COVID markers continue rise in the US and globally Ladanifer / iStock CIDRAP

In the United States, a slow but steady rise in COVID activity continued over the past week according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while at the global level, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today that indicators are up in three of six regions.

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How Did Federal Aid to States and Localities Affect Testing and Vaccine Delivery?

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" We find that federal fiscal assistance dollars had a modest if any impact on the pace of vaccine rollouts, may have improved the equitability of vaccine administration, and had a substantial impact on the volume of tests administered...."

Should you be masking with new COVID variants? Experts weigh in. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not announced new mask mandates, some experts say you may want to consider it, depending on your situation. Yahoo Life

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The planet has broiled this summer, with July winning the unwelcome title of the hottest month since records began, in the nineteenth century. Indeed, climate scientists think that it was possibly the hottest month in the past 120,000 years. Given the rapid pace of climate change, however, July offered merely a taste of the heat to come. In 2015, world leaders established a goal to keep average global surface temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures in order to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. In July, global temperatures breached that critical ceiling, if only briefly. Nearly 5,000 local heat and rainfall records were broken in the United States alone; globally, the number exceeded 10,000. And scientists anticipate that 2023 will clock in as the hottest year on record.

Small study suggests many more people have long COVID than previously believed Data show that 41% of 29 patients who developed a postviral syndrome showed evidence of a previous COVID-19 infection. CIDRAP

A study using SARS-CoV-2 antibody and T-cell tests shows that 41% of 29 patients who developed a postviral syndrome (PVS) showed evidence of a previous COVID-19 infection, suggesting that millions of Americans with long COVID symptoms were exposed to the virus early in the pandemic but couldn't access testing.

CDC, FDA gearing up for fall vaccine campaign with US in ‘strongest position yet’ Federal health authorities are laying out plans for taking on this year’s respiratory viral season, with officials emboldened by the new spate of preventive medications the U.S. has gathered … jchoi The Hill

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Nearly 2 million excess deaths followed China's sudden end of COVID curbs, study says China's move to dismantle its strict COVID regime could have led to nearly 2 million excess deaths, a US study shows. Bernard Orr Reuters

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CDC expects new Covid vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax to be available in mid-September