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An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid. (Lardner, McDermott and Kessler, 6/12)

The Texas Medical Board has filed a formal complaint against Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Houston ear, nose and throat specialist, accusing her of violating the standard of care and acting unprofessionally in 2021 when she prescribed medication to a hospitalized COVID-19 patient in Fort Worth whom she had never examined, according to court documents. (Gill, 6/9)

A cheap, widely available drug shows promise in reducing the risk of long COVID, the persistent symptoms of illness that affect some people after infection with the novel coronavirus. In a new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota, metformin, a drug commonly prescribed to control blood sugar levels in individuals with Type 2 diabetes, has emerged as a potential game-changer in the fight against long COVID. (Vaziri, 6/9)

With much of the Covid testing done in private or not at all anymore, it is likely that many Americans don't bother with isolation anyway. So, who is still following the CDC guidance? Schools, nursing homes and businesses. The current recommendation to isolate for five days is a "hangover" from when the CDC moved from a 10-day isolation recommendation to five days in late 2022, just as the first wave of omicron was taking hold in the U.S., said Harvard University epidemiologist Bill Hanage. (Edwards and Syal, 6/10)

“During the pandemic, we generally ran every test available, because we wanted to know if it was Covid or if there was an alternative diagnosis, but this overtesting has carried into this post-Covid era,” said the president of the College of Urgent Care Medicine, Dr. Chris Chao, an urgent care physician at WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. “People want to know what’s wrong, with them and saying it’s just a virus is not good enough anymore. Everyone who comes in with a sore throat now wants a strep, flu and Covid test, but in most cases none of that’s really indicated.” (Camero, 6/11)

At least 32 animal species in 39 countries have had confirmed coronavirus infections. For the most part, the animals do not become very ill. Still, some are capable of transmitting the virus to other members of their species, just like the asymptomatic humans who became “silent spreaders.” The coronavirus’ ability to infect so many different animals, and to spread within some of those populations, is worrying news: It means there’s virtually no chance the world will ever be rid of this particularly destructive coronavirus, scientists said. (Healy, 6/9)