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Thousands of frontline workers may have survived the COVID-19 pandemic if the US regulatory system had better protected them, report the authors of an analysis published yesterday in BMJ. The study is the first in a series that discusses the lessons learned from COVID-19 and the steps needed to avert deaths in the next pandemic and improve public health. Frontline workers are those who couldn't work from home and thus were at higher risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Black and Hispanic workers and immigrants make up high proportions of "essential" workers, or those in healthcare, meatpacking plants, agricultural production, and public transportation. (Van Beusekom, 1/30)

Up to 75% of adults have concealed an infectious disease from others in order not to miss work, travel, or social events, according to a new study in Psychological Science. The article, by researchers at the University of Michigan, is based on four studies and surveys given to 4,110 survey participants. All surveys were given after March 2020, when the COVID-10 pandemic began, and initial survey participants included 399 university healthcare employees. Only 5% of participants across all studies said they had concealed a COVID-19 infection. (Soucheray, 1/30)

The Oklahoma State Department of Health confirmed in a statement on Tuesday the state's first death of a child by influenza in 2024.OSDH said this is the latest in a wave of infections that has resulted in over 900 hospitalizations and 16 other deaths. (1/31)

Cases of COVID-19 and RSV continue to decline since peaking around the holidays, though the amount of respiratory illness across most of the country remains high, updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. (Reed, 1/29)

On the heels of a state-wide flu outbreak, a team of Duke and Harvard researchers are making promising developments in the search for a longer-lasting and more versatile influenza vaccine. A December study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlighted the researchers’ newest discovery: a site, or epitope, on the influenza virus molecule that could potentially allow scientists to target multiple strains of influenza with the same antibodies. (Haver, 1/29)

MedStar Health has agreed to resolve accusations it discriminated against patients with disabilities and will take corrective actions, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The Columbia, Maryland-based nonprofit health system allegedly barred family members, health aides and other support people from its facilities as a COVID-19 mitigation measure from 2020 through 2022, the Justice Department asserts in a complaint and a consent decree filed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on Tuesday. (Bennett, 1/30)