COVID-19 weekly news: September 20-24

COVID Queries: Delta breakthrough infections

"There isn't a vaccine that is 100% effective at preventing illness," says Martin Herrmann, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic Health System in Waseca and New Prague. "Breakthrough cases of COVID-19 are going to happen, but the percentage is small. Also, the disease in vaccinated people tends to be much less severe than the diseases in unvaccinated people."

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COVID-19 Media Only News Briefing: Pfizer low-dose vaccine for kids

On Monday, Sept. 20, Mayo Clinic Children’s Center pediatrician, Dr. Robert Jacobson, and Leah Espinda-Brandt, disease prevention and control public health nurse manager with Olmsted County Public Health, answered questions related to the recent news that Pfizer’s lower-dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective in children ages 5 to 12.

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Heart rhythm disorders: Mayo Clinic Healthcare expert shares 5 things it’s important to know

LONDON — Heart rhythm disorders are one of the most common cardiac problems. Arrhythmias cause the heart to beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. People can be born with them or develop them during their lives. Elijah Behr, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London, shares five developments in the prevention, detection and treatment of arrhythmias.

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Mayo Clinic leads biorepository core for new nationwide research on long-term symptoms of COVID-19

Mayo Clinic research is dedicated to finding solutions for patients who were infected with COVID-19 and the many affected by the long-term symptoms of COVID-19 ― what the National Institutes of Health (NIH) refers to as "long COVID" or post-acute sequelae.

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Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast: FDA panel makes recommendations on COVID-19 booster shots

On Friday, Sept. 17, the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) advisory panel rejected a proposal to give Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine boosters to the general public. But the panel recommend boosters for people aged 65 and older — and for other high-risk groups — six months after the initial vaccination series. That includes health care workers. The recommendation will go before the FDA for final approval.

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Mayo Clinic will begin offering booster vaccines

Even though the Center for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met on Thursday, Sept. 23, and did not endorse the booster vaccinations for the occupational exposure groups, including health care workers, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., overruled this vote and recommended this group to be eligible for COVID-19 booster shots. 

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Chantell Canfield

Chantell Canfield is a web content coordinator for Mayo Clinic Laboratories. She began working for Mayo Clinic in 2021.