Since nearly the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, hospital officials noticed that overweight patients were at higher risk of severe Covid-19 and death. Now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the pandemic has worsened obesity, a public health problem that has been on the rise for the past three decades. The situation, according to a report presented on Tuesday, is already reaching epidemic levels in Europe.
A person is considered overweight when their body mass index (BMI) is between 25 and 30, and obese, when it is above 30. These conditions are characterized by an excess of fat in the body. People living with these conditions are much more likely to also suffer from respiratory, cardiovascular and liver problems, as well as musculoskeletal and psychological ailments.
The report found that about 60% of adults and a third of children in Europe are overweight or obese. More worrying still, is that there are no signs that the upward trend will change. Not a single country in Europe is on track to stop the rise in obesity by 2025, the document showed.
According to the report, 62% of adults in Spain are overweight or obese, placing it ninth on the list of 53 countries studied. This percentage rises to almost 70% among men and drops to just over half among women. The data corresponds to 2016, although experts and the report itself argue that the situation has worsened since then.
The document cites a recent investigation into the impact of the pandemic on obesity levels, which was published last September in the medical journal International Journal of Obesity. This paper by researchers at Leipzig Childrens Hospital in Germany found substantial weight gain across all weight and age groups during the pandemic. The study concluded that restrictions on mobility and other measures such as the closure of schools exacerbated the problem of obesity.
Research in recent years has shown the large number of variables that influence obesity. Some are linked with the same factors, such as food consumption and family history, while others concern endocrine disruptors that are found in many everyday products. The development of the condition is also influenced by educational policies, urban planning and issues such as advertising.
It is a disease in which extremely complex mechanisms are involved, by which the body develops ways to spend less energy and thus save it. The image of sufferers being people who eat too much and move too little is insultingly simple. The disease has a genetic basis, but many other factors are involved that will make the genes express themselves in one way or another, explained Albert Goday, the head of the endocrinology department at Del Mar Hospital in Barcelona, Spain.
For this reason, the WHO report proposes a global approach to address the problem with measures such as raising taxes and restricting the sale of less healthy foods and beverages; applying subsidies to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables; developing wide-ranging education campaigns; promoting healthier lifestyle habits at school and the workplace; and making cities more pedestrian-friendly.
Obesity is a global problem that has not stopped rising in the last 30 years, said Goday. If there is a response that tries to be global it is this WHO report.
This past weekend, Anthony Fauci bailed on the White House Correspondents Dinner. President Joe Bidens chief medical adviser concluded that the indoor event, though open only to vaccinated attendees who tested negative for COVID-19 the same day, was too risky for his own taste. Biden himself split the difference and showed up only for the speeches, not for the meal. Asked to explain this turn of events, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, Every individual will make their own decisions about whether they attend this event, other events, whether they wear a mask at it or not.
The underlying premise was that Fauci and Biden, like all other Americans, must reach their own conclusions about how to reduce their risk. Whether individuals party or dont party is not a federal question.
The implicit policy, in short, is: You do you.
The coronavirus is here to stay, and Americans vary quite a lot in how much they care about that fact. Biden appears to understand this dynamic far better than his public-health team does. Despite his vows to follow the science, he was far ahead of federal regulators in pushing for booster shots last fallto the point that two top FDA vaccine experts resigned. Some scientists wanted to wait for more data about the benefits of boosters; others argued the U.S. government should concentrate on winning over Americans who had not yet been persuaded to get their first shot. But Biden plunged ahead, having apparently concluded that the benefits of offering more protection to Americans who are deeply concerned about their own chance of contracting the virus or passing it along to others outweighed any downside.
Read: The Biden administration killed Americas collective pandemic approach
That instinct has not entirely prevailed. The FDAs needlessly long delays in approving vaccines for children younger than 5 suggest that regulators are misjudging many parents mood. Meanwhile, many public-health experts continue to fume over what looks to themaccuratelyas the Biden administrations growing emphasis on accommodating individual preferences rather than promoting collective solutions to the coronavirus.
Yet the reliance on society-wide solutions, including mask mandates, social-distancing rules, and school and business closures, began when options were limited, the consequences of coronavirus infection were severe, and treatments were unavailable. The White Houses implicit policy today reflects the rightsizing of the COVID-19 crisis. The arrival of the coronavirus triggered an unprecedented federal effort to contain its spread and mitigate its effects, economic and otherwise. Now the COVID response is starting to look normalthat is, more consistent with federal responses to past calamitieseven if life has not returned to the pre-pandemic status quo.
In my field, we define a crisis as a consequential disruptionsuch as a hurricane, an earthquake, or an oil spillthat comes as a surprise and requires immediate steps to protect the general public. In most disasters, the United States follows a simple template: Local authorities are the first to arrive; the state coordinates how people and resources are used; the federal government supports those efforts as needed. This reflects our constitutional design. The Tenth Amendment gives the powers not expressly delegated to the federal governmentpowers that include public safety and public healthto the states, which then delegate many of those to localities. The virus upended this pattern as it swept across the nation, creating our first 50-state disaster.
The kinds of crises that require federal assistance, even if in just one state, also tend to reveal longer-term vulnerabilities, such as economic precarity, racial and ethnic prejudice, and unequal access to health care. Some emergency measures may be helpful in addressing these ills. In my own experience, though, the federal government has always scaled down its disaster response before the underlying conditions are cured. There is a difference between a crisis and a persistent policy problem. Some may argue that the abandonment of broad mask mandates is premature, but not now is a hard time frame to maintain as the risk of death wanes for anyone who chooses to be vaccinated.
To treat the crisis phase of the pandemic as complete is not the same as declaring that the countrys battle against COVID is over or that many Americans unmet needs are irrelevant. It is to say that many of the persistent systemic problems revealed by the coronavirus can be addressed, if our elected representatives choose, without requiring a declared emergency as a pretext for action.
Read: A push for normalcy tests the gerontocracy
As early as December, Biden seemed to acknowledge the reality that success would also mean ceding control of COVID policy, when he told governors: Look, there is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level. Although federal agencies remain in control of vaccine policy, Americas constitutional design started to assert itself on other matters months ago; earlier this year, even Democratic governors began to outpace the White House on ending mandates as they took cues from their own populations. Local governments and school districts will still need to do better adjusting their pandemic-control rules as infection rates ratchet up and down. Private employers and educational institutions are still able to enforce vaccine and mask rules that meet their own needs.
I still wish that the Biden administration had tried to impose more vaccination mandates and that courts had ruled more consistently in their favor. Too many Americans remain vulnerable to COVID because of their age or health status; many still suffer from long COVID, about which scientists understand too little; not enough Americans are getting boosted. Federal officials can still focus their efforts on finding solutions to these problems.
Yet, without fear of sounding inhumane, Americans can also recognize some major successes: Schools and businesses have generally reopened. Congress approved an unprecedented amount of relief money. All adults have access to vaccines that make infections far less dangerous. Most Americans have received at least some COVID shots, despite a widespread campaign to politicize and discredit vaccination.
For a brief moment last week, Fauci acknowledged the improving situation when he told PBSs Newshour that we are certainly, right now, in this country, over with the pandemic phase. Some of the reaction was furious. Coming from the expert who had led two administrations efforts to contain the coronavirus, the comment seemed too casual a way of marking such a major milestone. Within a day, acknowledging increasing infections, he had walked the statement back, clarifying it could lead to some misinterpretation and what he meant was that the acute pandemic phase was over. But nothing about Faucis initial statement was particularly confusing.
During the pandemic, a saying emerged: You may be done with the virus, but the virus isnt done with you. This is a cute turn of phrase, but it sounds dated now. Because the coronavirus may never be done with you, whether you are done with it becomes mostly your call. Will you get a boosteror a second booster? When will you wear a mask? Should you attend a party? You know the risks. You do you.
Healthcare has begun to undergo significant changes in the twenty-first century. A cultural revolution known as digital health has occurred because of a rise in the number of patients with chronic diseases, more access to new technologies, medical information, and peer support via the Internet.Patients' and medical professionals' roles have shifted because of this.
The passive patient, who only seeks medical help when a symptom emerges, is evolving into a proactive, empowered patient who wants to be involved in their own treatment. They have access to technology and information, are specialists in their field of health or illness management, and can collect data using electronic equipment.
Instead of being the key-holders to the ivory tower of medicine, the function of a burnt-out physicianis evolving into that of an e-physician, who guides their patients through the jungle of digital information.
In a recent study posted on the preprint server JMIR*, the researcher analyzed the impact that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had on the adoption of digital health. When COVID-19 emerged, the use of digital health strategiesexploded. Even though telemedical applications and services, health sensors, 3D printing, protective clothing, and at-home laboratory tests became part of everyday care in a matter of weeks in March and April of 2020, it was a necessity not a choice.
In less than a month, telemedicine in Catalonia replaced face-to-face primary care consultations. Early in March of 2020, they had roughly 18,000 telemedical and 150,000 face-to-face visits; four weeks later, the number of telemedical visits had risen to over 100,000, while the number of face-to-face visits had dropped to 21,000. (4). Consultationson telemedicine services like PlushCare and Amwell surged by 70% and 158 percent, respectively, in the United States.
Remote testing was the next major disruptor after remote care. Waiting in line for a biological sample put peopleindanger of contracting the virus. At-home lab testing was prioritized whenever possible. COVID-19 antigen and antibody testing, as well as companies offering direct-to-consumer blood test samples and analysis, have all surfaced on the market. Many tests, ranging from food allergies to genetic studies, are now being collected at patients' homes.
Disinfectant robots began wandering hospital floors, lowering infection risks for patients. When conventional manufacturing or availability is limited and health institutions are overburdened, DIY organizations around the world began making 3D printed products such as medical equipment, protectors, and nearly anything else needed.
Artificial intelligence has also risen to the frontline. BlueDot, a Canadian start-up, was the first to report on a possible epidemic in Wuhan. To discover public health trends and threats, it utilized a machine-learning algorithm to filter through news reports, airline booking data, and reports of animal disease outbreaks.
A.I. has also been used to arrange supply chains, sort out ventilators in a country, find new medicine combinations that could help sick patients via network science; analyze, monitor, screen, and triage COVID patients; and help hospital infrastructure in resource allocation. Researchers at MIT even built a speech analyzer based on artificial intelligence to identify asymptomatic COVID-19 patients using cough recordings on their smartphones.
Although digital health investments had been progressively increasing year after year even before the pandemic, 2020 set a new high. According to Mercom Capital Group, venture capital funding increased by 66% to a record $14.8 billion raised globally. The leading investment goal, of course, was telemedicine, which received $4.3 billion in venture capital funding in 2020.
The adoption rate of digital health has reached new heights. This optimism, however, is not reflected in clinical reality. Worldwide, healthcare is overburdened; physicians quickly burn out under the strain, patients with chronic illnesses go untreated, therapies are delayed, and medical professionals do their best to keep the system running.
JMIR Preprints publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Army 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw, an entomologist, was found guilty in a court-martial Friday of failing to follow orders meant to prevent the spread of coronavirus at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Col. Robert Cohen, the judge in the case, did not issue punishment. (Facebook)
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An Army lieutenant was convicted in a court-martial for failing to comply with orders related to coronavirus prevention efforts in his units offices at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., according to base officials.
However, the judge in the case declined to punish 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw for his actions.
The court-martial concluded Friday in Col. Robert Cohens courtroom within the 1st Judicial Circuit, according to the Armys online court records. Bashaw pleaded not guilty.
The charges stem from Bashaws actions on Nov. 30 when he failed to obey orders meant to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which violates Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Amburr Reese, a spokeswoman for the base.
The charge, issued Jan. 12, carried three counts, two of which were combined during the court-martial, the Army said. Bashaw, an entomologist, was wrongfully present at his place of duty after failing to submit a negative coronavirus test or submitting to a test prior to reporting to work. He then wrongfully remained at his place of duty. He also wrongfully failed to obey an order to wear a mask indoors.
At that time, Bashaw knew the captain in command of Army Public Health Center Headquarters Company had issued an order to telework until providing a negative coronavirus test, according to a summary of Bashaws charge sheet.
"After a careful consideration of the evidence, a military judge exercised lawful authority not to adjudge punishment for 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw, Reese said. Receiving no punishment at a court-martial is not without precedent.
It was unclear Wednesday whether Bashaw has been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
He joined the Army in 2019 after having previously served in the Air Force, according to his official service record. His awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Achievement Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Meritorious Unit Award and the Air Force National Service Medal.
His Air Force records were not immediately available.
The conviction will be included in Bashaws military record, which is reviewed during promotions and job placements.
Reese said the federal conviction alone carries lifelong collateral consequences, including social consequences and difficulty in obtaining future employment, as criminal convictions are generally public information and frequently reported in federal and state criminal and licensing databases.
Aberdeen Proving Ground is located northeast of Baltimore and has about 21,000 military, civilian and contract employees, according to the base website.
Cases are trending up in most states, and have increased by more than 50% compared with the previous week in Washington, Mississippi, Georgia, Maine, Hawaii, South Dakota, Nevada and Montana. In New York, more than a quarter of the state's population is in a county with a "high" Covid-19 community level, where the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends indoor masking.
Average daily hospitalizations are up about 10% since last week, according to data collected by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The culprit this time appears to be a spinoff of Omicron's BA.2 subvariant called BA.2.12.1, which was first flagged by New York state health officials in April.
BA.2.12.1, which is growing about 25% faster than its parent virus, BA.2, accounts for nearly 37% all Covid-19 cases around the US, according to new estimates from the CDC.
BA.2 caused an estimated 62% of all Covid-19 cases last week, down from 70% the week before.
US, South Africa contend with faster new variants
BA.2.12.1 isn't the only Omicron offshoot that scientists are watching.
After weeks of declines, South Africa recently saw its Covid-19 cases rise steeply in the last two weeks. Test positivity and hospitalizations have also popped up, as scientists have watched two relatively new subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5 now dominate transmission in that country. Taken together they accounted for almost 60% of all new Covid-19 cases by the end of April, according to South Africa's National Institute of Communicable Diseases.
These new Omicron subvariants are spreading around the globe. BA.4 sequences have been reported in 15 countries and 10 US states, while BA.5 has been picked up in 13 countries and five US states, according to the website Outbreak.info, which maintained by a coalition of academic research centers and is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Like BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 have a growth advantage over BA.2.
Omicron subvariants escape immunity
Researchers in South Africa tested the ability of antibodies in blood to disable BA.4 and BA.5 viruses in a lab. In people who were unvaccinated, but recently recovered from a BA.1 infection, they saw a more than 7-fold drop in the ability of their antibodies to neutralize BA.4 and BA.5 viruses. In people who'd been vaccinated, but recently had a breakthrough infection caused by BA.1, the drops were smaller, about 3-fold lower.
By way of comparison, the World Health Organization uses an 8-fold drop in neutralization as the threshold for the loss of protection that requires an update to seasonal influenza vaccines.
The study results led the researchers to write that "BA.4 and BA.5 have potential to result in a new infection wave," making Covid-19 vaccinations and booster shots crucial to stopping the next wave.
"Our conclusions from this are first, that Omicron, by itself is not a great vaccine, right?" said Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute who led the study. "Just because you were infected does not mean you have a lot of protection from what's coming next."
Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute praised the research, pointing out that this lab was also the first to characterize the first Omicron variant: "They've been first rate all the way through the pandemic."
He said overall the finding was not good news. Even people who recovered from a Covid-19 infection as recently as December or January can be reinfected by these new subvariants.
"That drop off of immune escape or immune evasion was pronounced in people who were unvaccinated," Topol said, pointing out that only about 1 in 3 people in South Africa have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
For those who are vaccinated "Those people are also not as bad, but they also have to face BA.4 and BA.5 with less solid neutralizing antibody response," he said. "The mutations in BA.4 and BA.5 are playing out to be a challenge to our immune response," he said.
Researchers say it's just too early to know if BA.4 or BA.5 will take off in the United States. So far, only a few dozen sequences of these viruses have been reported in the US and Canada.
It wouldn't be surprising if they do, said Andy Pekosz, a virologist and professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University.
"We've seen this over and over again. As a variant becomes dominant in another country eventually ends up here in the US and spreading globally," Pekosz said.
In the meantime, Topol said, we have our own sublineage to deal with, BA.2.12.1.
"It may simulate the problems of BA.4 and BA.5," Topol said. "We don't know yet because there's no study like this one from the Sigal lab."
Shared mutation
BA.4 and BA.5 viruses and BA.2.12.1 have mutations at location 452 of their genomes. This region codes for a part of the viruses receptor binding domain -- the part of the virus that docks onto a door on the outside of our cells. The Delta variant and some others have picked up mutations in this location. Researchers believe changes there help the virus bind more tightly to our cells and hide from frontline immune defenders called antibodies that try to block the virus from invading our cells.
"That may make it transmit better perhaps between our cells as well," Sigal said in an interview with CNN.
BA.4 and BA.5 also have changes at location 486, which is a bit of a head-scratcher since previous viruses that changed in this location didn't do well. They fizzled out.
"Suddenly, this guy manages it. So we don't know what that does," Sigal said. "My suspicion is that's a heavy escape mutation," he said, meaning that it helps the virus hide from our immune system.
Scientists have begun work to try to better understand BA.2.12.1, which has been detected in 22 countries, though most of the sequences have come from the United States.
Pekosz said he has been growing copies of BA.2.12.1 in his lab and has recently shipped samples of the virus to other research groups for study. He said scientists have just started talking about experiments they want to do to try to answer two key questions: How quickly is it copying itself, and how well does it escape our immunity?
Before the SARS-CoV2 virus, scientists thought coronaviruses didn't change much. Pekosz said looking back, we didn't know what we didn't know.
As long as the virus continues to find hosts to infect, it will continue to evolve.
"This virus has shown that it mutated slowly, but when it started to pick up good mutations, they just kept coming and coming and coming," he said.
Im positive! Do I need to self-isolate or quarantine?
If you test positive, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends you should isolate and delay travel for 10 days, regardless of symptoms or a negative test taken within the isolation period. The country where you are staying may have its own rules for quarantine and isolation. The rules differ from country to country and isolation periods may be longer than the 10 days recommended by the C.D.C. Across Europe, many countries follow guidance from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which recommends that fully vaccinated people should self-isolate after testing positive. If their symptoms improve and they feel better for at least 24 hours and they test negative for the virus twice within a 24-hour period, they can stop isolating. Or, if after six days they test negative once, they can stop isolating. Unvaccinated people are advised to self-isolate for 10 days, but can leave isolation if they meet the same requirements for negative tests.
Some other destinations, particularly in Asia, may require mandatory quarantine or isolation in a government facility or designated hotel for 14 days or more.
This will depend on the regulations in the country you are visiting, so be sure to check what they say on local health ministry websites. In most places, tourists are not required to officially report a positive test result to the government, although if you took your test in person at a local health facility, the results are often sent to the regional or national health authority.
Most countries, including popular European destinations like Greece, Italy and France, allow visitors testing positive to choose their own accommodation for the recommended period of self-isolation. You can find this information on U.S. embassy websites. If you have booked a hotel or Airbnb for your trip, it is worth calling ahead of time and seeing what their policy is for isolation and whether they have availability should you need to extend your stay.
Some lodging facilities will require you to isolate alone in a separate room, even if your family members or travel companions test negative. You should also ask about access to food and medical facilities, particularly if you are staying in a remote area.
Its useful to have a plan B in place in case your hotel or rental cannot accommodate you, or to have a cheaper option available if you do have to self-isolate for 10 days. Many countries have designated quarantine hotels or apartments and some resorts in popular tourist destinations like Spain, Portugal and Mexico allow guests to quarantine at a discounted rate.
While most people are likely to test negative within 10 days of a positive coronavirus test, for some it can take weeks or even months, according to the global health partnership Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. If you find yourself in that position, and feel well enough to travel, you can return to the United States but will need to obtain documentation of recovery.
Maine reported 1,198 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and four additional deaths, as additional omicron subvariants have been detected in the state.
The seven-day average of daily new cases has more than tripled during the past month, going from 199.3 on April 1 to 638.1 on Tuesday.
Hospitalizations also rose again on Tuesday to a total of 162 patients statewide, a 60 percent increase in two weeks.
The surge in cases in Maine is similar to whats happening in other states in the Northeast, where the omicron subvariant BA.2 and other new subvariants are driving up infection rates. New more contagious strains of the omicron BA.2 subvariant have spread through the region and in Maine, data show.
Were still receiving more positive test results each day, reflective of increased transmission, said Robert Long, Maine CDC spokesman, in a statement. Wastewater screening and hospitalizations also indicate that we are in a period of increased transmission, which is consistent with what other jurisdictions saw with the omicron subvariants.
Case counts have risen most dramatically in the Northeast, with the more contagious BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1 omicron subvariants fueling increases, especially in New York. Those are closely related to the omicron BA.2 subvariant and, like BA.2, are highly transmissable but less likely to cause sever illness than earlier versions of the coronavirus.
The most recent genomic sequencing report in Maine, released on April 25 by the Maine CDC, shows that the BA.2.12.1 omicron subvariant and other subvariants made up about 30 percent of samples tested, with BA.2 representing about 50 percent and the original BA.1 omicron variant about 20 percent of samples.
The U.S. CDC says BA.2.12.1 is about 25 percent more transmissible than BA.2.
COVID-19 hospitalizations patients increased from 150 on Monday to 162 on Tuesday, with 30 in critical care and three on a ventilator. Hospitalizations are still far below the Jan. 13 peak of 436.
About 67 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 since vaccines became readily available last year have been unvaccinated. While vaccines continue to protect against serious illness in most cases, that percentage has decreased because the number of people who lack immunity from either vaccination or a previous infection has declined.
Among new hospital admissions reported to the state from April 16-26 for which the vaccination status was noted, 55 percent were unvaccinated and 45 percent were vaccinated.
On Monday, MaineHealth reported that 44 of its 57 current COVID-19 hospital patients are vaccinated. MaineHealth is the parent organization of Maine Medical Center in Portland and seven other Maine hospitals.
Public health officials say the higher percentage of vaccinated COVID patients being hospitalized doesnt mean the vaccines are any less effective. It merely reflects that the number of unvaccinated Maine residents that havent been infected is now a smaller percentage of the state population than it was last spring and summer.
About 75 percent of Maine residents are now fully vaccinated, and 90 percent of people age 60 and older, the population group most likely to need hospitalization.
Vaccinated patients who require hospitalization tend to be older adults with weakened immune systems related to other conditions. Health officials continue to recommend that people in these groups get a second booster shot to maximize their immunity.
Also, many Maine residents who are not vaccinated have already contracted COVID-19 and have some natural immunity. The U.S. CDC reported last week that about 35 percent of Maines population has contracted COVID-19 at some point during the pandemic, with most of the infections occurring since September 2021.
Since the pandemic began, Maine has recorded 247,069 cases of COVID-19, and 2,291 deaths.
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California coronavirus updates: CDC says 60% of US adults have previously been infected with COVID-19 Capital Public Radio News
To date, a total of 2,575 cases with SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified and investigated in residents of Dallas County, including 288 cases of B.1.1.7 (Alpha); 4 cases of B.1.351 (Beta); 1,851 cases of B.1.617.2 (Delta); 31 cases of B.1.427 (Epsilon); 29 cases of P.1 (Gamma); 15 cases of B.1.526 (Iota); 5 cases of C.37 (Lambda); 4 cases of B.1.621 (Mu); 343 cases of B.1.1.529 (Omicron); and 3 cases of P.2 (Zeta). Four hundred and forty-five cases have been hospitalized and 63 have died. Forty-nine COVID-19 variant cases were reinfections. Seven hundred and twenty-five people were considered fully vaccinated before infection with a COVID-19 variant.
As of 4/29/2022, a total of 645 confirmed and probable cases were reported in CDC week 16 (week ending 4/23/22), which is a weekly rate of 24.5 new cases per 100,000 residents.
As of the week ending 4/23/2022, about 81% of Dallas County residents age 12 years and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 99% of residents age 65 years and older; 87% of residents between 40-64 years of age; 79% of residents 25-39 years of age; 68% of residents 18-24 years of age; and 63% of residents 12-17 years of age. In the cities of Addison, Coppell, Highland Park, Irving, and Sunnyvale, greater than 94% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the cities of Cedar Hill, Desoto, Farmers Branch, Garland, Lancaster, and University Park, greater than 81% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
About 47.8% of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Week 16 were Dallas County residents who were not fully vaccinated. In Dallas County, 60,005 cases of COVID-19 breakthrough COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated individuals have been confirmed to date, of which 4,019 (6.7%) were hospitalized and 726 have died due to COVID-19.
Of all Dallas County residents tested for COVID-19 by PCR during the week ending 4/23/2022 (CDC week 16), 5.8% of respiratory specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. For week 15, area hospital labs have continued to report elevated numbers and proportions of respiratory specimens that are positive for other respiratory viruses by molecular tests: parainfluenza (6.02 %), rhinovirus/enterovirus (20.22 %), and RSV (3.69%).
There are currently 11 active long-term care facility outbreaks. A cumulative total of 6,479 residents and 4,364 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 1,338 have been hospitalized and 911 have died. About 16% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities.
There has been 1 outbreak of COVID-19 in a congregate-living facility (e.g. homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) reported within the past 30 days. A cumulative total of 1,135 residents and staff members (840 residents and 295 staff) in congregate-living facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with more detailed data dashboards and summary reports updated on Friday evenings, available at: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/2019-novel-coronavirus/daily-updates.php.
Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators as part of determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. The most recent COVID-19 hospitalization data for Dallas County, as reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council, can be found at www.dallascounty.org/covid-19 under Monitoring Data, and is updated regularly. This data includes information on the total available ICU beds, suspected and confirmed COVID-19 ER visits in the last 24 hours, confirmed COVID-19 inpatients, and COVID-19 deaths by actual date of death. The most recent forecasting from UTSW can be found here.The most recent COVID-19 Data Summaries for Dallas County, TX can be found at the bottom of this page.
On Saturday nightfollowing three blissful years without one and weeks of over-the-top media hype about its returnthe White House Correspondents Dinner made its post-covid comeback. President Biden spokea departure, we were told far too many times, from his predecessors no-showsas did The Daily Shows Trevor Noah, the first comedian to host the event since Michelle Wolfs (barely) edgy 2018 speech offended the prim sensibilities of many White House reporters. Both men made jokes about the pandemic, amid other targets. This is the first time a president attended this dinner in six years, Biden said. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of covid. Noah said he was honored to be hosting the nations most distinguished superspreader event, before asking did none of you learn anything from the Gridiron Dinner? The second someone offers you a free dinner you all turn into Joe Rogan.
The covid context was always likely to loom large, but the aforementioned Gridiron event, which itself returned from a three-year hiatus in early April (and is even yuckier than the Correspondents Dinner), supercharged matters; more than eighty guests subsequently tested positive, including numerous reporters. Last week, Anthony FauciBidens top covidadviser, who attended the Gridirondecided to skip the Correspondents Dinner, citing a personal risk calculation. (Fauci thought it was too dangerous to come tonight, Noah said onstage. Pete Davidson thinks its okay, and we all went with Pete.) All this raised questions as to whether the Correspondents Dinner should be canceled or whether Biden ought to go, and under what circumstances; some health experts said that his attendance would be overly risky given his responsibility to the nation to stay healthy, though others were more positive about his presence and the event in general, arguing that Biden should show Americans how to live alongside the virus. Ultimately, the organizers strengthened their rules to demand a same-day negative test as well as proof of vaccination (they turned down a chance to install germicidal UV lights), while Biden wore a mask when he wasnt talking and took a pass on the eating portion of the event.
New from CJR: 2022 is already the deadliest year for journalists in Mexico
Like Noah, Biden addressed the debate around holding the Correspondents Dinner at the dinner itself. I know there are questions about whether we should gather here tonight because of covid, he said. Well, were here to show the country that were getting through this pandemic. Apparently, members of his administration have recently sounded far less sanguine behind the scenes following a spike in reported covid cases, both nationally and in Washington, where several high-profile politicians have been affected. The cabinet secretaries Merrick Garland, Gina Raimondo, and Tom Vilsack all tested positive post-Gridiron (as, a week later, did Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City); last week, Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, and, most notably, Vice President Kamala Harris both reported cases. All said that they had mild or no symptoms. Headlines and push alerts about their diagnoses rained down regardless.
After the Gridiron, in particular, this type of coverage irked the White House: according to Alexander Nazaryan, of Yahoo News, officials saw reporters focus on a handful of largely asymptomatic cases among members of the political elite as coming at the expense of a much more important story about the administrations requests for more covid funds stalling out in Congress, with the White House calculating that Jen Psaki, the press secretary, faced fewer than half as many questions about funding (ten) in the entire first week of April as about safety protocols around Biden (twenty-one) at a single briefing on April 7. At the same briefing, Psaki frustratedly waved around the administrations pandemic preparedness plan and offered reporters a copy. Around the same time, she did likewise with a thick binder detailing how past covid funds were spent, amid Republican complaints about a lack of transparency. Stats Rachel Cohrs said that she was the only reporter to take Psaki up on her offer. When she did so, officials refused her a copy, instead allowing her an hour with the binder under supervision.
This, obviously, was intensely hypocritical. More generally, covid infections among senior officials are newsworthyisolation affects their duties and covid remains a dangerous disease, especially for unvaccinated, immunocompromised, and older people; take these factors together, and Bidens exposure clearly matters. Debates like the one around whether, and how, to hold the Correspondents Dinner, meanwhile, can feed into more broadly relevant societal conversations about risk calculations at this stage of the pandemic.
Often, though, the tenor of such coverageand, particularly where the Correspondents Dinner has been concerned, its volumehas been disproportionate, sometimes absurdly so. A powerful person getting infected isnt necessarily that big a story if their symptoms arent debilitating and, as has been the case with the names in the spotlight recently, they are vaccinated, sometimes quadruply so; were nowhere near the level, so far, of the time Trump went to the hospital in 2020. More importantly, and more to the White Houses post-Gridiron gripe, focusing on elites can lessen focus elsewherein this case, on funding interventions, from testing to vaccines, that are urgently needed by medically vulnerable people in particular, both in the US and globally. Throughout the pandemic, media coverage has often, if by no means always, framed avoiding infection as a matter of personal responsibility. This approach has always been deeply flawed, and it remains so. As federal covid funds dry up, programs that have supported hospitals and the uninsured are withering. The idea that the Correspondents Dinner is in any way more important than that is shameful.
We have seen plenty of coverage of the funding stakes. Much of it, though, has focused on Washington politicking at the expense of the bigger picture. At this (hopefully) late stage of the pandemic, the press shouldnt be limiting our lens to the scope of congressional will, but rather working to convene a much broader debate not only around covid, but healthcare policy more generally, not least the urgent need to end medical racism and the many other glaring inequities and flaws in the system. Again, some journalists are working to do this; yesterday morning, to cite just one example, a story about funding for the uninsured was higher up the New York Times homepage than the Correspondents Dinner. But its hard to conclude that this has added up to an urgent, agenda-shaping national conversation. Other big stories, not least the war in Ukraine, have recently sapped much of our bandwidth on that front, and thats understandable. But it also underscores just how few distractions we can collectively afford to indulgeand distraction is a perfect word for the Correspondents Dinner.
Not all of the coverage of the dinner was elitist; Axioss Paige Hopkins, among others, drew attention to the disparity in covid requirements between guests and the staff members serving them, flipping the script to shine a light on one close-to-home example of covid inequality. Much of the dinner discourse, though, was circus-like and incestuous. Of course, as I and many others have written before, the dinner didnt need covid to come along to be accused of that; as the Democratic strategist turned pundit David Axelrod told the Times ahead of the event, there is a question of whether its EVER appropriate to engage in an exercise in gaudy, celebrity-drenched self-adulation. Axelrod added that this was a separate questionbut actually it isnt. Its painfully consistent for a media ecosystem that treats a DC schmoozefest as really mattering to treat the many victims of Americas healthcare system as if they dont.
Like Wolf in 2018, Noah had some serious words for the press on Saturday, amid all the jokes. In America you have the right to seek the truth and speak the truth, even if it makes people in power uncomfortableeven if it makes your viewers or your readers uncomfortable, he said, before pivoting to the war in Ukraine. Ask yourself this question: If Russian journalistshad the freedom to write any words, to show any stories, or to ask any questionsif they had basically what you havewould they be using it in the same way that you do? The immediate context here may have been different, but covid, again, was not a separate question.
Below, more on the Correspondents Dinner, covid, and the White House:
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TOP IMAGE: Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," speaks at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Saturday, April 30, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
