Analysis

Survey: COVID home test results can enhance disease tracking At least one household member and six healthcare workers who encountered the index case-patient are being investigated after showing symptoms of viral infection. CIDRAP

Online nonprobability survey estimates suggest that 54 million US COVID-19 infections went uncounted in official records after home tests were widely deployed and institutional testing waned starting in February 2022. ...

WHO recommends maternal shot and antibody therapy to prevent RSV in infants The recommendations, to administer both the shot and the antibody or either, come after the WHO's strategic advisory group on immunization met last week. For countries that decide to use a maternal vaccine, WHO said it recommends a single shot in the third trimester of pregnancy. Drugmaker Pfizer's shot is approved in the United States for use in women during the middle of the third trimester of pregnancy to protect their babies. Yahoo News

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XEC, like countless others before it, is a part of the omicron family. The variant is closely related to KP.2, the strain targeted by the updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. And both XEC and KP.1 are descendants of the JN.1 strain, targeted by the updated Novavax vaccine.

“I think we have good reason to think that there will be substantial protection from the boosters that are available,” Hanage said.

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