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COVID-19 omicron variant confirmed in Idaho KTVB.comView Full Coverage on Google News Article From & Read More ( COVID-19 omicron variant confirmed in Idaho - KTVB.com )/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/LALSTOOPWZMRBBNEDP7TT57424.jpg)
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Most of the 43 COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant identified in the United States so far were in people who were fully vaccinated, and a third of them had received a booster dose, according to a U.S. report published on Friday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that of the 43 cases attributed to Omicron variant, 34 people had been fully vaccinated. Fourteen of them had also received a booster, although five of those cases occurred less than 14 days after the additional shot before full protection kicks in.
While the numbers are very small, they add to growing concerns that current COVID-19 vaccines may offer less protection against the highly transmissible new variant.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been found through testing in about 22 states so far after first being identified in southern Africa and Hong Kong in late November.
Among the Omicron cases, 25 were in people aged 18 to 39 and 14 had traveled internationally. Six people had previously been infected with the coronavirus.
Most of them only had mild symptoms such as coughing, congestion, and fatigue, the report said, and one person was hospitalized for two days. Other symptoms reported less frequently including nausea or vomiting, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, diarrhea and loss of taste or smell.
The CDC said that while many of the first reported Omicron cases appear to be mild, a lag exists between infection and more severe outcomes. Symptoms would also be expected to be milder in vaccinated persons and those with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The first known U.S. Omicron case was identified on Dec 1 in a fully vaccinated person who had traveled to South Africa. The CDC said that the earliest date of symptom onset was Nov. 15 in a person with a history of international travel.
The Delta variant still accounts for more than 99% of all U.S. cases. But reports from South Africa show that the Omicron variant is very transmissible.
Even if most cases are mild, a highly transmissible variant could result in enough infections to overwhelm health systems, the CDC cautioned.
Laboratory studies released this week suggest that the Omicron variant will blunt the protective power of two doses of Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, although a third dose may restore that protection.
The U.S. has authorized COVID-19 vaccine boosterdoses for all Americans age 16 and older.
Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Article From & Read More ( Most reported U.S. Omicron cases have hit the fully vaccinated -CDC - Reuters )[unable to retrieve full-text content]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said the first-known case of omicron Covid in the U.S. was found in a person who had traveled internationally and started presenting symptoms on Nov. 15.
The new infection timeline means omicron arrived in the U.S. earlier than first thought. California had reported what was believed to be the first confirmed case on Dec. 1. An international traveler returned to San Francisco from South Africa on Nov. 22, developed symptoms three days later and tested positive on Nov. 29.
The CDC said 22 states have confirmed at least one omicron case, and some of those cases indicate community spread is underway. Among 43 omicron Covid patients, 33% reported international travel during the 14 days before symptom onset or testing positive, according to the CDC.
Case investigations have identified exposures associated with international and domestic travel, large public events and household transmission.
One vaccinated person was hospitalized for two days, but there haven't been any deaths reported to date among the patients who have been followed by health officials, according to the CDC.
Among the cases, 58% of the patients were between 18 and 39 years of age, and 79% were fully vaccinated at least 14 days before symptom onset or testing positive. Fourteen people had received booster doses and six had recovered from previous Covid infections, according to the CDC. Five received their booster dose less than 14 days before symptom onset.
The most common reported symptoms were cough, fatigue and congestion, or a runny nose.
"Many of the first reported cases of omicron variant infection appear to be mild, although as with all variants, a lag exists between infection and more severe outcomes, and symptoms would be expected to be milder in vaccinated persons and those with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection than in an unvaccinated person," the CDC said in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality report on Friday.
The World Health Organization has said the omicron variant appears to be more contagious than the predominant delta variant, though more data is needed for conclusive answers. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has said early reports of mild symptoms are encouraging, though more data is needed to determine the possible severity of health outcomes.
The U.K. Health Security Agency warned on Wednesday that the spread of the omicron variant is widening, eclipsing the previous delta one. Health Secretary Sajid Javid told British lawmakers that omicron infections in the U.K. could top 1 million by year-end.
In an online briefing, Barbara Ferrer said the increase was visible by Dec. 1, when the county's seven-day average daily number of new cases topped 1,000 -- a 19% increase from the previous week.
"We do expect increases to continue on the heels of our Thanksgiving gatherings, but already, based on trends, we are looking at possible beginnings of a winter surge,'' Ferrer said.
She said the county's current average daily rate of new infections has risen to 13 per 100,000 residents, up from 8 per 100,000 residents a week ago.
The seven-day cumulative rate of infections rose to 113 per 100,000, moving the county back into the category of "high'' transmission as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The county was previously in the less-severe "substantial'' transmission category.
MORE: How severe is omicron? Expert says variant's 50 mutations could be its downfall
That category requires a county to have a cumulative seven-day transmission rate of less than 100 cases per 100,000 residents.
Ferrer said the county's case increase was also reflected in schools.
"In the week following the Thanksgiving break, cases among students in particular rose to their highest level since late September,'' Ferrer said. "If, as we suspect, this increase in cases reflects transmission that took place during holiday gatherings, we should consider this an early warning about the upcoming December holiday.''
Ferrer said infections among students are likely due to Thanksgiving gatherings, because transmission at schools remains low thanks to strict infection-control measures on campus, such as regular testing and mandatory mask-wearing.
She acknowledged that with the widespread availability of vaccines and the benefit of more experience preventing and treating infections, the county can be considered to be "much better off'' than last winter.
READ ALSO | Traces of omicron found in Southern California sewage, scientists say
"I don't want to downplay the fact that we continue to now be back in what the CDC classifies as the tier of 'high' transmission,'' she said.
"So we have a lot of community transmission going on. And when you have a lot of community transmission going on and there's lots and lots of opportunities of people intermingling, you run the risk of these numbers just continuing to grow. And every time they grow and we see more and more cases, we all know it results unfortunately in a higher number of people that will end up in the hospital and tragically pass away.''
COVID vaccines will likely limit the impact of a major winter surge on hospitals and the county's overall health care system, Ferrer said, noting that while vaccinated people may get infected, they are less likely to become severely ill and require hospitalization.
But she said more people need to get the shots to prevent strain on hospitals.
"There's a lot we all need to do to slow down transmission and that we're obviously not all doing,'' she said, urging vaccinated residents to get booster shots to counter waning immunity from the original shots.
She said five million people in the county are eligible for booster shots, but only 1.6 million booster doses have been administered.
"All of you who are waiting, please don't wait any longer,'' she said. "The boosters are essential to add additional protection.''
The county reported another 15 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, raising the death toll to 27,288.
Another 1,718 new infections were also reported, giving the county a pandemic total of 1,541,886.
The number of those patients being treated in intensive care was 158, up from 151 a day earlier.
The rolling average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 1.4% as of Thursday.
According to the most recent figures, 83% of county residents aged 12 and over have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 75% are fully vaccinated. Of all eligible residents aged 5 and over, 77% have received at least one dose, and 69% are fully vaccinated.
Of the more than 6.15 million fully vaccinated people in the county, 84,931 have tested positive, or about 1.38%.
A total of 2,798 vaccinated people have been hospitalized, for a rate of 0.046%, and 537 have died, for a rate of 0.009%.
While the county Department of Public Health has identified a total of four cases of the new omicron variant of COVID-19 -- and Long Beach has confirmed one additional case -- Ferrer said the delta variant remains the dominant strain of the virus in the county, accounting for more than 99% of cases that undergo genetic sequencing.
Ferrer said the county is now conducting sequencing of 25% of all positive cases to identify COVID variants.
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JERUSALEM, Dec 9 (Reuters) - One month after her son Eran had recovered from a mild case of COVID-19, Sara Bittan rushed the three-year-old to the emergency room. He had high fever, a rash, his eyes and lower body were swollen and red, his stomach was hurting and he was crying in pain.
Eventually diagnosed with the rare multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), also known as pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome, or PIMS, Eran was hospitalized in October for a week and has fully recovered, Bittan said.
"It is important for me to tell parents, mothers, all over the world that there is a risk. They should know," said Bittan. "He suffered a lot and I suffered with him."
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors worldwide are learning more about how the illness impacts children.
While cases of severe illness and death remain far more rare among pediatric patients than adults, tens of thousands of children may struggle with its effects. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites COVID-19 as one of the top-10 causes of death among children age 5 to 11.
A very small portion can suffer badly from complications, such as PIMS, which affects fewer than 0.1% of infected children. "Long COVID" - the persistence of symptoms weeks or months after infection - affects children as well as adults.
A growing number of countries are making COVID-19 vaccines eligible for younger children. The European Union will begin a campaign to inoculate 5- to 11-year-olds next week, while a similar U.S. vaccination drive that began in November appears to be losing momentum.
Doctors hope the knowledge they have gained will not only improve treatment, but also help parents understand the risks of COVID-19 as they consider vaccinating their children.
"Long COVID and PIMS are a major consideration in getting vaccinated," said Liat Ashkenazi-Hoffnung, who heads the post-coronavirus clinic at Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel.
PIMS, which typically occurs a few weeks after coronavirus infection, is caused by the immune system suddenly going into overdrive, creating inflammation in the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, and gastrointestinal organs. Affected children may spend up to two weeks in hospital, some requiring intensive care.
The CDC cited close to 6,000 PIMS cases nationwide, including 52 deaths. It is roughly estimated at 3 cases per 10,000 children, according to Boston Children’s Hospital's Audrey Dionne, about in line with some European statistics and with the Israeli estimate of one in every 3,500 children infected and a fatality rate of 1%-2%.
Singapore's Ministry of Health cites six cases of PIMS among more than 8,000 pediatric COVID-19 cases.
'VERY DISHEARTENED'
Doctors say they have learned how to better treat the condition with most children recovering. UK studies of children six months and one year after PIMS show that most problems had resolved.
"Children from the second wave and now from the third wave (of COVID-19) are benefiting from the information of the first wave," said Karyn Moshal, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.
A six-month assessment by Moshal and colleagues published in the Lancet found organ damage to be uncommon in children who were hospitalized with PIMS. Lingering symptoms including mental fatigue and physical weakness often persisted, but resolved with time.
"They get tired more quickly. So schoolwork is affected because they can only concentrate for a shorter period of time," Moshal said. "Understanding this is important both for the families and for the young people because they can get very disheartened, and also for schools and teachers to understand how to deal with it."
Several UK and U.S. studies have found that PIMS is more likely to affect Black, Hispanic and Asian children, although the reasons for that are still unknown.
Identifying long COVID in children presents more of a challenge. Determining its prevalence depends on what symptoms are looked at, and from whom the information is collected - physicians, parents or the children themselves, said Ashkenazi-Hoffnung.
Cautious estimates find about 1% of children with coronavirus will suffer long COVID, said Zachi Grossman, chairman of the Israel Pediatric Association.
Ashkenazi-Hoffnung said her clinic has treated around 200 children for long COVID.
She believes that is likely only the "tip of the iceberg" among previously healthy children and teens, who months after being infected suffer symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, headaches, tremors and dizziness.
"It can dramatically affect quality of life," she said.
Simple actions like climbing stairs, running for a bus or simply standing or walking are intolerable, Ashkenazi-Hoffnung said. Some children have developed asthma-like symptoms or hearing loss, and some toddlers who had been walking reverted to crawling because they were so tired and achy.
Most children do recover with time, she said, aided by physiotherapy and medication. Around 20% are still struggling.
Ashkenazi-Hoffnung and Moshal noted an extra burden observed in children who suffered PIMS or long COVID - a sense of stigma and shame.
"I was quite shocked by this,” said Moshal. "You can't ascribe blame or shame for being infected with a disease."
Additional reporting by Rami Amichay in Tel Aviv, Hannah Confino and Rinat Harash in Jerusalem; Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Alistair Smout and Josephine Mason in London and Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Article From & Read More ( Doctors weigh COVID-19 impact on children as vaccine drives ramp up - Reuters )
The jump in cases in South Africa following omicron's emergence hasn't overwhelmed hospitals
Pfizer Inc.'s vaccine provides less immunity to the omicron variant than to other major versions of Covid-19, according to laboratory experiments that still indicated a third dose may help stop the highly mutated strain.
Researchers at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, found omicron resulted in about a 40-fold reduction in levels of neutralizing antibodies produced by people who had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech SE shot, compared with the strain detected in China almost two years ago.
The loss of immune protection is "robust, but not complete," Alex Sigal, head of research at the laboratory, said in an online presentation of the first reported experiments gauging the effectiveness of the vaccine against the new variant.
"There will be more breakthrough" of vaccine-induced immunity, Sigal said. "A good booster probably would decrease your chance of infection, especially severe infection leading to more severe disease. People who haven't had a booster should get one, and people who have been previously infected should be vaccinated."
Representatives for Pfizer and BioNTech, makers of the first Covid vaccine cleared in the U.S., didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The study may add to the debate over whether tweaked, omicron-targeted vaccines will be needed soon to continue effectively fighting the pandemic. Moderna Inc. President Stephen Hoge has said there's a risk that existing vaccines will be less effective against the strain, although U.S. medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the severity of illness caused by the variant may be limited.
Omicron's rapid spread in South Africa has raised concern that the immune protection from vaccination or a previous bout of Covid-19 may be insufficient to stop reinfections or stem a fresh wave of cases and hospitalizations. The World Health Organization has warned omicron could fuel surges with "severe consequences" amid signs that it makes the coronavirus more transmissible.
Cautious Optimism
Still, the jump in cases in South Africa following omicron's emergence hasn't overwhelmed hospitals so far, prompting some cautious optimism that the new strain may cause mostly mild illness.
Since South Africa announced the discovery of omicron on Nov. 25, about 450 researchers globally have been working to isolate the variant from patient specimens, grow it in labs, verify its genomic sequence, and establish methods to test it in blood-plasma samples, according to the WHO.
The work in Sigal's lab involved testing 14 blood plasma samples collected from a dozen people who had been given a second Pfizer-BioNTech shot about a month earlier to gauge the concentration of antibodies needed to neutralize, or block, the virus. Levels of neutralizing antibodies against omicron were notably higher in a subset of participants who had a bout of Covid about a year earlier, Sigal said.
That's "promising," said John Wherry, director of the institute for immunology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. It likely means an additional dose of the currently available vaccines would boost levels of neutralizing antibodies to omicron, though more data are needed to confirm that, he said.
The results are preliminary and exact levels of immune escape may change, Sigal said. The results, along with those from other labs studying the strain, will help determine whether existing Covid vaccines need to be altered to protect against omicron.
Sigal's laboratory was the first to isolate the beta variant, a strain of the coronavirus that was identified in South Africa in late 2020. He noted that omicron escapes antibody neutralization more readily than beta, which had been considered the most immune evasive of the variants of concern detected previously.
Article From & Read More ( Pfizer Jab Provides Less Immunity To Omicron Than Other Variants: Study - NDTV )[unable to retrieve full-text content]
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Men and people who speak at louder volumes more easily spread COVID-19, according to researchers at Colorado State University (CSU).
In a November study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, a multidisciplinary team at the school examined respiratory aerosol emissions from a panel of healthy individuals of varying age and gender while talking and singing in a controlled laboratory setting.
The group measured particle number concentrations between 0.25 and 33 micrometers from 63 participants ages 12-61 years old, and voice volume and exhaled CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels were monitored.
COVID-19 OMICRON VARIANT: STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO PROTECT YOURSELF
Measurements were taken while subjects were both masked and unmasked inside the lab of professor and study co-author John Volckens.
Researchers concluded that singing produced 77% more aerosol than talking, adults produced 62% more aerosol than minors and males produced 34% more aerosol than females.
However, after accounting for participant voice volume and exhaled CO2 measurements in linear models, the age and sex differences were "attenuated and no longer statistically significant."
Results from wind instrument-playing experiments are pending further data analysis and peer review. The study was originally developed early on during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to determine what people in performing arts can do to safely return to the stage.
"Is singing worse than talking when it comes to how many particles are being emitted? Yes, according to the study. And, the louder one talks or sings, the worse the emissions," the university said in a news post on its website, detailing the study.
"If there were significant differences after accounting for CO2 between males and females and kids, then you’d have to know how many males, females, and minors were in a room to estimate transmission risks," Volckens said in a statement. "Our data suggest that you don’t need to know that if you just measure CO2 and noise levels, because those measures are an equalizer for these demographic differences."
COVID-RELATED STRESS WEIGHS HEAVILY ON GEN Z
Limitations include that controlled study designs – including the laboratory environment – may "lack generalizability" to real-world situations, other types of vocal activities were not considered, the group did not quantify respiratory disease transmission risk and that additional observation and research is necessary to characterize respiratory aerosol emissions during early childhood development.
Dan Goble, director of the CSU School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and colleagues raised nearly $100,000 in support of the study.
Goble said that working with the CSU engineers helped his team to better understand how visual and performing arts could reimplement their programming.
After going virtual in spring 2020, current performing arts protocols at CSU include the use of masks, restrictions on occupancy venue times, physical distancing of at least six feet for voice lessons and extra time between classes for performance rooms to undergo sufficient air exchanges between rehearsals.
The availability of COVID-19 vaccines – CSU has a 90% vaccination rate – has "changed the game," according to Goble.
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"We are so fortunate to have experts like (Volckens) who gave us some really wonderful information to help us make decisions about what we can and can’t do in the (University Center for the Arts)," he said.
These results, study authors noted, support further investigation of voice volume and CO2 as indicators of infection risk indoors.
Article From & Read More ( COVID-19 spread more by men, loud talkers: study - Fox News )
As the omicron coronavirus variant spreads in southern Africa and pops up in countries all around the world, scientists are anxiously watching a battle play out that could determine the future of the pandemic. Can the latest competitor to the world-dominating delta overthrow it?
Some scientists, poring over data from South Africa and the United Kingdom, suggest omicron could emerge the victor.
“It’s still early days, but increasingly, data is starting to trickle in, suggesting that omicron is likely to outcompete delta in many, if not all, places,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical School.
But others said Monday it’s too soon to know how likely it is that omicron will spread more efficiently than delta, or, if it does, how fast it might take over.
“Especially here in the U.S., where we’re seeing significant surges in delta, whether omicron’s going to replace it I think we’ll know in about two weeks,” said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Many critical questions about omicron remain unanswered, including whether the virus causes milder or more severe illness and how much it might evade immunity from past COVID-19 illness or vaccines.
On the issue of spread, scientists point to what’s happening in South Africa, where omicron was first detected. Omicron’s speed in infecting people and achieving near dominance in South Africa has health experts worried that the country is at the start of a new wave that may come to overwhelm hospitals.
The new variant rapidly moved South Africa from a period of low transmission, averaging less than 200 new cases per day in mid-November, to more than 16,000 per day over the weekend. Omicron accounts for more than 90% of the new cases in Gauteng province, the epicenter of the new wave, according to experts. The new variant is rapidly spreading and achieving dominance in South Africa’s eight other provinces.
“The virus is spreading extraordinarily fast,” said Willem Hanekom, director of the Africa Health Research Institute. “If you look at the slopes of this wave that we’re in at the moment, it’s a much steeper slope than the first three waves that South Africa experienced. This indicates that it’s spreading fast and it may therefore be a very transmissible virus.”
But Hanekom, who is also co-chair the South African COVID-19 Variants Research Consortium, said South Africa had such low numbers of delta cases when omicron emerged, “I don’t think we can say” it out-competed delta.
Scientists say it’s unclear whether omicron will behave the same way in other countries as it has in South Africa. Lemieux said there are already some hints about how it may behave; in places like the United Kingdom, which does a lot of genomic sequencing, he said, “we’re seeing what appears to be a signal of exponential increase of omicron over delta.”
In the United States, as in the rest of the world, “there’s still a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “But when you put the early data together, you start to see a consistent picture emerge: that omicron is already here, and based on what we’ve observed in South Africa, it’s likely to become the dominant strain in the coming weeks and months and will likely cause a surge in case numbers.”
What that could mean for public health remains to be seen. Hanekom said early data from South Africa shows that reinfection rates are much higher with omicron than previous variants, suggesting the virus is escaping immunity somewhat. It also shows the virus seems to be infecting younger people, mostly those who are unvaccinated, and most cases in hospitals have been relatively mild.
But Binnicker said things could play out differently in other parts of the world or in different groups of patients. “It’ll be really interesting to see what happens when more infections potentially occur in older adults or those with underlying health conditions,” he said. “What’s the outcome in those patients?”
As the world waits for answers, scientists suggest people do all they can to protect themselves.
“We want to make sure that people have as much immunity from vaccination as possible. So if people are not vaccinated they should get vaccinated,” Lemieux said. “If people are eligible for boosters, they should get boosters, and then do all the other things that we know are effective for reducing transmission -- masking and social distancing and avoiding large indoor gatherings, particularly without masks.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Article From & Read More ( Omicron v. delta: Battle of coronavirus mutants is critical - Associated Press )
Fort Collins, Colorado – A study focused on tracking the spread of COVID-19 in performing arts settings has also unveiled the population of humans who spread the most COVID-19 particles. Researchers at Colorado State University learned that men more frequently spread the coronavirus particles than women or children.
The study, which lasted months, was originally developed in an effort to see what those in the performing arts can do to facilitate a safe return to the stage following the pandemic. The performing arts, from the educational level all the way to Broadway performances, were some of the most drastically impacted fields.
Theaters, concert venues and more were completely shut down for more than a year.
"COVID shut the performing arts down almost overnight," said Dan Goble, director of CSU's School of Music, Theater and Dance. "It wasn't just a CSU problem, this was a national problem. Think about all the public-school bands, choirs and orchestras."
Goble wanted to research the correlation between the spread of COVID-19 and the performing arts. Fortunately, CSU had qualified researchers and resources already on campus to do the study in-house. Goble partnered with John Volckens, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, to conduct the study.
More than 75 different people participated in the study which largely took place in a chamber used for testing particles in the air. Participants were of different ages and skillsets. Some were asked to sing songs like "Happy Birthday" repetitively. Others were asked to perform songs on instruments.
"Singing definitely emits more particles than talking," Volckens told CBS Denver's Dillon Thomas.
While the study, entitled "Reducing Bioaerosol Emission and Exposures in the Performing Arts: A Scientific Roadmap for a Safe Return from COVID-19," was intended to focus on the spread of coronavirus in performing arts venues, it also unveiled a larger set of information when it comes to the virus as a whole.
"Adults tend to emit more particles than children," Volckens said. "The reason men tend to emit more particles is because we have bigger lungs."
Volckens said the virus also spreads more easily among those who speak at louder volumes.
"The volume of your voice is an indicator of how much energy you're putting into your voice box. That energy translates to more particles coming out of your body. These are particles that carry the COVID-19 virus and infect other people," Volckens said.
Volckens said indoor venues which are louder are at greatest risk for spread of COVID-19. Loud enclosed locations like bars, sports arenas and concert venues can be susceptible to high levels of spread. Volckens said other events, like a ballet with infrequent loud audience responses, are more safe than a concert with thousands of screaming or singing fans.
Goble said the next phase of the project is looking into what instruments spread COVID-19 more frequently. One takeaway from the study thus far has been the importance of having proper ventilation at indoor arts venues.
While the pandemic proved detrimental to the business model surrounding the performing arts, many venues are now making a return courtesy of masks and vaccinations.
"The performing arts did the right thing by shutting down in 2020, they definitely saved lives. Because we know now, when you sing or talk at a loud volume, you produce more particles," Volckens said.
This story originally appeared on CBS Denver.
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Average blood pressure readings increased as the coronavirus spread, new research suggests. The finding portends medical repercussions far beyond Covid-19.
Last year was a tough one. Americans grappled with a global pandemic, the loss of loved ones, lockdowns that splintered social networks, stress, unemployment and depression.
It is probably no surprise that the nation’s blood pressure shot up.
On Monday, scientists reported that blood pressure measurements of nearly a half-million adults showed a significant rise last year, compared with the previous year.
These measurements describe the pressure of blood against the walls of the arteries. Over time, increased pressure can damage the heart, the brain, blood vessels, kidneys and eyes. Sexual function can also be affected.
“These are very important data that are not surprising, but are shocking,” said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Association, who was not involved in the study.
“Even small changes in average blood pressure in the population,” he added, “can have a huge impact on the number of strokes, heart failure events and heart attacks that we’re likely to be seeing in the coming months.”
The study, published as a research letter in the journal Circulation, is a stark reminder that even in the midst of a pandemic that has claimed more than 785,000 American lives and disrupted access to health care, chronic health conditions must still be managed.
Almost half of all American adults have hypertension, or high blood pressure, a chronic condition referred to as a “silent killer” because it can have life-threatening consequences, though it produces few symptoms.
Hypertension may also put people at greater risk for severe disease if they are infected with the coronavirus. (The evidence for that link is mixed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
The new study, by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and Quest Diagnostics, examined data from hundreds of thousands of Quest employees and spouses who participated in a company wellness program that tracked blood pressure and other health indicators, like weight. The participants, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, included people who had elevated blood pressure and normal blood pressure at the start of the study.
“We observed that people weren’t exercising as much during the pandemic, weren’t getting regular care, were drinking more and sleeping less,” said Dr. Luke Laffin, the lead author, a preventive cardiologist who is co-director of the Center for Blood Pressure Disorders at the Cleveland Clinic. “We wanted to know, was their blood pressure changing during the pandemic?”
The researchers found that blood pressure readings changed little from 2019 to the first three months of 2020, but increased significantly from April 2020 through December 2020, compared with the same period in 2019.
Blood pressure is measured in units of millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and consists of two numbers. The first number refers to systolic pressure as the heart contracts, and the second number refers to diastolic pressure as the heart rests between beats. Normal blood pressure is said to be 120/80 mm Hg or less, although there is decades-long dispute about the optimal levels.
The new study found that the average monthly change from April 2020 to December 2020, compared with the previous year, was 1.10 mm Hg to 2.50 mm Hg for systolic blood pressure, and 0.14 to 0.53 for diastolic blood pressure.
The increases held true for both men and women, and in all age groups. Larger increases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were seen in women.
The average age of the study participants was just over 45, and slightly more than half were women. But critics said the failure to include information on the race and the ethnicity of participants was a significant weakness in the study, as hypertension is much more prevalent among Black Americans than among white or Hispanic Americans.
Black people have also been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Dr. Laffin said information on race and ethnicity was available only for 6 percent of the study participants, so an analysis would not be meaningful.
But there is a big difference between Black Americans and white and Hispanic Americans when it comes to hypertension, said Dr. Kim Williams, a cardiologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and an author of the national blood pressure guidelines that were issued in 2017.
The Omicron variant. The latest Covid-19 variant was identified on Nov. 25 by scientists in South Africa and has since been detected in at least 45 countries, including the U.S. New York State identified its first cases on Dec. 2, and at least 16 other states have reported infections. Should you be concerned? Here are answers to common questions about Omicron.
“The hypertensive state has been epidemic in the African-American population for decades,” he said. “Our therapies have improved and our attempt at calling it out have improved, yet the gap is widening. And we know the pandemic has hit different cultures and different aspects of society in different ways.”
The causes of an overall increase in blood pressure are not clear, Dr. Laffin and his colleagues said. The reasons may include an increase in alcohol consumption, a decline in exercise, rising stress, a drop in doctors’ visits and less adherence to a medication regimen.
The researchers dismissed a possible effect of weight gain, known to raise blood pressure, saying that the men in the study had lost weight and that the women had not gained more weight than usual.
But other experts pointed out that average figures for weight gain might mask gains in segments of the population.
“It is probably multifactorial,” said Dr. Lloyd-Jones, referring to the overall rise in blood pressure. “But I think a critical piece is that we know so many people lost contact with the health care system, and lost control of blood pressure and diabetes.”
Americans must pay greater attention to overall health and the management of underlying medical conditions despite the pandemic, Dr. Laffin said, adding that the penalty for not doing so might outlast the coronavirus itself.
“There are also public health consequences from not seeing your doctor regularly, making poor dietary choices and not exercising,” he said. “If we think about the long-term implications, that’s potentially more profound.”
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MONROE, La. (KNOE) -An Ouachita Parish woman died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in 2020. It left her husband searching for answers and a year later, he discovered her symptoms were similar to a disease found in deer called Chronic Wasting Disease. CWD causes blindness, the inability to walk and to eat.
“We were married 47 years and she died four days after our 47th anniversary. Now in the studies that I’ve done, it’s possible to transmit Chronic Wasting Disease to humans,” said Jeff Holloway, a West Monroe Resident.
The CDC says there is no evidence that CWD can infect humans. The Deer Program Manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the disease could live in deer for more than a year without any symptoms. He says the community should get their deer tested for CWD. He also says if deer test positive, don’t eat the meat.
“Again, in most cases, hunters will be unaware. That’s kind of the importance of surveillance. We’ve been conducting surveillance since 2002, we’ve tested over 12,000 deer in Louisiana,” said Johnathan Bordelon, the Deer Program Manager at Louisiana Department of Wildlife.
Officials say they haven’t found a positive case of CWD in Louisiana. Click here if you would like to find out how to get your deer tested.
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