TallGuyJohninBKK

About 7 percent of U.S. adults have had long covid, report says Just 6 percent of the vaccinated and boosted respondents reported long covid symptoms vs. 8 percent of those who weren’t vaccinated July 15, 2024 About 7 percent of U.S. adults — nearly 18 million people — had suffered from long covid as of early last year, according to a recent report in JAMA Data Brief. ... The household survey of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population used a nationally representative sample of about 17,000 adults age 18 and older. Of those, 8,275 adults reported having had covid-19, with some 1,200 indicating that they suffered from long covid symptoms. ... The MEPS survey also asked participants about their covid-19 vaccination and booster shot history. Just 6 percent of the vaccinated and boosted respondents reported long covid symptoms vs. 8 percent of those who weren’t vaccinated. The findings suggest “booster shots may enhance protection against long covid, possibly because booster shots reduce the risk of severe covid-19,” the researchers wrote. (more) Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/07/15/long-covid-united-states-adults/

Key takeaways: The risk for long COVID has declined with each new variant but remains “substantial,” according to researchers. Vaccination lowers a patient’s risk for long COVID, the researchers found. July 17, 2024 The risk for developing long COVID declined over the course of the pandemic but has remained significant, researchers reported. ... Results showed that 10.4% of COVID-19 unvaccinated veterans experienced long COVID during the pre-delta era, 9.5% experienced long COVID during the delta variant era and 7.7% developed long COVID during the omicron era, according to the researchers. Among vaccinated veterans, 5.3% developed long COVID during the delta era and 3.5% developed long COVID during the omicron era. The researchers found that roughly 70% of the decline in long COVID risk was attributed to vaccinations and roughly 30% to changes in the virus from variant to variant. (more) https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20240717/qa-risk-for-long-covid-has-declined-remains-substantial https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2403211 Risk of long COVID declined over course of pandemic Drop attributed mostly to vaccination but remaining risk still significant The risk of developing long COVID has decreased significantly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of data led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers attributed about 70% of the risk reduction to vaccination against COVID-19 and 30% to changes over time, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s evolving characteristics and improved detection and management of COVID-19. ... To do this, Al-Aly and his team analyzed millions of de-identified medical records in a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation’s largest integrated health-care system. The study included 441,583 veterans with SARS-CoV-2 infections and more than 4.7 million uninfected veterans, from March 1, 2020, through Jan. 31, 2022. (more) https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/risk-of-long-covid-declined-over-course-of-pandemic/

Australian cyclist Chris Harper withdraws from Tour de France with COVID-19 symptoms July 16, 2024 GRUISSAN, France (AP) — Chris Harper of Australia has withdrawn from the Tour de France ahead of Tuesday’s 16th stage, his team said, as COVID-19 infections continue to hit cycling’s marquee event. ... Harper’s withdrawal marks the latest case of coronavirus at the three-week race, following those of Juan Ayuso — a teammate of race leader Tadej Pogacar — Tom Pidcock and Maxim Van Gils. Tour de France organizers have reintroduced protective measures against the virus, including mandatory mask-wearing for all those who might get in contact with riders and teams staff on the race. https://apnews.com/article/tour-de-france-coronavirus-4fa5a143cf1e53260ea7ba46b48d8f44

With three out of four Europeans planning on travelling over the summer, the era of border closures, mandatory testing and vaccine certificates seems a half-remembered nightmare to many. But with more than 1,700 people still dying every week across the world from Covid-19 and vaccine coverage declining among at-risk populations, according to the WHO, the pandemic isn't something that can just be spoken about in the past tense. 15/07/2024 ... On Thursday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that more than 1,700 people across the world are still dying every week from Covid-19, warning that vaccine coverage was dangerously declining among people aged over 60 and in frontline health workers – two of the groups most at risk of dying due to Covid-19 infection. The virus is still making headlines. The Tour de France has reinstated protective measures to “limit health risks” after several riders, including the UK’s Tom Pidcock and Spain's Juan Ayuso, were forced to abandon the race after testing positive for Covid-19. Masks are now mandatory for anyone coming into contact with the competitors or their teams. With millions of people expected to travel to Paris for the Olympics and Paralympics in the coming weeks, it could be a worrying precedent. A WHO report published in June 2024 found that 4.9 million older adults across 60 countries had received a vaccine dose in the first quarter of the year, corresponding to a 0.42 percent uptake rate. Among healthcare workers, this figure was just 234,000 people across 40 reporting countries – an uptake rate of 0.17 percent. (more) https://www.france24.com/en/health/20240715-as-europe-prepares-for-summer-holidays-who-warns-that-the-covid-19-era-is-far-from-over

Because the research on COVID and vaccines shows what it shows, but policy makers in different countries make differing policy judgments on how to respond to that science. Presumably in the U.S., the FDA and CDC were looking at this kind of data showing that some young children, even previously healthy ones, can and do get very sick from COVID, especially when they haven't been vaccinated -- even if their rates of COVID illness may be lower that older age groups. Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes of Vaccine-Eligible US Children Under-5 Years Hospitalized for Acute COVID-19 in a National Network March 2024 "We enrolled inpatients 8 months to <5 years of age with acute community-acquired COVID-19 across 28 US pediatric hospitals from September 20, 2022 to May 31, 2023.... Among 597 children, 174 (29.1%) patients were admitted to the intensive care unit and 75 (12.6%) had a life-threatening illness, including 51 (8.5%) requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. Only 4.5% of children hospitalized for COVID-19 (n = 27) had completed their primary COVID-19 vaccination series and 7.0% (n = 42) of children initiated but did not complete their primary series. Among 528 unvaccinated children, nearly half (n = 251) were previously healthy, 3 of them required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for acute COVID-19 and 1 died. Conclusions: Most young children hospitalized for acute COVID-19, including most children admitted to the intensive care unit and with life-threatening illness, had not initiated COVID-19 vaccination despite being eligible. Nearly half of these children had no underlying conditions. Of the small percentage of children who initiated a COVID-19 primary series, most had not completed it before hospitalization." https://journals.lww.com/pidj/abstract/2024/03000/characteristics_and_clinical_outcomes_of.10.aspx combined with Study estimates 2 COVID vaccine doses 40% effective against emergency, hospital care in young kids December 1, 2023 "Two doses of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine were 40% effective against emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalization in preschool-aged children during a period of Omicron variant predominance, estimates a test-negative, case-control study using data from the New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN). Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led team published COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates among 7,434 children aged 6 months to 4 years receiving ED care or being admitted to one of seven pediatric hospitals for acute respiratory infection (ARI) from July 2022 to September 2023. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/study-estimates-2-covid-vaccine-doses-40-effective-against-emergency-hospital-care-young

Another tired old rehashed anti-vaxer claim re vaccines and transmission. COVID vaccines were approved in Europe and the U.S. on the basis of their ability to reduce and prevent COVID infection and illness in the people who received the vaccines, which they did. Preventing transmission was never a requirement for approval of the COVID vaccines either in Europe or the U.S. so they were not initially tested for that, even though once out in the real world, studies showed they did in fact help reduce transmission. Fact Check: Preventing transmission never required for COVID vaccines’ initial approval; Pfizer vax did reduce transmission of early variants Reuters Fact Check February 13, 2024 "Social media users are circulating video clips of testimony by a Pfizer executive, who is said to “admit” that the company and its partner BioNTech did not test whether their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine reduced virus transmission prior to rolling it out – which is something the companies were not required to do for initial regulatory approval, nor did they claim to have done. To get emergency approval, companies needed to show that the vaccines were safe and prevented vaccinated people from getting ill. They did not have to show that the vaccine would also prevent people from spreading the virus to others. Once the vaccines were on the market, independent researchers in multiple countries studied people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and did show that vaccination reduced transmission of variants circulating at the time. https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/preventing-transmission-never-required-covid-vaccines-initial-approval-pfizer-2024-02-12/

As reported in various bits and pieces earlier in this thread: Six people found dead in Bangkok hotel killed with cyanide, Thai police say The multiple murder is thought to be connected to a joint investment in a Japanese hospital construction project. By Euronews with AP Published on 18/07/2024 "Initial autopsy results have identified traces of cyanide in the blood of six Vietnamese and American guests found dead at a central Bangkok luxury hotel, with Thai authorities saying one is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment. ... Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Thai police force's forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermos flasks that police found in the room. This was later confirmed by the initial autopsy results. ... Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University's medical school, said at a news conference that there was cyanide found in the blood of all six bodies and that CAT scans had revealed no signs of blunt force trauma. (more) https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/18/six-people-found-dead-in-bangkok-hotel-killed-with-cyanide-thai-police-say

Interesting result... Notwithstanding her role in the above, von der Leyen just got elected to a second five-year term as European Commission president, and the COVID vaccines issue got only a one paragraph mention at the bottom of a very long CNN report that mostly focused on defense and economic issues. Ursula von der Leyen elected to second term as European Commission president July 18, 2024 (CNN) — Ursula von der Leyen has been reelected to a second five-year term as president of the European Commission after a vote by EU lawmakers, as the continent’s mainstream seeks to reassert itself in the face of a resurgent far right. In an earlier pitch to the European parliament in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen on Thursday pledged to invest in infrastructure and industry, create a new “European Defense Union” and stay the course on the continent’s green transition. After a secret ballot, von der Leyen was reelected with 401 votes in favor and 284 against. She needed more than 360 ballots to secure a majority in the 720-seat parliament. (more) https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/18/europe/eu-parliament-von-der-leyen-second-term-commission-intl/index.html

Six people found dead in Bangkok hotel killed with cyanide, Thai police say The multiple murder is thought to be connected to a joint investment in a Japanese hospital construction project. Euronews with AP Published on 18/07/2024 Initial autopsy results have identified traces of cyanide in the blood of six Vietnamese and American guests found dead at a central Bangkok luxury hotel, with Thai authorities saying one is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment. ... Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Thai police force's forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermos flasks that police found in the room. This was later confirmed by the initial autopsy results. ... Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University's medical school, said at a news conference that there was cyanide found in the blood of all six bodies and that CAT scans had revealed no signs of blunt force trauma. (more) https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/18/six-people-found-dead-in-bangkok-hotel-killed-with-cyanide-thai-police-say

Good thorough article by the BBC, that goes beyond the OP news report here, and has the doctors doing the autopsies on the victims confirming that cynanide was found in all of them. Cyanide found in blood of Bangkok hotel victims By Thanyarat Doksone & Kelly Ng, in Bangkok and Singapore "Cyanide has been found in the blood of all six people who died in a luxury hotel suite in Bangkok, say doctors after examining their bodies. Based on the initial post-mortem examination, they say there is "no other cause" that would explain their deaths "except for cyanide". But further tests are being carried out to determine the "intensity" of the deadly chemical and to rule out any other toxins." (more) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3g64ljwp2go

COVID-19, influenza outbreaks have peaked: CDC 07/16/2024 Taipei, July 16 (CNA) COVID-19 and influenza cases in Taiwan have peaked, with the epidemic phases likely to pass by mid-August, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday. ... Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳), the deputy director of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Center, said that 898 new domestic COVID-19 cases with severe complications were recorded last week, a week-over-week drop of around 9 percent. "But the overall number of cases remains high, exceeding our epidemic prediction threshold, which indicates that the outbreak is still ongoing," Lee said, adding that 104 new COVID-19-related death cases were reported last week, slightly higher than the previous week's 99 cases. (more) https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202407160016 So, recapping the successive news reports above, Taiwan's weekly COVID deaths over the past four weeks have gone from 40 to 64 to 99 and now 104 for the most recent week.

Indeed, prior news reports on all this, including the change to 60-day visa exempt stamps, made it clear that the new policies could NOT take effect until... A. they were officially signed off by the Prime Minister, and B. then after that they were published in the Royal Gazette Typically, AFAIK, once the PM approves something, there's also an intermediate step where I believe what's called the Council of State reviews such measures for their legality prior to RG publication. It seems more than a bit strange that the above news report only talks about action by the Interior Minister and makes absolutely no mention about actions by the PM or Royal Gazette publication. I'm not going to believe the 60-day visa exempt change has or can come into effect until AFTER I read a news report here announcing that all these changes have been published in the RG. And AFAIK, that hasn't happened yet.

With the SmartTube app on Android and Fire TV devices, if it doesn't already give you an app message prompt asking you to update, you can always check for doing a manual update in the app Settings menu, under the About tab... In there, there's a menu item to check/click for checking for app updates. Yep, I was getting 403 errors as well with Smart Tube last week. Whenever something like that happens, the first thing I always do is check manually if there's an available update for the app. Last week, there was, I installed the update, and it solved the 403 errors problem. Lately, Google said they were going to be doing things aimed at countering third-party apps that provide the same kind of benefits (no commercials) as those provided by their own paid YouTube Premium service. Frankly, for me, the SmartTube app is a far better app than any version of the native YT app, chiefly because it has far more available customizations, including the ability in Settings to entirely hide any of the pre-configured content menu categories that you may not be interested in or use.

The latest weekly COVID report issued today by the Thai Ministry of Public Health is a clear sign that the country's spring 2024 COVID surge is finally winding down. The report included a second consecutive week of substantial declines in new weekly hospitalizations for COVID from the peak of 3,256 reached in late June, a figure six-fold higher than mid-March when the surge began. Monday's MoPH report also marked the first time since mid-March that Thailand reported week-over-week declines in all four publicly reported COVID indicators -- new weekly COVID hospitalizations, new weekly COVID deaths, patients hospitalized in serious condition, and patients requiring ventilation to breathe.

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for July 7 - 13, 2024: --1,004 new COVID hospitalizations, averaging 143 per day, down 373 / 27.1% from 1,377 the prior week --5 new COVID deaths, down 6 / 54.5% from 11 the prior week --682 current COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (pneumonia symptoms), down 53 / 7.2% from 735 the prior week (dark purple) --309 current COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation/ventilation to breathe, down 31 / 9.1% from 340 the prior week (light purple) --------------------------------------- The latest MoPH report is finally a clear sign that Thailand's spring 2024 COVID surge is winding down after new weekly COVID hospitalizations peaked at 3,256 two weeks ago in late June, following 3-1/2 months of near relentless increases that saw those hospitalizations rise more than six-fold from mid-March levels (501). Monday's report marked the second consecutive week of substantial declines in new COVID weekly hospitalizations, and the first time since mid-March that Thailand has seen week-over-week declines in all four publicly reported COVID indicators -- new hospitalizations, new deaths, serious condition hospitalized patients and patients requiring ventilation to breathe. The newly reported 1,004 new COVID hospitalizations last week, averaging 143 per day, now are only about double the weekly number (501) reported in mid-March. The latest tally of 5 officially reported weekly COVID deaths is back to the typical kind of COVID death numbers Thailand has seen during most of 2024, down from 16 that tied Thailand's year-high weekly total two weeks ago. Cumulative officially reported figures since the start of 2024 are COVID hospitalizations (33,586) & COVID deaths (188). Of the 5 official COVID deaths for the past week, the MoPH is reporting that all were female. By age, 3 were ages 70 and above, 1 was age 60-69, and 1 was age 20-49. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main The weekly new COVID hospitalization totals since this year's spring surge began in mid-March have been: March 16 -- 501 March 23 -- 630 March 30 -- 728 April 6 -- 774 April 13 -- 849 April 20 -- 1,004 April 27 -- 1,672 May 4 -- 1,792 May 11 -- 1,880 May 18 - 1,882 May 25 -- 1,801 June 1 -- 1,863 June 8 -- 2,762 June 15 -- 2,881 June 22 -- 1,823 June 29 -- 3,256 July 6 -- 1,377 July 13 -- 1,004 By comparison, Thailand's key weekly COVID indicators to start 2024 were 664 new COVID hospitalizations and 4 COVID deaths for the first week of the year. Compared to the second week of July in 2023, cumulative officially reported COVID deaths thus far this year of 188 are far below the 741 figure from a year ago. But cumulative COVID hospitalizations thus far this year of 33,586 are running higher than the 30,309 total from the same point last year.

US COVID-19 activity rising steadily July 12, 2024 Respiratory illness viruses as a whole remain at low levels, but many parts of the countries are experiencing consistent increases in COVID-19 activity, which has been trending upward from very low levels, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest updates. Test positivity, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations—the main markers the CDC uses to gauge virus activity—are all rising, especially in seniors and especially in western states. Earlier this week, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said on X that COVID-19 infections are increasing in the city, and it urged people—especially seniors and people with underlying medical conditions—to consider wearing masks in crowded indoor settings. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/us-covid-19-activity-rising-steadily

Because this particular coronavirus re COVID was a new one for humans with no historic past track record to base predictions/expectations on, other than the history of OTHER respiratory viruses. But as time has passed, COVID hasn't behaved the same as other respiratory viruses before it. So we learn as we go along. And different countries/geographies may have different seasonality patterns. Per the U.S. CDC: COVID-19 can surge throughout the year "Many respiratory virus illnesses peak during the winter due to environmental conditions and human behaviors. COVID-19 has peaks in the winter and also at other times of the year, including the summer, driven by new variants and decreasing immunity from previous infections and vaccinations. ... Because the evolution of new variants remains unpredictable, SARS-CoV-2 is not a typical “winter” respiratory virus. ... Data from four years of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths show that COVID-19 has winter peaks (most recently in late December 2023 and early January 2024), but also summer peaks (most recently in July and August of 2023). There is no distinct COVID-19 season like there is for influenza (flu) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)." https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/covid-19-can-surge-throughout-the-year.html

Sure thing..... "According to World Health Organization data, 400,000 lives in England are estimated to have been saved up to March 2023 due to the COVID-19 vaccine programme." https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/16/whos-eligible-for-the-2024-covid-19-vaccine-or-spring-booster/ AND Fact Check: No evidence to link UK excess deaths to COVID-19 vaccines ... "ONS data show all-cause deaths in England were higher among the unvaccinated than those who had received at least one dose, for every month in its April 2021 to May 2023. “There is no evidence COVID-19 vaccinations are linked to these estimated excess deaths,” a spokeswoman for the ONS said via email. Experts point to the long-term effects of surviving COVID infection, NHS delays and a lack of preventive care as explanations for the higher-than-average mortalities." https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/no-evidence-link-uk-excess-deaths-covid-19-vaccines-2024-02-06/

CDC update for July 12, 2024: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home CDC Current Epidemic Growth Status As of July 09, 2024, we estimate that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 45 states and territories, declining or likely declining in 0 states and territories, and are stable or uncertain in 3 states and territories. https://www.cdc.gov/forecast-outbreak-analytics/about/rt-estimates.html https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00

Weekly COVID update as of early July: https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ Weekly COVID deaths, weekly new COVID hospitalizations and testing positivity rate all up from the prior update. https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/

As for the issue of COVID vaccine safety: '[COVID] Vaccines Have a Better Safety Profile Than Almost Any Others' "Public health messaging is also to blame for the lower-than-normal COVID vaccine rates, said Al-Aly. Patients need to better understand that the role of the vaccine isn't to completely prevent COVID but to reduce the likelihood of hospitalization and death, similar to that of a flu shot. By reducing the risk for severe disease, the vaccine also reduces the risk for long COVID, a debilitating condition that's still poorly understood, has no cure, and has already caused thousands of American deaths, he said. Botched public health messaging also allowed for misinformation to run rampant. Rare adverse events associated with the COVID vaccine have been severely overplayed and spread like wildfire on social media. "Patients need to know that like any vaccine, vaccine injury does occur, but these vaccines have a better safety profile than almost any others," Al-Aly said. "The rewards of getting the vaccine far outweigh the risks, and patients need to understand that." Medscape https://archive.ph/BxlSZ

"One of the greatest public health successes to come out of the covid-19 pandemic was the development of safe and effective mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.1234 Approximately 92% of fully vaccinated Americans received an mRNA based vaccine, marking the first time that this vaccine delivery system has been used at scale.5 ... The future of mRNA based therapeutics and vaccines With the success of the mRNA technology platform demonstrated with covid-19 vaccines, hundreds of new products incorporating this technology using mRNA synthesis and lipid nanoparticles are being tested. ... Some experts believe that we are entering a new era with mRNA technology and the promise of regenerative medicine and personalized cancer vaccines on the horizon. ... Conclusion The development of mRNA covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic was a monumental scientific success. This achievement was possible, in large part, because of significant US public investment in research and development during the preceding 35 years and record setting public contributions during the pandemic to accelerate and reduce the financial risk of vaccine development. The resulting mRNA vaccines have benefitted millions of people and saved millions of lives." US public investment in development of mRNA covid-19 vaccines: retrospective cohort study 01 March 2023 https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-073747

Anti-vaxers of the world unite!!! 🙂 And meanwhile, in the real world: COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers reported Thursday. ... The effort, though marred by persisting inequities, prevented deaths on an unimaginable scale, said Oliver Watson of Imperial College London, who led the new modeling study. “Catastrophic would be the first word that comes to mind,” Watson said of the outcome if vaccines hadn’t been available to fight the coronavirus. The findings “quantify just how much worse the pandemic could have been if we did not have these vaccines.” https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-england-54d29ae3af5c700f15d704c14ee224b5 AND Report: COVID-19 vaccines saved US $1.15 trillion, 3 million lives A Commonwealth Fund study estimates that, through November 2022, COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 18.5 million US hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths and saved the country $1.15 trillion. The modeling study estimated hospitalizations and deaths averted through the end of November 2022, at a time when 80% of the US population had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. ... "Without vaccination the U.S. would have experienced 1.5 times more infections, 3.8 times more hospitalizations, and 4.1 times more deaths," the authors wrote. "These losses would have been accompanied by more than $1 trillion in additional medical costs that were averted because of fewer infections, hospitalizations, and deaths." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/report-covid-19-vaccines-saved-us-115-trillion-3-million-lives

Some glimmer of hope on the horizon, maybe.... "Atthawit noted that AOT has recommended starting with a scheduled service from Phuket airport to Khao Lak in Phang Nga province to gauge the effectiveness of these connections. "

There also was recent research out of Singapore indicating that the current XBB COVID vaccines continue to provide decent protection against the more recent JN.1 COVID variant, although the older bivalent and earlier COVID vaccines did not: XBB booster offers protection against JN.1 infections, hospital cases, new data show June 29, 2024 "A new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases looks at outcomes among more than 3 million adult Singaporeans who received the XBB booster amid JN.1 virus circulation and finds protection against both infection and serious outcomes. ... Lower risk of all negative outcomes An XBB booster [8-120 days prior] was associated with a 41% reduced risk of JN.1 infection (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.59). COVID-19–associated ED visits were reduced 50% among those with XBB boosters (aHR, 0.50), while hospitalizations were 42% lower (aHR, 0.58). There was no statistically significant reduction of risk for JN.1 infections, ED visits, or hospitalizations in people vaccinated with a bivalent booster within 8 to 365 days after the shot." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/xbb-booster-offers-protection-against-jn1-infections-hospital-cases-new-data-show "Compared with individuals last boosted ≥1 year prior with ancestral monovalent vaccines, receipt of an updated XBB.1.5 booster 8-120 days prior was associated with lower risk of JN.1 infection (adjusted-hazard-ratio, aHR = 0.59 [0.52-0.66]), COVID-19 associated ED-visits (aHR = 0.50[0.34-0.73]) and hospitalizations (aHR = 0.58 [0.37-0.91]), while receipt of a bivalent booster 121-365 days prior was associated with lower risk of JN.1 infection (aHR = 0.92[0.88-0.95]) and ED-visits (aHR = 0.80[0.70-0.90]). Lower risk of COVID-19 hospitalization during the JN.1 outbreak (aHR = 0.57[0.33-0.97]) was still observed following receipt of an updated XBB.1.5 booster 8-120 days prior, even when analysis was restricted to previously infected individuals. Conclusion Recent receipt of updated boosters conferred protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection and ED-visits/hospitalization during a JN.1 variant wave, in both previously infected and uninfected individuals. Annual booster doses confer protection during COVID-19 endemicity." https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cid/ciae339/7699692 Note: when studies like this cite figures for "aHR" meaning adjusted hazard ratio, that means the level of reduced risk is the inverse number. For example, an aHR of 0.59 translates into a 41% reduction in risk. "For example, a scientific paper might use an HR to state something such as: "Adequate COVID-19 vaccination status was associated with significantly decreased risk for the composite of severe COVID-19 or mortality with a[n] HR of 0.20 (95% CI, 0.17–0.22)."[1] In essence, the hazard for the composite outcome was 80% lower among the vaccinated relative to those who were unvaccinated in the same study. So, for a hazardous outcome (e.g., severe disease or death), an HR below 1 indicates that the treatment (e.g., vaccination) is protective against the outcome of interest." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_ratio