Tag Archives: coronavirus

Axios reports: The federal government’s free at-home COVID test distribution program has been suspended and is no longer accepting orders. “The free at-home COVID-19 test distribution program is not currently accepting orders,” the COVIDTests.gov website said Monday. “Tests ordered before 8:00 PM EDT, Sunday, March 9, 2025, will be shipped,” the site states. The USPS website for ordering the free …

CNN reports: In the week ending December 21, there was nearly three times as much Covid-19 circulating in the US than there was during the week ending December 7, CDC data shows. This surge happened in all regions of the country, but there has been a particularly sharp uptick in the Midwest, where Covid-19 levels are nearly twice as high …

The journal Science reports: A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment was retracted today, following years of campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. The paper was pulled because of ethical concerns and methodological problems, according to a retraction notice. The paper in the …

The New York Times reports: A House subcommittee has referred former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York to the Justice Department for potential prosecution, accusing him of lying to Congress about his involvement in a state Covid report on nursing home deaths. Mr. Cuomo was accused of engaging in a “conscious, calculated effort” to avoid accountability for his handling …

Via press release from the CDC: Today, CDC Director Mandy Cohen endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation for people 65 years and older and those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised to receive a second dose of 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine six months after their first dose. These updated recommendations also allow for flexibility for additional doses …

NBC News reports: Fresh off of a jam-packed week of Democratic National Convention events, reports of attendees’ testing positive for Covid are rolling in. They include members of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign staff, who are now contending with sickness from Covid. There is at least some concern the developments could affect staffing at events this week. Since the convention …

Axios reports: The federal government plans to relaunch its free COVID-19 home testing program at the end of September after suspending the program in March. The Biden administration’s announcement Friday comes as the number of COVID infections grows in a summertime surge. The Food & Drug Administration approved new formulations of both Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday. …

Axios reports: The summer’s COVID-19 wave is continuing, with the latest wastewater surveillance data detecting “high” virus activity levels across the majority of the U.S. and “very high” levels in 19 states, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The virus is especially prevalent across the western U.S. and the South, in particular a region that includes New Mexico, …

Ars Technica reports: As a summer wave of COVID-19 infections swells once again, a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine offers some positive news about the pandemic disease. Rates of long COVID have declined since the beginning of the health crisis, with rates falling from a high of 10.4 percent before vaccines were available to …

Via press release from the White House: The President presented with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general mailaise. He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus. …

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports: President Joe Biden has tested postive for COVID and will not appear at the UnidosUS convention on the Strip Wednesday, according to UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguia Biden’s keynote speech at the “Nuestro Momento Luncheon” was to follow a speech he gave Tuesday in Las Vegas at the NAACP’s 115th National Conference. The luncheon …

CBS News reports: Rates of COVID-19 have surged in Florida emergency rooms over recent weeks, according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and are now near peaks not seen since the worst days of this past winter’s wave of the virus. The weekly average of emergency room patients with COVID-19 has reached 2.64% in Florida, …

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump shouted foul-mouthed abuse at Anthony Fauci, then lurched into telling him he loved him—and claimed he would win the 2020 election in a “fucking landslide,” the top medical adviser reveals in his new memoir. In the eagerly awaited book, Fauci describes conversations with Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic in which the then-president would “announce …

USA Today reports: A new set of COVID-19 variants, nicknamed FLiRT, has been detected in wastewater surveillance, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From April 14 through April 27, the variant, labeled KP.2, makes up about 25% of the cases in the United States, according to the CDC. Megan L. Ranney, dean of the Yale …

USA Today reports: During the last three years, the Justice Department’s COVID-19 Enforcement Task Force has charged more than 3,500 people with federal crimes, recovered more than $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic funds and reached more than 400 civil settlements and judgments, officials said Tuesday. White House officials and lawmakers used the announcement as a springboard to propose legislation to …

CNN reports: People who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines from the CDC issued Friday. The change ends a strategy from earlier in the pandemic that experts said has been important to controlling the spread of the infection. The agency says it’s updating its …

Axios reports: Anthony Fauci, arguably the world’s most famous living doctor, will be out June 18 with a memoir called “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service.” Fauci, 83 — as chief medical adviser President Biden, and longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — helped steer the U.S. through peak COVID with calm, relentless …

Politico Europe reports: Nearly 17,000 people may have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine during the first wave of COVID, according to a study by French researchers. The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits,” the researchers point out in their paper, published …

The New York Daily News reports: With COVID, flu and other respiratory illnesses on the rise, the NYC public hospital system is bringing back masking requirements. The mandate applies to anyone entering New York H+H hospitals, community health centers and nursing homes. It went into effect just after Christmas. “As we’ve seen an increase in COVID, flu and RSV, this …

The Washington Post reports: Americans’ life expectancy decline remains a pressing public health problem — but not a political priority. The Washington Post spoke with more than 100 public health experts, lawmakers and senior health officials, including 29 across the past three presidential administrations, who described the challenges of attempting to turn around the nation’s declining life expectancy. Those challenges …