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A study today of viral shedding dynamics in 101 children who had COVID-19 during the Omicron surge in Toronto shows that 40% were still infectious on the day after their symptoms resolved. Moreover, rapid antigen tests (RATs) were often negative early in the course of illness, and thus cannot be relied on to exclude infection, they authors say. The study is published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Soucheray, 12/12)

Respiratory viruses are rebounding in the United States on the precipice of the end-of-year holidays, with emergency room visits for covid-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus collectively reaching their highest levels since February. Among the three, covid continues to be the biggest driver of hospitalizations, settling into a familiar rhythm of causing periodic waves without wreaking havoc on the health-care system as it once did. Hospitals reported more than 22,000 new covid admissions the week ending Dec. 2, the highest since the peak of the summer wave in September. (Nirappil, 12/12)

New data shows that Americans living in four key states — Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska — are suffering the highest prevalence of COVID-19 infections in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Mayer, 12/12)

Ron DeSantis cited a scientific journal as evidence Florida had a lower COVID death rate than California. The study's author says that's not the whole story. (Lin II, 12/13)

Two Melbourne-made COVID-19 vaccines have shown strong potential to be an improved approach for boosting immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants according to interim results of a Phase 1 clinical trial. ... The two vaccine candidates are distinct from most existing vaccines that are in use around the globe because they focus the immune response on the tip of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, called the receptor binding domain (RBD). (12/12)