Health Info, In the News

COVID-19 UPDATE FROM DR. JONES – 1/25/2022

Dear Patient:

I hope you are well. Here is some new information regarding COVID that you may find useful. The number of new cases has been falling rapidly and Omicron is the dominant variant.


Vaccines

A booster is recommended by the CDC for all patients over age 12 in whom it has been 5 months since the last COVID vaccine.  It is recommended that you boost ONLY with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

A vaccine is now recommended for all children over age 5. COVID is usually mild in young children, but the rationale is that an immunized child will help to protect older family members.

Exposure

If you are fully vaccinated and are exposed to someone with COVID, you do not need to quarantine according to the CDC, but, you should get tested in 3-5 days to see if you are positive. If you are symptomatic within that time frame, it is recommended that you be tested.


Medications

On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reissued the emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab-etesevimab (administered together) and Regeneron’s REGEN-COV (casirivimab and imdevimab) monoclonal antibody treatments, which states these treatments are not authorized for use in any U.S. state, territory, or jurisdiction at this time. The full FDA press release can be found here.

The above means that the monoclonal antibodies are no longer available for treatment as they are largely not effective against the Omicron variant of COVID. Remdesivir, Paxlovid, Molnupiravir and Sotrivimab are still all available for outpatient treatment. Fortunately, the Omicron variant tends to give mild disease in vaccinated patients and most people who are affected will need only symptomatic treatment.

Updated NCH COVID information page: https://nchmd.org/news-and-events/newsroom/coronavirus

Sincerely,

Paul Jones MD