COVID-19 weekly news: March 9 – 15

Community-based care key to COVID-19 rapid response in underserved communities

U.S. public health officials report that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities that have been medically underserved, leading to higher infection and mortality rates. A Mayo Clinic study recently published in the American Journal of Public Health says easy access to rapid testing is needed to combat disparities, and a community-driven and culturally tailored strategy is key for success.

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Updating your medicine cabinet during COVID-19

"Having a plan for what you would do if you or your family gets infected is incredibly important. And that's having a plan for how would you get food? Do you have medications on hand? Do you have the ability to take care of yourself with the things that you need?"

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Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast: So much learned in 1 year of COVID-19

"When you look at nine months from when we first identified this pathogen to having a vaccine, that's as close to a human miracle, if I could use that term, as as one could expect," says Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group.

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Reducing infection from asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers?

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Ten days after receiving a second dose of a messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccine for COVID-19, patients without COVID-19 symptoms are far less likely to test positive and unknowingly spread COVID-19, compared to patients who have not been vaccinated for COVID-19. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna messenger RNA vaccines for COVID-19 are authorized for emergency use in the U.S.

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Mayo Clinic’s Coronavirus Map now features forecasting on emerging COVID-19 hot spots

ROCHESTER, Minn. ― Mayo Clinic’s Coronavirus Map tracking tool, which has county-by-county information on COVID-19 cases and trends nationwide, now offers predictive modeling that forecasts where hot spots will emerge over the next 14 days.

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What does the CDC’s new guidance for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 mean?

"This is limited to fully vaccinated individuals. That means in the U.S. that you'd be 14 or more days after receipt of the second dose of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna), or 14 or more days after the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine," says Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group.

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Mayo Clinic Minute: When to seek emergency care

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the number of people seeking emergency care declined.  A year later, emergency medicine physicians worry there are still some people who remain hesitant to go to the emergency department.

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Samantha Rossi

Samantha Rossi is a Digital Marketing Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. She supports marketing strategies for product management and specialty testing. Samantha has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2019.