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☆ Opinion: The next pandemic threat demands action now
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Opinion Jaime M. Yassif | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Well, so far US officials are saying they believe there is minimal risk to the public from the latest iteration of bird flu. According to the Global Health Security Index, there are significant gaps in countries’ pandemic preparedness capabilities. Given the impact of Covid, it is deeply disappointing that national governments are not investing the necessary resources to build life-saving pandemic preparedness capacity. Making matters worse, Congress has made major cuts to pandemic preparedness funding, as part of the ongoing appropriations process. Playing the long game also means supporting the World Bank Pandemic Fund, which is designed to invest in long-term pandemic preparedness capacity of low- and middle-income countries.

Persons: Jaime M, Yassif, ”, —, we’ve, US Department of Agriculture —, It’s, Biden, Covid Organizations: Global Biological Policy, Nuclear Threat Initiative, CNN, Yassif Nuclear, US Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, US Department of Health, Human Services, CDC, US Department of Agriculture, Global Health, Brown, Pandemic Center, Gates Foundation, NTI, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Global Health Security, Bank, Fund, pandemics Locations: Texas , Kansas, Texas, Colorado, Covid, United States

☆ Health Misinformation Is Evolving. Here’s How to Spot It.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a case that involves the Biden administration’s efforts to communicate with social media sites about posts officials believed made false or misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines and the pandemic. While the case primarily focuses on a debate around free speech, it also spotlights the potential harms of medical misinformation — which experts say has become increasingly complex and difficult to identify. “It’s all changing really fast, and it’s even harder for the average person to filter out,” said Dr. Anish Agarwal, an emergency physician in Philadelphia. Health hacks not backed by science have spread widely on social media platforms. And rapid developments in artificial intelligence have made it even harder for people to tell what’s true and what’s false online.

Persons: Biden, ”, Anish Agarwal, Tara Kirk Sell Organizations: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Locations: Covid, Philadelphia

The updated shots are part of a push by public health officials to align the next COVID vaccines more closely with the actual circulating variant of the virus, similar to the way annual flu shots are designed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday authorized updated COVID vaccines made by Pfizer (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) as well as by Moderna (MRNA.O). CDC Director Mandy Cohen is expected to approve the recommendations issued by the advisers, allowing Americans to get the updated vaccines. The first COVID vaccines in 2020 were monovalent, or single-target vaccines, aimed at the original strain of the virus. They were followed by bivalent COVID vaccine booster shots that targeted both the original and the Omicron strains.

Persons: Emily Elconin, BioNTech, Caitlin Rivers, Mandy Cohen, Rivers, bivalent, Daniel Kuritzkes, Eris, Kuritzkes, Novavax, Bhanvi, Julie Steenhuysen, Will Dunham, Caroline Humer Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Pfizer, Moderna, FDA, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, CDC, Omicron, Brigham, Women's Hospital, Vaccine, EG, Thomson Locations: Waterford , Michigan, U.S, United States, Baltimore, Europe, Asia, Boston, Moderna, Bengaluru, Chicago

☆ Covid Continues to Rise, but Experts Remain Optimistic
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | More About Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has announced that the state will send high-quality masks and rapid tests to school districts that request them. But in interviews, experts offered reassurances that the country will not see a return to the nightmarish scenarios of previous years. And although hospitalizations and deaths are increasing week by week, the numbers remain low, noted Gigi Gronvall, a biosecurity expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Hospital admissions for Covid increased by about 16 percent in the week ending Aug. 26, compared with the previous week. But the 17,400 new admissions were less than half the number in the same period last year, and about one-fifth the number in 2021.

Persons: Jill Biden, Kathy Hochul, Gigi Gronvall, Gronvall Organizations: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Locations: New York, Kentucky, Texas

"The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency marks a tremendous transition for our country, for public health, and in my tenure as CDC Director," Walensky wrote to President Joe Biden in her resignation letter. "We have all benefited from her service and dedication to public health, and I wish her the best in her next chapter," Biden said in a statement. "For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations," she told CDC staff last summer. Public health experts said Walensky wrestled with political and technical challenges during her tenure. "Dr. Walensky was put into place at the CDC at a time when the agency was basically captive to politicians which clearly hampered her ability to lead," he said.

If a nuclear attack were headed toward the US, residents would have fewer than 30 minutes to prepare. Russian Presidential Press Service/APA nuclear attack remains highly unlikely, but it's not out of the question, experts say. Redlener said the best way to learn of an impending nuclear attack would probably be TV or radio. Survivors of a nuclear attack would have about 15 minutes before sandlike radioactive particles, known as nuclear fallout, reached the ground. A sign for a nuclear fallout shelter on a residential block in Brooklyn.

☆ How to Prepare for the Next Pandemic - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This is part of a series on preparing for future outbreaks. Sign up for The Next Pandemic newsletter. It’s been three years since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and yet many aspects of how to best respond to a novel virus remain unsettled or fiercely debated. The next currently unknown virus that could cause a pandemic — what the World Health Organization calls “Disease X” — may be different from Covid, requiring a different set of tools and a different level of response. We hope to show that experts with policy-making experience and similar goals can come to different conclusions and advise different strategies.

☆ Fact Check-‘Catastrophic Contagion’ video is fictional and does not support claims about pandemic preparedness exercises
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Baseless claims that pandemic preparedness exercises are proof that disease outbreaks are “planned” by authorities have been a recurring narrative since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. These fictional scenarios go beyond infectious diseases, as such exercises also exist for natural disasters or nuclear events, for example. These rules, that are binding for WHO members, set out countries’ obligations when handling public health events and emergencies that could potentially cross borders (here) (here). Otherwise, we will be unprepared for the next infectious disease event. Experts told Reuters that preparedness exercises like “Catastrophic Contagion” have been a part of pandemic preparedness for at least the last two decades.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence COVID-19 vaccines cause ‘turbo cancer’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A video in which a Canadian doctor claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause so-called “turbo cancer” is not based on facts, according to five experts who spoke to Reuters. He claimed that COVID-19 vaccines damage the immune systems of recipients and cause aggressive new cancers, as well as flare-ups in those in remission from the disease. During the same period, the charity estimated that 30,000 fewer people began their cancer treatment compared to 2019 (here). Reuters has previously addressed claims where COVID-19 vaccines have been falsely linked to weakening the immune system (here), and causing cancer (here and here). Five experts told Reuters that there is no evidence to suggest COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer, nor so-called “turbo cancer,” but said a drop in screenings during the pandemic may have led to rise in cancers first detected at their later stages.

On social media, families say they’ve hunted for hours for Tamiflu and the first-line antibiotics amoxicillin and Augmentin. They have one viral illness after another. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of US states have “high” or “very high” respiratory virus activity. As for the antibiotics amoxicillin and Augmentin – a combination of amoxicillin and clavulanate, an agent that helps guard against antibiotic resistance – it’s not entirely clear why demand is so high. Some viral illness, like influenza, can leave the body more vulnerable to secondary bacterial infections that may need treatment with antibiotics.

☆ How to survive a nuclear bomb attack: Minute-by-minute steps to protect yourself
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Aria Bendix | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

If a nuclear bomb were headed toward the US, residents would have 30 minutes or less to shelter. Russian Presidential Press Service/APA nuclear attack remains highly unlikely, but it's not out of the question, experts say. Redlener said the best way to learn of an impending nuclear attack would probably be TV or radio. Survivors of a nuclear attack would have about 15 minutes before sandlike radioactive particles, known as nuclear fallout, reached the ground. The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends staying indoors for at least 24 hours after a nuclear explosion.

☆ Fact Check-Monkeypox, polio and new COVID variants are not ‘planned’ as ‘scare tactics’ to affect the U.S. midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Monkeypox and polio outbreaks, or new COVID-19 variants, have not been “planned” or orchestrated as “scare tactics” to manipulate the Nov. 8 midterm elections in the United States. As laid out in a Reuters explainer (here), experts agree that the major driver behind both vaccine-derived and wild polio outbreaks remains an under-vaccinated population. “Monkeypox is nothing more than a scare tactic to make you stay home and not vote in the November elections. Experts contacted by Reuters dismissed claims that these disease outbreaks are connected to election cycles and said they would not disrupt the upcoming electoral process. There is no evidence that monkeypox and polio outbreaks or new COVID-19 variants have been orchestrated as “scare tactics” to manipulate the U.S. midterm elections.

☆ Covid will be a leading cause of death in the U.S. indefinitely, whether or not the pandemic is 'over'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Aria Bendix | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

But disease experts said debating whether the pandemic is over overshadows a more important concern: the reality that Covid will remain a leading cause of death in the U.S. indefinitely. Since April, Covid deaths have stayed relatively flat, at a weekly average of around 300 to 500 per day. Predicting Covid's future death tollThe Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, or IHME, a research organization at the University of Washington that regularly models Covid deaths, predicts a decline in Covid deaths over the next two months. Covid death numbers could also fall if hospitals stop routinely testing people for the virus. Murray estimated that half of annual Covid deaths may fall into that category.

☆ Biden's comments about pandemic widen public health split over how US should respond to Covid-19
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Brenda Goodman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Some public health experts worry that political motives are driving the President's desire to declare the pandemic over, rather than protection of the public's health. It's a 9/11, week after week after week," said Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health. The World Health Organization recognizes a global health threat as something different: a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC. The US also recognizes a public health emergency. Covid-19 is still considered to be a public health emergency both domestically and around the world.

☆ SUA: CDC analizează cazuri de inflamaţii cardiace în rândul tinerilor vaccinaţi
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-25 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +3 min

Totodată, este important să fie analizat raportul risc-beneficii, a mai spus el. "Se va constata că vaccinurile aduc un beneficiu care depăşeşte fără dubiu acest risc foarte scăzut, dacă riscul va fi stabilit", a adăugat profesorul Adalja.Potrivit CDC, cazurile de inflamaţii cardiace au fost raportate de obicei în primele patru zile după administrarea unor vaccinuri bazate pe tehnologia ARN mesager. CDC nu a precizat denumirile vaccinurilor folosite în acele cazuri. Autorităţile din Statele Unite au acordat autorizaţii de utilizare în regim de urgenţă pentru două vaccinuri de tip ARN mesager - cele dezvoltate de compania Moderna şi de alianţa Pfizer-BioNTech.Ministerul Sănătăţii din Israel a anunţat în luna aprilie că examinează un număr mic de cazuri de inflamaţii cardiace la persoane inoculate cu vaccinul Pfizer, însă nu a ajuns deocamdată la nicio concluzie. Cele mai multe dintre cazurile depistate în Israel au fost raportate la persoane cu vârste sub 30 de ani.La acea vreme, grupul Pfizer a precizat că nu a observat o rată mai mare a acestei afecţiuni în raport cu cea estimată în rândul populaţiei generale şi că o legătură de cauzalitate cu vaccinul său nu a putut fi stabilită.Reprezentanţii companiilor Pfizer şi Moderna nu au dat curs solicitărilor de a face declaraţii pe marginea acestui subiect, sâmbătă.La sfârşitul lunii aprilie, după ştirea despre investigaţia din Israel, CDC a anunţat că nu a găsit o legătură între vaccinurile anti-COVID-19 şi miocardită.La începutul acestei luni, autorităţile cu rol de reglementare din Statele Unite au extins autorizaţia acordată vaccinului Pfizer-BioNTech şi pentru copiii cu vârste cuprinse între 12 şi 15 ani.Informaţia despre noua analiză demarată de CDC a fost publicată în premieră în cotidianul The New York Times.

Organizations: Johns Hopkins Center, Moderna, The New York Times Locations: Statele Unite, Johns, Security, Israel

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