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DHS: Unvaccinated & Vaccinated COVID Case Rates Nearly Equal
On the day Wisconsin was set to cross a new milestone for the number of new cases recorded in the state, the Dept. of Health Services removed that figure from its COVID-19 dashboard. The graph showing the total number of deaths from COVID-19 or complications related to the virus has also been eliminated.
Although these figures, and others listed below, no longer appear on the main pages for COVID-19 statistics, they are still available on the DHS website in the form of downloadable spreadsheets that include all metrics recorded by the agency, listed by date.
One metric that did reemerge in this latest report juxtaposes COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Wisconsin. The newly released numbers find those differences declined significantly in the three months since the agency last published these numbers.
In fact, the difference between the two groups for the number of new cases per capita has been all but eliminated. Whereas, as COVID-19 cases began to spike in December, an unvaccinated person was three times more likely to contract the virus than someone who completed their initial series, now the difference has fallen to just five percent.
India’s Drug Regulator Has Ignored Red Alerts on Covaxin, Imperiling Millions of Lives
In a shocking turn of events, the World Health Organization warned United Nations agencies against procuring Covaxin, India’s indigenously developed and manufactured COVID-19 vaccine, just five months after granting approval to the made-in-India vaccine. The warning came after a WHO inspection of a manufacturing facility owned by Bharat Biotech International Ltd. revealed “deficiencies in good manufacturing practices.”
The WHO has not revealed the extent or nature of the deficiencies at Bharat Biotech’s facility; but given its recent instructions to U.N. agencies, the deficiency must have been significant from a public health perspective.
Violations of current good manufacturing processes are nothing new to the Indian pharmaceutical industry. There is a sordid history of warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration documenting systematic compliance issues over the last decade. Foreign inspections all but ceased during the pandemic.
This is not the first time that a foreign regulator has found problems with the manufacturing facility at Bharat Biotech which produces Covaxin. Exactly one year ago, the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA), Brazil’s drug regulator, pointed out serious lapses at Bharat Biotech’s manufacturing facility in India that makes this vaccine. ANVISA inspectors discovered issues with quality control at the facility that are meant to confirm that the live virus at the core of this vaccine has been inactivated.
Rural Treatment Options Lag as Eating Disorders Spike During Pandemic
Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, are some of the most fatal mental illnesses — second only to opioid addiction. Yet treatment options remain sparse, particularly in rural states such as Montana.
Emergency department visits for teenage girls dealing with eating disorders doubled nationwide during the pandemic, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same report notes that the uptick could have been due in part to reduced access to mental health services, a reality even more acute in rural states.
Pfizer May Have COVID Booster That Addresses Omicron, Other Variants by Fall
By this fall, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech could potentially have a COVID-19 booster that specifically addresses the Omicron variant as well as its subvariants and other known strains of the virus, CEO Albert Bourla said during a panel Wednesday.
“It is a possibility that we have it by then; it’s not a certainty,” Bourla said. “We are collecting data right now, and as far as I know, Moderna, as well as us, we are working on Omicron or different enhanced vaccines.”
It would be simple to create a vaccine specifically targeting Omicron, he explained, but it is scientifically and technically more difficult to create a vaccine that addresses all known variants.
Two New Highly Infectious Omicron Subvariants Are Driving up COVID Cases in New York
Two new Omicron subvariants that appear even more transmissible than the highly-contagious BA.2 are driving an uptick in COVID cases in New York, the state’s health department said Wednesday.
While there’s no evidence that either causes more severe disease, the department estimates they have a 23% to 27% growth advantage over the BA.2 variant that was itself more infectious than the original Omicron. It’s the first reported instance of significant community spread due to the two subvariants in the U.S.
“We are alerting the public to two Omicron subvariants, newly emerged and rapidly spreading in upstate New York, so New Yorkers can act swiftly,” State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement. “While these subvariants are new, the tools to combat them are not.”
To Find out Where the COVID Pandemic Is Headed, Look Here: The Sewer
The first clues appear in sewer water. And those clues are piling up.
As the United States enters year three of the coronavirus pandemic, disease trackers are trying to stay one step ahead of the constantly evolving virus — by hunting for it in feces.
The secrets of the virus can be found in wastewater because most infected people shed tiny pieces of virus when they use the toilet. So regularly analyzing wastewater from sewage treatment plants allows scientists to measure when those levels are rising or falling — and what variants are present — about four to six days before people start testing positive.
Stuck in the Great COVID in-Between
Life in a COVID world is getting awkward again as Americans rush headlong back to their old ways of life even as case counts rise and new variants threaten to dash their hopes.
We can’t say we’re in a post-pandemic period yet. But large segments of the public are embracing pre-COVID norms, a fact that’s maddening for those who are — or must — continue taking precautions.
“It’s definitely weird,” said Bob Wachter, chairman of the University of California, San Francisco Department of Medicine. “We’re going back to work, which is a little odd. We’re not sure whether to do handshakes or fistbumps,” he said. “Every encounter is this little negotiation with the people ‘Do you want to? Do I want to?’ It’s all very odd.”
Case rates and hospitalizations have plummeted after the Omicron surge.
Is Herd Immunity for COVID Still Possible?
With herd immunity, if someone does get infected by a virus, they are surrounded by enough people who are shielded against infection that the virus has nowhere to go. It fails to spread.
As a country, we had reached this point against some formidable viruses, such as rubella and measles. We thought we could get there with COVID-19. We were probably wrong.
“The concept of classical herd immunity may not apply to COVID-19,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with CNN.
And that “means we’re not going to be without SARS-CoV-2 in the population for a considerable period of time,” said Fauci, who recently co-authored a paper on herd immunity for the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
FDA Authorizes Breath Test That Can Detect COVID in Three Minutes
The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to a new COVID-19 test that can detect infections with only a sample of a patient’s breath, using a device that can yield results in less than three minutes.
The agency says the InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer will only be available for tests “by a qualified, trained operator under the supervision of a healthcare provider.” The test, designed for use in hospitals, doctors’ offices or mobile testing sites, requires a piece of equipment around the size of a piece of carry-on luggage. The FDA says the company will be able to produce around 100 instruments per week. Each test can evaluate around 160 samples every day.
InspectIR’s test works by analyzing a person’s breath using “gas chromatography gas mass-spectrometry” to detect five compounds typically exhaled when people are infected by SARS-CoV-2.
‘Last Few Tweaks’ Being Made to COVID IP Waiver Deal — WTO Chief
The head of the World Trade Organization told Reuters on Thursday that negotiations on an intellectual property deal for COVID-19 vaccines were ongoing between the four parties, saying they were seeking to agree on the proposal’s final terms.
Since the draft compromise emerged in the media a month ago, pressure from civil society groups has been rising for the parties — the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa — to walk away from the deal. Other public figures have also criticized it such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying it is too narrowly focused on vaccines.
India and South Africa, backed by dozens of other WTO members, had proposed a broad waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 drugs and vaccines but failed to overcome opposition from members like Britain and Switzerland who argued that pharmaceutical research required such protections.
