Even Mild Covid Infections Could Affect Later Heart Health, Study Finds

Science: COVID-19 Takes Serious Toll On Heart Health—A Full Year After Recovery 
From very early in the pandemic, it was clear that SARS-CoV-2 can damage the heart and blood vessels while people are acutely ill. Patients developed clots, heart inflammation, arrythmias, and heart failure. Now, the first large study to assess cardiovascular outcomes 1 year after SARS-CoV-2 infection has demonstrated that the virus’ impact is often lasting. In an analysis of more than 11 million U.S. veterans’ health records, researchers found the risk of 20 different heart and vessel maladies was substantially increased in veterans who had COVID-19 1 year earlier, compared with those who didn’t. The risk rose with severity of initial disease and extended to every outcome the team examined, including heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes, cardiac arrest, and more. Even people who never went to the hospital had more cardiovascular disease than those who were never infected. (Wadman, 2/9)

Fox News: COVID-19 Seems To Increase Risk Of Serious Heart Ailments Year After Recovery: Report
Any infection with COVID-19—regardless of severity—seems to increase the risk of heart ailments for survivors, according to a new study that one researcher called "stunning." The study found an increased risk of 20 different heart and vessel issues for those who’ve had the virus a year earlier, Science magazine reported. "Governments and health systems around the world should be prepared to deal with the likely significant contribution of the COVID-19 pandemic to a rise in the burden of cardiovascular diseases," the paper read, according to the report. (DeMarche, 2/10)

In other covid research —

USA Today: Prior Infection Less Protective Against Omicron, Study Finds
Previous coronavirus infection provides substantially less protection from reinfection against omicron than other variants, but still helps avoid severe disease at a high level, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research, based on an analysis of national databases in Qatar since the beginning of the pandemic, is consistent with early reports of reinfections and breakthrough cases when omicron was first detected in southern Africa in late November. Scientists have since confirmed that omicron is more adept at evading immunity, even when generated by vaccines. (Bacon, Ortiz and Tebor, 2/9)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 In College Students Tied To Socioeconomic Status, Depression
A new study surveying more than 100,000 US college students who were enrolled in the fall of 2020 finds that 7% self-reported a COVID-19 infection, and that self-reporting varied substantially with race, socioeconomic status, parenting status, and student-athlete status. In addition, students who reported COVID-19 infections were 1.4 times more likely to report anxiety and depression and 1.7 times more likely to report food insecurity. The survey results were published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (2/9)

KHN: Montana Mice May Hold The Secret To Virus Spillover 
For the past 20 years, Amy Kuenzi has spent three days of every month traveling to a ranch near Gregson, Montana, and setting out traps that contain peanut butter and oats. Her quarry is deer mice. She takes blood samples, looks for scars and fleas, and attaches ear tags. “Mice are fairly trap happy and easy to catch,” she said. “But it can be kind of a miserable job in the winter.” Kuenzi’s goal is to better understand how a type of hantavirus called Sin Nombre spreads through these mouse populations. (Robbins, 2/10)

And more news about the coronavirus —

Fox News: Cases Of Inflammatory Condition, MIS-C, In Children Spike At Pediatric Hospital
A significant uptick in MIS-C cases, a rare inflammatory condition that occurs in some children after a COVID infection, has been seen in the past three weeks at a pediatric hospital on Long Island, New York, according to doctors who spoke with Fox News. "These are some of the sickest children I've seen in my career as a pediatric emergency medicine attending," Dr. Matthew Harris, M.D., a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, on Long Island, shared with Fox News.  (McGorry, 2/9)

Houston Chronicle: Texas COVID Death Toll Tops 80K, Though True Cost Of Omicron May Not Be Known For Months
The coronavirus death toll in Texas topped 80,000 Wednesday, two months after the arrival of the highly contagious omicron variant that has sickened high numbers of unvaccinated and vulnerable people across the state. The official count based on death certificates is 80,005, according to new fatality data the Texas Department of State Health Services released Wednesday afternoon. Federal health forecasts predict the state could log another 4,000 coronavirus deaths by the end of February. Because hospitalizations and deaths lag weeks behind COVID-19 infections, and because it can take several weeks for fatalities to appear in official death tallies, the true cost of omicron may not be known for months, officials said. (Mishanec, 2/9)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Pandemic, Staffing Shortages Widen Rural America's Care Deserts
Around half of 130 rural hospital executives said they had to suspend services or consider it due to nursing shortages, an October survey from the Chartis Center for Rural Health found. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of rural hospitals cut obstetrics and chemotherapy services to stay afloat. Nearly 200 rural hospitals stopped providing obstetrics care from 2011 to 2019, while close to 300 rural hospitals dropped chemotherapy treatment from 2014 to 2020, Chartis data show. That trend explains, in part, why Black and Latino Americans living in rural areas are more likely to die prematurely or experience poverty, particularly among children, according to the report. (Kacik, 2/9)

CNBC: Covid Pandemic: Mental Health Damage Could Last A Generation
Aside from the obvious physical impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, health professionals have told CNBC that many people are struggling with the immense emotional and societal changes it has brought. What’s more, they’re finding it hard to adapt to a “new normal” now that lockdowns are starting to ease. Many psychologists and psychiatrists have reported an influx of people seeking mental health support during the pandemic, with the unprecedented global health crisis causing an increase in anxiety and depression as well as exacerbating existing mental health conditions. “I have never been as busy in my life and I’ve never seen my colleagues as busy,” Valentine Raiteri, a psychiatrist working in New York, told CNBC. (Ellyatt, 2/10)