-Naboulsi said. To see my community come out in support like this helps me get out of bed in the morning.
Lydia Diamond, another longtime organizer with the Peoples Kitchen, was one of the children who received breakfast from the Black Panthers free breakfast program one of the most famous and large-scale examples of mutual aid as a kid growing up in Brooklyn.
Now, Diamond carries on that legacy each week while distributing food at South Meadow and Baird Street in Burlington.
Food insecurity was one of the things that people struggled with immensely during the pandemic, and it hasnt changed, Diamond said in June. I love to invite folks to come and hang out with us and see what we do. Its a mutual aid of love as well.
For organizers who explicitly choose to describe their work using the term mutual aid, the question of what distinguishes the practice from charity is often important. For some, the practice cannot be separated from its radical political roots.
Theres no activism without mutual aid, said Mohamed Shariff, who organized mutual aid efforts at the 2020 Battery Park protests. You cannot be a person who is fighting for anything righteous without mutual aid.
Yet, even as organizers navigate theoretical positions, many of them agree that the line between charity and mutual aid is often, in practice, blurry. This distinction can be a matter of language, according to Bethany Dunbar, an organizer with Hardwick Area Neighbor to Neighbor.
Some folks would call something charity that someone else might call mutual aid, Dunbar said, I like the notion of mutual aid as a way to (organize). It does seem more egalitarian.
Helen Beattie, who organizes alongside Dunbar, said that the Hardwick network takes particular care to minimize hierarchy in their group. Yet, to her, mutual aid is apolitical and fundamental to life, especially in a rural community.
For others, practicing mutual aid involves resisting the way that charity and nonprofits can reinforce power dynamics and offer an excuse for (governments) to do less, as McCurdy of Old North End Mutual Aid said.
Charity, in (radical leftist) mutual aid circles is like a bad word because a lot of elements of charity are really condescending (and) just recreate systems of need, said Rachel Siegel, a co-founder of Old North End Mutual Aid. But when peoples needs are unmet, she said, sometimes charity is better than no charity.
Middlebury resident Andrs Oyaga spoke about mutual aid efforts run through Conscious Homestead. In 2020, the homestead began distributing CSA-style Community Care Shares among Vermonters who are Black, Indigenous and people of color whose experience of the pandemic was compounded by systemic oppression. According to Oyaga, the homestead doesnt resemble a charity at all its a community.
Its a really special place where people in the diaspora connect and support one another on an emotional (and) spiritual level, but also in a very material way, Oyaga said.
According to Meghan Wayland and Michael Reddy, of Northeast Kingdom Organizing who both identify as anarchists, mutual aid is always political, but it doesnt always need to be spoken about that way.
Its refreshing when its perceived as apolitical because, for me, strategically, it will always be political, Wayland said.
Traditions of mutual aid such as barn-raising, communal haying and responding to snowstorms have existed in rural Vermont for a long time, according to Reddy. Practices of mutual aid (have the potential to) transcend political divisions, which are themselves fomented and utilized by (structures of) power to undermine the power of the grassroots, Reddy said.
As Reddy, Wayland and several other organizers put it, the outpouring of mutual aid that the pandemic catalyzed in Vermont tended to peoples visceral and immediate needs for food, housing and connection.
Simultaneously, they said, it did and continues to do something that is far less easy to quantify by compelling thousands of Vermonters to imagine and act upon the idea that our social ecosystems can and should be different.
(Our) economic system tries to commodify everything, whether its the relationships you have, the content you make (online), or the carbon in the air, Reddy said. Mutual aid (posits) a different way of doing things that isnt based on commodification. I think well need it more as natural disasters or man-made disasters or capitalist-made disasters continue to proliferate.
Correction: An earlier version of a photo caption misspelled Nour El-Naboulsis name.
A randomized controlled trial in Hong Kong finds that the synbiotic drug SIM01 relieves multiple symptoms of long COVID, or post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS).
SIM01 contains strains of anaerobic Bifidobacterium bacteria (which are probiotics) and soluble fibers (prebiotics) to alter the gut microbiome and possibly modify immune response.
From June 2021 to August 2022, researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong randomly assigned 463 adult long-COVID patients at a single hospital in a 1:1 ratio to receive SIM01 or a vitamin C placebo by mouth twice daily for 6 months. The median interval between infection and random assignment was 4 months.
The investigators clinically assessed participants at baseline for symptoms, quality of life, and physical activity level. At 6 months, interviewers administered a 14-item symptom questionnaire to participants and collected blood and fecal samples to assess changes in the gut microbiome and blood cytokines (small proteins that trigger the immune response).
"Decreased abundance of short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria in the gut of patients with COVID-19 might represent one of the crucial mechanisms contributing to the gutlung interaction and thereby disease severity in COVID-19," the researchers wrote.
The study was published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Nearly one third of patients (31%) had been hospitalized during their infections. At 6 months, significantly higher proportions of the SIM01 group reported an improvement in fatigue (odds ratio [OR], 2.27), memory loss (OR, 1.97), difficulty concentrating (OR, 2.64), gastrointestinal upset (OR, 2.00), and general unwellness (OR, 2.36) than the placebo group.
Decreased abundance of short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria in the gut of patients with COVID-19 might represent one of the crucial mechanisms contributing to the gutlung interaction and thereby disease severity in COVID-19.
Increases in relative benefit after SIM01 therapy were 47% for fatigue, 56% for memory loss, 62% for difficulty concentrating, 30% for gastrointestinal upset, and 31% for general unwellness.
Rates of adverse events were similar between the two groups (SIM01, 10% vsplacebo, 11%), and none were considered related to treatment. Receipt of SIM01, infection with Omicron subvariants, vaccination before COVID-19 infection, and mild COVID-19 infection were predictors of symptom improvement.
Average visual analog quality-of-life scores (on a scale of 0 to 100) at 6 months weren't significantly different (76.0 for SIM01 recipients vs 74.5 for the placebo group). Nor was there a significant difference in physical activity at 6 months, per total metabolic equivalent of task-minutes per week (SIM01 median, 1,646.3 vs placebo, 1,902.0).
Fecal metagenomic analyses showed that the gut microbiome was more diverse, including more short-chain acid-producing bacteria and fewer genes related to antibiotic resistance, at 6 months than at baseline in SIM01 recipients but not the placebo group.
Correlation of microbial changes with symptoms showed that relief of specific symptoms was tied to distinct compositional and functional changes in the microbiome.
"For instance,Bifidobacterium adolescentisshowed positive correlations with alleviation in fatigue, gastrointestinal upset, and memory loss," the researchers wrote. "We also found that alleviation in fatigue and general unwellness correlated with an elevated relative abundance ofBifidobacterium bifidum, whereas alleviation in difficulty in concentration correlated with a positive shift inBifidobacterium longum."
Cytokine analyses yielded no significant results.
"Treatment with SIM01 alleviates multiple symptoms of PACS," they wrote. "Our findings have implications on the management of PACS through gut microbiome modulation. Further studies are warranted to explore the beneficial effects of SIM01 in other chronic or post-infection conditions."
In a related commentary, Betty Raman, DPhil, and Maheshi Ramasamy, DPhil, both of the University of Oxford, said that emerging evidence points to the importance of the gut microbiome in the development of long COVID, with a disruption in microbial balance, or gut dysbiosis, in some patients.
"There are now several studies showing that probiotics, consisting of beneficial bacteria such asLactobacillusandBifidobacteriumspecies, might enhance gut health, modulate inflammation, and improve immune function," they wrote.
The real benefits of the treatment on general health perception and functional capacity might be low.
But study limitations such as the lack of a universally accepted long-COVID symptom assessment tool and a reliance on subjective symptom reports complicates interpretation of the findings.
"Although alleviation of some symptoms of PACS was observed, this alleviation did not correspond with measurable improvements in quality of life or physical activity after 6 months, suggesting that the real benefits of the treatment on general health perception and functional capacity might be low," Raman and Ramasamy wrote.
In the latest data from the U.S. Department of Health, more than a quarter of children in America are depressed, and more than 20% deal with anxiety.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. In the latest data from the U.S. Department of Health, more than a quarter of children in America are depressed, and more than 20% deal with anxiety.
Albuquerque Public Schools counselor Leia Viscarra says the pandemic caused more children to be on social media.
Theyre going through a lot, coming back from the pandemic. The trauma that our kids deal with, a lot of issues that social media has brought about, said Viscarra.
The latest data from our states health department revealstwo out of five New Mexico high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless, and one out of every six experienced severe depression.
And, with New Mexico having the fourth-highest rate of suicide in 2020, more resources are coming into schools to remove the stigma of mental health, and to make talking about it normal.
Recently, Ive done our suicide prevention lessons. Ive done lessons on bullying. And so, and then, offering just resources, Vicarra said.
Help is as easy as dialing 988 a mental health hotline that will connect a child with a peer or a fellow student whos trained to provide support in any way necessary.
A lot of times what we know is our kids will talk to peers before theyll talk to an adult. And so peer helpers are trained in a way that itll get students to talk to them, said Viscarra.
One of the greatest forms of trauma among teens is from gun violence. 6% of high school students reported carrying a gun to school in the past year, and 44% of students report living in a home with a gun.
Thats why Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller wants to expand a program to get a handle on the number of teens falling victim to gun violence called the VIP into every metro high school.
I think we should have it in every high school in our city, said Keller.
That will be discussed in the upcoming legislative session in January.
