Category: Infectious Disease
An infectious disease expert explains new federal rules on ‘mix-and-match’ vaccine booster shots
Understanding how the immune system works can help explain why some people could benefit from booster shots.
VACCINATION VERIFICATION NOW REQUIRED FOR MANY ACTIVITIES IN KING COUNTY
Starting today, October 25, 2021, customers age 12 and older are required to verify full vaccination or a negative test to participate in outdoor public events of 500 or more people and indoor entertainment and recreational establishments and events such as live music, performing arts, gyms, restaurants, and bars.
How many lives have coronavirus vaccines saved? We used state data on deaths and vaccination rates to find out
Sumedha Gupta, IUPUI More than 200 million U.S. residents have gotten at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine with the expectation that the vaccines slow virus transmission and save lives. Researchers know the efficacy of the vaccines from large-scale…
Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Could Further Strain Rural Hospitals
But the story may be more complicated in rural America, where resistance to the vaccine remains strongest. Some rural hospital leaders worry the vaccine mandate will exacerbate a labor shortage that was profound even before the pandemic. There are predictions that some hospitals will have to close their doors.
More than 140,000 U.S. Children Lost a Primary or Secondary Caregiver Due to the COVID-19
Overall, the study shows that approximately 1 out of 500 children in the United States has experienced COVID-19-associated orphanhood or death of a grandparent caregiver.
Organ Centers to Transplant Patients: Get a Covid Shot or Move Down on Waitlist
A growing numbers of transplant programs have chosen to either bar patients who refuse to take the widely available covid vaccines from receiving transplants, or give them lower priority on crowded organ waitlists.
Risk of a COVID-19/Flu ‘twindemic,’ makes getting vaccinated all the more urgent
As winter looms and hospitals across the U.S. continue to be deluged with severe cases of COVID-19, flu season presents a particularly ominous threat this year.
Covid Is Killing Rural Americans at Twice the Rate of Urbanites
Rural Americans are dying of covid at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts — a divide that health experts say is likely to widen as access to medical care shrinks for a population that tends to be older, sicker, heavier, poorer and less vaccinated.
Answers to your questions about COVID-19 vaccines
As deadlines near for COVID-19 vaccination mandates, you or someone you know may have questions about the vaccines. There’s plenty of mis-information available. For reliable answers, local health specialists from Public Health—Seattle & King County have been answering many key questions.
Can healthy people who eat right and exercise skip the COVID-19 vaccine? A research scientist and fitness enthusiast explains why the answer is no
I encourage people to do all they can to improve the health and functioning of their immune system, naturally. Then, seriously consider what additional protection would be gained from vaccination against COVID-19. When people make decisions based on the latest science – which is always evolving – rather than on emotions and misinformation, the decision should become much clearer.
Yes, you can receive the flu vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine in the same visit
With more people gathering this fall and reports of overburdened hospitals from COVID-19’s delta variant, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association are urging individuals over six months old to get their annual flu shot and for anyone who is eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Half of unvaccinated workers say they’d rather quit than get a shot – but real-world data suggest few are following through
But while it is easy and cost-free to tell a pollster you’ll quit your job, actually doing so when it means losing a paycheck you and your family may depend upon is another matter.
As More Kids Are Quarantined, Lawmakers Rethink Mask Policies
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia require everyone to wear masks in K-12 schools. Six states prohibit any such requirement, and 24 states leave the decision up to local school districts. Two states have had mask mandate bans overturned, and Florida had an overturned ban reinstated.
I Got a ‘Mild’ Breakthrough Case. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known.
I should have known what was coming, but there was some part of me that couldn’t quite believe it. I had a breakthrough case of covid-19 — despite my two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine,
Scientists Examine Kids’ Unique Immune Systems as More Fall Victim to Covid
Until the delta variant laid siege this summer, nearly all children seemed to be spared from the worst ravages of covid, for reasons scientists didn’t totally understand. Now, nearly 30% of cases are in children.