- CDC loosens recommendations for some Covid-19 mitigation measures
- Poliovirus detected in wastewater samples in New York City
- New US monkeypox vaccine strategy could be huge boost for supply, but much is unknown
- Homemade baby food contains as many toxic metals as store-bought options, report says
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CDC loosens recommendations for some Covid-19 mitigation measures |
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the nation should move away from restrictive measures such as quarantines and social distancing and focus on reducing severe disease from Covid-19. In its new guidelines, the agency no longer recommends staying at least 6 feet away from other people to reduce the risk of exposure – a shift from guidance that had been in place since the early days of the pandemic. The move is a sign of how much has changed since the beginning of the pandemic more than two years ago. Now, nearly the entire US population has at least some immunity to the coronavirus through vaccination, infection or both. "The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years," said Greta Massetti, who leads the Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch at the CDC. The new CDC guidelines say contact tracing – another hallmark of the pandemic – should be limited to hospitals and certain high-risk group-living situations such as nursing homes, and the guidelines de-emphasize the use of regular testing to screen for Covid-19, except in certain high-risk settings such as nursing homes and prisons. The new guidance also does not advise quarantining people who've been exposed to Covid-19 but are not infected. When it comes to schools, the agency removed the recommendation that kids in different classrooms avoid mixing, a practice known as cohorting. It also removed advice that kids who are contacts of someone who tested positive for Covid-19 take regular tests – and test negative – to remain in the classroom, which was known as test-to-stay. But the guidance does keep some measures the same. It encourages testing for people with symptoms and their close contacts. It also says people who test positive for Covid-19 should stay home for at least five days and wear a mask around others for 10 days. It also continues to recommend that people wear masks indoors in about half the country. The changes are an acknowledgment that SARS-CoV-2 might be with us for the long haul. They aim to help people live their lives around Covid-19 with minimal disruptions to work and school. They are also more risk-based, advising people who are at higher risk for severe illness to take more personal precautions than others. "I think they just overall come into alignment with what people are doing anyway," said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. |
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Poliovirus detected in wastewater samples in New York City, health officials say |
Poliovirus has been detected in wastewater samples in New York City, suggesting likely local circulation of the virus, according to state and local health officials. "We are dealing with a trifecta. Covid is still very much here. Polio – we have identified polio in our sewage. And we're still dealing with the monkeypox crisis," New York Mayor Eric Adams said on CNN's New Day. "We're addressing the threats as they come before us, and we're prepared to deal with them and with the assistance of Washington, DC." In a statement about the wastewater finding, New York officials underscored the urgency of staying up to date with polio immunizations, particularly for those in the area. Most people in the US are protected from polio because of vaccination. The primary series of three vaccines provides 99% protection. However, unvaccinated and undervaccinated people are vulnerable. The wastewater finding comes after the identification of a case of paralytic polio in a Rockland County, New York, resident on July 21 and the detection in wastewater samples in May, June and July from Rockland and Orange counties. A CDC official told CNN that the case in Rockland County was "just the very, very tip of the iceberg" and suggested that there "must be several hundred cases in the community circulating." Prior to the invention of the vaccine, polio was considered "one of the most feared diseases in the United States," according to the CDC. In the 1940s, it disabled an average of more than 35,000 people a year in the US. Once the polio vaccine became available in 1955, case numbers dropped significantly. The last case in the US was reported nearly a decade ago. |
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New US monkeypox vaccine strategy could be huge boost for supply, but much is unknown |
In an effort to stretch the limited supply of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine, federal health officials have authorized giving smaller doses using a different method of injection. With more than 10,000 monkeypox cases in the United States and vaccine demand remaining high, Jynneos has been in short supply. The new strategy allows health care providers to give shallow vaccine injections intradermally – in between layers of the skin – with one-fifth the standard dose size instead of subcutaneously, into the fatty layer below the skin, with the larger dose. Yet the specific efficacy data for the vaccine is not clear, and some experts argue that not enough is known about how the low-dose intradermal strategy might affect the protection it provides in the real world. Even at the original dosage size, "there is no traditional assessment of this vaccine," Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday. Jynneos is approved for emergency purposes based on studies of immune responses, not clinical outcomes, because there haven't been smallpox or monkeypox outbreaks large enough to test it. The FDA defended its decision, pointing out in a letter to the company that manufactures the vaccine that a clinical study showed "a very similar immune response" to the new method as well as the previously used one. In a letter to Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin, two top FDA officials responded to concerns Chaplin had raised about switching the injection method. They wrote that the agency recently determined that the benefits of using smaller doses outweighed the known possible risks. The FDA's letter, obtained by CNN, was signed by Califf and Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics and Evaluation Research. It cited a 2015 study, which Chaplin co-authored, in which "individuals who received the vaccine intradermally received a lower volume (one fifth) than individuals who received the vaccine subcutaneously." "The results of this study demonstrated that intradermal administration produced a very similar immune response to subcutaneous (SC) administration," the letter said. While the intradermal injection method "did result in more redness, firmness, itchiness and swelling at the injection site, but less pain," the letter continued, "these side effects were manageable." |
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Homemade baby food contains as many toxic metals as store-bought options, report says |
Making baby food at home with store-bought produce isn't going to reduce the amount of toxic heavy metals in the food your baby eats, according to a new report released exclusively to CNN. "We found no evidence to suggest that homemade baby foods made from store-bought produce are better than store-bought baby foods when it comes to heavy metal contamination," said the paper's co-author Jane Houlihan, research director for Healthy Babies, Bright Futures. That alliance of nonprofits, scientists and donors has a stated mission of reducing babies' exposures to neurotoxic chemicals, and it produced the report. Researchers tested 288 foods bought at stores and farmers markets across the United States – including grains, fruits, vegetables, snacks, teething foods and family items that babies eat, such as cereals and rice cakes – for lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium. Those heavy metals are among the World Health Organization's top 10 chemicals of concern for infants and children. "Toxic metal exposure can be harmful to the developing brain. It's been linked with problems with learning, cognition, and behavior," according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The researchers also pored over data from 7,000 food tests reported in published studies and by the FDA. They found that 94% of manufactured baby foods, family foods and homemade purees made from purchased raw foods contained detectable amounts of one or more heavy metals. Lead was found in 90% of manufactured baby food bought by shoppers for the report and 80% of store-bought family food and homemade purees. There is no safe level of lead, according to the AAP. Arsenic was found in 68% store-bought baby food and 72% of family food either purchased or prepared at home. Cadmium was found in 65% of purchased baby food and 60% of family foods, and mercury was in 7% of store-bought baby food and 10% of family foods. (The highest levels of mercury are found in seafood, which was not tested in this analysis.) Experts agree that battling toxins in baby foods is a job for government organizations that will need to work with growers, suppliers and manufacturers to institute regulations and safeguards. In the meantime, parents can make a difference. "Making even one simple choice every day to lower a child's exposure will make a difference, whether that's staying away from rice-based snacks and serving a diced apple instead or choosing not to serve carrots and sweet potatoes every day," Houlihan said. Find a list of foods that should be limited or served freely here. |
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| Whether you are afraid of being ripped off or just feel out of your depth in conversations with auto mechanics, taking your car in for maintenance can be stressful. Here's how to navigate those conversations. |
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The last episode of our fourth Chasing Life season has just been released (don't worry, the fifth season is on its way), and what a season it has been. For me, the podcast allows me to have moments of reflection and deeper conversation in the middle of a hectic news environment. But more importantly, it has also allowed me to share the thoughtful insights from all of our guests that can help you all optimize your lives. Season four explored the science of being human – the highs, the lows and the awkward in-betweens – but knowing how to navigate it all can help improve our physical and mental health. So for this week's newsletter, I wanted to share some of my favorite takeaways from this season. I hope to learn even more in season five. We started the season talking about the power of gratitude: It may sound simple enough, but psychologist Christina Costa reminded me that this is a learned practice, a learned experience and something that comes with benefits for our brain. Gratitude is something we should approach with intention. When you are expressing gratitude toward others, go beyond a simple thank you. Give specific examples, and make it personal. The best part is, the health benefits don't stop with those who are receiving gratitude, but they extend to whoever is doing the thanking, as well. Then we decided to break the rules and discover how improvising during your daily life can help you enter a state of flow. I even put this to the test by shutting off my own self-conscious thoughts and rapping a few lines with ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr. Charles Limb. We are not on our way to becoming the next Miles Davis or Eminem, but hopefully we got to tap into some of the creative brain benefits they experience. "When an expert musician starts improvising, they start turning off conscious control mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex. There's a huge inhibition of these conscious control areas that are involved in self-monitoring and planning and effortful planning. They're basically turning off the censor, the self-censor, to allow the unimpeded flow of novel ideas," Charles said. Finally, if you haven't noticed by now, I'm from Michigan, and by virtue of that fact and that my parents are engineers, I'm a car guy. So I actually enjoy driving – but I realize that is not the case for everyone. Dwight Hennessy, who is a traffic psychologist, told me that most people don't even realize the effect that driving has on their everyday lives. What's interesting is that while it may be true that your driving personality is similar to your normal personality, this stressful activity can bring out different parts of your personality, and sometimes it's not for the best. "There are things when you get behind the wheel that may be triggering something in you that only come out in that traffic environment or predominately come out in that traffic environment," Dwight said. So it's good to be aware of the effect that driving can have on you and try to find ways to make this everyday activity more enjoyable. Might I suggest listening to a podcast? Here's to another stimulating season that hopefully made you appreciate the very human activities that we don't always think about, but have a tremendous impact on us. |
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| | It's easy to understand the importance of play during childhood, but research shows that play is important at every age. Listen to learn why joyful activity could be just as important as proper nutrition and a good night's sleep. |
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