Novavax says Omicron shot shows strong immune response as second booster Vaccine maker Novavax Inc said on Tuesday its COVID-19 shot retooled against the Omicron BA.1 variant showed a strong immune response as the fourth dose and met the main goal of strain change in a late-stage study. Reuters Reuters

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In March 2020, New York City’s hospitals filled up with patients desperately ill with Covid-19. In many cases, when their fluid-filled lungs could no longer give them oxygen, doctors sedated them and put them on ventilators.

The patients who recovered were taken off the machines and anesthesia. Within a day or so, their doctors expected them to wake up.

Paxlovid reduces risk of long Covid, Veterans Affairs study finds | CNN Paxlovid, the antiviral pill that reduces the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19, also reduces the risk of long Covid, according to a new study by researchers at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Jamie Gumbrecht CNN

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100-Year-Old Community Forced To Move As Caribbean Island Sinks

Residents of Gardi Sugdub are the first to be moved by the government to the Panama mainland as the sea rises, but several other communities will soon be impacted.

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COVID Superspreader Events Still Exist. Here's What They Look Like Now. Just because we don't hear about clusters of infections like we did in 2020 and 2021 doesn't mean they don't happen. YahooNews

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What exit? China doubles down on zero-Covid pledge despite public frustration China has reiterated its unswerving commitment to its longstanding zero-Covid policy, despite mounting public frustration the stringent measures are costing the very lives they're intended to protect. By Nectar Gan, CNN CNN

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The unrelenting campaign has kept infections and deaths low at great economic and social cost, as new fast-spreading variants make containing the virus near impossible....

Schools aren’t spending their COVID catch-up funds fast enough "We cannot keep counting on additional wake-up calls to get started on this." Erin Doherty Axios

...Experts fear that schools are not effectively using the government's COVID-19 funding — some $122 billion — before it runs out.

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Factbox: What are the new BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 coronavirus variants, and why it matters New offshoots of the dominant BA.5 subvariant of Omicron known as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are gaining ground in the United States as the SARS-Cov-2 virus that triggered the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. Julie Steenhuysen Reuters

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Reports say China aiming for less disruptive COVID policies BEIJING (AP) — Chinese officials are trying to quell an outcry over the death of a 3-year-old boy from a quarantined residential compound that added to public anger at anti-virus controls that have confined millions of people to their homes. AP NEWS

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The boy died at a hospital in Lanzhou of carbon monoxide poisoning blamed on a gas leak. His father accused health workers who were enforcing the closure of the compound of refusing to help and trying to stop him as he rushed his son to the hospital.

New COVID Variants Are Circulating. Here's What to Know. As it gets colder and more people move their activities indoors, the recent decline in COVID-19 cases across the United States has started to level off. Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are ticking up in a number of states, including Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. And there have been a variety of unnerving headlines about the immune evasion and increased transmissibility of the next round of coronavirus subvariants. At least half a dozen v YahooNews

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US flu season off to a fast start as other viruses spread NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. flu season is off to an unusually fast start, adding to an autumn mix of viruses that have been filling hospitals and doctor waiting rooms. Reports of flu are already high in 17 states, and the hospitalization rate hasn’t been this high this early since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. AP NEWS

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“We are seeing more cases than we would expect at this time,” the CDC’s Dr. José Romero said Friday.

Why you may soon have to pay for that COVID-19 test The federal government is poised to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the coming months, shifting the costs onto the public.  Experts say most Americans are not aware … iswanson The Hill

The federal government is poised to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the coming months, shifting the costs onto the public.

Two early US programs successfully traced COVID case contacts One report details a massive NYC effort to probe 941,035 COVID-19 cases and follow up with their contacts. CIDRAP

A pair of new studies describe how two US jurisdictions quickly mobilized teams of contact tracers to identify and isolate people exposed to SARS-CoV-2, with a massive New York City effort finding 1.4 contacts per case and a college student-led Central Pennsylvania initiative that may have led to fewer symptomatic household infections.