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Morning Rush @9 – Newsy.com
How an infectious disease doctor, father of the bride planned a wedding during Omicron rise – Yahoo News
In a tuxedo with the microphone in hand, in a ballroom filled with over 400 family and friends, I spoke. “Planning a wedding is hard enough, but planning a wedding during a pandemic has been the greatest professional and personal challenge of my life.” I am an infectious disease doctor, an epidemiologist, and dubbed by the city mayor as the “Dr. Fauci of Memphis,” My oldest daughter’s wedding, twice canceled, was set for Jan. 29, 2022. And, as luck would have it, after last Thanksgiving, the Omicron tsunami struck. Over the Christmas holidays I tried to postpone the wedding again. In a tearful conversation with my daughter, a lawyer, and son-in-law, an aerospace engineer, my daughter made it clear. “Dad, if we don’t have the wedding now, we will never have it.” The future of large personal events such as weddings, bar mitzvah, and anniversary parties rests on shaky ground with new variants, waning immunity and low booster vaccinations. How can we plan with such uncertainty in the...
Memphis Doctors Prepare For New COVID Subvariant – FOX 13
SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — COVID cases are continuing to decline in Shelby County, but don’t let your guard down just yet. A new subvariant of omicron, called BA.2, is starting to spread around the U.S., and experts fear this could cause a spike in cases. “We may never know what may happen. So, we have to be very vigilant,” Dr. Manoj Jain, an infectious disease specialist who is also head of the Shelby County Covid Task Force, said. Dr. Jain is studying the impacts of BA.2, which was detected in Europe, and is now starting to spread in parts of the U.S. “I think we likely will see some rise in cases. However, if people are vaccinated and boosted, there’s a very good chance that they will be highly protected,” he said. The new variant is even more transmissible than the original omicron strain. Dr. Jain said, so far, Shelby County has reported two cases of BA.2., but he said the county hasn’t seen a significant rise in cases as a result. “What’s really important to keep in mind is...
Omicron variant has reached America. How to protect yourself and what to expect | Q&A with Dr. Manoj Jain – Commercial appeal
The omicron variant discovery has brought concern to people across the globe. Dr. Manoj Jain gives further details about how to protect yourself. https://www.tennessean.com/videos/opinion/columnists/david-plazas/2020/11/18/tennessee-voices-conversation-dr-manoj-jain/6229123002/ Q: How worried should we be about the omicron variant? A: I have a healthy respect for this variant named omicron. I evaluate each variant based on three criteria: transmissibility, severity and evasiveness. Let me explain. Transmissibility means how many other people one person can infect. With the original COVID-19 strain it was about two and a half people, with the delta COVID-19 strain it was likely five other persons and we believe that with the omicron one person may be able to infect six to 12 people. This is nearly as infectious as measles, which is one of the most infectious diseases known to us. Severity means what is the level of illness and death a virus causes. We know that with the original...
Tennessee has become ground zero for COVID-19 cases. Vaccine mandates will prevent further devastation | Opinion – Commercial appeal
If we do not act now, the worst may be yet to come in the pandemic. The COVID-19 vaccine mandate is the right step for Tennessee and the nation. It’s 9/11 and I am standing on ground zero. No, not ground zero of 9/11/2001 but 9/11/2021. No, not in New York City, but in the heart of the country in my state of Tennessee which is now the ground zero of the Coronavirus pandemic. My hospital’s respiratory intensive care units are all overwhelmed with Covid patients. A teenage son stands outside the ICU room glass door of his 40ish year old mother and watches as his mother, unvaccinated, take her last breaths through a ventilator pumping 100% oxygen. A man in his 50s, unvaccinated, lies prone in bed because the ventilator cannot push any more pressured oxygen into his lungs. They are stiff and infiltrated with COVID-19 infection. A week before his father, unvaccinated, died in the ICU bed next to him and his mother, unvaccinated, died a few days before his father. And across the hall, an...
Mississippi health leaders recommend COVID-19 booster shots for high-risk groups – Fox13Memphis
JACKSON, Miss. — The new Delta variant is causing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to spike in Mississippi. This variant is particularly dangerous for people who are immunocompromised even if they are fully vaccinated. On Friday, the Mississippi Department of Health asked for people labeled as high risk to get a booster shot. Dr. Manoj Jain said people with weak immune systems are more likely to experience severe illness or death, so it’s important to get the extra dose. “There is so much infection, so much variant, the delta variant in the region that there is no question we are going to be exposed to the virus,” said Dr. Jain, an infectious disease specialist who works at Baptist East and Desoto Hospitals. He is also a member of the COVID-19 task force. He said data shows only one in three people are vaccinated in Mississippi, which is a huge problem. “Several have died today on our service and it’s been really sad because they are really young. Those in their 40s and 50s,...
COVID-19 vaccine disparity between Mississippi and Massachusetts useful example for Tennesseans | Opinion – Commercial appeal
One in three persons in Mississippi are fully vaccinated compared to two in three in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts the virus can barely find susceptible people to infect while in Mississippi the virus has a free-for-all. For 25 years I lived in Massachusetts. Then for 25 years, I worked in a hospital in Mississippi. I know the highways which traverse the states: Interstate 90 or Mass Pike, and Interstate 55. I know the people: Boston Brahmins and factory workers and the Southern Belles and rural laborers. I know the health workers, the patients and their families in both states, as my own. Yet, what is about to happen in the next few months will be a tale of two states to be reflected upon. The tale will reveal how divided we are in our United States and the impact on human life. This undressing will be done by the Delta variant of the SARS CoV-2 Virus. Pre-COVID-19 and now, Mississippi and Massachusetts are demographically on two poles of the spectrum of one nation. The former has...
New study could rule out COVID booster shots
New medical study says COVID-19 vaccine could protect against the virus for years in some people. MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A new report suggests the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines could provide years of protection from the virus. A Memphis infectious disease doctor says this could eliminate the need for boosters for people who are vaxxed. From tests to vaccinations, COVID developments have happened at a rapid pace, leaving questions in the minds of many when it comes their safety and accuracy, but scientists say the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, also known scientifically as mRNS's, are showing great promise in their performance. A medical journal called Nature out of the U.K. published the report, which suggest inoculation from those vaccines could last for years if not a lifetime in some people, especially if they were infected, recovered and later vaccinated. The doctor from Washington University who lead the study says the results demonstrated the durability of the both the Pfizer...
SCHD reports encouraging 7-day average COVID-19 case counts, but stresses that the pandemic is not over – LOCAL abc24
“Overall, that low case count is the fact that we have vaccinated a lot of people from the alpha variant," said infectious disease expert Dr. Manoj Jain. MEMPHIS, Tenn — Local 24 is keeping you informed with the latest information surrounding COVID-19 and new developments getting attention this week is very encouraging. However, it's also a good reason to not let our guards down. The Shelby County Health Department reported Thursday’s 7-day average for new cases is the lowest since the pandemic began, dropping from 40 to just 23 per day. In fact, we've now gone 100 straight days with fewer than 100 people testing positive. Vaccinations per day though, just okay at about 1,100 shots per day. That's where the concern comes in. The new delta variant is starting to take hold here and because it's 60% more contagious than other strains, it has the potential to spread very fast. “Overall, that low case count is the fact that we have vaccinated a lot of people from the...
The Delta variant has made it way to Shelby County. What should we know? | Q&A with Dr. Manoj Jain – Commercial Appeal
Question: Living in the mid-south, should we be concerned about the delta variants? Answer: Absolutely yes. Though to most people, it may seem that the pandemic is over and that we are done with the virus, this is not the case. The virus is not done with us. There is still a great deal of background viral activity going on globally and nationally that can impact us, specifically with the delta variant strain. The delta strain was originally seen in India, and is highly transmissible. For example, before if one person in the family became infected, then maybe one in three others would become infected. With the delta variant, if one person in the family is infected, then almost always the entire family becomes infected and a large number of their contacts. Does the delta variant cause worse illness? At present we do not have complete data on this, but there are anecdotal reports that patients who become ill with delta variant have longer durations of fever. ...
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