CDC
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: picture alliance / Getty
As hospitalizations related to COVID-19 are back up in the United States, the government is reviving the program that gave people free at-home test kits.
At an event at a Washington D.C. CVS on Wednesday (September 20th) promoting the updated COVID-19 booster shot, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced that every household in the country could request four free at-home COVID test kits beginning on Monday, September 25th. Those seeking tests can request them through COVID.gov, the department’s website.
In addition to restarting the program, the HHS also announced that it would invest $600 million to purchase test kits from a dozen domestic manufacturers. The amount of purchased kits estimated would be 200 million. “These critical investments will strengthen our nation’s production levels of domestic at-home COVID-19 rapid tests and help mitigate the spread of the virus,” Becerra said in a statement afterward.
The revival of the program comes as there has been a noticeable spike in the number of hospital admissions and deaths related to a new variant of COVID-19 known as EG.5 that has been on the rise over the last few weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data that said that admissions rose by 7.7 in the week of September 3rd to the 9th to 20,358. Deaths over that same period increased up to 2.3 percent.
The program had been halted in May as the Biden administration declared an end to the public health emergency that was in place. There was a previous stoppage last summer as the Omicron variant was prevalent, with the government citing a lack of funding at the time. More than 600 million test kits were distributed before the first stoppage.
Tests that citizens will receive once the program starts again will be good for use until the end of 2023. The HHS also has instructed those curious about the expiration dates to check a website detailing which test kits had extended expiration
dates.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: wisely / Getty
As COVID-19 case numbers across the country begin to climb again, the federal government has given the go-ahead for two new boosters for the fall months.
According to reports, the Food and Drug Administration approved two new reformulated vaccine shots for COVID-19 from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could guide eligibility and the distribution of the shots as early as Tuesday (September 12th) after a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. If the green light is given, CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen could sign off to let vaccinations begin immediately.
These new mRNA vaccine shots differ from the most recent booster which was released last fall to combat the Omicron variant of Covid-19. That shot was bivalent, protecting individuals against the original version as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 variants comprising Omicron. The new ones will be monovalent, specifically crafted for protection against the XBB.1.5 variant. That variant, an offshoot of Omicron, appeared earlier this year but has given way to a newer dominant variant, EG.5.
Medical experts state that the new booster shots would protect against the EG.5 variant and other recently developed strains such as the BA.2.86 which has been showing up recently. There is also consideration for a third booster shot from Novovax, which would differ from these other two as it is protein-based and works differently. The new shots are focused solely on the new variants and don’t have full protection against the original version of Covid-19. “Our immune system, when we have seen something, is biased to seeing that again,” Columbia University Dr. David Ho said. “So if you include the original components, the immune system will react mostly to the original component and not to the new version of the virus.”
Once approved, drugstore chains such as Walgreens and CVS are ready to make the boosters available to the public. This time around, the cost of the shots will be negotiated by government groups such as Medicate and private insurance companies. Those with private or public health insurance should have no obstacles to getting a booster if the provider is in their network. For those uninsured, there is a “bridge” program that might help get them to get vaccinated for free until next year.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: ANGELA WEISS / Getty
An FDA tranquilizer has become a popular new street drug in America, causing major concerns as one of its side effects causes flesh rotting in users among other harmful effects.
According to reports, public health officials and law enforcement have seen a spike in usage of the drug xylazine in cities across the country. Commonly known on the streets as “tranq”, xylazine is a tranquilizer that veterinarians use to sedate horses and has been known to cause grave side effects in users such as the tightening of blood vessels leading to abscesses and skin ulcers that if untreated can rot down to the bone.
Worse still is that xylazine has been found by authorities to be coupled with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin. That combination has led to a sharp rise in fatal overdoses recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in three years from 260 in 2018 to 3,480 in 2021. Data compiled shows that xylazine-positive overdose deaths rose tenfold in southern U.S. states since 2020, and sevenfold in western states. Philadelphia and New York City have also seen sharp upticks in overdoses including fatal ones linked to xylazine over the same period of time.
Authorities have expressed concern about tranq’s rise, with Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Dr. Rahul Gupta declaring it an emerging threat in May in a report issued through the White House. “Testing for xylazine is uneven across the United States, which makes it hard to get the national picture,” he said in the report. “Many communities are not even aware of this threat in their backyards.”
Observers have noted that the rise of xylazine combined with fentanyl might be due to the recent crackdowns on fentanyl on the streets. “That’s really driven drug manufacturers to start to integrate xylazine into the supply. It’s cheaper and it also makes the high last longer,” said Maritza Perez Medina, a researcher with the Drug Policy Alliance. Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, opines that “Maybe the products are coming already mixed into the United States,” citing drug-sample data collected by law enforcement in Mexico.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
-
Pages