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President Joe Biden ended his COVID-19 isolation on Wednesday, telling Americans they can “live without fear” of the pandemic if they take advantage of booster shots and treatments, the protections he credited with his swift recovery. “You don’t need to be president to get these tools to be used for your defense,” he said in the Rose Garden. “In fact, the same booster shots, the same at-home test, the same treatment that I got is available to you.” (Megerian and Superville, 7/27)

After five days working in isolation at the White House, President Joe Biden reemerged on Wednesday -- and told the American public that his mild bout of COVID-19 was a testament to the power of vaccines and therapeutics. "Even if you get COVID, you can avoid winding up with a severe case," Biden said from the Rose Garden late Wednesday morning, in his first public appearance after back-to-back negative antigen test results. (Axelrod, 7/27)

As the Covid-19 pandemic evolves, it only makes sense that the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory standards for updated vaccines do too, former Commissioner Stephen Hahn told POLITICO. With more people vaccinated and boosted, and a lower case fatality rate than the nation experienced earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic, along with the emergence of different variants, Hahn said it is appropriate that the FDA is adapting the regulatory stance it laid out in its initial vaccine guidance documents. (Lim, 7/27)

"You’re dealing with a moving target," he said on The Hill's Rising television show. “There’s always the possibility that you’re going to have the evolution of another variant... And hopefully, if that occurs, it will vary off from the BA.5 only slightly—in the sense of being a sub-sublineage of it, and not something entirely different." The White House and vaccine makers are already trying to head off a worse outcome by accelerating efforts to develop a universal COVID vaccine that would protect against multiple variants. (McGregor, 7/28)

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) said on Wednesday they had started a mid-stage study of a modified COVID-19 vaccine which targets both the original as well as the BA.2 Omicron subvariant. Pfizer said the vaccine is in an initial proof-of-concept study to gather more data. (7/27)

Millions of school-age children in the United States are still unvaccinated against Covid-19 as many prepare for a return to school. A new CNN analysis finds that less than half of children and teens are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and only a tenth have been boosted. (Howard, 7/27)

About 5% of patients with confirmed cases of Covid-19 — some 27 million people worldwide — are estimated to have suffered a long-lasting loss of smell or taste, a new analysis suggests. In the analysis published Wednesday in The BMJ (the peer-reviewed medical journal of the British Medical Association), researchers evaluated  18 previous studies of smell and taste loss across several continents and in varying demographic groups. About three quarters of those affected by loss of taste or smell regained those senses within 30 days. (Bush, 7/27)

Mask mandates are making a comeback at public schools in Louisville. They could return to Los Angeles, after a possible decision this week. And outside Atlanta, where classes start in a matter of days, they are required for school employees. (St. George, 7/27)

KHN: Everything You Need To Know About Paxlovid — Especially, Should You Take It?

When President Joe Biden tested positive for covid-19 on July 21, his physician recommended he take the antiviral drug Paxlovid. The drug significantly reduces the likelihood of hospitalization or death for someone at high risk of developing severe covid. Biden started the five-day course that day, according to the White House, and within six days he tested negative for the virus and was cleared to leave isolation. (Andrews, 7/28)