Unvaccinated COVID-19 hospitalizations cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars
Written by Steven Hansen
The U.S. new cases 7-day rolling average are 14.4 % HIGHER than the 7-day rolling average one week ago and U.S. deaths due to coronavirus are now 52.5 % HIGHER than the rolling average one week ago. Today’s posts include:
- U.S. Coronavirus New Cases are 40,573
- U.S. Coronavirus deaths are at 185
- States gripped by Delta variant face case surge with fewer health workers
Issues with using private contractors to manage the vaccination campaigns
Israel finds COVID-19 vaccine booster significantly lowers infection risk
Dr. Scott Gottlieb says delta-fueled Covid surge in the South has peaked
FDA warns people not to take veterinary Ivermectin to treat Covid-19
Parents get coached on how to escape mask and vaccine rules
Facebook says post that cast doubt on covid-19 vaccine was most popular on the platform from January through March
Plus Many More Headlines …
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Hospitalizations Are The Only Accurate Gauge
Hospitalizations historically appear to be little affected by weekends or holidays. The hospitalization growth rate trend continues to improve.
source: https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/covidnet/COVID19_3.html
Historically, hospitalization growth follows new case growth by one to two weeks.
As an analyst, I use the rate of growth to determine the trend. But, the size of the pandemic is growing in terms of real numbers – and if the rate of growth does not become negative – the pandemic will overwhelm all resources.
The graph below shows the rate of growth relative to the growth a week earlier updated through today [note that negative numbers mean the rolling averages are LOWER than the rolling averages one week ago]. As one can see, the rate of growth for new cases peaked in early December 2020 for Thanksgiving, and early January 2021 for end-of-year holidays – and it now shows that the coronavirus effect is improving.
In the scheme of things, new cases decline first, followed by hospitalizations, and then deaths. The potential fourth wave did not materialize likely due to immunizations.
Coronavirus and Recovery News You May Have Missed
‘Stop it’: FDA warns people not to take veterinary drugs to treat Covid-19 – NBC
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is urging people to stop taking veterinary drugs to treat or prevent Covid-19 after receiving multiple reports of patients who have been hospitalized after “self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses,” according to the federal agency.
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the FDA tweeted from its official account on Saturday, alongside a consumer update detailing why the drug can be unsafe for humans.
Ivermectin, which is not an anti-viral drug, is generally used to treat or prevent parasites in animals.
“These animal drugs are often highly concentrated because they are used for large animals like horses and cows, which can weigh a lot more than” a human, the FDA update reads. “Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans.”
Patients who overdose with ivermectin can experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, allergic reactions, dizziness, problems with balance, seizures, coma and even death, according to the FDA.
The agency clarified that the FDA-approved ivermectin tablets meant to treat people with certain conditions caused by parasitic worms as well as topical formulations used for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea are different from the drug used on animals. Ivermectin tablets and topical formulations for humans have “very specific doses” that are significantly smaller than the doses meant for animals.
Moreover, “many inactive ingredients found in animal products aren’t evaluated for use in people,” the FDA warned. “In some cases, we don’t know how those inactive ingredients will affect how ivermectin is absorbed in the human body.”
The FDA stressed that no form of the ivermectin drug has been approved by the agency for use in treating or preventing Covid-19 in humans.
Facebook says post that cast doubt on covid-19 vaccine was most popular on the platform from January through March – Washington Post
Facebook said Saturday evening that an article raising concerns that the coronavirus vaccine could lead to death was the top performing link in the United States on its platform from January through March of this year, acknowledging the widespread reach of such material for the first time.
It also said another site that pushed covid-19 misinformation was also among the top 20 most visited pages on the platform.
Facebook earlier this year faced a torrent of criticism from President Biden and others who have alleged that the company has allowed misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to flourish. White House officials have alleged that many Americans are reluctant to take the coronavirus vaccine, in part, because of false or misleading information they have read on social media services, including Facebook.
In releasing a report that the company had previously shelved, Facebook attempted to push back against critics, arguing that the definition of health misinformation is often less black and white than what some would make it seem.
For example, the article that surged earlier this year on Facebook’s platform, which is used by more than 2.8 billion people each month, was a factual article from The South Florida Sun Sentinel (distributed by the Chicago Tribune) about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigating the death of a doctor who passed away two weeks after taking the coronavirus vaccine, according to the report (Months later, the medical examiner’s office found that there wasn’t enough evidence to say whether the vaccine played a role in the doctor’s death).
Facebook has said it will take down outright false information about covid-19, but has argued that conversations about factual articles should not be suppressed.
In a report published this past week, Facebook had identified the most popular information shared on its platform from April to June, a disclosure that raised questions about why the company was not revealing popular posts from the earlier part of this year.
The new release of the January through March data by Facebook came one day after the New York Times first reported that it had been withheld by senior executives. The disclosure reflects the challenge of being open with the public at a time when the social network is being attacked by the White House as well as experts for fomenting the spread of health misinformation. Previously, the company had only shared how much covid-related misinformation it has removed, and has been careful not to acknowledge up to this point what role they’ve played in disseminating material that mislead the public about the virus and the vaccine.
For months, executives have debated releasing both this report and other information, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking. In those debates, the conversations revolved around whether releasing certain data points were likely to help or hurt the company’s already-battered public image. In numerous instances, the company held back on investigating information that appeared negative, the person said.
How the U.S. vaccination drive came to rely on an army of consultants – Washington Post
When Gavin Newsom outsourced key components of California’s vaccine rollout to the private sector during the pandemic’s darkest days last winter, the Democratic governor promised the changes would benefit the most vulnerable.
His “number one” reason for handing the reins to Blue Shield of California, an Oakland-based health insurance company, was “equity” — delivering vaccine doses to those at greatest risk, many in communities of color, he said in February.
But the $15 million contract with Blue Shield, plus another $13 million for McKinsey, did not deliver on that promise, according to state and county officials, as well as public health experts.
“Equity is a useful catchphrase, but the work was either nonexistent or completely nontransparent,” said Kim Rhoads, a health advocate and physician researcher at the University of California San Francisco. About 45 percent of eligible Black residents and Latino residents are fully vaccinated in California, according to state data, compared to nearly 60 percent of the eligible White population. “The numbers speak for themselves,” Rhoads said.
California wasn’t alone in using private contractors to manage the vaccination campaign. At least 25 states, along with federal agencies and many cities and counties, hired consulting firms, according to a Washington Post tally. The American vaccination drive came to rely on global behemoths such as McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), with downsized state and local health departments and even federal health agencies relying on the private sector to make vaccines available to their citizens, according to hundreds of pages of contract documents, emails and text messages obtained through public records requests.
McKinsey’s role extended beyond California to other states, including Ohio and New Jersey. Deloitte worked in 10 states. BCG received millions of dollars from the federal government to coordinate vaccine planning, while at least 11 states also worked with the company, in some cases paying it to address gaps in federal planning.
Consultants say they helped save lives by supporting overextended public servants with specialized expertise. “Our work helped state decision-makers quickly size up key factors impacting the effective distribution of vaccines,” said McKinsey spokesman Neil Grace. “All our work was based on state-defined priorities, and the data we analyzed was provided by state and local public health authorities.”
But critics question whether such contracts improve government performance, arguing the arrangements are costly and difficult to oversee. Taxpayers have no way to know what precisely they are getting under no-bid contracts worth millions of dollars because the internal documents of private consultancies are not subject to public records laws.
… Complicating matters, some contractors contributed to the political campaigns and projects of elected officials who then became clients, prompting allegations of favoritism.
FDA Approves Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine – MedPage
The FDA approved the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus to receive full approval.
The vaccine will be marketed as Comirnaty, and can be used for individuals ages 16 and older to prevent COVID-19. However, the vaccine is still under emergency use authorization (EUA) for adolescents ages 12-15, the agency said.
FDA Acting Commissioner, Janet Woodcock, MD, characterized the approval as a “milestone” in the pandemic.
“While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” she said in a statement.
At a media briefing, Peter Marks, MD, PhD, the director for the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at FDA, detailed the meticulous process used for conducting a review of a biologics license application for full approval. The agency inspected data down to the patient level, reviewing “tens of thousands” of patient data on adverse events, and even did their own analysis, and in record time, Marks added.
“It’s been 97 days since Pfizer completed their role” and the FDA completed the process in “40% of the normal clock time for a submission of this magnitude,” he said.
The vaccine has been under an EUA since Dec. 11, 2020 for individuals ages 16 and older. Evidence for the full approval comes from expanded phase III trial safety and efficacy data released by the manufacturer this April. An analysis of 927 confirmed cases in the trial of approximately 44,000 individuals — who were randomized 1:1 to vaccine or placebo — found that starting a week after the second dose, Comirnaty had a 91.3% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 through 6 months.
More than half of the participants had over 4 months of safety data, including 12,000 people who were followed up through 6 months. Injection site pain, fatigue, headache, muscle or joint pain, and fever were the most common adverse events. While the FDA noted an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis in the 7 days following the second dose, particularly among males younger than age 40 (with the highest risks among males ages 12-17), short-term follow-up data suggest most symptoms resolved completely.
Data from the trial was collected prior to the Delta variant becoming the dominant strain in the U.S. Marks noted, however, that “real-world data” from Israel suggest the vaccine is still effective, but that effectiveness wanes with time. He said the agency is following this closely, leading to consideration of boosters “as we move into the fall.”
[editor’s note: also read Pfizer working on plans to market and advertise its newly approved Covid-19 vaccine – now we can be deluged with TV ads]
Israel finds COVID-19 vaccine booster significantly lowers infection risk – Reuters
A third dose of Pfizer (PFE.N)‘s COVID-19 vaccine has significantly improved protection from infection and serious illness among people aged 60 and older in Israel compared with those who received two shots, findings published by the Health Ministry showed on Sunday.
The data were presented at a meeting of a ministry panel of vaccination experts on Thursday and uploaded to its website on Sunday, though the full details of the study were not released.
The findings were on par with separate statistics reported last week by Israel’s Maccabi healthcare provider, one of several organisations administering booster shots to try to curb the Delta coronavirus variant.
Breaking down statistics from Israel’s Gertner Institute and KI Institute, ministry officials said that among people aged 60 and over, the protection against infection provided from 10 days after a third dose was four times higher than after two doses.
A third jab for over 60-year-olds offered five to six times greater protection after 10 days with regard to serious illness and hospitalisation.
That age group is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and in Israel was the first to be inoculated when the vaccine drive began in late December.
[editor’s note: also read Israel Says Vaccine Booster Provides 4x More Protection for Older People]
Parents get coached on how to escape mask and vaccine rules – AP
Across the U.S., religious figures, doctors, public officials and other community leaders are trying to help people circumvent COVID-19 precautions.
While proponents of these workarounds say they are looking out for children’s health and parents’ rights, others say such stratagems are dishonest and irresponsible and could undermine efforts to beat back the highly contagious delta variant.
Mask and vaccine requirements vary from state to state but often allow exemptions for certain medical conditions or religious or philosophical objections.
In Oregon, Superintendent Marc Thielman of the rural Alsea School District told parents they can sidestep the governor’s school mask requirement by applying for an accommodation for their children under federal disabilities law.
Thielman said he hit upon the idea after the governor’s mandate generated “huge, huge pushback” from parents.
“The majority of my parents are skeptical and are no longer believing what they’re told” about COVID-19, said Thielman, whose district in the state’s coastal mountains begins classes Monday. “I’ve got a majority of my parents saying, ‘Are there any options?'”
In a letter to educators this past week, Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said she was shocked that Thielman was undermining her policies by “instructing students to lie” about having a disability.
Brown has mandated masks in schools and vaccinations for all school staff amid a surge in infections that is clobbering Oregon. The state has broken its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations day after day, and cases among children have increased dramatically.
Unvaccinated COVID-19 hospitalizations cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars – Health System Tracker
COVID-19 vaccines have been free and broadly available to adults in all states and District of Columbia since mid-April 2021, meaning adults in the U.S. have generally been able to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 since late May 2021 if receiving a two-dose vaccine. COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 and also reduce the likelihood of mild or asymptomatic infection.
Despite the availability of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, vaccination rates have lagged, particularly in some states and among younger people. As of early August 2021, 28% of adults over the age of 18 in the U.S. remain unvaccinated for COVID-19. As a result of lagging vaccinations and the more infectious delta variant, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are on the rise again.
These COVID-19 hospitalizations are devastating for patients, their families, and health care providers. The hospitalizations are also costing taxpayer-funded public insurance programs and the workers and businesses paying health insurance premiums.
While real-time data on the cost of all COVID-19 hospitalizations are not publicly available, various sources point to an average hospitalization cost of around $20,000. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that Medicare fee-for-service COVID-19 hospitalizations average $24,033. Another study of Medicare fee-for-service enrollees found an average COVID-19 hospitalization cost $21,752. A FAIR Health analysis of private claims data including employer and private Medicare Advantage plans found that COVID-19 hospitalization costs ranged from $17,094 for people over age 70 to $24,012 for people in their 50s. Similarly, our analysis of pre-pandemic private insurance claims for pneumonia hospitalizations with complications averaged $20,292 (though the cost for hospitalizations requiring a ventilator are much higher).
Our analysis of CDC data indicates there were 37,000 preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations in June and another 76,000 preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations in July, among unvaccinated adults in the U.S. We explain below more on how we arrived at these numbers.
If each of these preventable hospitalizations cost roughly $20,000, on average, that would mean these largely avoidable hospitalizations have already cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars since the beginning of June.
States gripped by Delta variant face case surge with fewer health workers – Politico
Hospitals and lawmakers in states gripped by the Delta variant are offering nurses tens of thousands of dollars in signing bonuses, rewriting job descriptions so paramedics can care for patients and pleading for federal help to beef up their crisis-fatigued health care workforces.
The alarming spread of new cases is draining the pool of available health workers in ways not seen since the pandemic’s winter peak, forcing officials to improvise and tear up rules dictating who cares for whom. Governors and hospital directors warn that the staffing crisis is so acute that patients, whether suffering from Covid-19, a heart attack or the effects of a car accident, can no longer expect the level of care that might have been available six weeks ago.
“The scenario we feared in 2020 is, unfortunately, now, a reality,” said Becky Hultberg, president of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, which is calling in the National Guard for help and suspending many non-emergency surgeries as it nears its ICU capacity.
Nearly 87,000 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 in the U.S., the most since early February. The overwhelming majority are unvaccinated. Several states have already surpassed their winter peaks, and the numbers are expected to get worse with schools opening and the weather turning colder.
Hospitals can respond by adding beds and ordering more protective gear. But they’re stuck fighting over the same finite pool of nurses, lab techs, nurse assistants and front desk workers, whose ranks have already been depleted by retirements and resignations. The Delta variant’s transmissibility — the U.S. is averaging 140,000 cases per day, up from 12,000 six weeks ago — is leaving few regions untouched, making it harder to call for reinforcements.
[editor’s note: Interestingly, hospitals are firing staff for not getting vaccinated which further exasperated this situation]
Dr. Scott Gottlieb says delta-fueled Covid surge in the South has peaked – CNBC
Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday he believes the delta variant-driven Covid surge that slammed the American South has reached a top.
“I thought there was an indication the South was peaking, and I think it’s pretty clear right now the South has peaked,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said. “It doesn’t feel that way because we still have a lot of new infections on a day-over-day basis, and the hospitals still have some very hard weeks ahead,” he acknowledged. “They’re still going to get maxed out as the infections start to decline.”
Gottlieb’s comments on “Squawk Box” came as the seven-day average of new daily coronavirus infections nationwide in the U.S. stood at roughly 147,300, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That’s up 13% from a week ago.
Many Southern states, particularly in areas with lower Covid vaccination rates such as parts of Louisiana and Arkansas, were among the first places in the U.S. to see a sharp rise in coronavirus infections linked to the highly transmissible delta variant. Signs that the current wave of infection is rolling over in the South may offer insight into the experiences of other U.S. regions that got hit by the delta variant a few weeks later.
“You look at states like Arkansas and Louisiana, you see the cases coming down,” said Gottlieb, who serves on the board of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer. The company’s vaccine received full FDA approval Monday morning.
The following are foreign headlines with hyperlinks to the posts
Asia-US air cargo rates spike on China airport lockdowns. Air freight rates on the trans-Pacific, although at elevated levels, have been reasonably stable through the summer months, but measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in China are now pushing rates skyward.
The U.S. and its allies have evacuated 28,000 people from Kabul since Aug. 14, Biden said.
But violent scenes outside the airport continued. Seven Afghan civilians died in the crowds, British officials said.
US Warns American Citizens To Avoid Kabul Airport One Day After Biden Reassures That All Is Well
Covid concerns in Kabul are an afterthought amid evacuation.
Biden said that his administration could extend his Aug. 31 deadline for removing all American troops.
Taliban says U.S. must depart by Aug. 31 as Biden reconsiders deadline
The Taliban insists it will not shelter al-Qaeda in Afghanistan this time around
Hamid Karzai, a former Afghan president, has met with Taliban leaders as the insurgents try to form a government.
Hospitals didn’t want you to see the prices they negotiate with private insurers. Here they are.
Lebanese hospitals at breaking point as everything runs out
The following additional national and state headlines with hyperlinks to the posts
Bush Era NSA Head Says It Is A “Good Idea” To Send Unvaxx’d Trump Supporters To Afghanistan
Nearly 15 Million Mail-in-Ballots Unaccounted for in 2020 Election, Report Says
“You are not a horse,” warned the FDA’s Twitter account, as the agency shared a link to its page about why humans should stay away from ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19.
Mississippi officials said they are seeing a rise in calls to poison control for people taking the version of ivermectin intended for livestock, specifically for horse de-worming.
Civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson and his wife were hospitalized after a positive test for COVID-19 in Chicago. Jackson was vaccinated in January.
Biden asks Supreme Court to leave eviction moratorium intact
Oregon Becomes Latest State With Record Number of COVID Hospitalizations
Toronto Blue Jays Mandate COVID Vaccination, Negative Test for Fans. Fans can also submit a negative COVID-19 test to attend games if they are opposed to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
South Dakota Leads U.S. in COVID Case Increase, With 312 Percent Rise. South Dakota’s rising rates come just over a week after the end of the10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which was attended by an estimated 525,000 people.
Chick-fil-A Closes Dining Rooms As Restaurants Struggle to Find Staff
COVID Hypocrisy Runs Rampant Among Dems
Rice University says a testing glitch led to high rates of false positives.
Chevron mandates coronavirus vaccines for some of its workers.
Today’s Posts On Econintersect Showing Impact Of The Pandemic and Recovery With Hyperlinks
July 2021 Headline Existing Home Sales Expand
July 2021 CFNAI Super Index Moving Average Index Improves
Job Switching Rates During A Recession
The US Is Taking A Bite Out Of Its Food Insecurity – Here’s One Way To Scrap The Problem Altogether
Warning to Readers
The amount of politically biased articles on the internet continues. And studies and opinions of the experts continue to contradict other studies and expert opinions. Honestly, it is difficult to believe anything anymore.
I assemble this update daily – sifting through the posts on the internet. I try to avoid politically slanted posts. This daily blog is not an echo chamber for any party line – and will publish controversial topics unless there are clear reasons why the topic is false. And I usually publish conflicting topics. It is my job to provide information so that you have the facts necessary – and then it is up to readers to draw conclusions. It is not my job to sell any point of view.
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