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Four years after SARS-CoV2 sparked a devastating global pandemic, U.S. health officials now consider COVID-19 an endemic disease. "At this point, COVID-19 can be described as endemic throughout the world," Aron Hall, the deputy director for science at the CDC's coronavirus and other respiratory viruses division, told NPR in an interview. That means, essentially, that COVID is here to stay in predictable ways. The classification doesn't change any official recommendations or guidelines for how people should respond to the virus. (Stein, 8/9)

US COVID indicators show no sign of slowing down, with most areas of the country seeing consistent rises, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest data updates. Emergency department encounters for COVID make up 2.3% of all visits, up 4.1% from the previous week. Levels are highest—in the moderate range—across the South and Southeast. (Schnirring, 8/9)

California’s strongest summer COVID wave in years is still surging, and an unusual midsummer mutation may be partly to blame. There are a number of possible culprits behind the worst summer infection spike since 2022, experts say. A series of punishing heat waves and smoke from devastating wildfires have kept many Californians indoors, where the disease can more easily spread. Most adults are also well removed from their last brush with the coronavirus, or their last vaccine dose — meaning they’re more vulnerable to infection. But changes in the virus have also widened the scope of the surge. (Lin II, 8/12)

US sprinter Noah Lyles’ admission that he raced in the men’s 200 meters at the Paris Olympics on Thursday after testing positive for Covid-19 has reignited a familiar debate: whether it’s OK to treat Covid like any other respiratory infection. (Goodman, 8/9)

Patients keep asking Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, the same question: Is it time to get another Covid shot? ... Experts said the right time for your next Covid shot will depend on your health status and what you’re hoping to get from the vaccines. (Blum, 8/12)

A team of researchers from the University of Houston have developed a new vaccine to treat and prevent the spread of flu and multiple coronavirus strains. Through two nasal sprays — an immune activating therapeutic treatment and a new vaccine — the team of UH researchers have not only broken ground on vaccinating against SARS-CoV-2 and the flu virus, but also on creating a universal coronavirus vaccine. (Babbar, 8/10)

Meta Platforms defeated an appeal by Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., challenging its censorship of Facebook posts that spread misinformation about vaccines' efficacy and safety. In a decision on Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, said the nonprofit did not show that Meta worked with or was coerced by federal officials to suppress views challenging "government orthodoxy" on vaccines. (Stempel, 8/9)