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The rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination program has reached new heights of complexity with the start of the bivalent booster program, leading to concerns about the potential for more errors in the administration of vaccines. (Branswell, 9/14)

“How high that wave is, and how overwhelmed our hospital systems are, are going to be a direct correlation with how many people get their booster and how this virus mutates,” said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and publisher of the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter. “One of those things we can control, and the other one, we can’t.” (Cooney and Rasnic, 9/13)

President Joe Biden has the same authority to impose a COVID-19 vaccine requirement on federal workers that private employers have for their employees, an administration lawyer told a federal appeals court Tuesday. A lawyer for opponents of the vaccine requirement, which has been blocked nationwide by a federal judge in Texas, said the requirement imposes an “unconstitutionally intolerable choice” for executive branch workers — taking a vaccine they don’t want or losing their jobs. (McGill, 9/13)

As the U.S. rolls out updated mRNA-based COVID shots, a growing chorus of experts say it's a mistake not to focus on treatments that boost immunity through mucous membranes. (Reed, 9/13)

A study out of the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University has found that flushing your nose twice daily with a mild saline solution shortly after testing positive for COVID-19 can drastically decrease your chances of hospitalization and death. Simply mix a half teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of baking soda in a cup of boiled (and cooled) or distilled water, then pour it into a sinus rinse bottle. A squeeze bottle or bulb syringe works, too. (Payton, 9/13)

As health plans wrestle with what to do about COVID-19 coverage going forward, a recent study in JAMA Network Open concludes that patients suffering from a loss of the sense of smell might be more susceptible to exhibiting symptoms of long COVID for longer periods of time. (Diamond, 9/13)

"We don't know how to treat long COVID. We are only beginning to know what it is," said Dr. Clifford Rosen, a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and a senior scientist at the Maine Health Institute for Research. Although long COVID clinics have popped up in nearly every state, and the internet is filled with promises of easy fixes, there's still very little solid science about the condition. Medical care – if someone can get it – consists of trying to address each troublesome symptom on its own. (Weintraub, 9/14)