The Top 5 COVID-19 Stories This Week

Deborah Fuller, PhD, provides commentary around the data, and advantages of the technology.

In a target trial emulation using N3C data, adults prescribed metformin within six days of SARS-CoV-2 infection had about half the risk of long COVID or death within six months.

Approximately half of Long COVID patients were found to have meaningful symptom improvement within 3 years after acute infection and more than a quarter had completely remitted, in a large prospective cohort study.

Alejandra Gurtman, MD, discussed the phase 2 data at IDWeek 2026 which showed the investigational 25-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 25vPnC produced serotype 3 antibody levels about 15-fold higher than Prevnar 20 after the booster dose, targeting a serotype still behind 10.6% of invasive pneumococcal disease in US children younger than five years.

Confirmed US measles cases rose 6.8% this week to 5,182, more than double the 2025 total, as three states reported measles-associated deaths.

A Yakima County resident exposed to infected dairy cattle has died of avian influenza. A third human case has also been confirmed as H5N1 spreads to 33 herds in the county.

Voceryq earned FDA accelerated approval for adults with RRP after 7 of 26 patients (27%) needed no surgery for 12 months in RRP-001; a confirmatory trial is required.

The latest CDC numbers show a 5.8% increase in measles cases from week-to-week, bringing the 2026 US total to more than double the amount seen in all of 2025 with 2 months left in the year.