On Feb. 14, 2020, President Donald Trump spoke to a White House audience about the virus then engulfing Wuhan, China. “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it,” he said. “It’s like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.” But we weren’t in good shape. A little more than two years later, the United States is passing the ghastly milestone of at least 1 million deaths from the pandemic virus, and still counting.

This marks the gravest public health disaster in a century, outstripping all the combat deaths in both world wars, Vietnam and Korea. Largely because of the pandemic, life expectancy in the United States declined 2.39 years, the greatest fall in eight decades. The disease caused by the coronavirus became a leading cause of death all through the pandemic, and as recently as January, more people age 15 and older died of covid than of cancer. In addition, the pandemic is leaving lasting personal scars, including long covid and mental health troubles in years ahead.

Read more at The Washington Post.

The United States is in the midst of late-season rise in flu, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, with nearly 1 in 10 positive tests reported at the mid-April peak.

But even with that uptick, an NBC News analysis of 7 years CDC data shows that this year’s flu season is still far below pre-pandemic levels.

“We’re on the late side of things,” said Dr. Carrie Horn, the chief medical officer at National Jewish Health in Denver. “But they’re not so high that we’re saying that there’s a flu epidemic.”

Read more from NBC News.

Mauro Ortiz had planned to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but work always got in the way. Plus, the 45-year-old Denver resident, who tows vehicles for a living, had tested positive for the virus twice over the course of the pandemic, but never felt sick. So getting the shot didn’t seem worthwhile. 

But during a recent visit to Saint Michael the Archangel Church in Aurora, Ortiz had a change of heart. Towards the end of the Sunday service, Julissa Soto, an independent health equity consultant working to improve vaccination rates among Hispanic Coloradans, stepped up to the microphone. 

“COVID is not going away; COVID is like that ex-husband or ex-wife,” Soto joked to the congregation. Which is why, she continued in a more serious tone, we have to protect ourselves. And getting the COVID-19 vaccine is one way to do so. 

Read more at Collective Colorado.

COVID vaccine supply struggles are easing, but in 44 countries — most of them in Africa — less than 20% of the population is fully vaccinated. In 19, the rate is under 10%.

The big picture: Those countries “have doses now, and they know that there are more doses available,” says Seth Berkley, CEO of the Gavi vaccine alliance and point person for the global COVAX initiative. After a year of waiting for vaccine doses, the primary concern is now delivery.

Read more at Axios.

As Americans shed masks and return to offices and restaurants, local and state officials are scaling back the most visible public health efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic.

States like Illinois are shuttering free Covid-19 testing sites after nearly two years of operation. Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Ohio have stopped releasing daily data on virus hospitalizations, infections and deaths. And, perhaps most notably, some places are diminishing their campaigns to vaccinate residents even as federal authorities announced on Tuesday that people 50 and older could get a second booster shot.

Read more at The New York Times.

Last Friday, Lakshmi Ganapathi’s son turned 5, and finally became eligible for his first Pfizer COVID shot. Ganapathi’s family had been anticipating that moment for more than a year, yet as of late, she can’t help but feel the slightest bit deflated. At first, the COVID vaccines’ trickle down the age brackets felt worth the wait because the shots were doing such a stellar job at blocking symptoms. The clinical trials kept delivering knockout results: 94 percent efficacy, 95 percent efficacy, 100 percent efficacy, 91 percent efficacy—a near-perfect performance in every tested group from adults to elementary-school-age kids. Then Omicron swept in, slipping around the vaccines’ shields.

Read more at The Atlantic.

On any given Sunday, you can find Julissa Soto in churches, combining the homily of the day with COVID-19 vaccines and public health. 

“…and talking about vaccines in a cultural relevant way when it comes to taking care of pregnant women, your grandma, your grandpa, the little ones,” she said. 

It’s one of the efforts she’s taken the lead on to help get more Latinos in Colorado to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The strategies she uses are, in her words, untraditional and unconventional. 

Read more at 9News.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized second Covid-19 boosters for people 50 years and older.

People 50 and older are now eligible for another shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines four months after their last dose, the FDA said.

Health officials cited data from Israel showing that second boosters increased antibody levels, while other studies from Israel have shown that the shots increased protection against death during the country’s Omicron wave. Much of that data is considered preliminary, and it’s only been a few months since those doses started going into arms. Pfizer and BioNTech also said they submitted data to the FDA showing some waning of effectiveness three to six months out from the first booster shots.

Read more at STAT News.

Covid-19 patients who have been hospitalised should also be routinely tested for flu, researchers have said. The call was made after the publication of a paper in the medical journal the Lancet that revealed having both conditions more than doubles the risk of a patient dying.

Scientists also discovered that individuals who had contracted both Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and influenza viruses were more than four times more likely to require ventilation support and 2.4 times more likely to die than if they just had Covid-19.

“We found that the combination of Covid-19 and flu viruses is particularly dangerous,” said Professor Kenneth Baillie of Edinburgh University. “We expect that Covid-19 will circulate with flu, increasing the chance of co-infections. That is why we should change our testing strategy for Covid-19 patients in hospital and test for flu much more widely.”

Read more at The Guardian.

Colorado will soon phase out state-run COVID-19 vaccination sites and instead shift vaccine distribution to traditional health care settings. 

The move is part of the Roadmap to Moving Forward, the state’s new plan as the omicron wave rolls out. State-run clinics where many received their first doses of the vaccine — such as mall parking lots, community centers and churches — will close by the end of the month. 

Read more at CPR News.