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The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first flu vaccine that people can administer to themselves at home. The agency on Friday gave the green light for people who have been screened to give themselves the FluMist nasal spray, which can be ordered directly from an online pharmacy, skipping the need to visit a doctor’s office. It will still require a prescription from a doctor's office, however. It's expected to be available next year. (Wise, 9/20)

US COVID activity continued to decline in many areas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest updates. Detections of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater are still high nationally, according to CDC tacking. The highest levels remain in the West, followed by the Midwest and the South. However, all regions show downward trends. (Schnirring, 9/20)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Florida’s New Covid Booster Guidance Is Straight-Up Misinformation

In what has become a pattern of spreading vaccine misinformation, the Florida health department is telling older Floridians and others at highest risk from covid-19 to avoid most booster shots, saying they are potentially dangerous. Clinicians and scientists denounced the message as politically fueled scaremongering that also weakens efforts to protect against diseases like measles and whooping cough. (Allen, Chang and Whitehead, 9/23)

Whooping cough is surging in the United States, with cases now five times higher than they were at the same point last year, according to preliminary data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was reported Friday. It’s the highest number of whooping cough infections since 2014, “with no indication of slowing down,” said Dr. Susan Hariri of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who presented the data Friday at a meeting of experts who advise the US Food and Drug Administration on its vaccine decisions. (Goodman and McPhillips, 9/20)

A third close contact of a patient in Missouri who was hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu has reported that they also experienced symptoms, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The person, a health care worker, was not tested because their symptoms resolved before the investigation into the illnesses began, according to the CDC. (Goodman, 9/20)

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed 6 more H5N1 avian flu outbreaks in California dairy herds, raising the state's total to 16 since the virus was first found in the state's Central Valley dairy farms in the middle of August. (Schnirring, 9/20)

The Minnesota Department of Health has reported two variant H3N2 (H3N2v) flu infections, both involving young people who visited agricultural fairs, where they were exposed to pigs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly flu update. ... Investigators found that the patients were not contacts of each other but had attended the same agricultural fair. One child had indirect contact with pigs, and the other had direct contact. Both have recovered from their infections. (Schnirring, 9/20)