Covid-19 has changed and so has our immunity. Here’s how to think about risk from the virus now


By Brenda Goodman, CNN August 28, 2023 Experts say it’s less risky to catch Covid-19 than it used to be, but there are still good reasons not to treat it casually. Daly and Newton/The Image Bank RF/Getty ImagesCNN —  Covid-19 was never just another cold. We knew it was going to stick around and keep changing to try to […]

EXCLUSIVE: BA.2.86 Covid variant IS spreading in the US: Virginia resident who traveled from Japan becomes second US patient to be infected with mutant strain – as experts say case is just the tip of the iceberg


By LUKE ANDREWS HEALTH REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM UPDATED: 15:35 EDT, 22 August 202 A second American tested positive for the new highly-mutated BA.2.86 Covid variant that has been causing global alarm over its rapid transmission. The positive case was detected in an asymptomatic patient in Virginia who was tested August 10 after returning to the US from Japan.  Scientists identified […]

Bivalent Covid-19 Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale .


List of authors. Paul A. Offit, M.Dt of authors. Paul A. Offit, M.D New England Journal of Medicine January 23, 2023 in Wuhan, China. Two months later, the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, called the Wuhan-1 or ancestral strain, was isolated and sequenced. It was now possible to make a vaccine. All the vaccines, including the […]

What COVID-19 variants are going around in November 2022?


Authors: Nebraska Medicine November 1, 2022 There are currently more than 37,000 cases reported in the United States per day, with test positivity of 8.6%. When test positivity is above 5%, transmission is considered uncontrolled. There are more than 340 deaths per day, and hospitalizations have increased 8% over the last two weeks.  What COVID-19 variant […]

Unraveling the Interplay of Omicron, Reinfections, and Long Covid


Authors:  Liz Szabo AUGUST 26, 2022 KHN The latest covid-19 surge, caused by a shifting mix of quickly evolving omicron subvariants, appears to be waning, with cases and hospitalizations beginning to fall. Like past covid waves, this one will leave a lingering imprint in the form of long covid, an ill-defined catchall term for a set […]

Omicron’s Mutations Impaired Vaccine Effectiveness, CDC Says


Authors: Madison Muller  August 25, 2022 Bloomberg Almost 40% of people hospitalized in the US with the Covid subvariant that circulated this spring were vaccinated and boosted, highlighting how new strains have mutated to more readily escape the immunity offered by current shots. The findings from scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and […]

Why Are So Many People Getting COVID a Second and Third Time?


Doctors say if you got infected with the Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 variants, your antibodies might not fully protect you against the newer BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants now spreading through Southern California Authors: Joel Grover and Josh Davis  June 16, 2022 NBC News A sign encouraging mask use hangs on a fence before the local school council […]

Two new Omicron COVID subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 being analyzed by WHO


Only a few dozen cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported to the global GISAID database, according to WHO Authors: Jennifer Rigby Reuters April 11, 2022 The World Health Organization said on Monday it is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible Omicron strain of the coronavirus to […]

COVID cases rise again in half the states


Change in reported COVID-19 cases per 100k people in the last two weeks March 23 to April 5, 2022 Half of the states are seeing COVID case numbers rise again while nationwide totals continue to fall. The big picture: The Omicron subvariant known as BA.2 is the dominant strain circulating around the U.S., accounting for almost […]

This New COVID Variant Is the Most Unpredictable One Yet


Authors: David Axe Published Apr. 03, 2022 10:47PM ET  After spreading across Asia and Europe, the BA.2 subvariant of the novel coronavirus is now dominant in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Right now, U.S. COVID cases are at a six-month low. But what happens next in the U.S. and nearby countries is hard to predict. Looking to Europe […]