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The latest COVID-19 wave in the U.S. appears to have peaked and started retreating, but concerns over a new variant are always lurking. Data indicates the latest increase in COVID-19 activity was significantly lower – and significantly less dangerous – than the COVID-19 surges the U.S. saw early in the pandemic. There are also concerns beyond just surviving a coronavirus infection, such as long COVID and the risks posed by reinfection . Meanwhile, as is always the case with COVID-19, there’s the possibility a new variant could change everything. Yet despite those changes, existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections still provides good protection,” the CDC said.

Persons: That’s, ” Maria Van Kerkhove, we're, ”, reinfection, ” Van Kerkhove, ” JN Organizations: Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, CDC, Washington Post Locations: U.S, –, COVID, South Africa

☆ Covid-19 has changed and so has our immunity. Here’s how to think about risk from the virus now
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Brenda Goodman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

So if people are less likely to be hospitalized or die from a Covid-19 infection now, has the danger passed? Through genetic bad luck, some people may just be at higher risk of serious reactions to Covid-19 infections, and they probably wouldn’t know it. Researchers defined it as any new or continuing symptoms more than 90 days after a Covid-19 infection. Based on his experience treating long Covid patients, Griffin said that the percentage reported in the Australian paper seems high. Earlier in the pandemic, pediatric infectious disease specialists were on the lookout for a rare complication of Covid-19 infection in kids called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.MIS-C starts two to six weeks after a Covid-19 infection.

Persons: CNN —, we’ve, aren’t, Good, ”, Megan Ranney, Covid, ” Ranney, that’s, Evusheld, haven’t, you’ve, they’re, They’re, Mandy Cohen, It’s, –, Jesse Bloom, Daniel Griffin, it’s ‘, Griffin, “, Peter Chin, Chin, Hong, Nathaniel Hendrix, Hendrix, it’s, hasn’t, she’s, Kristin Englund, shouldn’t, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, “ It’s, Ellie Murray, ” Murray Organizations: CNN, US Centers for Disease Control, Yale School of Public Health, Covid, National Institutes of Health, FDA, US Department of Health, Human Services, CDC, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, HHS, Columbia University, University of California, Census Bureau, Nature Medicine, American Board of Family Medicine, Nature, Veterans Affairs, Cleveland Clinic, CNN Health, Boston University School of Public Health Locations: South Africa, Botswana, United States, China, Seattle, Israel, Denmark, United Kingdom, Portugal, US, Switzerland, Thailand, Australia, San Francisco, Ohio

☆ How Bad Is a Second (or Third or Fourth) Case of Covid?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Dani Blum | More About Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Reinfection and long CovidThe chances you will get long Covid from a reinfection are fairly unpredictable — several experts interviewed for this story used the metaphor of Russian roulette. The milder your symptoms, the less likely you are to get long Covid, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. But every time you get infected, no matter the severity, there is always a chance that you can develop longer-term symptoms. Dr. Sala said he frequently sees patients who were more or less fine after their first couple of infections wind up with long Covid in the wake of a third or fourth infection. Still, it’s not a foregone conclusion that reinfection definitively raises the risk of long Covid, said Fikadu Tafesse, a virologist at Oregon Health & Science University.

Persons: Peter Chin, Ziyad Al, Aly, Sala, that’s, ”, it’s, reinfection, Fikadu Tafesse, “ Organizations: University of California, Nature Medicine, U.S . Department of Veterans Affairs, Louis Healthcare, Oregon Health & Science University Locations: San Francisco, St

☆ Singapore PM Lee tests positive for Covid again in rebound case, says he feels fine
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Clement Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has tested positive again for Covid-19 Thursday, a week and a half after his initial diagnosis, in what his doctors say is a case of rebound infection. SINGAPORE — Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has tested positive again for Covid-19 a week and a half after his initial diagnosis, in what his doctors said is a case of rebound infection. "I feel fine but I am afraid I have turned COVID-19 positive again," Lee said Thursday on social media. Lee, who is 71-years-old, was prescribed the antiviral medication Paxlovid when he first tested positive on May 22 after returning from a six-day official working trip to South Africa and Kenya. He has been serving as prime minister of the Southeast Asian city-state since 2004.

Persons: Lee Hsien Loong, Lee, Li Shangfu, Defense Lloyd Austin, Anthony Albanese Organizations: Singapore, SINGAPORE — Singapore, Defense, Australian Locations: SINGAPORE, Singapore, Asia, China, U.S, South Africa, Kenya, Covid

I used to love thrifting, but the disabled tax means that's not a viable choice for me due to long COVID. But I'd never heard of the disabled tax, or, as some disabled people have reclaimed it, the "crip tax." The disabled tax affects all disabled people differentlyLike the pink tax, the disabled tax isn't charged by governments, but by society itself. The disabled tax manifests in unique ways for all disabled people. Before long COVID, I'd long prided myself for a frugality that helped my family live well even on just one income.

☆ If you had Covid before you were vaccinated, you might have less immunity than you think, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Co-funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study released Monday challenges older research that suggested a prior Covid infection enhanced a vaccinated individual's immune response — a phenomenon known as hybrid immunity, which some scientists believe provides the best protection against reinfection. In the study, researchers from Stanford University analyzed how immune cells found in the blood called CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells respond to Covid infection and vaccination. The study found that vaccinating people who had never been infected with Covid before produced "robust" CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses to the virus. Vaccination in those people also generated cell-signaling molecules that recruit other immune cells to help fight Covid, they said. Ray said the study, while interesting, needs to factor in long-term knowledge about how Covid immunity works: "It's probably not the last chapter in this story."

☆ Three Years Late, the Lancet Recognizes Natural Immunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Allysia Finley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Lancet medical journal this month published a review of 65 studies that concluded prior infection with Covid—i.e., natural immunity—is at least as protective as two doses of mRNA vaccines. “Immunity acquired from a Covid infection is as protective as vaccination against severe illness and death, study finds,” NBC reported on Feb. 16. The study found that prior infection offered 78.6% protection against reinfection from the original Wuhan, Alpha or Delta variants at 40 weeks, which slipped to 36.1% against Omicron. Protection against severe illness remained around 90% across all variants after 40 weeks. These results exceed what other studies have found for two and even three mRNA doses.

Experts say the elderly in rural areas may be particularly vulnerable because of their vaccine hesitancy and inadequate medical resources. Most patients have the same symptoms suggesting a COVID infection, and most are elderly, she said. "Many elderly people have underlying diseases such as chronic bronchitis and this virus can easily lead to a lung infection." Paxlovid, the Pfizer-made COVID medicine, is in particularly high demand, with many Chinese attempting to get the drug abroad and have it shipped to China. In Lezhi county, Liao, a farmer with two children whose husband is working in a faraway province, bought an oxygen concentrator online to help with her mother's breathing.

☆ Fact Check-No evidence COVID-19 Omicron XBB variant has higher mortality rate, or is five times more ‘toxic,’ than Delta
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Social media users in Singapore are copy-pasting a text post which warns that the COVID-19 Omicron XBB variant, first discovered in August, is five times more “toxic” and has a higher mortality rate than the Delta variant. However, there is no evidence to support this, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Health. Likewise, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says current data does not suggest XBB is more deadly than Omicron, which itself is less lethal than Delta. There is, however, early evidence pointing at a higher reinfection risk, as compared to other circulating Omicron sublineages.”VERDICTFalse. There is no evidence the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB variant is more deadly or causes more severe COVID-19 than the Delta variant.

☆ Repeat COVID is riskier than first infection, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Nancy Lapid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"Reinfection with COVID-19 increases the risk of both acute outcomes and long COVID," said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "Even if one had prior infection and was vaccinated - meaning they had double immunity from prior infection plus vaccines - they are still susceptible to adverse outcomes upon reinfection," Al-Aly, the study leader, said. The higher risks were most pronounced in the first month after reinfection but were still evident six months later. The cumulative risks and burdens of repeat infection increased with the number of infections, even after accounting for differences in COVID-19 variants such as Delta, Omicron and BA.5, the researchers said. "We had started seeing a lot of patients coming to the clinic with an air of invincibility," Al-Aly told Reuters.

☆ Long Covid: Paxlovid reduces risk of long Covid, Veterans Affairs study finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jamie Gumbrecht | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Paxlovid, the antiviral pill that reduces the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19, also reduces the risk of long Covid, according to a new study by researchers at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. That corresponded to 2.3 fewer cases of long Covid conditions per 100 people three months after their diagnosis. In the analysis, there wasn’t a statistically significant link between taking Paxlovid and risk of two long Covid conditions: cough and new diabetes diagnosis. The analysis captured Paxlovid use only through the VA system and considered only 12 long Covid conditions, although many people with long Covid describe a wide variety of symptoms. The National Institutes of Health said last month it would launch a study of Paxlovid as a treatment for patients already experiencing long Covid.

There has been evidence that the omicron variant tends not to burrow deeply into the lungs as much as previous variants. How quickly do omicron symptoms appear? What is the duration of omicron symptoms? Although much about the omicron variant remains unknown, some experts say it could lead to long Covid, even with mild cases. The BA.5 omicron subvariant accounted for nearly 80% of new Covid cases as of Oct. 8, according to the CDC.

☆ Fact Check-Vaccine-effectiveness study does not show ‘negative immunity’ or harm to the immune system
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

“The statement that ‘the vaccine destroys any protection a person has from natural immunity’ is unfounded,” Lin told Reuters in an email. The combination of prior infection with vaccination offered slightly better protection than vaccination alone or infection alone, the study also showed. Two of four curves (lines) in panel A, representing vaccine effectiveness among children who received their shots in late 2021, continue a downward path past the bottom of the graph. Similarly, in panel B, lines depicting waning vaccine effectiveness over time in previously-infected and -uninfected children continue past the bottom of the graph. “Our study shows that the vaccine was effective against infection for 4 months, although the effectiveness waned over time,” Lin explained.

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