Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Survey Finds Nearly 7% Of American Adults Have Long Covid Symptoms
Some 6.8% of American adults are currently experiencing long Covid symptoms, according to a new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealing an 鈥渁larming鈥 increase in recent months even as the health agency relaxes Covid isolation recommendations, experts say. That means an estimated 17.6 million Americans could now be living with long Covid. (Schreiber, 3/15)
Cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a rare but serious COVID-19 complication in children, have decreased from the earlier pandemic months but continue to be reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The CDC saw a relative increase in MIS-C cases in the fall of 2023, when the United States was experiencing a rise in COVID activity in the general population. (Schnirring, 3/14)
Jesse Ehrenfeld, an anesthesiologist at a Wisconsin hospital, asked a patient about to have heart surgery if she would consent to a blood transfusion should it become necessary. It's a standard question. But the patient refused. It was 2021, and the COVID-19 vaccine had become publicly available only a few months earlier. This patient, though, made it clear she did not want it 鈥 or blood from anyone who already had it. "It was at that moment I knew we were in for it," Ehrenfeld said. (Mueller, 3/15)
Hospitalized male COVID-19 patients younger than 75 who have a certain variant of a key anti-inflammatory gene are at much lower risk of experiencing severe inflammation and dying of the disease, New York University researchers reported yesterday in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. ... Men with rs419598 had significantly lower inflammatory biomarker concentrations and a lower death rate than those with another studied genotype (10.0% vs 17.8%). (Van Beusekom, 3/14)
Also 鈥
Disease X may still be a hypothetical threat. But the risk from a new pathogen many times deadlier than COVID-19 is driving more spending decisions on rapid tests, antimicrobial drugs and other countermeasures. (Bettelheim, 3/15)
