Covid News Watch

A new Gallup poll shows that concerns about the pandemic have fallen, with just over a third of respondents saying they are now worried about contracting COVID-19.

Americans questioned in the survey released Monday are more optimistic about the state of the pandemic than they have been since June, before the pandemic’s Delta and Omicron variants contributed to a significant uptick in infections, according to the survey giant.

For example, just 34% of people said they are worried about contracting COVID-19, compared to 50% in January.

The latest results, however, are still quite far from the 89% of people who said the pandemic was improving in June.

‘Urgent’ COVID Funding Hangs in Balance Amid Partisan Fight

Funding for the next phase of the COVID-19 fight is hanging in the balance amid a showdown over new spending in Congress.

The White House is calling for $22.5 billion for “immediate” needs ahead of next week’s government funding deadline, but Republicans are resisting the request, saying the billions already provided to fight the virus should be spent first before Congress approves new money.

The administration, though, says the previous money is “nearly all” used up. Without approval of the request for new funding, the White House says critical steps to fight the virus and prepare for a future variant will have to stop.

Moderna Reaches Preliminary Agreement to Build COVID Vaccine Manufacturing Plant in Africa

Moderna has reached a memorandum of understanding with Kenya to build a COVID vaccine manufacturing plant in the East African nation, the company announced on Monday.

Moderna plans to invest $500 million to produce messenger RNA, the technology underlying its COVID vaccines, at the facility with the goal of manufacturing 500 million doses annually. Moderna could fill COVID vaccine doses at the Kenya facility as early as 2023 subject to demand, according to the company.

Moderna received U.S. taxpayer money under Operation Warp Speed to develop the vaccine. The company is currently locked in a patent dispute with the National Institutes of Health over the technology underlying the vaccine. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, in a call with reporters last week, suggested that the NIH would license the technology globally if it wins the dispute with Moderna.

COVID Has Now Been Found in 29 Kinds of Animals, Which Has Scientists Concerned

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:

Scientists have now found the coronavirus in 29 kinds of animals, a list that has been steadily growing almost since the start of the pandemic and includes cats, dogs, ferrets, hamsters, tigers, mice, otters and hippos. In most cases, the animals have not been shown to transmit the virus back to humans.

But in at least two cases, it looks as if they can. Minks have spread the virus to people, and in a new Canadian study, scientists identified one person who tested positive after unspecified “close contact” with infected white-tailed deer.

This Treatment Can Protect Vulnerable People From COVID. But Many Don’t Know About It.

Los Angeles Times reported:

Leanne Cook was glum but unsurprised when the tests confirmed what she and her doctors had expected: Even after three shots of a vaccine, she had no antibodies to protect her against COVID-19.

Then Cook heard about something that could plug those missing antibodies into her system — a preventive pair of injections called Evusheld. But health officials cautioned that there was only so much to go around.

Oklahoma Moves Toward ‘Endemic’ Approach to COVID

Two years after officials announced the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Oklahoma, state officials say they are shifting their response efforts to an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus.

Interim health commissioner Keith Reed said last week the department is preparing to begin a transition “into the endemic phase of this pandemic,” The Oklahoman reported. A disease reaches the endemic stage when the virus still exists in a community but becomes manageable as immunity builds.

“I don’t know that I can say yet that COVID is endemic,” Dr. Dale Bratzler, chief COVID officer for the University of Oklahoma, said last week. “But I do think we have to learn to live with COVID.

Subscribe to The Defender - It’s Free!

X/Twitter
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Name*
First Last
Email*
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Address
State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Date
MM slash DD slash YYYY
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Source

Senate Passes Nonbinding Joint Resolution to End National COVID Emergency + More

Senate Passes Nonbinding Joint Resolution to End National COVID Emergency

Fox News reported:

The Senate passed a symbolic joint resolution Thursday calling for an end to the national emergency declared by former President Trump on March 13, 2020, regarding COVID-19.

The resolution, which passed 48-47 and now heads to the House of Representatives, was introduced by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas. Senators Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky also supported it.

“The Senate has spoken. We are ready to end the COVID national emergency like more than a majority of Americans,” Marshall tweeted. “Hope our House colleagues join us in returning the ability to make decisions related to the virus back to the American people.”

As Lab Owners Buy Luxury Cars, Biden Tightens Oversight of $5 Trillion in COVID Relief

USA TODAY via Yahoo!News reported:

When patients came to the South Florida testing lab owned by Christopher Licata, they got the COVID-19 tests they requested — plus more lucrative but medically unnecessary genetic and respiratory tests, allowing Licata to bill $6.9 million to Medicare, federal prosecutors say.

Licata got caught — the Delray Beach man pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud Medicare and is scheduled to be sentenced Mar. 24 — but federal officials are scrambling to tighten oversight of more than $5 trillion in pandemic relief funding passed by Congress over the past two years.

The federal government has paid more than $500 million to 3 labs with ties to a handful of nationwide testing operations now under investigation.

More Than 90% of U.S. Population Can Ditch Facemasks Under CDC COVID Guidance

More than 90% of the U.S. population lives in areas where they no longer need to wear facemasks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The CDC issued new guidance last week that focuses on severe disease from COVID and hospitalizations when making recommendations on whether or not facemasks are needed.

The guidance is broken into three color-coded levels. People in green and yellow counties, with low and medium COVID levels, respectively, do not need to wear masks.

Everyone is still required by federal law to wear facemasks on planes, trains and other forms of public transportation. The facemask requirement for planes expires on Mar. 18. CDC officials have said they are reviewing whether or not the requirement is still necessary.

Could Your Blood Type Make COVID Worse?

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Your blood type may strongly influence your risk of severe COVID-19, new research suggests.

After screening more than 3,000 blood proteins, scientists linked 6 with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 and found eight that could help protect against severe disease.

One of the proteins (ABO) linked to severe illness determines blood type, suggesting that blood types (groups) play a major role in whether people develop severe forms of COVID-19, according to the authors of the study published Mar. 3 in the journal PLOS Genetics.

FDA Declines Pediatric EUA for Ocugen’s COVID Vaccine Covaxin

Ocugen Inc. (OCGN.O) said on Friday U.S. regulators have declined to issue an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Covaxin, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by its Indian partner Bharat Biotech, for use in individuals aged 2 to 18 years.

Shares of Ocugen slumped 30% premarket on the news.

Ocugen said it intends to continue working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to evaluate the process for getting an EUA for pediatric use of Covaxin.

Most EU Women Blame COVID Pandemic for Spike in Gender Violence — Poll

Nearly 3 out of 4 European Union women think the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred an increase in physical and psychological violence against them, according to a Eurobarometer poll published on Friday.

The poll, commissioned by the European Parliament ahead of Women’s Day on Mar. 8, shows 77% of women in the EU think the pandemic caused a rise in gender violence in their countries, with 9 in 10 respondents in Greece and Portugal saying so.

Asked how to tackle the problem, 58% of interviewed women said it should be made easier to report gender violence.

Arthritis Drug Shown to Reduce Risk of COVID Death in Large UK Trial

Eli Lilly (LLY.N) and Incyte’s (INCY.O) arthritis drug baricitinib helped reduce the risk of death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients by 13% regardless of which other coronavirus treatment they were given, according to a large British study.

Over 8,000 patients were administered baricitinib in addition to usual care, at random, or usual care alone, as part of the so-called RECOVERY trial, scientists from the University of Oxford said on Thursday.

Results showed 546 patients in the usual care group died within 28 days but only 513 patients in the baricitinib group died where they were also given a corticosteroid like dexamethasone, tocilizumab or remdesivir.

South Africa Risks Destroying 100,000 Vaccine Doses by End-March Due to Slow Uptake

About 100,000 doses of Pfizer‘s COVID-19 vaccine (PFE.N) are at risk of being destroyed by the end of this month due to slow uptake by citizens, South African health authorities said on Friday.

Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the department was trying to ramp up inoculations to save the vaccine doses from being discarded. South Africa has so far fully vaccinated around 43% of its 40 million adults.

Almost a Third of People Report Lingering Symptom 6 to 12 Months After COVID — Study

Almost a third of people report at least one ongoing symptom between 6 and 12 months after their coronavirus infection, a survey of 152,000 people in Denmark has found.

The study includes one of the largest groups yet of people who were not hospitalized with COVID, and followed them for longer than other major studies, the researchers from Denmark’s State Serum Institute (SSI) said.

The questionnaire-based study suggested that the most commonly reported long-term symptoms were changes in sense of smell and taste, as well as fatigue.

Subscribe to The Defender - It’s Free!

Comments
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Name*
First Last
Email*
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Address
State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Date
MM slash DD slash YYYY
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Source

Kansas Pulls COVID Vaccine Ads From TV After Lawmakers Object to Calling Them Safe and Effective + More

Kansas Pulls COVID Vaccine Ads From TV After Lawmakers Object to Calling Them Safe and Effective

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported:

The Kansas health agency stopped airing television advertisements promoting the COVID-19 vaccine after some Republican lawmakers took issue with calling the shots safe and effective.

The revelation came during Janet Stanek’s confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. Stanek is the acting secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, again raised the issue Wednesday. “When it comes to the COVID shot … we talked about the problem that KDHE was basically saying ‘safe and effective, safe and effective, safe and effective’ when we have a CDC VAERS reporting system that ties 20,000-plus deaths, and more complications, to these shots than all the other vaccines combined,” he said.

“One thing we’ve done is revisited the ads, which were brought up by many of you, and we have removed the TV ads,” Stanek said.

Hidden Harm: World Saw Spike in Anxiety, Depression in COVID’s First Year

Bloomberg reported:

Rates of anxiety and depression rose by about 25% worldwide in the first year of COVID-19, another indication of the widespread harm on mental health inflicted by the pandemic.

Young people were at the greatest increased risk of suicide and self-harm, and women bore the brunt of the emotional and psychological burden, according to a report from the World Health Organization. People with chronic conditions such as asthma or cancer were also more likely to develop symptoms of mental disorders during the outbreak.

Evidence of the ongoing toll of isolation, restrictions and financial worries are continuing to mount. The WHO report mirrors a study in The Lancet medical journal last year that found the pandemic had resulted in an extra 53.2 million cases of major depressive disorder and an extra 76.2 million cases of anxiety disorders globally.

Biden Administration Kicks off Nationwide Tour Addressing Mental Health Challenges From COVID Pandemic

USA TODAY reported:

The Biden administration announced Wednesday a nationwide tour to address mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, another sign the U.S. may have reached what the president said in his State of the Union Address “a new moment in the fight against COVID-19.”

The “National Tour to Strengthen Mental Health,” led by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, aims to hear directly from Americans about the behavioral health challenges they’re facing and engage with local leaders to strengthen services.

Mental health experts say they’re optimistic about the tour but hope it’s closely followed by tangible responses to the mental health crisis.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was among the top five leading causes of death in 2020 for people ages 10 to 64.

Biden Seeks $10 Billion for Aid to Ukraine, $22.5 Billion for Coronavirus

The Biden administration is seeking another $10 billion to help protect Ukraine against the Russian invasion and an additional $22.5 billion to cover coronavirus pandemic-related expenses, two major additions to budget talks already underway.

The acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, laid out the need for the supplemental funding in a Thursday blog post. The requests would be additions to a planned budget agreement that Congress is trying to finish before a March 11 deadline.

The $22.5 billion tied to the coronavirus would pay for testing, treatments and vaccines as well as investments in research and efforts to increase vaccinations worldwide.

COVID Has Intensified Gender Inequalities, Global Study Finds

The Guardian reported:

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse decades of progress made towards gender equality, according to a global study that reveals women have been hit much harder socially and economically than men.

The research, conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and published in the Lancet, shows that women have experienced greater negative social and economic impacts than men.

The greatest and most persistent gender gap was seen in employment and uncompensated labor, with 26% of women reporting the loss of work compared with 20% of men globally in September 2021. Women and girls were also more likely to drop out of school and more likely to report an increase in gender-based violence than men and boys.

You’ll Probably Need a Second COVID Booster Shot — Here’s When Experts Say It Could Happen

Pandemic restrictions may be easing across the country, amid declining COVID cases — but experts say the virus is going to stick around for a long time.

That likely means you’ll need another COVID booster shot sometime in the future. The big question is: When?

There have been mixed reports on the matter. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing early data that could point to the authorization of a new booster dose this coming fall — potentially as the first in a series of annual COVID vaccinations, much like flu shots — according to the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, some recent studies suggest that most people who are already boosted may not need another dose for months, or even years. In the U.S., that’s approximately 44% of all fully vaccinated people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

EU Clears Moderna Shot for Young Kids, Pfizer Boosters

The European Medicines Agency said it has authorized Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for children aged 6 to 11, in addition to recommending booster shots of Pfizer’s vaccine for those aged 12 and over, in decisions aimed at providing further protection against COVID-19 for children across Europe.

At a press briefing Thursday, the EU regulator’s vaccines chief Dr. Marco Cavaleri said the Moderna vaccine for younger children will be a half-dose of what is given to older teens and adults. He said research showed young children had an immune response comparable to that seen in older populations “as measured by the level of neutralizing antibodies” against the COVID-19 virus.

Regeneron Must Face Patent Lawsuit Over COVID Treatment

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday failed to persuade a federal judge in New York to throw out a lawsuit over its alleged misuse of a patented protein to test its breakthrough COVID-19 treatment.

U.S. District Judge Philip Halpern said during an oral argument that he could not grant Regeneron’s request at an early stage of the case to find it immune from Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals Inc’s infringement claims.

San Diego-based Allele sued Regeneron in October, accusing the rival biotech company of using Allele’s fluorescent protein mNeonGreen to test its coronavirus antibody cocktail, REGEN-COV, without a license. Allele settled a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE in January over their use of the same protein in developing their widely distributed COVID-19 vaccine.

U.S. to Share Some Coronavirus Technologies With World Health Organization

The Washington Post reported:

The Biden administration will share U.S. government-devised coronavirus technologies with the World Health Organization, a policy shift intended to allow other countries to replicate some American scientific breakthroughs and better fight the pandemic abroad, according to three people with knowledge of the announcement who were not authorized to discuss it.

Under the plan, some technologies now being developed by the National Institutes of Health will be licensed to WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, the people said. The technologies will also be sub-licensed to the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool.

The policy is not intended to apply to the vaccines and therapeutics that have been developed by private companies and are currently in the U.S. market, the people said.

Paid Sick Leave Makes a Comeback in New Biden Plan

Axios reported:

The Biden administration included paid sick leave provisions as part of its new COVID-19 preparedness plan, which calls for a raft of measures meant to manage the U.S. through its new “post-pandemic” era.

The emergency sick leave provisions passed in 2020 at the outset of the pandemic expired that year and weren’t renewed — despite protests from worker advocates and at least one study that showed the policy reduced the spread of the virus.

The administration said Wednesday that it will work with Congress to provide paid sick leave to people who need to miss work due to COVID-19 or to care for a loved one who has the virus.

19 Coronavirus Cases at Mainz Puts Dortmund Game in Doubt

Sunday’s Bundesliga game between Mainz and Borussia Dortmund is in doubt after Mainz reported 19 coronavirus cases among players and staff on Thursday.

Mainz said everyone involved in first-team business was “completely immunized” and it was in contact with local health authorities about what to do next. The club didn’t name any infected players.

Subscribe to The Defender - It’s Free!

Email
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Name*
First Last
Email*
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Address
State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Date
MM slash DD slash YYYY
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Source

Americans Deserve Apology From CDC, Biden’s Anti-Science Machine + More

Americans Deserve Apology From CDC, Biden’s Anti-Science Machine

Fox News reported:

For the first time in two years, children are walking back into classrooms mask-free. For too long, policymakers and public perception have associated success with the absence of COVID. But COVID is still present, so what is driving this sudden change of policy?

Children have suffered a great deal from the pandemic lockdowns and have not been made a priority to regain normalcy as information evolved. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic many restrictions, such as mask-wearing in schools, were quickly enforced through desperation to slow the transmission despite negligible data proving benefit.

However, by summer 2021 enough data emerged demonstrating cloth masks predominately had no perceptible benefit, and the low risk of severe COVID in children became apparent. Yet, no updates were made by the CDC regarding mask-wearing in schools. In fact, despite vaccines being readily available for everyone 5 years and older, it doubled down on its school masking recommendations as the less severe Omicron variant became dominant.

Biden Gives Third Extension to FEMA Funds for States’ Emergency COVID Costs

Newsweek reported:

President Joe Biden is extending Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds for the third time to aid the ongoing U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House announced Tuesday.

Biden signed an order on his second day in the presidential office instructing FEMA to provide 100% reimbursement to states, tribes and territories through September 2021 for emergency costs related to the pandemic. After two earlier extensions, this latest move will now provide the reimbursements through July 1.

Scientists Seek to Solve Mystery of Why Some People Do Not Catch COVID

The Guardian reported:

In March 2021, Phoebe Garrett, a 22-year-old from High Wycombe, participated in the world’s first COVID-19 challenge trial, which involved dripping live virus into her nose and pegging her nostrils shut for several hours, in a deliberate effort to infect her. Still her body resisted.

Most people know someone who has stubbornly resisted catching COVID, despite everyone around them falling sick. Precisely how they do this remains a mystery, but scientists are beginning to find some clues.

White House Unveils Plan for Next Phase of COVID Fight

The White House on Wednesday unveiled a plan for fighting COVID-19 in its new phase, with the virus moving from a crisis to a lower-level risk that does not dominate daily life.

The plan comes as the Omicron wave has declined and many are eager to turn the page on the pandemic. President Biden in his State of the Union on Tuesday night said COVID-19 “no longer need control our lives” in this “new moment.”

The 96-page plan will require new funding from Congress, the White House said, though there are not specific dollar amounts for each item. Ahead of a Mar. 11 deadline for funding the government, the White House recently informally outlined the need for $30 billion focused on domestic needs and $5 billion for global vaccinations.

The CDC No Longer Recommends Universal Case Investigation and Contact Tracing

The New York Times reported:

Almost two years after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for 100,000 contact tracers to contain the coronavirus, the CDC said this week that it no longer recommends universal case investigation and contact tracing. Instead it encourages health departments to focus those practices on high-risk settings.

The turning point comes as the national outlook continues to improve rapidly, with new cases, hospitalizations and deaths all continuing to fall even as the path out of the pandemic remains complicated. It also reflects the reality that contact-tracing programs in about half of U.S. states have been eliminated.

New York City announced on Tuesday that it was ending its main contact-tracing program in late April and moving toward treating the coronavirus as another manageable virus.

Republicans Signal They May Oppose New COVID Aid Unless White House Accounts for Existing Spending

The Washington Post reported:

Three dozen Republican senators told the White House on Wednesday that they may be unwilling to approve new coronavirus aid until they first learn how much money the U.S. government has already spent.

The early warning arrived in a letter led by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), just days after the Biden administration asked Congress to approve $30 billion to boost public health as part of a still-forming deal to fund the government and stave off a shutdown at the end of next week.

In their note, the 36 Republicans stressed they have supported “unprecedented investments in vaccines, therapeutics and testing” in the past, including multiple bipartisan stimulus packages adopted under now-former President Trump. But they fretted it is still “not yet clear why additional funding is needed,” particularly now, given a lack of transparency in the roughly $6 trillion approved to date.

FDA Warns of Possible False Results From Unauthorized COVID Tests

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday named three unauthorized rapid COVID-19 tests that it says people should not use due to the risk of false results.

The FDA instructed people to not use the Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test, the SD Biosensor Inc. STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag Home Test and the Flowflex SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test (Self-Testing).

His Wife Died From Johnson & Johnson COVID Vaccine Complications. Why He’s Still Pro-Vaccine.

NBC News reported:

Monica Melkonian wanted the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine. It was only one shot and then she would be protected against the virus.

But on Apr. 13, Melkonian started experiencing headaches, a sharp pain behind her left eye. That same day federal health officials announced a pause in the use of the J&J vaccine after learning that six people had developed a rare blood-clotting disorder following their shots.

Less than a week later, she was dead.

People Who Test Positive for COVID Can Receive Antiviral Pills at Pharmacies for Free, Biden Says

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the Americans who test positive for COVID-19 can receive antiviral pills for free at local pharmacies and community health centers under a new program that launches this month.

The administration will launch hundreds of sites nationwide at CVS, Walgreens and Kroger as well as community health centers this month, a White House official said. Biden said Americans can also order more free COVID tests at the government’s website, covidtests.gov, next week.

The president said Pfizer is working to deliver 1 million courses of its COVID treatment pill, Paxlovid, this month.

Variants of COVID Virus May ‘Hide Out’ in Body: Study

U.S. News & World Report reported:

It looks like coronavirus variants can hide out in the human body much like some of their viral cousins do, making it hard for infected people to get rid of the virus entirely, researchers report.

Kapil Gupta, a senior research associate in biochemistry at the University of Bristol in the U.K, is lead author of one of two new studies recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

The international team of researchers found that the virus can evolve distinctly in different cell types and adapt its immunity in the same infected person.

They focused on the function of a specific pocket in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and concluded that it plays an essential role in the virus’ ability to spread.

In Cuba, Most Children 2 and up Are Vaccinated Against COVID

NBC News reported:

Cuba is the only country currently vaccinating the majority of children as young as 2, inoculating them with its own COVID-19 vaccines, the smallest country in the world to have developed its own. Along with Chile, Cuba has the Americas’ highest vaccination rate, with 94% of people having received at least 1 dose.

“It’s a terrible dichotomy,” said Helen Yaffe, a Cuba expert and lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “Cubans themselves are acutely aware, on the one hand, that they are the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean to have produced a COVID-19 vaccine. And at the same time, Cubans are struggling to get antibiotics, paracetamol and diabetes drugs.”

India’s Output, Exports of Russia’s Sputnik Vaccine at Risk Due to Ukraine Crisis