Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine be given to everyone 12 years of age and older. Previously, COVID-19 vaccines had been authorized only for those aged 16 and older. Pfizer is the first vaccine manufacturer to gain emergency use…

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Editor's Note The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) issued guidance on May 14 saying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) mask recommendations for those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not apply in healthcare settings. Healthcare facilities should continue to follow COVID-19 infection prevention…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 13 announced that fully vaccinated individuals can discard masks and do away with social distancing outdoors and in most indoor settings. The agency still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings, such as buses, planes, hospitals, prisons, and…

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Editor's Note The New York Times (NYT) reported on May 11 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new guidelines for mask wearing are misleading because they treat outdoor transmission of COVID-19 as a major risk. The CDC reports that less than 10% of COVID-19 transmissions are occurring…

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Editor's Note This study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are immunogenic in pregnant and lactating women, and they induce immune responses against variants. For the study, researchers enrolled 30 pregnant, 16 lactating, and 57 neither pregnant nor lactating women…

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Editor's Note On May 10, Reuters reported that COVID-19 cases in the US dropped 17% to less than 290,000 for the week ending May 9. This is the fourth week in a row that new cases have decreased, and the fewest weekly cases since September. COVID-19 deaths fell 1.3% to…

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Editor's Note The US averaged 48,000 new COVID-19 cases per day in the past week. This is a 15% improvement from last week, and the first time since October 2020 that average daily cases have fallen below 50,000. Nationally, deaths from COVID-19 fell 3% to 4,819, the fewest deaths in…

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Editor's Note The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), on May 4, revoked its public health emergency approval for Plastikon Industries’ (Hayward, California) PLASMA N95-01 masks. The revocation was issued because a product audit by NIOSH failed to meet filter efficiency requirements. The mask is no longer approved…

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Editor's Note In this report, researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, estimate the number of opioid-involved overdose deaths in Cook County over a 3-year period to highlight changes, before, during, and after the Illinois COVID-19 stay-at-home order. From January 2018 to December 2020, 4,283 overdose fatalities occurred…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on April 28, reported that more than 98 million people in the US are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which is 29.5% of the population. The count included two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, as well as the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson’s…

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