Medical Health Cluster

Pandemic

Seasonality of Respiratory Syncytial Virus — United States, 2017–2023

Summary What is already known about this topic? In the United States, the timing of seasonal respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) epidemics (October–April) was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is added by this report? RSV circulation was historically low during 2020–21 and began earlier and continued longer during 2021–22 than […]

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Washington Medical Board Charges Doctor for Spreading COVID Misinformation

Misinformation regarding COVID-19 has been cited as a public health threat since the beginning of the worldwide pandemic. Doctors and professional organizations are standing guard, hoping to protect patients from any harm that results from mistruths spread by colleagues. Case in point: Several physicians and the American Board of Pathology […]

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Pediatricians and parents on the brink: This is their March 2020

In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the United States, the nation’s pediatric providers and pediatric units immediately pitched in to treat adults sickened by this then-mysterious and deadly disease. But now that the pediatric community is facing its own March 2020 with the confluence of Covid-19, influenza, […]

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Mental Health of Most Kids With Autism Declined in Pandemic

More than half of children and youth with autism experienced pandemic-related declines in mental health between May and December 2020, according to a large Canadian cohort study. The study, based on surveys with parents of 230 children and youth with autism, showed that 141 (61%) of these children had mental health deterioration, […]

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The COVID-19 Pandemic Rages on for People Who Are Immunocompromised

anet Handal, who has taken immunosuppressive drugs since her 2010 kidney transplant, hasn’t exactly been impressed by public health messaging about COVID-19. A medical assistant at a University of Washington Medicine clinic prepares a 2-shot dose of a monoclonal antibody therapy that can help prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection among people who […]

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2 years into the pandemic, what have we learned?

Before March 2020, many people saw pandemics as a thing of the past. Then came COVID-19. Scientists still do not know exactly where the virus that caused it — SARS-CoV-2 — came from, but it soon reached almost every country worldwide. Over 2 years, the virus has evolved, producing several […]

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People, Not Science, Decide When a Pandemic Is Over

All pandemics end eventually. But how, exactly, will we know when the COVID-19 pandemic is really “over”? It turns out the answer to that question may lie more in sociology than epidemiology. As the world passes the second anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the COVID pandemic, things seem […]

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