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Category: Health

Surprise dip in UK Covid cases baffles researchers

Surprise dip in UK Covid cases baffles researchers

Nature reports: Scientists are scratching their heads over the precipitous decline in daily COVID-19 infections in the United Kingdom following their rapid rise earlier in the year. Officially recorded new cases more than halved in just two weeks: from a high of 54,674 on 17 July to 22,287 on 2 August. “Nobody really knows what’s going on,” says epidemiologist John Edmunds at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). In particular, it’s not clear whether this sudden trend…

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An uncertain new phase of the pandemic in which cases surge but deaths do not

An uncertain new phase of the pandemic in which cases surge but deaths do not

Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes: So many things have gone wrong in the American response to the pandemic, but two important things have gone right: scientists have developed a vaccine, and older Americans have got it. Seventy-six per cent of Americans between the ages of fifty and sixty-four have received at least one dose, according to the Mayo Clinic’s vaccination tracker. Between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-four, it’s ninety-one per cent, and among those over the age of seventy-five it’s eighty-seven….

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Who are the unvaccinated in America? There’s no single answer

Who are the unvaccinated in America? There’s no single answer

The New York Times reports: As coronavirus cases rise across the United States, the fight against the pandemic is focused on an estimated 93 million people who are eligible for shots but have chosen not to get them. These are the Americans who are most vulnerable to serious illness from the highly contagious Delta variant and most likely to carry the virus, spreading it further. It turns out, though, that this is not a single set of Americans, but in…

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As Delta spreads, Pfizer and Moderna get set for a booster shot to profits

As Delta spreads, Pfizer and Moderna get set for a booster shot to profits

The Guardian reports: Praised for preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths and allowing a return to more normal life, Covid vaccines will also substantially benefit some pharmaceutical companies. In June, analysts estimated the global market for the vaccines could be worth $70bn (£50bn) this year, but the figure could be even higher as the Delta variant of coronavirus spreads and scientists debate whether people will need booster shots. On Thursday Moderna, which received US government funding to develop its vaccine,…

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The overlooked superpower of mRNA vaccines

The overlooked superpower of mRNA vaccines

Science reports: Individuals facing the threat of COVID-19 may care most about a vaccine’s ability to forestall grave disease that could lead to a hospital bed or worse. And a number of vaccines perform that vital task well, including those from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, which are based on genetically engineered cold viruses, as well as the not-yet-authorized protein vaccine from Novavax. But for public health experts trying to halt a global pandemic, shutting down even the mildest infections…

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They spurned the vaccine. Now they want you to know they regret it

They spurned the vaccine. Now they want you to know they regret it

The New York Times reports: As Mindy Greene spent another day in the Covid intensive care unit, listening to the whirring machines that now breathed for her 42-year-old husband, Russ, she opened her phone and tapped out a message. “We did not get the vaccine,” she wrote on Facebook. “I read all kinds of things about the vaccine and it scared me. So I made the decision and prayed about it and got the impression that we would be ok.”…

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Vaccinated people may spread the virus, though rarely, CDC reports

Vaccinated people may spread the virus, though rarely, CDC reports

The New York Times reports: In yet another unexpected and unwelcome twist in the pandemic, fully immunized people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant may spread the virus to others just as easily as unvaccinated people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report published on Friday. The vaccines remain powerfully effective against severe illness and death, and infections in vaccinated people are thought to be comparatively rare. But the revelation follows a series of…

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Breakthrough Covid cases are on the rise among the vaccinated

Breakthrough Covid cases are on the rise among the vaccinated

NBC News reports: At least 125,000 fully vaccinated Americans have tested positive for Covid and 1,400 of those have died, according to data collected by NBC News. The 125,682 “breakthrough” cases in 38 states found by NBC News represent less than .08 percent of the 164.2 million-plus people who have been fully vaccinated since January, or about one in every 1,300. The number of cases and deaths among the vaccinated is very small compared to the number among the unvaccinated….

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Behind the masks, a mystery: How often do the vaccinated spread the virus?

Behind the masks, a mystery: How often do the vaccinated spread the virus?

The New York Times reports: The recommendation that vaccinated people in some parts of the country dust off their masks was based largely on one troublesome finding, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New research showed that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carry tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat, she said in an email responding to questions from The New York Times. The finding contradicts what…

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Something strange is happening in Britain. Covid cases are plummeting instead of soaring

Something strange is happening in Britain. Covid cases are plummeting instead of soaring

The Washington Post reports: This is a puzzler. Coronavirus cases are plummeting in Britain. They were supposed to soar. Scientists aren’t sure why they haven’t. The daily number of new infections recorded in the country fell for seven days in a row before a slight uptick Wednesday, when the country reported 27,734 cases. That’s still almost half of where the caseload was a week ago. The trajectory of the virus in Britain is something the world is watching closely and…

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Pfizer data suggest third dose of Covid-19 vaccine ‘strongly’ boosts protection against Delta variant

Pfizer data suggest third dose of Covid-19 vaccine ‘strongly’ boosts protection against Delta variant

CNN reports: A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can “strongly” boost protection against the Delta variant — beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday suggests. The data posted online suggest that levels of antibodies that can target the Delta variant grow fivefold in people 18 to 55 who get a third dose of the vaccine. Among people ages 65 to 85, the Pfizer data suggest that antibody levels that…

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As virus cases rise, anger increases among the vaccinated

As virus cases rise, anger increases among the vaccinated

The New York Times reports: As coronavirus cases resurge across the country, many inoculated Americans are losing patience with vaccine holdouts who, they say, are neglecting a civic duty or clinging to conspiracy theories and misinformation even as new patients arrive in emergency rooms and the nation renews mask advisories. The country seemed to be exiting the pandemic; barely a month ago, a sense of celebration was palpable. Now many of the vaccinated fear for their unvaccinated children and worry…

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‘What’s Covid?’ Why people at America’s hardest-partying lake are not about to get vaccinated

‘What’s Covid?’ Why people at America’s hardest-partying lake are not about to get vaccinated

Politico reports: The petite blonde bartender in ripped jean shorts bounced to each side of a square-shaped bar as women in bikinis and shirtless men lined up on a sweltering afternoon to order Bud Light, vodka and soda, and piles of nachos at this dockside retreat in the Lake of the Ozarks region. In a county designated a Covid hot spot, in a state with one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation, and in a region where hospitals…

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Your vaccinated immune system is ready for breakthroughs

Your vaccinated immune system is ready for breakthroughs

Katherine J. Wu writes: A new dichotomy has begun dogging the pandemic discourse. With the rise of the über-transmissible Delta variant, experts are saying you’re either going to get vaccinated, or going to get the coronavirus. For some people—a decent number of us, actually—it’s going to be both. Coronavirus infections are happening among vaccinated people. They’re going to keep happening as long as the virus is with us, and we’re nowhere close to beating it. When a virus has so…

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We may finally know why the delta variant of coronavirus is so infectious

We may finally know why the delta variant of coronavirus is so infectious

Live Science reports: People infected with the delta variant of the novel coronavirus may be carrying more than a thousand times more virus particles and may test positive two days earlier than those infected with the original SARS-CoV-2, according to an early new study. The study has not been peer reviewed and looked at only a small number of cases in China, but if the results can be confirmed, they may explain, at least in part, why the delta variant…

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U.S. had biggest decline in life expectancy in nearly 80 years in 2020

U.S. had biggest decline in life expectancy in nearly 80 years in 2020

Live Science reports: U.S. life expectancy dropped a striking 1.5 years in 2020 — the largest decline since World War II — as a result of the high death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report, which is based on preliminary death data for all of last year, estimated that U.S. life expectancy fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020. That’s the…

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