BA.2 Now Dominant; States Sue to End Travel Mask Mandate; Stone Age Brain Surgery

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The Omicron subvariant BA.2 now accounts for 55% of COVID variants in the U.S., according to CDC estimates.

Here’s what we know now about BA.2. (CNN)

On the heels of yesterday’s decision to authorize a fourth dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for everyone 50 and over, the FDA will weigh the benefits of a round of boosters for the broader population in the fall. (Reuters)

As of Wednesday at 8 a.m. EDT, the unofficial U.S. COVID toll was 80,074,449 cases and 981,855 deaths, increases of 24,101 cases and 762 deaths from this time a day ago.

Twenty-one states sued the CDC and other federal agencies to end the federal travel mask mandate. (NBC News)

Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill that would ban abortion after 15 weeks. (Reuters)

While in Maryland, the General Assembly passed a bill that would expand access to abortion. (AP)

As medication abortion becomes dominant, more states move to restrict access. (NPR)

Adults who received a primary Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine had markedly better outcomes if they received an mRNA booster dose, leading the CDC to recommend that these people should receive an mRNA vaccine booster 2 or more months later. (MMWR)

A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction barring the Navy from taking action against sailors who object to being vaccinated against COVID-19 on religious grounds. (AP News)

UnitedHealth Group is spending about $5.4 billion to acquire home health company LHC Group. (AP via CNBC)

Warmer summer nights led to more men dying of cardiovascular deaths. (BMJ Open)

Some people recovering from COVID-19 pneumonia had CT evidence of lung damage that persisted a full year after the onset of symptoms. (Radiology)

NIH efforts to study long COVID, including its extensive 4-year RECOVER study, were criticized by patients and researchers as being too slow. (STAT)

As COVID cases began to fall sharply earlier this year, the COVID hospitalization rate for Black people was higher than it had been at any time during the pandemic for any racial or ethnic group, the Black Coalition Against COVID reported.

About 18% of people who sustained injuries in motor vehicle accidents acknowledged that distracted driving contributed to the crash. (Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery)

On the heels of the controversial aducanumab (Aduhelm) approval for Alzheimer’s disease, HHS is investigating how drugs that received accelerated approval are being marketed to patients. (Fierce Pharma)

Speaking of accelerated approvals, aducanumab maker Biogen said it submitted the final study protocol for its confirmatory phase IV ENVISION trial to the FDA for review and approval.

The FDA expanded the approval of cabotegravir plus rilpivirine (Cabenuva) to include virologically suppressed adolescents with HIV 12 and older who weigh at least 35 kg, ViiV Healthcare announced.

Roche announced that its investigational anti-TIGIT immunotherapy tiragolumab failed to improve progression-free survival in a phase III trial involving patients with small cell lung cancer receiving standard treatment.

After Mehmet Oz, MD, (Dr. Oz) endorsed the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in a 2019 episode of his TV show, a segment of his audience shifted their views and saw MMR and flu vaccines as low-risk. (Journal of Communication)

Skulls dating back to Neolithic times had grooves where portions had been removed, with evidence that some of these primitive brain surgery patients survived. (NPR)