SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) A FDA panel on Thursday set in motion the road to Moderna COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, endorsing a lower-dose booster for seniors, as well as younger adults with other health problems, jobs or living situations that put them at increased risk from COVID-19.
This endorsement was also given Friday to the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which the FDA is recommending for anyone age 18 and up who received their first dose at least two months ago.
These endorsements must still pass FDA leadership and the CDC before Moderna and J&J boosters can be given out, but if both agencies approve, boosters could begin as soon as this month.
The purpose of a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine is to boost the production of antibodies to the virus in your body. According to Averas Dr. David Basel, your body still remembers how to produce the COVID-19 antibodies if youve already been vaccinated, but will require a booster to tell it to continue producing them.
The booster is saying, This is not a one-time infection youre going to see. You may see this again and again in the future, so keep making those antibodies.
The Pfizer vaccine booster was granted approval in September and those who get it will received a full dose. The Moderna booster, if approved, will be given in a lower dose. KELOLAND News spoke to Basel, as well as Sanford Health Dr. Jeremy Cauwels to find out why.
The booster that [the FDA] approved was essentially half the original dose of the original Moderna series, said Basel. With Moderna, the first and second shot are half a cc half a milliliter. For the booster, its going to be a quarter of a milliliter.
Basel says this reduction in the volume of vaccine was the result of a study showing a lower dose is all that is needed to boost antibody production up to adequate levels.
Another positive effect of this discovery is highlighted by Cauwels.
When they give that additional dose, less of the medicine is actually needed to induce the same sort of covering immune response, he said. As you can imagine, as were trying to distribute doses throughout the world.
The less dose we can give to each individual means the more doses we can spread out to the world.
Basel stressed the fact that even though the Moderna vaccine will be a lower dose, it is still the same vaccine.
The boosters the exact same formulation as the initial series. Its just half the vaccine, Basel said.
Asked why the Pfizer vaccine isnt a lower dose, Basel points to timing.
They probably could have studied at a lower dose for that third shot, and it likely would have been okay knowing what we know now its just not how they set it up, Basel said.
Basel says that because the authorization for Pfizer boosters came about a month ahead of the others, Moderna may have been able to benefit from what was already known to determine that it could use a lower dose.
Cauwels said that while the current Pfizer booster is a full dose, studies may change that in the future.
For instance, the Pfizer dose in children is a lower dose because children do a better job of forming an immune response, Cauwels said.
When addressing the need for a booster shot, Basel outlined the difference between a primary dose and a booster.
Theres the primary dose series where youre getting one, two or even three shots of a vaccine to get your initial immune response up to a level that its going to be effective, he said. Thats your primary series.
Over time, Basel continued after that primary series [immunity] drops off and you need a booster.
Basel said some people like those who are immunocompromised do not mount as strong of an immune response to the first shots and may require an additional one in series to reach full initial immunity.
Former New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton wants back into the NFL. After months of wavering, Newton reportedly received the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.
That could clear a significant hurdle for Newton, who missed time in the preseason after a "misunderstanding" over COVID-19 protocols. That absence may have cost Newton his job.
Newton was surprisingly released by the Patriots shortly after that miscommunication. The team handed the starting job to rookie Mac Jones, who has led the Patriots to a 2-3 record. Head coach Bill Belichick said Newton's vaccination status did not play a role in the team's decision to release him.
Newton's vaccination status may not have mattered with the Patriots, but it may affect whether other NFL teams are willing to bring him in. The NFL put COVID-19 protocols in place that strongly encourage players to get vaccinated. Unvaccinated players can't be around teammates as much, have to jump through more testing hoops and can be fined a significant amount for breaking those rules.
With those restrictions no longer an issue, Newton might get more calls from NFL teams.
Newton is a three-time Pro Bowler who has made an All-Pro team and won an MVP award during his career. He's put up some eye-popping numbers over his 10 seasons in the NFL, and that should attract teams looking for quarterback help.
Now that he's vaccinated, teams will focus on whether Newton can still approach his former numbers. He wasn't a great passer for the Patriots last season, when he threw just eight touchdowns against 10 interceptions in 15 games. Newton was still an effective runner, scoring 12 rushing touchdowns for the Patriots.
Newton's diminished passing numbers could be the result of a devastating shoulder injury Newton sustained in 2016. Newton claimed he was fully recovered from that injury prior to last season, however.
If Newton's shoulder has recovered, it's possible he can still carve out a solid second act with another NFL team. If not, Newton has plenty of knowledge and could stick around the league as a backup if he's willing to mentor younger players.
Cam Newton wants to get back into the NFL. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
More than 1,300 flu, 200 COVID-19 vaccines administered in 'Arms Across Kanawha' event WCHS-TV8
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) Several hundred dogs and cats were at the parking lot of Sleep Train arena Saturday asSacramento Public Health, the Front Street Animal Shelter and the Mexican Consulate of Sacramento teamed up to host a unique vaccination clinic.
The clinic provided COVID-19 and flu vaccinations for humans and free microchipping and vaccines for pets.
Even though 12-week-old Loki didnt like his shot too much, many pet owners, like Angel Mubarak, got in the long line for her 7-year-old dog, Tyler.
I didnt expect to be this many people here. But Im glad that I came, Mubarak told FOX40.
Cars lined up for pet vaccinations on one side of the parking lot, then waited to get COVID-19 shot and flu shot on the other side of the lot.
The countys chief animal control officer came up with the idea of a combined clinic.
How do we keep families together? How do we keep owners healthy? How do we keep pets healthy? And how do we make access to that care, as low-to-no barrier? asked Sacramento County Chief Animal Control Officer Jase Huggins.
Weve actually been doing this clinic since last October, explained Public Information Coordinator Haley Waugh.Every month, we host them in different neighborhoods throughout the city. So, we can really go to those communities where were needed the most.
The Mexican Consulate of Sacramento is celebrating Binational Health Week with several events, including Saturdays event, centered around health services.
Consul General of Mexico Liliana Ferrer told FOX40 especially during the pandemic, pets have played a very special part in our emotional and mental health.
The winter months are coming along. We all want to be healthy. We want to be strong so we can care for our pets, Ferrer said.
I wanted to get him vaccinated. And hes been my big emotional support animal during this time of COVID. I really support the consulates activities, said pet owner Martha Geraty. The consulate does such wonderful work with the community.
The consulate, along with Sacramento County, will continue to provide services throughout the week.
We will continue our collaboration with front street animal shelter. We are going with them to their drive-thru clinics each month and that will continue, said Sacramento County Public Health Director of Nursing Lynnan Svensson.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Gov. Ron DeSantis has pledged to fight the Biden administration over federal vaccine mandates.
"I am offended that a police officer could potentially lose their job," he said on Thursday.
DeSantis has opposed broad vaccine requirements and mask mandates in K-12 public schools.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a vocal opponent of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, on Thursday said that the state will fight the federal government in court over legislation regarding such requirements.
DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has spoken out forcefully against vaccination rules placed on employers, and last month said that President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate was a violation of Florida law.
"Let's not have Biden come in and effectively take away - threaten to take away - the jobs of people who have been working hard throughout this entire pandemic," DeSantis said during a news conference this week. "I am offended that a police officer could potentially lose their job."
"I just think it's fundamentally wrong to be taking people's jobs away, particularly given the situations that we see ourselves facing with the economy," he added.
The rule from the federal government mandates that employers with over 100 workers must require vaccination or conduct weekly testing, which would affect about 80 million Americans. The broader mandate would also affect about 17 million healthcare workers who are employed by hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, along with federal employees and contractors.
Republicans last month quickly pounced on Biden's move.
Even Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who has traveled throughout his conservative in an effort to boost the vaccine, said that Biden's decision to enact a federal mandate was not helpful to increasing inoculation levels among the public.
"I support businesses being able to require vaccination, but it's their own independent choice for their workplace," he said last month. "But to have the federal mandate will be counterproductive. It's going to increase resistance. We're going to grow our vaccinations whether you have this or not."
Story continues
DeSantis, who has rejected the use of vaccine passports and waged battles with school districts that have sought to implement mask mandates, recently appointed Dr. Joseph Ladapo to become the state's new surgeon general.
Ladapo, who opposes mask mandates and feels that COVID-19 vaccines are "nothing special," last year boosted the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine to fight the coronavirus. The World Health Organization earlier this year said that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective form of treatment for COVID-19.
Recently, the Florida Department of Health leveled a $3.57 million fine against Leon County, which encompasses the state capital of Tallahassee, after the jurisdiction mandated that hundreds of workers receive the vaccine.
The county terminated the employment of 14 workers who chose not to receive the vaccine, according to The Tallahassee Democrat, and local officials are prepared to defend the requirement in court.
A recent study conducted by the French government-backed scientific organization Epi-Phare, which looked at nearly 23 million individuals, found that vaccines reduced the risk of contracting a severe case of COVID-19 by at least 90% among individuals 50 years old or older.
As Insider's Eliza Relman previously reported, medical professionals as well as public health and legal experts, have praised vaccine and testing mandates as effective and constitutional tools to promote public health -- especially as the unvaccinated pose a threat to others' health and safety.
DeSantis said that the state's lawsuits against the federal mandates will be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Florida, which this past summer experienced a surge in new COVID-19 infections fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant, has seen over 57,000 of its residents succumb to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Robert Durst, seated with attorney Dick DeGuerin, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday without chance of parole for the murder of Susan Berman more than two decades ago. Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via AP hide caption
Robert Durst, seated with attorney Dick DeGuerin, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday without chance of parole for the murder of Susan Berman more than two decades ago.
LOS ANGELES New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who days ago was sentenced in a two-decade-old murder case, has been hospitalized after contracting COVID-19, his lawyer said Saturday.
Defense Attorney Dick DeGuerin said he was notified that Durst was admitted after testing positive for the coronavirus. DeGuerin said he didn't know Durst's condition and was trying to find out more details.
The Los Angeles Superior Court said in a statement Saturday that the court was notified someone present for the sentencing hearing Thursday had tested positive for COVID-19.
"As a result, the Court will follow CDC and LA County Department of Public Health guidelines for assessing close contacts of the infected individual," the statement read.
No additional COVID-19 cases have been reported.
Durst, 78, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without a chance of parole for the murder of his best friend more than two decades ago. Durst, who has numerous medical issues, sat in a wheelchair with a catatonic stare during much of the sentencing hearing.
"He was very, very sick in the courtroom," DeGuerin said Saturday.
He was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court last month of first-degree murder for shooting Susan Berman point-blank in the back of the head at her home in December 2000.
The killing had been a mystery that haunted family and friends for 15 years before Durst was arrested in 2015 following his unwise decision to participate in a documentary that unearthed new evidence and caught him in a stunning confession.
DeGuerin said Thursday that Durst will appeal.
The group voted Friday to authorize a booster shot of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine for Americans 18 and older at least two months after they get their first shots. Johnson & Johnson said studies showed boosting at two or six months can bring effectiveness up to 94%.
If the FDA follows its advisers' recommendations, more than 90% of people vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson shot -- nearly 14 million people -- will be eligible for the booster right away.
Anyone who got the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine "can benefit from a second dose" of it," Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Friday.
Yet some experts are noting that while antibodies may wane over time, the initial two-dose regimen for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is still holding up against severe Covid-19 infection.
"We have to define what's the goal of this vaccine. If the goal of this vaccine is protection against serious illness, meaning the kind of illness that causes you to seek medical attention or go to the hospital or the ICU, the current vaccines, as two-dose vaccines, are doing exactly that," he said. "So, you don't really need a booster dose, at least as far as those data are concerned."
Offit said that although he voted to recommend half-dose booster shots for some people six months after their first two doses of Moderna's vaccine, he doesn't think everyone needs one.
"I do worry about the sort of 18- to 29-year-old because that's the group that has a higher risk of myocarditis -- that's inflammation of the heart muscle," he said. "So, without sort of clear benefit that that third dose is necessary, I think we've created this kind of 'third dose fever' in this country because of the way this has played out."
Dr. Michael Kurilla, director of the Division of Clinical Innovation at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, agreed.
"I don't see the need for a let-it-rip campaign for boosters," Kurilla said.
The number of people getting booster doses is currently outpacing the number of people getting their first doses of vaccine, according to CDC data. More than a million doses were reported administered Wednesday, but just an average of around 230,000 people are starting the vaccination process each day.
"We're down to 66 million, still unacceptably high number of unvaccinated people," he said Thursday. "Now's not the time to let up."
The FDA will consider the committee's recommendations, and if an EUA is approved, then the CDC will confer about which groups would be eligible.
Vaccine mandates move forward
As the discussion on boosters continues, experts consistently point to the greater need to inoculate those unvaccinated to get ahead of the pandemic. And while many Covid-19 vaccine mandate campaigns from the public and private sectors have met with success, some agencies are finding pushback from a vocal subset.
Many state employees in Washington are four days away from a deadline for being fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and officials will not extend that deadline further.
"If people do make the choice to leave public service, we will replace them," Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday.
More than 90% of state employees have provided proof of vaccination, Inslee said, and about two percent more have been given special accommodations that will allow them to remain unvaccinated due to medical conditions or religious convictions.
"We know that there are staff members that will refuse to be vaccinated," Joan Hall, president of Nevada Rural Hospital Partners, said in a briefing Thursday. Vaccination rates for employees at their hospitals range from 60% to 90%, Hall said.
Meanwhile, a Massachusetts district judge denied a request from the state's correction officers union to issue a preliminary injunction to block a statewide vaccine mandate that requires all executive department employees to be vaccinated by October 17, according to court documents.
The Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union and several other individuals alleged the governor and corrections department commissioner violated the Contracts Clause of the US Constitution and their 14th Amendment Rights by enforcing the mandate. An attorney for the union, McDonald Lamond Canzoneri, said about 40% of members of the union were unvaccinated as of Friday, according to court documents.
But experts have consistently pointed out that areas with higher rates of vaccination are faring better with Covid-19 hospitalizations.
The Covid-19 hospitalization rate in the city's public health system has reached its lowest point since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals.
Antiviral pill application will be reviewed
Vaccines have been proven to be the most effective means of Covid-19 protection, yet the measure is a preventative one. An antiviral pill that may help those newly infected is now slated for review next month.
If authorization is eventually granted, the drug -- which comes in capsule form -- would be the first oral antiviral treatment to fight Covid-19.
"Through Day 29, no deaths were reported in patients who received molnupiravir, as compared to 8 deaths in patients who received placebo," the statement said.
The FDA noted it doesn't always convene an advisory committee meeting to discuss a potential EUA, but it can when the committee discussion would help inform the agency's decision-making.
"We believe that, in this instance, a public discussion of these data with the agency's advisory committee will help ensure clear understanding of the scientific data and information that the FDA is evaluating to make a decision about whether to authorize this treatment for emergency use," Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
CNN's Virginia Langmaid, Jen Christensen, Maggie Fox, Lauren Mascarenhas, Andy Rose, Peter Nickeas, Laura Ly and Casey Riddle contributed to this report.
But Robby Walker is alive -- a feat some doctors didn't expect two months ago. And while the 52-year-old struggles to speak long sentences, he's now using his voice to try to prevent others from suffering the way he did.
Now, after three weeks on ECMO and a month learning how to walk again, Robby returned to Florida this week -- with a new mission.
A different life after Covid-19
Before Robby fell ill in July, he was a strong and sturdy construction business owner who worked out at the gym and ran 5 miles every day.
"Fifty-two years, I've done pretty much whatever I wanted," Robby told CNN. "Now, I'm very limited."
Scarred lungs and reduced lung capacity means he can only speak in short, choppy sentences before having to catch his breath. He also lost more than 50 pounds while hospitalized as his muscles eroded.
Even brushing his teeth is now a struggle.
"Sitting in a chair, it's probably a 5- or 6-minute ordeal," Robby said.
"If I stand, then I have to take a break between. So it's a little longer," he said.
"It takes a lot more energy to hold yourself up. I can go from sitting in a chair to standing, and my heart rate will jump 20, 30 beats a minute."
After his ECMO treatment at Connecticut's Saint Francis Hospital, Robby spent a month in physical therapy at Gaylord Speciality Healthcare about 30 miles away.
He relearned how to walk and practiced basic self-care with the help of an assistant. But he still needs a walker to move around, and small tasks can be draining -- even after taking a break.
"Once your heart rate comes down and your breathing gets straight, you're still just exhausted," he said. "Physically. It just takes a lot of energy to do."
But the fact he's even alive is worth celebrating.
'They told me he was dying'
Robby called his wife on July 25 from his hospital bed in Florida and told her he had made a gut-wrenching decision.
"He had signed the papers to be intubated," Susan said.
Some Covid-19 patients who get put on ventilators don't survive the disease. Their final calls to their families before intubation are their last.
"He cried and just told me how regretful he was of not getting the shot," Susan said. "And he begged me to go get vaccinated."
She did. But it was too late to protect her husband, whose condition kept deteriorating.
"They told me he was dying," Susan said. And the ECMO treatment Robby needed wasn't available.
Susan told her story to CNN in August. Hours later, a doctor 1,200 miles away was checking his Facebook feed and saw a CNN post with a video clip of Susan's interview.
"I just clicked on it and watched it and ... it was pretty compelling," said Dr. Robert Gallagher, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Trinity Health of New England.
Cardiothoracic surgeons operate on diseases in the chest, including in the heart and lungs. By the time Covid-19 patients reach Gallagher, they're usually in dire condition -- and often in need of ECMO.
"I said, 'OK, how are we going to find this family?'" Angela Sakal, the chief perfusionist at Saint Francis Hospital in Connecticut, told CNN.
She contacted a friend in Florida who's savvy on social media. "And within a couple of hours, she had Susan's phone number," Sakal said.
Within two days, Susan hired a medical evacuation team to fly Robby from Florida to Connecticut -- intubated, sedated and near death.
When Sakal first saw Robby, she wasn't sure he would survive.
"I can't guarantee you an outcome," she recalled telling Susan. "I don't know what the future is going to be. But I can promise you that we're going to do the best that we can for him."
ECMO is sometimes used as a last resort for critically ill Covid-19 patients with failing lungs. It removes blood from the body, eliminates carbon dioxide and adds oxygen to the blood, then pumps the blood back into the body so the lungs might have a chance to recover.
Gallagher inserted the ECMO tubes in Robby's neck. And over the next 22 days, Sakal oversaw Robby's ECMO treatment.
Younger Covid-19 patients are needing ECMO
Robby isn't the only previously healthy Covid-19 patient Sakal has seen needing ECMO.
With the rise of the Delta variant, Sakal said some ECMO patients have been in their 20s.
"What we're finding is our Covid patients -- even the young ones -- are single organ failure (and) previously healthy," Sakal said. "And the Covid is just destroying their lungs."
Not everyone who goes on ECMO survives. But after three weeks of getting his blood extracted and returned, Robby's lungs had recovered enough to support him again.
He was discharged from Saint Francis in mid-September and started a month of inpatient rehabilitation at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare.
"My lungs have gotten a little bit better, (but) my heart rate still races a little bit," Robby said this week.
"I can walk by myself -- somebody's there just kind of making sure I'm staying straight. But I use a roller/walker, and I'm able to walk a decent distance," he said.
"I mean, I'm not going to the mall or going shopping. But I'm able to walk some now. So it's been a big improvement."
After a month of difficult work relearning basic skills, Robby was released from rehab Wednesday. Most of his ECMO team from Saint Francis Hospital traveled to Gaylord to see him off to Florida.
Sakal was there. She fought back tears as she visited her former patient.
"I remember when he first got here," she said Wednesday. "And I watched him today, standing up and talking and walking. It was amazing. It was just awesome."
A new life filled with uncertainty and lessons learned
Robby's two brothers rented an RV and drove up to Connecticut to bring him and Susan home. The drive would take more than 24 hours.
As he traveled back to Florida to restart his life, Robby said the first thing he wanted was his wife's homemade chicken pot pie.
But many other aspects of his former life will be different.
It's not clear when Robby might be able to go to work again, as he still needs months more of rehabilitation.
And Robby doesn't know whether he'll be able to return to all the activities he loved.
"My goal is to get hopefully 80% or 90% to where I was," he said. But "they just don't know enough about this to give any kind of definitive answers."
For now, he won't be able to go fishing or work out at the gym every day.
"I don't have a lot of strength," he said, joking about fishing: "I wouldn't want anything to pull me over the reel."
But what he lacks in physical ability, he's gained in new wisdom -- especially when it comes to Covid-19 and vaccines.
Robby said the reason he and Susan didn't get vaccinated earlier was due to "a lack of education on our part."
With countless rumors and claims spread on social media, "you don't know what to believe anymore," he said. "A lot of that was ignorance on our part, for not doing more research."
"We thought that the vaccine was something that was created in a year or two. So we felt like there wasn't enough information," he said.
He also wrongly assumed that he wouldn't get severely sick.
"I just thought it would be like a flu. I thought that it was something that affected people with underlying conditions. I had none," Robby said.
"But for whatever reason, it affected me differently. And if I had to do it over again, I would have gotten my vaccination when it was available to me."
After he left the hospital, Robby received his first dose of the Moderna vaccine. He had some side effects for a day, he said, but they weren't nearly as bad as his Covid-19 symptoms.
"There was a little fever ... my first few days of Covid, I had a bigger fever than that," Robby said.
"I just had no energy. I did run a fever for probably a day, day and a half. But nothing horrible compared to everything else I've gone through."
The Daily Item
Pennsylvania Health Department officials recorded zero COVID-19-related deaths for the second consecutive Saturday, but added 4,485 new infections, pushing the states October total to 76,669.
The deaths report ended a string of four consecutive days with 80 or more. Last week, the state reported no new deaths on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, but despite that the last seven-day period still included almost 100 more deaths 511 compared to 419 than the previous week, according to Health Department data.
There have been 1,018 COVID-19-related deaths in the first 16 days of October. There were 1,165 in all of September and 670 in all of October 2020.
The new infection total ends a streak of three consecutive days with 5,000 or more infections. There were 83 new cases in the Valley, including 52 in Northumberland County, the fourth consecutive day with 50 or more in the county. There were also 13 more in Montour County, the fourth consecutive day with 13 or more. Union County added 12 cases and Snyder added six.
All 67 counties in Pennsylvania are reporting high levels of community transmission of COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which means they are all seeing at least 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days. Nationwide, 87.7 percent of counties have high transmission rates, down .8 percent from Friday.
According to state data, more than 13.2 million COVID vaccine doses have been administered in Pennsylvania and 70.1 percent of residents 18 and older are fully vaccinated, including 88,346 in the Valley. The state did not update its vaccination statistics on Saturday.
Bucknell University had a dozen active cases on campus, including seven staffers and five students. Susquehanna University reported nine active cases, six staffers and three students. Both schools updated their data on Friday.
As of noon Saturday, there were 2,978 patients in Pennsylvania hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms, up 32, ending a streak of two consecutive days of decreases.
Of those hospitalized, 682 were being treated in intensive care units (ICUs), down five, and 389 were being treated on ventilators, down five.
According to data provided by the state, there were 95 patients undergoing treatment in Valley medical facilities for COVID-19 on Saturday. There were 19 patients in intensive care units at Geisinger in Danville up one from Friday eight at Evangelical Community Hospital near Lewisburg up two for the second day in a row and none at Geisinger-Shamokin.
Geisingers Danville location was also treating five on ventilators, three fewer than the day before. Evangelical was treating one patient on a ventilator.
At Geisingers main campus in Danville, there were 51 COVID-19 positive patients, two fewer than reported on Friday. There were 36 patients at Evangelical and eight at Geisinger-Shamokin.
There were eight active staff cases at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Coal Township as of Saturday. There were 98 staff cases statewide, down six. There were 78 active inmate cases statewide an increase of 40 but none at Coal Township.
There were seven active cases at federal prisons in Union County, including three inmate cases at the low-security unit in Allenwood and one staff case at the medium-security prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. At the U.S. Penitentiary (USP) in Allenwood, there were three cases, two staffers and one inmate. There were no cases at USP Lewisburg.
The state Department of Human Services (DHS) was still reporting 13 active cases among staffers at the Selinsgrove Center on Saturday. There were less than five cases among persons receiving services. The DHS does not specify numbers when they are fewer than five to avoid identifying patients.
There were six staff cases and less than five client cases at Danville State Hospital for the fifth consecutive day on Saturday.
There were less than five youth cases at the North Central Secure Treatment Unit (NCSTU) for girls on Saturday. There were no staff cases in the unit and no cases in the NCSTU boys unit.
Throughout the pandemic, media outlets and online dashboards have provided constant updates on the number of people who have died from COVID-19. Far less prominentbut just as strikingare the tallies of those left behind.
According to an estimate published recently in the journal Pediatrics, at least 140,000 American children had lost a parent or caregiver because of the coronavirus by the end of Junemeaning that one of roughly every 500 children lost one of the most important adults in their life. Susan Hillis, a co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the CDC, told me that as of earlier this month, the total had reached at least 170,000.
Fully grasping this complicates some of the standard narratives about the tragedy of the pandemic. It is not only the number of lives cut short by COVID-19 that should mark the scope of our losses, but also the millions of people who had a loved one die. And it is not just older Americans who suffereven if kids are less vulnerable to the virus itself, they are no less vulnerable to the loss it causes.
In a typical, non-pandemic year, many children lose a parent, but globally, an additional 1.5 million children were estimated to have lost a parent or caregiver from March 2020 to April 2021. And in the U.S. alone, the number of people who have lost a close relativewhether a child, sibling, spouse, parent, or grandparentto COVID-19 is thought to be about 6.5 million.
Read: 4 numbers that make the pandemics massive death toll sink in
For children in particular, the death of a caregiver is tremendously destabilizing. It essentially shatters kids assumptions about the world when their parentsthese figures who are supposed to provide a sense of security and safety and meet basic needsdie, Tashel Bordere, a professor of human development and family science at the University of Missouri, told me. Many kids who lost a parent during the pandemic will continue living in the same home, but some will move in with another family member or close friend. Others will enter the foster-care system or become homeless.
The racial disparities among this group are stark. According to the Pediatrics study, Hispanic children have been almost twice as likely as white children to lose a caregiver because of the pandemic, Black children have been more than twice as likely, and American Indian and Alaska Native children have been more than four times as likely. Hillis told me that these inequities reflect the facts that Americans of different races have died of COVID-19 at different rates and have different fertility rates.
Bordere said that the way children respond to a death can vary based on their developmental stage, gender, and personality, among other factors. But in general, children who lose a parent tend to be at higher risk of experiencing physical- and mental-health problems, housing instability, academic and behavioral issues, and sexual abuse. They are also more likely to enter povertyfor many, a parents death means a loss of income.
The passing of a sole caregiver whos a grandparent can be especially hard, because it represents a double loss, after the earlier death of or separation from a parent. (Approximately 10 percent of American children live with a grandparent in their household; that rate is higher for Black, Hispanic, and Asian children.)
A caregivers death during a pandemic presents unique challenges for grieving kids. Job instability and general stress may have depleted the abilities of other adults in their lives to support them. And they have to live with constant reminders, in the media and daily life, of why their parent is gone. [The] replaying of an event can retraumatize children, Bordere said. The masks, the numbers that were updated onanything related to COVID will be a trigger for a child who has dealt with a loss.
Not every child even gets room to process their emotions. Bordere told me that Black children are frequently penalized in school for perfectly normal reactions to a death, such as crying, distractedness, and fatigue. This punishment can impede their grieving process. In a study from before the pandemic, Black Americans were found to be more likely than white Americans to have experienced a death in their family during childhood.
And children in general may struggle more than adults with how inexplicably the virus arose and with not getting to be present for the end of their parents life. Children are imaginative, particularly younger children, Bordere said. Theyre left with [mental] images that may be far worse than what actually happened in their parents final days.
What would help these children? Weve learned that programs that target one type of vulnerable child (e.g., an AIDS orphan or COVID orphan) can be highly stigmatizing and inefficient, Rachel Kidman, a social epidemiologist at Stony Brook University, wrote to me in an email. Instead, she suggested anti-poverty initiatives and additional resources for counseling in schoolsprogramming that is more universal, but still sensitive to the needs of these children.
These children dont match the oversimplified portrait of a typical COVID-19 victim: an old person near the end of their life. But the coronavirus can also have awful effects on people at the very start of their lives, even when they themselves dont get sick. For every surge in COVID cases, until we have widespread, adequate vaccination, there will be a surge in COVID deaths, Hillis told me. And for every surge in COVID deaths, there will be a surge in COVID orphanhood.
