Category Archives: Corona Virus

After another brutal spike in coronavirus cases and deaths this summer fueled by the Delta variant infections are declining in the United States, down 50 percent from their peak in September.

Experts say what comes next is hard to predict, and we often do not know why the virus spreads the way it does. But looking back at the outbreak so far can provide some clues about how the virus may spread in the future.

Average cases per 100,000 people

Summer 2020

June August

Fall 2020

September November

Winter

December February

Spring 2021

March May

Summer and Fall 2021

June Oct. 20

Note: Most Nebraska counties did not report data during the summer of 2021.

The country has suffered through five waves of the pandemic now, depending on how you count. Each of these waves has a different complexity and pattern, said Alessandro Vespignani, the director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston.

During the first wave, for instance, strict stay-at-home measures and drastic changes in behavior may have stalled the virus for a time. Last fall, with those measures and behavior comparatively relaxed, record-breaking surges in the Midwest rippled outward to the South and both coasts. By the time the highly contagious Delta variant fueled a wave across the country this summer, vaccines were widely available, shifting the pattern once again.

Vaccines have clearly changed which places have been hit and how much theyve been hit, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.

Below is a look at five times that the U.S. case curve hit a peak, and the lessons and insights experts have gleaned from each wave.

Outbreaks in

meatpacking facilities

Outbreaks in

meatpacking facilities

Outbreaks in

meatpacking facilities

In the spring of 2020, the first wave hit a few areas particularly hard, including New York City, New Orleans and Albany, Ga. A lot came down to random chance insofar as where the virus struck first, experts said, though population density and transportation hubs may have played a role.

Tests were hard to come by during this period, so cases were drastically underreported. But death data indicates the Northeasts outbreak was one of the worst of the whole pandemic one in about 400 New York City residents died within the span of two months.

Early stay-at-home orders and widespread, drastic behavioral changes flattened the curve in those outbreaks, however, preventing the coronavirus from rippling across the country in waves, the way it would in later surges.

While hospitals overflowed in the Northeast corridor, nearby areas like Maine did not see large outbreaks. Isolated hot spots broke out largely in places where people were unable to socially distance, like nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants.

I think its easy to miss how bad things could have gotten and how much better we did than we could have largely because of the lockdowns, said Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina.

Outbreaks on

Native American

reservations

Outbreaks on

Native American

reservations

Cases surged again in the summer of 2020, but this time Sun Belt states suffered the worst outbreaks. Many states that set new records for cases and deaths were also those that reopened first, including South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Experts say seasonality perhaps the Sun Belts summer heat driving people indoors may also have been a factor.

The summer surge slammed many metropolitan areas of the South and Southwest, including Houston, Miami and Phoenix. Without tight virus restrictions in place, the virus spread outward into suburbs and exurbs. By the end of the summer, most of the worst outbreaks were occurring in rural areas.

If you think of the spring wave in 2020, it was more pointlike around urban areas. In the other waves, you see more of a general flow, Dr. Vespignani said, Like when you throw a stone in a pond.

The flow of cases is clearer in the surge that began in the Upper Midwest in September 2020. North and South Dakota had few virus restrictions in place to contain an outbreak, and both states had particularly bad spikes. One in 10 residents tested positive for the virus in the fall in North Dakota, and experts think many more cases went undetected.

From there, the outbreak expanded beyond the Midwest, reaching both coasts and stretching down to the South in a devastating wave. The country saw more daily cases and deaths in January than any other time before or since.

You do see this movement, almost like its moving from county to county, said Jeffrey Shaman, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Columbia University, who said researchers found community-to-community transmission played an important role in virus spread during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. But Dr. Shaman said factors other than proximity could have also played an important role with Covid.

Disparate communities may have similar school opening dates, for instance, experience the same cold fronts, or share similar behavior patterns, all of which could lead to independent outbreaks at the same time.

When youre looking at anything after October of last year, the virus is everywhere. It didnt need to be reintroduced, Dr. Shaman said.

Then, in one community after another, cases fell often as quickly as they had risen. A sharp fall after a peak is not uncommon during epidemics, experts said. When a virus rapidly spreads through a community, it eventually runs out of people to infect.

By Spring 2021, U.S. cases had retreated far from their winter peak. At the same time, a more-contagious variant that had fueled an enormous surge in the United Kingdom, called Alpha, was quickly becoming dominant in the United States.

Michigan saw a large surge in cases and deaths, worrying experts that the variant would cause a similar nationwide outbreak. Instead, the virus seemed to stop at the Michigan border in May.

Epidemiologists still do not know why Michigan was unlucky or why the outbreak did not spread to neighboring states. But some noted that it took place right around when all adults first became eligible for the vaccine, and before social distancing behavior loosened significantly.

Its possible that people became more cautious during the resurgence, slowing the spread, said Dr. Lessler, the University of North Carolina epidemiologist. Then vaccines helped stamp it out.

Case and death records

broken across the South

Case and death records

broken across the South

In June, U.S. coronavirus cases were at a low point not seen since the beginning of the pandemic, and nearly half the population had received at least one shot. States lifted virtually all virus restrictions and people relaxed their behavior in celebration.

The timing proved disastrous, especially for areas with lower vaccination rates. Another variant, this time Delta, took hold and quickly grew to account for a majority of U.S. cases. Missouri saw the first big surge of the Delta wave.

Thats where the fire was ignited; then the fire started to spread to other places, Dr. Vespignani said.

Soon, that outbreak moved across Arkansas, then Louisiana, both states with low vaccination rates. Florida became another early Delta hot spot. By the end of August, most states in the South had hit new records for daily cases or deaths and the virus turned northward, causing surges in the upper Midwest and Mountain West.

While the Delta wave rolled across much of the country, some places were relatively spared.

That fire was never able to get, for instance, into the Northeast corridor, Dr. Vespignani said. Its where theres one of the highest vaccination rates. Its like theres a wall.

Some experts say that the vaccination campaign and much of the country having already experienced several waves of outbreaks which have conferred some immunity to those who were infected and recovered have made them cautiously optimistic for the winter.

Dr. Lessler, who helps run the Covid-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, a consortium of research groups that model the future of the outbreak, said none of the groups forecast a substantial winter peak in the United States this year.

We might see a little bump in cases, and of course people could radically change behavior or we could see a variant, Dr. Lessler said, but he added that he did not think a substantial peak was likely.

All the same, there are bound to remain places where the virus can spread, as each new wave has shown. And questions still remain about how long immunity will last.

The difference between the Michigan Alpha wave in Spring 2021 and the Delta wave is really telling you that the wall that youve built might work for one variant, but it might not be enough for the next one, Mr. Vespignani said. There might be another variant that is more transmissible and with more immune evasion. Thats why we need to build the wall as high as possible.

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What Previous Covid-19 Waves Tell Us About the Virus Now - The New York Times

Illinois health officials on Friday reported 15,131 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 183 additional deaths and over 209,651 new vaccine doses administered.

In all, 1,680,908 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The additional deaths reported this week bring the state to 25,590 confirmed COVID fatalities.

The state has administered 773,791 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 34 million tests conducted during the pandemic.

The states seven-day positivity rate on all tests dropped to 2.2% from 2.5% last week, officials said. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests remained at 2% over the past week.

Over the past seven days, a total of 209,651doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents. The latest figures brought the states average to 29,950 daily vaccination doses over the last week, per IDPH data.

More than 15.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December. More than 54% of Illinois resident are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with more than 69% receiving at least one dose.

As of midnight Thursday, 1,277 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 323 are in ICU beds, and 152 are on ventilators.

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Coronavirus in Illinois: 15,131 New COVID Cases, 183 Deaths, 209K Vaccinations in the Past Week - NBC Chicago

Rishi Sunak has refused to commit to wearing a mask inside a crowded House of Commons, as a leading government scientific adviser said ministers were mistaken to believe that vaccinations alone would keep Covid levels under control.

The chancellor also reiterated that ministers did not yet believe it was necessary to move to the governments plan B for Covid over the winter, which would reintroduce mandatory mask wearing for crowded spaces, vaccine passports and more home working.

At the moment, the data does not suggest that we should be immediately moving to plan B, Sunak told BBC1s Andrew Marr Show. But of course we will keep an eye on that. The plans are ready, we outlined them way beforehand to make sure people knew what the possible options would be for the winter, which we said would be challenging.

Sunak, who does not wear a mask in the Commons, dodged questions about whether this was the right thing to do in an often crowded, poorly ventilated chamber. He did wear a masks in other settings, such as crowded trains, he said.

The government guidance is for people to make decisions based on what they think is appropriate based on the circumstances they are in, he said. Every workplace is going to be different depending on how many people are there, how long youre there for, whether you know the people or not.

This had been the consistent government line on mask use in the Commons, until the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said last week that Conservative MPs should set an example over mask use.

Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics at Bristol University and a member of the governments Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation, said relying on vaccinations alone, even with booster jabs, was not enough.

I would like to re-emphasise the fact that the vaccine programme by itself, in the current situation, even if things go optimally, is not in my opinion enough to bring things under control, he told Skys Trevor Phillips on Sunday show.

We do need to have people using lateral flow tests, avoiding contact with large numbers of people in enclosed spaces, using masks, all of those things now need to happen if were going to stop this rise and get things under control soon enough to stop a real meltdown in the middle of the winter.

Finn said he was concerned that the rate of vaccination was suffering because of a sense that somehow the problems gone and we can all go back to normal again.

So I do think we need to see a very different kind of message coming from the government now that there is a serious problem, and we all need to contribute to reducing transmission, so that we can get through the winter and the NHS can stay afloat and absolutely we can avoid lockdowns, and the disasters that those bring.

Speaking on the same show, Dr Katherine Henderson, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said emergency departments were already in a terrible place.

Were already struggling to cope, she said. This is not something thats coming in the next couple of months. Were already in a terrible place where we have got large queues of ambulances with vulnerable people waiting in those ambulances to be offloaded into departments and other patients at home waiting to be picked up by the ambulance.

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Sunak refuses to commit to wearing mask in crowded Commons - The Guardian

Sevenmore Mainers have died while health officials on Saturday reported another 585coronavirus cases across the state.

Saturdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 100,967,according to the Maine CDC. Thats up from 100,382 on Friday.

Of those, 71,989have been confirmed positive, while 28,978were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.

Three women and four men have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,122.

One was from Cumberland County, one from Kennebec County, two from Oxford County, two from Penobscot County and one from York County. Of those, two were 80 or older, two were in their 70s and the others were in their 60s, 50s and 30s.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 6,019. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats down from 6,034 on Friday.

The new case rate statewide Saturday was 4.37 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 754.38.

Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 464, up from 457.3 the day before, up from 401.9 a week ago and down from 465 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.

The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases have been recorded in women and more deaths in men.

So far, 2,721 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 206 are currently hospitalized, with 71 in critical care and 28 on a ventilator. Overall, 46 out of 339 critical care beds and 206 out of 305 ventilators are available.

The total statewide hospitalization rate on Saturday was 20.33 patients per 10,000 residents.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (10,626), Aroostook (3,818), Cumberland (21,684), Franklin (2,241), Hancock (2,725), Kennebec (9,636), Knox (1,921), Lincoln (1,275), Oxford (5,038), Penobscot (12,025), Piscataquis (1,301), Sagadahoc (1,948), Somerset (4,243), Waldo (2,401), Washington (1,823) and York (17,760) counties. Information about where an additional two cases were reported wasnt immediately available.

An additional 2,486 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Saturday, 902,129 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 76.2 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.

New Hampshire reported 535 new cases on Saturday and four deaths. Vermont reported 230 new cases and no deaths, while Massachusetts reported 1,454 new cases and 15 deaths.

As of Saturday afternoon, the coronavirus had sickened 45,410,887 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 735,507 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

More articles from the BDN

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7 more Mainers have died and another 585 coronavirus cases reported across the state - Bangor Daily News

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week expanded eligibility for the coronavirus (COVID-19) booster shot, including those who received either the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Booster doses of Pfizers vaccine began last month for people at high risk of coronavirus, and a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has recommended the same approach for Moderna recipients. An FDA panel has also endorsed a booster shot for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

On Thursday, the CDC announced expanded booster shot eligibility. Here are four things to know about the agencys current recommendations.

MODERNA, PFIZER

The following Americans who had their initial Moderna or Pfizer two-dose vaccine course at least six months ago are now eligible to receive a booster shot: those 65 years and older; those 18 years and older who live inlong-term care settings; those 18 years and older who haveunderlying medical conditions; those 18 and older who work or live inhigh-risk settings.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

For those who had a Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, booster shots are now recommended for those who are 18 and older and who were vaccinated two or more months ago.

CHOOSING A BOOSTER

Eligible individuals may choose which vaccine they receive as a booster dose. Some people may have a preference for the vaccine type that they originally received, and others may prefer to get a different booster. CDCs recommendations now allow for mix-and-match dosing for booster shots.

VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS

According to recent data, all three coronavirus vaccines approved or authorized in the United States continue to be highly effectivein reducing risk of severe disease, hospitalization and death, even against the widely circulating Delta variant.

The evidence shows that all three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States are safe as demonstrated by the over 400 million vaccine doses already given, said Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the CDC, in a statement.

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Coronavirus: 4 things to know about expanded booster shot eligibility - SILive.com

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) Scientists fully believe that there will be another virus that threatens the health of everyone on Earth, just as COVID-19 has. Whats different today is that people will not be sitting idly by waiting for it to happen.

What we did not learn from the original SARS epidemic in 2003 and the other coronavirus epidemic called MERS in 2011, 2012 was that we should have gone on as a field and developed vaccines and put them on the shelf so that if theres another coronavirus epidemic, like with COVID, we would be prepared, said Dr. Barton Haynes, the director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.

In May, DHVI announced it had developed a vaccine that can combat future SARS-related viruses.

It is also active against a number of animal viruses that have the capacity, we believe, maybe in the future, to jump to humans and cause an outbreak, Haynes said.

Now, with help of a $17.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, they are moving on to the next generation of pan-coronavirus vaccines that can even potentially help fight the common cold.

But, how can these vaccines be effective if it isnt known what the next virus is? Haynes said to look at it like plug-and-play.

Where one can swap in different pieces of different coronaviruses and adapt it as the need arises.

The team is also comprised of Ralph Baric, Ph.D., professor in the departments of epidemiology, microbiology, and immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Bette Korber, Ph.D., of the Los Alamos National Laboratory; Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D., professor in vaccine research at the University of Pennsylvania; and a co-creator of the mRNA vaccine technology used in current COVID-19 vaccines and Sampa Santra, Ph.D., of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

DHVI has also received large federal contracts or grants to research, develop and test vaccines for HIV and influenza.

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Scientists believe another pandemic will come. Theyre not waiting idly for it to happen - WNCT

A laboratory technician uses a pipette device to process samples to test for the novel coronavirus Covid-19, at Biogroup Laboratory's lab in west London on January 21, 2021.

JUSTIN TALLIS | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON A newly-discovered mutation of the delta variant is being investigated in the U.K. amid worries that it could make the virus even more transmissible and undermine Covid-19 vaccines further.

Still, there are many unknowns surrounding this descendent or subtype of the delta variant formally known as AY.4.2 which some are dubbing the new "delta plus" variant.

U.K. government health officials have said it's too early to tell whether the mutation poses a greater risk to public health than the delta variant, which itself is significantly more infectious than the original Covid-19 strain (and its successor, the alpha variant).

But they have stated that they are monitoring the mutation very closely: it now accounts for 6% of U.K. Covid cases that have been genetically sequenced at a time when infections in the country are rising rapidly.

Here's what we know, and don't know, about the variant:

Viruses constantly mutate and the coronavirus that emerged in China in late 2019 has gone through multiple minor variations that have made it virus more infectious and effective at spreading. This was first seen with the alpha variant (first sequenced in the U.K.) that went on to spread globally before it was usurped by the even more transmissible delta variant that was first discovered in India.

Delta, which was dubbed a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization in May, remains globally dominant.

But last Friday,the U.K.'s Health Security Agency issued a report in which it said "a delta sublineage newly designated as AY.4.2 is noted to be expanding in England." The agency said it was monitoring the subtype, which includes mutations to the spike protein (A222V and Y145H) that the coronavirus uses to enter our cells.

AY.4.2 is being identified in an increasing number of U.K. Covid cases, with some suggesting it could be a factor in the country's growing health crisis that has prompted some doctors to call for Covid restrictions to be reimposed.

Read more: UK doctors call for urgent return of Covid restrictions as experts monitor new mutation

"This sublineage is currently increasing in frequency," the U.K.'s Health Security Agency said last week, noting that "in the week beginning 27 September 2021 (the last week with complete sequencing data), this sublineage accounted for approximately 6% of all sequences generated, on an increasing trajectory. This estimate may be imprecise ... Further assessment is underway."

Read more: The UK has one of the highest Covid infection rates in the world right now: Heres why

The U.K. is currently seeing a prolonged and worrying spike in Covid cases, reporting between 40,000-50,000 new infections per day in the last week, prompting experts to question why the U.K. is so vulnerable to Covid right now.

The delta subtype is reported to be 10-15% more transmissiblethan the standard delta variant, but it is too early to say for certain whether it has been causing a spike in cases in the U.K.

It's worth remembering that although AY.4.2 is being monitored, it has not been classified as a "variant under investigation" or a "variant of concern" by the WHO that is, it has not been identified as having genetic changes that are expected to affect virus characteristics such as transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape.

It also has not been confirmed that it causes significant community transmission or multiple Covid-19 clusters.

Still, that status could change following further monitoring and if it continues to be sequenced in an increasing number of cases.

A wife adjusts her husband's mask before entering a shop in Hampshire, England, UK

Peter Titmuss | Collection Mix: Subjects | Getty Images

Finding a potentially more transmissible variant matters because it could cause more Covid cases among the unvaccinated.

A large part of the world remains unvaccinated (only2.8%of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, according to Our World in Data) while developed countries are seeing more and more "breakthrough" cases as immunity to Covid wanes around six months after being fully vaccinated.

A more infectious variant could undermine vaccine efficacy even further, although there is no indicated that is the case yet with the AY.4.2 subtype.

Health officials are remaining calm about the delta subtype, for now, noting that it's crucial to keep an eye on the mutation but not to panic.

Commenting on "delta plus" on Wednesday, U.S. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky noted that "in particular the AY.4.2 variant has drawn some attention in recent days." She added that: "we have, on occasion, identified this sub lineage here in the United States, but not with recent increase frequency or clustering, to date."

As well as the U.S., Israel said it had confirmed a case of the AY.4.2 variant in an 11 year-old boy entering the country at Ben Gurion airport. On Thursday, Russia also said it had registered some isolated cases of the AY.4.2 variant. It's unknown to what extent, if any, the subtype has been found in mainland Europe.

The U.K. prime minister's official spokesman called for calm on Tuesday, tellingSky Newsthat "[AY.4.2] is something we're keeping a very close eye on," but stressing that there was currently no evidence to suggest that this variant is more easily spread.

"There's no evidence for that, but as you would expect, we're monitoring it closely and won't hesitate to take action if necessary," he added.

U.K. government officials are very reluctant to reimpose Covid restrictions, despite calls from health professionals to do so as British hospitals face being overwhelmed by demand as winter approaches.

Health care workers transport a patient at the Royal London Hospital, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, Britain, January 26, 2021.

Hannah McKay | Reuters

Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, which helped to developed the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine, said on Wednesday that the delta subvariant won't change Covid picture.

"Discovery of new variants is of course important to monitor, but it doesn't indicate that that new variant is going to be the next one to replace delta," Pollard told BBC radio, Reuters reported.

"Indeed even if it does, delta is incredibly good at transmitting in a vaccinated population and a new one may be a bit better but it's unlikely to change the picture dramatically from where we are today."

Meanwhile, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, Danny Altmann, told CNBC Monday that the subtype "needs to be monitored and, so far as possible, carefully controlled."

"Because delta has now been the dominant mutant in several regions for some six months and not been displaced by any other variants, the hope has been that delta perhaps represented [the] peak mutation performance achievable by the virus. AY.4 may be starting to raise doubts about this assertion," he warned.

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The delta variant has a mutation that's worrying experts: Here's what we know so far - CNBC

The man who spearheaded Australia's post-COVID-19 economic task force has been charged with breaching Western Australia's coronavirusborder restrictions during a private helicopter flight from Queensland.

Police alleged NevillePower and a 36-year-old manfailed to complete G2G passes before flying into WA on October 9.

Mr Power, 63, was the head of the National COVID-19 Commission Advisory Board and isthe former chief executive of Fortescue Metals Group.

He is the current chairman of Perth Airport and the Royal Flying Doctor's Service.

Police alleged that Mr Power and the other man left Queensland on September 8 and flew in the helicopter to Exmouth.

They say the helicopter stopped to refuel in Carnarvon and Geraldton before arriving at Perth's Jandakot Airport on October 9.

The Breach Investigation Team interviewed the men the following day.

They were directed to self-quarantine for 14 days and returned negative COVID-19 test results.

Mr Power and the 36-year-old man, from Henley Brook, were each charged with three counts of failing to comply with a direction.

The company that owns the helicopter is facing the same charge.

The two men are due to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on November 15.

The maximum penalty for failing to comply with a direction under WA's Emergency management Act is imprisonment for 12 months or a fine of $50,000.

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Former COVID-19 advisor Neville Power charged with breaching Western Australia's coronavirus restrictions - ABC News

It looks like all of those COVID-19 memes helped us cope with our lives in a pandemic, according to a new study.

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, recently studied the impact of memes on how we dealt with the pandemic.

The study which was published in the Psychology of Popular Media journal found that those who viewed memes had higher levels of humor and positive feelings during the pandemic.

Per a news release, the study surveyed 748 people online in December 2020. The respondents ranged from 18 to 88 years old, with an average age of 41.8, and were mostly white (72.2%), female (54.7%) and without a college degree (63.5%).

Each of the respondents was shown some memes about the pandemic. They were asked to rate the memes on cuteness, hilarity and how emotional they made respondents feel.

They were also asked to explain what the memes made them think about COVID-19.

Those who looked at memes about the pandemic felt less stress than those who did not view the pandemic memes, according to the studys news release,

They also felt more capable of coping with the COVID-19 crisis and were better at processing information, NPR wrote about the study. And they were also less likely to be stressed about the pandemic than those who didnt view memes related to COVID-19 at all.

The researchers said the study indicates that memes can help us deal with overly stressful situations and cope with ongoing problems.

We found that viewing just three memes can help people cope with the stress of living during a global pandemic, said lead author Jessica Gall Myrick, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, per the news release.

She added, This suggests that not all media are uniformly bad for mental health and people should stop and take stock of what type of media they are consuming. If we are all more conscious of how our behaviors, including time spent scrolling, affect our emotional states, then we will better be able to use social media to help us when we need it and to take a break from it when we need that instead.

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COVID memes: Did they help us in the coronavirus pandemic? - Deseret News

A Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster trial released last Thursday revealed some pretty spectacular data: It had a relative vaccine efficacy of 95.6% against the disease when compared with those who did not receive a booster during the period when the highly contagious Delta variant has been the prevalent strain.

In Israel, where nearly 3.9 million people have gotten the third shot, cases have declined from an average of more than 6,500 a day in September to around 1,600 in October.

The Pfizer trial shows that the booster shot will increase this groups protection against infection by 20 times, said Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot who has been advising the government. Yes, three shots versus two means 20 times more protection.

Moreover, in most countries, including the United States, if boosters are approved at all, they are only available to limited parts of the population, such as the elderly or people at the highest risk for contracting the virus or developing severe disease.

So if COVID boosters are so effective, why isnt everyone getting one?

The Pfizer trial included more than 10,000 participants over the age of 16, divided into two groups: third shot and placebo. The median time between the second and third dose was 11 months. Within an average of 2.5 months after receiving the booster, only five people developed symptomatic COVID-19. Some 109 people who did not receive the booster got COVID.

We believe boosters have a critical role to play in addressing the ongoing public health threat of this pandemic, said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. We look forward to sharing these data with health authorities and working together to determine how they can be used to support the rollout of booster doses around the world.

BUT HEBREW University of Jerusalem epidemiologist and public health physician Prof. Hagai Levine said Israel should not be so quick to push its magic bullet solution on other countries, which need to make the right decisions for themselves based on both culture and their epidemiological situation.

I would not copy and paste our experience in other countries, he said, adding that Israel should be humbler. The pandemic fluctuates. This wave is decreasing in other countries without the booster shot. Giving the booster to everyone is not necessarily key.

The devil is in the details, explained Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, director of Ben-Gurion University of the Negevs School of Public Health and head of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians.

While Israel managed to inoculate 6.2 million Israelis with at least one dose of the vaccine, many other countries are still struggling to administer the first shot. In some places, even where vaccines are readily available, there could be fragmented healthcare systems, which means there is an uneven distribution that might need to be rectified before third shots can be considered.

Also, Israel vaccinated people much earlier than some other countries, which means it was the first to have data showing that the vaccines begin to wane between four and six months after the second shot data that has now been replicated in other countries, including the US.

In Israel, we have the unique situation: that a very large proportion of the population was vaccinated at the same time, so the impact of waning also comes at the same time, making the need for the booster shot much stronger, Levine said.

In other countries, vaccine campaigns took longer and therefore waning across the community will also take more time.

FINALLY, there is still an issue of side effects, Davidovitch said. Although preliminary studies show the side effects of the booster are quite rare and generally not worse than the second dose, there is not necessarily enough data to be sure yet, and therefore this could also serve as a barrier to mass booster shots in some countries, he said.

Levine said while the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians did not oppose allowing the booster shot for everyone in Israel when the decision was made, there was not necessarily proof that it was needed for everyone.

Israel was in a rush to get the booster shots started as the infection rate rose, he said. As such, the country did not use serological tests as a consideration before administering the booster to make a more informed decision about which parts of the population might need the third shot more than others.

If countries have more time and their epidemiological situation is different, they may consider using serological testing as a tool, Levine said. They may also be able to have a more tailored approach to the booster shot.

For example, while the vulnerable population the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions clearly requires a booster, he said, younger, healthier people may not need the shot.

How many people died in Israel from COVID-19 who are young, healthy and received two Pfizer doses? Levine asked. Very, very few.

The need to give a booster shot to people under 18 has not been proven yet, which is why the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency are waiting for more data, he said.

My take is that if you do not need [the booster], wait, said Prof. Cyrille Cohen, head of the immunology lab at Bar-Ilan University.

He admitted that boosters are a little bit of a game of chicken and egg. If a country needs it, it should start administering the booster. But if not, it should wait until it is necessary so that it can buy itself more time. After all, there is no indication of how long the third dose will last.

In the United Kingdom, for example, with Delta mutation AY4.2, no restrictions and early vaccination, it seems the booster should have been rolled out earlier.

They waited too long, Cohen said.

Will all countries eventually need the shot?

It is likely, Davidovitch said.

I am confident that each country that does not give the booster is going to see a resurgence of cases, he concluded.

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If COVID boosters are so effective, why isnt everyone getting one? - The Jerusalem Post