When Will It Be Time For Another COVID Booster? Here's What Experts Think. Experts discuss the next round of booster shots and the variant-specific vaccines now being tested. YahooNews

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UK: 50 new monkeypox cases in biggest epidemic beyond Africa LONDON (AP) — British health officials reported another 50 cases of monkeypox across the country on Friday, for a total of 574 cases. That makes the U.K.’s outbreak the biggest to date beyond… tlejeune The Hill

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The World Health Organization has said people with monkeypox could be infectious for up to four weeks and advised them to isolate until they have completely recovered.

Don’t want to get sick this winter? The pandemic health habits to keep long term With soaring flu cases and other illnesses lurking, experts weigh in on which Covid prevention measures are worth keeping up, and which to ditch the Guardian

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BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron: How worried should we be? Surges of Covid are happening again around the world, driven by some new subvariants of Omicron. BBC News

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WHO panel backs use of Omicron-adapted vaccine as booster dose A modified coronavirus vaccine that targets the Omicron variant can be administered as a booster dose to broaden immunity, a technical advisory group set up the World Health Organization said on Friday. Reuters Reuters

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White House: Florida doctors can order under-5 COVID shots WASHINGTON (AP) — Florida doctors will be able to order COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 from the federal government, the White House said Friday, after Republican Gov. AP NEWS

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FDA authorizes Covid-19 vaccines for younger children The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines are now authorized for emergency use in young children, but they can't be given until the CDC director signs off. Jacqueline Howard, CNN CNN

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Moderna's vaccine is now authorized for use in children 6 months through 17 years and Pfizer/BioNTech's for children 6 months through 4 years. About 17 million kids under the age of 5 are now are eligible for Covid-19 vaccines...

Omicron Less Likely to Cause Long COVID, Data Suggest Odd of long COVID as high as 50% less during Omicron era Judy George medpagetoday

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About 4.5% of people who became infected with SARS-CoV-2 when Omicron was the dominant strain experienced long COVID symptoms, compared with 10.8% who became infected during the Delta period, reported Claire Steves, PhD, of King's College London in England, and co-authors...

Paxlovid Misses in Standard-Risk COVID-19 Trend toward advantage in secondary endpoint of hospitalization or death, but not significant Kristina Fiore medpagetoday

Updated findings from a nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid) trial in standard-risk COVID-19 suggest the antiviral's benefits are less clear for those not at high risk of severe outcomes.

WHO: COVID-19 deaths rise, reversing a 5-week decline GENEVA (AP) — After five weeks of declining coronavirus deaths, the number of fatalities reported globally increased by 4% last week, according to the World Health Organization. In its weekly assessment of the pandemic issued on Thursday, the U.N. AP NEWS

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WTO talks down to the wire with no major deals yet in sight GENEVA (AP) — Talks went down to the wire Thursday as the World Trade Organization was set to wrap up its first ministerial-level meeting in more than four years, with no firm deal so far on issues like food security , the fight against overfishing in the seas, and efforts to broaden access to COVID-19 vaccines. AP NEWS

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Florida is the only state to skip pre-ordering Covid-19 vaccines for kids Florida’s Department of Health is led by state Surgeon General Joe Ladapo, an outspoken skeptic of the Covid-19 vaccine. POLITICO

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The Florida Department of Health, through a statement, said Wednesday that it did not place an order with the federal government for vaccine doses for kids five and under in part because it doesn’t advise all children get vaccinated. The deadline for placing a pre-order was Tuesday and 49 other states met the cutoff date...