Sleep Well Before Getting Vaccines — It May Alter The Shot’s Effectiveness

CNN: Poor Sleep Decreases Vaccine Effectiveness, Especially For Men 
If you’re scheduling an appointment for a vaccination — whether for Covid-19, the flu or for travel to another country — make sure you’re getting a long, restful night’s slumber before you head to the doctor. Sleeping less than six hours the night before you get the shot may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria, according to a new study. (LaMotte, 3/13)

Fox News: Sleep Deprivation Could Reduce Vaccine Antibodies, New Study Found
Getting insufficient sleep in the days before or after a vaccination could weaken its effectiveness particularly for men, a new study has found. Researchers from the U.S., France, the U.K. and Sweden conducted the study, which was published in the journal Current Biology on Monday. (Rudy, 3/13)

More about covid and vaccines —

The Wall Street Journal: What Do We Actually Know About Covid-19? Not Enough 
Covid-19 vaccines are widely available, but researchers don’t yet know enough about how the virus might change or how long immunity lasts to be certain who should get future boosters or how often. The unknowns could have public-health consequences in the years ahead, virus experts said. “A big question is how will that play out over time?” Bronwyn MacInnis said of the virus’s mutations. She is director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a biomedical research center in Cambridge, Mass. “Are there other tricks we have yet to see?” she said. (Toy and Abbott, 3/13)

CIDRAP: 4 COVID Vaccine Doses Best Prevent Critical Omicron BA.5, Even After BA.1/BA.2 Infection
Four COVID-19 booster doses were the most effective way to prevent critical Omicron BA.5, regardless of previous infection status, according to a nationwide study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 3/13)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: CDC Urges Bivalent Booster In New Push. Will People Listen?
Three years into the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines are an increasingly hard sell – especially in Georgia. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only about 10% of residents in the state have gotten an updated bivalent booster, which targets the original strain and omicron subvariants circulating now. (Oliviero, 3/13)

The Atlantic: The Next Stage Of COVID Is Starting Now
To be a newborn in the year 2023—and, almost certainly, every year that follows—means emerging into a world where the coronavirus is ubiquitous. Babies might not meet the virus in the first week or month of life, but soon enough, SARS-CoV-2 will find them. “For anyone born into this world, it’s not going to take a lot of time for them to become infected,” maybe a year, maybe two, says Katia Koelle, a virologist and infectious-disease modeler at Emory University. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this virus will be one of the very first serious pathogens that today’s infants—and all future infants—meet. (Wu, 3/13)

USA Today: What Is Prosopagnosia? Long COVID May Cause Face Blindness: Study
Early in the pandemic, a 28-year-old customer service representative and portrait painter caught COVID-19. She had a high fever for a few days and trouble breathing. Her sense of smell and taste disappeared. But by mid-April 2020, she had recovered enough to start working from home. It wasn't until June, when she saw her family for the first time since her illness, that she realized she'd lost something else. She could no longer recognize her own father or distinguish him from her uncle. (Weintraub, 3/13)

Minnesota Public Radio: Future Of Us: Applauded During The Pandemic, Now Nurses Want To Be Heard
In November 2020, Kelley Anaas begged Minnesotans to stay home for Thanksgiving during one of the state’s daily COVID-19 briefings. “Up until nine months ago, nurse was my only professional title,” said Anaas, a registered nurse and union representative in Minneapolis. “Suddenly I had earned a new designation: frontline worker. Honestly, I've always found this name laughable, as it implies that there's a second line of us waiting in the wings. Minnesota, we are your only line.” Today, the virus is better managed, but that line of defense has become thinner. (Crann and Burks, 3/13)

In global news about SARS and avian flu —

AP: Chinese SARS Whistleblower Jiang Yanyong Dies At 91
Jiang Yanyong, a Chinese military doctor who revealed the full extent of the 2003 SARS outbreak and was later placed under house arrest for his political outspokenness, has died, a long-time acquaintance and a Hong Kong newspaper said Tuesday. Jiang was 91 and died of pneumonia Saturday in Beijing, according to human rights activist Hu Jia and the South China Morning Post. News of Jiang’s death and even his name were censored within China, underscoring how he remained a politically sensitive figure even late in life. (3/14)

CIDRAP: European Scientists Highlight Worrisome H5N1 Avian Flu Mutations
In an updated assessment on H5N1 avian influenza, European health groups said though the risk to humans is still low, worrisome signs include the appearance of certain mutations in circulating strains and mass animal mortality events that hint at a greater risk of spread among mammals. (Schnirring, 3/13)