Officials offer critical warning after US state confirms cases of rare but serious infection spread by animals: ‘It is transmitted by various rodents’
Doric Sam – August 19, 2024
Health officials in Arizona have grown concerned after seeing an increase in a rare virus spread by rodents that can cause serious health issues.
What’s happening?
As explained by Physician’s Weekly, the Arizona Department of Health Services announced in an alert that the state has seen an uptick in hantavirus infections, with seven confirmed cases and three deaths over the past six months.
“Hantavirus is a rare but important cause of serious, even fatal respiratory infection,” Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in New York, told NBC News, per Physician’s Weekly. “It is transmitted by various rodents, especially the deer mouse, and can cause mild disease, but it does cause fatal illness in a significant percentage of people who acquire this illness.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most cases of hantavirus in the U.S. are reported in western and southwestern states, but Arizona is among the leaders in reported infections in the country. Health officials reported that there have been 11 hantavirus cases in Arizona between 2016 and 2022, per Physician’s Weekly.
Why is this important?
Hantavirus is spread when particles containing the virus get into the air from urine, saliva, or feces from deer mice. An infection can lead to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).
Symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Without treatment, the infection can spread to the lungs and cause shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough, according to the American Lung Association and summarized by Physician’s Weekly. Around 38% of those who experience lung symptoms may die from the infection.
Though it is a rare disease in the U.S., with the CDC reporting 850 cases between 1993 and 2021 (about 30 per year), the increase in hantavirus cases is an indication of a deeper problem.
According to Physician’s Weekly, experts theorized that “climate change, such as the extreme heat waves that have been sweeping across the county this summer, may also be partly to blame” for the rising number of infections.
Trish Lees, public information officer at Coconino County Health and Human Services in Arizona, told NBC News that cases are seen more frequently in the summer because of increased rodent activity and people coming into contact with rodents more often.
Dr. Camilo Mora, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, explained that rising temperatures cause rodents to seek shelter in similar ways that humans do.
“Many carrying-disease species get on the move with climate change — so while for any specific case it is difficult to conclude the role of climate change, climate change has all the attributes to cause outbreaks of vector-borne diseases,” Mora said, per Physician’s Weekly.
What’s being done about this?
Officials warned that the best way to protect yourself against hantavirus is to wear N95 masks, gloves, and protective clothing when entering an area that is dirty or riddled with rodents. Anyone who experiences symptoms should seek immediate medical attention.
“The best way to prevent infection with this illness is by carefully disinfecting and cleaning up any waste products from the rodents and by not coming into contact with them,” Glatt told NBC News.
$15 million Ohio State study takes aim at molecule at the heart of Long COVID
Samantha Hendrickson, Columbus Dispatch – August 14, 2024
COVID-19 is here to stay, and for some, that means symptoms last months, even years after developing the little-understood Long COVID — but a team at the Ohio State University has received millions to find out more.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $15 million over the next five years to fund the university’s efforts, including developing new ways to treat COVID-19 and to further understanding of why Long COVID happens and how to fend it off.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of adults and children have suffered — and continue to — suffer from Long COVID.
Dr. Amal Amer, center with glasses, stands with fellow Ohio State University researchers, who have been granted $15 million over five years to study Long COVID. The research is personal for Amer, who suffered from Long COVID herself.
The disease can be present for as short as three months, but can also last years after someone is first infected. It’s defined as a chronic condition that occurs after a COVID-19 infection with a wide range of debilitating symptoms such as severe fatigue, brain fog, heart and lung problems, bodily pain or exacerbating already existing health issues, all of which can impact someone’s daily life.
“It’s just unacceptable, you can’t just let that happen,” said Dr. Amal Amer, a professor of microbial infection and immunity at OSU and a principal investigator in the project, “We have to understand it, and if somebody, not just us, anybody, happens to have a clue or the beginning of the story, we have to follow it.”
Tiny creatures lead to big discoveries
This massive undertaking started with simple mice and a single molecule.
An OSU study published in 2022 found that mice infected with COVID-19 reacted differently to the disease depending on if they had a certain enzyme-producing molecule known as caspase 11.
Research showed that blocking this molecule in the infected mice resulted in lower inflammation, tissue injury and fewer blood clots in the animals’ lungs.
Humans have their own version of this molecule, or caspase 4, Amer said, and researchers discovered high levels of the enzyme in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in intensive care units — a direct link to severe disease.
“It starts getting high because it has useful functions, but any molecule, when it gets too high, then these useful functions start becoming harmful,” Amer said.
The new work funded by the NIH will go beyond the study of the lungs and into how this molecule may impact the brain and the rest of the body, interfering with immune responses and possibly resulting in more blood clots in pathways leading to the brain and other vital organs – an entertained explanation for why Long COVID impacts people differently from case to case.
Currently, there are over 200 serious symptoms associated with Long COVID, according to the CDC.
Understanding how Long COVID comes to be is the first step in creating a treatment, Amer said. “Once you know the mechanism, then you can design what to target, where to target it and how to target it in order to reduce the damage being done.”
No one left behind
For Dr. Amer, finding that mechanism is an incredible research opportunity, but it’s also personal.
She herself contracted Long COVID during the pandemic. For three months, the leader in cutting edge research in her field suffered from terrible brain fog and other neurological symptoms after her second, thought seemingly mild, COVID-19 infection.
Amer has traveled all over the world, and confessed she’s gotten sick in many countries, including contracting the often deadly malaria. But nothing compared to Long COVID.
Amer would receive emails from her students, and read one sentence, but not remember what it said after reading it. She started having trouble typing on a keyboard. She couldn’t recall things people had just said to her moments before.
“I started thinking, ‘what’s gonna happen to my life?’ My job is a brain job. I lose my job, then what’s gonna happen to me?” Amer recalled. Now, she’ll head the brain-focused part of the project.
This continued for three months, before she gradually started to recover. Around six months, Amer said she began to feel normal again. Though she can’t be certain that she’s back to where she was before Long COVID, she acknowledges some people aren’t as lucky as she is.
“I have to find out, and I have to understand it, and I’m not going to let anybody be left behind,” she said.
Senators urge better access to disability payments for Long COVID patients
Casey Quinlan – August 14, 2024
People with symptoms of long COVID attend a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on long COVID in January. A group of senators is now urging the Social Security Administration to grant greater access to disability payments for people with long COVID symptoms. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Several U.S. senators have called on the Social Security Administration to take steps to make it easier for people with long COVID to access disability benefits, actions that disability rights advocates and patients say are desperately needed.
Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Angus King (I-ME), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) signed the letter released on Monday. They said the agency should make the process more transparent, track and publish data on long COVID applications, and consider expanding the listing of impairments the SSA considers in applications for benefits.
“In some situations, these symptoms can be debilitating and prevent an individual from being able to work, take care of their family, manage their household, or participate in social activities,” the senators wrote to SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley.
Long COVID is a chronic health condition, which often includes fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath, following a COVID-19 infection. About three in 10 American adults have had long COVID at some point according to KFF’s April analysis of long COVID data. About 17 million people had it in March 2024. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released guidance on long COVID as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Kaine has been outspoken about his own experience with long COVID and Sanders introduced legislation this month to provide $1 billion in funding each year for 10 years to support long COVID research by the National Institutes of Health.
Lisa McCorkell, co-founder of the Patient Led Research Collaborative, a group of long COVID patients and patients with associated illnesses, told States Newsroom, “Creating a ruling or listing would be a huge improvement — having that specific guidance for how to document long COVID, its related diagnoses, and its associated impairment would assist physicians who may not be as knowledgeable about long COVID.”
The SSA administers disability benefits through Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs. The former program requires past employment payment into Social Security. The latter one does not have those restrictions and is based on financial need but to receive benefits, applicants have to prove they qualify as having a disability. The average monthly disability benefit for Social Security Disability Insurance is $1,538.
Long COVID’s economic cost
Researchers and economists are still trying to understand the full impact of COVID-19 infections and long COVID on the workforce. A 2023 study estimated that COVID-19 brought down the labor force by 500,000 people and that the average loss of labor is equivalent to $9,000 in earnings. More than 25% of people with long COVID said their condition had an impact on their employment or work hours, according to a 2022 Minneapolis Fed paper.
Long COVID is not going to go away, particularly as government protections on the federal, state, and local level to reduce the spread of COVID are “severely lacking,” said Marissa Ditkowsky, who serves as the disability economic justice counsel at the National Partnership for Women & Families, an organization focused on health, economic justice, and reproductive rights for women and families.
“While COVID continues to be a reality, we know that COVID disproportionately impacts women, disabled folks, and people of color, and the folks who are most impacted already have issues with access to appropriate health care, access to employment, and access to equitable wages,” said Ditkowsky, who has long COVID herself. “A lot of folks might be working in low-wage jobs where they’re in the service industry and constantly out there and more likely to contract COVID. It starts not just with the programs for how to deal with folks with long COVID, but how to prevent people from getting long COVID.”
In the meantime, she said people with long COVID, as well as other people with disabilities, would benefit from the changes senators are advocating, such as restoring the treating physician rule, which was repealed in 2017. The rule allowed the agency to give greater weight to medical evidence from a physician who treated a patient for years compared to, say, a doctor who examines a patient once.
“Giving your own doctor the weight [they] deserve is huge,” Ditkowsky said.
Mia Ives-Rublee, senior director of the disability justice initiative at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said there is an opportunity for the Biden administration or the next administration to revamp how the agency administers disability benefits. She said that given the aging population, there is more reason than ever for the agency to make significant improvements to the application process. Advocates for people with disabilities say it’s also imperative to boost funding for the agency.
“Not only are we seeing an increase in disability in younger folks, but we’re also looking at the big boomer generation getting older … We’re going to see a huge pressure on the [SSA] and we need to see real changes and funding and think of ways to manage the wide variety of experiences that people have in order to deal with differences in applying for these benefits,” she said.
Scientists Drilled So Deep Into the Center of the Earth, They Knocked on the Mantle’s Door
Darren Orf – August 13, 2024
Scientists Go Deeper Into Mantle Than Ever BeforeBloomberg Creative – Getty Images
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To understand the mantle—the largest layer of Earth’s rocky body—scientists drill deep cores out of the Earth.
In May of 2023, scientists drilled the deepest core yet and recovered serpentinized peridotite that forms when saltwater interacts with mantle rock.
Although this is the deepest into the mantle scientists have ever drilled, the mission didn’t uncover pristine mantle that lies beyond the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or Moho, boundary.
If you want to understand the geology of our home planet, studying the mantle is a great place to start. Separating the planet’s rocky crust and the molten outer core, the mantle makes up 70 percent of the Earth’s mass and 84 percent of its volume. But despite its outsized influence on the planet’s geologic processes, scientists have never directly sampled rocks from this immensely important geologic layer.
And that’s understandable, especially when you consider that the crust is roughly 9 to 12 miles thick on average. Luckily, that average contains outliers—areas of the world where the crust is actually incredibly thin and faulting exposes the mantle through cracks. One such area is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, specifically near an underwater mountain called the Atlantis Massif.
On the south side of this massif is an area known as the Lost City—a hydrothermal field whose vent fluids are highly alkaline and rich in hydrogen, methane, and other carbon compounds. This makes the area a particularly compelling candidate for explaining how early life evolved on Earth. Additionally, it contains mantle rock that interacts with seawater in a process known as “serpentinization,” which alters the rock’s structure and gives it a green, marble-like appearance.
It was here, 800 meters south of this field, in May of 2023 that members of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)—aboard the JOIDES Resolution, a 470-foot-long research vessel rented by the U.S. National Science Foundation—extracted a 1,268-meter core containing abyssal peridotites, which are the primary rocks that make up the Earth’s upper mantle. The results of the study were published last week in the journal Science.
Although this makes this particular drill core the deepest sample of the mantle yet, going that deep into the rock wasn’t the goal of this record-breaking expedition.
“We had only planned to drill for 200 meters, because that was the deepest people had ever managed to drill in mantle rock,” Johan Lissenberg, a petrologist at Cardiff University and co-author of the study, told Nature. He said that the drilling was so easy that they progressed three times faster than usual. The team eventually drilled a staggering 1,268 meters, and only stopped due to the mission’s limited operations window.
Andrew McCaig—study co-author and University of Leeds scientist—said in an article from The Conversation that, according to a preliminary analysis of the rock, the core’s composition contains a variety of peridotite called harzburgite that forms via partial melting of mantle rock. It also contained rocks known as gabbros, which are coarse-grained igneous rocks. Both of these rocks then chemically reacted with seawater, changing their composition.
While this core represents an incredibly opportunity to learn more about the Earth’s mantle, as well as give an in-depth look at the geologic substrate upon which the Lost City rests, the mission didn’t quite complete the “grand challenge” of crossing the Mohorovičić discontinuity. Otherwise known as the Moho, the Mohorovičić discontinuity is recognized as the true boundary between the crust and pristine mantle.
Future missions could continue exploring this site near the Atlantis Massif, but sadly, those missions won’t include JOIDES Resolution—the NSF declined to fund more core drilling past 2024. Just as scientists are finally knocking on the door to the Earth’s most ubiquitous geologic layer, the future of these kinds of drilling missions is now uncertain.
11 Top COVID Symptoms People Are Experiencing During the Summer Surge
Irina Gonzalez – August 13, 2024
There are several COVID variants right now which have the same “set of mutations,” and are being referred to as FLiRT. Another strain, LB.1, is also on the rise.
KP.3.1.1 — which comes from the JN.1 strain — is now the most dominant variant, accounting for an estimated 27.8% of cases.
The symptoms are similar to other COVID strains. Being sick and experiencing a chronic cough, elevated fever, sore throat or a runny nose should prompt you to get a COVID-19 test to ensure you are not contagious.
If it seems like more people around you have gotten COVID in the last couple of months, that’s probably true. Right now, cases are on the rise and the COVID-19 FLiRT variants are dominating.
According to the most recent estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on August 3rd, 27.8% of cases are the KP.3.1.1 strain and 20.1% of current infections are KP.3. Both of these variants stem from the FLiRT family of the coronavirus. Another variant that is not a descendant of FLiRT, named LB.1, makes up an estimated 16% of COVID-19 cases at the moment.
While it’s great that COVID-19 cases don’t seem to be as dangerous as they used to be, it still causes unpleasant symptoms which can be severe for people with certain risk factors. Unfortunately, just 22.5% of American adults had received the most recent COVID-19 vaccine as of May 11, 2024 (when the latest data was released). Could this be contributing to the summer surge we’re experiencing? We turned to experts to learn more about the newest variants, important COVID-19 symptoms to be aware of and how to protect yourself and your loved ones.
KP.2, KP.2.3, KP.3 and KP.3.1.1 are official names of the FLiRT variants that are circulating right now. While FLiRT took over JN.1 as the dominant variant, it’s actually a descendant of JN.1. Essentially, the “parent” variant (JN.1) was unseated by several “child” variants. Various variations of JN.1 are still swirling in some capacity, but they make up a smaller percentage of COVID-19 cases. LB.1, another variant that has been circulating this summer, is not a member of the FLiRT family, but another descendant of JN.1.
Is there a summer surge?
Yes, the wastewater viral activity for COVID-19 — how the CDC tracks trends in infectious disease circulating in a community — is currently listed as “very high,” according to the most recent CDC data. However, a summer surge is not unique to FLiRT.
“Throughout the COVID-19 era, we have seen a rise in infections during summer,” says Dr. Lundstrom. Two reasons for this, according to the CDC, are that people tend to do more traveling during the summer and also congregate indoors with air conditioners on when it’s very hot outside.
What are the symptoms?
The good news is that the FLiRT and LB.1 strains of the coronavirus don’t seem to spark any surprise symptoms. “The symptoms are similar to other COVID-19 strains,” says Dr. Lundstrom. The CDC updated its list of possible symptoms on June 25th, and those include:
Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
New loss of taste or smell
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headache
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
“Like similar recent strains, the incidence of loss of taste and smell are not prominent,” adds Lundstrom.
How long do symptoms last?
It really depends on the person. Typically, people with mild cases will experience symptoms for 5-10 days, however, many may start to feel better sooner than that. According to the CDC, most people with long COVID will start to feel better after three months, although it can last years. It’s best to speak to your doctor if any of your symptoms are lingering.
Is there a new vaccine?
Our experts said that vaccines still provide good protection against COVID-19, “especially against severe illness and hospitalization,” says Dr. Lundstrom. However, a study published in April found that KP.2 is proving to have “the most significant resistance” to the 2023-24 COVID-19 booster, and that this “increased immune resistance ability of KP.2 partially contributes to the higher” prevalence of infections “than previous variants, including JN.1.”
At the end of June, the CDC recommended that everyone ages 6 months and older receive the updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine, which was tweaked based on the most dominant variants circulating this year. The most updated COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be rolled out this fall. “The World Health Organization is recommending the upcoming COVID booster to be based on the predominant lineage for the year,” adds Dr. Bhayani.
However, the CDC and our experts still recommend the current vaccine to protect yourself before the 2024-25 booster is made available in the fall. “Adults over the age of 65 should get the last COVID-19 vaccine available,” says Bhayani. Dr. Lundstrom suggests that older adults “should be vaccinated four months after their last vaccination” and those with compromised immune systems “should get vaccinated two months after their last dose.”
How to protect yourself
In March, the CDC updated the Respiratory Virus Guidance as COVID-19 cases have decreased over time. “It is still an important health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including flu and RSV,” the new guidance states.
“The same precautions will help protect against the spread of most respiratory viruses: wash hands frequently, cover your mouth and nose when sneezing/coughing, stay up to date with vaccinations and stay home when ill to prevent spreading infection to others,” suggests Dr. Lundstrom. However, Dr. Bhayani reminds us that the elderly, individuals with compromised immune systems and kids “should take extra precautions, such as avoiding large crowds and wear masks if COVID-19 cases are on the rise locally.”
If you do get sick, the CDC still recommends staying at home until your symptoms are improving overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication). Afterward, you can resume normal activities and “use added prevention strategies over the next five days.”
The Trump Campaign Just Tweeted Something Really Racist
Nathalie Baptiste – August 13, 2024
On Tuesday, an official social media account of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign posted a racist meme implying that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency in November, nice suburban neighborhoods will be overrun with hordes of Black people and immigrants.
“Import the third world. Become the third world,” read the post on X, the former Twitter.
Side-by-side images ― captioned “Your Neighborhood Under Trump” and “Your Neighborhood Under Kamala,” respectively ― show a tranquil residential street and a 2023 Getty photo of recent migrants to the U.S. sitting outside New York’s Roosevelt Hotel in hopes of securing temporary housing. (The Roosevelt now serves as an intake center for homeless migrants, and has been described as a “new Ellis Island.”) Most of the migrants in the photo are people of color.
In a conversation with X owner Elon Musk on the platform Monday night, Trump repeatedly vilified immigrants, bringing up cases of alleged murders by undocumented migrants. “These are rough people,” Trump told Musk. “These are criminals that make our criminals look like nice people. And it’s horrible what they’re doing.”
Trump has, once again, made building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border a campaign priority, and has promised that his administration will deport every undocumented immigrant living in the U.S. At the Republican National Convention in July, attendees cheered and waved signs reading “Mass Deportations Now!”
In the three weeks since President Joe Biden announced he wouldn’t seek a second term, reports have suggested that Trump is flailing for ways to counter the swell of enthusiasm for Harris, now the Democratic nominee.
Racism is a go-to approach for Trump, as evidenced by his quest over a decade ago to “prove” that then-President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. Some of his advisers have told the media in recent weeks of their plans to rerun the “Willie Horton” playbook, referring to an infamous ad from 1988 that supporters of Republican George H.W. Bush produced for his presidential campaign against Democrat Michael Dukakis. (Trump’s current pollster and adviser Tony Fabrizio had a hand in that advertisement.)
According to The New York Times, GOP donors and Trump’s own advisers have been pleading with him to attack Harris’ policies and stay on message, instead of questioning whether she is actually Black, as he has repeatedly done in the past two weeks. The fear among conservatives is that blatant racism will drive voters away in November.
But it seems that even when attacking Harris’ immigration policies, the Trump campaign just can’t help itself.
This is now California’s worst summer COVID wave in years. Here’s why
Rong-Gong Lin II – August 12, 2024
Individuals, some wearing face masks, walk in Laguna Beach on July 28. (Zoe Cranfill / Los Angeles Times)
California’s strongest summer COVID wave in years is still surging, and an unusual midsummer mutation may be partly to blame.
There are a number of possible culprits behind the worst summer infection spike since 2022, experts say. A series of punishing heat waves and smoke from devastating wildfires have kept many Californians indoors, where the disease can more easily spread. Most adults are also well removed from their last brush with the coronavirus, or their last vaccine dose — meaning they’re more vulnerable to infection.
But changes in the virus have also widened the scope of the surge.
Of particular concern is the rise of a hyperinfectious subvariant known as KP.3.1.1, which is so contagious that even people who have eluded infection throughout the pandemic are getting sick.
“COVID is extraordinarily common now,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s 16-hospital healthcare system.
COVID hospitalizations are ticking up, but remain lower than the peaks for the last two summers, probably thanks to some residual immunity and the widespread availability of anti-COVID drugs such as Paxlovid.
The World Health Organization has warned of COVID infections rising around the world, and expressed concern that more severe variants could emerge.
“In recent months, regardless of the season, many countries have experienced surges of COVID-19, including at the Olympics,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID.
Among those caught up was 27-year-old American sprinter Noah Lyles, who after winning the gold in the men’s 100-meter finals, came up short Thursday during the 200-meter finals, taking the bronze. Lyles collapsed after the race, fighting shortness of breath and chest pain, and was later taken away in a wheelchair.
“It definitely affected my performance,” he said of the illness, estimating that he felt “like 90% to 95%” of full strength.
The rate at which reported coronavirus tests are coming back positive has been rising for weeks — to above 10% globally and more than 20% in Europe. In California, the coronavirus positive test rate was 14.3% for the week that ended Aug. 5 — blowing past the peaks from last summer and winter — and up from 10% a month ago.
There were already indications in May that the typical U.S. midyear wave was off to an early start as a pair of new coronavirus subvariants — KP.2 and KP.1.1, collectively nicknamed FLiRT — started to make a splash, displacing the winter’s dominant strain, JN.1.
But by July, a descendant strain, KP.3.1.1, had clearly taken off.
“KP.3.1.1 is extremely transmissible and a little bit more immune evasive. It kind of came out of the blue during the summer,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-diseases specialist at UC San Francisco.
Cases are up at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, and “looking through the CDC data … KP.3.1.1 is really what is driving this particular surge,” Hudson said. “We are certainly much higher than we were last summer.”
Anecdotally, some infected people report being “pretty darn miserable, actually — really severe fatigue in the first two days,” Hudson said.
People may want to think their symptoms are just allergies, she said, but “it’s probably COVID. So we’re just really encouraging folks to continue to test.”
An initial negative test doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of the woods, though. Officials recommend testing repeatedly over as many as five days after the onset of symptoms to be sure.
California has now reported four straight weeks with “very high” coronavirus levels in its wastewater, according to data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday. That followed five weeks of “high” viral levels.
Last summer, California recorded only eight weeks with “high” coronavirus levels in wastewater, and never hit “very high” levels. In the summer of 2022, California spent 16 weeks with “high” or “very high” levels of coronavirus in wastewater.
“Fewer people got immunized this year compared to last year at this time,” Chin-Hong said. “That means, particularly amongst people who are older, they’re just not equipped to deal with this virus.”
There are 44 states with “high” or “very high” coronavirus levels in their wastewater, according to the CDC. Five states, and the District of Columbia, have “moderate” levels, and there were no data for North Dakota.
The CDC said coronavirus infections are “growing” or “likely growing” in 32 states, including California; are “stable or uncertain” in seven states, as well as the District of Columbia; are “likely declining” in Connecticut; and “declining” in Hawaii and Nevada. There were no estimates in eight states.
In Los Angeles County, coronavirus levels in wastewater jumped to 54% of last winter’s peak over the 10-day period ending July 27, the most recent available. A week earlier, coronavirus levels in wastewater were at 44% of last winter’s peak.
For the week ending Aug. 4, L.A. County reported an average of 479 coronavirus cases a day, double the number from five weeks earlier. Cases are an undercount, only reflecting tests done at medical facilities — not self-tests conducted at home.
In Santa Clara County, the most populous in the San Francisco Bay Area, coronavirus levels were high in all sewersheds, including San Jose and Palo Alto.
Hospitalizations and emergency room visits related to the coronavirus are also rising. Over the week ending Aug. 3, there were an average of 403 coronavirus-positive people in hospitals in L.A. County per day. That’s double the number from five weeks earlier, but still about 70% of last summer’s peak and one-third the height seen in summer 2022.
For the week ending Aug. 4, 4% of emergency room encounters in L.A. County were classified as related to the coronavirus — more than double the figure from seven weeks earlier. The peak from last summer was 5.1%.
“We’ve had a few people who have become very ill from COVID. Those are people who tend to be pretty severely immunocompromised,” Hudson said.
UC San Francisco has also seen a rise in the number of coronavirus-infected hospitalized patients. As of Friday, there were 28, up from fewer than 20 a week earlier, Chin-Hong said.
In the Bay Area, three counties have urged more people to consider masking in indoor public settings because of the COVID surge. Contra Costa County’s public health department “recommends masking in crowded indoor settings, particularly for those at high risk of serious illness if infected,” the agency said Tuesday, following similar pleas from San Francisco and Marin County health officials.
Compared with advice such as washing hands and staying away from sick people, suggesting wearing a mask can provoke strong opposition from some.
“The moment people see this, like in their mind, it sets off this chain reaction of, like, all the negative things of the pandemic, having to have society shut down and social isolation,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious-disease doctor and researcher at Stanford University.
But masks do help reduce the risk of infection, and people don’t have to wear them all the time to benefit. Karan says he socializes and eats at indoor restaurants. But he’ll decide to mask in other situations, like “when I’m traveling,” and, obviously, at work.
Doctors say that wearing a mask is one of many tools people can use to reduce their risk, and can be especially helpful when in crowded indoor settings.
Karan said he’s seen more coronavirus-positive patients while working shifts in urgent care, and he suggested that more healthcare providers take the time to order tests. He said he worries that when people come in with relatively mild symptoms, they may be sent home without testing.
But that could miss potential COVID diagnosis, which could allow a patient to get a prescription for an antiviral drug like Paxlovid.
Without testing, “you run the risk of taking shortcuts and not prescribing people meds that they actually should technically be getting,” Karan said.
Doctors Say Walking This Much Per Day Could Decrease Disease-Causing Inflammation
Olivia Luppino, Laura Purdy, MD – August 12, 2024
7 Science-Backed Ways To Reduce InflammationCathrine Wessel
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If you’ve scrolled through TikTok lately, you’ve probably seen tons of videos about how to reduce inflammation in your body. The topic is going viral for good reason, too—inflammation is the precursor of most modern chronic diseases, says Maya Feller, RD, the founder and lead dietitian at Maya Feller Nutrition, so it’s no wonder people are concerned with it.
Inflammation isn’t always a bad thing, so you don’t want to (and can’t) rid your body of it entirely. It’s actually a normal part of your body’s immune system.
“Inflammation is a completely natural process, and it’s a response usually to either injury or infection,” says Valerie Gustave, MD, a gastroenterologist at Lenox Hill Hospital and NYU Langone Medical Center. For example, acute inflammation might occur when you get a cut or twist your ankle to help your body heal.
But when inflammation is chronic, it can be an issue. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome are all inflammatory conditions, and symptoms like fatigue, low energy, recurrent rashes, joint pain, and unexplained stomachaches can also be caused by persistent inflammation, says Micaela Bayard, MD, a rheumatologist at Mount Sinai. For any of these conditions or symptoms, you should speak with a doctor to evaluate your inflammatory markers, confirm an issue, and help you determine the best path forward.
In addition to medicine, part of that path might include lifestyle changes. These expert-approved tips are the foundation of healthy living—and can possibly help prevent excess inflammation in the future.
If you’re dealing with fatigue, recurrent rashes, joint pain, or any of the symptoms described above, it may help to make an appointment with your doctor to rule out any chronic conditions. And if you want to take better care of yourself in general and reduce your risk of inflammation, you can start with the basics, Dr. Gustave says. Here are seven simple, science-backed ways to reduce inflammation and boost your health overall.
Drink Less Alcohol
Cutting back on booze is one way to tamp down inflammation.
“The body recognizes alcohol as a toxin,” says Feller, so it’s no surprise that it gets a big reaction from your immune system. “The problem with alcohol is that it can very actively stimulate what we call ‘pro-inflammatory molecules’ that trigger more inflammation,” says Dr. Bayard.
And if you already have a chronic condition that causes your body to be at an “elevated level of inflammation,” drinking alcohol can make things worse, she says.
Drinking alcohol contributes to systemic inflammation (the kind that causes chronic diseases) by messing with your gut’s microbiome, liver function, and even brain. And all those symptoms you get during a hangover? They’re an inflammatory response, too—and their severity might reflect systemic inflammation caused by drinking, according to a 2024 study in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. The more intense your hangovers are, the more inflammation you’re probably experiencing—and this drinking-inflammation cycle may put you at significantly greater risk of long-term health problems like significant liver damage and tissue damage in your gut, the study found.
If you’re looking to make a change, you don’t have to go cold turkey.
“Reduce in a way that is realistic for you,” Feller says. The less alcohol, the better, but “moderate drinking” for a woman is described as one drink or less per day, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Cut Out Tobacco
Consuming tobacco in any form (cigarettes, vapes, and hookah) harms your gut and lungs, and when it comes to inflammation, smoking can put you at risk for developing chronic health issues. In fact, one of the most well-documented causes of rheumatoid arthritis is smoking. This is because inflammation—your body’s natural immune response—can be found wherever there’s cell or tissue damage, and smoking causes plenty of damage in your body, says Dr. Bayard. “If you’re inhaling something that can be damaging to the tissue, that’s an area where inflammation can then accumulate,” she says.
The bottom line? Stopping smoking will make a big difference on your overall health, and not just your inflammatory markers, says Dr. Gustave.
Get A Good Night’s Sleep
Getting enough quality sleep is easier said than done, but turns out it’s super important for your health and for mitigating inflammation in the body. This is because sleep is a vital part of our immune response. Sleep is restorative, and during sleep, your immune system releases messenger proteins that help healing and fight infections, Dr. Bayard says.
Inconsistent sleep may be associated with higher levels of inflammation, especially for women, according to a 2020 study in Frontiers in Neurology. Sleep disturbances like waking up in the middle of the night could trigger inflammatory responses in the body, the study found. Without deep, uninterrupted sleep, your body won’t have the time it needs to let your immune system regenerate and heal the acute inflammation in your body, says Dr. Bayard.
As for how much sleep you should get? You’ll need less as you get older, but six to seven hours is a good place to start, says Dr. Bayard.
Reduce Stress
Stress plays a role in inflammation, says Dr. Bayard. One major reason is that cortisol (a stress hormone) can cause your body to switch on genes that trigger an inflammatory response. Stress can prompt inflammation in the body and may even lead to conditions like depression, per a 2022 study in the journal Biomedicines. Finally, stress can disrupt your sleep, appetite, and mindfulness, which all play a role in inflammation, Dr. Bayard says.
Get Some Physical Activity In
Exercise can decrease inflammation by releasing proteins that lower an inflammatory response and helping metabolize excess sugars in the bloodstream, says Feller.
While it doesn’t quite matter what you do—just as long as you’re active for about 30 minutes most days—if you’re concerned with inflammation, high-impact exercise might not be the way to go. That’s because exercise that is too hard on your body could cause more inflammation, says Dr. Bayard. (Everyone is different, so pick whatever gets you moving and see how it feels for you.)
If you’re not sure where to start, low-impact exercise might be just what you need to manage inflammation (without going overboard or stressing your body out). Biking, walking with supportive shoes, swimming, or hopping on the elliptical are all examples of low-impact workouts that can help you get all of exercise’s anti-inflammatory benefits.
Be Mindful Of Additives And Processed Foods
Sugar, salt, and processed foods might be hard to avoid, but they can play a role in inflammation. High levels of sugar can promote tissue damage and breakdown, leading to more inflammation, says Dr. Bayard, and eating processed foods pose a challenge to our digestion, which can promote inflammation in the gut.
“We’re learning a lot about how these chemicals that we take in impact our body,” says Dr. Bayard, but striving to eat less of them could help.
Eat The Rainbow
Finally, diet plays a role in inflammation, and WH has you covered with an anti-inflammatory food guide (think: plenty of nutritious whole foods packed with omega-3s and plant-based options). In addition to following that diet, a Mediterranean diet promotes eating limited red meat, green vegetables, and non-processed foods, all of which can be anti-inflammatory, says Dr. Bayard.
Overall, the key to reducing inflammation in your body is prioritizing variety and non-processed foods.
“If people can eat 30 different diverse plant foods over the course of the week, that’s very beneficial for gut health,” says Feller. “And we know that the gut has a big role in terms of immune health and also inflammatory conditions throughout the body.”
CDC says COVID wastewater levels are ‘very high’ in VA and NC
KaMaria Braye – August 12, 2024
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that wastewater levels of COVID-19 are considered very high across the United States.
At least 26 states are either high or very high for COVID-19 infections. The data shows this summer’s COVID-19 levels could pass the previous two summers.
The CDC says sewage can be tested to find traces of infectious diseases in communities and that the diseases can be found even if people don’t have symptoms.
With most Hampton Roads school districts returning back to school starting in mid-August, the CDC has recommendations for parents to help kids stay healthy while learning.
More than half of US states reporting ‘very high’ COVID activity levels: CDC
Youri Benadjaoud – August 12, 2024
More than half of U.S. states are reporting “very high” levels of COVID activity as the virus continues to spread and increase in many parts of the country, according to the latest wastewater data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least 27 states are reporting “very high” levels and 17 states are reporting “high” levels of wastewater viral activity.
The western region continues to see the highest levels followed by the South, Midwest and Northeast, respectively.
Current levels are nearing but remain lower than what they were in the winter months, when there tends to be increased spread of respiratory illnesses.
Wastewater data comes with limitations in how well it represents spread in a community, but it may be the best data available, experts say.
PHOTO: Doctor holding a positive result for COVID-19 with test kit for viral disease COVID-19 2019-nCoV. (STOCK PHOTO/Adobe Stock)
“While wastewater is not a perfect measure, it’s increasingly vital in filling the gaps left by the absence of comprehensive case reporting and hospitalization data,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
Many national surveillance systems have diminished in scope since the national public health emergency ended, leaving authorities will limited resources to monitor how the virus is spreading.
“As traditional surveillance systems have dwindled, wastewater analysis has emerged as one of the most reliable tools we have to monitor COVID-19 activity in communities,” Brownstein added.
Other limited COVID surveillance systems such as emergency department visits and test positivity are also on the rise, according to CDC data. Deaths from the virus remain relatively flat, especially compared to previous years.
Updated COVID vaccines are set to be available this fall, according to federal health authorities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that vaccine manufacturers formulate shots based on the KP.2 strain, an offshoot of the omicron variant that is currently estimated to make up about 6% of cases.
Genetically similar variants, known as KP.3.1.1 and KP.3, currently make up almost half of estimated cases, CDC data shows.
The CDC has already recommended that everyone over the age of 6 months get an updated COVID vaccine this season. The recommendation will take effect as soon as the vaccines are made available, pending FDA authorization.
An expected delivery date for the updated COVID vaccines has not been shared yet, but in previous years the shot was made available in late August or September. Vaccine manufacturers have told ABC News they are ready to ship doses as soon as they receive the green light from the FDA.
