Boosters

Latest XBB COVID-19 vaccine offers protection against hospitalization, deaths Today, JAMA Internal Medicine published a study calculating the protection offered by the latest Pfizer COVID-19 XBB vaccine compared to older vaccines against COVID-associated hospitalization and emergency department (ED) or urgent care (UC) visits.  CIDRAP

...

The authors compared outcomes among those who had received an updated XBB vaccine and those who had not received an XBB vaccine of any kind, regardless of prior COVID-19 vaccination or infection history.

Study identifies female sex, heart disease as long-COVID risk factors, vaccination as protective Women and adults with preexisting conditions such as cardiovascular disease are less likely to recover from COVID-19 within 3 months, while vaccination and Omicron-variant infection were linked to a quicker recovery, reveals a study posted yesterday in JAMA Network Open. It also showed that more than one in five adults had protracted recoveries. CIDRAP

...

Former CDC director predicts bird flu pandemic Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said he predicts a bird flu pandemic will happen — it’s just a matter of when that will be. Redfield joined NewsNati… lirwin The Hill

...

“I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,” Redfield said.

AHRQ survey: 7% of US adults reported having long COVID by early 2023 New findings from a US survey from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) scientists concludes that 6.9% of US adults—or almost 18 million adults—have ever had long COVID as of early 2023, confirming the results of previous surveys.  CIDRAP

...