People in the US with high blood pressure saw their levels rise during the first eight months of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new study says.
When someone has high blood pressure, the force of their blood pushes against the walls of their blood vessels, making their heart less efficient. Both vessels and heart must work harder. Without treatment, high blood pressure will eventually damage the arteries, raising the person’s risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the world, and well-controlled blood pressure is the leading modifiable risk factor, according to the researchers on the new study, published Tuesday in the journal Hypertension.
The US National Institutes of Health, which helped fund the study, said it is one of the most extensive looks at blood pressure trends from the beginning of the pandemic.
The researchers looked at the records of more than 137,000 adults with high blood pressure and compared their levels from August 2018 to January 2020 with their levels from April 2020 through January 2021. The records came from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City and Ochsner Health in New Orleans. The participants, on average, were 66 years old. More than half were women, and 30% were Black.
Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (abbreviated as mmHg). The measurement has an upper number, or systolic reading, and a lower number, a diastolic reading.
Systolic pressure measures the force of blood as it pumps out of the heart into the arteries, and diastolic is the pressure created as the heart rests between beats. High blood pressure is defined as a systolic pressure over 140mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure over 90 mmHg.
In the study, the patients’ systolic readings rose 1.79 mmHg, on average, and their diastolic readings went up an average of 1.30 mmHg.
“Although these increases appear small, studies show that just a 2 mmHg increase in blood pressure can raise the risk of major cardiovascular events by as much as 5%,” the NIH said in a news release.
The overall rise in numbers was “smaller than expected,” said study author Dr. Hiroshi Gotanda, an assistant professor in the division of General Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Gotanda thinks the expansion of telemedicine during the pandemic may have helped. Other studies have found that telemedicine is an effective alternative to an in-person doctor visit to manage high blood pressure.
Because high blood pressure doesn’t always cause symptoms, people who have it are encouraged to monitor their numbers at home. If they have a doctor’s appointment, they may be more mindful about keeping track so they have something to report. And during an appointment, doctors can change their prescription if their blood pressure is consistently high.
In the first three months of the pandemic, the study found, people weren’t checking their blood pressure at home as much as they had been. Measurements declined as much as 90% from before the pandemic. The number of checks went up over time, but even at the end of the study period, the measurements were still below pre-pandemic levels.
The study had some limitations, including that it measured only people who were able to access health care. Those without health care or insurance may have had a different result.
“The impact of the pandemic on their blood pressure might have been much larger,” Gotanda said.
The study doesn’t suggest why blood pressure levels went up, and it’s hard to tell on an individual basis, Gotanda said. But it may involve pandemic-related changes in routines.
Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, the American Heart Association’s chief medical officer for prevention, offered some other reasons: “Clinical care visits declined dramatically in the early months of the pandemic – delayed care seeking by patients and reduced access by some clinical care providers. Patient behavior was driven by their interpretation of COVID prevention messages and fear of COVID. Early on, job loss may have contributed to less care and not filling prescriptions. Visits have been increasing and blood pressure control is increasing but lagging.”
Additionally, studies show that people have gotten less sleep – and less quality sleep – during the pandemic. With gyms closed and people staying home more, they exercised less, had less-healthy diets and drank more alcohol.
Gotanda said the researchers hope to look next at what impact even this slight blood pressure increase will have on a patient’s overall heath. They also want to know which of the patients may have had a hard time accessing telemedicine.
Telemedicine could have a broad impact. Nearly half of adults in the United States have high blood pressure, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and about half of those have what doctors consider uncontrolled high blood pressure. That’s about 37 million adults – and with the ongoing obesity epidemic, the number will probably grow.
High blood pressure can be genetic, but there are things you can do to keep it in check. Keeping a close eye on your numbers is the first step, the American Heart Association recommends. People who know their numbers can make changes if they need.
Medication can treat high blood pressure, and lifestyle changes could help, like stopping smoking or vaping, managing stress, keeping a healthy weight and eating a heart-healthy diet.
A heart-healthy diet is high in vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy, and low in salt, saturated fat, red meat and sweets. It’s also one that keeps alcohol to a minimum. The American Heart Association suggests no more than two drinks per day for men, one for women.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams debate each other in Atlanta on Sunday.
Ben Gray/AP
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams faced off in their second and final gubernatorial debate Sunday night, with a little more than a week to go before Election Day amid record high early voting.
They sparred over the state’s economy, abortion rights and, in a sign of the race’s national implications, whose party should be blamed for the country’s woes.
Kemp has led in most polling of the race, but Abrams – who came within a few thousand votes of pushing their 2018 race to a run-off – has a strong base of support and has succeeded in helping to mobilize Democrats in her campaigns and those of other high-ranking Democratic candidates, including President Joe Biden and Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in their 2020 campaigns.
Here are some key takeaways from the second gubernatorial debate in Georgia:
A tale of two economies: Is Georgia booming, as Kemp says, or nearing a calamitous bust, as Abrams argued?
The candidates painted vastly different portraits of the economic situation in the state, with Kemp pointing to higher wages and low unemployment – and blaming any pain on inflation, which he attributed to Democratic policies in Washington – while Abrams singled out a low minimum wage and Kemp’s refusal to accept Medicaid expansion funds under Obamacare as twin albatrosses being worn by Georgia’s working class.
The future of abortion rights remains a potent issue: In some sense, the abortion debate is at a standstill in Georgia. The state has a law on the books, passed three years ago, that bans the procedure after about six weeks. And with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, it’s now in effect.
But Abrams, and the debate moderators, had another question for Kemp: with no federal limits in place, would the Republican, if re-elected, sign further restrictions into law?
Kemp didn’t give a straight, yes or no answer, saying he didn’t want to pre-judge “any specific piece of legislation without actually seeing exactly what it’s doing,” before adding: “It’s not my desire to go back, to go move the needle any further.”
Joe Biden vs. Herschel Walker? They’re not running for governor, but they are top of mind for many in Georgia.
For Democrats, it’s GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker, who has become a symbol of what his critics describe as Republican hypocrisy on issues like abortion, support for law enforcement and business acumen.
On the Republican side, President Joe Biden is the go-to boogeyman for most economic issues, with GOP candidates and their surrogates relentlessly trying to tie Democratic nominees to the President and the soaring inflation that’s occurred during his time in office.
The upcoming God of War Ragnarök, one of the biggest PlayStation games of the year, isn’t supposed to be out until November 9, but over the past 24 hours video and social media sites have been flooded with clips of people playing their way through the entire game.
We wrote a similar story last week, but it was relatively minor by comparison; some people reviewing the game had accidentally shared their screenshots, and while some of them could maybe have suggested certain things that were going to happen, most were just very pretty.
This, though, is the whole game being out there, over a week before release. It’s believed the game leaked when a store in the US, with its stock already in-hand, accidentally started selling copies early, which in this genre of news story is a tale as old as time. Director Cory Barlog is understandably a bit disappointed:
Meanwhile, given how easy it is to stumble upon footage at the moment—some YouTube videos have millions of views already—developers Santa Monica Studio have issued a statement that’s asking everyone to be considerate of fans who don’t want the game to be spoiled, but also more practically for those fans to maybe try and stay off much of the internet for the next week:
As we approach launch, it is important for our studio to preserve the experience of God of War Ragnarök for players who want to enjoy the game for the first time without spoilers.
We ask that you please be considerate of the many fans who do not want to accidentally see clips, gameplay, or narrative spoilers and avoid sharing them wider.
We are doing our best to limit the exposure of unsanctioned footage and screenshots, but the reality is that we cannot catch everything.
For those of you who do not want to risk seeing anything before launch, we strongly advise that you mute any keywords or hashtags associated with the game until release day.
We appreciate the support you’ve shown us more than we can say. We can assure you it will be worth the wait to experience the game yourself when it is released in less than two weeks on November 9th.
Thank you
Santa Monica Studio
While there’s always a very constructive discussion to be had about the way “spoiler culture” has shaped discussion of our favourite games, shows and movies, the God of War games are plodding singleplayer adventures where seeing the story unfold is half the reason people are playing them. If that’s you, you might want to heed Sony’s advice and just mute everything for the next week!
Yuli Gurriel hits a little grounder that he runs out after a defensive miscue from the Philadelphia infield, they score an error on Sosa at short, Álvarez scores on the play.
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Okay this is getting silly. Yordan Álvarez hits a double that scores Peña!
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Jeremy Peña is next up and he slams a breaking ball into leftfield for a double that scores Altuve! The Astros have a quick lead!
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Framber Valdez’s first pitch is… a called strike on Kyle Schwarber. We’re officially on our way!
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Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look back at Philadelphia’s shock win over Houston in Friday night’s Game 1.
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Key events
Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 3rd inning
Valdez is back out, facing Edmundo Sosa. Sosa takes a breaking pitch for a ball. 1-0. Then the next pitch is a called strike. 1-1. And a foul ball. 1-2. Sosa calls time. The next pitch is in the dirt. 2-2. Sosa fouls the next pitch away. 2-2. Another foul: Sosa is playing the “keep the at-bat alive” game. 2-2. Sosa swings and misses. The at-bat is officially dead.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning
And Peña lines out to short to end the second inning. Much less drama that go around.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning
Altuve, who started off the game with a bang, is already back up there and he just pops out this time around. Still, can’t blame him for keeping up with the aggressive swinging.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning
Martin Maldonado is up next. He falls behind 0-2 and then 0-3. That’s a strikeout for the first out of the inning. McCormick is still on first.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 2nd inning
Wheeler is up again, hoping for a better second inning than his first. He faces Chas McCormick who works a full count. The batters are seeing him well. And he takes a walk. Yet another Astros baserunner.
Just posting this as proof that I didn’t hallucinate that particular bit of baseball wisdom. Nope, other people heard it too:
“Giving up a walk there feels worse than a home run because you feel like you’re giving them momentum” — John Smoltz
“Giving up a walk there feels worse than a home run because you feel like you’re giving them momentum” — John Smoltz
— Kev (@klew24) October 30, 2022
Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning
Matt Vierling is up next. I believe he’s making his World Series hitting debut. He fouls off the first pitch he sees and then hits a chopper to the infield and that’ll do it for the Phillies in the second. See, that would have been worse for Houston had Bohm hit a home run. Instead, Philadelphia remains scoreless.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning
We get a “walk is worse than a home run” commentary here which is… very bad commentary. A home run equals at least one run while a walk doesn’t necessarily mean that. However, it’s not great that Bohm is on first. Jean Segura is up next and he promptly strikes out looking on three pitches.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning
Alec Bohm is up next. He takes a ball and then fouls off the next offering. 1-1. He takes another pitch outside. 2-1. He rips the next one foul and out of play. 2-2. And the next pitch is outside and so is the one after that and that will be a Bohm base-on-balls.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, top 2nd inning
Valdez is back out to pitch, working with a three-run cushion. He has to learn from Justin Verlander’s mistakes yesterday and keep focused. He seems focused here, putting Nick Castellanos into a 0-2 hole and getting him to strike out swinging.
Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 1st inning
Aledmys Díaz is up next and Wheeler falls behind him. 2-1. He fouls off a pitch, 2-2. Wheeler can finally end this nightmare inning by getting another strike here. And he does! He gets a swing and miss to finish up the first but his team is already down three runs.
Of course, as we saw yesterday, a lot can happen in a baseball game. Plenty of outs remain.
Run-scoring error! (Astros) Phillies 0-3 Astros
Phillies 0-3 Astros, bottom 1st inning
Yuli Gurriel hits a little grounder that he runs out after a defensive miscue from the Philadelphia infield, they score an error on Sosa at short, Álvarez scores on the play.
Phillies 0-2 Astros, bottom 1st inning
Kyle Tucker is up next, He takes a ball, he’s not first-pitch swinging it seems, He fouls off a pitch and then takes two more balls. 3-1 count. Tucker swings and hits a flyball out. On the play, Álvarez takes third base.
Phillies 0-2 Astros, bottom 1st inning
Alex Bregman grounds out to short. That’s the first out of the inning for Houston. Is Wheeler tipping his pitches?
Run-scoring double! (Astros) Phillies 0-2 Astros
Phillies 0-2 Astros, bottom 1st inning
Okay this is getting silly. Yordan Álvarez hits a double that scores Peña!
Run-scoring double! (Astros) Phillies 0-1 Astros
Phillies 0-1 Astros, bottom 1st inning
Jeremy Peña is next up and he slams a breaking ball into leftfield for a double that scores Altuve! The Astros have a quick lead!
Phillies 0-0 Astros, bottom 1st inning
Zack Wheeler is out to pitch for the Phillies. He will be first facing Jose Altuve, who has been in something of a slump. Oh that will cure that, he slams the first pitch he sees for a leadoff double!
At least for those of us in the UK this game should finish an earlier than expected 😏 (Clocks go back an hour in an hour or so here for the end of 'summertime')@HunterFelt
— Alison W (♿️⚾☕♀️🏳️🌈🇪🇺🇵🇸🇹🇼👑🏴🍶🌻) (@AlisonW) October 30, 2022
At least for those of us in the UK this game should finish an earlier than expected 😏 (Clocks go back an hour in an hour or so here for the end of ‘summertime’)@HunterFelt
— Alison W (♿️⚾☕♀️🏳️🌈🇪🇺🇵🇸🇹🇼👑🏴🍶🌻) (@AlisonW) October 30, 2022
I honestly lose all sense of time when covering baseball. Sometimes that’s the positive thing about this sport. Not so much when I’m on deadline.
Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning
Bryce Harper is up now. Valdez’s first pitch is a sinker called for a ball. 1-0. On the next pitch, he throws a pitch right around the same spot, but this time it’s in the strike zone. 1-1. On the next pitch, Harper grounds it foul for strike two. 1-2. Now the “strike rooting” cheers are properly loud as this is a chance for the Astros to get out of the inning. Harper flies out on the next pitch and that, indeed, will end our first half-inning.
Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning
Yesterday’s hero J.T. Realmuto takes a strike. 0-1. Then he swings away at another pitch. That’s strike two. 0-2. Realmuto fouls the next pitch off to stay alive. The next pitch is just outside. 1-2 and here come our first boos from the umpires in the stand. The next pitch is also a ball. 2-2. On the next pitch, Valdez throws a curve that Realmuto can’t connect with and that’s the first strikeout victim of the game.
Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning
Rhys Hoskins is up next. He takes a ball in the dirt and then a strike-looking. The next pitch, Hoskins fouls it off. Valdez is up 1-2 and we get the first “cheering for a strikeout” moment of the game but, since Minute Maid Park is still in the process of filling up, it’s rather muted. Hoskins takes a pitch outside, fouls a ball off and then takes ball three. Full count. The next pitch? That’s outside and Hoskins takes a walk. He will be Philadelphia’s first baserunner.
Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning
Schwarber gets ahead of the count 2-1 after that first pitch strike. Make that 3-1 after another pitch outside. He swings at the next pitch and grounds out for the game’s first out.
First pitch!
Phillies 0-0 Astros, top 1st inning
Framber Valdez’s first pitch is… a called strike on Kyle Schwarber. We’re officially on our way!
I am absolutely confounded by this montage. Baseball is like painting, I guess? This has been more Jackson Pollock than Rembrandt if that’s true.
In any case, first pitch is on its way.
John Smoltz’s take: the Phillies would rather win tonight and go up 2-0. He’s going on a limb here.
National Anthem
It’s country band Little Big Town with “The Star Spangled Banner.” Hope they remember the lyrics, as yesterday’s singer had a bit of an issue with that.
It’s a solid rendition, 7/10. They don’t stretch out the final few words which is the key to any acceptable anthem performance.
Rob Manfred tells @MadDogUnleashed the ghost runner/extra inning rule will likely stay. ‘The clubs like it,the players like it.And I think overall the fans like it.I think it does bring sort of a focus to the end of the baseball game in a way that has been positively received.’
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 29, 2022
Rob Manfred tells @MadDogUnleashed the ghost runner/extra inning rule will likely stay. ‘The clubs like it,the players like it.And I think overall the fans like it.I think it does bring sort of a focus to the end of the baseball game in a way that has been positively received.’
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 29, 2022
Just in case that yesterday’s extra-inning theatrics would be enough to get MLB to stop using the “ghost runner” during the regular season after games are tied after nine innings… of course they’re not going to change it! This is Rob Manfred’s MLB.
Predictions
Well, here’s my dilemma: I had the Houston Astros in five before the start of the World Series. So, by my math, that means I have to root for Houston to win these next four games. I’ve kind of painted myself into a corner.
Still, it feels like Philadelphia was aiming for a split here so they won’t be devastated while the Astros pretty much can’t afford to go down 0-2. I’m expecting Houston to come out with all guns blazing. Maybe a 7-2 win.
Of course, I was wrong yesterday so don’t go making bets with my predictions in mind. Have a different prediction? Or the same? Feel free to send your thoughts and analysis here, either via email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or Twitter (to @HunterFelt).
Email from “Another Dan” in Toronto on the talent of one Dan Shulman:
Hunter,
I take pictures for a living – occasionally at MLB games – but no one paints more vivid images of what’s happening on the diamond than ESPN Radio’s Dan Shulman. A sumptuous voice that fills every corner of a listener’s ‘theatre of the mind’.
Turn on the telecast, mute the sound and let Shulman’s exemplary play call almost make the cameras seem redundant.
I will add that it’s never a bad decision to mute John Smoltz.
Labeling Astros manager Dusty Baker as the “co-creator” of the high-five is a bit much from this soft-focus interview. It was actually late teammate Glenn Burke who deserves the lion’s share of the credit. Check the story out.
Trying to decide whether @HunterFelt's reference to a "bullpen dual" was because both bullpens last night did a great job at holding the line, or because his finger slipped off the 'e'. Looking for a second Phillies win tonight, but not in extras again.#WorldSeries
— Alison W (♿️⚾☕♀️🏳️🌈🇪🇺🇵🇸🇹🇼👑🏴🍶🌻) (@AlisonW) October 29, 2022
Trying to decide whether @HunterFelt’s reference to a “bullpen dual” was because both bullpens last night did a great job at holding the line, or because his finger slipped off the ‘e’. Looking for a second Phillies win tonight, but not in extras again.#WorldSeries
— Alison W (♿️⚾☕♀️🏳️🌈🇪🇺🇵🇸🇹🇼👑🏴🍶🌻) (@AlisonW) October 29, 2022
Listen, I am re-reading James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” so my brain is now operating solely on unconscious puns. I shall try to be more conscious of this going forward. Nobody needs baseball play-by-play that is written entirely in neologisms.
Houston Astros starting lineup
1. Jose Altuve, 2B
2. Jeremy Peña, SS
3. Yordan Álvarez, DH
4. Alex Bregman, 3B
5. Kyle Tucker, RF
6. Yuli Gurriel, 1B
7. Aledmys Díaz, LF
8. Chas McCormick, CF
9. MartínMaldonado, C
Pitcher: Framber Valdez
Philadelphia Phillies starting lineup
1. Kyle Schwarber, LF
2. Rhys Hoskins, 1B
3. J.T. Realmuto, C
4. Bryce Harper, DH
5. Nick Castellanos, RF
6. Alec Bohm, 3B
7. Jean Segura, 2B
8. Matt Vierling, CF
9. Edmundo Sosa, SS
Pitcher: Zack Wheeler
Where to watch Game 2 of the World Series
As always, we’ll start with the most important detail: where to actually follow tonight’s World Series Game 2. It’s basically the same deal as Game 1.
In the US, it’s live on FOX and also listen on your local ESPN Radio affiliate or, barring that, ESPNradio.com. The start time, again, is 8:03 pm EST. In the UK, you can screen it on BT Sports starting at 1:03 BST and, online, through the BT Sports app. I’m sure there are other ways of going about it but these are the most above-the-board ways to find the game.
Preamble
Well, I can’t be the only one still not recovered from yesterday’s Game 1. The Houston Astros had an early 5-0 lead and Justin Verlander was pitching a gem. It looked like they were going to cruise to an easy Game 1 victory but the Philadelphia Phillies quickly tied it up and then we were treated to a bullpen dual until Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto untied the game in the 10th inning with a solo home run that ended up being the game-winner. The Phillies won 6-5 and guaranteed themselves at least a split here in Minute Maid Park to start the series.
This is how the Phillies got this far. In every series this offseason, their opponents were supposed to easily win. Instead, Philadelphia has acted as the ultimate disrupter, winning games and, to this point, series because they simply don’t think about how big the odds stacked against them are.
Until yesterday, the Astros hadn’t even lost a game in the entire postseason. Now they find themselves having to deal with their first setback at the most inopportune time. So now it’s Houston on the ropes. The superior team on paper, the Astros still can’t afford to fall behind 0-2 in this World Series, especially with the series moving to Philadelphia for Game 3. The Phillies are putting co-ace Zack Wheeler on the mound while the Astros will start All-Star Framber Valdez. Maybe this will be the pitching duel that we didn’t get on Friday.
As always, we’ll be taking your thoughts and comments throughout today’s game. You can email us at hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet us at @HunterFelt and we’ll post them for all to see. It’s Game 2 of the 2022 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Again, we’re scheduled to start at 8:03 pm EST but we’ll be back blogging well before that.
Prelude
Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look back at Philadelphia’s shock win over Houston in Friday night’s Game 1.
President Biden voted early in the midterm elections on Saturday, casting a ballot in his home state of Delaware.
The president, who turns 80 next month, voted alongside his 18-year-old granddaughter Natalie Biden, who was voting for the first time. After Natalie voted, Biden placed an “I Voted” sticker on her shirt.
Election Day is 10 days away, and early in-person voting began in Delaware on Friday morning. As Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee chair, noted, it’s “the first time that Delaware will have early voting in a general election.”
President Biden arrives to cast his vote during early voting for the U.S. midterm elections with his granddaughter Natalie, a first-time voter, at a polling station in Wilmington on Saturday. (Tasos Katopodis/Reuters/Pool)
Last month, Biden flew to Wilmington as part of a quick last-minute trip to vote in the state’s Democratic primary, with nearly an hour left to spare before the polls closed. Roughly an hour after landing, the president and first lady Jill Biden flew back to Washington, D.C. The trip included the usual presidential security detail, two military flights, two motorcades and the use of Air Force One.
Speaking of that trip last month, which was not on Biden’s schedule, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “He thought it was important to exercise his constitutional right to vote … and set an example by showing the importance of voting.
“He also had the opportunity to say hello to poll workers and thank them for their work. And we know how under attack poll workers have been these past several years.”
President Biden prepares to cast his vote at his polling site on Saturday, accompanied by his granddaughter. (Tasos Katopodis/Reuters/Pool)
The president’s vote comes as the Democrats face an uphill battle to keep control of Congress.
Biden’s vote on Saturday was part of a weekend trip to his Wilmington home. On Friday night, he and Vice President Kamala Harris attended a fundraiser in Philadelphia that was expected to raise $1 million for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. The state’s Democratic lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, who was in attendance at the event, faces a close race with the Republican candidate, Mehmet Oz, for the U.S. Senate seat.
Flu season has ramped up early in the United States, and flu hospitalizations are worse than usual for this time of year, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s been more than a decade – since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic – since flu hospitalization rates have been this high at this point in the season.
The CDC estimates that there have been at least 880,000 illnesses, nearly 7,000 hospitalizations and 360 deaths from flu in the US this season. The first pediatric death in the country was reported this week.
Getting the flu shot is still the best way to protect yourself, experts say. And the best time to do it is now.
“Please get it this afternoon. Do not linger,” said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“We’re in a bit of a race with the virus,” he said, with the flu season starting at least a month earlier than usual. And it takes between 10 days and two weeks for the shot to offer full protection.
Similar to previous years, the CDC recommended that people get their flu vaccine before the end of October. But flu vaccination rates are lower than typical for this time of year.
About 128 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed this season, compared with 140 million at this point last year and 156 million the year before that, according to CDC data.
Even though the current season started early, there is more than enough reason for those who haven’t gotten their shot to do it now, Schaffner said.
“I would assure anyone who hasn’t gotten it yet that they’re not too late,” he said. And “the recommendations couldn’t be simpler”: Anyone 6 months or older in the US is eligible for and recommended to get the flu vaccine, with rare exception.
“The flu season will be with us for at least a few more months. We don’t know whether it will be shorter or longer than usual,” Schaffner said. “There is still very good reason to get your protection from the vaccine.”
And people who are vaccinated can still get sick – but the goal of the vaccine is to protect against the most severe outcomes and complications.
“We can acknowledge that the influenza vaccine is not perfect. It cannot protect absolutely everyone completely against influenza,” he said. “They help keep you out of the emergency room, the hospital, the intensive care unit, and they protect you from dying. As I used to like to tell my patients, ‘I’m so glad you’re still here to complain.’ “
Overall, CDC data shows that the share of lab tests that are positive for influenza has more than doubled over the past two weeks and that flu activity is highest in the South. Additional data from Walgreens that tracks prescriptions for antiviral treatments – such as Tamiflu – suggest hot spots in the Gulf Coast area, including Houston and New Orleans.
And the flu season is ramping up amid the surge of RSV that is filling pediatric hospitals and an ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Eleven states – along with Washington, DC, and New York City – are reporting high or very high levels of respiratory illness, according to the CDC.
The surge of respiratory viruses may get worse before it gets better, Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Clinic Children’s Center, said Thursday.
She urged people to try to prevent any respiratory illness, including by getting Covid-19 vaccines and boosters, and the annual flu shot.
“Making sure that your kids and anyone over 6 months of age in your family are getting their flu vaccines this year is even more important because we haven’t seen a lot of influenza the last couple of years, and so everyone’s going into this season with less immunity, less protection from prior infections,” Rajapakse said.
Those at risk for complications from respiratory illness, including the elderly and those with underlying conditions, should contact their health care providers as soon as they start to notice any symptoms, Schaffner said. There are treatments for Covid-19 and influenza that offer extra protection from severe outcomes, he said.
“From the point of view of respiratory viruses, the winter season has started early,” Schaffner said. “If you do develop symptoms, please don’t go to school or work. Shelter at home a little bit so you’re not out there spreading the virus – whatever it is.”
Summary: Researchers have developed a new ophthalmological device that can detect degenerative visual problems such as age-related macular degeneration long before the onset of the first symptoms.
Source: EPFL
Researchers at an EPFL lab have developed an ophthalmological device that can be used to diagnose some degenerative eye disorders long before the onset of the first symptoms. In early clinical trials, the prototype was shown to produce images with a sufficient degree of precision in just five seconds.
Research into treatments to stop or limit the progression of degenerative eye disorders that can lead to blindness is moving ahead apace. But, at present, there is no device that can reliably diagnose these conditions before the first symptoms appear.
These disorders, the best-known of which is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), involve changes to the eye’s photoreceptors. And they all have the same root cause: the deterioration of the retinal pigmentary epithelium (RPE), a layer of cells that sits behind the photoreceptors.
The device developed at EPFL’s Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices (LAPD) observes changes in the RPE before the onset of symptoms, providing researchers with the first-ever in vivo images in which cells can be differentiated. Armed with this early detection capability, clinicians will be able to diagnose these disorders before irreversible symptoms occur.
The results of the first clinical trial have been published in a paper in the journal Ophthalmology Science.
Observing changes in the cells behind the photoreceptors
In addition to causing AMD, the deterioration of the RPE is behind a number of other eye disorders, including retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy.
Located between the photoreceptors and the choroid (a thin layer of tissue containing the vessels that carry blood to the retina), the RPE plays an important role in maintaining visual function and preserving the health of the eye’s rods and cones.
Several research groups have studied these cells under the microscope—in vitro—to determine their properties and to observe the morphological changes that occur with aging but also with the onset and progression of retinal disorders such as AMD and retinitis pigmentosa.
Until now, however, there has been no simple and reliable method for observing the RPE in a live patient—in vivo—for early detection and ongoing monitoring of these conditions.
Oblique light beams hold the key
Various attempts have been made to design a device that allows clinicians to examine the RPE. But each has so far failed on the grounds of inadequate resolution, patient safety concerns or excessively long exposure times.
The team at EPFL developed a retinal camera that features two oblique beams, trained on the white of the eye, coupled with an adaptive optical system that corrects distortions in the light waves to produce a clear image.
This technology, dubbed Transscleral Optical Imaging, is similar to existing retinal imaging systems in its use of infrared light beams.
But, according to Christophe Moser, who heads the LAPD at the School of Engineering, it has one key difference: “The beams focus obliquely through the white of the eye, which circumvents the problem of excess light caused by the highly reflective cone photoreceptor cells, located in the center of the eye, when you illuminate the retina via the pupil.”
Armed with this early detection capability, clinicians will be able to diagnose these disorders before irreversible symptoms occur. Image is in the public domain
The light waves are then captured by the camera as they exit the eye through the pupil. The team had something of a eureka moment when they saw the first clear image on screen, since it was the first time anyone had observed this part of the human body using a clinically compatible imaging camera.
A first clinical trial involving 29 participants
The researchers developed a clinical prototype in partnership with EarlySight, a spin-off from the same EPFL lab. With an exposure time of less than five seconds—a key speed advantage for potential diagnostic use—the camera is capable of capturing 100 raw images. Algorithms then align and aggregate the raw footage to produce a single, high-quality image on screen.
The interface features five buttons, each corresponding to a predefined area of the eye, allowing the desired image to be selected. Users can also click anywhere on the diagram of the back of the eye to select the precise area they want to image.
The prototype device, known as Cellularis, was developed as part of the European Union’s EIT Health ASSESS project, in partnership with Francine Behar-Cohen’s research team at the French National Health and Medical Research Institute (INSERM) in Paris, and with the clinical research center at Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital in Lausanne.
The camera was then assessed in a clinical trial—led by Irmela Mantel, a physician associate at the Medical Retina Unit of Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital—designed to evaluate the device’s ability to produce clear RPE images in 29 healthy volunteers. In each case, the images generated by the camera were precise enough to quantify the morphological characteristics of the participants’ RPE cells. They were stored in a database for future contribution to medical research.
“The morphology of these cells, which play an essential role in retinal function, is a strong indicator of their health,” says Laura Kowalczuk, a scientist at EPFL and at Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital, and the paper’s lead author.
See also
“The ability to precisely detect RPE cells and observe morphological changes occurring in them is vital to the early detection of degenerative retinal disorders and to monitoring the efficacy of new treatments.”
About this age-related macular degeneration research news
Author: Press Office Source: EPFL Contact: Press Office – EPFL Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access. “in vivo Retinal Pigment Epithelium Imaging using Transscleral OPtical Imaging in healthy eyes” by Laura Kowalczuk et al. Ophthalmology Science
Abstract
in vivo Retinal Pigment Epithelium Imaging using Transscleral OPtical Imaging in healthy eyes
Objective
To image healthy retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE) in vivo using Transscleral OPtical Imaging (TOPI) and to analyze statistics of macular RPE cell features as a function of age, axial length (AL) and eccentricity.
Design
Single-center, exploratory, prospective, and descriptive clinical study.
Participants
49 eyes (AL: 24.03±0.93 mm; range: 21.88 – 26.7 mm) from 29 participants aged 21 to 70 years (37.1±13.3 years; 19 males, 10 females)
Methods
Retinal images, including ultra-wide field fundus photography and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, AL and refractive error measurements were collected at baseline. For each eye, 6 high resolution RPE images were acquired using TOPI at different locations, one of them being imaged 5 times to evaluate the repeatability of the method. Follow-up ophthalmic examination was repeated 1 to 3 weeks after TOPI to assess safety. RPE images were analyzed with a custom automated software to extract cell parameters. Statistical analysis on the selected high-contrast images included calculation of coefficient of variation (CoV) for each feature at each repetition, Spearman and Mann-Whitney tests to investigate the relationship between cell features and eye and/or subject characteristics.
Main Outcome Measures.
RPE cell features such as density, area, center-to-center spacing, number of neighbors, circularity, elongation, solidity and border distance CoV.
Results
Macular RPE cell features were extracted from TOPI images at an eccentricity of 1.6° to 16.3° from the fovea. For each feature, the mean CoV was under 4%. Spearman’s test showed correlation within RPE cell features. In the perifovea, the region in which images were selected for all participants, longer AL significantly correlated with decreased RPE cell density (R Spearman, Rs=-0.746; p<0.0001) and increased cell area (Rs=0.668; p<0.0001), without morphological change. Aging also significantly correlated with decreased RPE density (Rs=-0.391; p=0.036) and increased cell area (Rs=0.454; p=0.013). Lower circular, less symmetric, more elongated and larger cells were observed over 50 years.
Conclusions
The TOPI technology imaged RPE cells in vivo with repeatability of less than 4% for the CoV and was used to analyze the influence of physiological factors on RPE cell morphometry in the perifovea of healthy volunteers.
Influenza is hitting the United States unusually early and hard, already hospitalizing a record number of people at this point in the season in more than a decade and underscoring the potential for a perilous winter of respiratory viruses, according to federal health data released Friday.
While flu season is usually between October and May, peaking in December and January, it’s arrived about six weeks earlier this year with uncharacteristically high illness. There have already been at least 880,000 cases of influenza illness, 6,900 hospitalizations and 360 flu-related deaths nationally, including one child, according to estimates released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not since the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic has there been such a high burden of flu, a metric the CDC uses to estimate a season’s severity based on laboratory-confirmed cases, doctor visits, hospitalizations and deaths.
“It’s unusual, but we’re coming out of an unusual covid pandemic that has really affected influenza and other respiratory viruses that are circulating,” said Lynnette Brammer, an epidemiologist who heads the CDC’s domestic influenza surveillance team.
Activity is high in the U.S. south and southeast, and is starting to move up the Atlantic coast.
The CDC uses a variety of measures to track flu, including estimating the percentage of doctor visits for flu-like illness. But given the similar symptoms that could include people seeking care for covid-19 or RSV, another respiratory virus with similar symptoms, the laboratory data leaves no doubt.
“The data are ominous,” said William Schaffner,medical director for the nonprofit National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a professor of infectious diseases at that Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “Not only is flu early, it also looks very severe. This is not just a preview of coming attractions. We’re already starting to see this movie. I would call it a scary movie.”
Adding to his concern, he said, is that influenza vaccine acceptance is lagging behind where it usually is at this point in the season. “That makes me doubly worried,” he said. The high burden of flu “certainly looks like the start of what could be the worst flu season in 13 years.”
The number of flu cases this season is already one-eighth of last season’s total estimate of 8 to 13 million cases.
So far, flu vaccination rates in the United States are lower than they have been at this point in the season in the past few years. About 128 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed so far, compared with 139 million at this point last year and 154 million the year before, according to the CDC.
The latest flu data comes as the nation’s strained public health system is grappling with multiple virus threats. Coronavirus cases are expected to increase as the country heads into colder weather and more people gather indoors. Children’s hospitals are filling up with a record number of kids infected with RSV.
The flu vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing a doctor’s visit, hospitalization or death is uneven from year to year, and in years past, has hovered between 40 and 60 percent, according to the CDC. But Brammer and others say this season’s vaccine is well matched against circulating strains. That offers a “little ray of sunshine” for what could be a bleak winter, Schaffner said.
Nationally, the predominant virus — a particularly nasty strain, H3N2 — causes the worst outbreaks of the twotypes of influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses that circulate among people. Seasons where H3N2 dominate typically result in the most complications, especially for the very young, the elderly and people with certain chronic health conditions, experts say.
What many people don’t realize is that even after someone recovers from flu, the inflammatory response generated by the virus continues to wreak havoc for another four to six weeks in those who are middle-aged and older, increasing the rate of heart attacks and strokes, Schaffner said.
Influenza has not been a serious problem the last two years, experts and health officials have said, because of the masking, social distancing and other measures people took to protect themselves against covid-19.
Health officials tend to consider a flu season to be officially underway after consecutive weeks of flu activity from several surveillance systems, including a significant percentage of doctor’s office visits for flu-like illnesses. Those doctor visits have increased for three weeks in a row as of Oct. 22, more than a month earlier than previous seasons, the CDC’s Brammer said.
Flu is famously difficult to predict. It’s hard to know how long the season will last, how severe it might be, and if different parts of the country will experience different levels of respiratory disease at different times. Last season, flu activity peaked in January, “then dropped like a stone, then smoldered just under the epidemic threshold beyond March into April, May and June,” said Schaffner. That “long smoldering tail was very unusual.”
“An early start doesn’t always mean severe,” Brammer said.
In the southern hemisphere, influenza season has also been far different, Brammer said. In Australia, there was a “really sharp, very fast uptake then very quick drop,” she said. In Argentina, the peak flu activity occurred at what would have been that country’s summer.
“Things have not settled back into a normal pattern,” Brammer said.
Chile got ahead of its bad flu season, which began months earlier than a typical season, by rapidly vaccinating 88 percent of its high-risk population before peak influenza activity, according to a CDC report this week. The flu vaccine used in Chile, which included a match for the dominant H3N2 virus, was about 50 percent effective in preventing hospitalization. The shot used in the Northern Hemisphere includes the same virus makeup as the Southern Hemisphere vaccine, so experts hope the formulation might be similarly effective in preventing severe influenza illnesses.
The latest CDC data show overall respiratory illness activity is “very high” in South Carolina and Washington, D.C. and “high” in 11 states: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York City, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Texas was among the earliest states to see flu activity in late September. At the Houston Methodist hospital system, laboratory-confirmed influenza cases have risen to 975 as of Oct. 20, up from 561 the week before, officials said.
Officials had been bracing for a more robust flu season this fall and winter because so many people have dropped covid protection measures and are reluctant to get vaccinated.
“This was something that we were expecting because we are a hub, and a lot of people are traveling here,” said Cesar Arias, the hospital system’s chief of infectious diseases. “I didn’t expect to see that much [flu] that early.”
Arias said conversations around flu vaccinations have become tied to the hesitancy around coronavirus vaccines. The conversations in Texas, “as you can imagine, [are] stronger and at least more vocal,” he said. “We are struggling with that, trying to put the message out to get vaccinated.”
People need to get a new flu vaccine every year to be protected, and it takes up to two weeks for protection to kick in and for the vaccine to work. Flu is contagious before symptoms start. CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older get a flu vaccine, ideally by the end of October.
Summary: Behavioral inhibition at 12 to 24 months of age was associated with an increased risk of developing depression, more so than anxiety, during later life. This is especially true for inhibited children who showed blunted activity in the ventral striatum during adolescence.
Source: UT Dallas
A recent imaging study led by a scientist at The University of Texas at Dallas has identified early risk factors linked to children’s temperament and a neural process that could foretell whether an individual might develop depression and anxiety in adolescence and early adulthood.
The study, published Oct. 26 in JAMA Psychiatry, tracked a cohort of 165 individuals from 4 months old, between 1989 and 1993, through age 26.
Dr. Alva Tang, assistant professor of psychology in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and corresponding author of the study, found that people who are more inhibited in early childhood and who also don’t respond typically to potential rewards as adolescents are vulnerable to developing depression later in life, more so than anxiety.
“The findings highlight different mechanisms in the brain and relate them to who is at greater risk for developing different mental health issues,” said Tang, who conducted the research at the University of Maryland, College Park, before joining UT Dallas in August. “These results could inform the development of prevention-oriented treatments tailored to the individual.”
When babies are exposed to novel objects, people or situations, some react positively and approach them without fear, whereas others respond with wariness or avoidance. This differentiation defines uninhibited versus inhibited behavior.
“We know that inhibited children are more likely to have anxiety disorders later, particularly social anxiety, that begins in late childhood to adolescence,” Tang said.
“Less has been known about depression, which generally has a later onset, in young adulthood. But we do know that people who have had an anxiety disorder are 50% to 60% more likely to have depression later in life, so inhibited children should have higher risk for depression as well.”
Tang’s research is unique for its characterization of the subjects’ early temperamental risks and the protracted length of time they were studied.
“To show any relation with increases in depressive symptoms over time, we have to follow subjects for decades because full-blown syndromes usually do not emerge until young adulthood,” she said.
As young children, the subjects were categorized as either inhibited or uninhibited. As adolescents, they underwent functional MRIs while completing a task to measure their brains’ reaction in anticipating rewards—in this case, trying to win money.
“We looked at the ventral striatum, a brain region well studied in terms of understanding depression in adults, to see if it’s tied to maladaptive processing in the reward centers of the brain,” Tang said.
Some study participants showed a blunted response in this brain region in reaction to potential monetary rewards.
The researchers found that the association between inhibition at 14 to 24 months of age and worsening depressive symptoms from ages 15 to 26 was present only among those who also showed blunted activity in the ventral striatum as adolescents. There was no similar association with anxiety.
“We found that behavioral inhibition was related to worsening depressive symptoms into adulthood. This supports the assertion that this temperament shows a stronger relation to developing anxiety in adolescence, but in adulthood it is tied more strongly to depression. However, not all inhibited children develop anxiety or depression,” Tang said.
“It was particularly the inhibited children who showed blunted striatal activity who were more likely to become more depressed in young adulthood.”
Tang said her past research has related anxiety to neural networks and processes subserving attention and executive functions, whereas the current work highlights reward and motivational centers in the brain related to depression.
Some study participants showed a blunted response in this brain region in reaction to potential monetary rewards. Image is in the public domain
“This study is new because it can separate different kinds of brain correlates for these different conditions,” she said.
There are already interventions for socially anxious and behaviorally inhibited children that improve social and cognitive skills, Tang said. Additional interventions for these children could target motivational deficits, such as helping them learn to actively create conditions where they can be socially engaged with peers and where they can seek out positive experiences.
“This might in turn reduce the likelihood of developing depression that originates from being socially disengaged or missing out on opportunities for positive experiences,” she said.
She said that future studies could examine the efficacy of programs that target maladaptive reward processing among anxious youths in reducing risks for later depression.
Anxiety and depression are complex conditions that could be set off by a multitude of factors—genetic, environmental and others, Tang said.
“Here, we show strong evidence that both early temperamental risk factors and maladaptive neurocognitive processing of rewards are involved in contributing to the development of depression.”
Other authors of the article include researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health’s Intramural Research Program in Bethesda, Maryland, as well as scientists from The Pennsylvania State University, University College London, the University of California, Davis and the University of Maryland, College Park.
About this psychology and neurodevelopment research news
Author: Stephen Fontenot Source: UT Dallas Contact: Stephen Fontenot – UT Dallas Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Closed access. “Striatal Activity to Reward Anticipation as a Moderator of the Association Between Early Behavioral Inhibition and Changes in Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms From Adolescence to Adulthood” by Alva Tang et al. JAMA Psychiatry
Abstract
See also
Striatal Activity to Reward Anticipation as a Moderator of the Association Between Early Behavioral Inhibition and Changes in Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms From Adolescence to Adulthood
Importance
The early childhood temperament of behavioral inhibition (BI), characterized by inhibited and fearful behaviors, has been associated with heightened risk for anxiety and depression across the lifespan. Although several neurocognitive correlates underlying vulnerability to the development of anxiety among inhibited children have been identified, little is known about the neurocognitive correlates underlying vulnerability to the development of depression.
Objective
To examine whether blunted striatal activation to reward anticipation, a well-documented neurocognitive vulnerability marker of depression, moderates the association between early BI and the developmental changes in depression and anxiety from adolescence to adulthood.
Design, Setting, and Participants
Participants in this prospective longitudinal study were recruited at age 4 months between 1989 and 1993 in the US. Follow-up assessments extended into 2018 (age 26 years). Data were analyzed between September 2021 to March 2022.
Main Outcomes and Measures
BI was measured through an observation paradigm in infancy (ages 14 and 24 months). Neural activity to anticipated rewards during a monetary incentive delay task was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging in adolescence (between ages 15-18 years; 83 individuals had usable data). Anxiety and depressive symptoms were self-reported across adolescence to young adulthood (ages 15 and 26 years; n = 108). A latent change score model, accounting for the interdependence between anxiety and depression, tested the moderating role of striatal activity to reward anticipation in the association between early BI and changes in anxiety and depressive symptoms. A region of interest approach limited statistical tests to regions within the striatum (ie, nucleus accumbens, caudate head, caudate body, putamen).
Results
Of 165 participants, 84 (50.1%) were female and 162 (98%) were White. Preliminary analyses revealed significant increases in anxiety and depressive symptoms across ages 15 to 26 years, as well as individual variation in the magnitude of changes. Main analyses showed that reduced activity in the nucleus accumbens to reward anticipation moderated the association between early BI and increases in depressive (β = −0.32; b = −4.23; 95% CI, −7.70 to −0.76; P = .02), and more depressive symptoms at age 26 years (β = −0.47; b = −5.09; 95% CI, −7.74 to −2.43; P < .001). However, there were no significant interactions associated with latent changes in anxiety across age nor anxiety at age 26 years. Activity in the caudate and putamen did not moderate these associations.
Conclusions and Relevance
Blunted reward sensitivity in the ventral striatum may be a developmental risk factor connecting an inhibited childhood temperament and depression over the transition to adulthood. Future studies should examine the efficacy of prevention programs, which target maladaptive reward processing and motivational deficits among anxious youths, in reducing risks for later depression.
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — For weeks, Georgia’s Democratic and Republican parties had urged voters to cast their ballots as soon as possible instead of waiting until Election Day. Voters apparently listened.
More than 1 million Georgians have voted early, a dramatic increase from the last midterm election in 2018 and nearly on pace with the 2020 presidential election,according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
Early-voting centers opened across Georgia last week, and the vast majority of voters cast their ballots in person. Mail-in-ballot requests have fallen significantly from past election cycles.
While every demographic and region of the state has seen elevated turnout relative to 2018, there has been a surge of participation fromwomen, Black voters and voters over age 50, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The increases have been largest in the Atlanta region, while many counties in the state’s southwest and along the southeast coast are far outpacing their early vote counts from 2018. Cobb County, a fast-growing suburb of Atlanta, crosses both trends, having counted more than three times the number of ballots collected at the same point in 2018.
Analysis: The early electorate in Georgia looks more like 2018 than 2020
Early voting is underway in several other states, although most of them don’t release as much data as Georgia.
In Virginia, more than 411,000 people have voted so far, surpassing the total number of people who voted early in 2018, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.In North Carolina, more than 530,000 voters had cast ballots in some way as of Monday, down from 590,000 at this time in 2018, although early voting was offered for more days during that election.
In Texas, about 550,000 people have voted, according to the state elections office. At this point in 2018, more than 695,000 people had voted in Texas, showing a stark drop-off in engagement between midterm elections.
In Georgia, about 17 percent of the voters who cast their ballots early had previously waited to voteon Election Day in 2018, while another 17 percent of this year’s early voters didn’t vote in the last midterm election, according to the website GeorgiaVotes,suggesting high enthusiasm and early engagement. The numbers also underscore how voting patterns have changed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and new voting laws in the state.
“It’s only been four years, but the demographic transformation of the state has been quite rapid,” said Bernard L. Fraga, a professor of political science at Emory University who studies election law and voter turnout patterns. As Georgia’s population, political environment and laws have shifted, voter behavior has followed suit, Fraga said.
Georgia lawmakers enacted a sweeping voting law last yearthat added requirements and restrictions for casting a provisional or mail-in-ballot, leading many voting rights groups to worry that those voting methods were too cumbersome for many voters and vulnerable to legal challenges.
Expand access? A historic restriction? What the Georgia voting law really does.
“Communities of color may think they have to turn out and mobilize for fear that something could happen to their vote,” Fraga said, while “some White, more Republican-leaning voters who would have turned out early may be waiting to vote on Election Day because of these voter-fraud narratives” espoused by former president Donald Trump and his allies.
But most Republican campaigns in the state also want their supporters to vote early. Georgia Republican leaders warded off Trump from rallying in their state for fear that his false claims of voter fraud would cause loyal GOP voters to lose trust in the election process and not cast a ballot.
The early engagement has excited many Democrats, who see it as a sign of a successful mobilization.
“This was always our intention — to create a big Week One — and then to continue to build that,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, the campaign manager for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams.
Groh-Wargo said the campaign had expected voters who participate in every election to do soin the first week, allowing groups to focus on reaching voters who traditionally vote on Election Day or skip voting altogether.
Republicans also say they believe the high voting numbers will benefit them. They have touted the turnout as a sign that accusations of voter suppression in Georgia by Democrats are unfounded.
“While Stacey Abrams continues to spread the myth of voter suppression in Georgia, the 2022 general election has seen another record turnout so far,” said Tate Mitchell, the press secretary for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is running for reelection.
Abrams has pushed back against such criticism. On Monday, she praisedthe “extraordinary turnout” while arguing that “suppression is about barriers. If those barriers are not completely successful, the credit does not go to those who erected the barriers. The credit goes to those voters who found a way to navigate, overwhelm and overcome those barriers.”
In interviews with more than four dozen Georgians who voted early at six polling locations in the greater Atlanta area last week, nearly all said they usually vote early but were especially eager this year to cast their ballots as soon as possible.
Tonya Stevens said she had a “refreshing” experience voting early in Clarkston, Ga. While she said she had encountered long lines and mismanagement from poll workers in the past, she had a smooth experience casting her ballot. Stevens said she was excited to vote for Abrams “because she’s a hard worker and believes in rights for all citizens.”
Georgia’s biggest county can’t find a top elections official
Joseph Dickinson said it was “extremely easy” to cast his ballot in Forsyth County, north of Atlanta, during the first week of early voting. Dickinson, 33, said he found it more difficult to vote in neighboring Dawson County during the 2020 presidential election because of the coronavirus pandemic. While normally a libertarian voter, he said, he voted for Republicans this year “because Georgia’s done pretty well. I feel good about it.”
Many counties in the Atlanta region had little to no wait times at most polling locations, according to county elections and registration offices’ tracking sites and statements to The Post, in sharp contrast to recent cycles, when many voters waited multiple hours to cast their ballots. Some elections and registration centers, however, showed waits of up to an hour on some days this past week. Georgians can vote early at any polling place in their county, but they must vote at their respective precinct on Election Day.
“In Georgia, a lot of people think that the vote is being suppressed. And I think personally, it’s just the opposite,” said Nora Culver, a conservative and a dental office manager from Stone Mountain, Ga., who voted early on Friday. Culver, who supports the new voting law, said: “One of the controversies has been that you couldn’t accept food or drink in line. Well, who does that anyway? Nobody wants food. I mean, just stupid things.”
Kayla Smith, a graduate student from Atlanta, said that while she voted by mail in past elections because of her studies, this year she returned to her home county to ensure her vote was counted properly. “I wanted to physically see my ballot get cast,” she said.
Smith, a recent Spelman College graduate, said that with multiple competitive races on the ballot, she was excited to support Democrats, especially Abrams, also a Spelman graduate, and Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D), who attended neighboring Morehouse College.
“I do see the power of voting,” Smith said. “We know what the stakes are this time. And I think that’s been a common theme in voting since 2020.”
