According to MedPage Today (1/10, Frieden), the COVID-19 pandemic has “exacerbated existing trends in food insecurity” among older adults in the U.S. Before the pandemic, “food insecurity – generally defined as a lack of access to a sufficient amount of nutritious foods – was an issue in” this country, “a survey of about 2,000 older […]

USA Today (1/4, Weintraub) reports, “The latest COVID-19 variant to sweep across the country, XBB.1.5, doesn’t appear to cause more serious disease than its predecessors, experts say.” According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “as of Dec. 31, XBB.1.5 accounted for more than 40% of cases in the United States, up […]

The Washington Post (December 26, 2022) – Anti-vaccine sentiment has increased since the pandemic, driven by politicization around the coronavirus vaccine A rapidly growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio — largely involving unvaccinated children — is fueling concerns among health officials that more parent resistance to routine childhood immunizations will intensify a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases. […]

The Washington Post (Dec. 22, 2022) – Nearly every adult ICU bed in Oregon is occupied, driven by an uptick in respiratory viruses. Portland-area hospitals are operating at a “crisis” level for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. The dire picture has prompted state health officials to implore people to slap their masks on, once […]

Medscape (Dec. 16, 2022) – It’s a story perhaps more appropriate for Halloween than for the festive holiday season, given its scary implications. Four Omicron subvariants of the virus that causes COVID-19 will be the most common strains going from person to person this winter, new research predicts. Not too dire so far, until you […]

Penn Live (Updated: Dec. 20, 2022) – Pennsylvania flu cases made another giant leap last week, with the weekly case count by far the highest in at least eight years. The state health department recorded nearly 25,000 positive flu test results for the week ending Saturday, a sharp increase from the previous week, and nearly […]

Pleasant on Weekly (Mon, Dec 12, 2022) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded its authorization for the omicron-specific COVID-19 booster vaccine to include children under age 5. Children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years who received the initial Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will become eligible for the Moderna booster […]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – The brutal flu season doctors have been warning of is finally here. Over 12-thousand infections have already been reported across the Commonwealth, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Health. “We’re seeing the flu season hit much earlier and much harder,” UPMC Infectious Disease Expert Dr. John Goldman said. “Usually, peak […]

Penn Live ( Dec. 09, 2022) – Pennsylvania flu cases made another giant leap last week, with the weekly case count by far the highest in at least eight years. The state health department recorded nearly 25,000 positive flu test results for the week ending Saturday, a sharp increase from the previous week, and nearly […]

Dec 05, 2022 | COVID News – The Franklin Institute is partnering with the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC) to develop toolkits for supporting nurses in leading COVID-19 vaccine education in schools and community health settings. The project seeks to engage a national cohort of up to 30 nurses who work with early childhood and elementary age children. […]

Dec 08, 2022 in Parents PACK – In recent weeks, a virus known as respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, has been in the news as pediatric hospitals have been inundated with patients. This has led many to wonder about what RSV is and whether infants are the only ones at risk. So, this month, we thought we […]

HealthDay (12/16) reported “kids who get the flu and COVID-19 together may be in for a serious, even deadly, bout of illness, U.S. health officials said Friday.” Even though “the 2021-2022 flu season was mild, some children did get flu and COVID-19 together.” Of the children “who were hospitalized, many were severely ill and some […]

The Washington Post (12/17) reported hospitals this year have been “strained under the load of RSV infections and, more recently, influenza and the coronavirus.” The shortage of available hospital beds has affected “infants and children” especially, many of whom “have been transported out of their home cities and even to other states to find care.” […]

PennLive (Dec. 2) – Pennsylvania registered more flu cases last week than in any single week for at least eight years, according to new numbers from the state health department. The surge is also happening several weeks before cases begin their normal climb that often peaks in January following the Christmas and New Year holidays. […]

The Lehigh Valley has amassed over 200,000 cases of COVID-19 since March 2020, but the region currently is on track to avoid another overwhelming pandemic winter. For over a month now, both Lehigh and Northampton counties have combined to average just around 100 cases per day — currently at 104 new cases per day — and usually even a little less […]

Williamsport Sun-Gazette (Nov. 27th, 2022) – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the flu, or influenza, affected about nine million people last flu season (October through May). This is presumably due to COVID-19 mitigation efforts such as masking and social distancing that have since become less pressurized. While you may feel […]

(NewsNation) — Swirling cases of a trio of respiratory illnesses have some hospitals swamped, and at least one infectious disease expert says COVID-19 may not be the biggest culprit this year. “This was always the worst time for hospitals,” the University of California, San Francisco’s Dr. Monica Gandhi said on “Rush Hour” Friday. Doctors are […]

PHILADELPHIA (Nov. 25th) – An experimental mRNA-based vaccine against all 20 known subtypes of influenza virus provided broad protection from otherwise lethal flu strains in initial tests, and thus might serve one day as a general preventative measure against future flu pandemics, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of […]

Forbes (Nov. 22) – A film entitled Died Suddenly premiered Monday on Twitter and, spoiler alert, it wasn’t a rom-com. But that doesn’t mean that the film didn’t have a whole lot of fiction, even though a website bearing the movie trailer claimed that the film will “present the truth about the greatest ongoing mass genocide […]

MONDAY, Nov. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Vaccines have become a hot topic in the past few years, but a new survey finds many parents aren’t discussing immunization with their child’s doctor. Though a child’s pediatrician has often been the go-to resource on vaccines, the University of Michigan Medicine poll found that 1 in 7 […]

The US researchers have created a vaccine based on the same mRNA technology used in the Covid-19 jabs from Moderna and Pfizer. Jane Kirby Friday 25 November 2022 13:48 A universal flu vaccine that can protect against all strains of the virus could be available in the next two years, a leading expert has said. […]

by: The Associated Press via Nexstar Media Wire Posted: Nov 23, 2022 / 09:33 PM EST Updated: Nov 24, 2022 / 07:32 AM EST LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say measles immunization has dropped significantly since the coronavirus pandemic began, resulting in a record high of nearly […]