Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
RSV Shots Are Driving Demand For Care Among Older Americans
Axios: "Good News For Health Care": RSV Shots Are Driving Seniors Back To Checkups
One side effect of the new RSV shots for older Americans: More are winding up getting other preventative tests and services during their vaccine appointments. That tidbit came from UnitedHealth Group's year-end earnings report that showed use of medical services were up, prompting health insurer stocks to dip on Friday. (Reed, 1/16)
CBS News: Doctors Say We're Not In The Clear From COVID, Flu, RSV Surge
"While rates of infections have been coming down - visits to emergency departments and so forth - we are seeing increased hospitalization rates for influenza, as well as for COVID," said Dr. Sharon F. Welbel, an infectious disease physician with Cook County Health. Dr. Larry Kociolek, an infectious diseases physician and the medical director for infection prevention and control at Lurie Children's Hospital, said it is not time right now to let down our guard. (Gonzalez, 1/16)
More on the spread of covid —
San Francisco Chronicle: California Updates COVID Guidance For Attending School, Work
California’s health department has changed its COVID-19 guidance, which could have significant implications for people of all ages statewide. The new recommendations, issued last week, reflect a more relaxed approach to isolation and testing, allowing people who test positive for COVID-19 but do not have symptoms to return to work and school. ... “Overall, I think this is reasonable given the high proportion of kids with immunity against COVID,” ... said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease expert at UCSF. (Vaziri, 1/16)
WMFE: Ladapo's Questions On DNA Integration With COVID Vax Raise Experts' Eyebrows
Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo has expressed concerns about the mRNA vaccine. Two Florida experts are confused by his questions, saying they don't make much sense. (Pedersen, 1/16)
CIDRAP: More Evidence Vaccination Reduces Risk Of Long COVID
A large staggered cohort study from primary care patients in the UK, Spain, and Estonia finds that COVID-19 vaccination consistently reduced the risk of long-COVID symptoms. The study is published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The study used the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of post COVID condition, or long COVID, as new or persisting symptoms 3 months after infection that cannot be explained by alternative causes. The WHO recognizes 25 long COVID symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction. (Soucheray, 1/12)
CIDRAP: Experiment Shows Mule Deer Could Spread SARS-CoV-2
A new study from the US Department of Agriculture shows that elk experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2 did not shed infectious virus but mounted low-level serologic responses, while mule deer shed and transmitted virus and mounted a more pronounced serologic response to the virus. The authors of the study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, said the results suggest mule deer could spread COVID-19. (Soucheray, 1/16)
In related news —
CIDRAP: Report Describes 3 Confirmed Cases Of Deer-To-Human TB Transmission In Michigan
Yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases, scientists report on three confirmed people in Michigan who contracted tuberculosis (TB) linked to wild deer and domestic cattle from 2019 to 2022, raising the total number of zoonotic cases in the state to seven since 2002. ... The three infected were a taxidermist, a woman who interacted with deer in the affected area, and a man with no obvious animal exposures and his female household contact. (Van Beusekom, 1/12)
