Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: Masking Against Covid At Medical Facilities Is Wise
Signs urging everyone to mask up have largely disappeared from places like grocery stores and schools in the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic. But they remain in many medical offices, and a study published Monday says they might still be a good idea. Even after the expiration of the US public health emergency declaration and with many Americans moving away from pandemic precautions, masks continue to offer some protection, reducing your risk of catching Covid-19 in a community setting like in a close doctor and patient interaction, according to the study, which reviewed the latest science on the protective quality of masks. (Christensen, 5/15)
With wide-reaching intervention against COVID-19 now firmly in the past, officials and experts continue to preach the importance of individual decision-making to assess and manage their health risks. Monitoring coronavirus conditions is becoming more difficult, however, as the pandemic’s post-emergency phase has seen data collection and reporting endeavors either scaled back or abandoned entirely. (Money and Lin II, 5/15)
If you got an alert saying you'll no longer get COVID-19 exposure notifications on your phone, don't bother checking your settings. It's not your device — it's the government. Driving the news: The end of the federal public health emergency last Thursday also meant the end of federal funding for some state programs, Lacy Fehrenbach, chief of prevention for the Washington state Department of Health, said at a news conference last week. (Santos, 5/15)
The CDC has new ventilation guidelines —
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week published guidance for improving building ventilation to help protect people from respiratory infections, with a goal of at least five air changes each hour and an upgrade to MERV-13 filters. (Schnirring, 5/15)
Read the CDC's new guidance on building ventilation —
In other covid news —
San Francisco employees who believe they would be endorsing abortion by getting vaccinated against COVID-19 can sue the city for violating their religious rights by mandating vaccination for all its workers, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. (Egelko, 5/15)
Over 90% of adult long-COVID patients in France gradually recovered over 2 years, while 5% improved rapidly, and 4% reported persistent symptoms, finds a study published late last week in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 5/15)
Compared with feverish infants who tested negative for COVID-19, a lower proportion of babies aged 8 to 60 days who tested positive had co-occurring urinary tract infections (UTIs), bacteremia without meningitis, and bacterial meningitis, according to a study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 5/15)
