Former PM Cameron says Britain was prepared for flu-like pandemic rather than COVID Former prime minister David Cameron told an inquiry on Monday that Britain was prepared for a flu-type pandemic but not enough work was done in advance to confront an asymptomatic disease similar to COVID-19. Reuters Reuters

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Japan to roll out COVID-19 booster targeting XBB subvariant in the fall A vaccine subcommittee under the health ministry is aiming to prepare for another spike in infections possibly arriving in the winter. Tomoko Otake The Japan Times

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Decline in COVID reporting muddles tracking of global illness patterns CIDRAP

Global cases and deaths continued to drop over the past 28 days, but the metrics don't accurately reflect infection rates because of the steady drop in testing and regular reporting from countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said (Thursday) in its latest weekly update.

Your COVID vaccine records could be destroyed in 5 years because of Texas law In five years, Texas will have to destroy 10.4 million vaccine records because of an unusual state law. Yahoo News

The impending record destruction is a rare situation in the U.S., because almost every state or municipality that operates a vaccine registry has an “opt out” system.

Global water reservoir volumes decline despite construction boom, study says Global reservoir volumes fell during the last 20 years despite a construction boom that drove up storage capacity, a new study showed on Tuesday, suggesting that new dams will not be enough to solve growing strain on the world's water supplies. David Stanway Reuters

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COVID-19 vaccines shown safe in 2 new studies Data show COVID-19 vaccines are safe in older adults and when administered with non-COVID vaccines. CIDRAP

Two new studies show COVID-19 vaccines are safe in older adults and when administered simultaneously with non-COVID vaccines. Both studies are published in Vaccine.

In California, people are still dying of COVID — but you wouldn’t know it | Opinion Piecing together information is like driving through fog without any road signs, one SLO County resident says. | Opinion Yahoo News

... COVID isn’t done with us yet, and people with weakened immune systems continue to be at heightened risk.

For them, trying to stay on top of the latest information is a frustrating experience

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Monoclonal antibody injection shown to prevent COVID-19 during Delta, Omicron The relative risk reduction for participants who received adintrevimab as post-exposure prophylaxis was 75%. CIDRAP

A single injection of the monoclonal antibody (mAb), adintrevimab prevented COVID-19 in the phase 2/3 EVADE trial, finds a study yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

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Studies spotlight burnout, online harassment of health workers during COVID-19 CIDRAP

Two new studies illustrate the mental toll COVID-19 took on healthcare workers (HCWs), with the first documenting high rates of burnout among HCWs and the second describing harassment on social media platforms suffered by physicians and scientists during the pandemic.

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