Who Gets Long COVID? USPSTF Snubs Supplements; Feds Aim to Slash Nicotine

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Moderna said its Omicron-targeting booster candidate for the fall induced “potent” neutralizing antibody responses against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

Women were significantly more likely to experience long COVID than men, a literature review suggested. (Current Medical Research and Opinion)

President Biden nominated former DARPA head Arati Prabhakar, PhD, an applied physicist, as the new White House science adviser to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued its final recommendation stating there’s not enough evidence to recommend most vitamin and mineral supplements to prevent cardiovascular disease or cancer and reiterated its position that vitamin E and beta-carotene supplements should be avoided. (JAMA)

As of Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, the unofficial U.S. COVID toll reached 86,426,606 infections and 1,012,819 deaths, increases of 160,878 and 456, respectively, since yesterday morning.

COVID-19 rebound after nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid) treatment may be due to insufficient drug exposure, a case study suggested. (Clinical Infectious Diseases)

Antiviral dispensing rates for COVID-19 drugs like nirmatrelvir/ritonavir were lowest in high vulnerability zip codes, despite these areas having the most dispensing sites. (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report)

An algorithm based on wrist tracker data identified 68% of COVID-positive people 2 days before symptom onset. (BMJ Open)

The FDA is drafting a proposed requirement to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to minimally addictive or nonaddictive levels.

The agency also expanded the indication for Merck’s pneumococcal 15-valent conjugate vaccine (Vaxneuvance) to include infants and children, the company announced.

FDA also approved a second generic naloxone nasal spray to treat known or suspected opioid overdose.

The Supreme Court ruled that health insurance plans can make all dialysis providers out-of-network. (Reuters)

A predictive model reliably discriminated between people with and without Alzheimer’s-related pathologies based on a single MRI. (Communications Medicine)

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed a new law that lets healthcare providers and medical students refuse non-emergency care that conflicts with their religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. (WIS-TV 10 News)

Some parents can’t wait to vaccinate their young children against SARS-CoV-2; others strongly oppose or are hesitant. (USA Today)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) continues to take heat for his decision not to pre-order COVID-19 vaccines for infants and young kids from the federal government. (The Hill)

Three members of an Australian family developed symptoms of rhabdomyolysis after eating recently thawed and cooked queen snapper fish. (Newsweek)

A federal appeals court ordered the EPA to re-examine its 2020 finding that glyphosate — the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup — did not pose a health risk for people exposed to it on farms, yards, or roadsides, or as residue on food crops. (Time)

Merck and Sanofi will join Novartis in a 10-year commitment to boost diversity in clinical research by collaborating with historically Black colleges and universities. (Endpoints News)