Public health experts fear that Meta's decision to roll back some of its COVID-19 misinformation measures will lead to more disinformation about the virus, treatments for it and vaccines.

The company announced the changes on Friday after it asked its independent oversight advisory board whether it should continue its COVID-19 misinformation policy for Facebook and Instagram or take a "less restrictive approach."

Bivalent COVID vaccine protects against death for at least 6 months in older adults, study suggests CIDRAP

The bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 booster provides substantial protection against death among US adults aged 65 years and older, with no significant signs of waning for up to 6 months, concludes a study published Friday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly.

Two-thirds of doctors, scientists have experienced harassment on social media - UPI.com Physicians and scientists are experiencing alarming levels of harassment on social media, according to a new survey. UPI

...

About 64% reported harassment related to comments made about the pandemic, while 64% of those harassed said the pandemic had affected their use of social media platforms.

..

Former PM Cameron says Britain was prepared for flu-like pandemic rather than COVID Former prime minister David Cameron told an inquiry on Monday that Britain was prepared for a flu-type pandemic but not enough work was done in advance to confront an asymptomatic disease similar to COVID-19. Reuters Reuters

...

Japan to roll out COVID-19 booster targeting XBB subvariant in the fall A vaccine subcommittee under the health ministry is aiming to prepare for another spike in infections possibly arriving in the winter. Tomoko Otake The Japan Times

...

Decline in COVID reporting muddles tracking of global illness patterns CIDRAP

Global cases and deaths continued to drop over the past 28 days, but the metrics don't accurately reflect infection rates because of the steady drop in testing and regular reporting from countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said (Thursday) in its latest weekly update.

Your COVID vaccine records could be destroyed in 5 years because of Texas law In five years, Texas will have to destroy 10.4 million vaccine records because of an unusual state law. Yahoo News

The impending record destruction is a rare situation in the U.S., because almost every state or municipality that operates a vaccine registry has an “opt out” system.

Global water reservoir volumes decline despite construction boom, study says Global reservoir volumes fell during the last 20 years despite a construction boom that drove up storage capacity, a new study showed on Tuesday, suggesting that new dams will not be enough to solve growing strain on the world's water supplies. David Stanway Reuters

...

COVID-19 vaccines shown safe in 2 new studies Data show COVID-19 vaccines are safe in older adults and when administered with non-COVID vaccines. CIDRAP

Two new studies show COVID-19 vaccines are safe in older adults and when administered simultaneously with non-COVID vaccines. Both studies are published in Vaccine.