Expert answers top 3 trending COVID questions in Dallas-Ft. Worth
As news of the FDA's approval of the newest COVID booster broke this afternoon and new cases continue to climb, it's not surprising that many of you are searching for COVID-related questions online.
CBS News Texas' Brooke Rogers sat down with an expert to answer your top 3 trending COVID questions in Dallas-Ft. Worth.
The number one question you wanted to know about COVID over the past week:
- When will the new COVID vaccine be available?
We asked Parkland Health's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joseph Chang.
"What we're hearing here is, really within the next few weeks, it should be rolling out all the way across the United States," Chang said. "We're not sure exactly where we fall in the pecking order, but we expect certainly that we'll get something within the next two to three weeks here."
Is it going to be people 65 and over first or what does the rollout going to look like?
"I think, fortunately, I think we're going to get enough stock right up front there really anyone who wants it can come get it," Chang said. "So that's good, right? Because you will recall the first days of the vaccine, it was heavily tiered. And so there were a lot of people who were chomping at the bit trying to get a vaccine would sort of have to wait in line. But, fortunately, this time, I think we will have enough to meet demand certainly here in North Texas."
2. What are the current COVID symptoms?
"Well, they're actually very similar to Covid symptoms in 2020, except the onset times are a little bit shorter now than they used to be," said Chang. "Severity is a little bit different. Really your main symptoms are still the same. So we're mainly talking about upper respiratory symptoms. So we're talking about cough, we're talking about sore throat, difficulty breathing, same things as we were looking at before, not to say of course, we can't have nausea, vomiting and, and sort of gastrointestinal symptoms as well. But really, we're still looking for those breathing sorts of symptoms.
3. How is the new strain of COVID different?
"All of these strains now, really, in the last six months or so, are all cousins. I call them cousins. Call them whatever family member you will, but they're all sort of cousins of Omicron. So they're all part of the Omicron family, which means that they've mutated slightly from the Omicron variant," Chang said. "So they're all very similar to Omicron. Now, the good thing for us is that it is less severe than even Omicron was. The bad part is it's actually a little more infectious than Omicron was. So, again, that's why we're seeing numbers going up quickly, but severe cases not going up nearly as quickly as just overall cases."