Even if omicron is milder, “it seems to be still doing quite a bit of damage in unvaccinated people,” said University of Texas Medical Branch virologist Vineet Menachery. “The good news is that there does seem to be a trend that this virus is less severe than previous waves, especially if you're vaccinated.” For those who got their shots, "the threat of severe disease is probably off the table for most people,” he said. “On the other hand, for people who are not vaccinated, I think the threat is just as big as it was in March of 2020.” International news outlets ran the Voice of America story, including the Zimbabwe Star. Several U.S. outlets also ran this story.

Getting infected with flu and COVID at the same time is rare, but it is starting to happen. “The symptoms are similar,” said Dr. Janak Patel, director of the Department of Infection Control & Healthcare Epidemiology at UTMB. The medical branch is seeing a 30 to 40% positivity rate for COVID. However, the flu is only around 4%. Still, within the last week, UTMB has seen three cases of “flurona,” including one in a child. Patel said all patients are doing well, provided they got a quick and accurate diagnosis. “I don't think we should be scared,” he said. “We know how to take care of both of these illnesses.” In other reports, Fox News and Salon referenced Dr. Patel’s comments from the ABC affiliate report.

It means you have COVID, said Dr. Megan Berman, an associate professor of internal medicine at The University of Texas Medical Branch. False negatives can occur for a variety of reasons, such as being tested too soon after exposure. The virus may simply not be detectable yet in the body, or the sample may not be sufficient, she said.

Your baby will come when she is good and ready, not because of anything you do at home to jumpstart the delivery process, said Dr. Shannon Clark, a professor of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Clark debunked seven common myths. “Most of the old wives’ tales about things you can do to start labor won't hurt, but they won't help either,” she said.

In the latest Vaccine Smarts column, Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp share a cautionary tale of a rare, but avoidable, injury caused by a vaccine. “People should make sure that prior to receiving vaccines, the administering health professional is fully informed of their health conditions and medications,” the column stated.

In the latest Medical Discovery News Column, Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel deliver good news. Researchers in Spain and at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have shown that the consumption of chocolate in the morning or evening leads to a number of changes in the body that can impact burning fat and reducing glucose levels in postmenopausal women.

China put up barriers to studying the origins of COVID-19, leading to a conflict that means less scientific collaboration and more mistrust among global powers that must work together to head off the next disaster. Dr. James Le Duc, retired director of the Galveston National Laboratory, a top U.S. biocontainment facility, urged the director of the Wuhan lab in an email at the beginning of the pandemic to investigate whether the new virus could have resulted from a lab accident. Now, Le Duc doesn’t communicate with colleagues in China on work matters, he said. “Science is shared,” he said. “When you interfere with those collaborations it hurts everybody and is just very sad.”