Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Getting Bivalent Jab By Halloween Will Protect You For Thanksgiving, Jha Says
San Francisco Chronicle: Get The New COVID Bivalent Booster Shot By Halloween, White House Urges
In an interview for Andy Slavitt’s “In the Bubble” podcast, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said high-risk individuals should get the new shots right away and everyone else should get it in early fall. “I think it’s really important for people to get it by Halloween,” he said. “Why Halloween? Because three weeks after Halloween is Thanksgiving, and there’s a lot of travel, and you’re seeing family, and you’re seeing friends. And few weeks later, it’s the holidays.” (Fracassa and Vaziri, 9/12)
U.S. research on covid antibodies could have big implications —
The Boston Globe: Boston Children’s Hospital Researchers Find Antibody That Neutralizes All Major Coronavirus Variants In Tests On Mice
Using genetically modified mice, hospital researchers, collaborating with colleagues from Duke University, found the antibody SP1-77, which neutralizes the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and its variants including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron, the hospital said. SP1-77 “potently neutralized all major SARS-CoV-2 variants through the recently emergent BA.5 variant,” researchers said in the study, which was published in August in the journal Science Immunology. (Finucane, 9/12)
In long covid research —
CIDRAP: COVID Vaccine May Cut Long-Term Symptoms Up To 80%
COVID-19 patients who had received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reported 8 of the 10 most common long-COVID symptoms 50% to 80% less often than their unvaccinated counterparts, finds an ongoing Israeli study published in the Nature journal npj Vaccines. (Van Beusekom, 9/12)
In other pandemic news —
The Hill: These 10 States Still Have COVID Emergency Orders In Place
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Monday that she will end the state’s COVID-19 state of emergency amid falling case numbers and rising criticism. While the COVID-19 pandemic has faded as a major concern for much of the American public, there are still 10 states across the U.S. with emergency orders in place. (Dress, 9/12)
Anchorage Daily News: Anchorage’s Last COVID-Era Shelter Is In A Downtown Hotel. The Clock Is Ticking On Its Closure
Sulamai Seve has been homeless and living in a room at the Aviator Hotel in downtown Anchorage for about a year. On a recent sunny September afternoon, she sat on a concrete curb beneath the hotel’s portico. Seve held the ashy remains of a spent cigarette in her right hand, her left tucked into the pocket of her black hoodie.“ I like it here. They are treating me pretty good,” she said. (Goodykoontz, 9/11)
Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court To Reopen To Public After Long COVID Closure, Reports Say
The U.S. Supreme Court will allow the public to hear arguments in person for the first time in about 2-1/2 years following a closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Justice John Roberts said late on Friday, according to media reports. The court's nine justices - all of whom have been vaccinated against COVID-19 - will begin hearing a new round of cases when the court's next term kicks off on Oct. 3. (Chung, 9/12)
