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“It’s not gone away. It’s just lower. It’s just gone from ‘very high’ to ‘high,’” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert. (Lin II, 9/9)

The nation's COVID activity remains high, but there are more signs of decline in many areas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest updates. Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 detections are still high, especially in the West, but are dropping in all regions except for the Midwest, according to the CDC's latest tracking. (Schnirring, 9/6)

Going to the doctor is already tricky enough for people with chronic symptoms of Lyme disease. Their concerns often dismissed by mainstream medicine, those patients now face an additional hurdle: ruling out long Covid. The two illnesses — one seeping in over the course of decades and another suddenly springing to life on a massive scale — share many qualities, including being widely misunderstood. But as efforts to demystify long Covid intensify, so does interest in studying neglected conditions, including persistent complications from Lyme disease. (Cueto and Sajani, 9/9)

Dr. Mark Ghaly is stepping down as head of the California Health and Human Services Agency after an eventful tenure that included the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday. Newsom called Ghaly “a driving force for transformative changes to make healthcare more affordable and accessible,” whose leadership during the pandemic “saved countless lives and set the stage for our state’s strong recovery.” (Alpert Reyes, 9/6)

"We found that children using salt-water nose drops had cold symptoms for an average of six days, where those with usual care had symptoms for eight days. The children receiving salt water nose drops also needed fewer medicines during their illness," said study author Steve Cunningham, MBChB, PhD, from the University of Edinburgh. ... The authors also said using saline nasal drops can reduce forward transmission often virus to household members. (Soucheray, 9/6)