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Will Your Sons and Daughters Fight in Central Europe? COMMENTARY By Shea Bradley-FarrellDecember 21, 2023 Will Your Sons and Daughters Fight in Central Europe?AP Who bears the responsibility for the war in Ukraine? According to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, members of U.S. Congress, and even U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, it is the American people. Recently, Secretary Austin told America that if Congress fails to pass another $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, it will “most likely” result in American troops fighting in Europe. The additional aid to Ukraine has been stalled by members of Congress who want assurances...

(NEXSTAR) — As Americans prepare to gather for the holidays, many say they fear becoming sick in the coming months. Based on the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those concerns may be genuine. While the CDC doesn’t track COVID-19 testing as closely as it did during the pandemic, it does still track other COVID-related data. That includes hospital admissions for COVID, jumped by almost 9% in the most recent week of data, through Nov. 11. The percentage of people visiting the emergency room and testing positive for COVID is up by 7%, and the number...

Covid-19 remains a threat as a virus variant has been spreading steadily around the globe, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday. "This virus, SARS-CoV-2, is circulating in every country right now and it still poses a threat," WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove said. "We have to remain vigilant because the virus is circulating, evolving and changing," she told a discussion on the WHO's social media channels. Van Kerkhove was the WHO's technical lead during the coronavirus pandemic that struck in 2019 and is now the UN health agency's interim director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention

The federal program offering free COVID-19 rapid at-home tests through the mail has just been restarted ahead of the winter holiday season and a potential rise in cases.Every American household may order four of the tests starting Monday, Nov. 20 by visiting covid.gov/tests, the Department of Health and Human Services says.If a household did not order four tests when the program was restarted in late September, it may place two orders for a total of eight tests now.About 15 million households ordered tests in September.Rapid tests ordered this week will begin being delivered on Monday, Nov. 27. The cost of...

The Biden administration on Monday said it is offering another round of free at-home Covid tests to U.S. households ahead of the holiday season, when more people gather indoors and the virus typically spreads at higher levels. Starting Monday, Americans can use COVIDtests.gov to request four free tests per household. Those who have not ordered any tests this fall can now place two orders for a total of eight tests, according to the website. The administration in September allowed people to request an initial round of four free tests through the site, resuming a federal program that temporarily shut down...

PCR and rapid tests aren't the only places where evidence of SARS-COV-2, commonly known as COVID-19, shows up. The virus that causes COVID-19 also turns up in a city's wastewater. Because of that, wastewater has become a powerful tool to give scientists early glimpses into when infections are peaking. "Wastewater actually tells us a really great story," said Amanda Wegner, communications and public affairs director at the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District. "What we've learned with viruses is that people shed the virus. When they use the bathroom, that enters the wastewater stream." According to the Centers for Disease Control and...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - As numbers grow, has COVID fatigue turned into COVID apathy? We are in a new wave of COVID and there is a growing trend away from testing which experts have said is disturbing. This week, the top doctors in all our local healthcare institutions came out with a joint statement warning against "COVID complacency." In their offices and emergency rooms, they're seeing it. "This is a real thing," said UPMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Don Yealy. "We see that the biggest threat now with COVID and soon to be with flu is what we call 'presenteeism' that...

Face masks become mandatory in certain UK hospitals. Face masks now required to be worn in area of some UK hospitals. Amid a drastic rise in Covid cases, people in certain areas of Leicester’s hospitals will be required to wear a face covering once again. It now seems like a long and distant memory or even a nightmare for a lot of people, the whole of the UK and large parts of the world were being told they had to wear a face mask when entering public places to help stop the spread of Covid 19. This saw people in...

Just 36% of registered Republican voters who got a Covid-19 vaccine say it was worth it, while 57% say it was not, according to new NBC News polling. The survey results highlight deep partisan divisions about how Americans view the vaccines — as public health officials recommend Americans get new booster shots this fall. While more than half of Republicans who received a Covid-19 vaccine believe it wasn’t worth it, that sentiment was shared by just 29% of independents and 5% of Democrats who say they are vaccinated. Of those who say they got a vaccine, 67% of independents and...

People are becoming more concerned about COVID-19 amid the recent uptick in cases and new variants, according to Gallup’s latest quarterly poll. Gallup polled more than 5,000 U.S. adults between Aug. 29 and Sept. 5. Thirty percent of respondents said they believe the pandemic is getting worse — up from 5% in late May/early June and 8% in February, according to a news release on Gallup’s website.

Some California college students are fighting to have mask mandates reinstated amid ongoing discussions around the return to some COVID-19 precautions. Last week, the Disabled Students Union (DSU) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), announced on Instagram that a proposed resolution titled "A Resolution to Mandate Masking, Weekly PCR testing, and Upcoming COVID-19 Vaccines, and to Improve Ventilation, and Reinstate the COVID-19 Task Force" failed to receive enough votes from the university's Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC). Some of the main aspects of the resolution proposed by the DSU included mask requirements for indoor and crowded outdoor spaces,...

… While some families never stopped masking, a recent Yahoo News/YouGov survey of 1,665 adults in the U.S. found that just 12% had practiced regular mask-wearing outside of the home over the previous week. … Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix in Nashville, says he doesn’t believe that families should overreact to the uptick in COVID-19 cases just yet, though it is worth monitoring. … If your family decides to return to masking, Amodio suggests including kids in any discussions. “Help them to understand the reasons behind the choice, and be sure to validate their emotions...

Seems like COVID's everywhere again. But here's good news from Pfizer! This season's updated COVID-19 shots are now available for ages 6 months and up, and they're designed to help protect against recent variants. That is why today, at 8pm, the Empire State Building turned its iconic building blue to announce that the CDC recommends everyone 6 months of age and older get this season's updated COVID-19 shot. The blue light symbolizes our gratitude and appreciation for the updated vaccines and all those who made it possible.

Former White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that there were “a number of studies that show that masks actually do work” to stop the spread of COVID-19. Anchor Jon Karl said, “There’s a new study out that suggests that masks were actually not effective, at least not in a global sense, in containing the pandemic. What is your sense looking back at all of this? Did masks prove to be less effective than you anticipated?”

The White House announced Monday evening that Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 while on vacation in Delaware and is “experiencing only mild symptoms.” Jill Biden is double-vaxxed and twice boosted. Jill previously tested positive in August 2022 and again that month in a rebound case after treatment with Paxlovid. Jill’s case comes as a new wave of COVID hysteria has started with the emergence of a new variant (Pirola). A follow-up statement by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Joe Biden tested negative for COVID Monday evening. The Bidens were on vacation this weekend in Rehoboth, Delaware....

The Biden administration estimates that 97% of Americans ages 16 and over have some level of COVID-19 immunity through vaccination, previous infection or both. The number may sound promising – so why do people need another round of shots? Because that protection can fade in a matter of months, leaving individuals vulnerable to COVID-19 once again. “Immunity is stronger today than at any other point in the outbreak,” Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a recent video statement. “That means we're moving towards COVID-19 being a more manageable illness with less severe...

Health officials in California recently spoke about the possible return of mask mandates in the state amid a slight uptick in COVID-19 cases. On Thursday, officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health held a press conference to speak about a rise in new COVID-19 cases, saying that over the past week cases have doubled. During the press conference, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer was asked about the potential return to mask mandates and if the county would ever make them mandatory again. "'Ever' is not a word I'm comfortable with. There's...

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo harshly criticized COVID-19 mask mandates and lockdowns, and urged people to consider "refusing to participate." "What do you call re-imposing mask policies that have been proven ineffective or restarting lockdowns that are known to cause harm? You don't call it sanity," Dr. Ladapo posted last week on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. "These terrible policies only work with your cooperation. How about refusing to participate…" Some schools and companies are implementing mask mandates amid a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, even though some peer-reviewed research has suggested that face coverings may cause...

COVID-19 isn’t quite done with the world yet. Small surges of cases in the U.S., as well as upticks in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the summer, and new variants that weren’t around even three months ago, remind us that SARS-CoV-2 is still a health threat for the coming fall and winter. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to make a decision about which strain to target in the updated vaccine, which the agency says will be available in mid-to-late September. The FDA will be considering recommendations by the panel of independent vaccine experts it convened in June, which...

Federal health authorities are laying out plans for taking on this year’s respiratory viral season, with officials emboldened by the new spate of preventive medications the U.S. has gathered heading into the fall and winter. “We are in our strongest position yet to be able to fight COVID-19 as well as the other viruses that are responsible for the majority of fall and winter hospitalizations, namely flu, COVID as well as RSV,” a CDC official said in a press call on Thursday. They cited the high rate of COVID-19 immunity — 97 percent — among U.S. individuals 16 and older...