COVID booster prompts good immune response, except after recent infection CIDRAP

A study today in Clinical Infectious Diseases finds that a third COVID-19 vaccine dose triggered a robust immune response, regardless of whether recipients had been infected more than 3 months earlier, but it didn't significantly increase antibody levels in those infected less than 3 months before.

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Omicron offshoot XBB.1.5 could drive new Covid-19 surge in US | CNN The CDC estimates that XBB.1.5 has more than doubled its share of the Covid-19 pie each week for the last four, rising from about 4% to 41% of new infections over the month of December. Brenda Goodman CNN

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COVID variant XBB.1.5 now accounts for 40 percent of cases in the US: CDC The omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 has rapidly spread to become the dominant COVID-19 mutation in the U.S., now accounting for 40.5 percent of all cases. The XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant as of this week … jchoi The Hill

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Lack of info on China's COVID-19 surge stirs global concern BEIJING (AP) — Moves by several countries to mandate COVID-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly enough. AP NEWS

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A promising new Covid pill shows key advantages over Paxlovid in trial A Chinese antiviral pill was found to be as effective as Paxlovid in a Phase 3 trial, and it appeared to cause fewer side effects. NBC News

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"You have a medication that looks to be just as good as Paxlovid, but less cumbersome," said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

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COVID Smell Loss: 'Retraining' Mostly Flops in Trial Some patients did recover olfactory function with two-prong therapy, however Kate Kneisel medpagetoday

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Bimodal olfactory training with visual cues and the use of patient-preferred scents did not produce a clinically meaningful improvement in sense of smell among individuals with COVID-19–related olfactory loss, a 275-patient randomized trial showed.

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Opinion | COVID's Lasting Consequences for Kids Allergist Zachary Rubin, MD, details the post-COVID symptoms presenting at his clinic Emily Hutto medpagetoday

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In this video, MedPage Today editor-in-chief Jeremy Faust, MD, sits down with allergist and immunologist Zachary Rubin, MD, of Oak Brook Allergists in Illinois, to discuss the lasting effects of COVID-19 on pediatric health.

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Are U.S. Healthcare Workers Better Off Unionized? Study finds higher earnings and benefits, but unionization still stalled Jennifer Henderson medpagetoday

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Out of 14,298 healthcare workers surveyed, 13.2% reported union membership or coverage, with no significant trend from 2009 through 2021, according to Xiaojuan Li, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, both in Boston, and colleagues.

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COVID pressures China's hospitals as countries mandate tests for travelers Chinese hospitals and funeral homes were under intense pressure on Wednesday as a surging COVID-19 wave drained resources, while the scale of the outbreak and doubts over official data prompted some countries to enact new travel rules on Chinese visitors. Martin Quin Pollard Reuters

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Kenya: Severe drought fuels malnutrition, reduces hospital-delivery births in Turkana County Following four successive failed rainy seasons, Kenya is amid the worst drought in 40 years, the UN’s women’s health agency, UNFPA, said on Tuesday, shining a light on 134,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women who are reported to be acutely malnourished and in need of treatment. UN News

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The drought crisis is not only affecting women’s access to essential maternal health care; it is causing serious undernutrition among pregnant women, escalating risks to them and their future babies.

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Nearly half of passengers from China to Milan have COVID: Italian officials Nearly half of the passengers on two recent flights from China to Milan tested positive for COVID-19, Italian health officials said on Wednesday. About 38 percent of passengers on one flight into M… jshapero The Hill

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Italy will begin testing all new arrivals from China and sequencing the tests for new variants amid China’s surge in COVID-19 cases, Italy’s health minister said on Wednesday.

Germany's governing coalition argues over COVID restrictions BERLIN (AP) — Germany's governing coalition is arguing over whether remaining COVID-19 restrictions should be dropped after one of the country's top virologists was quoted as saying that the pandemic is over. AP NEWS

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