People with long COVID continue to experience medical gaslighting
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(Simran Purewal/ The Conversation) — It’s increasingly clear that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is not going away any time soon. And for some patients, their symptoms haven’t gone away either.

In January 2023, our team of researchers at the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society published  …

How COVID lockdowns messed with our brains, increasing anxiety and depression
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(Sharon Kirkey/ National Post) — Israeli neuroscientist Alon Chen can change the mood, the “mental state” of an animal. “We can make a mouse more or less anxious, more or less depressed-like, by changing the activity of specific brain areas or nerve cells,” says Chen, president of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

COVID  …

New VA study finds Paxlovid may cut the risk of long COVID
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(Pien Huang/ NPR) — It’s well-documented that Paxlovid — a 5-day course of antiviral pills from Pfizer — can reduce the risk of hospitalization in COVID-19 patients who are more likely to develop severe illness.

Now, researchers from the Veterans Health Administration find that taking the medication may also reduce  …

With cases rising, how effective is the updated booster against Covid?
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(Katie McCallum/ Houston Medicine) — As we’ve learned over the last year, COVID-19 variants are to be expected.

Thankfully, the mRNA technology powering our COVID-19 vaccines provides us with a way to respond when variants not only arise but predominate, as is the case with the highly infectious omicron variant.  …

What you need to know about the bivalent booster shots
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(Annia Bessonov/ CBC News) — Appointments to get the new bivalent booster shots have opened up across provinces in Canada for all adults.

The vaccine was initially available for provinces’ more vulnerable populations at the beginning of September, but has since been made available to everyone over the age of 18.  …

Blood clot risk remained nearly a year after COVID-19 infection, study finds
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(Solarina Ho/ CTV News) — The risk of developing a blood clot remained elevated almost a year after a COVID-19 infection, according to a new U.K. study that looked at the health records of 48 million unvaccinated adults, covering almost the entire adult English and Welsh populations, from the first year of the pandemic.  …

Long COVID patients show signs of autoimmune disease a year after infection
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(European Lung Foundation/ Medical Xpress) — Blood samples drawn from patients with long COVID who are still suffering from fatigue and shortness of breath after a year show signs of autoimmune disease in those patients, according to a study published today in the European Respiratory Journal.

Autoimmune disease occurs  …

Long COVID risk falls only slightly after vaccination
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(Sarah Reardon/ Scientific American) — Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 lowers the risk of long COVID after infection by only about 15%, according to a study of more than 13 million people1. That’s the largest cohort that has yet been used to examine how much vaccines protect against the condition, but it is unlikely to end  …

Quebec opening 15 long-COVID and Lyme disease clinics
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(The Montreal Gazette) — Quebec will open 15 clinics specialized in long-COVID and Lyme disease across the province, health minister Christian Dubé announced on Thursday.

The network, to be coordinated by the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), is to include five referral centres and 10 satellite  …

Antihistamines to treat long COVID: What you need to know
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(Nicoleta Lanesi/ Live Science) — Over-the-counter antihistamines, typically taken for allergies, may help relieve the debilitating symptoms of long COVID in some people, a new case report suggests.

The report, published Feb. 7 in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, included two middle-age women with long  …

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