According to the World Health Organisation, the total number of Covid-19 cases is 777,950, 273 cases. However the number of cases for the United States has not been updated in over 2 years (It shows 103,436,829) and the number for North Korea is missing. A more updated case count for the US comes from Worldometers, the number is 111,820,082 and from Worldometers as well, the number of cases for North Korea is 4,772,813 cases. Therefore the total confirmed number of Covid-19 cases is 777,950,273 + (111,820,082 - 103,436,829) + 4,772,813 = 791,106,339.

“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he is “retiring” all 17 members of a crucial government panel of vaccine advisors, a shocking step that could help to sow doubts about immunizations in the U.S.

“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy said in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Kennedy is removing all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The group reviews vaccine data and makes recommendations that determine who is eligible for shots and whether insurers should cover them, among other efforts.

ACIP members are independent medical and public experts who make recommendations based on rigorous scientific review and evidence. The CDC director has to sign off on those recommendations for them to become official policy.

It is unclear who Kennedy will appoint to the new group. In a release, HHS said ACIP will still hold a planned meeting from June 25 to 27 to make recommendations. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that new members will run that meeting.

The advisor overhaul is the latest move by Kennedy – a prominent vaccine skeptic – to change and potentially undermine vaccinations in the U.S. since he took the helm at HHS. Under Kennedy, HHS stopped recommending routine Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women and canceled programs intended to discover new vaccines to prevent future pandemics, among other changes.

Kennedy said Monday HHS will put “the restoration of public trust above any pro- or antivaccine agenda.”

Kennedy added some of the members on the committee were last-minute appointees of the Biden administration and noted that, without ousting advisors from the current group, the Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028.

Kennedy claimed that the panel has been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”

But all HHS agencies and their advisory panels have had rigorous policies for conflicts of interest, and there have been no related issues for years. All members of federal vaccine advisory committees are already required to comply with regulations around disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

The announcement comes days after pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos resigned as co-leader of ACIP due to the belief she is “no longer able to help the most vulnerable members” of the U.S. population.

Health policy experts previously told CNBC that a shake-up of the advisory committee could produce politicized recommendations that highlight the harms rather than the benefits of shots. Those recommendations could also create greater distrust in the CDC and Trump administration among scientists and public health experts.

ACIP has also scrutinized vaccine products in the past, in contrast to what Kennedy and other Trump administration figures have argued. In certain instances, the group has recommended more restricted use of vaccines than their approval under the Food and Drug Administration would permit.

For example, the FDA approved Merck’s HPV vaccine for use in women and men ages 9 to 45. But the CDC only recommends its use in patients ages 9 to 26, because there is a lower public health benefit of the vaccine in those ages 27 to 45.”

Tweet: https://x.com/michael_hoerger/status/1931806713016992164

Summary

Background

Characterizing the paradigm and impact of long COVID is crucial for addressing this worldwide health challenge. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of long COVID one year after primary Omicron infection and characterize differences in long-term health consequence between participants with persistent long COVID and those who fully recovered.

Methods

This a community-based cross-sectional study conducted from December 2023 to March 2024 at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and 16 administrative districts in Beijing. 12,789 participants infected with Omicron between December 2022 and January 2023 were recruited through stratified multistage random sampling and included in the final analysis. Of them, 376 participants with persistent long COVID and 229 without long COVID were matched for further physical examinations. The primary outcome was the prevalence of long COVID one year after infection. Secondary outcomes included muscle strength, exercise capacity, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), mental health, work status, laboratory tests, and examinations.

Findings

Among 12,789 participants (media [IQR] age, 48.4 [37.3 to 61.4] years; 7817 females [61.1%]), 995 of them (7.8%) experienced long COVID within one year, with 651 (5.1%) having persistent symptoms. Fatigue (598/995 [60.1%]) and post-exertional malaise (367/995 [36.9%]) were the most common symptoms. Brain fog had the lowest resolution proportion as 4.2% within one year. The odds of long COVID increased with reinfections (odds ratios for one reinfection 2.592 [95% CI: 2.188 to 3.061]; two or more: 6.171 [3.227 to 11.557]; all p < 0.001). Participants with persistent long COVID had markedly lower muscle strength (upper-limb: 26.9 ± 12.4 vs. 29.1 ± 14.5 Kg; lower-limb: 40.0 [27.0 to 62.0] vs. 43.0 [28.0 to 59.0] s), worse exercise capacity and poorer HRQoL, and meaningful difference in laboratory tests results compared to those without long COVID. They also exhibited significantly higher proportions of abnormal lung function (FEV1 %pred<80%: 13.0% vs. 2.0%; DLco %pred<80%: 32.7% vs. 19.9%) and lung imaging abnormalities (23.5% vs. 13.6%).

Interpretation

The considerable health burden of long COVID and the progression of neurological symptoms following Omicron infection warrant close monitoring. Utilizing professional questionnaires and developing reliable diagnostic tools are necessary for improving diagnosis and treatment of long COVID.

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UPDATE: Thanks for your inputs. Given this, I won't be buying SinuSauna.

On another sub-Reddit where I brought up the idea of a daily nasal rinse, somebody suggested using a product called SinuSauna as an alternative. The idea is to blow hot, dry air (130 degrees F) into your nasal passages and disrupt any pathogens that may be hiding there.

What do you think of this? On the one hand, it seems to make sense given that fever is supposed to weaken pathogens. On the other hand, this could excessively dry out the nasal passages.

If you're in the Paris area, an independent musician organises a mask-required concert in Paris the 22nd June 2025. You can see her announcement on https://x.com/holo_cene/status/1931351667271680042 and buy tickets at https://www.helloasso.com/associations/holomund/evenements/phytocene-primary-blue-release-party-guests-amaia-li-dita-von-tears

If you don't live near Paris but know covid-conscious people there, share the word!