As Variants Fuel Covid Uptick, New Vaccine Shows Promising Effectiveness

NBC News: All Signs Point To A Rise In Covid
Hospitalizations are rising. Deaths have ticked up. Wastewater samples are picking up the virus, as are labs across the country. “Every single one of those things is showing us that we have increased rates of Covid transmission in our communities,” said Jodie Guest, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta. While individual cases have become more difficult to track as states are no longer required to report numbers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at-home test use has increased, experts have turned to other tools to track the virus. (Miller, Kopf and Syal, 9/5)

CNN: Covid-19 Cases Are On The Rise. What Should You Do If A Family Member Contracts It? 
As more people contract Covid-19 again, people have questions on what precautions they should take. How long should someone stay in isolation if they get the coronavirus? What steps can individuals take to prevent transmitting it to others in their household? What if someone has “rebound” symptoms? What should people exposed to someone with Covid-19 do — must they also stay away from others and how often should they be tested? (Hetter, 9/5)

USA Today: New Data Says The Latest COVID Variant Is Less Worrisome Than First Imagined. Vaccines Are Helping Protect Against It
But three studies released since the weekend, along with Moderna's new data, suggest the variant, nicknamed Pirola, isn't so bad — at least for now, said Dr. Eric Topol, professor and executive vice president of Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. "It's been downgraded from a hurricane to not even a tropical storm. We're lucky," Topol said. "This one could have been really bad." (Weintraub, 9/6)

The New York Times: New Covid Variants: What To Know About BA.2.86 And EG.5
Concern is rising about the Covid-19 variants EG.5 and BA.2.86. In August, EG.5 became the dominant variant in the United States, and the World Health Organization classified it as a “variant of interest,” meaning it has genetic changes that give it an advantage and its prevalence is growing. BA.2.86 is much less widespread, making up only a tiny fraction of cases, but scientists are alarmed by how many mutations it carries. So how worried should people be about these variants? (Smith, 9/5)

Health News Florida: As A Late-Summer Uptick Continues, Florida Passes 90,000 COVID Deaths
As Florida tops 90,000 resident deaths from COVID-19, a late-summer uptick in new cases is continuing, data released Friday documents. According to the state Department of Health, there were 23,503 reported cases during the week that started Aug. 18 and 23,960 during the week that started Aug. 25. Those were the highest numbers of the summer. (Mayer, 9/5)

On vaccines and covid tests —

CNBC: Moderna Says New Covid Vaccine Effective Against BA.2.86 Variant
Moderna’s new Covid vaccine produced a strong immune response against BA.2.86, a highly mutated omicron variant that health officials are watching closely, according to clinical trial data the biotech company released Wednesday. The updated shot produced an 8.7-fold increase in protective antibodies against BA.2.86, which has been detected in small numbers nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously said the strain, also known as “Pirola,” may be more capable of escaping antibodies from earlier infections and vaccinations, but new research also suggests that the variant may be less immune-evasive than feared. (Constantino, 9/6)

Axios: How To Check If Old Or Expired COVID-19 Tests Still Work
Before tossing out any old at-home COVID tests, you might want to check if the expiration date has been extended. People may be rummaging through closets and cupboards for old tests amid a late summer COVID-19 wave — and as insurance coverage and federal assistance for them has lapsed or changed. (Miranda, 9/5)

In other pandemic news —

Stat: 3 Lessons From Covid That May Help Avoid Another Pandemic
Everyone has things that, looking back, they would have done differently in the early days of 2020, had they known how the Covid-19 pandemic would tear across the globe. But those regrets may be particularly poignant for global leaders whose actions (or lack thereof) had direct impacts on how Covid-19 spread. Joanne Liu, a professor at McGill University’s School of Population and Global Health and former international president of Doctors Without Borders, has some advice for those leaders. (Gaffney, 9/5)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Exacerbated Life Expectancy Trends In The US 
Researchers have published new data in the American Journal of Epidemiology showing that COVID-19 led to shortened life expectancies across the United States and exacerbated existing racial disparities compared to 20 high-income peer countries, a phenomenon the authors called a "disadvantage in longevity.” (Soucheray, 9/5)

On new treatments for covid and long covid —

Fox News: New AI-Generated COVID Drug Enters Phase I Clinical Trials: ‘Effective Against All Variants’
Artificial intelligence is increasingly moving into the health care arena and helping to streamline medical processes — including the creation of new drugs. Insilico Medicine, an AI-driven biotech company based in Hong Kong and in New York City, recently announced that its new AI-designed drug for COVID-19 has entered Phase I clinical trials. (Rudy, 9/5)

Reuters: Tonix's Long COVID Drug Fails To Meet Mid-Stage Trial Goal 
Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp said on Tuesday its experimental drug failed to meet the primary goal in a mid-stage study for management of widespread muscle pain and tenderness associated with long COVID-19. ... The 63-patient study was designed to monitor the intensity of pain in patients who had long COVID and administered either the drug, TNX-102 SL, or placebo, but the trial failed to show improvement at week 14 of treatment, the company said. (9/5)