The risk of long COVID was two to three times higher after the initial infection (14.8%) than after first (5.8%) or second (5.3%) reinfections.
Plaque growth can lead to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and other life-threatening cardiovascular events for as long as 1 year.
Post-exertional malaise, or exercise intolerance, was seen in 36% of those with long COVID.
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B117, a SARS-CoV-2 variant believed to have increased infectivity, is linked to high viral loads in COVID-19 patients in the United Kingdom, while a small number of patients with extremely high viral loads could have largely driven the second wave of the pandemic in Houston, according to two new studies in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Study authors are testing to verify the strain is not more infectious or faster growing than other strains.
Also, Walgreen's, Rite Aid, CVS, and other pharmacies start distributing COVID-19 vaccines.
An open-label study found the two supplements did not reduce symptom duration in outpatients.
In another encouraging trend, deaths have fallen for the second week in a row.
A single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was immunogenic in 92% of recipients, with no difference in immunogenic response between men and women but a decreasing response among older recipients, researchers from Israel's Bar-Ilan University reported yesterday in Eurosurveillance.
Those fully vaccinated and exposed to a case no longer need a 14-day quarantine.
Patients given the monoclonal antibody were less likely to die or need a ventilator.
"Right now, it’s a thin line between the hope of a vaccine and a false sense of security," a European official says.
Presymptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases contributed at least 50% of transmissions during New York City's first COVID surge, according to a study published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
