Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Experts Blast Florida's Warning Over Covid Shots: 'Politics Driving Science'
Politico: Medical Experts Reject Florida Surgeon General’s Covid-19 Vaccine Guidance
Florida’s surgeon general faced major blowback from the medical community after warning men against taking the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines and highlighting an analysis claiming the shots increase the risk of cardiac-related deaths. The guidance from Joseph A. Ladapo even prompted Twitter to temporarily block a social media post from the surgeon general promoting the analysis, though the social media company restored it. (Sarkissian, 10/11)
ABC News: Scientists Pan Analysis Florida's Surgeon General Posted On COVID-19 Vaccines
Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said among those concerns was that Florida looked at deaths up to 25 weeks after vaccination. He called that a "huge problem" because it's too long and likely impacted by the "seasonality" of outcomes. "No experienced vaccine safety researcher would have a 20- or 25-week control period," he said. "If you submitted that to peer review, any decent journal would reject it," he added. (Flaherty, 10/12)
The White House urges Americans to get boosted before Halloween —
AP: White House: Get New Booster By Halloween For Safer Holidays
The White House on Tuesday said eligible Americans should get the updated COVID-19 boosters by Halloween to have maximum protection against the coronavirus by Thanksgiving and the holidays, as it warned of a “challenging” virus season ahead. Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, said the U.S. has the tools, both from vaccines and treatments, to largely eliminate serious illness and death from the virus, but stressed that’s only the case if people do their part. “We are not helpless against these challenges,” he said. “What happens this winter is up to us.” (Miller, 10/11)
In other news about covid, "medium covid," and long covid —
San Francisco Chronicle: U.S. Tracking Several New Variants But Risk Of Dying “Almost Zero” For Boosted
Health officials in the U.S. are keeping a close watch on several coronavirus omicron subvariants that may evade immunity, the White House said at a Tuesday briefing. Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, said sublineages such a BA.2.75, BA.4.6 and BF.7 are gaining traction across the country. But he assured that updated booster shots should protect against them. “We are not helpless against these challenges,” Jha said. “What happens this winter is up to us.” (Fracassa and Vaziri, 10/11)
CIDRAP: 80% Of COVID Omicron Patients Still Positive 5 Days After Symptom Onset
Among 63,000 US adults and children tested for COVID-19, cough and sore throat were reported more often during the Omicron BA.1 period than amid the pre-Delta and Delta eras, and 80% of those retested during Omicron remained positive for 5 days after symptom onset. (10/11)
The Atlantic: Medium COVID Could Be The Most Dangerous COVID
Just how much of a threat is medium COVID? The answer has been obscured, to some extent, by sloppy definitions. A lot of studies blend different, dire outcomes into a single giant bucket called “long COVID.” Illnesses arising in as few as four weeks, along with those that show up many months later, have been considered one and the same. (Mazer, 10/11)
The Washington Post: Long Covid Plagues 1 In 20 People More Than Six Months After Infection
A new long-covid study based on the experiences of nearly 100,000 participants provides powerful evidence that many people do not fully recover months after being infected with the coronavirus. The Scottish study found that between six and 18 months after infection, 1 in 20 people had not recovered and 42 percent reported feeling only somewhat better. There were some reassuring aspects to the results: People with asymptomatic infections are unlikely to suffer long-term effects, and vaccination appears to offer some protection from long covid. (Sellers, 10/12)
CIDRAP: New Global Estimate Suggests 6.2% Had Long-COVID Symptoms
A new global estimate of people who experienced long-COVID symptoms after having symptomatic COVID infection suggests that 6.2% reported one of three long-term symptom clusters, an international research group reported yesterday in JAMA. (10/11)
KHN: Watch: What Experts Advise For Seniors Living Under The Long Shadow Of Covid
The covid-19 pandemic casts a long shadow over the lives of older adults and their family caregivers in the United States, even as many people resolve to move on and resume normal activities. Even President Joe Biden declared “the pandemic is over” in a recent interview, a controversial statement he later sought to clarify. Judith Graham, KHN’s “Navigating Aging” columnist, invited a panel of experts from across the country to talk candidly about the intractable challenges seniors face. (10/11)
