Free COVID-19 Home Tests for Blind and Low-Vision Users Now Available

Comagine Health | Aug 31st, 2022

Online ordering has resumed for free COVID-19 home tests for blind and low-vision users.

Officials ask those who order the Ellume COVID home tests only make the request if they do not have a way to use the other types of tests, such as assistive technology or a trusted family member or friend who can assist.

The tests will be available until supplies run out and can be ordered through a dedicated webpage or by calling 1-800-232-0233.

If you are able to use the other COVID-19 at-home tests and have not placed a third order, you can order online through the main ordering page or by calling 1-800-232-0233. This program will be suspended on Sept. 2.

 

Omicron-Specific Covid Booster Shots Are Just Weeks Away. Here’s Who Will—and Won’t—Be Eligible

CNBC / By Annika Kim Constantino

Newly updated Covid booster shots designed to target omicron’s BA.5 subvariant should be available within in the next three weeks. That begs an important question: Who’s going to be eligible to get them?

The short answer: anyone ages 12 and up who has completed a primary vaccination series, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson tells CNBC Make It. It’s unlikely to matter whether you’ve received any other booster doses or not before, the spokesperson says — but if you’re unvaccinated, you won’t be eligible for the updated formula until you complete a primary series with the existing Covid vaccines.

The longer answer is somewhat more complex, because it depends on which booster shots get approved and when.

Pfizer’s “bivalent” shot, which targets both the original Covid strain and omicron’s BA.5 subvariant, is expected to be authorized first. The CDC says it’ll likely come with a wide eligibility swath: the full group of vaccinated Americans ages 12 and up.

Moderna’s bivalent shot is expected to follow suit later, most likely in October. It’ll come with a somewhat narrower range of eligibility, at least at first: vaccinated people ages 18 and older. For both shots, younger pediatric age groups could become eligible later, the CDC says.

Those projections are tentative, at least for now. A person familiar with the matter told NBC News on Wednesday that it’ll hinge on how much supply Pfizer and Moderna are able to manufacture and roll out by next month. If that supply is limited, the shots could first be available to those most at risk, such as the elderly and immunocompromised.

Federal health officials believe the shots will provide the best level of protection against the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant to date, especially in the fall and winter when a large wave of Covid infections is projected to hit the U.S.

“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shot. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid response coordinator, said at a virtual event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation on Tuesday.

Read Full Article

 

Fighting Current and Future Coronaviruses with a Single Vaccine

National Institutes of Health / By Sharon Reynolds

Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have greatly reduced the risk of severe disease and death. However, SARS-CoV-2 continues to mutate in unpredictable ways that can reduce the effectiveness of the current vaccines. The risk of a new coronavirus spilling over from animals to people also remains a serious concern.

Researchers are trying to produce a vaccine that would protect people from both future SARS-CoV-2 variants and related coronaviruses that might pose a threat. To this end, an NIH-funded team led by Dr. Pamela Bjorkman from the California Institute of Technology created a nanoparticle-based vaccine that prompts B cells, which produce antibodies, to recognize parts of coronaviruses that mutate less often.

Current COVID-19 vaccines target parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that quickly mutate. Like those, the nanoparticles in the investigational vaccine display a part of the coronavirus spike protein called the receptor binding domain (RBD), which coronaviruses use to enter human cells.

However, the team combined RBDs from eight different coronaviruses for their vaccine. Each nanoparticle included 60 RBDs, so that any two adjacent RBDs were rarely from the same coronavirus. B cell receptors bind strongly to identical targets that are near each other. So, this design encouraged B cells to target areas that were similar across the RBDs—ones that tend to mutate more slowly.

The researchers tested the new vaccine, called mosaic-8, as well as a nanoparticle vaccine made only with RBDs of SARS-CoV-2. Results were published on August 5, 2022, in Science.

The team used mice that were engineered to make the human ACE2 protein—the target of the SARS-CoV-2 spike. Following vaccination with mosaic-8, the mice produced antibodies that recognized a range of coronaviruses. As expected, the antibodies recognized parts of the RBDs that remained similar between coronaviruses.

When challenged with SARS-CoV-2, mice that received either of the nanoparticle vaccines were protected against symptoms of severe COVID-19. However, only the mosaic-8 vaccine also protected mice against a related virus, SARS-CoV, which caused the SARS outbreak of 2003. This protection occurred even though SARS-CoV wasn’t part of the mosaic-8 nanoparticle.

Similar results were seen in non-human primates. Monkeys that received either the mosaic-8 nanoparticle or the SARS-CoV-2 nanoparticle were protected against severe COVID-19. But those that received the mosaic-8 vaccine were also protected against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant and SARS-CoV, neither of which were included in the vaccine.

“We can't predict which virus or viruses among the vast numbers in animals will evolve in the future to infect humans to cause another epidemic or pandemic,” Bjorkman says. “What we're trying to do is make an all-in-one vaccine protective against SARS-like [coronaviruses]. This sort of vaccine would also protect against current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants without the need for updating.”

The researchers are now preparing to test mosaic-8 in a human clinical trial.

 

Apply for APTACO's Young Leadership Scholar Program

We Want to Invest in YOU!

Deadline to Apply: Saturday, September 10, 2022

APTA Colorado is excited to continue the Young Leadership Scholar Program, intended to recruit and develop leadership within our newest members. The program will entail structured learning in the areas of leadership, professional development, strategic planning, project development, and APTA structure/governance. 

Who: Current APTA Colorado Members who are recent graduates from a PT or PTA program and currently licensed in Colorado. (Graduated within last year.) Up to one (1) PT and one (1) PTA will be selected for this program.

What: The PT and PTA Scholars will be provided with an APTA Board member mentor with whom they will work closely throughout the course of their one-year program. Training described above will also be provided. The Scholar will complete a capstone project to benefit APTA Colorado in the area of their choice.  A stipend (up to $1,500.00) is included with the scholar program to cover any of the following: APTA dues, travel to a National APTA event, and APTA Colorado Conference attendance. Attendance at the APTA Colorado annual conference as well as quarterly Board meetings will also be expected. Structure beyond these requirements will be delineated in partnership with the mentor and program facilitator. 

For more information & to apply, click here

 

APTA's 2022 Emerging Leader Award

APTA Colorado member, Dr. Cynthia Rauert, has been selected as a 2022 recipient of the APTA Emerging Leader Award!

The Emerging Leader Award was established to annually honor individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary service to the profession and APTA early in their careers. Here’s an excerpt of what APTA Colorado leadership had to say about Dr. Rauert's abilities and accomplishments: 

“Dr. Rauert serves APTA Colorado as the board Secretary and a first time Delegate for the Mile-High District. Dr. Rauert has also become an outstanding mentor to our first cohort of Colorado Early Professional Leadership Scholars. Within these roles she advocates for students, early career professionals, physical therapist assistants in Colorado and nationally. Her unique perspectives from her broad clinical practice and career background are instrumental in supporting APTA Colorado initiatives. Dr. Rauert has demonstrated her leadership skills for many years within the APTA in additional roles such as on the Communications & Public Relations Committee, as a Federal Advocacy Key Contact, within the APTA Colorado PAC, Mile High District Chair, Governmental Affairs Committee Member, Sunset Committee member, and many more.” 

Dr. Rauert is one of 32 members of APTA to merit this honor and will be recognized in the November issue of APTA Magazine. Congratulations, Dr. Rauert & thank you for all that you do! 

 
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