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The World Health Organization (WHO) this week boosted the XBB.1.16 Omicron subvariant to a variant of interest (VOI) from a variant under monitoring (VUM), based on the latest assessments from its technical advisory group on virus evolution.

The subvariant is fueling India's biggest surge in about 7 months, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported another jump in the proportion of XBB.1.16 viruses.

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A third of US households utilized Biden administration’s free at-home COVID tests --CDC

Fri, 2023-04-21 11:28 — mike kraft

1 in 3 US households utilized Biden administration’s free at-home COVID tests: CDC Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. households used free at-home COVID-19 tests provided by the Biden administration, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.… jshapero The Hill

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Analysis: House Republicans Eye Rescinding Unspent Covid Money but it would not make much dent in the national debt

Fri, 2023-04-21 10:42 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON — House Republicans demanding spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit have rallied around a seemingly straightforward proposal: recalling billions of dollars in coronavirus relief funds that Congress approved but have not been spent.

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U.S. charges 18, including doctors, with COVID-19 fraud schemes

Fri, 2023-04-21 10:28 — mike kraft

18 charged with COVID-19 fraud schemes - UPI.com Prosecutors have brought charges against 18 people, including doctors and owners of medical businesses, for defrauding the government of more than $490 million that was to go toward fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. UPI

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Justice Department officials said the law enforcement action was the largest ever to target healthcare schemes that exploited the pandemic, resulting in charges laid against 18 defendants in nine federal districts and more than $16 million in cash seized.

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COVID-19 has left the world less prepared for an influenza pandemic

Fri, 2023-04-21 10:16 — mike kraft

COVID-19 has left the world less prepared for an influenza pandemic Nature Medicine - COVID-19 has left the world less prepared for an influenza pandemic Nature

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Opinion: The NIH has little to show for the $1 billion spent to study long Covid

Thu, 2023-04-20 11:46 — mike kraft

The NIH has poured $1 billion into long Covid research — with little to show for it The federal government has burned through more than $1 billion to study long Covid, and there's basically nothing to show for it. Rachel Cohrs STAT

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The National Institutes of Health hasn’t signed up a single patient to test any potential treatments — despite a clear mandate from Congress to study them. And the few trials it is planning have already drawn a firestorm of criticism, especially one intervention that experts and advocates say may actually make some patients’ long Covid symptoms worse.

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Two drug combination shows protection against severe COVID-19

Thu, 2023-04-20 11:39 — mike kraft

Two drug combos show protection against severe COVID-19 CIDRAP

Two new randomized, controlled trials published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine describe how drug combinations lowered the risk of severe COVID-19, with one detailing use of the antidepressant fluvoxamine plus the corticosteroid budesonide, and the other outlining the monoclonal antibody duo amubarvimab plus romlusevimab.

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