What exit? China doubles down on zero-Covid pledge despite public frustration China has reiterated its unswerving commitment to its longstanding zero-Covid policy, despite mounting public frustration the stringent measures are costing the very lives they're intended to protect. By Nectar Gan, CNN CNN

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The unrelenting campaign has kept infections and deaths low at great economic and social cost, as new fast-spreading variants make containing the virus near impossible....

Schools aren’t spending their COVID catch-up funds fast enough "We cannot keep counting on additional wake-up calls to get started on this." Erin Doherty Axios

...Experts fear that schools are not effectively using the government's COVID-19 funding — some $122 billion — before it runs out.

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Factbox: What are the new BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 coronavirus variants, and why it matters New offshoots of the dominant BA.5 subvariant of Omicron known as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are gaining ground in the United States as the SARS-Cov-2 virus that triggered the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. Julie Steenhuysen Reuters

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Reports say China aiming for less disruptive COVID policies BEIJING (AP) — Chinese officials are trying to quell an outcry over the death of a 3-year-old boy from a quarantined residential compound that added to public anger at anti-virus controls that have confined millions of people to their homes. AP NEWS

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The boy died at a hospital in Lanzhou of carbon monoxide poisoning blamed on a gas leak. His father accused health workers who were enforcing the closure of the compound of refusing to help and trying to stop him as he rushed his son to the hospital.

New COVID Variants Are Circulating. Here's What to Know. As it gets colder and more people move their activities indoors, the recent decline in COVID-19 cases across the United States has started to level off. Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are ticking up in a number of states, including Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. And there have been a variety of unnerving headlines about the immune evasion and increased transmissibility of the next round of coronavirus subvariants. At least half a dozen v YahooNews

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US flu season off to a fast start as other viruses spread NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. flu season is off to an unusually fast start, adding to an autumn mix of viruses that have been filling hospitals and doctor waiting rooms. Reports of flu are already high in 17 states, and the hospitalization rate hasn’t been this high this early since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. AP NEWS

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“We are seeing more cases than we would expect at this time,” the CDC’s Dr. José Romero said Friday.

Why you may soon have to pay for that COVID-19 test The federal government is poised to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the coming months, shifting the costs onto the public.  Experts say most Americans are not aware … iswanson The Hill

The federal government is poised to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the coming months, shifting the costs onto the public.

Two early US programs successfully traced COVID case contacts One report details a massive NYC effort to probe 941,035 COVID-19 cases and follow up with their contacts. CIDRAP

A pair of new studies describe how two US jurisdictions quickly mobilized teams of contact tracers to identify and isolate people exposed to SARS-CoV-2, with a massive New York City effort finding 1.4 contacts per case and a college student-led Central Pennsylvania initiative that may have led to fewer symptomatic household infections.

Lessons from past outbreaks can stop new epidemics in their tracks | CNN In late June of this year, Ghana's health authorities received some disturbing news: Two cases of viral hemorrhagic fever were detected in the country. Blood samples from the infected individuals came back positive for Marburg virus, a deadly disease that can kill most of those infected. Dr. Tom Frieden,Precious Matsoso CNN

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U.S. faces pandemic crossroads with Covid deaths still too high and new omicron variants emerging, Fauci says

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said the U.S. is at a crossroads in the Covid-19 pandemic as new omicron subvariants are gaining ground across the country.

Fauci, in a radio interview Thursday, said the pandemic has clearly eased since last winter, but deaths, which average more than 2,600 per week, remain far too high. At the same time, the new omicron variants are knocking out key tools used to protect the most vulnerable.

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Pfizer, BioNTech say bivalent COVID-19 booster shot performs better against BA.5 omicron subvariant Pfizer and BioNTech said that updated data from a Phase 2-3 clinical trial shows the bivalent booster performed better against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. ABC News ABC News

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