At least three major airlines said they have canceled dozens of flights because illnesses largely tied to the omicron variant of COVID-19 have taken a toll on flight crew numbers during the busy holiday travel season. Germany-based Lufthansa said Friday that it was canceling a dozen long-haul transatlantic flights over the Christmas holiday period because of a “massive rise” in sick leave among pilots. The cancellations on flights to Houston, Boston and Washington come despite a “large buffer” of additional staff for the period. The airline says it couldn’t speculate on whether COVID-19 infections or quarantines were responsible because it was not informed about the sort of illness. Passengers were booked on other flights. Lufthansa said in a statement that “we planned a very large buffer for the vacation period. But this was not sufficient due to the high rate of people calling in sick.” U.S.-based Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said they had to cancel dozens of Christmas Eve flights because of staff shortages tied to omicron. United canceled 170 flights, and Delta called off 133, according to FlightAware. “The nationwide spike in omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation,” United said in a statement. “As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport.” The airline said it was working to rebook as many people as possible. Delta said it canceled flights Friday because of the impact of omicron and possibility of bad weather after it had “exhausted all options and resources — including rerouting and substitutions of aircraft and crews to cover scheduled flying.” It said in a statement that it was trying to get passengers to their destinations quickly. The cancellations come as coronavirus infections fueled by the new variant further squeeze staffing at hospitals, police departments, supermarkets and other critical operations struggling to maintain a full contingent of front-line workers. To ease staffing shortages, countries including Spain and the U.K. have reduced the length of COVID-19 quarantines by letting people return to work sooner after testing positive or being exposed to the virus. Delta CEO Ed Bastian was among those who have called on the Biden administration to take similar steps or risk further disruptions in air travel. On Thursday, the U.S. shortened COVID-19 isolation rules for health care workers only. from https://ift.tt/3JgweC8 Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/
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The COVID-19 pandemic has not, to put it lightly, been a happy time. But it has been and continues to be a rich period for scientists who study happiness. Researchers around the world have followed what happens to wellbeing during the biggest collective threat to happiness most of us have ever known. First, an obvious finding: the pandemic has clearly (and understandably) eroded happiness in the U.S. and globally. Since it began, four in 10 U.S. adults have reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, up from about 1 in 10 in 2019, the Kaiser Family Foundation found this year. In the U.K., reports of anxiety and depression were at a high during lockdown restrictions in March 2020 and fell when restrictions were loosened later that spring, according to data published in April 2021 from the University College London’s COVID-19 Social Study, an ongoing study of more than 40,000 people. But the pandemic isn’t the end of happiness. The COVID-19 Social Study also found that people’s sense of meaning—the feeling that life is worthwhile—stayed stable throughout the U.K.’s spring lockdown. What makes people resilient in the face of such grim circumstances? Recent research highlights a few activities that seem to help the most. Staying social, even while distancingThe positive effects of social connection hold true even when physical contact may be dangerous. Who you lived with was particularly important in the early months of the pandemic: the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics found in June 2020 that being married or cohabitating with a partner was among the most protective measures against loneliness during this time. Various studies also found that when people felt connected to others during the pandemic, they tended to experience fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Since the start of the pandemic, people have done a “huge amount of coping” says Nancy Hey, the executive director of What Works Centre for Wellbeing, a U.K. company that gathers evidence about what works to improve wellbeing.“In some ways, we come together more when there’s a crisis,” says Hey. “The best thing you can do… is to get on the phone with your family and friends. Knowing that there’s somebody there for you in times of trouble is really important.” For many people, relationships increasingly went digital. Video calls surged during the pandemic; according to market research company Sensor Tower, usage of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet was almost 21 times higher during the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Digital interactions like these also appear to protect wellbeing. Some recent research has found that social contact, both in person and via phone or video call, was associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Video calls eased some of the lockdown loneliness in a way not enough people appreciate, says John Helliwell, professor emeritus at Vancouver School of Economics and an editor of the World Happiness Report, an annual assessment of global wellbeing. “If this had happened 50 years ago, and everybody had been at home with no way of really being in contact with others, that would have been much, much more difficult,” says Helliwell. “The ability to work and socially connect without physical contact has been an enormously important support mechanism.” Still, video calls can feel frustrating and inadequate, leading to mixed effects on wellbeing. One survey published in September 2021 of more than 20,000 people from 101 countries found that people who were dissatisfied with video calls were more likely to be lonely during the pandemic. Daisy Fancourt, an associate professor at University College London and a leader of the COVID-19 Social Study, says that while video calls shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for in-person contact, in moderation they seemed to help people stay connected and happier. “We found that people who have used video calls, as well as regular phone calls, as a virtual means of staying in touch [for] limited amounts of time per day— that seems to have been beneficial,” says Fancourt. Being neighborly and volunteeringThe pandemic drove people to find new ways to connect outside of their social bubbles. Many people became closer to their neighbors, for example, or took up volunteer work. The COVID-19 Social Study found in September 2021 that a third of respondents said they’d received more support from their neighbors during the pandemic than before it. Volunteering also became more popular. In March 2020, the U.K.’s National Health Service asked for volunteers who would do tasks like shopping for people who were isolating or quarantining, transporting patients and moving equipment. It met its goal—250,000 volunteers—in less than 24 hours; two days later, it met its second goal of 750,000 people. Those who stepped up likely received a happiness boost: Studies suggest that volunteering has a positive impact not only on the people who are the recipients of help, but also on the volunteers. A May 2021 analysis of more than 55,000 U.K. adults from the COVID-19 Social Study during 11 weeks of lockdown found that volunteering was one of the top activities associated with a rise in life satisfaction. Doing hobbies and exercisingNot all helpful strategies are social. Activities that bring people outdoors, like gardening, and creative pursuits like making art and reading have also supported people’s wellbeing, says Fancourt. Unsurprisingly, another mood-boosting activity was exercise, which past research has linked to emotional benefits. A survey of nearly 13,700 people from 18 countries published in Frontiers in Psychology in September 2020 found that people who exercised frequently during the lockdown reported more positive moods. Most people seem to have understood that exercise was an important way to keep their spirits up; the study found that people generally didn’t exercise less during lockdown than they did before, and nearly a third of people exercised more. Of course, measures like these only go so far for people who lost a loved one to the virus or were dangerously ill themselves. One striking thing about the data surrounding wellbeing during the pandemic is that it’s inherently unfair; for instance, having a low income is associated with poorer mental health during the pandemic, according to the results of the COVID-19 Social Study. However, if there’s any silver lining to the psychological upheaval of the pandemic, it’s greater mental health literacy, says Fancourt. People were forced to grapple with their own understanding of mental health, “their ability to talk about it with appropriate language, their ability to recognize their own symptoms and feelings or potential mental health problems,” she says. “COVID has been its own campaign about mental health.” from https://ift.tt/3mrJ1Ys Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Preliminary data suggest that people with the omicron variant of the coronavirus are between 50% and 70% less likely to need hospitalization than those with the delta strain, Britain’s public health agency said Thursday. The U.K. Health Security Agency findings add to emerging evidence that omicron produces milder illness than other variants—but also spreads faster and better evades vaccines. The agency said that based on cases in the U.K., an individual with omicron is estimated to be between 31% and 45% less likely to attend a hospital emergency department compared to one with delta, “and 50 to 70% less likely to be admitted to hospital.” It cautioned that the analysis is “preliminary and highly uncertain” because of the small number of omicron patients in hospitals and the fact that most were in younger age groups. As of Dec. 20, 132 people had been admitted to U.K. hospitals with confirmed omicron, of whom 14—aged between 52 and 96—died. Scientists caution that any reductions in severity need to be weighed against the fact that omicron spreads much faster than delta and is more able to evade vaccines. The agency’s research said the protection a booster shot of vaccine gives against symptomatic omicron infection appears to wane after about 10 weeks, though protection against hospitalization and severe disease is likely to hold up for longer. UKHSA chief executive Jenny Harries said the analysis “shows an encouraging early signal that people who contract the omicron variant may be at a relatively lower risk of hospitalization than those who contract other variants.” But she added that “cases are currently very high in the U.K., and even a relatively low proportion requiring hospitalization could result in a significant number of people becoming seriously ill.” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the emerging information about omicron was “encouraging news,” But he said it was “not very clear yet … by how much that risk is reduced” compared to delta. The analysis follows two studies, from Imperial College London and Scottish researchers, that found patients with omicron were between 20% and 68% less likely to require hospital treatment than those with delta. Data out of South Africa, where the variant was first detected, have also suggested omicron might be milder there. Even if the early studies are borne out, the new variant could still overwhelm health systems because of the sheer number of infections. The British health agency said omicron appeared able to re-infect people more easily than previous variants, with 9.5% of omicron cases found in people who had already had COVID-19—a figure it said was likely an underestimate. Countries around the world are looking closely at Britain, where omicron is now dominant and where COVID-19 cases have surged by more than 50% in a week. Britain reported 119,789 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest yet during the pandemic and the second day the number has topped 100,000. Britain’s Office for National Statistics estimated that about 1 in 45 people in private households in England—1.2 million individuals—had COVID-19 in the week to Dec. 16, the highest level seen in the pandemic. Britain’s Conservative government this month reinstated rules requiring face masks in shops and ordered people to show proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test before entering nightclubs and other crowded venues in an attempt to slow omicron’s spread. The government said Thursday it would not impose any new restrictions before Christmas, but might do so soon after. Officials also urged people to get tested regularly and cut back on socializing. Many in Britain have heeded that advice, leaving entertainment and hospitality businesses reeling at what should be their busiest time of the year. The government has offered grants and loans to support restaurants, bars, theaters and other venues, but many say it is not enough to stop them going under. Rules set by the U.K. government apply in England. Other parts of the U.K.—Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—have set slightly tighter restrictions, including the closure of nightclubs. The government is hoping vaccine boosters will provide a bulwark against omicron, as the data suggests, and has set a goal of offering everyone 18 and up a third shot by the end of December. from https://ift.tt/3yRVqKp Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ U.S. health regulators on Thursday authorized the second pill against COVID-19, providing another easy-to-use medication to battle the rising tide of omicron infections. The Food and Drug Administration authorization comes one day after the agency cleared a competing drug from Pfizer. That pill is likely to become the first-choice treatment against the virus, thanks to its superior benefits and milder side effects. As a result, Merck’s pill is expected to have a smaller role against the pandemic than predicted just a few weeks ago. Its ability to head off severe COVID-19 is much smaller than initially announced and the drug label will warn of serious safety issues, including the potential for birth defects. The Food and Drug Administration authorized Merck’s drug for adults with early symptoms of COVID-19 who face the highest risks of hospitalization, including older people and those with conditions like obesity and heart disease. The U.K. first authorized the pill in early November. Known as molnupiravir, the Merck drug will carry a warning against use during pregnancy. The restrictions were expected after an FDA advisory panel only narrowly endorsed the drug last month, warning that its use would have to be strictly tailored to patients who can benefit the most. The Pfizer pill works differently and doesn’t carry the same risks. Additionally, Pfizer’s drug was roughly three times more effective in testing, reducing hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among high-risk patients, compared with 30% for Merck’s. Some experts question whether there will be much of a role for the Merck drug in the U.S. “To the extent that there’s an ample supply of Pfizer’s pill, I think it won’t be used,” said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic, referring to the Merck drug. “There would be no reason, given it has less efficacy and a higher risk of side effects.” For now, the FDA decision provides another potential option against the virus that has killed more than 800,000 Americans, even as health officials brace for record-setting cases, hospitalizations and deaths driven by the omicron variant. Antiviral pills, including Merck’s, are expected to be effective against omicron because they don’t target the spike protein where most of the variant’s worrisome mutations reside. The FDA based its decision on results showing nearly 7% of patients taking the drug ended up in the hospital and one died at the end of 30 days. That compared with 10% of patients hospitalized who were taking the placebo and nine deaths. Federal officials have agreed to purchase enough of the drug to treat 3.1 million people. The U.S. will pay about $700 for each course of Merck’s drug, which requires patients to take four pills twice a day for five days. A review by Harvard University and King’s College London estimated it costs about $18 to make each 40-pill course of treatment. Merck’s drug inserts tiny errors into the coronavirus’ genetic code to slow its reproduction. That genetic effect has raised concerns that the drug could cause mutations in human fetuses and even spur more virulent strains of the virus. But FDA scientists said the variant risk is largely theoretical because people take the drug for such a short period of time. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. from https://ift.tt/3yU8Wgj Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ Last winter, A.S.—a 26-year-old from Minnesota who asked to go by her initials to protect her privacy while job searching—was terrified of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). No stranger to seasonal depression during Minnesota’s cold, dark, snowy winters, A.S. worried that pandemic isolation would only make the problem worse. She planned a regimen of prescribed antidepressants, light therapy and exercise, then hunkered down and tried to relax through the winter. To her pleasant surprise, it mostly worked. This year, however, she hasn’t been so lucky. Since daylight saving time hit, “it has been so awful,” she says. “None of my tools have been working the way that they used to.” Like the virus itself, pandemic-related stress and trauma haven’t gone anywhere—but now it feels like the world is moving on and everything is supposed to be “normal” when it’s not, she says. Between that and her usual predisposition to SAD, her mental health is going through the ringer. Luana Marques, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says she’s seeing similar trends among her patients. If last year’s primary challenge was isolation, this year’s is uncertainty, Marques says. As the pandemic drags on and new variants emerge, many people are afraid of what that could mean for the winter ahead—especially when, post-vaccine rollout, they’d envisioned spending the season around friends and family. That’s colliding in an unfortunate way with SAD, which is defined as depression that follows a seasonal pattern for at least two consecutive years. “There’s a lot of anticipatory anxiety,” Marques says. “What is [this winter] going to look like?” Rates of depression and anxiety have been elevated in the U.S. since the pandemic began. As of April 2021, about 33% of U.S. adults reported symptoms of depression, according to a study recently published in the Lancet Regional Health. In a 2019 study, about 19% of U.S. adults said they’d felt depression symptoms over the prior two weeks. There’s not much data about how the pandemic has affected SAD specifically, but experts say it has likely exacerbated the condition for some people. During an average year, an estimated 10 million people in the U.S. experience SAD—typically, but not always, during winter. It’s not exactly clear why that happens, but many experts believe it’s linked to shorter days with less sunlight, which may throw off the body’s natural rhythms. It’s logical to think the pandemic would worsen that situation, given that many people are spending more time at home and socializing less than ever—effectively doing the opposite of what experts typically recommend for avoiding SAD. Some experts have even theorized that infection by COVID-19 could be a risk factor for psychological distress, given its ability to affect the brain, explains Dr. Teodor Postolache, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a SAD expert. Since SAD is only diagnosed among those who have experienced symptoms for at least two years in a row, it’s difficult to say whether the pandemic has caused an uptick in prevalence—but for some people who regularly have the condition, Marques says it hit harder than usual during the last pandemic winter. Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a psychiatrist and pioneering SAD researcher, agrees. “It’s still winter,” he says. “And there are added fears, there are added challenges.” Widespread vaccination will hopefully make socializing easier and safer for many people this winter compared to last, possibly easing some of that burden. But the Omicron variant—which, compared to other strains, appears highly contagious and more likely to cause breakthrough infections—may change that equation. Marques warns that people who are predisposed to seasonal depression should mentally prepare for “COVID roadblocks”—like breakthrough infections or changes in COVID-related restrictions—that could force temporary isolation and become psychologically difficult. “You think you’ve got a handle on the whole thing, and then you get something new, like the new variants,” Rosenthal says. “You’re piling it all one on top of the other.” For that reason, Marques says it’s crucial to think ahead. You may not like the current reality, but you can at least accept it by making contingency plans. That way, you won’t be blindsided if the unfortunate does happen. “If I don’t see my family, what’s my backup plan?” Marques offers as an example. “You create a little bit of certainty within that uncertainty.” It’s also helpful to remember we’re not powerless to the virus anymore, Rosenthal says. “There are things we can do,” he says. “We can get vaccinated. We can wear masks when we have to. We can minimize risky situations like big crowds of people and maximize safe situations like walking with friends.” One study of U.S. adolescents even found that following public-health guidance about COVID-19 could lessen some of the pandemic’s mental health consequences. Indeed, that’s one benefit of entering our second pandemic winter: by now, researchers know a lot more about the virus, its psychological effects and how to combat some of its consequences. One study, for example, found that physical activity and time spent outdoors were associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety during lockdown. Another paper found that dog ownership was linked to higher feelings of social support and lessened symptoms of depression (though, of course, getting a dog is a long-term commitment and not a quick fix for SAD). Peer support, such as that found in self-help groups, is also a valuable tool during the pandemic, another study found. Pre-pandemic tools for fighting SAD still apply as well. There is some evidence that exposure to light therapy lamps can help, and some people have luck with vitamin D supplements. Mental health professionals can also provide extra support. Aside from that, Marques recommends tried-and-true habits like getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, spending time outdoors and socializing to the extent possible. Do “anything that keeps you engaged and gives you energy,” she says. from https://ift.tt/3ssTUwY Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ The arrival of Omicron, the latest and most transmissible COVID-19 variant to date, underscores the tremendous need for updated COVID-19 policy in the U.S. We always knew it would be difficult to contain a highly transmissible respiratory virus before Omicron. The arrival of the Delta variant forced us to abandon our goal of “herd immunity.” With the arrival of Omicron, a more appropriate goal of protecting those at risk of severe breakthrough infections is now in order. A new framework in light of Omicron will help move us beyond the continuous cycle of removing and reinstating COVID restrictions based on metrics that are no longer clinically relevant. Highly transmissible variants, such as Delta and Omicron, will lead to high numbers of asymptomatic or mild infections among the vaccinated. These breakthrough infections should not be considered “vaccine failures”. Instead, they should be recognized as the hallmark of highly effective vaccines that are operating precisely as intended—to prevent serious illness or death. We must ensure that Americans understand this is a very different time than March 2020, especially in highly vaccinated regions. Instead, these very same regions are again closing schools. A strategy of examining who is at risk of severe breakthroughs and protecting that population at all costs will help us make this critical transition. What strategies make sense at this stage of the pandemic?New Metrics This new strategy means using different metrics as the basis for COVID-19 restrictions. In a vaccinated population, the relationship between case counts and hospitalizations has been uncoupled. Because so many vaccinated individuals may test positive for COVID-19 with few or no symptoms, the number of infections in a community no longer predicts the number of hospitalizations or deaths. This uncoupling means that we should no longer focus on the number of COVID-19 infections as predictive of the need for lockdowns, physical distancing, or mask use. Instead, we could follow the path of Singapore which changed their metrics from cases to hospitalizations in September for both protecting the country’s population and to avoid unnecessary harm to the economy, which in turn, has a direct impact on health. A similar path was recently embraced in Marin County, California. If public health officials tie policies to hospitalizations, not cases, the media’s obsession with case counting will likely abate and help refocus attention on serious illness alone, as spelled out here. With this sharper focus, our time can be better spent on vaccinating the unvaccinated and boosting as soon as possible the most vulnerable, such as residents of nursing homes, persons over age 65, and those with chronic health issues. However, this new strategy highlights the need for the CDC to increase its tracking and reporting of severe breakthrough infections by the health status of individuals so that the most vulnerable can be rapidly identified and prioritized for life saving treatment, such as Paxlovid and other powerful antiviral therapies. Retirement of Blanket Mask Mandates Protecting those at risk of severe breakthroughs also means the end of blanket mask mandates. Our adult population has had access to highly effective vaccines for almost a year, and more recently, all children ages 5 and older became eligible for vaccination. Use of N95, KN95, KF94, or even double masking, should be encouraged among select high-risk populations, but perpetual masking of entire populations is not sustainable or necessary. Our children, the demographic group at lowest risk of serious COVID-19 illness, continue to endure more hours of uninterrupted masking than higher risk adults. This strategy would mean making child masking optional at 12 weeks after the last school-age child became eligible for vaccination. Rational Testing Policies We need to retire the policy of school closures and the cancellation of school sporting events based on asymptomatic testing. While testing and quarantines may have been rationalized as reasonable strategies prior to the availability of vaccines, these disruptions can no longer be justified as having any direct impact on lowering the risk of life-threatening illness among the lives of those subject to the disruptions, namely students, athletes, or even spectators. Although schools reopened in 2021, parents and students continue to suffer from educational loss and work disruption due to school testing policies and quarantines. The CDC has recently endorsed test to stay as a safe and reasonable policy for keeping kids in school and minimizing educational disruption. This policy should quickly become the norm until school-based testing is completely phased out. Similarly, testing protocols should be updated for all places of work, shortening the period of isolation following infection. Returning to work (or school) as soon as a rapid test is negative, reflecting when COVID-19 is no longer transmissible, is more appropriate than the outdated 7 day period (with a negative test) of isolation. Nuanced Booster Policies and Spacing This updated roadmap also includes modification of vaccination policies to better reflect our nuanced understanding of vaccine efficacy and population risk. Our widespread promotion of booster vaccination for all individuals over age 16 should ensure we target those most vulnerable to serious breakthrough infections first, which would include mass booster campaigns in nursing homes and among those in care for chronic diseases. The spacing out of vaccine doses in young men and careful attention to any adverse events from boosting men under age 30, should be put into practice without concern for decreasing vaccine uptake. This new roadmap will also give recognition to natural immunity from prior infection when implementing vaccine mandates (such as recommending 1 dose after natural infection to boost immunity but minimize side effects). This policy would increase public trust, particularly among more vaccine hesitant communities, as a more accurate reflection of the evidence to date. Read More: Why COVID-19 Case Counts Don’t Mean What They Used To Finally, this new roadmap reframes our policy towards harm reduction, and away from zero COVID policies. Policies such as travel bans are ineffective in decreasing transmission and are fundamentally inequitable, punishing other countries for laudable practices such as data sharing. Getting Paxlovid authorized tells our unvaccinated we want to provide compassionate care to this group. And finally, promoting booster doses for young healthy adults over an equitable global distribution of vaccines is counterproductive for suppressing the emergence of variants and runs contrary to the notion the all humans are of equal value. We encourage the Biden Administration to take a rational approach to the COVID-19 pandemic on the eve of 2022. President Biden said in his speech on December 21 that the administration will renew efforts to increase access to rapid testing and expand the surge capacity of hospitals in areas of low vaccination, both important and welcome commitments. In addition to meeting these immediate practical needs of the pandemic, we hope that the administration will recognize that it is time to reframe our approach, moving beyond case counts and community-based restrictions and revising policies specifically aimed at protecting vulnerable populations and assuring that our nation’s children will stay in school. We hope this new roadmap will allow a sensible, science-based approach to the next phase of our response. from https://ift.tt/3mrvHDt Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ South Africa’s noticeable drop in new COVID-19 cases in recent days may signal that the country’s dramatic omicron-driven surge has passed its peak, medical experts say. Daily virus case counts are notoriously unreliable, as they can be affected by uneven testing, reporting delays and other fluctuations. But they are offering one tantalizing hint—far from conclusive yet—that omicron infections may recede quickly after a ferocious spike. South Africa has been at the forefront of the omicron wave and the world is watching for any signs of how it may play out there to try to understand what may be in store. After hitting a high of nearly 27,000 new cases nationwide on Thursday, the numbers dropped to about 15,424 on Tuesday. In Gauteng province—South Africa’s most populous with 16 million people, including the largest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria—the decrease started earlier and has continued. “The drop in new cases nationally combined with the sustained drop in new cases seen here in Gauteng province, which for weeks has been the center of this wave, indicates that we are past the peak,” Marta Nunes, senior researcher at the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics department of the University of Witwatersrand, told The Associated Press. “It was a short wave … and the good news is that it was not very severe in terms of hospitalizations and deaths,” she said. It is “not unexpected in epidemiology that a very steep increase, like what we saw in November, is followed by a steep decrease.” Gauteng province saw its numbers start sharply rising in mid-November. Scientists doing genetic sequencing quickly identified the new, highly mutated omicron variant that was announced to the world on Nov. 25. Significantly more transmissible, omicron quickly achieved dominance in South Africa. An estimated 90% of COVID-19 cases in Gauteng province since mid-November have been omicron, according to tests. And the world seems to be quickly following, with omicron already surpassing the delta variant as the dominant coronavirus strain in some countries. In the U.S., omicron accounted for 73% of new infections last week, health officials said—and the variant is responsible for an estimated 90% or more of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.K. have surged by 60% in a week as omicron overtook delta as the dominant variant there. Worldwide, the variant has been detected in at least 89 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Read more: Let’s Not Be Fatalistic About Omicron. We Know How to Fight It In South Africa, experts worried that the sheer volume of new infections would overwhelm the country’s hospitals, even though omicron appears to cause milder disease, with significantly less hospitalizations, patients needing oxygen and deaths. But then cases in Gauteng started falling. After reaching 16,000 new infections on Dec. 12, the province’s numbers have steadily dropped, to just over 3,300 cases Tuesday. “It’s significant. It’s very significant,” Dr. Fareed Abdullah said of the decrease. “The rapid rise of new cases has been followed by a rapid fall and it appears we’re seeing the beginning of the decline of this wave,” said Abdullah, working in the COVID-19 ward at Pretoria’s Steve Biko Academic Hospital. In another sign that South Africa’s omicron surge may be receding, a study of health care professionals who tested positive for COVID-19 at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto shows a rapid increase and then a quick decline in cases. “Two weeks ago we were seeing more than 20 new cases per day and now it is about five or six cases per day,” Nunes said. But, she said, it is still very early and there are several factors that must be closely watched. South Africa’s positivity rate has remained high at 29%, up from just 2% in early November, indicating the virus is still circulating among the population at relatively high levels, she said. And the country’s holiday season is now underway, when many businesses close down for a month and people travel to visit family, often in rural areas. This could accelerate omicron’s spread across South Africa and to neighboring countries, experts said. “In terms of the massive everyday doubling that we were seeing just over a week ago with huge numbers, that seems to have settled,” said Professor Veronica Uekermann, head of the COVID-19 response team at Steve Biko Academic Hospital. “But it is way too early to suggest that we have passed the peak. There are too many external factors, including the movement during the holiday season and the general behavior during this period,” she said, noting that infections spiked last year after the holiday break. Read more: Omicron Is Changing Our View of Breakthrough Infections It’s summertime in South Africa and many gatherings are outdoors, which may make a difference between the omicron-driven wave here and the surges in Europe and North America, where people tend to gather indoors. Another unknown factor is how much omicron has spread among South Africans without causing disease. Some health officials in New York have suggested that because South Africa appears to have experienced a quick, mild wave of omicron, the variant may behave similarly there and elsewhere in the U.S. But Nunes cautions against jumping to those conclusions. “Each setting, each country is different. The populations are different. The demographics of the population, the immunity is different in different countries,” she said. South Africa’s population, with an average age of 27, is more youthful than many Western countries, for instance. Most of the patients currently being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals are unvaccinated, Uekermann emphasized. About 40% of adult South Africans have been inoculated with two doses. “All my patients in ICU are unvaccinated,” Uekermann said. “So our vaccinated people are doing better in this wave, for sure. We have got some patients who are very ill with severe COVID, and these are unvaccinated patients.” AP journalist Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed. from https://ift.tt/3pjgA0A Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ U.S. health regulators on Wednesday authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that Americans will be able to take at home to head off the worst effects of the virus. The long-awaited milestone comes as U.S. cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all rising and health officials warn of a tsunami of new infections from the omicron variant that could overwhelm hospitals. The drug, Paxlovid, is a faster, cheaper way to treat early COVID-19 infections, though initial supplies will be extremely limited. All of the previously authorized drugs against the disease require an IV or an injection. An antiviral pill from Merck also is expected to soon win authorization. But Pfizer’s drug is all but certain to be the preferred option because of its mild side effects and superior effectiveness, including a nearly 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease. “The efficacy is high, the side effects are low and it’s oral. It checks all the boxes,” said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. “You’re looking at a 90% decreased risk of hospitalization and death in a high-risk group — that’s stunning.” The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s drug for adults and children ages 12 and older with a positive COVID-19 test and early symptoms who face the highest risks of hospitalization. That includes older people and those with conditions like obesity and heart disease. Children eligible for the drug must weigh at least 88 pounds (40 kilograms). The pills from both Pfizer and Merck are expected to be effective against omicron because they don’t target the spike protein where most of the variant’s worrisome mutations reside. Read more: We Need to Start Thinking Differently About Breakthrough Infections Pfizer currently has 180,000 treatment courses available worldwide, with roughly 60,000 to 70,000 allocated to the U.S. Federal health officials are expected to ration early shipments to the hardest hit parts of the country. Pfizer said the small supply is due to the manufacturing time — currently about nine months. The company says it can halve production time next year. The U.S. government has agreed to purchase enough Paxlovid to treat 10 million people. Pfizer says it’s on track to produce 80 million courses globally next year, under contracts with the U.K., Australia and other nations. Health experts agree that vaccination remains the best way to protect against COVID-19. But with roughly 40 million American adults still unvaccinated, effective drugs will be critical to blunting the current and future waves of infection. The U.S. is now reporting more than 140,000 new infections daily and federal officials warn that the omicron variant could send case counts soaring. Omicron has already whipped across the country to become the dominant strain, federal officials confirmed earlier this week. Against that backdrop, experts warn that Paxlovid’s initial impact could be limited. Read more: Biden Pivots to Home Tests to Confront Omicron Surge For more than a year, biotech-engineered antibody drugs have been the go-to treatments for COVID-19. But they are expensive, hard to produce and require an injection or infusion, typically given at a hospital or clinic. Also, laboratory testing suggests the two leading antibody drugs used in the U.S. aren’t effective against omicron. Pfizer’s pill comes with its own challenges. Patients will need a positive COVID-19 test to get a prescription. And Paxlovid has only proven effective if given within five days of symptoms appearing. With testing supplies stretched, experts worry it may be unrealistic for patients to self-diagnose, get tested, see a physician and pick up a prescription within that narrow window. “If you go outside that window of time I fully expect the effectiveness of this drug is going to fall,” said Andrew Pekosz, a Johns Hopkins University virologist. The FDA based its decision on company results from a 2,250-patient trial that showed the pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89% when given to people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 within three days of symptoms. Less than 1% of patients taking the drug were hospitalized and none died at the end of the 30-day study period, compared with 6.5% of patients hospitalized in the group getting a dummy pill, which included nine deaths. Pfizer’s drug is part of a decades-old family of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors, which revolutionized the treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. The drugs block a key enzyme which viruses need to multiply in the human body. The U.S. will pay about $500 for each course of Pfizer’s treatment, which consists of three pills taken twice a day for five days. Two of the pills are Paxlovid and the third is a different antiviral that helps boost levels of the main drug in the body. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. from https://ift.tt/3El45G4 Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ It’s clear that 2020 was a terrible year for health in the U.S., but just how terrible is now coming into focus. New mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics finds that life expectancy dropped by 1.8 years in 2020 compared to 2019, and more than 528,800 more U.S. residents died in 2020 than in 2019. It is the largest single-year increase in annual mortality since 1933, when data for the entire country first became available. COVID-19 is the primary reason for this shift. The virus was the cause of 10.4% of all deaths last year and became the third-most common cause of death in the country. However, the report also reflects the shock waves the pandemic sent through the U.S. healthcare system. “The report card for the year was an F,” says Samuel Preston, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences (who was not involved with the study). “It’s a very dismal portrait of what happened in the United States. And what happened in the United States is worse than what happened in other developed countries.” Death rates rose from various causes, including heart disease (up 4.1%), strokes (up 4.9%) and Alzheimer’s disease (up 8.7%) as COVID-19 stretched the entire health care system to its limit. Mark Hayward, a demographer and a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, says that increases in these particular diseases is striking. “They’re the kinds of deaths that are likely to occur because you can’t access hospitals or you can’t access care,” he says. “The overall consequence of COVID is broader than just COVID-related deaths. It’s because we can’t provide care to people with other conditions.” Access issues during the pandemic were reported across the health care system: ambulances bounced from one overwhelmed emergency room to another; short-staffed nursing homes struggled to contain the deadly infection; and hospitals were forced to postpone non-emergency surgeries to cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients. Check-ups, during which doctors might have prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, were canceled, and those unprescribed drugs did not prevent heart attacks. Many care providers also left the profession because of burnout and exhaustion. Even these high numbers are likely an underestimate. About 17% to 20% more deaths should have been attributed to COVID-19, says Preston, who is studying COVID-19 and 2020 mortality rates as part of a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University. “We have concluded, as others have, that COVID itself was under-reported as a cause of death,” says Preston. “There are areas of the country where, compared to the changes in death rates overall, there are clearly insufficient numbers of deaths being assigned to COVID.” While undercounting was likely a bigger issue early in the pandemic, problems persisted, Preston says. For instance, areas with coroners (who are typically elected) instead of medical examiners (who are generally appointed medical officials) are more likely to assign COVID-19 deaths to other causes. The pandemic also contributed to increased deaths caused by another type of illness: drug-use disorders. Recent government data found that between April 2020 and 2021, more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses, the highest number ever recorded in a 12-month period. This record high was at least partially the result of the pandemic, as the virus not only disrupted treatment programs and affected patients’ mental health, but likely accelerated the spread of the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl. In the new NCHS report, overdoses are included in the category of unintentional injuries, which rose 16.8% year over year. What’s also clear from the report is that while no part of American society was untouched by the pandemic, some groups experienced worse effects. Death rates rose among all age groups over the age of 15, and among white, Black and Hispanic people alike. The increase was particularly steep for Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black people: death rates rose by 42.7% for Hispanic men, 32.4% for Hispanic women, 28% for Black men, and 24.9% for Black women in 2020 compared to 2019. The gap between men and women’s life expectancy also widened. Men’s life expectancy fell by 2.1 years, to age 74.2, and dropped 1.5 years to age 79.9 for women. The racial disparities are likely due to the fact that more people of color are frontline workers who aren’t able to avoid being exposed to the virus, says Hayward, who studies mortality and inequality. As more data become available, he anticipates seeing inequalities across educational lines. “The college educated could work at home and avoid exposure,” says Hayward. “You’re going to see a very dramatic widening of educational differences in life expectancies…driven in part because of absolute decline in life expectancy among the most socially disadvantaged groups in this country.” from https://ift.tt/3FnJcvd Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting the omicron variant surging through the country, President Joe Biden announced the government will provide 500 million free rapid home-testing kits, increase support for hospitals under strain and redouble vaccination and boosting efforts. At the White House on Tuesday, Biden detailed major changes to his COVID-19 winter plan, his hand forced by the fast-spreading variant, whose properties are not yet fully understood by scientists. Yet his message was clear that the winter holidays could be close to normal for the vaccinated while potentially dangerous for the unvaccinated. His pleas are not political, he emphasized. He noted that former President Donald Trump has gotten his booster shot, and he said it’s Americans’ “patriotic duty” to get vaccinated. “It’s the only responsible thing to do,” the president said. “Omicron is serious and potentially deadly business for unvaccinated people.” Biden chastised social media and people on cable TV who have made misleading statements to discourage people from getting vaccinated. The outbreak from this latest strain of the coronavirus has required the federal government to get more aggressive in addressing the wave of infections, but Biden promised a weary nation that there would not be a mass lockdown of schools or businesses. “I know you’re tired, and I know you’re frustrated. We all want this to be over. But we’re still in it,” Biden said. “We also have more tools than we had before. We’re ready, we’ll get through this.” Scientists don’t know everything about omicron yet, but they do know that vaccination should offer strong protection against severe illness and death. The variant has spread at such an alarming rate since it was identified in South Africa about a month ago that the Biden administration snapped into action to offer new tests and additional aid. Still more is needed, some medical experts said. A cornerstone of the plan is for the government to purchase 500 million coronavirus rapid tests for free shipment to Americans starting in January. People will use a new website to order their tests, which will then be sent by U.S. mail at no charge. The 500 million could be increased, depending on developments. It marks a major shift for Biden, who earlier had called for many Americans to purchase the hard-to-find tests on their own and then seek reimbursement from health insurance. For the first time, the U.S. government will send free COVID-19 tests directly to Americans, after more than a year of urging by public health experts. Experts had criticized Biden’s initial buy-first, get-paid-later approach as unwieldy and warned that the U.S. would face another round of testing problems at a critical time. Testing advocates point to nations including the U.K. and Germany, which have distributed billions of tests to the public and recommend people test themselves twice a week. The federal government will also establish new testing sites and use the Defense Production Act to help manufacture more tests. The first new federally supported testing site will open in New York this week. The new sites will add to 20,000 already available. White House officials said they’re working with Google so that people will be able to find them by searching “free COVID test near me.” Still, Biden’s testing surge would need to be supported by a further jump in production for all Americans to test at the recommended rate of twice weekly. The U.S. would need 2.3 billion tests per month for everyone 12 and older to do that, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s nearly five times the half-billion tests Biden will deploy. Currently, the U.S. can conduct about 600 million tests per month, with home tests accounting for about half, according to researchers from Arizona State University. In another prong to Biden’s amped-up plan, he is prepared to deploy an additional 1,000 troops with medical skills to assist hospitals buckling under the virus surge. Also, he is immediately sending federal medical personnel to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont. And there are plans to ready additional ventilators and protective equipment from the national stockpile, expanding hospital resources. As a backstop, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will deploy hundreds of ambulances and paramedic teams so that if one hospital fills up, it can transport patients to open beds in another. Ambulances are already headed to New York and Maine, and paramedic teams are going to New Hampshire, Vermont and Arizona. But vaccination remains the main defense, since it can head off disease in the first place. The government will support multiple vaccination sites and provide hundreds of personnel to administer shots. New rules will make it easier for pharmacists to work across state lines to administer a broader range of shots. Biden said in response to a question that he may lift the Southern Africa travel ban that was imposed to delay omicron from reaching the U.S. Some prominent experts said that Biden’s new actions are a step in the right direction but he hasn’t gone far enough, given the risks of infections and hospitals being overwhelmed. “I don’t know that the measures being proposed are going to be adequate,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Hotez said the government may need to authorize a second booster shot for health care workers to prevent infections that would sideline clinicians when all hands are needed. Dr. Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, said the administration “finally sees the light” with Biden’s plan to ship 500 million tests, but “we need to pull out all the stops, and we’re not doing that still.” “We don’t have control of this pandemic here,” said Topol. He said the government could redefine “fully vaccinated” as three shots instead of two of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Biden could order a ban on air travel by people who are not fully vaccinated, and the government could use its authority to ramp up production of high quality masks for free distribution. “There’s a lack of boldness,” Topol said. “I am disappointed.” Scientists say omicron spreads even more easily than other coronavirus strains, including delta. It accounted for nearly three-quarters of new U.S. infections last week. Underscoring the reach of the virus, the White House said late Monday that Biden had been in close contact with a staff member who later tested positive for COVID-19. The staffer spent about 30 minutes around the president on Air Force One on Friday. The staffer, who was fully vaccinated and boosted, tested positive Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. Psaki said Biden has tested negative twice since Sunday and will test again on Wednesday. He cleared his throat several times at Tuesday’s event but spoke firmly and appeared fine. In New York City, nearly 42,600 people citywide tested positive from Wednesday through Saturday — compared with fewer than 35,800 in the entire month of November. The city has never had so many people test positive in such a short period of time since testing became widely available. Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone, Darlene Superville and Zeke Miller contributed to this report. from https://ift.tt/33QaPzp Check out https://takiaisfobia.blogspot.com/ |
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