New Omicron Variants Are Here - COVID-19 News from Eden Health District, November 3, 2022

COVID-19

breaking news & updates

View as Webpage

November 3, 2022

New Omicron Variants Are Here — What We Know So Far

The Omicron family of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, has some new menacing members. At the end of the week ending October 29, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that two variants — BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 — account for nearly 17 percent of viral samples genetically sequenced in the country. That was a huge increase over a month earlier when the variants were practically invisible in the data and suggests they will soon outcompete BA.5 and BA.4.6, the dominant strains in the United States. Meanwhile, a variant called XBB has been causing a substantial infection wave in Southeast Asia.

The three new variants are likely spreading so quickly because they sneak past some of the immune defenses acquired through previous infections and vaccinations. They also threaten to render monoclonal antibody treatments ineffective. These features warrant attention — especially as the country heads into the fall and winter —but not panic. Scientific American

"I think we’re confident that having the updated vaccines places us in a much better position than we would have been in just using ancestral virus strains. But the specific amount of immune evasion is something we’ll continue to watch. The most important thing here, though, is how well the vaccines are protecting against severe disease. They can only do that if people get those shots in their arms."

Hilary Marston, Chief Medical Officer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

COVID Uses Our Proteins Against Us. A New Strategy Seeks To Block That

With the United States headed into its third full winter of the pandemic amid fears that new variants will evade immunity from vaccines and prior infections, some scientists are seeking ways to blunt the coronavirus’s slippery evolution by blocking the human proteins it uses against us.

If the strategy works, it has the potential to address several shortcomings of current treatments and vaccines, including their inability to prevent infections and maintain effectiveness in the face of a changing virus. The approach could also protect people with immune systems too weak to tolerate vaccines.

The virus depends on our proteins to make copies of itself and perform other functions. Shutting off its access to a crucial protein would be like depriving a predator of food or oxygen. Moreover, since some human proteins are hijacked by multiple viruses, a single treatment could be used to fight a broad spectrum of illnesses. Washington Post

COVID Test Resources

Where to Get a COVID-19 Test - Alameda County; Contra Costa County

Food Pantries

Alameda County

Local News

San Francisco Resident On What It's Like Living With Long COVID

There's a good chance you've had COVID and there's a good chance you were out of commission for a few days. But eventually, the fever, headache and chills go away. Well, that's not the case for everyone. Millions of Americans are suffering from lingering symptoms. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows 16 million Americans have long COVID and as many as 4 million are missing work because of it. Long COVID can take many forms. Some symptoms include chronic fatigue and tiredness, along with brain fog. It can also make it difficult to breathe and cause chest, joint and stomach pains. There’s a growing community of doctors and patients who said officials are not doing a good job of warning people about long COVID. Among them, San Francisco resident Charlie McCone who initially got COVID in March of 2020 - at the beginning of the pandemic. It's never gone away and it's changed his life. NBC Bay Area Read more

Monkeypox State of Emergency Ends in SF But Vaccination Still Encouraged

As of Monday, San Francisco is no longer in a state of emergency due to monkeypox, according to the Department of Public Health. Officials said on Oct. 20 that the state of emergency for MPX would be lifted by Halloween with cases dropping to less than one per day. The emergency declaration, which went into effect Aug. 1, came amid a rise in infections that peaked with 143 new MPX cases in San Francisco on the week starting July 24, according to city public health officials. The city ramped up its vaccinations against MPX to stop the spread of the virus, with more than 27,000 San Franciscans now having received the Jynneos vaccine. NBC Bay Area Read more

Palo Alto Is Requiring Restaurants To Have "Letters Of Consent" To Keep Pandemic-Era Outdoor Seating

Palo Alto’s outdoor restaurant scene could look dramatically different next year after city leaders voted to require “letters of consent” from neighboring businesses before restaurant parklets and outdoor seating continue on public streets — something the eatery owners say is bad move for downtown. In a close 4-3 vote, the city council also voted to require restaurant owners doing business on public streets to address concerns by some retailers that the pandemic-era parking and seating has meant less street visibility for their nearby businesses. “This is a squeamish issue,” Councilman Eric Filseth said. “When you have your own property, you can do what you want on your own property, as long as it’s within zoning code. Now we’re talking about implied rights of use on public property.” Mercury News Read more

COVID Vaccine/Treatment News

Bivalent COVID Vaccine May Not Be More Protective Than Other Boosters. Why Experts Still Recommend It

Hopes were high in early fall that the new double-barreled COVID-19 booster shot — the first to target both the earlier coronavirus and newer omicron variants — would be a holiday gift like no other, and protect everyone this year. But very few people have gotten the new shot. And some of those who have are still getting breakthrough infections, bolstering the findings of two small, preliminary studies that suggest the new shot is no magic shield after all and may give no greater protection than the previous booster shot. SF Chronicle Read more

Vaccines Used To Be Apolitical. Now They're A Campaign Issue

In late October, the Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota posted a video he knew would be controversial. "I've been called extreme, and perhaps this Facebook video will provide fodder for more people to call me extreme," the candidate, Scott Jensen, told his viewers. In the 20 minutes that followed, Jensen railed against COVID vaccine mandates for kids, questioned the CDC's vaccination schedule for other childhood immunizations, and raised other vague concerns about COVID vaccines that have been credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives. The 2024 midterm elections will be like no other: Hundreds of candidates on the ballot this year challenge or deny the results of the previous election. But alongside these false narratives, candidates on the political right are also pushing conspiracies about vaccines.

NPR Read more

Could A Nose Spray A Day Keep COVID Away?

During the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anne Moscona didn’t feel safe going to a restaurant or catching a flight. And she wished she could feel confident that she could see her immunocompromised relatives without inadvertently spreading the novel coronavirus to them. All this made her work personal: for the last decade, Moscona, a molecular virologist, had been hunting for compounds that could stop viruses in their tracks, before the pathogens infect even a single cell in a person’s body. Now Moscona, at Columbia University in New York City, and her colleagues have homed in on a compound that might foil SARS-CoV-2. Even better, it’s simply sprayed up the nose — no needle required. Nature Read more

Some 80% Of Patients Hospitalized With COVID Are Unvaccinated

If anyone still wonders whether COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing serious illness, look no further than UC Davis Medical Center – and probably most hospitals in the country. Nearly 80% of the COVID-positive patients sick enough to require hospitalization in recent days are unvaccinated. The other roughly 20% of people admitted to the hospital with COVID have breakthrough infections. And although unvaccinated patients have much greater chances of surviving than they did earlier in the pandemic, in part due to more treatment options, doctors still worry about the long-term effects of the virus on those who decide against immunization. UC Davis Health Read more

State/National/International News

California Faces Triple Threat Of Respiratory Illnesses

Forget “twindemic” — California may be in for a three-headed Cerberus of respiratory illnesses this winter as the flu, respiratory syncytial virus and COVID-19 collide. Orange County on Monday declared a local public health emergency over RSV, a common cause of pneumonia in babies that’s contributed to a record number of pediatric hospitalizations and daily emergency room visits in the county. San Diego health officials warned last week that “a sharp increase of flu and RSV cases” could have “a severe impact on people’s lives and the county’s medical resources this fall and winter.” At one point in October, about 1,000 of 2,600 students at a local high school were absent due to an outbreak of respiratory illnesses. CalMatters Read more

Long COVID Is Affecting Women More Than Men, National Survey Finds

Long COVID is more common among women than men, according to federal data. More than 17% of women have had long COVID at some point during the pandemic, compared with 11% of men, according to data from U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Health Statistics published this month. Long COVID was defined as experiencing symptoms for three months or more after infection. The most recent data was collected through an online survey of more than 41,000 adults during the two weeks ending Oct. 17. Women were also more likely to suffer from more severe long COVID, the survey found. Some 2.4% of all women had symptoms that significantly limited their normal activities, compared with 1.3% of men, according to the data. CNBC Read more

CDC Director Tests Positive For COVID Again

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tested positive again for COVID-19. Dr. Rochelle Walensky had mild symptoms Sunday and is isolating at her home in Massachusetts, the CDC said Monday. Walensky, 53, first tested positive on Oct. 21. She took a course of the antiviral pill Paxlovid, and later tested negative. But the symptoms returned and Walensky is again in isolation, working and holding virtual meetings, the CDC said. ABC News Read more

Shanghai Disney: Visitors Unable To Leave Without Negative COVID Test As Park Shuts

Shanghai Disney has become the latest high-profile venue to shut its gates thanks to China's strict zero-COVID policy, trapping visitors inside. People have been told they will not be allowed out of the theme park until they can show a negative test. It comes after Shanghai reported 10 locally transmitted cases on Saturday. China's controversial zero-COVID policy has already seen millions of people repeatedly locked down, sometimes in unusual locations. Posting on Chinese social media site WeChat, the Shanghai government said the park was barring people from entering and those inside could only leave once they had returned a negative test result. It added that anyone who has visited the park since Thursday must provide three negative test results over three consecutive days. BBC Read more

Lockdown Babies May Be Slower To Communicate But Faster To Crawl, Study Says

Early in the pandemic, when much of the world was in lockdown, many parents and other caregivers expressed fears about how a historic period of prolonged isolation could affect their children. Now, a study out of Ireland has shed some light on this question. Its results suggest that babies born during Ireland’s first COVID-19 lockdown were likely to be slower to develop some social communication skills than their pre-pandemic peers.

Washington Post Read more

COVID Infection Disrupts The Gut's Microbiome

COVID-19 is known to mess with a person's lungs, and can have long-term effects on the brain. Now doctors have found another way COVID harms your health - through your gut. A COVID infection can reduce the number of bacterial species in the gut, creating an opportunity for dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria to thrive, according to a new study in the journal Nature Communications. The study is the first to show that COVID alone damages the gut microbiome, researchers said. HealthDay Read more

Opinions

Let's Declare A Pandemic Amnesty, Says Emily Oster

In April 2020, with nothing else to do, my family took an enormous number of hikes. We all wore cloth masks that I had made myself. We had a family hand signal, which the person in the front would use if someone was approaching on the trail and we needed to put on our masks. Once, when another child got too close to my then-4-year-old son on a bridge, he yelled at her “SOCIAL DISTANCING!” These precautions were totally misguided. In April 2020, no one got the coronavirus from passing someone else hiking. Outdoor transmission was vanishingly rare. Our cloth masks made out of old bandanas wouldn’t have done anything, anyway. But the thing is: We didn’t know. The Atlantic Read more

Emily Oster Wants A "Pandemic Amnesty"? Sorry, Not Until She Stops Pushing A Dangerous Agenda

Emily Oster wants a pandemic amnesty. We should all forgive each other for the mistaken positions we've taken about how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, writes the Brown University economist who used her considerable platform to churn out teacher-blaming hot takes funded by the likes of Peter Thiel and the Walton Family Foundation. Pardon me if I won’t be offering amnesty for people who promoted themselves and shat on those with less power, with support from far-right billionaires. Daily Kos Read more

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

RSV Is Surging. Here's What To Watch For And Answers About Treatment Options

Temperatures are dropping and the risk of COVID-19 and influenza are up. And for the last few months, patients with a different malady — respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV — have been overwhelming hospitals. Public health officials warn that come winter there could be a "tripledemic." The unusually high number of RSV infections so early in the year are already pushing hospitals to capacity. In normal years, RSV sends thousands of children to the hospital over fall and winter, but for the second year in a row experts have seen an unprecedented spike in the number of cases beginning during the summer months. NPR Read more

By The Next RSV Season, The U.S. May Have Its First Vaccine

It’s shaping up to be a severe season for respiratory syncytial virus infections – one of the worst some doctors say they can remember. But even as babies struggling to breathe fill hospital beds across the United States, there may be a light ahead: After decades of disappointment, four new RSV vaccines may be nearing review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and more than a dozen others are in testing. There’s also hope around a promising long-acting injection designed to be given right after birth to protect infants from the virus for as long as six months. In a recent clinical trial, the antibody shot was 75% effective at heading off RSV infections that required medical attention. CNN Read more

COVID By the Numbers

Total Confirmed Cases

Bay Area: 1,782,800

California: 11,368,939

U.S.: 97,581,300

Alameda County

Check the Dashboards Below for

the Latest Figures

Total Reported Deaths

Bay Area: 9,298

California: 96,901

U.S.: 1,071,445

Contra Costa County

Check the Dashboards Below for

the Latest Figures

Sources: Johns Hopkins University, SF Chronicle , and dashboards for California and Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Fast Facts

How To Stay Safe From COVID-19 During The 2022 Holiday Season

After COVID-19 vaccines rolled out, many families said “good riddance” to Zoom and resumed in-person holiday gatherings — and with increasing numbers of people embracing pre-pandemic lifestyles, it’s safe to assume that will be the norm this year in the U.S. But the virus still infects tens of thousands of Americans each day, and experts fear another winter surge may be coming, just in time for the holidays. If you’re planning to travel or gather with loved ones this holiday season, follow these expert recommendations to maximize your chances of staying safe and healthy.

Time Read more

COVID-19 testing is a good idea, but keep in mind, people who test negative can still harbor the virus if they are early in their infection.

A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.

Latest Masking Guidance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently updated its mask guidance. If you haven't been vaccinated yet find a COVID-19 vaccine near you.

About Eden Health District

The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair Pam Russo, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Gordon Galvan and Ed Hernandez. The Chief Executive Officer is Mark Friedman.

The Eden Health District is committed to ensuring that policy makers and community members receive accurate and timely information to help make the best policy and personal choices to meet and overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Lisa Mahoney.

Subscribe to the COVID-19 Bulletin