U.S. Hits 600K COVID Deaths; Brazil’s Iffy Drug Cocktail; STDs Reach New High

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As of Wednesday at 8 a.m. EDT, the unofficial U.S. COVID-19 toll reached 33,486,925 cases and 600,287 deaths, up 11,626 cases and 327 deaths from yesterday.

And while daily cases and deaths have drastically declined, new and dangerous variants could set back the U.S.’s progress on the COVID-19 pandemic, officials warned. (CNN)

COVID-19 was likely circulating in the U.S. as early as December 2019, NIH researchers found. (CNN) Their results were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Support is growing for a nonpartisan commission to investigate the COVID pandemic in the U.S. (New York Times)

Pakistan is taking an unusual action against unvaccinated citizens: cutting off their cellphone service. (New York Times)

The Mississippi attorney general has sued insulin makers Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, alleging they have colluded to raise prices. (Endpoints News)

Brazil is treating COVID-19 with a cocktail of unproven drugs. (NPR)

The Indian government said it had the backing of a scientific advisory group when it doubled the interval between AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses, but the group said it hadn’t given its approval. (Reuters)

Medically vulnerable Texans are feeling left behind as the state starts returning to normal. (Texas Tribune)

A rare ACE2 variant was associated with a 40% reduction in COVID-19 infection risk and a lower risk of severe cases and hospitalizations, according to a preprint study published in MedRxiv.

FDA approved StrataGraft for adults with thermal burns; the topical application is produced from dermal fibroblasts and keratinocytes and can reduce the amount of healthy skin needed for grafting.

The agency also released another 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID shot from the troubled Emergent BioSolutions plant in Baltimore. (Wall Street Journal)

Nearly one-fifth of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients went on to develop signs of long-haul COVID 30 days or more after diagnosis, according to a FAIR Health analysis of private insurance claims.

Speaking of long-haul COVID symptoms, many COVID patients are still struggling with parosmia — an abnormal sense of smell, while others are developing completely new health problems. (New York Times)

Yes, it’s still everyone’s favorite pastime: for the sixth year in a row, cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. hit a record high, and USA Today has ranked the top states.

An elderly woman’s arrest in Colorado has revealed how poorly people with mental or physical disabilities are treated by some law enforcement officers. (Kaiser Health News)