Month: August 2021

The family of a Florida man who died of COVID-19 last month is turning his funeral into a pandemic vaccine and testing event to raise awareness of the deadly virus. Marquis Davis, 28, died July 26 without fulfilling his last wish of getting a vaccine, according to a report. The business owner and father tested positive for COVID in late July and while he began to quarantine at home, he grew progressively worse, his wife told ABC News. “He was losing his breath just by getting up. I was like, this is not normal, you need extra help,” said Charnese Davis, who took her husband to a local hospital where he was put on a ventilator. Although he had been hesitant about the COVID vaccine, he told his wife that after he recuperated, he planned to get vaccinated...

Note: This column was previously published in 2016 Dear Annie: My grandfather had severe Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, it lasted for a while. He was fine before he hit 75. Occasionally, he would forget things, but it was not a big deal. As he aged, his memory got worse and his ability to forget things increased. By 80, he was bad. He didn’t know who some of his kids were and talking to him was painful at best. By 85, he was completely gone. He sang songs like a child. He knew nothing about his own life or his family. Mercifully, he died at 85. His daughter, my mom, is now 65, and I’m worried she is showing signs of the disease. Though my mom knows the name of the utensil you “stab food with” (how my grandfather described a fork at one point), she forgets things. She repeats he...

A new coronavirus mutation known as the lambda variant that is thought to have increased resistance to vaccines has appeared in the United States. Also known as C.37, the lambda variant was first discovered in Peru in November 2020. Peru has been one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, with 595 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people, the highest in the world. Peru has relied heavily on the Chinese vaccine known as Sinopharm, which is 79% effective at preventing hospitalizations. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 94% effective against hospitalization. The lambda variant has since spread to eight countries in South America and 41 countries around the world, according to global science initiative GISAID. “There are currently more than 1,300 Lambda (C.37) sequences in the U.S. as of A...

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Even people who have recovered from COVID-19 are urged to get vaccinated to avoid reinfection, especially amid the threat of the extra-contagious delta variant — and there's growing evidence the shots offer those survivors bonus protection against mutants. (Gerald Herbert, Associated Press) WASHINGTON — Even people who have recovered from COVID-19 are urged to get vaccinated, especially as the extra-contagious delta variant surges — and a new study shows survivors who ignored that advice were more than twice as likely to get reinfected. Friday's report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adds to growing laboratory evidence that people who had one bout of COVID-19 get a dramatic boost in virus-fighting immune cell...