Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: long COVID symptoms, Biden tests negative, cases & more
In the United States, more than 91 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic as of Friday, July 29, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In addition, more than 1 million people in the U.S. have died. Worldwide, there have been more than 574 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including about 5 million cases in the past week. Additionally, over 6.3 million have died from the virus globally.
About 223 million people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated as of July 29 — 67% of the population — and almost 108 million of those have gotten their first booster shot, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Most of the country, roughly 81%, lives in a location where COVID-19 community levels are considered medium and high, the agency says as of July 29. Masks are advised in high-level regions.
About 19% of Americans reside in an area where COVID-19 levels are low, according to the CDC.
The omicron BA.5 subvariant dominated U.S. cases for the week ending July 23 and made up nearly 82% of COVID-19 cases, agency data estimates show.
Here’s what happened between July 24 and 29:
Lower sex drive and losing hair among long COVID symptoms, study says. What to know
Long COVID symptoms make up a lengthy list — and a lower sex drive and losing hair are among those identified in new research.
More than two years into the coronavirus pandemic, the findings add to a growing body of studies seeking to understand the condition in which lingering effects of the virus may persist for weeks, months or years.
“Long Covid sufferers have experienced a wider set of symptoms than previously thought,” a news release on the study, which involved researchers from the University of Birmingham, said.
In total, a reduced libido and hair loss were named alongside 60 other symptoms found to be “significantly associated” with long COVID at least 12 weeks after an infection in the research published July 25 in the journal Nature Medicine.
The 62 symptoms were divided into more than a dozen domains, including categories such as breathing, reproductive health and mental health, according to the peer-reviewed study, which examined more than 2 million health records of people living in the U.K.
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Lower sex drive and losing hair among long COVID symptoms, study says. What to know
Biden tests negative for COVID, completes 5-day isolation
President Joe Biden completed his coronavirus isolation on Wednesday, July 27, six days after testing positive, declaring that his symptom-light, work-heavy virus experience represented a “real statement of where we are in the fight against COVID-19.”
Biden, 79, tested negative on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning, according to a memo from the president’s White House physician, Kevin O’Connor.
O’Connor said in his note that Biden was fever-free, had not taken Tylenol over the previous 36 hours and was experiencing minimal symptoms that have “almost completely resolved.”
Biden met cheers as he delivered remarks in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday morning.
“Thankfully, I will now be able to return to work in person,” said the president, wearing aviator sunglasses and no mask on a sunny day in Washington. “My symptoms were mild. My recovery was quick. And I’m feeling great.”
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Biden tests negative for COVID, completes 5-day isolation
NC woman pleads guilty to selling fake COVID drug
A Charlotte woman pleaded guilty Wednesday, July 27, to peddling a fake COVID-19 cure during the height of the pandemic, federal prosecutors in New Hampshire said.
Diana Daffin, the owner of Savvy Holistic Health, was arrested outside her south Charlotte home in May 2021 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accused her of shipping the supposed remedy drug HAMPL to an undercover agent in New Hampshire, The Charlotte Observer previously reported, citing an FDA news release.
According to a criminal complaint, the FDA first warned Daffin and the drug’s Australian manufacturer in April 2020 that she was selling “an adulterated, misbranded, and unapproved drug” and should take “immediate action to correct the violation,” according to the FDA release.
For more, keep reading:
NC woman pleads guilty to selling fake COVID drug, until she sold to undercover agent
Duke researchers edit genes to prevent, treat COVID-19 in the lab. Will it work in people?
Duke researchers have developed a way to use gene-editing to prevent and treat COVID-19 in mice, which they believe holds promise for people.
They are the first researchers to demonstrate that CRISPR, a powerful gene-editing tool, can be used against COVID-19. The group, led by Duke School of Medicine professor Qianben Wang, published their results in Nature Chemical Biology on Tuesday, July 26.
If further research proves the treatment is effective in humans, it could offer a prevention strategy that lasts several days and can withstand constantly changing coronavirus variants.
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Duke researchers edit genes to prevent, treat COVID-19 in the lab. Will it work in people?
Man kept in Kansas prison cell with men who had COVID. Now he has it, Wichita mom says
Michelle Orton, an educator in Wichita, said her son, a prisoner at the Lansing Correctional Facility in eastern Kansas, asked to be moved after two of his cellmates tested positive for COVID-19.
His request was not granted, she said, and 11 days later he tested positive for the virus.
More than two years into the pandemic, the state hasn’t done enough to protect her son from COVID-19, Orton said Monday, July 25.
On July 11, Orton’s son told her that two of the four prisoners in his cell had tested positive for COVID-19. Her son asked to be placed in a different cell than the infected men, fearing that he’d catch the virus, too. Orton asked that her son not be named in the newspaper, out of fear of retaliation against him in the prison.
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Man kept in Kansas prison cell with men who had COVID. Now he has it, Wichita mom says
This report also contains reporting from The New York Daily News, as well as McClatchy’s Joe Marusak, Teddy Rosenbluth and Anna Spoerre.
