COVID-19 News from Around the Web

Fewer than 1 in 10 (9%) Americans have a great deal of confidence in Trump to confirm vaccine effectiveness with another 18% reporting only a "good amount" of confidence in the poll conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos' Knowledge Panel. In contrast, 69% don't have confidence in the president vouching for a vaccine, including 16% saying "not so much" and 53% saying "none at all."

Among the 50 U.S. counties with the highest concentrations of students and overall populations of at least 50,000, 20 have consistently reported higher rates of new virus cases than their states have since Sept. 1, according to an AP analysis. On average, infection rates in those 20 counties have been more than three times higher than their states’ overall rates.

The final statistics are in for America's last flu season, and the news is good: Record low rates of influenza were reported as cases plummeted during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. Why? Researchers from the U.S. CDC believe the social distancing measures put into place across the country last spring kept more than the new coronavirus at bay. The 2019-2020 flu season ended weeks earlier than usual this year, with flu infections declining sharply within two weeks of the COVID-19 emergency declaration on March 1, the new study found. Influenza activity in the US plunged, from about 30% of samples testing positive for flu in early February down to only 2% the week of March 22, the researchers reported.

Adult obesity in the US continues to rise, and being obese increases the risk of severe illness in people with COVID-19, the U.S. CDC warns. Agency data also show that racial and ethnic disparities in obesity rates persist. New CDC maps for 2019 put adult obesity rates in 12 states at or above 35%: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

LTCFs in which testing was conducted after a confirmed case of COVID-19 were found to have significantly higher proportions of infected residents and staff members at initial testing and after 4 weeks of follow-up compared with those testing as a preventive measure. The majority of LTCFs testing as a preventive measure identified an infection, although initial prevalence was significantly lower and fewer cases occurred during follow-up.

An independent commission set up by the Trump administration has unveiled a host of recommendations it says could help nursing homes "reduce the suffering and to save the lives of residents and staff" as they continue to wage a deadly battle against the coronavirus, though some critics say the commission didn't go far enough to help America's most vulnerable because it does not address enforcement of federal quality of care standards. … In its final report released on Wednesday, six months later, the independent task force laid out 27 recommendations with an emphasis on a national testing strategy, providing facilities with at least three months’ worth of personal protective equipment and continuing to ensure proper units are available for infected or possibly infected residents.

Between 42% and 51% of all school employees in the US met the CDC’s criteria for either having an increased risk or potentially increased risk for Covid-19 infection, researchers with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found. … "Among all adults with CDC risk factors for severe Covid-19, between 33.9 million and 44.2 million had direct or within-household connections to schools," the researchers wrote.

Across the country, school nurses are adjusting to the new normal of the epidemic. They’re still managing everything from skinned knees and allergic reactions, to chronic disease care and mental health issues. But now they’re also on the front lines of trying to stop the spread of the new coronavirus as schools reopen. They’re contact tracing, enforcing mask wearing, screening for symptoms, conducting disease surveillance, and educating teachers and staff about how and when to use personal protective equipment. They’re the ones who will be called if a child or teacher is showing any warning signs of COVID-19 in class.

Less than seven weeks before Election Day, most Americans are deeply pessimistic about the direction of the country and skeptical of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Roughly 7 in 10 Americans think the nation is on the wrong track, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Only six months after Italy’s coronavirus crisis became a warning to the West about how quickly the virus could strain even the best-resourced health systems in the world, the World Health Organization warned today of a “very serious situation” unfolding again in Europe. Italian officials are once again reporting around 1,500 new infections each day. That’s not yet anywhere near the last peak of 6,500 — but it’s a significant rise from 200 in early July. France and Spain, currently the hardest-hit countries in the region, are tracking an onslaught of cases even worse than their springtime peaks.