Latest On Covid: Is Everyone Getting Sick?

Americans have been riding a summer wave of COVID-19 infections—the largest surge in at least two years. Fortunately, updated vaccines are available to protect against the coronavirus variants circulating across the country.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of an early roll out of two COVID-19 vaccines comes at a time when people could not find updated vaccines to fend off the summer infections. Last year, updated COVID-19 vaccines were not available until the fall.

Health experts say there’s a drawback in scheduling COVID-19 vaccines to come out around the same time as annual flu shots in the fall. Taking a seasonal approach means that updated COVID-19 vaccines will not be accessible when infection rates rise in the summer months.

The timing is “imperfect,” according to Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

COVID-19 is “like a two-humped camel,” Schaffner told USA Today. “COVID never goes away the way influenza does, and we always have an increase in the summer, then it kind of goes down in the fall, and then we have a much larger increase in the winter.”

Wastewater Sampling Shows High COVID Activity

In tracking the spread of COVID-19 by testing wastewater, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found very high viral activity in 32 states and the District of Columbia.

“This year’s COVID-19 wave is coming earlier than last year, which occurred in late August/early September,” Dr. Jonathan Yoder, deputy director of the CDC’s Wastewater Surveillance Program, told CNN.

The amount of virus in wastewater, however, does not exactly correspond to the number of infections, according to Dr. Marlene Wolfe, an assistant professor of environmental health and public health at Emory University and a program director for WastewaterSCAN.
This is mostly due to factors such as how much water is going through the sewage system at the time of sampling and how much virus people may be shedding with a certain variant. Nonetheless, Wolfe said sampling over time still shows a strong relationship between the number of people infected in a given area and the amount of virus in local wastewater.

What’s Causing the Current COVID-19 Infection Uptick?

Medical professionals point to the omicron KP.3.1.1 variant as the culprit for the COVID-19 wave of infections across the country this summer. Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, estimates around one million Americans are infected per day by the variant. Dr. Topol told PBS News that the KP.3.1.1 variant is “distinctly more challenging to our immune system.”

In addition to the variant, Dr. Topol said other factors for the surge include waning immunity for COVID-19 and the “largely abandoned” mitigation measures intended to protect against COVID-19. Wearing masks and using hand sanitizer were once common public health measures taken to protect against COVID-19.

While infections have surged, Dr. Topol noted that there has not been a big spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations or deaths.

FDA Grants Early Approval of Vaccines

This year’s intense summer surge of COVID-19 infections prompted the FDA to approve updated COVID-19 vaccines earlier than it did last year. On August 22, the FDA approved and granted emergency authorization use (EAU) to Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s 2024-25 COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that target the Omicron variant KP.2 strain that was spreading earlier this year. Last year, the federal agency approved updated vaccines on September 11, near the peak of that summer’s COVID-19 wave.

The updated vaccines include Comirnaty, manufactured by BioNTech and Pfizer, and Spikevax, manufactured by Moderna. The FDA approved both vaccines for individuals 12 years old and older. Also, both vaccines were granted EAU for individuals 6 months through 11 years of age.

According to the CDC, the dominant strain in the country now is KP.3.1.1, which has overtaken the KP.3 and previous KP.2 variants. Health experts say the updated vaccines should protect against infection since they target variants circulating now that are closely related to KP.2.

When Should You Get The Latest Vaccine?

Knowing when to get the updated booster will vary depending on factors such as whether an individual had COVID-19 or whether people want to remain protected through the winter, health experts say. For instance:

The CDC recommends those who recently had COVID should consider delaying their vaccine dose by three months.
Health experts suggest people who have a high risk of severe illness should get the updated vaccine as soon as possible.
Dr. Paul Sax, clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, recommends waiting until October when people get their flu shots and before COVID cases begin increasing in November.

It usually takes about two weeks for the body to build immunity against the virus following a vaccination. The protection begins to wane over the next several months, even when the vaccine matches the circulating strains.

Some of the side effects of the updated vaccinations include:

Pain, redness and swelling at the injection site
Muscle pain
Tiredness
Chills
Fever
Nausea

The CDC says the side effects should resolve after a few days.

Mediterranean Diet May Reduce COVID-19 Risk

Nutrition experts have praised the Mediterranean diet as a healthy eating plan. Now, a recent study, published in the journal PLOS One, found that this world renown plant-based diet can help lower the risk of contracting COVID-19 infection.

“There have been numerous studies that heavily associated COVID-19 with inflammation (in the body), while the Mediterranean diet has been long-known for its anti-inflammatory properties,” Andre Siahaan, the study’s senior author, and a lecturer and member of the Center of Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of North Sumatra in Indonesia, told CNN. “Through our study, we reported a link that further strengthened the connection between these two, in line with our hypothesis.”

The research team in Indonesia reviewed six studies with more than 55,400 participants from five countries that were published between 2020 and 2023. Participants were given questionnaires about how they adhered to the Mediterranean diet.

Three studies found a “significant” connection between the Mediterranean diet and a lower chance of contracting a coronavirus infection. Two other studies showed nonsignificant results. One study found that eating more vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish, and whole grains was associated with lower odds of severe Covid-19.

“These results could have significant public health implications, underscoring the importance of optimal nutrition in preventing both communicable and noncommunicable diseases,” Dr. Jordi Merino, associate professor at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark told CNN. Dr. Merino was not involved in the study.

Source Links:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/health/covid-largest-summer-wave/index.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/08/20/covid-vaccine-shots-shortage-summer/74869709007/
https://www.wired.com/story/covid-summer-surge-fda-vaccine-approval/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-to-know-about-this-summers-major-surge-in-covid-infections
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-and-authorizes-updated-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-better-protect-against-currently
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/new-covid-vaccine-what-know-when-available-timing-rcna167121
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/21/health/mediterranean-diet-covid-19-risk-wellness/index.html