Higher Covid-19 vaccination rates are associated with protection against children experiencing symptomatic asthma, according to the findings of a new JAMA Network Open study. The researchers reported that for every increase of 10 percentage points in the coverage of Covid-19 vaccination, the prevalence of pediatric asthma symptoms decreased by 0.36 percentage points.

“Asthma is one of the most common chronic illnesses among children in the United States, with about 4.7 million children experiencing symptoms each year,” lead author Matthew M. Davis, Executive Vice-President, Enterprise Physician-in-Chief and Chief Scientific Officer of Nemours Children’s Health, said in a press release. “Whether asthma is mild or severe, it affects children’s quality of life. So anything we can do to help kids avoid flare-ups is beneficial.”

Read more at Forbes.

recautions such as shutdowns and social distancing, combined with the fast rollout of vaccines, saved 800,000 lives in the United States from the clutches of COVID-19, a new study co-authored by a University of Colorado professor estimates.

But the price of that prevention was also tremendous. Shuttered schools creating lasting learning loss and achievement gaps. Delayed routine medical care leading to bigger problems and deaths down the road. And, perhaps most serious of all, a newfound hostility to public health measures, which could leave us more vulnerable for the next pandemic.

“Our hope in the paper is not to downplay those things or say these measures saved 800,000 lives, period,” said Stephen Kissler, an assistant professor of computer science at CU Boulder.

Read more at The Colorado Sun.

On Wednesday, Helping Hands plans to offer free vaccines for hepatitis, chickenpox, HPV, and Covid through their community fair.

They plan to offer these free vaccines on Wednesday at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital in Pueblo.

The vaccination clinic, to be held on the first Wednesday of every month, is the latest addition to assist the community with access to resources, food, and health checks.

The director of Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center’s Southern Colorado operations Sal Katz said that around 250 people attend Helping Hands every month.

Read more at KKTV.

The first phase of human trials studying a possible nasal COVID-19 vaccine has opened, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced.

The clinical trial, sponsored by the federal health agency, is enrolling participants at three sites across the U.S.

Researchers believe the vaccine candidate may provide even better protection against emerging variants than the COVID vaccines given via injection.

“The concept is that we’re looking for next generation vaccines,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “Throughout the pandemic, we had the incredible scientific breakthrough of COVID vaccines that happened, that got into production incredibly quickly and were safe and effective. But of course, we also recognize that there are challenges of the existing vaccines.”

Read more at ABC.

The U.S. government will pay the vaccine maker Moderna $176 million to develop a pandemic vaccine that could be used to treat bird flu in people as cases in dairy cows continue to mount across the country, federal officials announced Tuesday.

The funds are targeted for release through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and will pay for continued development of a vaccine that uses the same mRNA technology that allowed rapid development and rollout of vaccines to protect against COVID-19. The award was made through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, a program that focuses on medical treatments for potential pandemics.

Read more at PBS.

Colorado, along with much of the country, is experiencing a summer bump in COVID-19 infections, showing the virus has yet to fall into a seasonal pattern.

Flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other common respiratory bugs typically start spreading in the fall and peter out by spring. In Colorado, the worst points of the pandemic fell in the fall and winter, but COVID-19 hasn’t disappeared in the warmer months, as flu does.

Four years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, scientists expected the virus would be well on its way to settling into a seasonal pattern by now, said Talia Quandelacy, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health.

Read more at The Denver Post.

With fresh Covid cases bubbling up in some parts of the country, health officials are setting course for a fall vaccination campaign.

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended new shots for all Americans this fall.

“Our top recommendation for protecting yourself and your loved ones from respiratory illness is to get vaccinated,” CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement.

Officials acknowledged the need for vaccinations is not as dire as it was only a few years ago. Most Americans have some degree of immunity from being infected, from past vaccinations or both. Covid deaths and hospitalizations last month were at about their lowest point since the pandemic first hit the United States in 2020.

Read more at NBC.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, researchers used a large, binational cohort (total n = 4,731,778) to investigate the short- and long-term associations between SARS-CoV-2 infections and subsequent adverse neuropsychiatric outcomes. They used exposure-driven propensity score matching to compare their samples’ outcomes against the general population and individuals with a non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infection.

Read more at News Medical.

lu is generally a health concern in the fall and winter, but this spring and summer, influenza—specifically avian influenza, or bird flu—is dominating headlines and weighing heavily on the minds of health experts.

H5N1 is infecting chickens in at least 48 U.S. states and cows in at least 12. So far, only three people—all dairy workers—have had recorded infections, but health officials are keeping a close eye on whether the virus is getting better at infecting humans. Preparing for that possibility includes readying a vaccine.

Here’s what to know—along with if, and when, you might be recommended to get immunized.

Read more at Time.

In an unusual move, federal health officials revised their recommendations for who should receive the vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended last year that adults age 60 or older could receive a single lifetime dose of an R.S.V. vaccine, in consultation with their health care providers.

On Wednesday, scientific advisers to the agency reframed that guideline. Based on recent safety and effectiveness data, they unanimously recommended that all Americans age 75 and older receive one dose of an R.S.V. vaccine.

Read more at The New York Times.