Featured Headlines
Hong Kong to vaccinate 3-year-olds amid new coronavirus surge – Los Angeles Times
Hong Kong plans to offer COVID-19 vaccines to children as young as 3 as infections rage through the city. The announcement late Sunday came ahead of another surge in cases. The city reported a record 2,071 new cases Monday, with that number expected to double the next day with more than 4,500 preliminary positives identified.
Why Endemic Covid Could Lead To Another Deadly Outbreak – Forbes
As more and more countries ease Covid restrictions and prepare to “live with the virus,” experts warn Covid-19 will remain a permanent fixture in our lives and could still cause widespread and serious disease.
Turk sets unenviable COVID record by testing positive for 14 straight months – Reuters
When Muzaffer Kayasan first caught COVID-19, he thought he was destined to die since he was already suffering from leukemia. Fourteen months and 78 straight positive tests later, he is still alive – and still battling to shake off the infection.
Hong Kong Virus Cases Top 2,000 And Are Set to Double Again – Bloomberg
Hong Kong’s daily virus cases topped 2,000 for the first time, with the worsening outbreak throwing the city’s Covid Zero push into disarray.
An Undiscovered Coronavirus? The Mystery of the ‘Russian Flu’ – NYT
Scientists are grasping for any example that could help anticipate the future of Covid, even a mysterious respiratory pandemic that spread in the late 19th century.
Vaccine Headlines
Why Covid-19 vaccines are a freaking miracle – STAT News
Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s easy to lament all that has come to pass. The devastating losses. The upending of what we regarded as normal ways of life. The sheer relentlessness of it all.
What Experts Know About Children, Covid and Omicron – Bloomberg
Covid-19 cases among children have surged across the world amid omicron-fueled outbreaks, spurring more hospitalizations and raising fresh concern about the risk of severe illness — although such cases remain proportionately rare. It’s also renewed questions about the safety of schools and the potential for prolonged health effects
Sweden recommends fourth COVID-19 jab for the elderly – Reuters
Sweden’s Health Agency recommended on Monday that people aged 80 or above should receive a second booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine, the fourth jab in total, to ward off waning immunity amid the rampant spread of the Omicron variant.
Volunteers are rolling up their sleeves to receive shots of experimental vaccines tailored to beat the omicron variant — just as the winter coronavirus surge begins to relent. By the time scientists know whether those rebooted vaccines are effective and safe, omicron is expected to be in the rearview mirror. Already, mask mandates are easing. People are beginning to talk about normalcy.
Clinical Considerations
Almost one-third of older adults develop new conditions after COVID-19 – MedNewsToday
In its acute phase, COVID-19 mainly involves the respiratory tract. However, researchers have shown that the disease can affect multiple organs in a person’s body.
New research points to vagus nerve damage as reason for long COVID – Jerusalem Post
The study suggested that SARS-CoV-2 mediated vagus nerve dysfunction (VND) could be responsible for many of the symptoms of Post-COVID-19 syndrome, also known as long COVID. New research set to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) investigates the connection between Post-COVID-19 syndrome, also known as long COVID, and the vagus nerve.
COVID-19 can lead to sepsis – National Academies
Sepsis happens when an infection causes your body’s immune system to mount an extreme response. This excessive response can quickly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and even death if not treated promptly.
Higher Estrogen Levels May Protect Against COVID-19 Death – MedPageToday
Women with increased estrogen levels had a lower risk of death from COVID-19, suggesting that female sex hormones may have protective effects against severe illness, according to a cohort study from Sweden.
Official Reporting for February 15, 2022
World Health Organization
Weekly Epi Update Feb 15 (latest release)
New Cases: 1,655,116
Confirmed Cases: 410,565,868
Deaths: 5,810,880
Johns Hopkins
Confirmed Cases: 414,309,211
Deaths: 5,830,163
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Total cases: 77,592,982 (+34,034 New Cases)
Total deaths: 916,977 (+406 New Deaths)
Science and Tech
Two antibiotics may have an antiviral effect against COVID-19 – MedNewsToday
The findings of a small study that suggests either of two antibiotics, in combination with the steroid dexamethasone, may be an effective treatment for the disease are controversial. [link to the Cochran Review]
Israel to offer AstraZeneca’s Evusheld to immunocompromised people – Reuters
Israel will start offering AstraZeneca’s (AZN.L) antibody cocktail Evusheld, which is used to prevent COVID-19, to people with compromised immune systems who did not get a sufficient antibody boost from vaccines.
Psychological and Sociological Impact
As a global health emergency, the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) led to the implementation of widespread restrictions (e.g., quarantine, physical/social distancing measures). However, while these restrictions reduce the viral spread of COVID-19, they may exacerbate behavioural and cognitive symptoms in dementia patients and increase pressure on caregiving.
Published Research
Risk of persistent and new clinical sequelae among adults aged 65 years and older during the post-acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection: retrospective cohort study – BMJ
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
As state medical boards try to stamp out COVID misinformation, some in GOP push back – NPR
Last September, Tennessee’s Board of Medical Examiners unanimously adopted a statement that said doctors spreading COVID misinformation — such as suggesting that vaccines contain microchips — could jeopardize their license to practice medicine.
Coping with COVID
For Valentine’s Day, Here Are New Covid-19 Pandemic Dating Terms – Forbes
Are you Dar-WIN-ing and hesidating because you are gambiting and don’t want to end up wasting your time and applying Piers Pressure on all of your dates? If your answer is “heck, yeah,” then you may be up on your Covid-19 dating terms just in time for Valentine’s Day. If you have no idea what that question means, then there’s still a little time left to bone up, so to speak, for your Valentine’s Day date and learn some of the latest love lexicon that’s emerged as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pandemic love, lost and found – Washington Post
For two years, the world has endured a near-constant drumbeat of loss. Loss of friends and family, loss of physical togetherness, loss of what once was. But even as the coronavirus pandemic sent the world into seclusion, people sought connection. For one couple, it came on a dating app. Two nurses found a shared bond while treating patients in a coronavirus hospital ward. A pair of college students discovered their love for each other while pursuing a pandemic hobby: baking.