COVID-19

Infection preventionists and other health care professionals once again on the frontlines battling a COVID-19 surge need be wary of “mild” symptoms that could haunt them in the long run.

Omicron and an ample supply of N95s and KN95s might lead the CDC to change masking recommendations for the public this week to say that individuals should wear those masks.

Infection preventionists have been rocks throughout this pandemic and they now have to gear themselves again as they enter this frustratingly complex, nuanced, and challenging next phase.

Before COVID-19, the infection prevention department got a median of 71 calls a month. When COVID-19 struck, that rose to 368 a month, with 50% of calls concerning isolation precautions, the study states.

The vaccine for Omicron looks promising, says Pfizer, but in the meantime, the booster remains the best shot at avoiding infection.

Delta and Omicron coinfection is one of several concerns voiced by Paul Burton, MD, the chief medical officer at Moderna, to a panel of lawmakers in the United Kingdom.

We may need to pivot to the strategy adopted by Singapore, to have voluntarily unvaccinated individuals to pay at least a portion of their care. It is very easy to act irresponsibly when others are funding your safety net.

Infection preventionists will be watching closely as the nation’s Top Court is expected to rule—perhaps within days—whether hospitals can mandate that their workers get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Just when should a health care professional return to work after a high-risk COVID-19 exposure? In a Q&A, Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC, FAPIC, explains the CDC’s changing recommendations.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending January 7.

As the government rolls out 500 million rapid at-home antigen tests, results of a small study suggest that those tests will produce false-negatives that will enhance Omicron’s spread.

Data collected from over 46,000 pregnant women show that COVID-19 vaccination does not cause an increased risk of preterm birth or small-for-gestational-age at birth.

Unclear labeling and disorganized storage can lead to the wrong dose of a COVID-19 vaccine being administered to a child.

Don’t look now, but influenza is making a comeback. What if it joins forces with COVID-19 variants?

Omicron is going hard after the pediatric population, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated and whose vital organs, which COVID-19 attacks, are still in development.

Infectivity causes more harm and deaths than lethality and in the case of Omicron more than makes up for its somewhat milder infections in immunologically naive individuals.

SARS-CoV-2 causes a system infection and is commonly detected in the heart and brain, exemplified by the loss of smell from brain tissue destruction and loss of cardiac function from myocarditis.

Keeping youngsters in school has become a major goal of public health and education authorities. But the current COVID-19 surge might make that harder to do.

If CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, endorses the FDA’s decision, the recommendation can go into effect this week.

Anthony Harris, MD, MBA, MPH: “There are nights where I go to bed thinking, ‘Will tomorrow be the day that I read about a tremendous increase in severity in Omicron, and antibody dependent enhancement could be the cause of it?’”

CDC investigators looked at what might cause reinfections during the first wave of the pandemic.

Those dental practices that come out of the COVID-19 pandemic with an appreciation of and renewed commitment to infection control best practices will maintain the trust of their patients and survive, whereas those that scoff at the costs of doing the right thing will not.

Earloop toggles or a mask brace made for a better seal and enhanced the fit of medical masks. The mask brace “significantly improved” how cloth masks fit.

One of the benefits of contact tracing is that it’s the least intrusive of the nonpharmaceutical interventions, a study says.

Many health care workers are just tired and fed up. But we have taken oaths to protect and do no harm hence we will continue to try to keep people alive who threaten and laugh at us.

Heather Saunders, MPH, RN, CIC: “We really need to make sure that we’re taking care of our teams. Infection preventionists are burned out. This has been a long 22 months. There are likely some rough months ahead of us.”

With an eye on Omicron and the staffing shortages, the agency shortened isolation time for those who test positive for COVID-19. Infection preventionists will need to be extra vigilant.

Omicron can significantly avoid immunity created by both prior infections and vaccines, and younger people and people of “African ethnicity” have higher rates of infection with Omicron than with Delta, says a new study.

In the space of 2 days, the FDA approved at-home oral treatments for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, drug that were months in development. Today, it was Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ turn.

The US health care system, already straining to contain a Delta spike, must now deal with Omicron. One expert predicts that Omicron will infect 20% to 30% of health care workers.