The Washington Post highlights five things that still remain a mystery about covid, and notes how solving them can help slow the spread of the disease and plan for future pandemics. Separately, the data shows that covid is not increasing dramatically now that school is back, but the data may be lacking.
The Washington Post: Five things about Covid we still don’t understand at our peril
The virus has kept many of its secrets, from how it mutates so quickly to why it kills some while leaving others largely unscathed – mysteries that, if solved, could arm scientists around the world. world with new strategies to curb its spread and guard against the next pandemic. Here are some of the most pressing questions they try to answer. (Johnson, 9/26)
Learn more about the spread of covid —
ABC News: COVID cases not rising dramatically as schools resume, but experts say testing is down
Cases and hospitalizations do not appear to be increasing dramatically, and adults have the highest rate of weekly cases per 100,000, according to CDC data. But experts said testing data is not as strong as it has been in the past two school years, making it difficult to compare current data with previous seasons. (Kekatos, 09/27)
San Francisco Chronicle: SF sewage shows virus retreat slowing, Wachter says
As the official number of daily COVID-19 cases reported by the San Francisco Health Department continues to decline, levels of the virus in the city’s sewage samples — which do not depend on individual testing — seem have stopped falling. Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSF’s chief medical officer, noted the discrepancy Monday and in a Twitter thread pointed out that the hospital’s asymptomatic testing rate had also plateaued. (Fracassa and Vaziri, 09/26)
CIDRAP: Omicron sub-variants linked to reinfections
A new study based on COVID-19 patients in France shows high reinfection rates in people with different Omicron subvariants, including BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5. The study is published as a research letter in Emerging Infectious Diseases. … The median age of patients was 32 years and 70% were female. The time between two infections was less than 90 days for 50 patients (26.6%) and less than 60 days for 28 patients (14.9%). (26/09)
Maine public: Maine offers more free COVID tests as hospitalizations increase
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that it is expanding access to COVID-19 testing. Residents can order a free pack of five COVID tests each month through the AccessCovidTests.org website. (Wight, 9/26)
On vaccine and mask mandates —
Reuters: Truckers and lawmaker push U.S. to drop vaccine requirement for foreign visitors
A group representing truckers in North America and a New York lawmaker on Monday called on the Biden administration to rescind the requirement for foreign visitors to get vaccinated. In June, the United States rescinded its requirement that people arriving in the country by air test negative for COVID-19, but did not waive vaccination requirements for nearly all foreign visitors arriving by air. or in land ports. (Shepardson, 9/26)
AP: Canada won’t require masks on planes, drops vaccination mandate
The Canadian government announced on Monday that it will no longer require people to wear masks on planes to guard against COVID-19. Transport Canada said existing rules for masks will be scrapped Oct. 1. “We are able to do this because tens of millions of Canadians have rolled up their sleeves and gotten their shots,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. (Gillies, 9/26)
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