Evusheld is a therapeutic that is given before exposure to COVID-19 to individuals who may not mount an adequate immune response to COVID-19 vaccination. It is given as a pre-exposure prophylaxis to people who have a compromised immune system and who are at high risk for COVID-19. Evusheld can help protect immunocompromised people by lowering the risk of hospitalization, severe illness, and death. It is recommended that administration of Evusheld occur before exposure to COVID-19. Persons with immune compromised conditions should speak to a provider right away about eligibility.
What is Evusheld?
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for Evusheld, a monoclonal antibody preventative treatment that has shown to be 77% effective in lowering risk of developing COVID-19 for up to 6 months.
Evusheld is a preventative treatment, which helps prevent COVID-19 in people who have not yet been exposed to the virus. Evusheld uses two monoclonal antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab, that are laboratory produced molecules engineered to serve as substitute antibodies to restore, enhance, or mimic the immune response to pathogens. Evusheld may only be prescribed to a patient by a physician or authorized provider, as it is administered intramuscularly (IM) by two consecutive injections of 300mg of tixagevimab and 300mg of cilgavimab.
Eligibility for Evusheld
The Emergency Use Authorization allows AstraZenecas Evusheld to be used as a pre-exposure prophylaxis for prevention of COVID-19 in adults and individuals that:
Talk to a health care provider to determine whether, based on individual circumstances, someone is eligible to receive Evusheld, and when it should be administered. For best results, do not wait to confirm eligibility.
Evusheld Providers in Nevada
Currently, Nevada has 20 locations in the state that provide Evusheld in the following cities: Reno, Carson City, Fallon, McDermitt, Winnemucca, Elko, Caliente, Las Vegas, Gardnerville, Yerington.
Follow this link to find Evusheld near you. COVID-19 Therapeutics Locator
Free State Sponsored Services
The State of Nevada has funding to provide COVID-19 therapeutic services to Nevadans. There are state sponsored services for Nevadans free of charge ranging from fixed site clinics, mobile or home-health services, and telehealth visits for oral antivirals and other therapies. Currently, the free therapies available include: Evusheld, Sotrovimab, Paxlovid, Molnupiravir, and soon Bebtelovimab.
Clark County
In Clark County, there is a fixed site, as well as home-health infusion options.
Northern and Rural
To learn more about statewide assistance regarding free Evusheld, please call 1-800-401-0946 or visit nevadacovidtreatment.com. The NorthernNevada Covid Treatment telehealth services are applicable to all Nevadans (including urban and rural counties). If you are eligible, you will be scheduled for a telehealth visit to assess if and how therapeutics may be used.
Adverse effects of Evusheld
As with all medications, you may experience some common side effects with most being mild to moderate. Headache, fatigue, and cough were among the most common side effects during clinical trials. Overall, side effects occurred in less than 3% of individuals.
Evusheld Effectiveness
Multiple studies have been performed on adults who were not vaccinated against COVID-19 and at elevated risk because of age, comorbidity, history of severe or adverse reaction to any US Food and Drug Administration-licensed vaccine, or residential/occupational status. Protection against severe illness, moderate illness, and COVID-19 symptoms were found to be effective up to 6.5 months after injections. There were no severe or critical COVID-19 events in the group that received Evusheld. Evusheld is not a substitute for vaccination, however, this preventative treatment may provide additional protection for people with severely compromised immune systems who may not mount an adequate immune response to COVID-19 vaccination. There also are people with a history of adverse reactions to vaccines for whom the COVID-19 vaccine is not recommended.
This monoclonal antibody treatment is still relatively new under emergency use authorization (EUA) and is recommended only for those at high risk for severe disease.
The number of identified coronavirus cases increased in Oregon for a fourth consecutive week, according to state data released Monday.
The 48% increase in weekly confirmed or presumed infections marked the second consecutive week with nearly 50% growth, pushing identified cases to their highest levels since late February.
But Oregon remains far below the case and hospitalization numbers seen during late 2020, summer 2021 and this years omicron surge. And the current rise in infections isnt expected to have the kind of dire consequences as the delta and omicron waves did.
While the states numbers show an unequivocal rise in infections, the true scope of the spread of disease in Oregon is unclear, at least in part due to the success of at-home testing. Oregonians arent required to report the results of positive or negative at-home tests to authorities and, because such tests are popular and easily available, the states reported numbers are an undercount of infections.
But test positivity, a strong indicator of disease prevalence, hinted at the true state of infections in Oregon. At 8.3% of all tests coming back positive Sunday, the metric was higher than it has been since Feb. 21.
COVID-19 hospitalizations reported Monday climbed to 144, up from a post-omicron dip that earlier this month fell to 84 occupied beds, a level not seen since 2020.
The current hospitalization bump could peak at 314 June 8, according to an April 22 Oregon Health & Science University forecast. About half of those would be incidental cases of the illness, with patients hospitalized to be treated primarily for other conditions.
Although that estimate is about 100 occupied beds higher than the universitys forecast two weeks earlier, it is still nearly four times lower than the peak hospitalizations reached during the delta wave.
Fueled by the highly contagious BA.2 omicron subvariant, coronavirus cases are rising nationally, with Oregon recording some of the largest percentage gains, according to The New York Times.
While acknowledging the various metrics that indicate COVID-19 is spreading rapidly, Oregon health officials have reiterated that the emergency phase of the pandemic has passed.
Since it began: Oregon has reported 716,414 confirmed or presumed infections and 7,485 deaths.
Where the newest cases are by county: Baker (4), Benton (207), Clackamas (512), Clatsop (31), Columbia (68), Coos (21), Crook (19), Curry (6), Deschutes (284), Douglas (31), Gilliam (1), Hood River (25), Jackson (159), Jefferson (7), Josephine (44), Klamath (28), Lake (8), Lane (380), Lincoln (23), Linn (163), Malheur (1), Marion (265), Morrow (6), Multnomah (1,804), Polk (91), Sherman (1), Tillamook (22), Umatilla (30), Union (3), Wallowa (6), Wasco (12), Washington (987), Wheeler (1) and Yamhill (64).
Hospitalizations: 144 people with confirmed coronavirus infections are hospitalized, up 44 since Monday, April 18. That includes 15 people in intensive care, down one since April 18.
Vaccinations: As of April 18, the state has reported fully vaccinating 2,895,723 people (67.8% of the population), partially vaccinating 289,462 people (6.8%) and boosting 1,603,269 (37.6%).
New deaths: Since April 18, the Oregon Health Authority has reported 30 additional deaths connected to COVID-19.
Fedor Zarkhin
In the middle of last year, the World Health Organization began promoting an ambitious goal, one it said was essential for ending the pandemic: fully vaccinate 70 percent of the population in every country against Covid-19 by June 2022.
Now, it is clear that the world will fall far short of that target by the deadline. And there is a growing sense of resignation among public health experts that high Covid vaccination coverage may never be achieved in most lower-income countries, as badly needed funding from the United States dries up and both governments and donors turn to other priorities.
The reality is that there is a loss of momentum, said Dr. Isaac Adewole, a former health minister of Nigeria who now serves as a consultant for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Only a few of the worlds 82 poorest countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal have reached the 70 percent vaccination threshold. Many are under 20 percent, according to data compiled from government sources by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.
By comparison, about two-thirds of the worlds richest countries have reached 70 percent. (The United States is at 66 percent.)
The consequences of giving up on achieving high vaccination coverage worldwide could prove severe. Public health experts say that abandoning the global effort could lead to the emergence of dangerous new variants that would threaten the worlds precarious efforts to live with the virus.
This pandemic is not over yet far from it and its imperative that countries use the doses available to them to protect as much of their population as possible, said Dr. Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, the nonprofit that runs the global vaccine clearinghouse Covax.
Countries in different parts of the world, including some in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, have seen their vaccination rates stagnate in recent months at a third or less of their populations. But Africas vaccination rate remain the most dismal.
Fewer than 17 percent of Africans have received a primary Covid immunization. Nearly half of the vaccine doses delivered to the continent thus far have gone unused. Last month, the number of doses injected on the continent fell by 35 percent compared to February. W.H.O. officials attributed the drop to mass vaccination pushes being replaced by smaller-scale campaigns in several countries.
Some global health experts say the world missed a prime opportunity last year to provide vaccines to lower-income countries, when the public was more fearful of Covid and motivated to get vaccinated.
There was a time people were very desperate to get vaccinated, but the vaccines were not there. And then they realized that without the vaccination, they didnt die, said Dr. Adewole, who wants to see countries continue to pursue the 70 percent target.
What momentum remains in the global vaccination campaign has been hindered by a shortfall in funding for the equipment, transportation and personnel needed to get shots into arms.
In the United States, a key funder of the vaccination effort, lawmakers stripped $5 billion meant for global pandemic aid from the coronavirus response package that is expected to come up for a vote in the next few weeks. Biden administration officials have said that without the funds, they will be unable to provide support for vaccine delivery to more than 20 under-vaccinated countries.
Some public health experts point to reasons for optimism that the global vaccination campaign still has steam. Despite the drop off from the February peak, the number of Covid vaccinations being administered each day in Africa is still near a pandemic high. And Gavi earlier this month drew a significant new round of funding pledges, securing $4.8 billion in commitments, although it fell short of its $5.2 billion goal.
There is also hope that a global Covid summit the White House plans to co-host next month could be an opportunity to generate momentum and funding.
But the drop in public demand has led some health officials and experts to quietly, and in some cases outright, question whether the 70 percent vaccination target is feasible or even sensible.
Reported fatalities from Covid-19 remain comparatively low in sub-Saharan Africa, although there is debate about how much of this reflects poor data tracking. The perception, however, in many countries in the region is that the disease does not pose a serious threat, certainly not as much as other pervasive health problems that demand attention with scarce health care resources.
Many lower-income governments are turning their focus to their economies and other health issues like H.I.V., said Fifa Rahman, a civil society representative to a W.H.O.-launched group coordinating the global Covid response. Theres a sense of a lot of competing priorities, but thats a symptom of the momentum being gone. Because when the momentum was there, everyone was like, Where are our vaccines?
In rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where the reported Covid death rate is very low, there is a surge in measles cases threatening 20 million children. Yet the government says it cannot spare the resources to provide supplementary measles vaccinations this year, said Christopher Mambula, medical manager for Doctors Without Border in East Africa. In this kind of context, it makes little sense to continue to divert resources to widespread vaccination against Covid, he said.
As African governments have received more vaccines donated from wealthy countries and struggled to distribute even those supplies, their interest in ordering more doses has dropped.
The African Union still aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the end of 2022. But with countries slow to use up donated vaccines, the bloc has not exercised its options to order more doses of the shots from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
The South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare earlier this year finalized a deal to bottle and market the Johnson & Johnson vaccine across Africa, a contract that was billed as an early step toward Africas development of a robust vaccine production industry. Aspen geared up for production, but no buyers, including the African Union and Covax, have placed orders yet, said Stephen Saad, Aspens chief executive.
The Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine maker, stopped its production of Covid shots in December last year, when its stockpile grew to 200 million doses; Bharat Biotech, another Indian firm that was a major producer, also stopped making vaccines in the face of low demand. The companies say they have no further orders since their contracts with the Indian government ended in March.
After the W.H.O. began promoting the 70 percent vaccination goal, many lower-income governments adopted the target for their own populations. The Biden administration also endorsed it last September, setting a deadline of September 2022.
At the time, two doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were understood to offer very strong protection against even mild disease, and there was still hope that achieving high levels of vaccination coverage would tame the virus. But the emergence of new variants and the spread of the virus in Africa changed the calculus.
The vaccine regimens that had been planned for the developing world offered little protection against infection with the Omicron variant. And as sub-Saharan African countries were shut out of vaccine distribution for much of last year, more and more Africans gained protection against the virus from natural infection, which studies have shown works as well as two mRNA doses in preventing infection. New data from the W.H.O. shows that at least two-thirds of Africans had been infected with the virus before the Omicron wave.
Given these factors, some public health experts in Africa say the broad 70 percent goal no longer makes sense. Theres very little value to it. In fact, we will gain much more by getting to more than 90 percent of people above the age of 50, said Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and the dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. About two-thirds of South Africans above age 50 are currently fully vaccinated.
Dr. Madhi said that South Africa could close down mass vaccination sites and instead redouble its efforts to seek out the most vulnerable at church services and at government offices that pay out monthly pension benefits.
Katherine OBrien, who directs the W.H.O.s work on vaccines and immunizations, said the agency encourages countries to focus on its most vulnerable citizens rather than vaccinating a random set of 70 percent of their populations. The aspiration she said, has always been 100 percent of health workers, 100 percent of older adults, 100 percent of pregnant women, 100 percent of the people who fall into those highest risk groups.
Countries can of course make decisions about what health goal they wish to prioritize, Dr. OBrien said, but finite resources should not be the obstacle to vaccinating against the coronavirus. The world has enough resources to do this, if countries want to do it, she said. And that should be really the North Star.
Some public health experts said that while the 70 percent vaccination threshold is clearly not achievable by its original deadline, it would be unwise and unethical to give up on that target over a longer time horizon. They expressed frustration about the growing gulf between wealthy countries vaccinating young children and offering healthy adults fourth vaccine doses, and the regions where the majority of people still do not have one dose.
Why are we making it one target for high-income countries and one target for low income? said Dr. Ayoade Alakija, a co-chair of the African Unions vaccine delivery program.
She said that even though many people in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected, there is still need for the additional protection that would come from a high level of vaccination coverage.
Modest vaccination coverage, she said, is not considered a good enough level of protection in England, its not a good enough level of protection in America. How is it OK not to be aiming for the very maximum, maximum we can? Aim for the sky and get to the top of the tree.
April 23, 2022
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the chief executive of Gavi. He is Dr. Seth Berkley, not Berkeley.
Local organizations team up with CDC to conduct study on animals
Several local organizations are teaming up with the CDC to conduct a study on coronavirus in animals, specifically feral cats.
AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Humane Society and the Austin Animal Center have teamed up with Texas A&M and the Texas Department of State Health Services to be involved in a CDC lead study on coronavirus in cats. The study specifically focuses on feral cats.
"We know that cats can get infected, and we've seen cats like lions in zoos and pet cats that have come down with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID 19, but they've been in known contact with a person. These are kitties that are not living in people's homes. They're essentially wildlife," said Dr. Katie Luke, Chief Operations Officer Austin Humane Society.
Dr. Luke says the study will take place over a six-month time frame with 1,000 cats to see if COVID-19 can spread animal to animal. A potential factor that has not been tested for.
"That's always something that is of concern. If we see viruses mutating in animal hosts, you always get concerned that it'll mutate to something that's more deadly or that that could suddenly spread in a different way, so it's really just more surveillance to try to see what is out there," she said.
Dr. Luke says this study will cause no harm to the cats involved.
"These kitties are cats that are coming in for spay and neuter surgery and they're returned back to their natural habitats after surgery just like they are now so there's no harm coming to them. We're sampling by basically just a swab of the back of their throat and then sending [the cats] back on their merry way," she said.
Other agencies across the nation are taking part in this study with different animals. Austin is covering cats. The results of this study will be shared with the CDC to find out additional ways to be more proactive and ready for the next virus.
"It's just to learn more in general about how coronaviruses work and behave so that hopefully we can, as a scientific community, work towards better prevention for humans and better care overall is the goal," said Dr. Luke.
So far, around 20-30 cats have been tested and results are pending at a lab at Texas A&M.
After 2 year hiatus, White House hosts Easter Egg Roll
Undaunted by soggy skies, President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, kicked off the first White House Easter Egg Roll since before the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, welcoming some 30,000 kids and adults for the all-day event. (April 18)
AP
The coronavirus pandemic continues to linger after more than two years.
Throughout Florida, at least 20,860 people last week were diagnosed with the virus, according to the Florida Department of Health, bringing its cumulative known case count to 5,899,188 since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The state also added26 people to its death toll, bringing the death total to73,830.
Unlike other states around the country, Florida rolled backCOVID-19 reporting, now releasingdataevery other week. But as Florida roes back reporting, and safety precautions, cases arebeginning to trend upward again as a new subvariantsBA.2 makes its way aroundin the U.S.
Cases have climbed each of the past six weeks, data shows.
Hospitalizations drop: Hospital admissions for COVID-19 drop at Gainesville hospitals but peak may yet be ahead
More: COVID-19 update: Alachua County numbers are falling, but a subvariant of omicron looms
On March 11, the state reported 8,038 cases. On April 8, Florida saw 15,623 cases. During that month span, the positivity rate climbed from 1.9% to 6.1%.
The true number of infected Floridians is unknown, as home testing has become increasingly more popular. Approximately 74% of Florida's residents are also vaccinated, reducing symptoms for many.
In Alachua County, at least 159 new cases were reported last week, with a 4.1% positivity rate.
The county has had a cumulative case count of 68,467 since March2020.
An additional 35 county residents were vaccinated over the last week, bringing the total vaccinations to 181,905, or about 70% of the local vaccine-eligible population.
Nearby counties largely recorded low case numbers and positivity rates:
Neighboring counties are also reporting new cases.
Bradford County had at least 15 known cases with a 5.9% positivity rate. About 49% of the countys vaccine-eligible population has been vaccinated.
Columbia County recorded 18cases with a 2.3% positivity rate. At least 48%of the county has been vaccinated.
Gilchrist county had just three new positive cases with a 1.8% positivity rate. About 44% of the county age 5 and up has been vaccinated.
Marion County recorded 142 new cases with a 3.5% positivity rate. About 64% of that countys vaccine-eligible population has been vaccinated.
UF Health Shands Hospital reported Monday morning that it was treating 20 patients for COVID 19,five of whom arein the intensive care unit.
HCA Florida North Florida Hospital has fiveCOVID-19 patients in-house, none of those are in the ICU.
Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center has justone COVID-19 patient in the hospital. The patient is not in anICU beds, as of Monday.
Chen Qiushi was born in Chinas remote, frigid north near the countrys border with Russia. An only child, he loved to tell stories and jokes to his family and classmates and dreamed of being an actor or a television journalist. But his mother objected, and Chen got a law degree from a local university and moved to Beijing, where he later took a job at a prestigious legal firm.
In off-hours, Chen continued to pursue his passion for performing. He dabbled in standup comedy at local bars and did voice acting. He became a contestant on I Am a Speaker, a talent show for orators modelled on The Voice. In his final performance, he expounded on the importance of free speech. A country can only grow stronger when it is accompanied by critics, Chen said. Only freedom of expression and the freedom of press can protect a country from descending into a place where the weak are preyed upon by the strong.
Chen won second place and used his newfound fame to build a large social-media following. In 2018, he uploaded more than four hundred short videos that provided basic tutorials on Chinese law on Douyin, a platform similar to TikTok, but only available for users in China. He gained more than 1.5 million followers, making him the most popular legal personality on the entire platform.
In the next year, Chen began providing independent journalism to his followers on social-media. In the summer of 2019, he travelled to Hong Kong to report firsthand on the pro-democracy street protests that had erupted in the city. Why am I in Hong Kong? Chen asked, in a video posted on August 17th. Because a lot is happening in Hong Kong right now.
Chen interviewed protesters and spoke with those who supported the police. He waded into simmering controversies, such as the use of violence by some demonstrators. He acknowledged that journalism was a hobby of sorts, but said that he still had an obligation to be present when and where news unfolded. He also pledged to be objective. I wont express my opinion carelessly, Chen promised. I wont say whom I support or whom I disagree with. Everyone has their own subjective prejudice. I wish to leave behind my own prejudice and treat everything with neutrality as much as I can . . . because I am not satisfied with public opinion and the media environment in China, I decided to come to Hong Kong and become the media myself.
Alarmed by the reach of Chens social-media posts, Chinese officials pressured Chens law firm to get him to leave Hong Kong. The firm told Chen that, if he did not return to Beijing immediately, he would be in grave danger. Four days after he posted his first video from Hong Kong, Chen flew home to Beijing. All of his public Chinese social-media accounts, including Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin, no longer worked. When he tried to open a new Douyin account a few weeks later, the account was deleted as soon as his face appeared in a video. He posted messages on his YouTube and Twitter, which are banned in China. After Chinese police interrogated Chen and demanded to know what he thought of the Hong Kong protests, he expressed frustration. No one cares about the truthall they care about is my stance, Chen complained in a YouTube video. This is the problem we face right now. It seems that truth does not matter at all.
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Six months later, on January 23, 2020, the city of Wuhan went into lockdown. The next day, Chen boarded the last train from Beijing to Wuhan. When disaster happens, if you dont rush to the front lines as soon as possible, what kind of journalist are you? he asked in a video he posted outside the train station. Chen seemed to believe that informing the public and insuring access to independent reporting was the key to fighting the disease. As long as information travels faster than the virus, we can win this battle, Chen said, in the video. Although I was blocked on the Internet in China for reporting on the events in Hong Kong, I still have a Twitter and a YouTube account. In the next few days, I invite you to find me through these channels. Id be happy to help get the voice of the people of Wuhan to the outside world. Chen apparently believed he could use his skills as an orator and his charisma as a performer to build an audience online, even if it was primarily on YouTube and Twitter and not the Chinese social-media platforms from which he was banned.
Over the next ten days in Wuhan, Chen visited emergency rooms and supermarkets, talked to doctors, nurses, and city residents, and uploaded daily video reports. On January 25th, the beginning of the Chinese New Year, Chen donned improvised personal protective gear, including swimming goggles, and filmed a busy scene outside a local emergency room. The next day, he visited the shuttered Wuhan wet market, where a seafood seller, Wei Guixian, was reportedly the first person to have fallen ill from the virus. Chen described the market as a colorful place that sold foxes, monkeys, and pangolins, and said local rich people do have a habit of eating wild animals to boost their health.
As Chen reported from the city, Chinese officials systematically covered up the outbreak. The National Health Commission ordered institutions not to publish any information related to the unknown disease. Chen feared that such censorship was facilitating the spread of the virus and believed that his daily video reports informed the public. He facilitated donations of supplies and distributed food to hospital workers. He shared with viewers an encouraging note from his parents, who urged him to keep reporting but also to stay safe. He also implicitly criticized the countrys leadership after President Xi Jinping initially did not travel to Wuhan. I dont care where Xi Jinping is, Chen noted, addressing the citys residents. But I, Chen Qiushi, am here.
On March 10, 2020, nearly three months after the presumed first case, the President finally visited Wuhan. He praised the peoples war against the coronavirus, and brought along journalists from state-controlled media outlets. Through its global propaganda network, China told its pandemic narrative to the world. It used crude measuresa video, distributed by the state-run news agency Xinhua, featuring the Statue of Liberty failing to defend the U.S. from the virusand more sophisticated strategies, such as generating media coverage of the Chinese government delivering aid in places such as Pakistan and Italy.
Part of the governments argument is that its system of strict information control has allowed it to suppress misinformation and rumors, while providing the population with reliable health information and protocols to stay safe. A global survey released in June 2020 found that sixty per cent of respondents believed that China had responded effectively to the pandemic, while only a third felt that the U.S. had done so. The Chinese government used its near-total control over domestic news mediaas well as social mediato manage public perceptions of its coronavirus policies and to build popular support for its actions. It blocked or took down online posts that cast doubt on the governments response and, in some cases, arrested and prosecuted dissenters. Taking advantage of deteriorating relations with the Trump Administration, it expelled more than a dozen U.S. foreign correspondents, some of whom were asking uncomfortable questions about Wuhan.
China provided a playbook for information repression that spread around the world alongside the virus. Citing COVID, authoritarian governments in Russia, Iran, Nicaragua, and eighty other nations, according to Human Rights Watch, enacted new restrictions on free speech and political expression that were falsely described as public-health measures. In at least ten countries, protests against the government were also banned or interrupted. Information on the virus that did not come from the government was criminalized as fake news or propaganda.
Authoritarian regimes called the censorship necessary and much of it temporary, but, in reality, the pandemic amplified or accelerated a shift toward authoritarianism that, according to the U.S.-based pro-democracy organization Freedom House, had been under way for fourteen years. At least ninety-one countries that the group monitored restricted news media in response to the virus outbreak in the first months of 2020, including sixty-seven per cent of the states that the nonprofit classifies as not free.
These crackdowns were often fuelled by domestic political considerations, Freedom House found, including a desire to hide the extent of the outbreak from citizens and conceal government incompetence. The repression was facilitated by the narrative, created and spread by China, that authoritarian governments were better equipped to respond to the pandemic, in part, because of their ability to control and manage information. This was in sharp contrast, China argued, to the deficiencies in the democratic world, particularly in the United States, which was mired in division and misinformation and struggled to muster an effective public-health response. Today, as the most recent wave of the pandemic recedes, a post-COVID global political order is emerging where autocracies appear strengthened and democracies seem divided.
During his time in Wuhan, Chen visited the construction site of Huoshenshan Hospital, an enormous emergency medical facility that the Chinese government built, from scratch, in ten days. The hospital was both a response to the overwhelming demand for patient care, and a carefully calibrated propaganda effort intended to highlight the ability of the Chinese government to mobilize state resources and reorganize society in an emergency. During a car ride back with several Wuhan residents, Chen observed empty streets as he searched for a place to eat.
As his time in Wuhan wore on, Chen became increasingly agitated. He uploaded a twenty-seven-minute monologue in which he decried shortages of testing kits and hospital beds, described the exhaustion of doctors and construction workers, and reported that taxi-drivers in the city had figured out that a contagious disease was spreading weeks before the authorities made a public announcement. Despite the governments attempt to control the flow of information, they knew to avoid the Huanan market. Chen described the growing mayhem at hospitals, the lines, the patients being treated in parking lots and waiting rooms, and the body of a dead patient sitting in a wheelchair.
Several days after Chens arrival, someone from the Bureau of Justice called Chen and asked where he was staying in Wuhan. Authorities summoned Chens parents and asked them to pressure Chen to leave Wuhan. I want him to return home more than you do, Chen said his mother retorted. A week later, Chen told his parents he was planning to visit a temporary hospital. After being unable to reach Chen for twelve hours, his friends, following an agreed-upon protocol, logged into his accounts and changed his passwords. Though there has been no official confirmation, they suspected that he had been detained by Chinese authorities and was being secretly imprisoned.
According to the state Department of Public Health, the average age of those dying from coronavirus is now 79.
And the statistics DPH presents bear it out.
Currently, 91% of all deaths are among those 60 and up and 54% of all deaths are among those 80 and up.
The latest two-week period between April 3 and April 16 showed a surge of 8,697 cases to 13,113, which was an increase of 51%.
During that time there were 6,086 cases among those from the age of 0 to 19 and no deaths.
There were 16,166 cases among those from the age of 20 to 59 and just four deaths.
Those from the age of 60 to 80 and above had 4,496 cases and 57 deaths.
Those 80 and over suffered the most deaths, with 35, or 57%, of the 61 deaths during that period.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020, those 80 and over have suffered 54% of all deaths, which is 10,943 out of 20,208 total deaths.
And during that time, that age group has had the fewest number of cases at 54,853, which is 3% of all 1,733,156 cases as of April 16.
Meanwhile, those from the age of 70 to 79 have suffered 4,678 deaths, which is 23% of the 20,208 total deaths as of April 16.
That groups percentage of deaths is less than half the 80 and over group, but their percentage of cases is slightly more at 4%.
Those from the age of 20 through the age of 59 account for 60% of all cases and 9% of all deaths.
Those numbers are 1,048,158 and 1,851, respectively.
Those 1,851 deaths is a death percentage of just 0.17%, or just under two-tenths of one percent, for the number of cases which afflicted the group.
And the youngest group of those afflicted with coronavirus, those from the age of 0 through 19, account for 24% of all cases and 0.11%, or one-tenth of 1%, of all deaths; those numbers are 416,395 and 23, respectively.
Meanwhile, as the number of cases rose, the number of those being cared for in intensive care units, or ICUs, fell.
On Friday, when the number of cases for the week ending April 22 hit 13,198, the number of those in ICUs fell from 37 to 25 since the week ending April 15.
And the number of those intubated with breathing apparatus declined from 15 to 12.
The numbers of those in ICUs and on breathing apparatus indicates this latest surge is less deadly.
On Friday, there were 389 people hospitalized statewide with 12 on breathing apparatus and 25 in an ICU.
The last time there were that many people hospitalized (391) on Feb. 28, about two months ago, there were 39 patients on breathing apparatus and 71 patients in ICUs.
George W. Rhodes can be reached at 508-236-0432.
COVIDAshish Jha is now on the hot seat as the new White House coronavirus response coordinator. Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford
We are in a complicated moment in the pandemic, Dr. Ashish Jha, President Joe Bidens COVID-19 response coordinator, wrote in an op-ed for CNN.com Monday.
While infections in the U.S. are relatively low and hospitalizations are near the lowest levels they have been since March 2020, cases are rising again in many parts of the country due to the more transmissible omicron subvariant called BA.2., he wrote.
Jha wrote that it is unlikely that BA.2 will cause as impactful a surge as the original omicron variant, but that its important that we keep track of it. We should also remember that hundreds of Americans are still dying from COVID-19 each day, he wrote.
We have a choice to make: We can wait and see what happens next, or we can use this moment as an opportunity to prepare, he wrote.
Jha wrote that if we prepare now, we can get ahead of the virus and be ready for the next wave.
As a country, we are still vulnerable to COVID-19, Jha wrote. Not only is BA.2 highly contagious, but many Americans still arent vaccinated or have waning immunity.
Additionally, he wrote, weve seen a new significant variant every four to six months during the pandemic, and theres no reason to think that will change.
We could get lucky. But counting on luck isnt a strategy. Preparation is a strategy, he wrote.
Heres what Dr. Jha says we need to do as a country to prepare:
We can do this. But we need funding to make it happen, Jha wrote.
New, potentially more effective and long-lasting COVID-19 vaccines are expected to come out this fall, he wrote, as well as more treatments for the virus. The U.S. also needs to keep purchasing vaccines for its citizens, he wrote.
None of that is possible without monetary support from Congress, Jha wrote.
Right now, the Biden Administration is asking Congress for $22 billion for COVID-19 relief funds. Jha told NPR that this money is essential for protecting the country against COVID-19, and that its less than the Biden Administration had originally planned to ask for.
Two years ago, it felt like we were at the mercy of this virus that we didnt understand and couldnt counter. That is no longer the case, he wrote.
We now have the know-how and the means to reduce its spread and prevent its most serious consequences. We can save lives, protect people, keep schools open and keep returning to a more normal set of routines.
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What are you doing this summer?
Despite earlier rumblings about Americans embarking on outings and travel they had postponed due to the pandemic, a new study suggests coronavirus concerns and historically high inflation are influencing many peoples vacation planning.
COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are on the rise again after falling earlier this year, driven by the BA.2 variant and two new subvariants that appear to be even more infectious.
The daily average of new cases hovers at 44,308, up from 25,529 on April 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while daily hospitalizations are averaging 1,642.
Meanwhile, government data released earlier this month showed inflation rose to a 40-year high of 8.5% in March and shows scant sign of falling, adding a new challenge for the economy and complicating the Federal Reserves efforts to temper prices.
The price of plane tickets rose 10.7% between February and March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the government said, and rose nearly 24% on the year.
Still, during the first three months of 2022, travelers spent $21 billion online on plane tickets for domestic flights versus $56 billion on airfares for the whole of 2021, Adobe ADBE said.
However, not everyone feels like splurging in the current climate. A poll released Monday by the personal-finance site Bankrate said early exuberance for a summer of revenge travel more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic may be subsiding.
The survey of 2,676 U.S. adults, carried out in late March before the latest rise in COVID-19 cases, found that 69% of those planning summer vacations this year are changing their plans.
Among those, 25% say theyre taking fewer trips this summer and/or traveling shorter distances, 23% are doing less expensive activities, and 22% are picking cheaper destinations or lodging.
Monitor COVID cases/hospitalizations where you plan to travel and make concession plans for if you wind up testing positive while traveling.
This trend has also borne out anecdotally. COVID ruined all my plans to travel overseas, one woman wrote on Twitter.
Dr. Amy Morre, the vice president of global engagement and patient partnerships at the LUNGevity Foundation for cancer research and support, also expressed reservations about travel.
She advised people to monitor COVID cases/hospitalizations where you plan to travel and make concession plans for if you wind up testing positive while traveling.
With that said, after being cooped up for a couple of years because of COVID, people are ready to get back out there this summer, says Ted Rossman, Bankrate senior industry analyst.
But that applies more to the younger crowd than to baby boomers, he noted. Some 72% of Generation Z (ages 18 to 25) and 65% of millennials (ages 26 to 41) are planning getaways, compared to 61% of Generation X (ages 42 to 57) and 58% of baby boomers (ages 58 to 76). Older people are also statistically more likely to suffer more severe COVID outcomes.
The top reasons for skipping a vacation: money, cited by 48% of the Bankrate poll respondents, followed COVID concerns (20%). Others cited family obligations, their age, and work commitments.
But even with higher prices for gas and airline tickets, recent AAA travel booking data said reservations for flights, rental cars, cruises and hotels for Memorial Day are up 122% on the year.
Despite inflation and higher gas prices, people want to travel, and we believe they will find ways to do so without breaking their budget, said Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel.
Some people, like Ryan Hill, an assistant professor of economics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, have simply been forced to cancel vacation plans due to the virus itself rather than higher prices.
Unfortunately we drew the COVID card meaning mild symptoms but it seriously messed up our travel plans, Hill said.
(WXYZ) New COVID-19 cases across Michigan are on the rise due to omicrons highly contagious BA.2 subvariant.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says Southeast Michigan in particular is seeing more cases.
But Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state's chief medical executive, says the next surge will be different and the peak is expected to hit early May.
"What we are expecting is an increase in cases but a more of a slow and steady increase in cases, not that massive upswing with what we saw in previous surges. We are also not expecting to see a significant increase in hospitalizations or deaths," Bagdasarian said.
Data shows that the current seven-day average of new daily cases is 1,496, while the week before the average was 1,104. Bagdasarian says for now, Southeast Michigan is seeing most of the uptick.
"Just because of travel and population density, we often see these types of trends begin in Southeast Michigan," Bagdasarian said.
Two years into the pandemic, Bagdasarian says folks need to have a COVID-19 plan. For instance, keep home COVID-19 test kits handy. Carry a high-quality mask and consider wearing it in busy places.
"COVID-19 is not going anywhere. It's not too late to get vaccinated. Vaccines are still free. They are incredibly safe and effective," Bagdasarian said.
Meanwhile, Professor Daniel Forger and his team at the University at Michigan have developed an app that can detect COVID-19 symptoms when paired with a fitness tracker.
"So from this one signal of heart rate, we can see that COVID affects how your lungs work, COVID will affect your biological clock. COVID will affect stress," Forger said.
Forger says mobile health is the future if we want to stay ahead of future pandemics or detect other diseases.
"Having access to a device that costs less than $100 can tell them about their health with our algorithms," Forger said.
The system is expected to launch in a year, but Forger thinks even though it won't be a replacement for a COVID19 test, it will have its advantages.
"What it can tell you that a PCR test cant is how sick your body is becoming," Forger said.
