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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused drugmaker Pfizer of fear-mongering and lies about the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine, which the company insinuated would end the pandemic, according to a lawsuit Paxton announced Thursday. “In a nutshell, Pfizer deceived the public,” reads the 54-page lawsuit, filed in a Lubbock state district court. (Harper, 11/30)

After months of negotiations, former chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci has agreed to testify in Congress on the U.S. response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the virus’s origins in China. The testimony by Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 until last year, will be his first before the Republican-controlled House.  (Strobel and Gordon, 11/30)

Three years into the Covid-19 pandemic, few Americans are rolling up their sleeves to get a Covid vaccine. Only 15.7% of U.S. adults had received the newest Covid shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax as of Nov. 18, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those jabs, some of which won approval in mid-September, are designed to target the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. (Constantino, 11/30)  

Most areas of the U.S. are seeing a rise in seasonal influenza activity. South-central parts of the country, the Southeast, the mountain states and the West Coast regions are leading the way. According to CDC estimates, this flu season has already resulted in 1.2 million illnesses, 12,000 hospital admissions and 740 deaths. (Loehrke, 11/30)

A review and meta-analysis of long-term cardiac complications of long COVID finds a high prevalence of chest pain and abnormal heart rhythms (arrythmias). ... The most widely examined cardiac complications were chest pain and arrhythmias. When study quality and characteristics were disregarded, the estimated prevalence of chest pain and arrhythmias were 9.8% and 8.2%, respectively. Less-examined complications were stroke (0.5%), heart abnormalities (10.5%), thromboembolism (1.4%), high blood pressure (4.9%), heart failure (1.2%), myocardial injury (1.3%), myocarditis (0.6%), abnormal ventricular function (6.7%), edema (2.1%), coronary disease (0.4%), ischemic heart disease (1.4%), valve abnormalities (2.9%), pericardial effusion (0.8%), atrial fibrillation (2.6%), and impaired diastolic function (4.9%). (Van Beusekom, 11/30)

A mysterious dog illness spreading across the United States is being treated with Paxlovid, the drug to treat COVID-19, by a Cass County veterinarian. (Purpura, 11/29)