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The WHO Director-Common has the enjoyment of transmitting the Report of the fourteenth assembly of the International Health and fitness Polices (2005) (IHR) Unexpected emergency Committee pertaining to the coronavirus 2019 condition (COVID-19) pandemic, held on Friday 27 January 2023, from 14:00 to 17:00 CET. …
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NEW YORK — Three out of every four U.S. children have been infected with the coronavirus and more than half of all Americans had signs of previous infections, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers estimated in a report Tuesday.
The researchers examined blood samples from more than 200,000 Americans and looked for virus-fighting antibodies made from infections, not vaccines. They found that signs of past infection rose dramatically between December and February, when the more contagious omicron variant surged through the U.S.
For Americans of all ages, about 34{b574a629d83ad7698d9c0ca2d3a10ad895e8e51aa97c347fc42e9508f0e4325d} had signs of prior infection in December. Just two months later, 58{b574a629d83ad7698d9c0ca2d3a10ad895e8e51aa97c347fc42e9508f0e4325d} did.
“I did expect it to increase. I did not expect it to increase quite this much,” said Dr. Kristie Clarke, co-leader of a CDC team that tracks the extent of coronavirus infections.
The news came as Pfizer sought permission to offer a booster dose to kids ages 5 to 11, just like people 12 and older can get.
In the CDC report, the most striking increase was in children. The percentage of those 17 and under with antibodies rose from about 45{b574a629d83ad7698d9c0ca2d3a10ad895e8e51aa97c347fc42e9508f0e4325d} in December to about 75{b574a629d83ad7698d9c0ca2d3a10ad895e8e51aa97c347fc42e9508f0e4325d} in February.
The older people were, the less likely they had evidence of past infections. That may be because older adults have higher vaccination rates and they may be more likely to take other COVID-19 precautions, such as wearing masks and avoiding crowds, Clarke said.
Reported COVID-19 cases had a huge surge in December and January, then fell almost as dramatically as they had risen. But daily case counts have been trending up again in recent weeks.
The case numbers are believed to be an undercount, but officials do think recent increases reflect a true rise in infections. Many COVID-19 infections are mild enough that patients do not seek care or confirmatory lab tests. CDC officials say they plan to release a study soon that estimates that in recent months there were three infections for every reported case.
Another recent trend: U.S. health officials say they have seen two weeks of increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations, though the numbers remain relatively low. Hospital admissions number about 1,600 per day, a 9{b574a629d83ad7698d9c0ca2d3a10ad895e8e51aa97c347fc42e9508f0e4325d} increase in the prior week, the CDC reported.
Available evidence nevertheless offers reason to be hopeful about how the pandemic is going, officials suggested.
“We are not anticipating more severe disease from some of these subvariants, but we are actively studying them,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday.
The tests that showed how many people had previous infections can detect antibodies for one to two years after infection, and possibly longer. Studies have shown previous infection can protect some people against severe disease and hospitalization, but CDC officials stressed that the previously infected should still get COVID-19 vaccines.
The study looked for any detectable level of antibodies; it did not distinguish how many people had antibody levels that might be protective. Scientists are still trying to understand what role these kinds of antibodies play in protection from future virus exposures.
Officials continue to urge Americans to get vaccines and boosters, which offer additional protection against COVID-19 for all, including those who were previously infected.
Currently the U.S. offers a booster dose starting at age 12 but Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow healthy elementary-age kids to also get one — about six months after their last shot. The companies cited a small study showing the extra shot for kids ages 5 to 11 revved up antibodies capable of fighting the super-contagious omicron variant. Pfizer’s kid-size shots are a third of the dose given to anyone 12 or older.
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AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CNN — Just after Florida Surgeon Typical Dr. Joseph Ladapo declared on Monday the state would situation direction urging dad and mom not to vaccinate their youngsters towards Covid-19, well being experts and officials had been speedy to emphasize the dangers of this kind …
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Perhaps if President Joe Biden’s voice had not been so obviously strained as he delivered a speech outlining the nation’s winter pandemic strategy, the commander in chief’s common seasonal symptoms might not have raised eyebrows. But with Biden more notably hoarse as he discussed the week’s jobs and unemployment numbers Friday, his personal physician put out a formal statement.
The diagnosis? A “frog in one’s throat,” Kevin C. O’Connor, physician to the president, said in a memo to reporters, released with the permission of the First Patient.
“As is readily apparent, President Biden is experiencing some increased nasal congestion this week. This can be heard in his voice,” thus producing the colloquially described frog effect, O’Connor said.
The disclosure of such a common and minor ailment was highly unusual, even as the media and voters have demanded greater transparency about the president’s health over the years. But with the country in the midst of a pandemic, and with the new variant omicron added to the mix, even signs of a sore throat in the 79-year-old president have taken on elevated importance.
O’Connor said Biden had been subjected to a “comprehensive respiratory panel,” including COVID-19, other coronaviruses, influenza, streptococcus and other ailments, and all came back negative. The president is tested for COVID-19 three times a week, he added.
Biden himself congenially blamed his young grandson for passing on his cold.
“I’m OK. I’m tested every day,” Biden told reporters, exaggerating the thrice-weekly testing his doctor reported.
Nope, he doesn’t have COVID-19. “What I have,” Biden said, “is a 1-1/2-year-old grandson who has a cold, who likes to kiss his pop. It’s just a cold.”
There has been an increasing demand for more details of the personal health of presidents and presidential candidates over the past decades. It’s all but unthinkable today that a wheelchair-bound Franklin Delano Roosevelt could have kept his paralysis largely out of the public eye though four terms as president. John F. Kennedy kept secret his health problems, which included a bad back and Addison’s disease, a serious ailment of the adrenal glands.
Candidates and presidents are under substantial pressure to prove they are physically up for the job.
Democratic presidential candidate Paul Tsongas made his doctor available for media interviews in 1992, when Tsongas – who beat non-Hodgkin lymphoma – was running for the Democratic nomination for president. (The illness later returned, and the former senator from Massachusetts died of it in 1997.)
In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump released a statement from his doctor, Harold Bornstein, declaring that Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Bornstein later told CNN Trump had dictated the letter to him and that it did not reflect his professional opinion.
While in office, Trump’s doctors offered rosy reports of the president’s overall health, with one doctor – Ronny Jackson, telling reporters that if Trump had had a better diet for the previous two decades, he might live to be 200 years old. Jackson is now a GOP member of Congress from Texas.
In 2020, Democratic presidential candidates, including Biden, released detailed health reports, including specific details of their blood pressure, weight and other vital signs. Last month, Biden underwent a colonoscopy at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the morning, then appeared in the South Lawn of the White House in the afternoon for the annual turkey-pardoning.
A recent book by Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, reveals that Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 days before he disclosed it – and still showed up for a debate with Biden and other big-crowd events.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki deflected questions Friday about why Biden continued to participate in work events when he had symptoms that could be COVID-19, since the tests could have been false negatives.
“I can assure you that the president follows every protocol. He wants to keep everyone safe at the White House,” Psaki said. Biden is taking over-the-counter cold medication and cough drops and is drinking hot tea, she said, “Otherwise, he is continuing with his schedule.”