Flu and RSV on the decline but Covid hospitalizations rise Covid hospitalizations are rising in the United States, even as hospitalizations for other tripledemic viruses RSV and the flu continue to fall. YahooNews

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A promising new Covid pill shows key advantages over Paxlovid in trial A Chinese antiviral pill was found to be as effective as Paxlovid in a Phase 3 trial, and it appeared to cause fewer side effects. NBC News

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"You have a medication that looks to be just as good as Paxlovid, but less cumbersome," said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

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Biden administration seeks to rescind Trump-era ‘conscience’ protections for health workers The Biden administration is proposing to largely undo a Trump-era rule that boosted the rights of medical workers to refuse to perform abortions or other services that conflicted with their religio… nweixel The Hill

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Diabetes rates may surge in US young people, study finds | CNN The number of people under age 20 with type 2 diabetes in the US may increase nearly 675% by 2060 if trends continue, researchers say, with an increase of up to 65% in young people with type 1 diabetes. Katherine Dillinger CNN

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COVID Smell Loss: 'Retraining' Mostly Flops in Trial Some patients did recover olfactory function with two-prong therapy, however Kate Kneisel medpagetoday

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Bimodal olfactory training with visual cues and the use of patient-preferred scents did not produce a clinically meaningful improvement in sense of smell among individuals with COVID-19–related olfactory loss, a 275-patient randomized trial showed.

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Opinion | COVID's Lasting Consequences for Kids Allergist Zachary Rubin, MD, details the post-COVID symptoms presenting at his clinic Emily Hutto medpagetoday

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In this video, MedPage Today editor-in-chief Jeremy Faust, MD, sits down with allergist and immunologist Zachary Rubin, MD, of Oak Brook Allergists in Illinois, to discuss the lasting effects of COVID-19 on pediatric health.

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Are U.S. Healthcare Workers Better Off Unionized? Study finds higher earnings and benefits, but unionization still stalled Jennifer Henderson medpagetoday

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Out of 14,298 healthcare workers surveyed, 13.2% reported union membership or coverage, with no significant trend from 2009 through 2021, according to Xiaojuan Li, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, both in Boston, and colleagues.

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COVID pressures China's hospitals as countries mandate tests for travelers Chinese hospitals and funeral homes were under intense pressure on Wednesday as a surging COVID-19 wave drained resources, while the scale of the outbreak and doubts over official data prompted some countries to enact new travel rules on Chinese visitors. Martin Quin Pollard Reuters

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Kenya: Severe drought fuels malnutrition, reduces hospital-delivery births in Turkana County Following four successive failed rainy seasons, Kenya is amid the worst drought in 40 years, the UN’s women’s health agency, UNFPA, said on Tuesday, shining a light on 134,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women who are reported to be acutely malnourished and in need of treatment. UN News

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The drought crisis is not only affecting women’s access to essential maternal health care; it is causing serious undernutrition among pregnant women, escalating risks to them and their future babies.

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Nearly half of passengers from China to Milan have COVID: Italian officials Nearly half of the passengers on two recent flights from China to Milan tested positive for COVID-19, Italian health officials said on Wednesday. About 38 percent of passengers on one flight into M… jshapero The Hill

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Italy will begin testing all new arrivals from China and sequencing the tests for new variants amid China’s surge in COVID-19 cases, Italy’s health minister said on Wednesday.

'Misinformation has changed everything:' How one local health department is restoring trust in vaccines Skepticism around Covid vaccines now threatens other public health priorities. How Oklahoma City's new campaign focusing on choice may have helped boost vaccine rates. NBC News

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Germany's governing coalition argues over COVID restrictions BERLIN (AP) — Germany's governing coalition is arguing over whether remaining COVID-19 restrictions should be dropped after one of the country's top virologists was quoted as saying that the pandemic is over. AP NEWS

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Chinese make travel plans as Beijing dismantles zero-COVID rules Chinese people, cut off from the rest of the world for three years by stringent COVID-19 curbs, flocked to travel sites on Tuesday ahead of borders reopening next month, even as rising infections strained the health system and roiled the economy. Joe Cash,Sophie Yu Reuters

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