Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by an increased number of items from other countries around the globe. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side, for social media buttons.
Summary:
New cases of the virus are surging in both the US and globally, with the US now among the countries leading the global surge. New cases reported in the US during the week ending July 17th were 54.5% higher than those reported during the week ending July 10th, and to skip the over weeks with holiday data, 140.0% higher than those reported during the week ending June 26th. Again, despite that jump, new cases this week were still only 12.0% of those of the peak week in January, so this surge is still small by comparison. To follow up on the 3-day average we checked last week (to omit July 4th and 5th data), new cases during the three days ending Friday July 16 were 55.0% higher than the same three days of the prior week (July 7, July 8 & July 9), so not much different from the fully week.
US deaths attributed to the virus this past week were 13.3% higher than those of the prior week, but they’re still 16.2% lower than the deaths reported during the week ending June 26th. Again, the 1,807 USCovid deaths of this past week were still only 9.3% of the 24,220 Covid deaths recorded during the worst 7 day period in January.
Worldwide, new Covid cases reported during the week ending July 17th were 15.0% higher than those reported during the week ending July 10th, and 29.4% higher than those reported during the week ending July 3rd. Since the incidence of new cases globally peaked at the end of April, this week’s cases are only 40.0% below the global high. The 7-day average of deaths from Covid has seen little change since the beginning of July, and as of July 17th was just 0.2% higher than the prior week.
Other than the US, which is now seeing the 5th most new cases globally, new cases in Indonesia now lead the global totals, surpassing India’s cases early this past week, then overtaking the 7-day average of new cases in Brazil on Thursday. Similarly, the UK passed India to record the third highest 7-day average of new cases on Thursday, and then passed Brazil to move into the 2nd spot globally sometime in the past 24 hours. New cases in the US are now 20% below those of India’s, and 21.5% greater than those of Brazil, and as we noted, rising at a 55% week over week clip. With India’s cases falling 8% and Brazil’s falling 16%, it should just be a matter of days before the US is recording the 3rd most new cases worldwide.
The chart below from WorldoMeter shows the daily number of new cases for the US, updated through 17 July. The increase over the last 3 weeks is now clear.
The chart below shows the daily number of deaths for the US, updated through 17 July. The daily deaths have clearly stopped declining.
The number of active cases still remains at an elevated level, still hovering just below 5 million, but starting to climb.
The graphics presented by Johns Hopkins show global new cases, global deaths, and global cummulative vaccinations in that order.
According to Johns Hopkins (first graph below), new cases globally, which previously appeared to have peaked and be in a down trend are now showing a new increase. Global deaths (second graph below) have now stopped declining, while global vaccinations continue to increase (third graph below).
Steven Hansen continues to summarize and link the latest news related to the pandemic and economic recovery every day, 7 days a week, plus displays over a dozen important graphics updated at least daily. The most recent article at the time this is published: 17 July 2021 Coronavirus And Recovery News: Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier Warns Covid Vaccine May Lead to ‘Neurodegenerative Illness’. White House Admits To Flagging Posts To Be Censored By Facebook.
This article leads the daily newsletter from Global Economic Intersection every day. Newsletter subscription is free.
Here are the rest of the articles for the past week reviewed and summarized:
Several inhalable COVID-19 vaccines move to human trials – A new study in the journal Science Advances presents the latest research demonstrating the potential effectiveness of an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is one of several in development designed to be administered through a nasal spray. “The currently available vaccines against COVID-19 are very successful, but the majority of the world’s population is still unvaccinated and there is a critical need for more vaccines that are easy to use and effective at stopping disease and transmission,” explains Paul McCray, a researcher from the University of Iowa working on an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine. McCray is working alongside colleagues from the University of Georgia on a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine delivered via a nasal spray. Their particular vaccine utilizes a virus called parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5), optimized to express the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2. PIV5 is harmless in humans and previous experiments with the virus as a vaccine delivery system have been effective in animal studies against MERS, another coronavirus. The new data demonstrates the experimental COVID-19 vaccine is effective in mice and ferrets. “We have been developing this vaccine platform for more than 20 years, and we began working on new vaccine formulations to combat COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic,” says co-lead on the study, Biao He, from the University of Georgia. “Our preclinical data show that this vaccine not only protects against infection, but also significantly reduces the chances of transmission.” Traditional vaccines are usually administered by an intramuscular injection. But injections come with a whole load of hurdles making widespread vaccination campaigns complicated and costly. Injected vaccines often need cold storage and must be administered by medical professionals. Syringes are also a finite resource and supply problems have caused major issues with the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Alongside the ease of administration of a nasal spray vaccine there is a strong hypothesis suggesting delivering vaccines directly to mucosal tissue in the upper respiratory tract could offer better localized protection from infection. Darrell Irvine, a bioengineer from MIT, has been working on developing inhalable vaccines for several years. “In some cases, vaccines given in muscle can elicit immunity at mucosal surfaces, but there is a general principle that if you vaccinate through the mucosal surface, you tend to elicit a stronger protection at that site,” says Irvine. “Unfortunately, we don’t have great technologies yet for mounting immune responses that specifically protect those mucosal surfaces.”
New UK study reveals extent of brain complications in children hospitalized with COVID-19 – Although the risk of a child being admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 is small, a new UK study has found that around 1 in 20 of children hospitalised with COVID-19 develop brain or nerve complications linked to the viral infection. The research, published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health and led by the University of Liverpool, identifies a wide spectrum of neurological complications in children and suggests they may be more common than in adults admitted with COVID-19. While neurological problems have been reported in children with the newly described post-COVID condition paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS), the capacity of COVID-19 to cause a broad range of nervous system complications in children has been under-recognised. To address this, the CoroNerve Studies Group, a collaboration between the universities of Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton and UCL, developed a real-time UK-wide notification system in partnership with the British Paediatric Neurology Association. Between April 2020 and January 2021, they identified 52 cases of children less than 18 years old with neurological complications among 1,334 children hospitalised with COVID-19, giving an estimated prevalence of 3.8%. This compares to an estimated prevalence of 0.9% in adults admitted with COVID-19. Eight (15%) children presenting with neurological features did not have COVID-19 symptoms although the virus was detected by PCR, underscoring the importance of screening children with acute neurological disorders for the virus. Ethnicity was found to be a risk factor, over two thirds of children being of Black or Asian background.
U.S. doctors had to ration a last-resort Covid treatment, forcing stark choices. -Throughout the pandemic, wrenching scenes have played out across the United States as doctors found themselves in the unfamiliar position of overtly rationing a treatment. But it was not ventilators, as initially feared: Concerted action largely headed off those shortages. Instead, it was the limited availability of ECMO – which requires expensive equipment similar in concept to a heart-lung machine and specially trained staff who can provide constant monitoring and one-on-one nursing – that forced stark choices among patients. “Patients died because they could not get ECMO,” said Dr. Lena M. Napolitano, co-director of the Surgical Critical Care Unit at the University of Michigan. This spring, she was overwhelmed with requests to accept patients considered good candidates for ECMO. “We could not accommodate all of them,” she said. Doctors tried to select individuals most likely to benefit from ECMO, a last-resort treatment that can mechanically substitute for badly damaged lungs. But dozens of interviews with medical staff and patients across the country, and reporting inside five hospitals that provide ECMO, revealed that in the absence of regional sharing systems to ensure fairness and match resources to needs, hospitals and clinicians were left to apply differing criteria, with insurance coverage, geography and even personal appeals having an influence. “It’s unsettling to have to make those kinds of decisions,” said Dr. Ryan Barbaro, a critical care physician in Michigan and head of an international registry of Covid-19 patients who have received ECMO – short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – about half of whom survived hospitalization. Close to 8,000 patients worldwide have received ECMO to date, including nearly 5,000 in North America. Despite the progress the United States has made against the coronavirus, some doctors are still having to ration ECMO, which is offered in less than 10 percent of hospitals.
Common COVID-19 antibiotic no more effective than placebo – A UC San Francisco study has found that the antibiotic azithromycin was no more effective than a placebo in preventing symptoms of COVID-19 among non-hospitalized patients, and may increase their chance of hospitalization, despite widespread prescription of the antibiotic for the disease. “These findings do not support the routine use of azithromycin for outpatient SARS-CoV-2 infection,” said lead author Catherine E. Oldenburg, ScD, MPH, an assistant professor with the UCSF Proctor Foundation. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. Azithromycin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, is widely prescribed as a treatment for COVID-19 in the United States and the rest of the world. “The hypothesis is that it has anti-inflammatory properties that may help prevent progression if treated early in the disease,” said Oldenburg. “We did not find this to be the case.” The study, which was conducted in collaboration with Stanford University, appears July 16, 2021, in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study included 263 participants who all tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within seven days before entering the study. None were hospitalized at the time of enrollment. In a random selection process, 171 participants received a single, 1.2 gram oral dose of azithromycin and 92 received an identical placebo. At day 14 of the study, 50 percent of the participants remained symptom free in both groups. By day 21, five of the participants who received azithromycin had been hospitalized with severe symptoms of COVID-19 and none of the placebo group had been hospitalized. The researchers concluded that treatment with a single dose of azithromycin compared to placebo did not result in greater likelihood of being symptom-free. “Most of the trials done so far with azithromycin have focused on hospitalized patients with pretty severe disease,” said Oldenburg. “Our paper is one of the first placebo-controlled studies showing no role for azithromycin in outpatients.” ###
A Curious Union: Covid, Clorox, Cleveland Clinic, and the CDC Foundation – Yves here. This post calls out institutional and corporate profiteering via describing how, via donations of $1 million each to the Cleveland Clinic and the CDC Foundation, Clorox bought the use of their names to tout the highly dubious idea of using bleach as an anti-Covid measure. The story hammers the Clorox touts for one of Lambert’s key issues: Covid is an airborne disease. The idea that surfaces were a contagion vector was debunked quite a while back, airline hygiene theater notwithstanding. Although the author likely skipped further arguments over space and reader patience concerns, it fails to address is how bleach is a poor choice for anti-Covid sanitation even if fomite transmission were a real concern. In other words, bleach Recall that we sang the praises of 60-70% isopropyl alcohol (and our trusty spray bottle!) back in the days when the public was worked up about surface transmission. We pointed out that the area being sanitized had to be left wet for 30 seconds. From WebMD: Solutions of 70% alcohol should be left on surfaces for 30 seconds (including cellphones) to ensure they will kill viruses. Pure (100%) alcohol evaporates too quickly for such use. An NIH study found our favorite, povidine iodine, not only kills Covid pronto too but even in low enough concentrations to use as gargle or a nose spray. From Povidone-Iodine Demonstrates Rapid In Vitro Virucidal Activity Against SARS-CoV-2, The Virus Causing COVID-19 Disease: All four products [antiseptic solution (PVP-I 10%), skin cleanser (PVP-I 7.5%), gargle and mouth wash (PVP-I 1%) and throat spray (PVP-I 0.45%)] achieved ≥ 99.99% virucidal activity against SARS-CoV-2, corresponding to ≥ 4 log10 reduction of virus titre, within 30 s of contact…. This study provides evidence of rapid and effective virucidal activity of PVP-I against SARS-CoV-2. PVP-I-based products are widely available for medical and personal use for hand hygiene and oral decontamination, and could be readily integrated into coronavirus disease, COVID-19, infection control measures in hospital and community settings. By contrast, does anyone leave a countertop or surface damp with a bleach solution for 1-5 minutes to make sure Covid was killed?
Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals – The purpose of this study was to evaluate the necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in persons previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. Employees of the Cleveland Clinic Health System working in Ohio on Dec 16, 2020, the day COVID-19 vaccination was started, were included. Any subject who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at least 42 days earlier was considered previously infected. One was considered vaccinated 14 days after receipt of the second dose of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. The cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection over the next five months, among previously infected subjects who received the vaccine, was compared with those of previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated, previously uninfected subjects who received the vaccine, and previously uninfected subjects who remained unvaccinated. Among the 52238 included employees, 1359 (53%) of 2579 previously infected subjects remained unvaccinated, compared with 22777 (41%) of 49659 not previously infected. The cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection remained almost zero among previously infected unvaccinated subjects, previously infected subjects who were vaccinated, and previously uninfected subjects who were vaccinated, compared with a steady increase in cumulative incidence among previously uninfected subjects who remained unvaccinated. Not one of the 1359 previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated had a SARS-CoV-2 infection over the duration of the study. In a Cox proportional hazards regression model, after adjusting for the phase of the epidemic, vaccination was associated with a significantly lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among those not previously infected (HR 0.031, 95% CI 0.015 to 0.061) but not among those previously infected (HR 0.313, 95% CI 0 to Infinity). Conclusions: Individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from COVID-19 vaccination, and vaccines can be safely prioritized to those who have not been infected before. Cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was examined among 52238 employees in an American healthcare system. COVID-19 did not occur in anyone over the five months of the study among 2579 individuals previously infected with COVID-19, including 1359 who did not take the vaccine.
Fauci says boosters are not recommended ‘right now.’ = Dr. Anthony S. Fauci made the rounds of the morning TV news shows on Sunday, trying to quell confusion over the latest federal pandemic guidance for the start of school in the fall as well as growing questions about the necessity of booster shots.On Sunday, Israel’s health ministry announced that it would begin offering boosters to adults with weakened immune systems who already had two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, in light of the rising number of cases there caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus. The news was first reported by Reuters.Asked about the development on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Dr. Fauci emphasized that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was committed to following the science and said that boosters were not recommended “right now,” given that more than 90 percent of new Covid-related hospitalizations were in unvaccinated patients.But he did not rule out the possibility that boosters might eventually be advisable for certain populations. Pfizer and BioNTech announced last week that they weredeveloping a vaccine targeted to the Delta variant and also had promising results from studies of people who received a booster shot. With a third shot, “you get five to 10 times the number of antibodies that you had from the second dose,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration who is now on Pfizer’s board, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
U.S. officials tell Pfizer that more data is needed for a decision on booster shots. Representatives of Pfizer met privately with senior U.S. scientists and regulators on Monday to press their case for swift authorization of coronavirus booster vaccines, amid growing public confusion about whether they will be needed and pushback from federal health officials who say the extra doses are not necessary now. The high-level online meeting, which lasted an hour and involved Pfizer’s chief scientific officer briefing virtually every top doctor in the federal government, came on the same day Israel started administering third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to heart transplant patients and others with compromised immune systems. Officials said after the meeting that more data – and possibly several more months – would be needed before regulators could determine whether booster shots were necessary. The twin developments underscored the intensifying debate about whether booster shots are needed in the United States, at what point and for whom. Many American experts, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, have said there is insufficient evidence yet that boosters are necessary. Some, though, say Israel’s move may foreshadow a government decision to at least recommend them for the vulnerable. Pfizer is gathering information on antibody responses in those who receive a third dose, as well as data from Israel, and expects to submit at least some of that to the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks in a formal request to broaden the emergency authorization for its coronavirus vaccine. But the final decision on booster shots, several officials said after the meeting, will also depend on real-world information gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about breakthrough infections – those occurring in vaccinated people – that cause serious disease or hospitalization. And any recommendations about booster shots are likely to be calibrated, even within age groups, officials said. For example, if booster shots are recommended, they might go first to nursing home residents who received their vaccines in late 2020 or early 2021, while elderly people who received their first shots in the spring might have a longer wait. And then there is the question of what kind of booster: a third dose of the original vaccine, or perhaps a shot tailored to the highly infectious Delta variant, which is surging in the United States.
Natural Infection May Offer Better Protection Against Delta Variant, Israeli Health Ministry Says –In recent weeks, Israeli media has become a factory for stories that cut against the ‘official’ ‘scientific’ narrative about the COVID-19 vaccines. Most visibly, Israel has made a deal with Pfizer to start doling out “booster” shots for the most vulnerable Israelis, despite the FDA’s insistence that there’s “no evidence” that a booster shot is necessary. Now, the Israeli Health Ministry has discovered that the number of patients who had been infected prior to becoming infected again during the latest Delta-driven wave of the pandemic were less likely to be reinfected than patients who have only been vaccinated. The finding directly contradicts research spouted by American experts like Dr. Fauci, along with Pfizer and Moderna, who have previously insisted that the antibodies created by their jabs are more powerful than antibodies produced by natural infection (which is one reason even the previously infected have been asked to get vaccinated).According to Israel National News, more than 7.7K new cases of the virus have been detected during the most recent wave (beginning back in May). However, just 72 of the confirmed cases were reported in people who were known to have been previously infected – that is, less than 1% of the new cases.Roughly 40% of new cases – involving more than 3K patients – were infected despite being fully vaccinated.By this count, Israelis who had been vaccinated were 6.72x more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection, with more than 3K of the 5,193,499, or 0.0578%, of Israelis who were vaccinated getting infected in the latest wave. The disparity has confounded Health Ministry experts, with some saying the data proves the higher level of immunity provided by natural infection versus vaccination. However, others remain unconvinced.Israel’s Health Ministry previously estimated that the efficacy of Pfizer’s COVID jab was only 64% against the Delta variant, which helped prompt Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to develop a new jab designed to protect against variants including Delta and Beta (the variant first discovered in South Africa).
CDC advisory panel to consider third COVID-19 shot for immunocompromised – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory panel will consider a third COVID-19 shot for immunocompromised individuals. The panel will meet on July 22 to discuss “clinical considerations for additional doses in immunocompromised individuals,” the meeting’s agenda states. Heavy debate around a third COVID-19 shot sparked last week after Pfizer said it would seek authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a third dose of its vaccine. The company said the third dose would provide even stronger protection, citing data that showed the booster shot provided levels of neutralizing antibodies five to 10 times higher when administered six months after the second dose. While U.S. health officials have not ruled out the possibility that booster shots will be needed, they have said a booster is not needed at this time. Hours after Pfizer’s announcement, the FDA and CDC said in a rare joint statement that Americans who have been fully inoculated do not need a booster shot. After meeting with Pfizer officials on Monday, the Biden administration maintained that position. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also pushed back on the need for a third vaccine dose. “Currently, data shows us that vaccination offers long lasting immunity against severe and deadly COVID-19,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday. “The priority now must be to vaccinate those who have received no doses and protection.” Israel has begun administering a third dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to people with weak immune systems. This includes people with cancer, people who have undergone liver transplants and others who have weak protection from the vaccine.
The F.D.A. will add a warning about a rare nerve syndrome to J.&J.’s vaccine, but regulators found the risk was low. – The Food and Drug Administration is planning to warn that Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine can lead to an increased risk of a rare neurological condition known as Guillain – Barré syndrome, another setback for a vaccine that has largely been sidelined in the United States because of manufacturing problems and a temporary safety pause earlier this year, according to several people familiar with the plans.Although regulators have found that the chances of developing the condition are low, they appear to be three to five times higher among recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine than among the general population in the United States, according to people familiar with the decision.Federal officials have identified roughly 100 suspected cases of Guillain-Barré disease among recipients of the Johnson & Johnson shot through a federal monitoring system that relies on patients and health care providers to report adverse effects of vaccines. The reports are considered preliminary. Most people who develop the condition recover.“It’s not surprising to find these types of adverse events associated with vaccination,” said Dr. Luciana Borio, a former acting chief scientist at the F.D.A. under President Barack Obama. The data collected so far by the F.D.A., she added, suggested that the vaccine’s benefits “continue to vastly outweigh the risks.” The database reports indicate that symptoms of Guillain-Barrédeveloped within about three weeks of vaccination. One recipient, a 57-year-old man from Delaware who had suffered both a heart attack and a stroke within the last four years, died in early April after he was vaccinated and developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, according to a report filed to the database.The Biden administration is expected to announce the new warning as early as Tuesday. The F.D.A. has concluded that the benefits of the vaccine in preventing severe disease or death from the coronavirus still strongly outweigh the risk, but it plans to include the proviso in fact sheets about the drug for providers and patients. European regulators may soon follow suit. No link has been found between Guillain-Barré syndrome and the coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, the other two federally authorized manufacturers. Those rely on a different technology. Nearly 13 million people in the United States have received Johnson & Johnson’s shot, but 92 percent of Americans who have been fully vaccinated received shots developed by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. Even though it requires only one dose, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine has been marginalized by manufacturing delays and a 10-day pause while investigators studied whether it was linked to a rare but serious blood clotting disorder in women. That investigation also resulted in a warning added to the fact sheet.
FDA adds new warning to J&J COVID-19 vaccine – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is adding a label on Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, warning that it has been linked to rare cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a neurological disorder in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks part of its nervous system. There have been 100 preliminary reports following vaccination after approximately 12.5 million doses administered, FDA said in a statement. Of these reports, 95 of them were serious and required hospitalization. There was one reported death. The cases have largely occurred about two weeks after vaccination and mostly in men, many aged 50 and older, the CDC said in a statement. The cases are rare, “but do likely indicate a small possible risk of this side effect following this vaccine,” the CDC said. The CDC added that available data do not show a similar pattern with mRNA vaccines, after over 321 million doses administered in the United States. This agency said its vaccine advisory committee will discuss the issue at an upcoming meeting. The FDA noted that while the available evidence suggests an association between the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and increased risk of Guillain-Barré, “it is insufficient to establish a causal relationship.” GBS itself is rare, affecting only about 3,000 to 6,000 people every year. The exact cause is not known, but most cases usually start a few days or weeks following a respiratory or gastrointestinal viral infection. Some vaccines have also been shown to cause GBS in rare instances, such as the seasonal influenza shot and a vaccine to prevent shingles.
Compensation for COVID-19 Vaccine Victims – Recent news from Norway may provide us with a glimpse of what lies ahead for many nations that have basically forced their citizens into accepting a COVID-19 vaccine. Back in mid-April 2021, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) posted this news on its website: “Since use of the AstraZeneca vaccine was put on hold on 11th March, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has considered further use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Norway, together with other experts. “We now know significantly more about the association between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the rare but severe incidents with low platelet counts, blood clots and haemorrhages, than when Norway decided to pause use of the AstraZeneca-vaccine in March,” says Geir Bukholm, Director of the Division of Infection Control and Environmental Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. “Based on this knowledge, we come with a recommendation to remove the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Coronavirus Immunisation Programme in Norway,” says Bukholm. Calculations have been performed based on Norwegian data where the risk of dying from COVID-19 disease among the different age groups is compared with the risk of dying from the severe, but rare, condition with severe blood clots observed after AstraZeneca vaccination.“Since there are few people who die from COVID-19 in Norway, the risk of dying after vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine would be higher than the risk of dying from the disease, particularly for younger people,” says Bukholm. “Norwegians who received the AstraZeneca vaccine for their first dose will be offered another vaccine for their second dose.” Now, let’s look at some more recent news from Norway dated July 2, 2021: Three claimants are granted compensation by the Norwegian Patient Injury Compensation (NPE) due to serious side effects after the AstraZeneca vaccine.””These are the first to be upheld for vaccine damage in connection with the covid-19 pandemic in Norway.All three received the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was later withdrawn from the national vaccination program due to several cases of severe blood clots, low platelets and bleeding. One case concerns a female health worker in her 40s who died in March. The woman was prioritized in the vaccine queue due to her position as a health worker.
Covid-19: Vaccinations Have Hit A Wall — July 13, 2021 – CDC data here. I doubt if anyone cares, but holy mackerel, the Covid-19 vaccine data released today by the CDC — I don’t think — has ever been worse. Tuesday’s data has always been one of the worse days but today’s is particularly bad. The government distributed an all-time low (one doesn’t consider deliveries on the weekends or holidays): only 235,410 doses were distributed to health care facilities. In other words, health care facilities are no longer ordering much vaccine from the US government; they have way more on hand than they can get rid of. Previously posted:In addition, the number of vaccinations given in the past twenty-four hours broke below 345,000 for the first time. Much could be said. It certainly doesn’t help that Guillain-Barré has now been associated with the vaccine.Much could be said. It will be an interesting autumn.
Census Data Show Half of Unvaccinated Americans Live in Lower-Income Households – New Census Bureau data shows that the majority of the adults in the U.S. who haven’t received a COVID-19 vaccine live in households that make less than $50,000 a year.Axios reports that, according to a June survey of adults in the U.S., about 52.7 percent of Americans who have yet to be vaccinated live in households making $50,000 a year or less. People living in households making less than $25,000 annually make up the largest portion of the unvaccinated people surveyed at 22 percent. About 67 percent of U.S. adults have received at least one shot of a COVID vaccine, according to the New York Times’s vaccine tracker. The country recently fell short of President Joe Biden’s vaccination goal of 70 percent of adults with at least one jab by July 4. Vaccination rates have been slowing over the past couple of months even as vaccine appointments have become more available.Though Republicans have highly politicized and spread conspiracies about the vaccine, the Census data appears to show that a significant reason for the slowdown could be over issues of access. About two-thirds of the people surveyed in households making less than $50,000 a year said they would “definitely” or “probably” get the vaccine.The decision of whether or not to get vaccinated, then, seems to be a choice that not everyone can make freely or without consequences. Experts say that the reason why many people who are lower-income or are otherwise marginalized may not have gotten vaccinated may be due to a variety of labor and social issues barring them from accessing a vaccine. Many unvaccinated people fear financial barriers to getting the shot. Some people worry they may get charged for the vaccine, as there have been some reports of people being billed for their shots even though they are supposed to be free to the public.
Some Republican leaders are speaking out in favor of Covid vaccines. – As the Delta variant rips through conservative swaths of the country, some elected Republicans are facing growing pressure from public health advocates to speak out – not only in favor of their constituents being inoculated against the coronavirus but also against media figures and elected officials who arequestioning the vaccines.“We don’t control conservative media figures so far as I know – at least I don’t,” Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, said in an interview on Wednesday. “That being said, I think it’s an enormous error for anyone to suggest that we shouldn’t be taking vaccines. Look, the politicization of vaccination is an outrage and frankly moronic.”Republican senators who favor vaccination are still taking pains not to mention the names of colleagues, such as Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who have given voice to vaccine skepticism, or media personalities like Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson, who expresses such skepticism almost nightly. .Still, with cases ticking upward, driven by localized outbreaks in places with low vaccination rates – Arkansas, Missouri, Texas andNevada – Republican leaders are talking.“As a polio victim myself when I was young, I’ve studied that disease,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, said on Tuesday. “It took 70 years – 70 years – to come up with two vaccines that finally ended the polio threat. As a result of Operation Warp Speed, we have not one, not two, but three highly effective vaccines, so I’m perplexed by the difficulty we have finishing the job.”“If you’re a football fan,” Mr. McConnell said, “we’re in the red zone. But we’re not in the end zone yet. And we need to keep preaching that getting the vaccine is important.” Still, when asked about his conversations with vaccine skeptics in the Senate Republican Conference, Mr. McConnell demurred. “I can only speak for myself, and I just did,” he said.
Children under 12 could be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by winter: report — The COVID-19 vaccine could be approved for emergency use for children under 12 years old as soon as early to midwinter, NBC News reported. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official told the news outlet that children would likely be able to receive the vaccine under the emergency authorization by that time, with a goal to have it fully approved soon afterward. The official said that the FDA wants four to six months of follow-up data for children under the age of 12. Acquiring follow-up data could make it easier to get the inoculation fully approved, according to NBC. The FDA used two months of follow-up data from clinical trials for adults. Currently, the COVID-19 vaccine is only authorized in the U.S. for people ages 12 and up. The news comes amid vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. – a significant portion of the nation remains unvaccinated as the delta variant spreads. States and localities have reported that the majority of people who have been hospitalized or have died from COVID-19 have not been vaccinated. President Biden and members of his administration have repeatedly underscored the need to get the jab, and on Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy made a personal appeal to Americans to get vaccinated. He stated that he had 10 people in his family die from the disease. The FDA official told NBC News that one factor that may still make families hesitant about getting the vaccine is the fact that they have been used under an emergency use authorization. None of the vaccines available have been fully approved by the agency. Pfizer and BioNTech announced in May that they started their Biologics License Application to ultimately get their vaccine fully approved for people ages 16 and up. Additionally, Pfizer and Moderna have already started conducting trials in children under the age of 12 years old. According to NBC, both companies expect data from their clinical trials by the fall.
BioNTech Shot Produces 10 Times More Antibodies Than Sinovac, Study Finds -There is a substantial gap in the amount of antibodies that mRNA and inactivated vaccines can generate against the virus that causes Covid-19, according to a Hong Kong study, in the latest finding on what may have contributed to the varied outcomes following mass vaccination using different types of shots. The research, published in The Lancet on Thursday, found that antibody levels among Hong Kong health workers who have been fully vaccinated with BioNTech SE‘s mRNA shot are about 10 times higher than those observed in the recipients of the inactivated vaccine from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. While disease-fighting antibodies don’t account for the full picture when it comes to measuring the ability to generate immunity and the effectiveness of Covid vaccines, “the difference in concentrations of neutralizing antibodies identified in our study could translate into substantial differences in vaccine effectiveness,” the researchers said. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting the superiority of mRNA vaccines in providing potent and comprehensive protection against Sars-CoV-2 and its variants, compared to vaccines developed by more traditional methods such as inactivated shots.
COVID-19 Outbreaks Hit Summer Camps – Are Schools Next? The U.S. has seen a string of COVID-19 outbreaks tied to summer camps in recent weeks in places such as Texas, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and Kansas, in what some fear could be a preview of the upcoming school year. In some cases the outbreaks have spread from the camp to the broader community. The clusters have come as the number of newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. has reversed course, surging more than 60% over the past two weeks from an average of about 12,000 a day to around 19,500, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The rise in many places has been blamed on too many unvaccinated people and the highly contagious delta variant. Gwen Ford, a 43-year-old science teacher from Adrian, Missouri, was cautiously optimistic when she eyed the dropping case numbers in the spring and signed up her 12-year-old daughter for the West Central Christian Service Camp. But one day after the girl got home from a week of playing in the pool, worshipping with friends and bunking in a dormitory, Ford got an email about an outbreak and then learned that her daughter’s camp buddy was infected.
New Johns Hopkins map shows COVID-19 cases rising across America – Cases of COVID-19 and its variant strains are rising across the United States, according to a new coronavirus map from Johns Hopkins University.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are currently 37.4 new cases per 100,000 people nationwide this week, up from 28.7 cases per 100,000 just last week.Specific states and areas are largely responsible for a majority of the new cases. For example, Missouri has seen a nearly 70-percent increase in coronavirus cases in the past week, with 161.7 new cases per 100,000. The state has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with only 37.09 percent of its population fully vaccinated.The national average of fully vaccinated residents is 55.4 percent.Meanwhile, Vermont is reporting the fewest new coronavirus cases in the country, with only 33 new cases per week, or 5.3 per 100,000. The state has the highest vaccination rate in the country, with 60.27 percent of the population being fully vaccinated.As the delta variant continues to spread, however, even some states with above-average vaccination rates are experiencing small surges of new cases. Last week, Massachusetts, which has a vaccination rate of 58.65 percent, surged from 65 new cases per day to 98.
COVID-19 case count spikes hit almost every state – Most areas of the country are seeing a new surge in COVID-19 cases as variants of the virus serve as a painful reminder that the pandemic is not over despite eased restrictions.Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have documented an increase in average daily cases over the past two weeks. But nine in particular, including seven in the South, have seen cases at least double in that time period, according to data from The New York Times.In Los Angeles County, officials recorded more than 1,000 new cases forthree consecutive days this week for the first time since March. Arkansas also reported more than 1,000 new cases for a third straight day Friday.“The majority of states have large swaths of population that are still not protected,” said Amber D’Souza, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She said that despite tremendous progress on vaccinations, the new data show the outbreaks are mostly hitting areas with lower vaccination rates. Those spikes are due in part to the spread of the more transmissible delta variant and loosened COVID-19 restrictions, D’Souza said. “We expect to see continuing surges of infection until we are able to bring vaccination rates higher than they currently are,” she added. Overall, the U.S. is now averaging more than 19,000 new cases for the first time since the end of May, marking a 60 percent increase compared with two weeks ago. A third of those cases were documented in five states – Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada – CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner told the network Monday. Throughout the pandemic, rises in coronavirus cases have typically preceded spikes in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. While the rate of COVID-19 deaths is still decreasing in the U.S., data from the Times shows an 11 percent increase in average daily hospitalizations over the past two weeks. During that same period, vaccination rates have plummeted to an average of 500,000 a day, the lowest level since President Biden took office.
NYC officials warn of COVID-19 Delta variant spread on Staten Island – Staten Island is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases at least partly because of the recent spread of the highly contagious Delta variant among unvaccinated New Yorkers, the city’s top doctor warned Monday. “The spread of the Delta variant means it is perhaps the most dangerous time to be unvaccinated, and that’s why we have ensured that our vaccination efforts are proceeding with as much urgency as possible,” said Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, at a virtual press briefing with Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We’re seeing, for example, in Staten Island the percent positivity and the case numbers have increased in recent days and weeks, and that’s because we have unvaccinated individuals, particularly younger people, who remain unvaccinated,” Chokshi said. New York City residents who do not receive a COVID-19 jab are now at “very high risk” of contracting the coronavirus, added de Blasio’s senior adviser for public health, Dr. Jay Varma. “This new strain of the virus is particularly contagious, and so for that percentage of the population that is unvaccinated, they are at very high risk of getting infected and potentially having these very serious complications,” Varma said at the briefing. Overall, the city is experiencing a slight increase in new COVID-19 cases, with the daily seven-day rolling average at 328 and a 1.27 percent positivity rate, according to figures released Monday by the mayor. On Friday, the city’s positivity rate was 0.85 percent for the latest seven-day average, with Staten Island being the only borough to clock in above 1 percent, state data showed. It had a 1.41 percent positive rate.
Coronavirus dashboard for July 12: the completely preventable “delta wave” is here – The completely unnecessary and preventable “delta wave” of COVID infections, hospitalizations, and deaths is now in force – all three metrics are now rising nationwide. Here are the 7 day average of confirmed cases (thin line) and deaths (thick): Cases have gone up roughly 50% from their 11,300 trough 3 weeks ago. Deaths likely bottomed 7 days ago. Hospitalizations (graph from the CDC) have also started rising in the past week or so: There are July 4 artifacts in almost all the new data, which won’t pass out of the 7 day averages for several more days. Also, about half of the States have apparently decided that COVID is so “over” that they no longer need to report on the weekends. With those caveats, here are a few graphs of the worst-affected States. Here are Arkansas, Missouri, and Nevada: And here they are for spring and summer 2020 for comparison: Arkansas and Missouri have already matched their worst summer 2020 levels. Nevada is at less than half of its worst levels. Next, here are Florida and Arizona, both of which had the worst summer outbreaks last year: Here they are for comparison last year: Florida is currently only at a little over 1/4 of its worst level from 2020, and Arizona is at about 1/6th of last year’s worst levels. I expect the situation for all of the above States, except possibly Arizona, to change considerably for the worse before the end of this month. All of which was completely preventable.
79 fully vaccinated Mass. residents have died from breakthrough COVID-19 infections, data shows. (WHDH) – Of the more than 5,000 Massachusetts residents who have died from COVID-19 since vaccinations became available, 79 of them had been fully vaccinated against the virus, new public health data indicated.As of July 10, there were 4,450 cases of COVID out of 4,195,844 vaccinated individuals statewide, resulting in 303 hospitalizations, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.Fifty-six residents were hospitalized and later died, while 23 others died without going to the hospital, the data showed. Breakthrough case numbers in the state remain very low and cases in which an infected person was hospitalized or died are even lower, state health officials added.Health officials also noted that breakthrough cases are expected given the state’s high vaccination rates. Provincetown has seen 20 recent breakthrough cases, with 10 from out-of-town visitors, according to town officials. People who are unvaccinated are urged to continue to wear masks, especially indoors, and those who are feeling ill should get tested for COVID-19.
Virus cases rise in New York City as the Delta variant infects the unvaccinated. – Fueled by the Delta variant, daily coronavirus case counts in New York City have climbed in recent days, even as the city seems determined to turn the page on the pandemic.Just a few weeks ago, there were only 200 new cases a day across the city on average, the lowest level since the early days of the pandemic. But in the past week, the city had a stretch of several days of 400 or more cases. And the test positivity rate has doubled: from below 0.6 percent on average to about 1.3 percent.Those numbers are still low, but the increase has been swift, surprising some epidemiologists and public health officials who had not expected to see cases jump so quickly after remaining level through June.With some 64 percent of adults in the city fully vaccinated, epidemiologists say it remains unlikely that the Delta variant will create conditions as devastating as the past two waves of Covid-19. Still, Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, calls the recent uptick “concerning.” The Delta variant is far more contagious than the original form of the virus that swept across the city in March 2020. It was detected in a few cases in New York City in February during the second wave, but it really made inroads over the past two months. By the end of May, it accounted for about 8 percent of the cases sequenced by the city, and by mid-June, more than 40 percent.
As the Delta variant fuels rising U.S. cases, the C.D.C. director warns of a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated.’ – As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus fuels outbreaks in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday that “this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”Cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain far below last winter’s peak, and vaccines are effective against Delta, but the C.D.C. director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, urged people to get fully vaccinated to receive robust protection, pleading: “Do it for yourself, your family and for your community. And please do it to protect your young children who right now can’t get vaccinated themselves.”The number of new virus cases is likely to increase in the coming weeks, and those cases are likely to be concentrated in areas with low vaccine coverage, officials said at a White House briefing on the pandemic.“Our biggest concern is that we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated,” Dr. Walensky said. The nation surpassed 34 million cumulative cases on Friday, according to a New York Times database.Delta now accounts for more than half of new infections across the country, and case numbers have been rising in every state. Roughly 30,400 new cases are reported each day, up from just 11,000 a day less than a month ago.So far, data suggests that many of the vaccines – including the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots – provide good protection against Delta, especially against the worst outcomes, including hospitalization and death. (Receiving a single dose of a two-shot regimen provides only weak protection against the variant, however.) Nearly 60 percent of U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated, but fewer than 50 percent of all Americans have been; only those 12 and older are eligible.“We have come a long way in our fight against this virus,” Jeffrey D. Zients, the administration’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said at the briefing.The pace of vaccination has slowed considerably since the spring, and vaccine coverage remains highly uneven. Delta is already driving case numbers up in undervaccinated areas, including in parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Tennessee vaccination outreach to minors halted, not just for COVID-19 – The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean. If the health department must issue any information about vaccines, staff are instructed to strip the agency logo off the documents.The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property, despite holding at least one such event this month. The decisions to end vaccine outreach and school events come directly from Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, the internal report states.Additionally, the health department will take steps to ensure it no longer sends postcards or other notices reminding teenagers to get their second dose of the coronavirus vaccines. Postcards will still be sent to adults, but teens will be excluded from the mailing list so the postcards are not “potentially interpreted as solicitation to minors,” the report states.These changes to Tennessee’s vaccination strategy, detailed in an COVID-19 report distributed to health department staff on Friday, then reiterated in a mass email on Monday, illustrate how the state government continues to dial back efforts to vaccinate minors against coronavirus. This state’s approach to vaccinations will not only lessen efforts to inoculate young people against coronavirus, it could also hamper the capacity to vaccinate adults and protect children from other infectious diseases.And these changes will take effect just as the coronavirus pandemic shows new signs of spread in Tennessee. After months of declining infections, the average number of new cases per day has more than doubled in the past two weeks – from 177 to 418. The average test positivity rate has jumped from 2.2% to 5.4% in the same time period.
Los Angeles County will require masks to be worn indoors as Delta variant spreads — Los Angeles County announced Thursday that it will require masks to be worn inside regardless of vaccination status, as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads throughout California.Public health officials in L.A. County had already been urging residents to wear masks indoors. The mandate will begin Saturday night, just before midnight.Only weeks ago, on June 15, Californians celebrated their state’s reopening as most restrictions were lifted. A statewide mask mandate was relaxed for vaccinated people.The Delta variant is extremely contagious, scientists say, and may cause more severe illness. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, has described it as “the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate Covid-19.” The tens of millions of Americans who are vaccinated are largely protected from the virus, including the Delta variant, scientists have said.The C.D.C. says that the variant is now responsible for over half of all new cases in the United States. While cases are rising nationally, overall, the average numbers of new virus cases and deaths, as well as hospitalizations, are significantly down from the devastating peaks during previous national surges. Daily case numbers have increased at least 15 percent over the last two weeks in 49 states, including 19 states that are reporting at least twice as many new cases a day. Full-fledged outbreaks have emerged in a handful of places with relatively low vaccination rates, including Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Nevada.L.A. County is averaging over 1,000 new cases per day, a 279 percent increase from the average two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database. By comparison, the county averaged at least 13,000 new cases or higher through much of December and January. Hospitalizations are up 27 percent over the past two weeks.
COVID-19 hospitalizations on the rise in Texas as less than 50 percent of the state is fully vaccinated -Coronavirus hospitalizations and infections are on the rise in Texas as the Lone Star State has vaccinated less than half of its total population, according to data from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. As of Thursday, there were 2,653 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, an increase of 134 new patients from the day before, according to state health data. Thursday’s hospitalizations come after the state health department recorded 1,888 hospitalizations the previous Thursday. Additionally, there were more than 3,000 new infections recorded on Friday alone, with the seven-day average up by about 963 from just a week ago. The upticks in cases and hospitalizations come as health officials are warning of new coronavirus surges across the country due in part to the highly transmissible delta variant. New COVID-19 clusters have been especially predominant in communities with relatively low vaccination rates. As of Friday, roughly 50 percent of Texas’s total population had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with just about 43 percent fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, the rate of vaccination in Texas is higher than in some bordering states, including Louisiana and Arkansas, which have between 35 and 36 percent of their populations fully vaccinated. Both neighboring states have also recorded recent surges in coronavirus infections, with Arkansas on Tuesday reporting its biggest daily jump in new cases in five months with 1,476 new cases.
The Delta variant has been detected in 104 countries in new surge of the pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the Delta variant of coronavirus had spread to at least 104 countries last week in conjunction with the worrisome trend in the epidemiological curves of new infections. During the WHO’s coronavirus press brief, Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, the technical lead for COVID-19, warned about these dire developments. “I counted again this morning. There are more than two dozen countries that have epidemiological curves that are almost vertical right now,” meaning the pandemic is growing at an exponential rate. On June 21, the seven-day moving average had reached a low of 360,000 COVID-19 infections each day. It has presently climbed to 425,000 cases per day or an 18 percent increase in little more than two weeks. The epidemiologic curve for reported deaths has also swung upwards. As of July 10, 2021, 187.2 million COVID-19 infections and 4.04 million deaths were reported globally. In every region of the world, weekly statistics indicate that infections are either turning up or continue to remain high:
- The trend in Europe is alarming as the week-to-week change has been accelerating over the last three weeks. The week beginning June 28, 2021, there were 543,584 confirmed cases, a 40.1 percent increase.
- Though the Americas have seen a 13 percent decline over the last week in June, the number of weekly new infections remains nearly one million.
- Cases across Southeast Asia have turned up again with almost 613,000 infections per week, a nearly 7 percent increase.
- Similarly, the Eastern Mediterranean has seen cases surge once more, with almost 246,000 infections for the week beginning June 28, 2021, an 11.1 percent rise.
- Africa had the highest number of confirmed cases ever reported during the pandemic, with 204,000 new infections, a 14.8 percent increase from last week. It appears the number of new cases being reported is slowing, but this will need to be followed closely.
- The Western Pacific continues to see high community transmission though reported cases have remained stable. There were 128,000 new cases for the week beginning June 28, 2021.
The epidemiological curves for reported fatalities are trending with the infections in their respective regions.In the United States, where the Delta variant now dominates, the seven-day average of new daily cases has been rising since June 21, 2021, when they had reached their lowest point with only 12,000 new infections per day. The last time the US saw such numbers was on March 26, 2020, when the emerging pandemic first fell on the population of New York City.Cases are climbing again, having reached 18,000 cases per day. At the end of last week, the US saw a sudden jump in new infections to over 27,000 per day. The seven-day average of deaths has ceased its decline, with about 220 people dying every day. As of July 10, 2021, the cumulative death toll stands at 622,819, and 34.7 million reported infections. Florida appears to have become the new epicenter, as cases have jumped from around 1,000 per day in mid to late June to almost 5,800 cases on July 10, 2021. However, regions in the Southeast and portions of the Midwest where vaccination rates are comparatively low continue to see rising infections. COVID-19 hospitalization rates over the last two weeks have risen 40 percent for Arkansas, Nevada and Iowa.
Israel allows those with weakened immune systems to get a third Pfizer-BioNTech shot. – Israel’s Ministry of Health on Monday issued guidelines for administering a third shot of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to people with compromised immune systems, citing the rising infection rate in recent weeks as well as growing evidence that such people do not develop sufficient antibodies after two doses.The ministry released a list of those now eligible for a third shot, prioritizing heart, lung and kidney transplant recipients followed by others with weak immune systems including cancer patients.Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv began giving third Pfizer shots to dozens of heart transplant recipients on Monday afternoon, an hour after receiving a green light from the Ministry of Health.“It’s really urgent to do it now,” Prof. Galia Rahav, the head of the Infectious Disease Unit and Laboratories at the Sheba Medical Center, said in a video statement, citing the rise of the Delta variant. The hospital said it would be testing and tracking the recipients of the third shot for research purposes.Israel initially led the world with a rapid vaccination campaign and 57 percent of its population is fully vaccinated. But the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant has brought a rise in daily infections, up from single digits a month ago to an average of 452 cases per day. About 58 percent of the 81 Israeli Covid-19 patients currently hospitalized are vaccinated, according to Israeli Ministry of Health data. Studies suggest that vaccines remain effectiveagainst the Delta variant.Health care providers in France have been giving a third dose of a two-dose vaccine to people with certain immune conditions since April.The number of organ transplant recipients who had antibodies increased to 68 percent four weeks after the third dose, up from 40 percent after the second dose, one team of French researchers recently reported. In the United States, there has been no concerted effort by federal agencies or vaccine manufacturers to test this approach so far.
India’s pandemic response varies from one village to the next. – When a devastating second wave of Covid-19 infections reached India’s countryside this spring, the village of Khilwai took immediate action. Two testing centers were set up, and 30 positive cases were isolated. The outbreak was contained with just three deaths.It was a different story in the two villages on either side of Khilwai. Testing remained limited. The local health center in one village had been closed, its staff sent away to a larger hospital. The coronavirus spread, and at least 30 people in each village died with Covid-19 symptoms.But even as the three villages in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, diverged in their handling of the coronavirus, they have been united in another way: a vaccine hesitancy that is prevalent throughout India and threatens to prolong the country’s crisis.The combination of an uneven virus response – a reflection ofhuge inequality in resources and the vagaries of local attitudes – and a struggling vaccination campaign has left officials warning of a third wave of infections when the second has at best only leveled off. Any sense of rapid relief like the one now prevailing in the United States is unlikely anytime soon.Just 5 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people are fully vaccinated, while about 20 percent have had a first dose. That gives the country insufficient protection against the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus, which first surfaced in India. At the same time, the country continues to report tens of thousands of new infections and close to 1,000 deaths each day, numbers that are almost certainly an undercounting. Resigned talk of a third wave is indicative of how virus fatigue, and the catastrophic toll of hundreds of thousands of people in the last wave, have resulted in a new definition of acceptable loss.
Short on vaccines, Asia grapples with Delta-driven outbreaks. In recent days, Indonesia has reported nearly twice as many coronavirus cases as the United States. Malaysia’s per capita caseload is roughly on par with those of Brazil and Iran. And the latest Covid surges in Japan and South Korea have prompted harsh new restrictions on movement there, effective Monday.Across the Asia-Pacific region, the Delta variant is driving new outbreaks in places where transmission was once kept relatively low, but where the pace of vaccination has been too slow to contain the latest outbreaks. One result is that everyday activities are again being restricted, just as they were in the anxious, early days of the pandemic – even as the West edges back to normalcy.Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is a case in point. Its government once hoped that its archipelagic geography and youthful population would spare it a debilitating outbreak. But only about 13 percent of its 270 million people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and the rise of Delta is pushing its health system to the brink and forcing some patients to hunt for oxygen.On July 3, the government closed mosques, schools, shopping malls and sports facilities on two of Indonesia’s major islands for two weeks. But the daily average of new cases – more than 33,000 as of Sunday – has continued to climb. Officials said on Friday that they would extend the same emergency rules to other islands. Intensive care wards in and around the capital, Jakarta, have beenoperating at full capacity, and doctors who received the vaccine made by the Chinese company Sinovac have been falling ill or dying. The government has said it will administer a third dose, of the Moderna vaccine, to about 1.5 million health workers starting this week.
Chinese vaccines are pledged to be shared with countries in need, a vaccine initiative says. -The Gavi Alliance announced Monday that it had signed its first agreements to buy coronavirus vaccine from two Chinese companies, Sinopharm and Sinovac, providing for deliveries of 110 million doses within three months, with options for bigger deliveries later this year and in the first half of 2022.Gavi, the public-private partnership that is overseeing Covax, the program to donate vaccines to poor countries, said that Sinopharm would contribute 60 million doses between July and October, with an option to provide 60 million more in the last quarter of 2021 and 50 million more doses in the first half of 2022.Sinovac would deliver 50 million doses, Gavi said, by the end of September, with an option for Covax to receive 150 million more doses in the last quarter of the year and 180 million doses in the first half of 2022.The agreements, combined with donations pledged by the United States and other Group of 7 countries, will give a boost to Covax. It was set up to help the poorest countries gain access to vaccines, but it has struggled to gain a footing, as world leaders and vaccine manufacturers have prioritized sending doses to populations in wealthy nations.China kicked off its vaccine diplomacy campaign last year by pledging to provide a shot that would be safe and effective at preventing severe cases of Covid-19, and dozens of countries are using Covid vaccines from China. Some of the countries that have experienced fresh virus outbreaks despite high inoculation rates, though, relied on Chinese-made vaccines. During a news conference Monday, World Health Organization officials supported the addition of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines to the Covax portfolio, and expressed confidence in the efficacy of the vaccines.But as concerns grow about more transmissible variants as well as about the waning immunity provided by the Sinovac vaccine, Thailand said on Monday that health care workers who had received the vaccine made by Sinovac would also be inoculatedwith the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech shots to give them greater protection. About 3.4 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally but the vast majority have gone to wealthy countries. Covax, since its launch in February, has shipped 107 million vaccine doses to 135 countries. About 70 percent of these doses have gone to poorer countries; the other 30 percent have gone to wealthier nations paying their own way.
South Asian migrant workers are stranded as they wait for vaccines – The pandemic has been a cruel blow for thousands of migrant workers in South Asia who are out of work or unable to return to their jobs abroad. Countries like Bangladesh, India and Nepal rely heavily on migrant workers, who send billions of dollars home each year. But over the past year, many have lost their jobs and been forced to return to their native countries. Others still have jobs or have found new ones, but are struggling to make travel arrangements to take up the posts.The lack of Covid-19 vaccines has compounded the problem, with many countries requiring migrant workers to be inoculated to avoid quarantine or sometimes to enter at all.Ajay Sodari, a migrant worker in Kathmandu, Nepal, who needs to be vaccinated before he can start his job in South Korea, said, “I spent four years studying the Korean language, to get selected as a qualified worker in language tests and sign a labor agreement with the company.” He said that he had spent thousands of dollars to meet the employment requirements but that the pandemic had “shattered my dream.”The lack of vaccines has been most acute in Bangladesh and Nepal, both of which planned to source most of their doses from neighboring India until New Delhi stopped vaccine exports this spring to prioritize its own citizens. In Bangladesh and Nepal, only about 3 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to aNew York Times database.In Nepal, where inward remittances account for a quarter of gross domestic product, migrant workers were not among the priority groups in initial phases of the vaccination campaign, which favored older adults, frontline health workers, security personnel and government officials. As many as 35,000 migrant workers are stuck in Nepal despite obtaining final work permit approval from the country’s government, according to the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies. The group says that most countries have stopped recruiting workers from Nepal because they are not vaccinated. In Bangladesh, there are at least 90,000 migrant workers waiting to get vaccinated before they can start their jobs abroad, said Shahidul Alam, director general at the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, a government agency. Mr. Alam said that Bangladesh was stepping up its vaccination efforts among migrant workers, including with the introduction of an app.
Indonesia battles virus surge; Japan to send special flights to evacuate citizens, –Indonesia reported over 47,000 coronavirus cases on Tuesday with 864 deaths as reports said the Japanese government has decided to send special flights to the country to pull out its citizens from the country.The archipelago has become a virus hotspot due to surging coronavirus cases. Last Thursday, the country had reported over 38,000 new coronavirus cases.
Indonesia overtakes India to become Asia’s COVID epicenter – -Indonesia has overtaken India as Asia’s new epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic, with daily infections exceeding 40,000 for two straight days and officials warning that the delta variant is spreading outside the most populous island of Java. Southeast Asia’s largest economy on Tuesday reported 47,899 new infections, a record high, up from 40,427 the previous day. India’s cases, meanwhile, dropped to 32,906 from 37,154. More alarming is that despite having more daily infections, Indonesia’s population of 270 million population is just a fifth of India’s. Indonesia now has around 132 cases per million people, compared with India 26 as of Sunday, according to ourworldindata.org. While the daily death toll on Tuesday was less than half India’s 2,020, Indonesia’s per capita count is higher — average 3 per million people, compared with less than one in the south Asian country. The figures do not take into account Indonesia’s poor record of testing and tracing. The Southeast Asia’s case positivity rate — the percentage of confirmed infections vs people tested — has hovered around 30% over the past week, while the figure for India’s 2%. Cumulatively, India’s confirmed coronavirus tallies are still the highest in Asia with 30.9 million cases and 410,784 deaths as of Tuesday, followed by Indonesia with 2,615,529 cases and 68,219 deaths. But while India’s figures keep falling from a May peak, Indonesia’s worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic is not yet showing any signs of slowing down. Health Minister Budi Sadikin said Tuesday that bed occupancy rates for COVID-19 patients in 12 provinces have exceeded 70% — half of them on Java and the rest on other major Indonesian islands. In the nation’s capital, Jakarta, the occupancy rate is close to 90% despite the recent conversion of some facilities into hospitals just for the coronavirus. Sadikin said the government is preparing for a scenario where cases could increase 30% over the next two weeks and accelerate in other regions. Steps include converting more regular hospital beds into treatment facilities for COVID-19. The government earlier this year designated 30% of 400,000 hospital beds nationwide for COVID-19 treatment, but they have quickly been filling up following the Eid holiday exodus in May and as the more contagious delta strain spreads across the country.
The caseload in Indonesia has been skyrocketing, setting daily records. Indonesia reported more than 54,500 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, its third record daily rise in a row as the country has surpassed India’s current daily caseload.A seven-day rolling average of daily cases in the two countries showed them running neck and neck, but India’s caseload has been steadily declining while Indonesia’s has been skyrocketing, according to data collected by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.Over the past few weeks, hospitals on Java island have overflowed with patients and residents have scrambled to buy medical oxygen to treat family members at home. Hundreds of people have been reported to have died of the virus at home because of a lack of oxygen and as a result of an overwhelmed health care system.“Based on the last three days’ data, I can say clearly that Indonesia has become the new epicenter in the world,” said Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist at Griffith University in Australia, who has long urged the Indonesian authorities to implement firmer measures to control the spread of the virus. Over the past two weeks, the daily numbers of infections have nearly doubled, and on Wednesday, Indonesia reported 991 new deaths.Experts believe that the Delta variant is behind the surge in cases in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populated country. By contrast, India’s daily case count, which peaked at more than 414,000 in early May, has fallen to about 40,000.The outbreak in Indonesia is the latest example of the widening gap between Western countries and other nations during the pandemic. Countries like Britain and the United States have reopened their economies and so far have been able to absorb a surge in cases with limited hospitalizations and deaths thanks to successful vaccine rollouts. Others, like India and now Indonesia, have lagged behind in vaccinations and face devastating consequences from Delta’s spread. Studies suggest that vaccines remain effective against the Delta variant, but only 13 percent of Indonesia’s population of 270 millionhas received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while less than 6 percent has been fully vaccinated, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.By comparison, nearly half of the U.S. population has been fully inoculated, and on Wednesday Britain passed the threshold of having vaccinated two thirds of its population.
Indonesia Regulator Allows Ivermectin Use For Covid Treatment — Merely mentioning the name of the vaccine-busting drug Ivermectin in the US is enough to get you carted off for “questioning” to the nearest illegal CIA blacksite, have the NSA leak all your private information to MSNBC, WaPo and the NYT and quietly shipped off to Guantanamo for permanent re-education under the daily auspices of Critical Race Theory. But not in the “banana republic” of Indonesia, where on Thursday, Ivermectin was officially approved for covid treatment in a vicious blow to the “buy my vaccine” pharmaceutical lobby around the world.According to Bloomberg, Indonesia’s food and drug regulator, known as BPOM, has issued a letter approving the distribution of Ivermectin, Remdesivir, Favipiravir, Oseltamivir, immunoglobulin, Tocilizumab, Azithromycin and Dexametason to be used in treatment of Covid-19, according to a statement from the agency. The latter, Bloomberg adds, was issued as guidance for distributors of the drugs.The startling development – if only to the anti-Ivermectin oligarchs in “developed” Western nations – takes place two weeks after eight hospitals in Indonesia began conducting clinical trials on Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine that has appeared to be a potential Covid-19 medication and which is greatly hated by the establishment due to its low price and its ability to eradicate the covid plague which the establishment desperately needs to perpetuate a state of constant near-panic not to mention enabling trillions in fiscal and monetary stimulus, following a permit issued by the national agency of drug and food control.
Australia’s COVID-19 Delta outbreak worsens despite Sydney lockdown – The prospect of an extended lockdown in Sydney loomed on Monday as Australian health officials reported yet another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases for the year, fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant. New South Wales state reported 112 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, almost all in Sydney, despite the country’s biggest city entering its third week of lockdown. Case numbers have been at record levels for at least three days. There was, however, a glimmer of light as the number of newly infected people who were out in the community while infectious dropped to 34 from 45 on Sunday. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the progress of that figure in coming days would determine whether Sydney’s lockdown, due to end Friday, would be extended. “That’s the number we need to get as close to zero as possible,” Berejiklian said during her daily televised briefing. “It is really up to us. The health expert advice will be based on what those numbers look like. I can’t be clearer than that.”
A graphic Covid-19 ad prompts a backlash in Australia. –Australians have lashed out at the government after the release of a graphic advertising video that depicts a woman with severe symptoms of Covid-19, arguing that it unfairly blames younger people, most of whom are ineligible for vaccination.The campaign, released on Sunday and aimed at encouraging Australians to get vaccinated, depicts a sweating woman lying in a hospital bed gasping for air. Her eyes are desperate. She claws at the breathing tube in her nose. “Covid-19 can affect anyone,” reads the text that follows. “Stay home. Get tested. Book your vaccination.”The advertisement first aired in Sydney, a city of more than five million people that is battling a ballooning outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. On Tuesday, the authorities reported 89 new cases and Australia’s second death from the virus this year as concerns continue over a slow vaccine rollout.Only about 9 percent of Australia’s population is fully inoculated, according to New York Times data, and those younger than 40 can only receive the AstraZeneca shot after getting clearance from a doctor. They are not eligible for the Pfizer vaccine, the only other vaccine authorized for use in Australia.“Is the new Covid ad satire?” tweeted Emma Husar, a former member of Australia’s opposition Labor party, adding that the government had given Australians conflicted advice and failed to order sufficient doses.Dan Ilic, an Australian comedian, parodied the ad by adding a voice-over suggesting that the woman in the video was 39, and therefore months away from being eligible for a Pfizer vaccine. “Turn 40 sooner,” he said.Australian officials defended the campaign, which they said was intended to be shocking. “It is quite graphic, and it’s meant to be graphic,” the country’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, told reporters on Sunday. “It is meant to really push that message home that this is important.”
Iranians, desperate for Covid vaccines, are crossing into Armenia to get them. — Thousands of Iranians frustrated with the government’s chaotic vaccine rollout and desperate for protection after enduring wave after wave of the coronavirus are flocking by air and land to neighboring Armenia to be vaccinated against Covid-19.Iran is enduring a fifth wave of the pandemic, with Tehran and 143 cities declared high-risk “red” zones and the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus spreading quickly. Over the past two weeks, Iran’s average daily caseload has risen by 63 percent, to nearly 17,000, according to a New York Times database.Only about 2 percent of Iran’s 84 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. With U.S.- and British-made vaccines banned by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top leader, the country is waiting for shipments of vaccines made by China and Russia.Across the border in Armenia, a country of three million, there are more vaccine doses than people willing to take them, largely because of widespread conspiracy theories and misinformation. Officials there announced in May that they would provide free vaccines to foreigners without registration. Mobile clinics were set up in the streets to make them easily accessible to tourists and visitors. Iranians don’t need a visa to travel to Armenia, and the drive from the border to the capital, Yerevan, is about seven hours.Based on Iran’s vaccine eligibility chart, Parvin Chamanpira, 53, and her husband calculated that it would be months before they qualified, so they traveled from Tehran to Yerevan last week and received their shots from an ambulance parked on the side of the road. She said it took about five minutes, requiring only a blood pressure check and no paperwork. They will return in a few weeks for their second shots.
African countries are left with scarce vaccine supplies as the virus spreads. -Africa is in its deadliest stage of the pandemic so far, and there is little relief in sight.The more contagious Delta variant is sweeping across the continent. Namibia and Tunisia are reporting more deaths per capita than any other country. Hospitals across the continent are filling up, oxygen supplies and medical workers are stretched thin, and recorded deaths jumped 40 percent last week alone.But only about 1 percent of Africans have been fully vaccinated. And even the African Union’s modest goal of inoculating 20 percent of the population by the end of this year seems out of reach.Rich nations have bought up most doses long into the future, often far more than they could conceivably need. Hundreds of millions of shots from a global vaccine-sharing effort have failed to materialize.Supplies to African countries are unlikely to increase much in the next few months, rendering vaccines, the most effective tool against Covid, of little use in the current wave. Instead, many countries are resorting to lockdowns and curfews.On Friday, Gavi, the vaccine alliance that co-lead the vaccine sharing program Covax, said the United States would deliver 25 millions doses of the vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson to African countries in the coming weeks.Yet even a year from now, supplies may not be enough to meet demand from Africa’s 1.3 billion people unless richer countries share their stockpiles and rethink how the distribution system should work. “The blame squarely lies with the rich countries,” said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, a commissioner with Africa Covid-19 Response, a continental task force. “A vaccine delayed is a vaccine denied.”
France orders health workers to be vaccinated as part of a push to prevent another Covid wave. –Hoping to combat a possible wave of coronavirus infections, President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday announced new vaccination requirements, including mandatory inoculation for health care workers and proof of immunization or a recent negative test to enter restaurants and cultural venues.But whether these measures could be enough to avoid a fourth wave of the virus powered by the fast-spreading Delta variant, which already accounts for about half of new infections in France, remains highly uncertain.The announcement came just three days after nightclubs reopened for the first time in 16 months, which many believed symbolically signaled the end of the country’s protracted efforts to emerge from the pandemic. Instead, the new measures dashed hopes that France was about to return to a prepandemic normal and that summer vacation will run smoothly.“As I speak, our country is facing a strong resurgence of the epidemic,” Mr. Macron said, in a solemn televised address.To combat this resurgence, Mr. Macron said that France would redouble its efforts to use what he called “a key asset”: vaccines.He announced that he wanted to pass a law that would require all health workers to get vaccinated by Sept. 15 and that the goal was now to “put restrictions on the unvaccinated rather than on everyone.”To that effect, anyone wanting to enter a cultural venue or an amusement park will need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative virus test, starting on July 21, Mr. Macron said. The requirement will be extended in August to restaurants, shopping centers, hospitals, retirement homes and in transportation on long journeys.France will also start charging money for some virus tests, which until now were free, in the fall, “to encourage vaccination rather than increased testing,” Mr. Macron said.Although none of the new measures compared to the severe restrictions that were imposed from early 2020 through last month – France has experienced three national lockdowns, nighttime curfews and forced closures of all nonessential businesses – they were aimed at reminding the French that the pandemic is not over.
Dutch COVID-19 infections soar by 500% in a week (AP) – Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands skyrocketed by more than 500% over the last week, the country’s public health institute reported Tuesday. The surge follows the scrapping of almost all remaining lockdown restrictions and the reopening of night clubs in late June. The weekly update showing that nearly 52,000 people in the Netherlands tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week came a day after caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the June 26 lockdown relaxation and called it “an error of judgment.” Rutte backtracked Friday and reintroduced some restrictions in an attempt to rein in the soaring infection rate. Bars again have to close at midnight, while discotheques and clubs were shuttered again until at least Aug. 13. The Netherlands, along with other European nations, is facing a rise in infections fueled by the more contagious delta variant just as governments hoped to greatly ease or eliminate remaining pandemic restrictions during the summer holiday season. With infections rising around France, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday cranked up pressure on people to get vaccinated and said special COVID passes would be required to go into restaurants and shopping malls starting next month. The Dutch public health institute said that of the infections that could be traced to their source, 37% happened in a hospitality venue such as a bar or club. Infections among people ages 18-24 surged by 262%, followed by a 191% rise in 25-29 year-olds.
EU Leaders Turn Up Heat on Vaccines; U.K. Fears: Virus Update – More than half of adults in the European Union are now vaccinated, and regional leaders turned up the pressure to get even more people immunized. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that will be the deciding factor for the future course of the pandemic.U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing warnings that his plan to ease pandemic restrictions in England could lead to a rise in infections that will strain hospitals and undermine an economic recovery. In Scotland, face masks remain mandatory in public places and the government is maintaining its work-from-home policy. In Greece and the Netherlands, cases surged. Russia signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India to boost annual production of Sputnik V shots. In the U.S., regulators added a warning to Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine about a rare immune-system disorder.Greece reported 3,109 new cases Tuesday, the highest daily rise in just over two months. To combat the recent increase amid concerns for its tourism industry, authorities said customers of indoor restaurants and indoor areas at entertainment venues will need to show they’ve been vaccinated or have tested negative within the last three days.The requirement will remain in force until the end of August at the earliest, and doesn’t concern outdoor areas. Spain, Europe’s second largest tourism market pre-pandemic, is still a safe destination, Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said on Tuesday after Germany and France earlier warned citizens about the risks of heading there.Catalonia and Valencia, two of the most popular vacation spots, have both seen a surge in infections in recent days as restrictions are relaxed.Weekly cases in the Netherlands surged more than sixfold with 51,957 infections reported by the Dutch health service in the week ending July 13. Last week’s tally was 8,541 cases.On Friday, the Dutch government announced it would reintroduce some pandemic restrictions in a bid to reduce the rising number of infections. Nightclubs were closed until August 13 and the opening hours of bars were reduced. Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte publicly apologized on Monday for making an “error in judgement” and easing restrictions too quickly.
EU regulator weighing mixing COVID-19 vaccines, booster doses (Reuters) -Europe’s drug regulator on Wednesday refrained from making any recommendations on mixing schedules of COVID-19 vaccines with doses from different manufacturers, saying it was too early to confirm if and when an additional booster shot would be needed.However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) did say both doses of two-shot coronavirus vaccines, such as those from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna, are needed to protect against the fast-spreading Delta variant. In a bid to tackle increasing infections and vaccine shortages, countries are testing whether giving a different second dose to the first could boost immunity in people and bridge the gap between vaccine availability. EMA made no definitive recommendations on switching up doses, but advised countries to take several conditions into account. “In order to respond to these needs and increase vaccination coverage, countries may adapt their strategies…based on the epidemiological situation and circulation of variants, and the evolving evidence on vaccine effectiveness against variants,” EMA said in a statement . An Oxford study last month found that a mixed schedule of vaccines where a shot of Pfizer’s vaccine is given four weeks after an AstraZeneca shot will produce better immune responses than giving another dose of AstraZeneca. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has estimated that the Delta variant will account for 90% of strains in circulation in the European Union by the end of August. The variant, first identified in India, has led to a surge in cases worldwide and is setting back economic recovery plans. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday the Delta variant was likely to become the dominant variant globally over the coming months. Its chief scientist on Tuesday advised individuals against mixing vaccines, saying such decisions should be left to public health authorities.
UK health minister Javid tests positive for COVID-19 (Reuters) -British health minister Sajid Javid on Saturday said he had tested positive for COVID-19, but added that his symptoms were mild and he was thankful to have had had two doses of vaccine against the disease. Javid, who has been health secretary for three weeks, has backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to scrap all remaining legal coronavirus restrictions from Monday, despite a fresh surge of cases fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. “This morning I tested positive for COVID,” Javid said in a tweet, adding he had taken a rapid lateral flow test, and was awaiting confirmation from a PCR test, which needs processing in a laboratory. “I’m waiting for my PCR result, but thankfully I have had my jabs and symptoms are mild.” Javid tweeted on March 17 that he had received a first shot of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, posting a picture of him getting a second dose on May 16. Vaccines are not 100% effective at preventing infection, but fully-vaccinated people are less likely to get seriously ill with COVID-19 even if they can test positive. Real-world analysis published by Public Health England has found that two doses of the AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) vaccine are 60% effective against symptomatic disease from the Delta variant and 92% effective against hospitalisation. Britain is facing a new wave of cases of COVID-19, but Johnson and Javid claim the vaccine programme has largely broken the link between COVID-19 cases and mortality, although Johnson has said that the country should reconcile itself to the prospect of more deaths from COVID.
UK reports another 6-month high in daily COVID cases (Reuters) – Britain on Saturday reported 54,674 new COVID-19 cases, a rise on the 51,870 new cases reported on the previous day to post a fresh highest daily total in six months. The daily totals for each of the last four days have been the highest since Jan. 15 when 55,761 cases were recorded. Britain reported 41 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, down from the 49 recorded on Friday.
.