Peer support valuable intervention for health worker stress during COVID-19, study shows With healthcare worker (HCW) burnout one of the most pressing issues facing US clinicians, a new study in JAMA Network Open indicates that Stress First Aid, a peer-to-peer support intervention, improved the well-being of HCWs compared with usual care during the COVID-19 pandemic. CIDRAP

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UnitedHealthcare CEO says 'maybe a third' of US citizens were affected by recent hack | TechCrunch Two months after hackers broke into Change Healthcare systems stealing and then encrypting company data, it’s still unclear how many Americans were UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty finally gave an estimate of how many Americans were impacted by the hack on the company's subsidiary Change Healthcare. Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai TechCrunch

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Study: COVID vaccines not linked to seizures In the vaccine group there were 9 seizure events reported. CIDRAP

... a new meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials in JAMA Neurology finds no increase in seizures in the month following COVID vaccination. 

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The findings suggest that there is no difference in risk of seizure incidence among vaccinated individuals vs placebo recipients," the authors concluded. "However, the risk of seizure occurrence after SARS-CoV-2 infection seems to be relatively high."

Pasteurization inactivates H5N1 bird flu in milk, new FDA and academic studies confirm Extensive testing of pasteurized commercially purchased milk and other dairy products from 38 states found no evidence of live H5N1 bird flu virus. Megan Molteni STAT

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Hospitals no longer have to report COVID-19 hospitalization data, CDC says (wtvr.com)

Global survey shows COVID booster uptake in question A new survey of 23,000 adults in 23 countries taken in October 2023 finds a lower intent to get a COVID-19 booster vaccine (71.6%), compared with 2022 (87.9%). CIDRAP

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Moreover, 60.8% expressed being more willing to get vaccinated for diseases other than COVID-19 as a result of their experiences during the pandemic, while 23.1% reported being less willing. ...

Officials warn of risks to ‘certain groups’ of people amid bird flu outbreak in cows - POLITICO

The Biden administration said Wednesday it’s working to strengthen federal testing guidance and the overall public health response should the bird flu outbreak in cows spread among humans.

State health labs have sent “around 25” human test samples to the CDC for reference testing amid the current dairy outbreak, according to officials. More than 100 workers are being monitored. Officials declined to answer questions from reporters about where in the country the monitored workers are, saying only that officials are “following the herd” of infected cows.

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EU drug watchdog urges COVID-19 vaccine update The EU's drug watchdog urged Tuesday that anti-COVID jabs be updated before another round of vaccinations to counter a new variant of the virus, which is still claiming thousands of lives. Science X Medical Xpress

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The most widely circulating COVID variant worldwide is now JN.1, having overtaken the XBB family that is the target of the most recent vaccines, the European Medicines Agency said.

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Research finds negativity about vaccines surged on Twitter after COVID-19 shots became available There was a marked increase in negativity about vaccines on Twitter after COVID-19 vaccines became available, according to a presentation at the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, ... Science X Medical Xpress

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The analysis also found that spikes in the number of negative tweets coincided with announcements from governments and health care authorities about vaccination.

Pandemic fatigue and vaccine hesitancy continue to affect global public health, new 23-country study finds (medicalxpress.com)

While it found that global uptake of at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose was robust, a new survey published in Nature Medicine revealed mixed signals about the current acceptance of vaccines generally, especially COVID-19 boosters. ...

"The repercussions of pandemic disruptions in health care services, the effects of the inequitable and slow global vaccine distribution, and the prevalence of misinformation and mistrust in health authorities continue to be felt," says Jeffrey V. Lazarus, Professor of Global Health at CUNY SPH, head of the Health Systems Research Group at Barcelona Institute for Global Health, and coordinator of the study.