AstraZeneca Response

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Featured, News

Following a recent concern raised around thrombotic events, AstraZeneca issued a press release to offer its reassurance on the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine based on clear scientific evidence. Safety is of paramount importance and the company is continually monitoring the safety of its vaccine. A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated …

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Burn Rate Calculator

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Featured

The CDC released an updated PPE Burn Rate Calculator with the following instructions for use: The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Burn Rate Calculator (Version 2) excel icon[XLS – 2 MB] is a spreadsheet-based model that will help healthcare facilities plan and optimize the use of PPE for response to COVID-19. Non-healthcare facilities such as correctional facilities may also find this tool useful. To …

Variants – Challenges and Opportunities

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, News

SARS-CoV-2, like other RNA viruses, constantly changes through mutation, with new variants occurring over time. Generally, when new variants become more common, they do so because of some selective advantage to the virus. Among the numerous SARS-CoV-2 variants that have been detected, only a very small proportion are of public health concern because they are more transmissible, cause more severe …

Vaccine Safety

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Health

After the administration of 13.8 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to the U.S. population during the first month of the vaccination program, the post-authorization safety profiles for both vaccines are reassuring. Most (90.9%) VAERS reports were more non-serious events and involved local and systemic symptoms; transient local and systemic reactions were also frequently reported in v-safe. The …

Spotting Fake N95s

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Featured

Counterfeit N95 face masks are on the rise and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no guarantee they provide the same protection as masks approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the agency in the United States that regulates filtering facepiece respirators. In an article published in Medscape, a clear sign …

mRNA – Multiple Sclerosis

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Featured

Autoimmune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), result from a breath of immunological self-tolerance and tissue damage by autoreactive T lymphocytes. Current treatments can cause systemic immune suppression and side effects such as an increased risk of infections. Krienke et al. designed a messenger RNA vaccine strategy that lacks adjuvant activity and delivers MS autoantigens into lymphoid cells. This approach …

Virus Variants Spread

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, News

On January 9, 2021, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced the identification of the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VOC) B.1.1.7, also referred to as 20I/501Y.V1 and VOC 2020/01, in specimens from five persons; on January 25, MDH announced the identification of this variant in specimens from three additional persons. The people identified with variant B.1.1.7 in Minnesota had exposure …

CDC COVID Data Tracker

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Featured

Effective Friday, February 12, 2021, COVIDView has been replaced with this new COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review. This new webpage and newsletter include visuals from the week and narrative interpretations using data from CDC’s COVID Data Tracker. Additional priority data will be added in future weeks, including race and ethnicity. Stop Variants by Stopping the Spread Viruses change (or mutate) …

CMS Press Release: CMS Updates Nursing Home Guidance with Revised Visitation Recommendations

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, News

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued updated guidance on March 10th for nursing homes to safely expand visitation options during the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency (PHE).  This latest guidance comes as more than three million doses of vaccines have been administered within nursing homes, thanks …

Change is Never Easy

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements

Among the many long-standing issues that COVID-19 exposed in long-term care, the design of the facilities themselves stands as one of the most obvious. With new development of long-term care facilities almost non-existent, nursing homes frequently rank as the oldest health care properties in their given markets. “Semi-private” rooms with up to four beds remain common in many areas, a …