News-Medical: NIH’s new website allows users to anonymously report COVID-19 test results. “[The site] developed through NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®) Tech program, allows users to anonymously report the results of any brand of at-home COVID-19 test.”
NewsWise: Study indicates COVID-19 boosters among vaccinated individuals significantly reduce hospitalization rates, add protection. “Researchers found that boosters add about 70% extra protection, which lasts for 4-5 months, and concluded that booster vaccination is associated with significantly decreased odds of hospitalization for COVID-19 among fully vaccinated individuals. Odds of decreased hospitalization varied based on time since booster administration.”
New York State Department of Health: State Department of Health Launches New Website and Audio Resources to Support New Yorkers With Long COVID. “As long COVID response efforts continue – in partnership with national and global health experts – the State’s new webpage offers information on what long COVID is, the symptoms, and how New Yorkers can prepare or seek treatment from healthcare providers…. To support New Yorkers currently struggling with long COVID, the website is also available in an audio format.”
PR Newswire: Arizona State University Launches Evidence Commons, the Only Comprehensive Repository of COVID-19 Tests and Testing Practices Publications (PRESS RELEASE). “Arizona State University (ASU) College of Health Solutions with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, has launched Evidence Commons, the first and only comprehensive repository of published COVID-19 research focused on diagnostic tests and testing practices. With more than 3,000 published papers, Evidence Commons provides access to the diagnostic-related research critical to enhanced scientific collaboration and pandemic mitigation and prevention.”
BBC: Anti-vax groups use carrot emojis to hide Facebook posts. “Facebook groups are using the carrot emoji to hide anti-vax content from automated moderation tools. The BBC has seen several groups, one with hundreds of thousands of members, in which the emoji appears in place of the word ‘vaccine’. Facebook’s algorithms tend to focus on words rather than images. The groups are being used to share unverified claims of people being either injured or killed by vaccines.”
Washington Post: Where did the covid aid money go?. “t was the largest burst of emergency spending in U.S. history: two years, six laws and more than $5 trillion intended to break the deadly grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The money spared the U.S. economy from ruin and put vaccines into millions of arms, but it also invited unprecedented levels of fraud, abuse and opportunism. In a year-long investigation, The Washington Post is following the covid money trail to figure out what happened to all that cash. Here are our key findings.”
Stellenbosch University: Zebrafish study shows adverse effects of ivermectin use. “Shortly after the study, SAPHRA – the medicines control body in South Africa – prohibited the use of ivermectin under any condition. “
University of York: Gender inequalities made women twice as likely to break lockdown laws, according to new report. “Many women felt compelled to break lockdown laws, which banned meeting friends and family at home, due to caring responsibilities, a major new report has found.”
University of Arkansas: Black-Owned Restaurants Impacted Disproportionately by COVID-19. “Yelp listings were then cross-referenced with visitation records collected by SafeGraph, a company that collects visitation patterns on points of interest through an estimated 45 million mobile devices. Overall, the researchers found there were statistically significant differential impacts between Black-owned and ‘ownership-unreported’ restaurants throughout the 20 cities, primarily measured by relative declines in visits.”
Washington Post: Twitter labeled factual information about covid-19 as misinformation. “Many of the tweets have since had the misinformation labels removed, and the suspended accounts have been restored. But the episode has shaken many scientific and medical professionals, who say Twitter is a key way they try to publicize the continuing risk of covid to a population that has grown weary of more than two years of shifting claims about the illness.”
Harvard Gazette: Racial discrimination during COVID led to rise in depression. “Everyday discrimination experienced by people of racial and ethnic minority groups during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with significantly increased odds of moderate to severe depression and thoughts of suicide, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and their colleagues have found.”
NBC News: Black Covid long-haulers felt invisible to the health care system, so they formed their own support groups. ” Like most of the pandemic’s fallout, Black people are bearing the brunt of long Covid, with the group making up a majority of long Covid hospitalizations and researchers even projecting that Black people’s life expectancy will drop significantly in the next five years as a result. As a way to counter the troubling data, Black people have formed these support groups in hopes of making sense of the illness and to find the help they need.”
New York Times: Fall Vaccination Campaign Will Bring New Shots, Worse Access. “At the very moment a better coronavirus vaccine is expected to finally become available, America’s vaccination program is feeling the effects of a long period of retreat. Local programs to bring shots to the places where Americans gather and the institutions they trust have folded, a consequence in some cases of congressional resistance to more pandemic response spending.”
NBC News: They were grieving the loss of a parent to Covid. Then the bullies came.. “People who spoke to NBC News said such abuse ranges from online strangers belittling those in mourning to microaggressions from close family and friends who question whether the deceased really died of Covid.”
Illinois News Bureau: Study: Slogans protesting federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate displayed three themes. ” When the Biden administration announced COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Nov. 4 for businesses with 100 or more employees, protests erupted in cities across the U.S. A recent study of the slogans displayed by protestors found three distinct themes.”
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