COVID

Selene San Felice
Dec 13, 2022 - News

Flu cases on the rise around Tampa Bay

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

The country's worst influenza outbreak in more than a decade has left nearly every state with high or very high levels of flu activity, including Florida.

Why it matters: This year's caseload underscores how the return to pre-pandemic life has left us "immunologically naïve" and more vulnerable to seasonal respiratory diseases, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim reports.

Selene San Felice
Oct 28, 2022 - COVID

Push to get new COVID booster comes as Florida braces for flu season

Illustration of the first two boxes have a checkmark made of a syringe, and the third box has a large X in the middle.

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

President Biden just got the updated COVID-19 booster shot, and urged Americans to do the same. But Tampa Bay isn't buying it.

What he's saying: "Now is the time to do it — by Halloween, if you can," Biden said Tuesday. "That's the best time. And that way you can be protected for the holidays."

Selene San Felice
Oct 21, 2022 - COVID

Thousands of Floridians are affected by long COVID

Data: CDC Household Pulse Survey. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

Nearly a third of Americans who know they've had COVID say they've also experienced the often disabling aftereffects known as long COVID, according to recent CDC data.

Driving the news: The rate of those reporting long COVID symptoms was highest in West Virginia (49%), compared with the state with the lowest rate of people reporting long COVID: Vermont (22%), Axios' Tina Reed writes.

Ben Montgomery
Mar 29, 2022 - COVID

Florida politics prove deadly when it comes to COVID

Data: Axios analysis of CDC data; Chart: Will Chase/Axios
Data: Axios analysis of CDC data; Chart: Will Chase/Axios

COVID is killing more people per 100,000 in red states than in blue states, Axios' Will Chase and Caitlin Owens report.

Why it matters: "The COVID-19 pandemic removed any doubt that state policies can affect health outcomes," Virginia Commonwealth University professor Steven Woolf recently argued in JAMA.

Florida surgeon general advises against kids' COVID vaccine

Dr Joseph Ladapo with his name on the screen underneath him

Screenshot: Governor Ron DeSantis/YouTube

Florida is about to be the first state to recommend healthy children ages 5-17 not get vaccinated against COVID-19.

What's happening: Florida surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo made the announcement at the end of a roundtable — titled "The Curtain Close on COVID Theater" — hosted Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Ben Montgomery
Jan 13, 2022 - COVID

COVID still worries Americans

Data: University of South Florida; Chart: Baidi Wang/Axios

😬 We're worried about Omicron.

Driving the news: Per a new public opinion survey from the University of South Florida, nearly 75% of Americans are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about emerging variants.

Ben Montgomery
Jan 13, 2022 - COVID

Florida's stockpiled COVID tests can be used

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried speaks in Nov.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried speaks in Nov. Photo: Lynne Sladky/AP

The FDA extended the expiration date on one million COVID-19 test kits that have become a political football in recent weeks, per the Times/Herald.

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