COVID-19
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Stanford Study Is Testing Paxlovid In The Nation’s First Clinical Trial For Long COVID
Could Paxlovid solve one of the pandemic’s biggest puzzles? A new study at Stanford University aims to find out. In the nation’s first medical trial of an antiviral strategy to treat long COVID, scientists are testing the drug to see if it helps ease the misery of fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, body aches, digestive symptoms and heart problems. “It is important to gain further understanding whether this could be effective therapy,” said principal investigator Dr. Linda Geng, clinical assistant professor at Stanford Medicine and co-director of Stanford’s Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome Clinic. Mercury News Read more
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Casual Carpool Was A Bay Area Tradition Before COVID. Can It Make A Comeback?
Every time Lindsey Turrentine drives to her job in San Francisco, she looks to a spot on the sidewalk outside the North Berkeley BART station, hoping this will be the day she sees fellow commuters waiting there for a ride over the Bay Bridge. A few miles away in Rockridge, Jessica Walitt used to do the same as she passed the corner of Claremont Avenue and Hudson Street near Highway 24. Until March of 2020, legions of commuters on foot and in cars would line up at each of those locations on workday mornings to take part in the decades-old Bay Area tradition of casual carpool. It was “organized hitchhiking, basically,” Walitt said: Riders in the East Bay looking for a lift to downtown San Francisco would wait at designated pickup points at rush hour, then climb into the cars of total strangers who needed two passengers to gain access to carpool lanes bypassing much of the Bay Bridge toll plaza’s traffic. Oaklandside Read more
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News
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Pfizer Says Omicron Booster Is Better Against New Subvariants Like BQ.1.1 Than Old Shots
Pfizer said its Omicron booster triggers a stronger immune response against a number of emerging COVID subvariants circulating in the U.S. The booster triggered more antibodies against Omicron sublineages BQ.1.1, BA.4.6, BA.2.75.2 and XBB.1 in adults older than 55 compared with a fourth dose of the original vaccines, according to new data released by the company on Friday. Antibodies are a key part of the immune system that block the virus from invading cells. CNBC Read more
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The End Of Vaccines At "Warp Speed"
Operation Warp Speed, the Trump-era program that poured billions of dollars into developing COVID shots, seemed to signal a new dawn of American vaccine making, demonstrating how decades of scientific grunt work could be turned into lifesaving medicine in a matter of months. But as a third pandemic winter begins in the United States, its vaccine-making effort has lost steam. Efforts to test and produce next-generation COVID vaccines are bogged down by bureaucratic problems and funding shortfalls. Foreign rivals have raced ahead in approving long-awaited nasal-spray vaccines , including one invented in St. Louis, creating a scenario in which Americans would have to travel abroad for the latest in American vaccine technology. NY Times Read more
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Vaccine Breakthrough Could Finally Bring COVID To Its Knees
With new COVID variants and subvariants evolving faster and faster, each chipping away at the effectiveness of the leading vaccines, the hunt is on for a new kind of vaccine—one that works equally well on current and future forms of the novel-coronavirus. Now researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland think they’ve found a new approach to vaccine-design that could lead them to a long-lasting jab. As a bonus, it also might work on other coronaviruses, not just the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID. Daily Beast Read more
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How Monoclonal Antibodies Lost The Fight With New COVID Variants
Monoclonal antibodies were once the star of COVID-19 outpatient treatments. Since they first became available in 2020 – even before the first vaccines – more than 3.5 million infusions of the factory-grown proteins have been given to patients in the U.S. to help reduce risk of hospitalization. But one by one, different monoclonal treatments have lost their efficacy against new variants of the coronavirus. The rise of Paxlovid antiviral pills earlier this year, further dented their appeal. NPR Read more
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Long-COVID Clinics Are Wrestling With How To Treat Their Patients
Medical equipment is still strewn around the house of Rick Lucas, 62, who came home from the hospital nearly two years ago. He picks up a spirometer, a device that measures lung capacity, and takes a deep breath, though not as deep as he'd like.
Still, he has come a long way for someone who spent more than three months on a ventilator because of COVID-19. "I'm almost normal now," he says. "I was thrilled when I could walk to the mailbox. Now we're walking all over town." Rick is one of the many patients who, in his quest to get better, found his way to a specialized clinic for those suffering from long COVID symptoms. NPR Read more
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State/National/International News
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Testing Is Up To "Rule Out" Flu, COVID Symptoms Ahead Of Thanksgiving Gatherings
A recent surge in flu and RSV cases, combined with COVID infections, could be a major recipe for concern this holiday season. Doctors warn that Thanksgiving gatherings may drive a spike in more illnesses if preventative measures aren't taken. Ten Acres Pharmacy in Sacramento has had people coming all day every day for flu shots, COVID boosters, and tests to ensure they don't take anything with them to their Thanksgiving destination. The symptoms of these respiratory illnesses may feel similar at first, and testing has spiked as people try to rule out what they are not experiencing ahead of the holiday. According to a Sacramento pharmacist, each of these illnesses can cause shortness of breath, a sore throat, chest tightness, a fever and body aches. CBS News Read more
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What’s The Difference Between RSV, The Flu And COVID-19?
Cases of COVID, flu and RSV are colliding, keeping kids home from school, straining hospital systems and prompting worries about a potential “tripledemic.” Cases of respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, have surged, the flu season has come early, and COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 5.8 percent of outpatient visits now are due to respiratory illnesses whose symptoms include fever plus a cough or sore throat, well above the normal baseline of 2.5 percent. Washington Post Read more
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L.A. County Strongly Recommends Indoor Masking As COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Jump
Amid a sustained rise in coronavirus transmission, Los Angeles County is once again strongly recommending wearing a mask in indoor public spaces. The daily number of newly reported cases has jumped almost 70% from a month ago, though case rates are still well shy of previous waves and officials continue to tout the benefits of available vaccines and therapeutics in warding off the worst COVID-19 has to offer. However, the recent rise prompted the county to strengthen its call for indoor masking — from saying the practice is a matter of individual preference to advising it. LA Times Read more
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Cancer Diagnoses Lag After Screenings Fall During Pandemic, U.S. Study Finds
Screenings for a variety of common cancers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, potentially leading to diagnoses later in the course of the disease when it may be more difficult to treat successfully, U.S. data published on Thursday suggest. In 2020 - the first year of the pandemic - average rates of screening for breast cancer fell by 40%, for cervical cancer by 36%, and for colorectal cancer by 45%, compared to the three previous years, according to an analysis of medical claims data from 306 million adults. Reuters Read more
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Fauci To Brief Reporters For Last Time Today Before Leaving Government After 50 Years
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, is scheduled to brief reporters from the White House on Tuesday in what is likely to be his final briefing before leaving the government at the end of the year. Fauci was expected to press the idea that Americans should get up-to-date on their COVID and flu shots ahead of winter. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci has been a near-constant presence at White House briefings throughout the two years of the COVID pandemic. ABC News Read more
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There Might Be A Perfect Indoor Humidity To Curb COVID Spread
It’s sort of like the Goldilocks principle — a room that’s either too dry or too humid can influence transmission of COVID-19 and cause more illness or death, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say. Maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40% and 60% is associated with lower rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths, they reported on Nov. 16.
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Are COVID-19 “Comas” Signs Of A Protective Hibernation State?
Many COVID-19 patients who have been treated for weeks or months with mechanical ventilation have been slow to regain consciousness even after being taken off sedation. A new article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers the hypothesis that this peculiar response could be the effect of a hibernation-like state invoked by the brain to protect cells from injury when oxygen is scarce. MIT News Read more
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Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)
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Bay Area Hospitals Set Up Tents to Treat Children For RSV
A surging respiratory virus is causing unprecedented levels of hospitalizations for children nationwide and in the Bay Area and the outbreak has some local hospitals setting up tents to handle the load. At UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, and at its facility in Oakland, tents have gone up for treatment of children 2 years of age and younger, outfitted with seven beds - both facilities are operating at capacity. “We are just at the breaking point for hospital admission for ICU beds in the pediatric population,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong of UCSF. NBC Bay Area Read more
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Top Health Leaders Warn Public Of Surging RSV Cases, Ask President To Declare National Emergency
Some of the nation's top doctors are now urging President Joe Biden to declare a national emergency over RSV. It’s a respiratory illness that’s especially severe in young children and the elderly, and hospitals around the Bay Area and nationwide are seeing cases surge. The Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics told the Biden administration that “unprecedented levels” of RSV, combined with increasing flu circulation, are pushing some hospitals to the breaking point. “I feel we may not be seeing the worst of it just yet,” said Dr. Priya Soni, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. “Things sort of lag behind here on the West Coast. NBC Bay Area Read more
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Why Is RSV So Dangerous For Some Young Children But Not Others?
Nearly all children get respiratory syncytial virus by the time they turn 2, and for most parents, it’s barely a blip on the radar. So why does the common virus make some healthy children severely ill? The answer is likely to frustrate parents: There is no obvious reason some healthy babies get so sick with RSV that they must be hospitalized, on oxygen, while others do not. “Why do they end up in the hospital versus their 2-year-old counterpart from day care that just has a really bad cold?” asked Dr. Anita Patel, a pediatric critical care physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. “That’s the gray area of RSV.” NBC News Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,800,589
California: 11,456,376
U.S.: 98,351,781
Alameda County
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the Latest Figures
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,367
California: 97,310
U.S.: 1,077,225
Contra Costa County
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the Latest Figures
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Will COVID, Flu, RSV Be An Uninvited Guest At Your
Thanksgiving Table? Six Things To Keep Your Family Safe As Viruses Spread
We’re heading into our third COVID Thanksgiving, but for the first time since the pandemic started we’re thinking more about turkey, Black Friday and football than a killer virus. Google search traffic says so. But before you get too relaxed and immerse yourself in cranberry sauce recipes, we’re here with a little help from the experts on how to keep COVID – and this year, its respiratory virus cousins influenza and RSV – from showing up at your Thanksgiving gathering. First off, sorry to be the spoilsport, but COVID is on the rise again. And it’s rising faster in the Bay Area than the rest of the state. SF Chronicle Read more
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- 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.
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A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
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An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.
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About Eden Health District
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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.
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