AP -
August 20, 2021
As quickly as one COVID patient is discharged, another waits for a bed in northeast Florida, the hot zone of the state’s latest surge. But the patients at Baptist Health’s five hospitals across Jacksonville are younger and getting sick from the virus faster than people did last summer. Baptist has over 500 COVID patients, more than twice the number they had at the peak of Florida’s July 2020 surge, and the onslaught isn’t letting up.
HealthDay -
August 20, 2021
Scientists looked at COVID-19 survivors who had asymptomatic, moderate or severe COVID-19 infections and also underwent unrelated elective lung operations (for example, to treat lung nodules or lung cancer) at some point after they recovered from COVID-19. In all of the patients, benign lung tissue from around the nodules or tumors showed no detectable lasting lung damage that was directly linked to COVID-19.
AP -
August 16, 2021
Warning of tough days ahead with surging COVID-19 infections, [Dr. Francis Collins,] the director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday the U.S. could decide in the next couple weeks whether to offer coronavirus booster shots to Americans this fall. Among the first to receive them could be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans.
STAT -
August 16, 2021
Imagine peering into people’s blood and being able to pick up a simple marker of exactly how well protected they are from Covid-19. … Now, a year and a half into the pandemic, researchers are starting to flesh out exactly what these “correlates of protection” look like, a step that could help track the durability of immunity and speed the development of additional vaccines.
AP -
August 16, 2021
Videos of local government meetings have emerged as the latest vector of COVID-19 misinformation, broadcasting misleading claims about masks and vaccines to millions and creating new challenges for internet platforms trying to balance the potential harm against the need for government openness.
NBC News -
August 16, 2021
[There is] no evidence to support these types of accusations. While it is true that people entering the country without permission could be contributing to the overall number of Covid-19 cases — as has been the case recently in McAllen, Texas — experts believe the impact of these cases does not make a difference in the American health situation.
PEOPLE -
August 16, 2021
A record-high 1,902 pediatric coronavirus hospitalizations were reported on Saturday, Reuters reports. Kids now make up 2.4% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 in the nation. As of Sunday, Texas leads the country with 311 pediatric hospitalizations for confirmed or suspected COVID-19, per HHS data. Florida (204), California (140), Ohio (114), and Georgia (87) round out the top five.
BuzzFeed News -
August 16, 2021
Florida’s hospitals are filling up, with nearly 85% of inpatient hospital beds occupied, according to the Florida Hospital Association’s latest report. In the last week, the state has averaged more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, with nearly 15,000 people hospitalized.
CNN -
August 16, 2021
The US could soon see more than 200,000 new cases of Covid-19 every day as the Delta variant spreads at a rapid pace, particularly among unvaccinated people, the director of the National Institutes of Health predicted. "I will be surprised if we don't cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that's heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again," Dr. Francis Collins said on Fox News Sunday.
STAT -
August 13, 2021
The FDA on Thursday authorized the administration of an additional dose of one of the messenger RNA Covid-19 vaccines for people who have certain immunocompromising conditions amid growing evidence that they do not get adequate protection from the normal two-dose regimen of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. … It does not apply to the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which has been used far less in this country than the mRNA products.
CNBC -
August 13, 2021
A new study has given more details about the “rare but devastating” blood clotting complications associated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. … The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine — now one of the most widely used Covid vaccines in the world — was rolled out in the U.K. in January, making it the first country to administer the shot.
AP -
August 13, 2021
The federal Health and Human Services Department is requiring employees who provide care or services for patients to get their COVID-19 shots, officials announced Thursday. The order from Secretary Xavier Becerra will affect more than 25,000 clinicians, researchers, contractors, trainees and volunteers with the National Institutes of Health, the Indian Health Service, and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
AP -
August 13, 2021
In just the past two weeks, Biden has forced millions of federal workers to attest to their vaccination status or face onerous new requirements. He’s met with business leaders at the White House to press them to do the same. Meanwhile, the administration has taken steps toward mandating shots for people traveling into the U.S. from overseas. And the White House is weighing options to be more assertive at the state and local level…
The Atlantic -
August 13, 2021
While most state and national GOP leaders are focused on defending the rights of unvaccinated Americans, new polling shows that the large majority of vaccinated adults—including a substantial portion of Republicans—support tougher measures against those who have refused COVID-19 shots.
CNBC -
August 13, 2021
More than 90% of U.S. counties are now experiencing high or substantial rates of Covid transmission, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday. “As we have been saying, by far, those at highest risk remain people who have not yet been vaccinated,” she said. The average number of daily Covid vaccinations tripled in Arkansas and quadrupled in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi over the past month.
AP -
August 13, 2021
The COVID-19 surge that is sending hospitalizations to all-time highs in parts of the South is also clobbering states like Hawaii and Oregon that were once seen as pandemic success stories. After months in which they kept cases and hospitalizations at manageable levels, they are watching progress slip away as record numbers of patients overwhelm bone-tired health care workers. … This, despite both states having vaccination levels higher than the national average as of last week.