Coronavirus Antigen Levels Associated with COVID-19 Severity The levels of SARS-CoV-2 antigen in the blood of hospitalized COVID-19 patients appear to line up with how severe the illness is and other clinical outcomes, according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. WebMD

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New Covid Variant BA.4.6 Outcompeting Dominant BA.5 Across Swath Of U.S. For First Time CDC data indicates a new Omicron variant dubbed BA.4.6 may be able to outcompete the now-dominant BA.5 strain across the United States. Tom Tapp Deadline

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While BA.4.6 has been in the U.S. since at least May, it remained below 2% of new cases sequenced until July, when it gradually began to rise, even as BA.5 continued to do the same. As of this week’s CDC reporting, it currently stands at 7.5%. But the real wrinkle comes when the variant proportions are broken out regionally.

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US clears updated COVID boosters targeting newest variants WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Wednesday authorized its first update to COVID-19 vaccines, booster doses that target today’s most common omicron strain. Shots could begin within days. The move by the Food and Drug Administration tweaks the recipe of shots made by Pfizer and rival Moderna that already have saved millions of lives. AP NEWS

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Texas reports first U.S. death in person with monkeypox Texas on Tuesday reported the first death in a severely immunocompromised person who was diagnosed with monkeypox, according to state health department officials. Julie Steenhuysen Reuters

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The case is still under investigation to see what role monkeypox played in the death. Although painful, monkeypox is rarely fatal....

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CDC advisers to decide on Omicron-retooled boosters on Sept 1 Advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet on Thursday to vote on whether to recommend the use of two COVID-19 vaccine boosters tailored against the Omicron variant. Reuters Reuters

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The so-called bivalent vaccines include both the currently dominant BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants and the original version of the virus. ...

Fauci on COVID-19: 'We’re not going to eradicate the virus' When White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned in 2020 that living with the coronavirus was going to be our new normal, he meant it. YahooNews

"We’re not going to eradicate the virus from the face of the Earth," Fauci told Yahoo Finance in an interview on Tuesday. “I don’t believe we’re even going to eliminate it from this country to the tune of getting zero cases."

Greenland ice losses set to raise global sea levels by nearly a foot, new research shows | CNN Widespread ice losses from Greenland have locked in nearly a foot of global sea level rise in the near future -- and new research suggests there is no way to stop it, even if the world stopped releasing planet-heating emissions today. Rachel Ramirez CNN

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Constrained by a lack of sufficient resources and faced with difficult decisions amid COVID-19 surges in the first year of the pandemic, nearly 72% of US primary care, dental, and behavioral health clinicians working in safety-net clinics report experiencing mild to intense moral distress, finds a study published late last week in BMJ Open.

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U.S. govt to provide $11 mln for production of monkeypox vaccine The U.S. government said on Monday it would provide about $11 million to support the packaging of Bavarian Nordic's Jynneos monkeypox vaccine at a U.S.-based manufacturer's facility. Reuters Reuters

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‘Covid bullies’ are harassing and trolling people mourning the deaths of loved ones Instead of condolences, some people who post about the deaths of loved ones receive hateful and mocking comments. NBC News

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Such vitriol targeting a grieving person was highly unusual before the pandemic, said Ari Eisen, a co-founder of the Covid Grief Network, a group that offers support and grief counseling to young adults who've lost loved ones to Covid....