COVID

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.

• Flu cases have now started dipping statewide but are still increasing around Tampa Bay, according to Florida Department of Health data.

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.

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."

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.

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 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.

Florida is doing slightly better than most other Southern states when it comes to vaccinating young kids against COVID-19.

😬 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.

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.