The CDC stressed that it remains unknown how long this type of infection-induced immunity lasts, or whether all people who test positive for Covid antibodies continue to be protected from previous infections.

For this reason, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it is still important for people to stay up to date on their Covid-19 vaccines, and to get their recommended shots and boosters.

For many parents of young children, this means that the epidemic will not end until they can vaccinate their children.

CNN Medical said: “Young children who are unable to wear a mask and cannot yet be vaccinated, were more at risk of an epidemic, and are still at greater risk now. Try to limit their time in these places and look for ways to improve ventilation.” Analyst Dr. Lina Wen.

More than 10,000 children aged 6 months to 12 years have been enrolled in Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine trials at study sites around the world.

Pfizer and BioNTech expect to provide data from these trials focused on children under the age of 5 in the coming months. This age group is the only one for which the Covid-19 vaccine is not authorized in the United States.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, said last week that the FDA is considering whether emergency use authorization for both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for young children should be considered at the same time, rather than than looking at them separately.

And it expanded approval for the Covid-19 drug remdesivir to treat patients younger than 28 days old and weighing about 7 pounds.

You asked. We answered.

s: Should Older Children Get a Booster Dose?

A: Yes – there appears to be a significant boost in immunity after the booster dose.

They will also share the data with the European Medicines Agency and other regulatory bodies.

In an analysis of 140 children with no evidence of previous Covid-19 infection, antibody levels against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain were six times higher one month after a booster dose than one month after the second vaccine dose.

Readings of the week

Beijing tests 20 million residents amid ‘Fast and Furious’ Omicron outbreak

Shanghai has been under a strict home lockdown for weeks as officials try to contain the outbreak there. Public discontent is rising, as residents struggle to secure food and access to medicines.

Beijing began testing all residents of Chaoyang, a crowded area that houses the city’s business hub and foreign embassies, on Monday morning, in the first of three testing rounds that will take place over five days, according to a report by Nectar Gan and CNN’s Beijing office. . Residents and office workers formed long queues at temporary testing centers throughout the day.

“The outbreak in Beijing is fast and furious,” Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing municipal government, told a news conference.

Family members of Covid-19 ICU patients at risk of developing PTSD

Family members often shy away from experiencing symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD, according to a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Dr. Timothy Amas, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and lead author of the study, drew comparisons with experiences in conflict situations. “When you put that in the hospital, the sudden change in health is that my mum or dad was fine yesterday, and they are now in the intensive care unit for life support,” he said.

Amas and his team surveyed family members in the months after a loved one was admitted to the intensive care unit with Covid-19 at 12 hospitals across the country. Many of the people in the study experienced limited visits and contact with the patient.

The study found that among the families who responded to the survey, 201 out of 316 (about 63%) had significant symptoms of PTSD.

Opinion: More funding is needed for Covid-19 to stay ahead in the next battle

Dr Ashish Jha, the White House response coordinator for Covid-19, warns that the United States is going through a complex moment in the pandemic.

And while deaths in the United States have fallen from their recent peak, hundreds of Americans still die of Covid-19 every day.

He says the United States has a choice to make. “We can wait and see what happens next, or we can use this moment as an opportunity to prepare. We can invest in strategies that will save lives, protect our most vulnerable, keep schools open and keep the economy going when the next boom hits.”

He writes: “After more than two years of the pandemic and numerous mutations, the correct answer is clear: We need to prepare now so that we can finally beat this virus and prepare for whatever challenges lie ahead.”

“We can do it. But we need funding to make it happen.”

Top tip

If you have several boxes of Covid-19 home tests stashed away, you may want to use them before they expire just to be careful.

The Food and Drug Administration, the body that authorizes these tests in the United States, says on its website that it does not recommend the use of at-home diagnostic tests after expiration dates because parts of them may degrade or malfunction and may give inaccurate test results.

But as manufacturers change the expiration dates of some of the distributed tests as they get more data, many are left wondering if it is that simple.

“Because it takes time for test manufacturers to perform a stability test, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) typically authorizes home Covid-19 tests with an expiration date of about four to six months from the day the test was manufactured, based on initial study results, Dr. William Schaffner, MD, Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Once the test manufacturer has more stability test results, such as 12 or 18 months, the test manufacturer can contact the FDA to ask the FDA to authorize a longer expiration date. And when an expiration date is allowed Longer shelf life, the test manufacturer may send notification to customers to introduce the new authorized expiration date, so customers know how long they can use the tests they already have.”

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