Researchers Mapped Covid Virus 2 Weeks Before China Disclosed To World

The Wall Street Journal: Chinese Lab Mapped Deadly Coronavirus Two Weeks Before Beijing Told The World, Documents Show 
Chinese researchers isolated and mapped the virus that causes Covid-19 in late December 2019, at least two weeks before Beijing revealed details of the deadly virus to the world, congressional investigators said, raising questions anew about what China knew in the pandemic’s crucial early days. Documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by a House committee and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that a Chinese researcher in Beijing uploaded a nearly complete sequence of the virus’s structure to a U.S. government-run database on Dec. 28, 2019. Chinese officials at that time were still publicly describing the disease outbreak in Wuhan, China, as a viral pneumonia “of unknown cause” and had yet to close the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, site of one of the initial Covid-19 outbreaks. (Strobel, 1/17)

USA Today: When Did China Know About COVID? New Info Suggests Earlier Date
The earlier posting doesn't change the virus' origin story ‒ whether it was sparked by a live animal market or leaked from a scientific laboratory. But it does renew questions about how much China knew about the virus and when. It suggests that vaccine development could have started sooner. And it raises new questions about how much the U.S. government knew or should have known about the virus in those early days. (Weintraub, 1/17)

More covid, RSV, and flu news —

The Recount: DeSantis Makes Baseless Claim At NH Town Hall: “Every Booster You Take, You’re More Likely To Get COVID As A Result.”
While campaigning in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Ron DeSantis made a baseless claim about the COVID-19 vaccines. “Every booster you take, you’re more likely to get COVID as a result of it,” the 2024 GOP candidate told a town hall crowd in Hampton. “They lied to us about the COVID shots. Remember, they said if you take a COVID shot, you will not get COVID? How true was that? Not at all,” the Florida governor said. “Now, every booster you take, you’re more likely to get COVID as a result of it.” (1/17)

CBS News: State Of California Relaxes COVID-19 Guidelines
COVID-19 guidelines have changed for the state of California. These guidelines are not coming from the CDC directly, but rather from the California Department of Public Health. Statewide COVID guidelines are now the most relaxed they've been since the start of the pandemic. (Moeller, 1/17)

KFF Health News: ‘Emergency’ Or Not, Covid Is Still Killing People. Here’s What Doctors Advise To Stay Safe
With around 20,000 people dying of covid in the United States since the start of October, and tens of thousands more abroad, the covid pandemic clearly isn’t over. However, the crisis response is, since the World Health Organization and the Biden administration ended their declared health emergencies last year. Let’s not confuse the terms “pandemic” and “emergency.” As Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, said, “The pandemic is over until you are scrunched in bed, feeling terrible.” (Maxmen, 1/18)

Time: How Duration Of Exposure Affects Your COVID-19 Risk
With COVID-19 spreading as widely as it is right now, you run the risk of meeting an infected person every time you go into a public place. But every trip to the pharmacy or meal in a restaurant doesn’t lead to a case of COVID-19. So what makes some exposures more harmful than others? The length of time you spend around a person with COVID-19 seems to heavily influence your likelihood of getting sick, according to a recent Nature study that has been peer-reviewed but not fully edited. (Ducharme, 1/17)

The 19th: RSV Shots For Babies: Parents Are Struggling To Find Immunization
When a new RSV immunization for babies was approved this past summer, Eileen Agosta-Weimer was thrilled. Then pregnant with her first child, she was worried about the virus. She had heard the stories of just how debilitating it could be for infants — and she knew her baby would be at risk of falling ill come winter, when RSV infections typically spike. Almost immediately, Agosta-Weimer, 42, began to hear from other moms that the shot — known as Beyfortus and approved for use in August — was nearly impossible to find. (Luthra, 1/17)

CIDRAP: Flu Cases Plummet After Winter, Spring Breaks In Schools, Study Suggests 
Cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) among students in a Wisconsin school district dropped by nearly half after winter and spring breaks, with the largest dips occurring when the breaks coincided with spikes in local flu activity, University of Wisconsin researchers report. (Van Beusekom, 1/17)

In other outbreaks and health alerts —

AP: Zambia Reels From A Cholera Outbreak With More Than 400 Dead And 10,000 Cases. All Schools Are Shut 
Zambia is reeling from a major cholera outbreak that has killed more than 400 people and infected more than 10,000, leading authorities to order schools across the country to remain shut after the end-of-year holidays. A large soccer stadium in the capital city has been converted into a treatment facility. The Zambian government is embarking on a mass vaccination program and says it’s providing clean water — 2.4 million liters a day — to communities that are affected across the southern African nation. (Sichalwe, 1/17)