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Why scientists worldwide are watching the UK's COVID infections experiences

The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has often foreshadowed what came later elsewhere. The highly contagious Alpha variant was first detected there, and the country then reported high caseloads of the more-contagious Delta strain before this variant dispersed around the rest of the world. The United Kingdom also saw a wave of infections that seems to have preceded a similar glut now sweeping Western Europe.

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Life expectancy fell sharply in the U.S. and Russia last year because of COVID

The United States had the second-steepest decline in life expectancy among high-income countries last year during the pandemic, according to a study of death data spanning several continents

The only country studied that saw a starker overall trend was Russia.

The study, published Wednesday in The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), assessed premature death in 37 countries, comparing observed life expectancy in 2020 with what would have been expected for the year based on historical trends from 2005-2019. Life expectancy dropped in 31 of these countries during the pandemic. 

The U.S. trend was among the worst.  ...

 

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Experts are warning that the push to vaccinate kids has already been seized on by groups looking to spread anti-vaccination messages.

 

Dr. Natasha Burgert is well aware of the concerns parents have about the Covid-19 vaccines.

The Kansas pediatrician, who is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said she’s already been counseling some parents about their fears. And she worries that they are entering a particularly sensitive time — one that anti-vaccination activists could exploit.

“If the anti-vaccine industry starts doing what we anticipate, with those very graphic and emotionally charged videos, and bringing out their supposed experts, I think it’s going to affect a new group of parents,” she said. 

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Immunocompromised people may get less protection from mRNA vaccines: new study

COVID-19 vaccines worked fairly well in keeping immunocompromised patients out of the hospital from the infection, but still less than for those with a competent immune system, a study showed.

After two vaccine doses, immunocompromised patients saw 77% vaccine effectiveness (95% CI 74%-80%) against hospitalization for confirmed COVID-19, with a 3.9% rate of SARS-CoV-2 test positivity in hospital compared with 11.8% among those who were unvaccinated.

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