Global COVID-19 activity remains mixed CIDRAP

Cases and death continued to decline globally over the past 4 weeks, with hot spots reported in a few countries as XBB Omicron variant proportions continue to shift, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its latest weekly update.

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Activity is up, however, in two regions: the Western Pacific by 10% and Africa by 3%. Deaths declined or were stable in all six regions.

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A pledge to fight climate change is sending money to strange places Rich countries promised $100 billion a year to reduce the effects of global warming. Reuters found large sums went to a coal plant, a hotel and chocolate shops. Reuters

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Although a coal plant, a hotel, chocolate stores, a movie and an airport expansion don’t seem like efforts to combat global warming, nothing prevented the governments that funded them from reporting them as such to the United Nations and counting them toward their giving total.

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FDA approves Pfizer RSV vaccine for older adults The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday approved Pfizer’s vaccine to prevent the respiratory disease RSV in older adults, the company announced. After decades without any RSV shot… nweixel The Hill

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The approval of Pfizer’s Abrysvo marks the second authorized RSV shot for older adults in the U.S. this month, after GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) won approval for its rival shot, Arexvy.

Night shift work, binge drinking linked to increased COVID risk in nurses About 25% of 750 survey respondents met the criteria for alcohol misuse, with 5% classified as binge drinkers. CIDRAP

Working the night shift or binge drinking may double the risk of COVID-19 infection, according to a study of nurses published this week in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. Poor sleep quality and binge drinking have been associated with COVID-19 infections, likely because both promote a pro-inflammatory state.

Just when we were starting to see COVID and RSV rates drop this spring, another type of virus contributed to a spike in respiratory infections Symptoms of human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, include cough, fever, nasal congestion, and shortness of breath. Yahoo News

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Cases of another type of respiratory virus spiked this spring, just as COVID-19 and RSV rates were finally falling in the US.

...Medical researchers have also linked SARS-CoV-2 to lingering complications in multiple organs and systems, and some recent work has found that new-onset cholesterol problems may be an under-recognized but common complication of COVID-19.

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Bivalent COVID vaccine efficacy at 6 months: 24% against hospitalization, strong against death CIDRAP

Estimated bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 mRNA vaccine effectiveness (VE) against hospitalization dropped from 62% 1 week after receipt to 24% at 4 to 6 months in adults with healthy immune systems, but protection against severe outcomes was sustained, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study.

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