“Masking also remains an important mitigation measure to protect the health of our health care workforce, including those who are at high risk for severe disease,” the doctors wrote in in the Annals of Internal Medicine.ĭespite the concern among experts and some institutions, Americans don’t appear to be worried enough about the recent rise in cases to change their behavior. It’s really important for their social and emotional health,” she said.Īlthough some medical offices and hospitals have gradually dropped masking requirements, a group of doctors in Washington state wrote in an editorial published Tuesday that health care settings should maintain masking - even if the broader population doesn’t. “We learned from the pandemic that kids need to be in school. If necessary in an outbreak, there could be a return to universal masking at school, Bode said, “but I would definitely highlight and encourage people to make that their change and not to go back to virtual learning.” However, if a child has a significant health condition that affects their immune system and their ability to fight off infections, “that is when I would recommend talking with your doctor about the need to add a mask to you individually to help prevent exposure,” she said.

Still, the majority of students do not need to wear masks and should instead use traditional prevention such as handwashing, coughing into their elbow and staying home when sick, said Bode, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on School Health. Sara Bode, medical director of school-based health and mobile clinics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “We are seeing an increase in Covid cases, and in general the overall percentage of testing at home is low, so there may be even more Covid cases than we know about, especially since the vast majority of kids have no or mild symptoms,” said pediatrician Dr. Which arm gets the Covid-19 booster may make a difference, study shows (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Scott Olson/Getty Images The recently authorized booster vaccine protects against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and the more recent omicron variants, BA.4 and BA.5. Morris Brown College in Atlanta announced a return to mandated physical distancing and masks just one week after classes started in August.Īnd pediatricians are poised for the typical return-to-school surge in all kinds of respiratory illness, whether colds, flu or Covid.ĬHICAGO, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 09: A pharmacist prepares to administer COVID-19 vaccine booster shots during an event hosted by the Chicago Department of Public Health at the Southwest Senior Center on Septemin Chicago, Illinois.

Some institutions are already reacting to the rise in Covid. The new booster coming this fall will target a family of Omicron subvariants called XBB and is expected to provide good protection against even newer versions, Topol said, but scientists are not sure how significant BA.2.86 will be. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.īut if you’re over 65, are immunocompromised or haven’t had Covid recently, and you haven’t had another dose of the bivalent booster, you should get it now to protect yourself, he added. “The virus sees that and sees most faces and noses and mouths are uncovered and unprotected, so it takes advantage of that opportunity.”Ī new booster designed to better protect against many of the commonly circulating strains of Covid will be out in a month or so, and most people can wait for that new shot to jumpstart their immunity, said Dr. “In addition, most people haven’t gotten a booster for a while, so the collective immunity is lower than it was six months ago,” Wachter said. If you’re trying to be careful, it’s time to whip out the mask again.”Īlthough new coronavirus variants, like the dominant variant, EG.5, might not have driven the recent acceleration by themselves, they might be somewhat resistant to immunity provided by current vaccines and boosters.

“It’s riskier that you will get infected now than it was a month or two ago, without question, probably twice as risky. “Hospitalizations have not yet doubled, but I think they probably will, as the numbers lag a couple of weeks behind,” Wachter said. Robert Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. Levels of the virus in wastewater from toilets - which can be an early indication of a Covid spike in a community - have doubled, said Dr.

Your recent cold could be Covid-19, as the nation goes into a late summer wave (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS/Getty Images BinaxNOW COVID-19 test kits were made available to students at Whitney Young High School, Feb.

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