COVID-19 News and Updates

Hello all,

Nina Duggan here with the latest COVID-19 news and updates.

This week we will be discussing recent COVID tracking maps released by NBC, debunking the term “immunity debt”, looking at Paxlovid treatments for long COVID, and addressing an unfortunate turn on Twitter’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.

COVID Communication:

Tools For Tracking COVID-19 in Your Community

Last week NBC released a handful of maps tracking different metrics of COVID-19, with a small explanation for what each metric means included. These maps cover hospital stress levels, hospitalization rates across the country, COVID case surges in each state, vaccination rates nationwide, and whether or not the CDC recommends indoor masking the county where you live.

It is important to take these maps with a grain of salt, these maps specifically address COVID-19 cases, and do not necessarily account for the increases in influenza and RSV currently being tracked. Protecting the people most vulnerable to the surging respiratory illnesses in our community still requires a degree of added caution this winter (masking, testing, handwashing, etc).

COVID in the News:

State of COVID-19 in Maine

Across the state, average case numbers, test positivity, hospitalizations, and deaths are all down from two weeks ago. An average of 104 positive cases per day were reported in the last week. That brings total confirmed cases in the state to a total of 301, 317, with 2,750 deaths (no data exists yet for numbers of long COVID cases). Presently, 82% of the state have received the primary series, whereas only 49% have received their booster dose.

Links and sources: NYT Tracking Coronavirus in Maine: Latest Map and Case Count

Debunking The Concept of “Immunity Debt” and COVID-19

Following the last few discussion pieces debunking the rampant misinformation around the surge in respiratory viruses and COVID-19, there is a term making the rounds being used to blame the uptick in cases and case severity: “immunity debt”. The term became popular in 2021 off of a paper claiming that children’s immune systems were becoming weaker due to masking, physical distancing, and other mitigation practices. However, there is no actual scientific basis for this.

It is true that RSV and flu surges have shifted to earlier in the year, but this does not appear to have anything to do with COVID safety practices. Looking at states like Florida who had fewer mitigation practices, they are still seeing a high surge of respiratory viruses. Expanding beyond the United States, Sweden was infamous for not locking down or having mask mandates and is also seeing surges of RSV and influenza.

Once again, encouraging repeat infections of RSV, influenza, and COVID-19 is detrimental to your health. Multiple RSV infections don’t prevent reinfections. These viruses can cause long term damage (e.g. increased risk of asthma, sleep disordered breathing, etc.) and ultimately weaken your immune system and your body’s ability to fend off disease.

The practices we have been taking to mitigate COVID-19, such as masking, physical distancing, frequent hand washing, and staying home when sick are all very helpful measures in preventing these other respiratory viruses from spreading.

For an easily digestible report, see Dr. Rubin’s video on the paper and “immunity debt”; for further reading, see this paper published in Nature on RSV reinfection

Study Under Way on Paxlovid as Long COVID Treatment

Paxlovid, one of the antiviral treatments we have at our disposal for treating active cases of COVID-19, is now being studied as a hopeful treatment for those who have contracted long COVID. It still isn’t entirely clear what causes the lingering symptoms of long COVID, though it has been suggested that those suffering from it have not been able to fully clear the virus from their bodies - with the virus being detected in the gut, stool, and blood samples months after the initial infection.

If this is the cause, Stanford researchers are hopeful that further Paxlovid treatments could help alleviate the persistent virus. At a baseline, experts know that people who take Paxlovid after contracting COVID are less likely to develop the long-lasting symptoms of long COVID.

At present, there are no confirmed treatments for long COVID, though some people who were unvaccinated and contracted long COVID do report some relief from symptoms after vaccination. Results from this trial are expected to be released sometime next year.

Links and sources: NBC News Could Paxlovid treat long COVID? Major new study aims to find out; U.S. National Library of Medicine SARS CoV-2 Viral Persistence Study (PASC)-Study of Long COVID-19 (PASC)

Featured in the Field:

Social Media Special: Twitter Ends COVID-19 Misinformation Policing

Instead of a feature account of those working in the field this week, I wanted to highlight a new Twitter policy that affects the work of health equity professionals on social media as well as anyone who gets their news from social media sites. As part of the sweeping changes Elon Musk has made to Twitter since acquiring the site, the popular social media platform ended its policy on enforcement around misleading COVID-19 information on November 23rd.

Effectively, this means Twitter will no longer be removing or tagging any misinformation related to COVID-19 across the site. Musk himself has been an active critic of the response to the pandemic, debating the virus’ death toll and the need for quarantines. This new action follows his promise to restore 62,000 suspended accounts, likely including the 11,000 or so accounts suspended for violating COVID-19 misinformation guidelines. Already the change has raised serious concerns regarding the consequences of posts discouraging vaccination and other such efforts to combat the virus.

Links and sources: CNBC Twitter stops policing Covid misinformation under CEO Elon Musk and reportedly restores 62,000 suspended accounts; AP News Twitter ends enforcement of COVID misinformation policy

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If you or anyone you know have questions or concerns about COVID-19 or the available vaccines please call or text our COVID-19 Peer Support Line at 207-271-6023, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.