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US Experiencing Covid-19 Surge In Every State 

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Every state in the US is currently experiencing a rise in Covid-19 cases, with healthcare professionals and experts warning citizens to be on the lookout for symptoms, and stay diligent with healthy lifestyle practices. 

Dr. John Brooks, an infectious disease doctor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia who also used to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told NPR about how as a country, “we’re now in the midst of a growing summer surge of Covid.” 

“I think most of us kind of feel like it’s fading away and are certainly very grateful for that. But nationally we’re seeing [Covid-19] ticking up pretty much everywhere.”

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According to the CDC, the disease is mainly spreading in the South and West, but is also rising in the Northeast and Midwest. As of right now, however, the virus is still at very low levels, and the current wave of infections is following along the trend of getting milder each year, with less people being hospitalized or dying. 

“What we’re seeing is very likely evidence of growing herd immunity if you will,” Dr. Brooks said. 

“More and more people have had one or more infections that give them some immunity against the virus and have had more than one vaccination, or maybe both, and all of that really has begun to offer us a lot of protection.”

The most important thing that doctors want US residents to remember is Covid-19 never disappeared, and is still greatly impacting communities around the nation. Many are still finding themselves feeling intensely sick for up to two weeks, and for some people, Covid can still cause serious disease, hospitalizations, and in the worst of cases, death. 

Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, emphasized this point to NPR, stating that “Covid-19 is still dangerous, particularly for older adults, infants, and people who are immunocompromised.” 

“In a typical office if you have 20 colleagues, it’s likely that one or two of them are some degree of immunocompromised. So it’s very common that people have risk factors that make Covid-19 dangerous.”

Rivers also pointed out that unlike flu season, which sees a major surge in the winter months, Covid-19 has seen spikes twice a year since the initial pandemic in 2020. That biannual surge remains a mystery to experts. 

“It’s a big mystery as far as I’m concerned. It is the only seasonal respiratory virus that has a summer season. To my knowledge, we don’t know what is causing this seasonality.”

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Rivers advises the general public to stay up to date on their vaccines, and pointed out how she still wears a mask when she’s in crowded places. Staying consistent with your vaccines also allows the body to stay strong against the new and dominant strains that emerge. 

The CDC has not issued any updated recommendations for Covid-19 vaccinations due to litigation over the Trump administration’s work to overhaul immunizations in the US, according to reports. 

The administration itself no longer recommends that everyone aged 6 months and older routinely get an annual shot. Major medical groups, however, still highly recommend it. 

Major insurance companies throughout the nation have also emphasized that they will continue to cover the costs of vaccinations, and the shots themselves will also still be free through other government programs. 

Public health experts are worried about the opposing messages regarding vaccines and how they might confuse more vulnerable populations as well. 

Claire Hannan, for example, is an executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers which works to advocate for immunization and the multiple free programs that offer them throughout the US. 

“The message is that the Covid-19 vaccine and the flu vaccine will be available, they’re covered by insurers, they’re recommended by medical societies. People should get them and get them for their kids.”

Dr. Brooks also pointed out that there’s also now a new drug called Xocova that individuals can take right after they’ve been exposed to the virus to decrease their chances of getting sick from Covid-19. This will especially be useful for individuals working in the healthcare industry who are exposed to a myriad of sick patients every day. 

“It is something for people to just have in the back of their mind.”

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Strange Structures In The Blood Of Long Covid Patients Could Be The Cause Of Their Symptoms 

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In a new study, medical researchers have found that unusual microscopic structures in the blood of those suffering from long Covid may be the cause of their symptoms such as brain fog and fatigue. 

A team of medical researchers, led by geneticist Alain Thierry of Montpellier University in France, wrote in a paper that “this study shows a robust association between biomarkers indicative of thromboinflammatory activity and long Covid.”

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“The discovery of these biomarker linkages not only presents a possible novel diagnostic methodology but also novel therapeutic targets, offering prospects for future markedly improved clinical management.”

While a direct reasoning for the symptoms of long Covid lasting for months to years after their initial Covid-19 infection isn’t yet clear, this study offers a window of opportunity for treatment. 

Science Alert reported that back in 2021, physiologist Resia Pretorius of Stellenbosch University in South Africa said microclots could be a reason for the lingering symptoms. Microclots are abnormally persistent blood clots that are smaller than those seen in conditions like stroke, but large enough to impact blood flow. 

In 2022, Thierry and his colleagues showed that patients with long Covid have “elevated levels of neutrophil extracellular traps, also known as NETs.” NETs are “sticky webs of DNA and enzymes released by white blood cells to capture and contain pathogens invading the body,” Michelle Starr of Science Alert reports. 

In typical circumstances, NETs do their jobs and then break down, but when they’re released in larger numbers, they can cause blood flow problems. 

Both Pretorius and Thierry collaborated on this new research, and have combined their previous findings to suggest that NETS and microclots both interact in the blood of long Covid patients. 

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The researchers studied blood samples from 50 patients with long Covid and 38 healthy volunteers. They focused particularly on comparing the differences in microclots and NETs in both groups; who had individuals from France and South Africa. 

It was revealed that patients with long Covid had a noticeably higher number of microclots when compared to the healthy group. An increase in NETs also paralleled the increase in microclots within long Covid patients. 

Something new that the team reported was “the NETs appeared to be physically embedded within the microclots, an association that had never before been reported.”

That particular association was found in all the samples observed from both groups. The impact of this increase was more prominent in the long Covid group.

“This finding suggests the existence of underlying physiological interactions between microclots and NETs that, when dysregulated, may become pathogenic,” Thierry explained.

Now, scientists, researchers, and medical professionals could utilize both microclots and NETs as a biomarker to diagnose long Covid, which has been difficult to diagnose. 

The research has been published in the Journal of Medical Virology.

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Covid-19 Vaccine Accessibility: What You Need To Know About New Restrictions For Receiving Immunizations 

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The Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it has removed the emergency use authorizations for Covid-19 vaccines. Now, only certain populations in the US will have access to the new shot starting this fall.

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Long Covid Symptoms Comparable To Parkinson’s And Stroke, According To New Study 

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The World Health Organization defines long Covid as symptoms that are lasting at least three months after initial infection. The illness has become an ongoing battle for many individuals around the world from the pandemic, and while health experts and scientists have learned more about it in the past four years, there’s still a lot unknown regarding the intricacies of long Covid. 

A lot of the research surrounding long Covid has been focused around the symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog. Now, a new study from Australia published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health showed how limited individuals suffering from long Covid are in their daily life. 

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Long Covid impacts about 6% of people who have been infected with Covid-19. There have been more than 200 symptoms recorded. For some people, it lasts a few months, for others known as “long haulers” it can stretch into years. 

Past studies have shown that long Covid reduces quality of life to levels that parallel chronic fatigue syndrome, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, and Parkinson’s disease. 

This new study specifically surveyed 121 adults across Australia that are living with long Covid and initially were infected with Covid-19 between February 2020 and June 2022. Most of the individuals were aged 36 to 50 and were never hospitalized and able to manage their illness at home. 

Researchers asked the participants to complete two surveys that are used in health research to measure disability and quality of life known as the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule and the Short Form Health Survey. 

Both of the surveys work to paint a full picture of people’s lived experiences to show researchers what it truly means to live with these symptoms and how they impact their everyday life. 

The people who were surveyed with long Covid reported worse disability than 98% of the general population in Australia. 86% of the individuals with long Covid met the criteria for serious disability compared to 9% of Australians overall. 

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Reports show that people, on average, have trouble with daily activities about 27 days a month and are unable to function for about 18 days. While those surveyed said they could meet some basic needs, they didn’t have the ability to contribute to their homes, workplaces, and communities. 

Overall quality of life scores were 23% lower than the general population. 

Another study that surveyed people across 13 countries found similar levels of disability, and found that women have higher disability scores than men. 

Long Covid has no specific diagnostic test, and individuals suffering with it are often met with skepticism by their health professionals when it comes to their symptoms and its daily impact. 

There are some advancements being made to take long Covid more seriously, but so many are still suffering in the meantime. A 2023 parliamentary long Covid inquiry estimated hundreds of thousands of Australians are living with long Covid, and around the world the numbers are much higher. 

The researchers are stating that there needs to be developed services that are based on real peoples lived experiences. There needs to be accessible tools for people to manage fatigue, brain fog, and the ways in which long Covid impacts everyday life. 

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Covid-19 Pandemic Accelerated Aging In Our Brains

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The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated our brain’s aging, regardless of if you were infected or not, according to a new study published recently in Nature Communications.

Researchers in the study looked at brain scans from 1,000 people during and before the pandemic. They then compared those to brain scans from other people taken during standard times as a model for typical brain aging.  

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Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad from the University of Nottingham School of Medicine in the U.K. led the study, and with his team of researchers they were able to measure brain function, gray and white matter volume, cognitive skills, and chronological age, according to reports. 

The team emphasized the importance of looking at both gray and white matter in this study as gray matter is critical for our memory, emotions, and movement while white matter helps our nerves transmit electrical signals. 

The data showed that the pandemic aged our brains about 5.5 months faster when compared to how our brains aged pre-pandemic. What was especially interesting was the fact that this accelerated aging was found in both people who ended up getting infected with Covid and those who didn’t. 

This suggests that pandemic-factors outside of just viral infection impacted the way our bodies and brains functioned. 

“This finding was interesting and rather unexpected, we found that participants who simply lived through the pandemic period, regardless of infection, also showed signs of slightly accelerated brain aging.” says Mohammadi-Nejad. 

“This highlights that the broader experience of the pandemic—including disruptions to daily life, stress, reduced social interactions, reduced activity, etc.,—may have had a measurable impact on brain health.”

Certain demographics also experienced an even higher level of accelerated brain aging. The study wrote that elderly people, men, individuals with compromised health, lower educational status/income, or unstable housing were among those groups. 

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More specifically, individuals with less stable employment during the pandemic had an average of five more months of brain aging compared to those with higher/more stable employment. 

Individuals with compromised immune systems/general health had an additional four months of increased brain aging. 

While only individuals who were infected with Covid-19 showed a decrease in cognitive skills, the fact that those who were never infected showed an acceleration in brain aging shows that other factors of the pandemic impacted the way we all function. 

“Brain health can be influenced by everyday life activities, and major societal disruptions—like those experienced during the pandemic—can leave a mark even in healthy individuals,” Mohammadi-Nejad says. 

“This adds to our understanding of public health by reinforcing the importance of considering mental, cognitive, and social well-being alongside traditional physical health indicators during future crisis-response planning.”

Mohammadi-Nejad said a healthy diet, exercise, solid sleep schedule, and social interactions are important to help our brains function properly, 

“Whether these can reverse the specific changes we observed remains to be studied,” he says.

UK Gives First Patient New Treatment For Loss Of Smell 

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The first patient in the UK is testing out a new treatment for the loss of her sense of smell, a common symptom connected to Covid-19 and other viral infections.

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CDC Says Covid-19 And Flu Rates Are Rising Across The US 

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According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans are experiencing a rise in respiratory illnesses such as Covid-19 and the flu. 

The CDC made the announcement last week, stating that both Covid-19 and seasonal influenza activity is rising from low levels in most areas around  the country. 

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Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the rates of infection have always increased around the winter time during flu season. 

In 2024, between December 21st and December 28th, Covid-19 positivity rates increased from 7% to 7.1% while influenza’s test positivity rates increased from 12% to 18.7%. 

The CDC also stated that the positivity rates for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is currently very high around the US, specifically in young children. 

The Center also stated that emergency department visits and hospitalization rates are currently highest for children with rates for older adults increasing in some areas of the US as well. 

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Despite these high and increasing rates, vaccination coverage for Covid-19, influenza, and RSV are low among adults and children. 

The CDC is expecting the winter virus season to “have a similar or lower peak number of combined hospitalizations from Covid-19, influenza and RSV compared with last year. However, the peak hospitalization rates from all respiratory viruses remain likely to be much higher than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic.” 

They recommend everyone get their seasonal flue vaccine as well as the 2024-25 Covid-19 vaccine for individuals 6 months or older. As always, they emphasized that older adults who are immunocompromised or at increased risk for severe disease should especially stay on top of their vaccines. 

The agency also is recommending that adults who are 75 years or older, 60 to 74 year old adults with health conditions, and those who reside in nursing homes should make sure to get their RSV vaccine.

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What Experts Want You To Know About The New Covid-19 Vaccine As Cases Continue To Surge In The US

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As Covid-19 continues its summer surge throughout the United States, new vaccines have been made available for individuals looking to get another level of protection as we enter autumn and the back-to-school season; when cases in the past few years have been known to surge. 

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are “high to very high” levels of Covid-19 in the wastewater in nearly every state, reported Politico. A recent report from the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative estimated that about 2.5% of the US population is currently infected with Covid. 

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Even with this increase in infections, the US population hasn’t been keeping up with their Covid-19 vaccinations to protect themselves from getting sick and spreading the virus further. 

“One of the challenges of today is just that people aren’t going to get vaccinated. Most people are confused. They don’t really understand what’s happening or what the risk to them is when it comes to Covid,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. 

Politico reported on a recent poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center that revealed more than 20% of Americans think it’s safer to get sick from Covid-19 than to get a vaccine. This percentage has increased by 10% within the past three years. 

The CDC revealed that last year, 22.5% of adults and 14.4% of children received an updated Covid-19 vaccine. The risk of hospitalization and death is not close to what it was back in 2021, however, that doesn’t mean that the public shouldn’t still view the virus as a threat. Immunocompromised individuals and the elderly are still those at the most risk should they be infected. 

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In June, the FDA and vaccine manufacturers worked to incorporate the KP.2 Covid strain into vaccine formulas, as that particular variant was the most prevalent in the beginning of the summer. 

However, the KP.3 and KP.3.1.1 subvariants of KP.2 are currently the most prevalent strains of Covid, and account for more than half of the cases in the US, said the CDC. 

Public health experts are still urging the population to get their updated vaccines due to the consistent surges of cases, as getting vaccinated before you’re exposed or infected is your best chance at avoiding the virus or having a less severe reaction to becoming infected. 

In fact, a CDC study showed that last year’s vaccine provided 54% protection against symptomatic Covid-19 infections. 

If an individual was recently sick with Covid, however, the CDC recommends waiting to get an updated dose until three months after the symptoms first appeared or from when they received their first positive test.

Crystal La Tour Rambaund manages the vaccine program at the Pima County Health Department in Arizona, and stated that the US is experiencing a “Covid fatigue,” meaning citizens aren’t as concerned about the virus and its spreading, despite the surges. 

“The population we are concerned about are the people on the fence. They are not completely anti-[vaccine], and they are not completely all about it. And for those groups of people, it’s a very small thing that could tip the scale in the direction of not being vaccinated,” she said. 

long covid

US Study Finds Difficulty In Finding Official Lab Test For Long Covid 

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A new study performed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has emphasized the difficulty of finding a solid lab test for long Covid. Long Covid is defined as a novel condition that involves dozens of long-lasting symptoms. 

According to reports, long Covid’s most common symptoms include brain fog, heart palpitations, and fatigue. These symptoms can become more severe, or completely change, over time, and can become completely disabling and severe. 

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Since June 2024, one in 20 adults have reported experiencing ongoing and persistent symptoms after contracting Covid-19. 

The study from NIH followed patients for four years and utilized a multitude of standard lab tests.

“Covid is just the latest example of an infectious disease that can cause a post-infectious fatigue syndrome,” Dr Paul G Auwaerter, a professor of medicine and director of the division of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The study wanted to focus on finding a specific “biomarker” that specifically identifies long Covid. A “biomarker” would allow doctors to develop a diagnostic test to more accurately and easily identify long Covid in the body. 

“Our challenge is to discover biomarkers that can help us quickly and accurately diagnose long Covid to ensure people struggling with this disease receive the most appropriate care as soon as possible,” said Dr David Goff, director for the division of cardiovascular sciences at the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

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“Long Covid symptoms can prevent someone from returning to work or school, and may even make everyday tasks a burden, so the ability for rapid diagnosis is key.”

The research was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The team looked at data from more than 10,000 adults in the US across 83 clinical sites between 2021 and 2023. Around 1,800 of the individuals were considered long Covid patients by the researchers. 

Individuals in the study received 25 standard blood and urine tests either six months after their initial infection, or when they enrolled in the study. The patients were studied for four years, and a majority of the participants were middle-aged women, which has been common in other long Covid studies.  

“Part of the challenge to finding or developing a long Covid lab test, was scientists still do not understand the mechanisms underlying chronic fatigue syndromes in general. Especially those, like Covid, that preferentially [affect] women in middle age. That makes finding a diagnostic test, “even greater as a challenge,” said Auwaerter.

Auwaerter called the task “herculean.”

“The hunt will go on, and probably move to tests that are currently used only for research, to see if they could shed some light or offer clinicians a diagnosis,” said Auwaerter.

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How The US Housing Market Is Reacting To 2024 Remote Work Trends

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The Covid-19 pandemic left America with a new standard of working. Many businesses and individuals not only started working remotely due to quarantine regulations, but continued to do so after quarantine was over. Now, experts in the real estate industry are discussing how the housing market is adapting to these work trends.

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