Coronavirus

Fox News reports: While speaking at a Thursday news conference for Gov. Ron DeSantis in Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, that state’s surgeon general, advised people to steer clear of the updated booster vaccine for COVID-19. “There’s a new vaccine that’s coming around the corner, a new mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, and there’s essentially no evidence for it,” Ladapo said during …

Reuters reports: Moderna on Wednesday said clinical trial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine will likely be effective against the highly-mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus that has raised fears of a resurgence of infections. The company said its shot generated an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies in humans against BA.2.86, which is being tracked by the World Health Organization …

CBS News reports: First lady Dr. Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday evening, the White House said. Biden, 72, was experiencing mild symptoms at the time of the positive test, the first lady’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement. She plans to remain at her home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. President Biden was administered a COVID-19 …

The Hill reports: A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its campaign against the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 can continue, reversing a lower court decision. Three doctors sued the FDA last year claiming that the agency’s anti-ivermectin campaign went too far, overstepping its authority and acting more as …

CBS News reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now forecasting an acceleration in new COVID-19 hospitalizations over the coming month, the agency said this week, replacing a previous projection that admissions would “remain stable or have an uncertain trend.” It comes as health officials are racing to study a new highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86, nicknamed …

Via press release from the Justice Department: The Justice Department announced today the results of a coordinated, nationwide enforcement action to combat COVID-19 fraud, which included 718 enforcement actions – including federal criminal charges against 371 defendants – for offenses related to over $836 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud. “The Justice Department has now seized over $1.4 billion in COVID-19 …

The Washington Post reports: People who endured even mild cases of covid-19 are at heightened risk two years later for lung problems, fatigue, diabetes and certain other health problems typical of long covid, according to a new study that casts fresh light on the virus’s true toll. The analysis, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, is believed to be …

Reuters reports: The Biden administration plans to urge all Americans to get a booster shot for the coronavirus this autumn to counter a new wave of infections, a White House official said on Sunday. The official said that while the CDC is reporting an increase in infections and hospital admissions from the virus, overall levels remain low. On Thursday, Moderna …

CBS News reports: The CDC announced Thursday it is tracking a recently discovered COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, after a case of the highly-mutated variant was discovered in Michigan. “Today we are more prepared than ever to detect and respond to changes in the COVID-19 virus. Scientists are working now to understand more about the newly identified lineage in these cases and …

Reuters reports: A new COVID vaccine is due out next month, but health experts and analysts say it is likely to be coolly received even as hospitalizations from “Eris”, a variant of the Omicron form of the coronavirus, rise around the country. Some public health experts hope that Americans will welcome the new shot as they would a flu jab. …

CBS News reports: Two new clinical trials to test potential treatments for long COVID are now set to launch, the National Institutes of Health said Monday, opening enrollment for the first of an array of federally-funded studies aimed at evaluating treatments for long-term symptoms still faced by many COVID-19 survivors. They will begin with a study into using Pfizer’s Paxlovid …

The Washington Post reports: The political maelstrom swirling around coronavirus vaccines may be to blame for a higher rate of excess deaths among registered Republicans in Ohio and Florida during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published yesterday. The report in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine underscores the partisan divide over coronavirus vaccines that have saved lives but continued …

Chicago’s NBC affiliate reports: Illinois Senator and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin revealed Sunday that he has tested positive for COVID-19, marking his third positive test in the span of one year. Prior to Sunday, the longtime senator most recently tested positive for COVID-19 in March. At that time, Durbin said that he was only experiencing minor symptoms, noting that …

The New York Times reports: In Florida, unlike the nation as a whole — and states like New York and California that Mr. DeSantis likes to single out — most people who died from Covid died after vaccines became available to all adults, not before. As the governor’s political positions began to shift, so did his state’s death rate, for …

The Washington Post reports: Quinnipiac University released a poll Wednesday showing Republicans continue to like Kennedy — by more than a 2-to-1 margin, in fact. But among Democrats, Kennedy’s image was more than 2-to-1 negative. While 21 percent had a favorable opinion, 47 percent had an unfavorable one. That’s 26 points “underwater,” up from 15 points underwater a month ago. …

Miami’s ABC affiliate reports: A Florida man and his three sons were convicted on federal fraud charges Wednesday for marketing a poisonous bleach concoction as a cure for 95% of the world’s diseases, including COVID-19. Mark Grenon, 65, and his sons, 37-year-old Jonathan, 35-year-old Joseph and 29-year-old Jordan, were all charged with conspiring to defraud the U.S. and deliver misbranded …

The Independent reports: Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr baselessly claimed in a congressional hearing on Thursday that he has never been anti-vaccine. Mr Kennedy testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government where House Republicans had invited him to testify about being censored by the Biden administration and tech companies. Mr Kennedy, currently a …

The Washington Post reports: Three Republican House members lost a years-long fight Thursday against congressional mask mandates, with a unanimous appeals court panel ruling that they had no jurisdiction to review the policy. Masks haven’t been required on the floor of the House of Representatives for more than a year, but Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and …

From the Justice Department: United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the arrest and unsealing of a criminal complaint charging Timothy Craig Jolloff (46, Fort Myers) and Lisa Ann Jolloff (56, Fort Myers) with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of illegal monetary transactions. Timothy Jolloff is also charged with one count of wire fraud. …

NBC News reports: Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended updating the Covid vaccines to target a circulating strain of the virus, while pushing for newer vaccines that provide longer-lasting protection. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted unanimously in support of tweaking the shots to target an XBB strain, as well as dropping …