Should I get a second bivalent COVID-19 booster?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if you are 65 years and older or have a weakened immune system, then you are eligible to get a second COVID-19 booster vaccine at least four months after your initial bivalent booster. People with weakened immune systems, such as those who have received transplants, should get the second COVID-19 booster as soon as they are eligible.
However,...
CDC changes community COVID-19 isolation guidance; does not change guidance for Vanderbilt Health employees, patients or facilities
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced new guidelines that can help reduce the spread of a variety of common respiratory viruses, such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19. Those actions include staying at home when sick, staying up to date with vaccines, practicing good hygiene, and improving indoor air quality.
Specifically, the CDC issued updated...
CDC encourages additional COVID-19 vaccine dose for patients 65 and older
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults who are 65 or older receive an additional dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine if they received an initial dose in late 2023 or early 2024.
Data continues to show the importance of vaccination to protect those most at risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19. An additional dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine may restore protection that has...
CDC drops 5-day isolation period for recovering COVID-19 patients
People who are recovering from COVID-19 no longer need to remain isolated for five days after symptoms end, according to new guidance from the CDC.
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Maneet Chauhan to close North Gulch restaurant due to ongoing losses since Covid-19
Celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan will close one of her North Gulch restaurants this month due to ongoing losses since the pandemic.
Nashville Business News – Local Nashville News | The Nashville Business Journal
Team uses COVID-19 to test automated acute disease profiling
by Paul Govern
Automation could speed high-throughput phenotyping of acute disease, a new study shows.
Electronic health records (EHRs) are a mainstay of observational clinical studies, epidemiological studies and disease surveillance. Teams often begin by training a machine learning (ML) algorithm to find cases and controls in the EHR population. Creating training sets for this supervised ML step...
Children’s antibodies highly potent against COVID-19: study
Graduate student Steven Wall Jr. and Ivelin Georgiev, PhD. Photo by Donn Jones
by Bill Snyder
Children are an underutilized source of potential antibody therapies to counteract the “ever-evolving” COVID-19 pandemic, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Reporting Nov. 6 in Cell Reports Medicine, Ivelin Georgiev, PhD, and colleagues demonstrated that antibodies isolated...
Almost half of US adults plan to get new COVID-19 vaccine, survey finds
The latest poll conducted by the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor found that nearly half of all adults in the U.S. plan to get the newly recommended COVID-19 vaccine.
ABC News: Top Stories
Updated COVID-19 vaccine available for VUMC employees and patients
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved an updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine provides better protection against current strains of COVID-19 that are circulating as we transition into the fall/winter virus season.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone six (6) months and older who has not received a COVID-19 vaccine in the past two months receive...
How caregivers can reclaim what COVID-19 took away
Rebecca Plowman, RN, was among the speakers who discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted front-line health care providers. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
by Bill Snyder
A year into the pandemic, Rebecca Plowman, RN, realized that all her patients with COVID-19 had died within a month of being admitted to the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“It was all deceased,...
Updated guidance on masking, COVID-19 testing at VUMC
Updated Guidance Around Universal Masking in Clinical Areas
VUMC is resuming standard infection prevention protocols, effective immediately. These changes reflect current available evidence on the prevention of COVID-19, including high levels of vaccine and infection- induced immunity and the availability of effective treatment and prevention tools:
Universal masking of patients, employees and...