Health

Omicron undermining treatment for other health problems

Roger Strukhoff was being treated for intestinal bleeding at a hospital outside Chicago this month when he suffered a mild heart attack.

Normally, the 67-year-old would have been sent to the intensive care unit. But Strukhoff said it was overrun with COVID-19 patients, and the staff instead had to wheel a heart monitor into his room and quickly administer nitroglycerin and morphine.

“A doctor I know pretty well said, ‘Roger, we’re going to have to improvise right here,’” said Strukhoff, who lives in DeKalb, Illinois.

The omicron surge this winter has not only swamped U.S. hospitals with record numbers of patients with COVID-19, it has also caused frightening moments and major headaches for people trying to get treatment for other ailments.

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Less-urgent procedures. such as cochlear implant surgeries and steroid injections for rheumatoid arthritis, have been put on hold around the country. And people with all sorts of medical complaints have had to wait in emergency rooms for hours longer than usual.

Mat Gleason said he wheeled his 92-year-old father, Eugene Gleason, into a Los Angeles-area emergency room last week for a transfusion to treat a blood disorder. It should have taken about seven to 10 hours, Gleason said, but his dad was there for 48 hours.

He said his father called him after 10 hours, asking for a blanket.

“He told me later, ’I just assumed they forgot about me,” said Gleason, 57, who works as an art critic. “And yet he wasn’t the only person in that room. There were dozens of people” But Gleason added: “I’m not begrudging the hospital at all. They did a great job.”

Roger Strukhoff 67, stands in silhouette cleaning off his home office desk Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in his DeKalb, Ill., home. Strukhoff was being treated for intestinal bleeding at a hospital outside Chicago this month when he suffered a mild heart attack. Normally, the medical staff would have sent Strukhoff to the intensive care unit, but, overrun with COVID-19 patients, the staff instead had to wheel a heart monitor into his room and quickly administer nitroglycerin and morphine. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

An average of almost 144,000 people were in the hospital in the U.S. with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the highest level on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitals in a few states such as New York and Connecticut that experienced early omicron surges are starting to see an easing of the patient load, but many other places are overwhelmed.

Hospitals say the COVID-19 patients aren’t as sick as those during the last surge. And many of them are being admitted for reasons other than COVID-19 and only incidentally testing positive for the virus.

Rick Pollack, CEO and president of the American Hospital Association, said the surge has had a widespread effect on the availability of care for people who have non-COVID-19 health problems. He said a number of factors are at play: More people are in the hospital, and a high number of health care workers are out with COVID-19, worsening staffing shortages that existed well before the pandemic.

As of Wednesday, roughly 23% of hospitals nationwide were reporting critical staff shortages, Pollack said.

Many people are also unable or unwilling to seek care for symptoms that do not seem like emergencies, he said. Pollack said that has led to delays in diagnosing conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure that get worse the longer they go untreated.

COVID-19: NEARLY HALF OF VIRUS HOSPITALIZATIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS ARE FOR OTHER ISSUES

Dr. Claudia Fegan, chief medical officer for Cook County Health in Chicago, said some people, particularly older patients, have been avoiding checkups and other routine care during the pandemic out of fear of COVID-19.

And as a result, “the patients we’re seeing now are much sicker,” she said, citing cases of advanced heart failure and cancer that might have been diagnosed earlier.

Mike Bawden, a 59-year-old marketing consultant with a history of blood clots in his lungs, said he couldn’t get an appointment to see his doctor in Davenport, Iowa, because his coughing symptoms were too similar to COVID-19. The doctor’s office was concerned about the virus spreading to others.

After nearly two weeks, Bawden went to a walk-in clinic, which sent him to the emergency room at Genesis Medical Center-East in Davenport. He said he waited almost six hours in an overflowing ER before he was seen. A scan showed clots in his lungs, as he suspected, and he was prescribed blood thinners.

If not for the surge, Bawden said, he would have gotten a scan much earlier at a doctor’s office.

“It’s always so easy to Monday morning quarterback the ER, but everyone was really nice — even the other patients,” Bawden said. “I think it’s important for folks to realize that nobody’s the villain.”

Craig Cooper, a Genesis spokesman, declined to comment on any individual cases. But he said in an email: “We are not exempt from the challenges medical centers across the United States are experiencing because of significant impact from COVID. We urge individuals to get vaccinated.”

Strukhoff, who is a researcher for tech startups, said he arrived at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb for what he suspected was internal bleeding.

He was diagnosed and given a bed in the emergency room. He waited there for six hours, feeling dizzy, before he was wheeled to his own room through hallways where people lay on stretchers.

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“I was in no distress at that point,” Strukhoff said. “I was worried about clogging up the works in the emergency room and taking up a spot for other people.”

Christopher King, a spokesman for Northwestern Medicine, declined to comment on Strukhoff’s care because of privacy laws. But he confirmed that wait times were higher than normal throughout the hospital system, as they are across the country.

Strukhoff said that once he got his own hospital room, a colonoscopy revealed the bleeding. Doctors treated it by cauterizing a vein. He then suffered the heart attack while he was recovering. He said it took five hours for him to get into the ICU.

“It’s not something they were set up to do, but they did it,” Strukhoff said of the doctors and nurses who rose to the challenge. “These people are heroes.”

COVID-19 lingering loss of taste or smell may be explained by genetics, study finds

The mystery of why people infected with COVID-19 lose their taste or smell may lie in a genetic risk factor, according to a recent study published in Nature Genetics.

“How we get from infection to smell loss remains unclear,” said Dr. Justin Turner, an associate professor of otolaryngology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., who was not part of the study.

Researchers from 23andMe, a genomics and biotechnology company, analyzed data from 69,841 individuals in the United States and United Kingdom who took online surveys after having a positive COVID-19 test, comparing those who reported a loss of taste or smell with those who did not.

Among those who tested positive for COVID-19, 68% participants reported a loss of taste or smell, the female respondents were 11% more likely than men to report the symptoms and approximately 73% were ages 26-35, per the study.

FILE – In this Aug. 31, 2021, file photo, Jack Kingsley R.N. attends to a COVID-19 patient in the Medical Intensive care unit (MICU) at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. The summer that was supposed to mark America’s independence from COVID-19 is instead drawing to a close with the U.S. more firmly under the tyranny of the virus, with deaths per day back up to where they were in March 2021. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, File)

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The study also found the loss of taste or smell was more common among those with a COVID-19 test compared to those who tested negative but reported cold-flu like symptoms, noting those of East Asian or African American ancestry were significantly less likely to report the loss of smell or taste compared to individuals of European ancestry.

The research team compared the genetic differences of those who reported a loss of taste or smell with those who didn’t, finding a location near two genes, UGT2A1 and UGT2A2, to be related to the sense of smell that is associated with the loss of taste and smell after being infected with COVID-19.

Even though past animal studies showed these genes, which are expressed in the tissue in our nose, are involved in the elimination of ‘odorants’ and previous experimental studies suggest the loss of smell is related to tissue damage along the lining of the nose, the authors concede it’s unclear how the genes are actually involved, only that they ” … may play a role in the physiology of infected cells and the resulting functional impairment that contributes to loss of ability to smell.”

Despite the research being a large scale study, it did have several limitations, including a bias toward European ancestry participants, relying only on self-report surveys without any clinical evaluations of the participants, and the inability to “disentangle” the loss of taste with smell because both were included in a single survey question.

“Notably, the [gene] variant identified in this study also appears to be associated with general ability to smell, which may suggest that those with heightened smell or taste sensitivity may be more prone to notice a loss of these senses resulting from a SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the authors said.

FILE – Registered nurse Emily Yu, left, talks to Paul Altamirano, a 50-year-old COVID-19 patient, at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dec. 13, 2021. Hospitals across the U.S. are feeling the wrath of the omicron variant and getting thrown into disarray that is different from earlier COVID-19 surges. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) (AP)

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Previous research has shown the loss of taste and smell is related to a “failure to protect the sensory cells of the nose and tongue from viral infection,” said Danielle Reed, PhD, associate director of Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center. Reed studies the person-to-person differences in the loss of taste and smell as a result of COVID-19, but was not part of the study.

“This study suggests a different direction,” she noted. “The pathways that break down the chemicals that cause taste and smell in the first place might be over or underactive, reducing or distorting the ability to taste and smell.

Most cases of Havana Syndrome are not caused by foreign adversary, but some cases still under investigation

A recent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) interim report said the majority of the mysterious cases known as Havana syndrome that has affected United States diplomats, spies, and other government officials are explained by undiagnosed medical conditions, stress, or environmental factors, rather than from a global attack by a foreign adversary like Russia.

“We assess it is unlikely that a foreign actor, including Russia, is conducting a sustained, worldwide campaign harming U.S. personnel with a weapon or mechanism,” a senior CIA official said.

The CIA, however, is still investigating if a foreign government attack was responsible for a small number of individual cases that remain a mystery, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Tourists ride classic convertible cars on the Malecon beside the United States Embassy in Havana, Cuba, Oct. 3, 2017. The CIA believes it’s unlikely that Russia or another adversary are broadly using directed energy to attack hundreds of U.S. personnel who have reported brain injuries and symptoms that have come to be known as “Havana syndrome. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan, File)

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“We are pursuing this complex issue with analytic rigor, sound tradecraft, and compassion and have dedicated intensive resources to this challenge,” CIA Director William Burns said.

In late 2016, American diplomats, who were stationed at a United States Embassy in Havana, Cuba as part of the historic reestablishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, started to report unusual sounds and sensations followed by unexplained medical symptoms, including dizziness, headaches, hearing and vision loss as well as memory difficulties, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over the years, hundreds of U.S. officials have reported similar cases in more than a dozen countries, according to NBC News.

The United States State Department tasked a scientific panel organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to investigate, finding in late 2020 that “directed, pulsed radio frequency (RF) energy” as the most likely cause of the symptoms, adding to the fears that a foreign adversary was targeting Americans, according to the Journal.

A senior CIA official, however, told The Hill: “We assess that the majority of the reported AHI [anomalous health incident] cases can be reasonably explained by medical conditions, environmental and technical factors, including previously undiagnosed illnesses, as well as many reports that were made out of an abundance of caution.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a photo opportunity with Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu at the State Department, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

‘HAVANA SYNDROME’ NOT LIKELY CAUSED BY MICROWAVES OR OTHER FORMS OF DIRECTED ENERGY: CIA

“These findings do not call into question the fact that our officers are reporting experiences and that they’re suffering real symptoms. That said it doesn’t explain every report.”

As cases mounted since 2016, morale among CIA and State Department employees declined and U.S. diplomacy sometimes was strained because of fears a nefarious foreign adversary could be responsible for their personnel getting sick, per the Journal.

The paper noted many government personnel who have fallen sick with the symptoms of Havana syndrome were disappointed by the current CIA report.

“This report, which no matter how you dress it up, pretty much shuts the door on an active effort by the CIA to attribute these incidents,” said Tim Bergreen, an adviser for Advocacy for Victims of Havana Syndrome.

CIA logo at the agency’s headquarters.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, reiterated that the investigation will continue and the health and safety of the U.S. personnel and families affected by the syndrome are the State Department’s priority.

“We have been working overtime to try to understand what happened and who might be responsible,” Blinken told reporters in Berlin on Thursday.

“While we have reached some significant interim findings, we are not done. We will continue the mission to investigate these incidents and provide access to world-class care for those who need it,” Burns said.

CDC studies show COVID-19 boosters offer necessary protection against omicron variant

Speaking at the White House COVID-19 response team briefing Friday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said three new reports released by the agency add evidence to the importance of being “up to date” with vaccinations against COVID-19.

They are the first large U.S. studies to look at vaccine protection against omicron and echo previous research indicating vaccines are less effective against the variant than earlier versions of the coronavirus.

But, they also show that boosters significantly improve protection.

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“The data here show … the protection provided by vaccines and the importance of being up to date on your COVID-19 vaccination,” Walensky told reporters.

The first study looked at hospitalizations and emergency room and urgent care center visits in 10 states, from August through January.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, answers questions at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Jan. 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

The researchers found vaccine effectiveness was best after three doses of the mRNA Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in preventing COVID-19-associated emergency department and urgent care visits.

Protection dropped from 94% during the delta wave over the summer to 82% during the omicron wave and protection from just two doses was lower – especially if half a year had passed following the second dose.

The second study examined case and death rates in 25 states from April through Christmas.

During both the delta and omicron waves, people who were boosted had the highest protection against infection.

COVID-19: NEARLY HALF OF VIRUS HOSPITALIZATIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS ARE FOR OTHER ISSUES

A third study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), also led by CDC researchers, observed people who tested positive from Dec. 10 to Jan. 1 at more than 4,600 testing sites.

While three shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were about 67% effective against omicron-related symptomatic disease compared with unvaccinated people, two doses offered no significant protection against the variant.

“Taken together, these data highlight two important points. First, those who remain unvaccinated are at a significantly higher risk for infection and severe COVID-19 disease,” Walensky explained. “Second, protection against infection and hospitalization with the omicron variant is highest for those who are up to date with their vaccination, meaning those who are boosted when they’re eligible.”

“There are still millions of people who are eligible for a booster dose and have not yet received one,” she added. “As we continue to face the omicron variant – representing over 99% of infections in the United States today – I urge all who are eligible to get their booster shot, to get it as soon as possible.”

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said that 210 million Americans are fully vaccinated, including nearly 75% of adults.

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He said those individuals are 16 times less likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 than those who remain unvaccinated.

“We’re not there yet, but the president’s COVID plan is clearly working. And, we’re confident we’ll continue to make progress to get to where we all want to be,” Zients concluded.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Biden admin awards $103M from American Rescue Plan to fight health care worker burnout

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced Thursday that the Biden administration would award $103 million to help respond to critical staffing needs and health care worker burnout.

Money will go toward promoting mental health and wellness among the workforce – particularly in rural and underserved communities – with evidence-informed programs, practices and training.

COVID-19: NEARLY HALF OF VIRUS HOSPITALIZATIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS ARE FOR OTHER ISSUES

The multi-year awards will support proven strategies for health care providers, academic institutions and other recipients, including the creation of partnerships and utilization of local resources to support health professionals’ response to workplace stressors.

Registered nurse Sara Nystrom, of Townshend, Vt., prepares to enter a patient’s room in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, N.H., Jan. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The funds will be distributed to 45 grantees through three programs, and were secured through the administration’s American Rescue Plan.

The three programs include Promoting Resilience and Mental Health Among Health Professional Workforce, the Health and Public Safety Workforce Resiliency Training Program and a Health and Public Safety Workforce Resiliency Technical Assistance Center.

HRSA is awarding $28.6 million to 10 grantees to assist health care organizations in establishing, expanding or improving programs and practices to promote mental health.

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Thirty-four grantees will receive $68.2 million to support tailored evidence-informed training development within the health profession and nursing training activities.

George Washington University will receive $6 million to provide tailored training and technical assistance to the recipients.

HHS noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has “compounded rates of depression and anxiety among healthcare workers.”

“I have traveled to many health centers across the country and know that the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified issues that have long been a source of stress for frontline health care workers — from increased patient volumes to long working hours,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “This funding reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to ensuring we have enough critical frontline workers by supporting health care providers now and beyond as they face burnout and mental health challenges. We will continue to promote the well-being of those who have made so many sacrifices to keep others well.”

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“Now more than ever, it is critical to support the well-being of our health care workforce, who are working every day to protect each of us,” HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson said. “Today’s awards will provide new tools to help support our health professionals’ resilience as they continue to face the stress and challenges of responding to COVID-19 and other health care needs and provide high quality care.”

Japan widens COVID restrictions due to omicron

Restaurants and bars will close early in Tokyo and a dozen other areas across Japan beginning Friday as the country widens COVID-19 restrictions due to the omicron variant, which has caused cases to surge to new highs in metropolitan areas.

The restraint, which is something of a pre-state of emergency, is the first since September and is scheduled to last through Feb. 13. With three other prefectures — Okinawa, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi — under similar measures since early January, the state of restraint now covers 16 areas, or one-third of the country.

While many Japanese adults are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, few have gotten a booster shot, which has been a vital protection from the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus.

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The Health Ministry on Friday approved Pfizer vaccinations for children aged 5-11, who are increasingly vulnerable to infection.

Throughout the pandemic, Japan has resisted the use of lockdowns to limit the spread of the virus and has focused on requiring eateries to close early and not serve alcohol, and on urging the public to wear masks and practice social distancing, as the government seeks to minimize damage to the economy.

Under the latest measures, most eateries are asked to close by 8 or 9 p.m., while large events can allow full capacity if they have anti-virus plans. In Tokyo, certified eateries that stop serving alcohol can stay open until 9 p.m. while those serving alcohol must close an hour earlier.

Restaurants that close at 9 p.m. and don’t serve alcohol receive 30,000 yen ($263) per day in government compensation, while those that close at 8 p.m. get 25,000 yen ($220) per day.

Critics say the measures, which almost exclusively target bars and restaurants, make little sense and are unfair.

People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk along a pedestrian crossing Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Mitsuru Saga, the manager of a Japanese-style “izakaya” restaurant in downtown Tokyo, said he chose to serve alcohol and close at 8 p.m. despite receiving less compensation from the government.

“We cannot make business without serving alcohol,” Saga said in an interview with Nippon Television. “It seems only eateries are targeted for restraints.”

Some experts question the effectiveness of placing restraints only on eateries, noting that infections show no signs of slowing in the three prefectures that have already been subjected to the measures for nearly two weeks.

After more than two years of repeated restraints and social distancing requests, Japanese are increasingly becoming less cooperative to such measures. People are back to commuting on packed trains and shopping at crowded stores.

Tokyo’s main train station of Shinagawa was packed as usual with commuters rushing to work Friday morning.

Japan briefly eased border controls in November but quickly reversed them to ban most foreign entrants when the omicron variant began spreading in other countries. Japan says it will stick to the stringent border policy through the end of February as the country tries to reinforce medical systems and treatment.

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The tough border controls have triggered criticism from foreign students and scholars who say the measures are not scientific.

A group of scholars and Japan-U.S. experts recently launched a petition, led by Japan Society head Joshua Walker, calling on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his government to allow foreign scholars and students to enter the country again under careful preventive measures.

A letter to Kishida, signed by hundreds of academics and experts in Japan-U.S. studies, urged his government to relax border controls to allow educators, students and scholars to enter Japan and pursue their academic activity. Many of them have been forced to give up Japan studies and focus instead on other countries, including South Korea.

“They become the bridges between Japan and other societies. They are future policymakers, business leaders, and teachers. They are the foundation of the U.S.-Japan alliance and other international relationships that support Japan’s core national interests,” the letter said. “The closure is harming Japan’s national interests and international relationships.”

People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk along a pedestrian crossing Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Japan recently announced it will allow 87 students on Japanese government scholarships to enter the country, but petitioners say there are many others on foreign government-sponsored scholarships who still cannot get in.

Tokyo logged 8,638 new cases of coronavirus infection Thursday, exceeding the previous record of 7,377 set the day before.

At a Tokyo metropolitan government task force meeting, experts sounded the alarm at the fast-paced upsurge led by omicron.

Norio Ohmagari, Director of the Disease Control and Prevention Center of National Center for Global Health and an advisor to the Tokyo metropolitan government panel, said Tokyo’s daily new cases may exceed 18,000 within a week if the increase continues at the current pace.

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Though only some of the soaring number of infected people are hospitalized and occupying less than one-third of available hospital beds in the Japanese capital, experts say the rapid upsurge of the cases could quickly overwhelm the medical systems once the infections further spread among the elderly population who are more likely to become seriously ill.

Surging infections have begun to paralyze hospitals, schools and other sectors in some areas.

The ministry has trimmed the required self-isolation period from 14 days to 10 for those who come into close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19, and to seven days for essential workers if they test negative.

While about 80% of Japanese have received their first two vaccine doses, the rollout of booster shots has been slow and has reached only 1.4 % of the population so far.

Thyroid disease: The symptoms and what to know

January is Thyroid Awareness Month in the U.S.

The thyroid gland is located in the front of the neck and helps send out hormones to control activities in the body, like breathing and pumping blood.

It also helps children’s bodies to develop as they grow up and controls weight.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), millions of people have thyroid disease, with glands that don’t produce enough hormones to meet their bodies’ needs, or make too many.

Hypothyroidism – or underactive thyroid – is the most common reason some need thyroid hormone replacement and slows the metabolism.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, it can be caused by an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, thyroiditis, treatment of hyperthyroidism or hereditary conditions.

The CDC reports radiation treatment of certain cancers and thyroid removal can also cause hypothyroidism.

Symptoms include fatigue, numbness or tingling in the hands, gaining weight, constipation, soreness, high blood cholesterol levels, depression, sensitivity to cold temperatures, dry and coarse skin and hair, a decrease in libido, frequent and heavy periods, physical changes in the face, brain fog and having one’s voice become lower and hoarser.

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Treatments include medications like levothyroxine, which replace the amount of hormone the thyroid is no longer producing.

Conversely, hyperthyroidism, or overactive thyroid, occurs when the thyroid gland produces too much of the hormone thyroxine, according to Mayo Clinic.

Hyperthyroidism can accelerate the body’s metabolism, causing a rapid or irregular heartbeat and unintentional weight loss.

Symptoms include increased appetite, heart palpitations, nervousness and anxiety, tremor, sweating, changes in menstrual patterns, increased sensitivity to heat, changes in bowel patterns, an enlarged thyroid gland, fatigue, muscle weakness, trouble sleeping, skin thinning, and fine and brittle hair.

There are several treatments available for hyperthyroidism, including anti-thyroid medications and radioactive iodine to slow the production of thyroid hormones. Sometimes, surgery is necessary to remove all or part of the gland.

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Women are more likely to have thyroid disease than men – especially immediately following pregnancy and menopause.

The Cleveland Clinic says people may be at a higher risk of developing a disease if they are genetically predisposed, have a medical condition, take a medication that’s high in iodine, are older than 60 and have had treatment for a past thyroid condition or cancer.

COVID-19: Nearly half of virus hospitalizations in Massachusetts are for other issues

Massachusetts’ Department of Public Health on Thursday—for the first time—made a distinction between COVID-19 patients hospitalized with “primary” and “incidental” cases.

Boston 25, citing the newly released data, reported that 49% of the state’s 3,187 patients– hospitalized on Jan. 18–were there because of another matter and diagnosed with the virus once at the hospital.

Medical officials in the state made clear that they have no intention of diminishing the “incidental” cases– pointing out that they will still require special care–but they hope the numbers will better reflect the virus’ impact on the community

Dr. Shira Doron, a Tufts Medical Center’s epidemiologist, worked on the state’s new reporting system and told the station that the data indicate that the vaccines are doing their job.

“At Tufts Medical Center, half of them are vaccinated, and you don’t want to be calling them a vaccine breakthrough hospitalization when they aren’t,” she said.

A resident enters the Tufts Medical Center Covid-19 vaccination and testing site in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. Photographer: Allison Dinner/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Allison Dinner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Boston 25 report said hospitals in the state measure primary COVID cases as those that require dexamethasone, the steroid treatment, which the majority of patients with severe coronavirus require.

Since the start of the outbreak, health officials have been accused of causing confusion by not distinguishing hospital cases. Since the start of the pandemic, the elderly and those with co-morbidities have been known to be at the greatest risk of serious illness. Some critics say politics were at play.

Dr. Shira Doron, a Tufts Medical Center’s epidemiologist, says the data show vaccines have been effective. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently spoke out against Dr. Anthony Fauci for only now editing his message when it comes to hospitalizations.

Cruz retweeted an interview Fauci had on MSNBC where he spoke about the troubling numbers of children in the hospital with the virus late last month. Fauci made it clear that there is a distinction between the number of children hospitalized with COVID as opposed to “because of COVID.”

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“And what we mean by that: If a child goes into the hospital, they automatically get tested for COVID and they get counted as a COVID-hospitalized individual, when, in fact, they may go in for a broken leg or appendicitis or something like that. So it’s over counting the number of children who are, quote, hospitalized with COVID as opposed to because of COVID,” Fauci said.

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Cruz posted, “Now Fauci says this? Is this because pandemic politics have changed for the Biden admin?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Yale researcher teams develops wearable clip to detect COVID

Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health have developed a wearable clip that can detect if a person may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The device captures virus-laden aerosols that deposit on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface, according to a study published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Science and Technology Letters.

A fresh air clip used to detect COVID. (Krystal Godri Pollitt)

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The clip attached to a shirt. (Krystal Pollitt)

A clinician wearing the fresh air clilp. (Yale New Haven Hospital/Dr. Jodi Sherman)

Krystal Godri Pollitt, who led the team of researchers who developed the clip, told Fox News it came about through her research measuring a person’s exposure to environmental factors.

“Through that work, I developed wearable tools that we can measure our exposure to lots of different chemicals within the air and other airborne factors,” Godri Pollitt said.

Her team pivoted to respiratory viruses in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

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The wearable clip is designed to be reusable with the polymer films being changed. It is intended as a complementary device to at-home testing kits.

“We want to go a step before that and be able to start thinking about, do we need more infectious control measures in place, do we need less people in this space? Do we need more ventilation?” Godri Pollitt said. “And also thinking about if people are at a potential risk for being infected? If we detect it within the air, there’s a good chance that maybe those people are at risk and should be quarantining.”

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Godri Pollitt told Fox News there is a lot of potential in expanding the clip to other respiratory viruses. The clip is not yet publicly available, but Godri Pollitt hopes it will be in the near future.

Officials say omicron slowing in these states

As the omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to spread, officials in several states across the country have reported the surge is showing signs of slowing.

In New York, COVID-19 infection data released Wednesday showed the seven-day average of new hospital admissions down 18.4% from the previous week.

The seven-day average of new cases is down 436% from the prior seven days and the seven-day average of cases per 100,000 people is “declining in all regions.”

BIDEN ADMITS ADMINISTRATION FELL SHORT ON COVID-19 TESTING

“We are continuing to turn the corner against the winter surge thanks to New Yorkers getting vaccinated, boosted and masking up,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “But we can’t let our guard down and undo all of the progress we’ve made. Please keep wearing your masks and make sure you get your vaccination or booster as soon as possible.”

On Thursday morning, WNBC said that new data covering the week of Jan. 10 showed both breakthrough and unvaccinated infection rates dropping and hospitalizations beginning to trend downward.

Last week, doctors at Connecticut’s two largest health care systems said they believe the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic may be peaking there.

FILE – CVS Pharmacist Gerard Diebner prepares the COVID-19 vaccine for the nursing home residents at Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a nursing home facility, on Jan. 15, 2021, in Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

Dr. Thomas Balcezak, the chief medical officer at Yale-New Haven Health, said then that he believed the state would begin to see an “ease-up” of the total number of hospitalizations in coming days – but that it “will be a slow decline over the next four to six weeks.”

On Wednesday, daily testing data revealed an increase of 4,745 cases and 28,663 tests.

However, hospitalizations were down and 67.9% of the patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 were not fully vaccinated.

For the week beginning on Jan. 2, unvaccinated persons had a 3.4 times greater risk of testing positive and an 18.6 times greater risk of dying from the disease.

MODELS PREDICT WAVE OF OMICRON DEATHS

The Washington Post also previously reported that experts in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia said COVID-19 may be peaking there.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday that the state appears to be on the “back side” of omicron.

He told reporters during a news conference that Massachusetts is seeing COVID-19 levels in wastewater heading on “exactly the same trajectory” that other parts of the U.S., the U.K. and South Africa have.

“Straight up and then straight down,” Baker said. “The one thing I would say of COVID is generally you just never know, but it certainly does look like we are very much on the backside of the omicron surge in Massachusetts.”

In the Midwest, Illinois and Chicago officials reported that omicron appeared to be slowing, with record numbers of hospitalizations declining.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker told reporters at a briefing that since hitting a statewide all-time high of hospital patients on Jan. 13, that count has dropped nearly 12%. Hospitalizations in Chicago have not dropped but have started to plateau.

“We are a long way from being out of the woods,” Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said at a separate news conference. “The threat is in no way over, but the news is good in terms of the direction that it’s turning.”

However, while more Americans are getting “up to date” with their COVID-19 vaccines, other states in the South and West are seeing cases spike.

New Mexico became the first state in the nation to ask that National Guard troops serve as substitute teachers as preschools and K-12 public schools struggle to keep classrooms open and virus hospitalizations have surged in Oklahoma, where patients have been treated in hallways and closets.

“Make no mistake, omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedro Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a Tuesday briefing. “The virus is circulating far too intensely with many still vulnerable.”

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Modelers forecast 50,000 to 300,000 more Americans could die from COVID-19 by mid-March.

President Biden announced last week that he would send medical teams to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan and New Mexico to assist overcrowded hospitals and overworked medical professionals.

In the past week, the U.S. has seen more than 5.2 million new cases and 12,376 new deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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