Saskia v. Popescu, PhD, MPH, MA, CIC, FAPIC

The availability of pediatric vaccines is being presented as a way to return to some sense of normal after two years of a pandemic.

There’s been a lot of activity on the COVID-19 vaccine front thanks to research regarding waning immunity. A mix-and-match strategy seems to be emerging.

The outbreak underscores the Delta variant’s potential for rapid spread especially in schoolchildren who are too young to be vaccinated.

While the US significantly struggles against this fourth COVID-19 wave, it’s critical we communicate that the vaccines are just 1 strategy—not the only strategy.

The delta variant is taking advantage of opportunities presented by some Americans who resist getting vaccinated and masking up.

The issue of breakthrough infections is increasingly coming up. How frequent are they? How infectious are they? Simply put, we know the COVID-19 vaccines do not offer sterilizing immunity.

As the Delta variant is estimated to be around 50% more transmissible than the original strain, the CDC has been emphasizing the need to improve stagnated vaccine rates.

While many infection preventionists are attending the annual APIC Conference, there’s been a lot going on in the world of COVID-19 and infectious diseases.

I want to acknowledge [infection preventionists]. You all inspire me daily and I’m eternally grateful to work among you. We work to protect our health care personnel and patients fiercely and often to the point where we are burned out.

Here's one method of containing COVID-19 at nursing homes: Pair long-term care facilities (LTCF) staff and residents who've recovered with susceptible residents to help reduce transmission. It seems to work, says a study.

The threat of novel variants that are more transmissible is deeply worrisome as we work to vaccinate the world.

Underlying conditions make young people more vulnerable to COVID-19, while the U.K. continues reopening despite the rise of the Delta variant.

The new approach to naming COVID-19 variants utilizes the Greek alphabet.

The new CDC mask guidance came down so quickly that it just didn’t give people time to prepare, and it also ignores that we still have a majority of the population not fully vaccinated.

Infectious disease transmission isn’t as simple as a singular label that doesn’t describe the nuance or situations that increase or decrease risk.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai: “The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.”

During this time, as hospital case counts drop, IPs are expected to just switch back to normal while still ensuring a readiness to respond to COVID-19.

The truth is that variants will occur where the virus spreads and until SARS-CoV-2 is controlled everywhere, it won’t be controlled anywhere. What is occurring in India is a prime example of this.

It’s important to match COVID-19 masking rules to reasoning behind them.

The number of syphilis cases in 2000 raised hopes that it could be eradicated, but since 2015 cases have risen 74%.

Those fully vaccinated had 90% protection against infection regardless of symptoms and even partial immunization yielded 80% protection against infection.

From a global health and infection prevention perspective, “normal” is what got us here—a state of poor preparedness, underfunded health departments, and neglected hospital preparedness for a pandemic.

The heavy burden on schools to reopen with distancing has increasingly become an issue as it often prevents fully reopening full classrooms, which is complex topic and one that carries with it a lot of nuance.

That an entirely new outbreak of Ebola would be triggered by a latent infection 5 to 6 years after the initial infection is deeply worrisome.

Yes, fully vaccinated people can relax some of the social distancing protocols that we’ve all been chaffing under this year. However, understand the nuances.

Infection prevention isn’t unique to health care, but rather representative of a bigger role within the community – it’s where health care and public health meet.

As more people become vaccinated, we will be navigating the aspects of a partially vaccinated public. This will be especially challenging as we learn more about prevention of infection and not just severe disease.

As all resources and attention were focused on COVID-19 for the past year, many other infectious diseases were neglected. Here’s what we need to monitor.

Double-masking can prove more cumbersome for many. If the goal is to protect the mask underneath, perhaps consider a face shield or a strategy for cleaning the mask more frequently.

Contact tracing is reactive—the goal is to avoid these close contact exposures in which people are interacting without masks and indoors. Practice makes permanence after all.