Welcome to the COVID-19 News Digest for Thursday, March 17th, 2022. Happy St. Patrick’s Day for those who celebrate it. Make sure to wear some green and practice social distancing! #CovidIsNotOver.
This series is now under new management. Well, it is the same manager as before, just with a new approach. I will choose to add 6-8 of the most important articles, twitter threads, or videos that contain the COVID-19 news that I found especially important or interesting.
Above the fold will be the headline story and my analysis. The other 5-7 stories will have quick links below the main headline so that you can quickly access them. Below the fold will be the analysis of the other articles I select each day. It’s a lot less information and hopefully a format friendlier to discussion (at least I hope). Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Headline News: BA.2 Variant Rapidly Spreading Throughout the World
The WHO has put out a warning about the spread of the BA.2 Omicron strain across the world, calling what is being shown through testing ‘the tip of the iceberg’. Remember that for every positive test, there may be plenty of asymptomatic cases that are not being reported. Reuters has more:
...After more than a month of decline, COVID cases started to increase around the world last week, the WHO said, with lockdowns in Asia and China's Jilin province battling to contain an outbreak.
A combination of factors was causing the increases, including the highly transmissible Omicron variant and its BA.2 sublineage, and the lifting of public health and social measures, the WHO said.
"These increase are occurring despite reductions in testing in some countries, which means the cases we're seeing are just the tip of the iceberg," WHO's head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters…
Other stories I am covering today include the following:
2. Europe Thought it Was Done With COVID; The Virus Had Other Ideas
3. More Than 80 MILLION (and growing) People Under COVID Lockdown in China
4. America is in Denial Over Clear Signs of Next COVID Wave
5. What to Know About the 4th COVID Vaccine Dose
6. Partisan Bickering in DC May Cause COVID Prevention to Cease
7. “Even Mild COVID Can Cause Damage to Critical Organ Systems” (Note: links to my own diary)
8. Children Can Have Long Term Effects From COVID Infection
Europe
At CNN International, Tara John writes about the attitude that is prevalent in Europe regarding the COVID-19 virus. Most nations in the European Union have nearly fully reopened, and the attitude seems to be more along the lines that COVID-19 is finished. The virus, however, cannot care whether you think the pandemic is over or not. It will just infect you, again and again.
Europe Thought it Was Done With COVID; The Virus Had Other Ideas
It has been two years since the Covid-19 pandemic became a reality for millions of people in Europe and many of the region's leaders now believe it is time to move on. But as countries shed restrictions, cases and hospitalizations are slowly inching up and public health experts are worried about the consequences.
The country's daily case rate -- about 55,000 a day -- is still less than a third of what it was during the Omicron peak, but cases are rising as fast as they were falling just two weeks earlier, when self-isolation rules for infected people ended in the UK
Germany has figured out there is a huge problem, but Phillip Oltermann for The Guardian in Berlin writes that despite records being set, governments are very resistant to the idea of mitigation strategies that have worked in the past. Germany has a three-party coalition government that is still working out some kinks, and France faces presidential elections later this year.
Germany Hits Record COVID Infection Rate
Germany has recorded its highest rate of Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic, as mask-wearing mandates in shops, restaurants and schools will come to an end in many parts of the country this weekend.
The country’s disease control agency on Wednesday reported a record incidence rate of 1,607 new infections per 100,000 people over the past seven days, one of the highest in Europe. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has recorded a total of 262,593 confirmed new cases and 269 new deaths over the past 24 hours.
East Asia
Matt Novak at Fortune writes about the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in a widening number of large cities in China. China is still pursuing their “Zero COVID” strategy, so this means draconian lockdowns over more and more of its citizens. This has already hit vital manufacturing centers like Shenzhen, financial metropolises such as Shanghai, and of course the world’s worst hot spot right now in Hong Kong. This also has oil prices plunging rapidly, as Hunter here at DailyKos writes.
More Than 80 MILLION (and growing) People Under COVID Lockdown in China
China reported 5,370 new covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to the country’s National Health Commission, the biggest one-day increase of the entire pandemic. The high case count comes as the province of Jilin and its 24 million people were placed into lockdown on Monday, with millions more in China under harsh restrictions.
China reported 3,602 of the new cases on Tuesday were symptomatic for covid-19, with 1,768 asymptomatic. Historically, China has regarded asymptomatic cases as not “real” cases of covid-19, despite the fact that people who aren’t showing symptoms can still transmit the disease. And while those case numbers are still tiny when compared to China’s massive population of 1.4 billion, everyone who’s lived through this pandemic knows how quickly the virus can spread.
The situation in the Jilin Province in northeastern China, which borders both Russia and North Korea, has been seen as the worst right now. The whole Province is in lockdown, writes Reuters. There has been a video of China building a field hospital in the snow going around social media for the past couple of days as an early warning sign something wasn’t adding up in China. This is the greatest test of their “Zero COVID” policy.
China’s Jilin Province in “Last Ditch” COVID Battle
China's Jilin province was "in a last ditch battle" against COVID-19, according to a senior Communist Party official, as the northeastern region bordering North Korea and Russia accounted for three-quarters of China's total new cases on Wednesday.
Authorities have called for blanket testing Jilin, with provincial Communist Party secretary Jing Junhai urging health departments to ensure "not a single person is missed", the official Jilin Daily newspaper reported.
Jilin registered 1,456 new symptomatic COVID-19 community transmissions on March. 15, while new cases totalled 1,860 nationwide, National Health Commission (NHC) data showed.
Though Jilin's infections had halved compared to a day earlier, it was still over a thousand for a fourth consecutive day, and Jing described the battle to stamp out China's worst outbreak in two years as having entered a "critical stage".
Also giving a mention to South Korea, where things are quickly escalating out of control.
United States
Dr. Eric Topol writes in the Guardian about the fact that Americans are either actively in denial or blissfully unaware that another wave of the virus is knocking on their doorstep. He catalogues the many different times the government and prognosticators have been wrong about the virus and urges everyone to keep up or return to the mitigation strategies that worked before. What do I think? We cannot unring the bell until it is too late — when the surge is so obvious people are forced back into compliance (or dead).
America is in Denial Over Clear Signs of Next COVID Wave
When it comes to Covid, the United States specializes in denialism. Deny the human-to-human transmission of the virus when China’s first cases were publicized in late 2019. Deny that the virus is airborne. Deny the need for boosters across all adult age groups. There are many more examples, but now one stands out – learning from other countries — deny the next wave.
Not all have their head in the clouds, as those in the know are using the vanguard leading indicator of a possible new wave forming to sound the alarm. Waste water spikes usually precede an uptick in infections and also account for asymptomatic cases as well that evade any sort of testing. Erika Edwards for NBC News writes the following article about what is happening in waste water.
CDC Confirms Waste Water Spike That May Signal Uptick in Cases
Government scientists confirmed Tuesday that there has been an uptick in the presence of Covid-19 in wastewater samples across the U.S.
The potentially troubling trend comes as the country is shedding masks and easing pandemic restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of a virus that in two years has killed nearly a million people in the United States.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged the increase after Bloomberg reported that a third of the agency’s wastewater sample sites showed a rise in Covid cases from March 1 to March 10.
Twitter thread by Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding showing the growth progression of BA.2 cases in the United States. I post it due to the excellent visual of the rise and fall of different variants.
The 4th Dose of COVID Vaccine is Being Considered for Some
For your COVID-19 shots, timing is everything. If you can get the next in the series of shots, DO IT NOW before the BA.2 wave comes crashing through the door. Pfizer has asked for clearance to give a second booster to those who are above age 65 and immunocompromised. Those are the only groups that should be concerned at this time.
What to Know About the 4th COVID Vaccine Dose
Most people ages 12 and older are considered “up to date” with their COVID-19 vaccines if they received either three doses of the mRNA shots from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, or two doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine. But some public health experts say another dose might be needed in the coming months.
On March 15, Pfizer and BioNTech requested authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a fourth dose of their vaccine in people ages 65 and older. In the past few days, Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s CEO, has said that he believes everyone will one day need a fourth dose in order to help prevent infections (a move that would have obvious benefits for the company’s bottom line.)
In order to authorize a fourth shot, the FDA will consider troubling signs that the immunity provided by the vaccines is starting to wane, which could make people more vulnerable to COVID-19’s more severe effects. Recent data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that protection against hospitalization for COVID-19 waned even after a booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. From Aug. 2021 to Jan. 2022—a time span that includes waves of both Delta and Omicron variants—the booster was 91% effective at protecting against hospitalization in the first two months after people received it, but dropped to 78% four months after the shot. The vaccine efficacy against emergency room and urgent care visits for COVID-19 symptoms followed a similar decline, from 87% up to two months after the booster to 66% four to five months after the booster.
Pfizer may submit this small Israeli study as their evidence:
Luckily, statistics on a 2 shot and especially a 3 shot regimen show protection against hospitalization and death against Omicron. No word on if BA.2 changes the numbers, but it is likely that vaccines will still continue to prevent most hospitalizations and deaths.
Partisan Bickering in DC Risks COVID Prevention Fund Running Out
Joan McCarter at DailyKos wrote about the fact that a DST fix was passed instead of funding for the COVID prevention efforts. The GOP has so far steadfastly refused to approve any more funding without cuts elsewhere, and Manchinema still refuse to blow up cloture to allow business to actually occur. Josh Wingrove for Bloomberg writes an article about the consequences if this vital funding is not approved.
The U.S. government says it’s cancelling a planned order of monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid-19 infections and warned that the country could eventually run short of vaccines because of a lack of funding.
The White House made the announcement Tuesday as it renews calls for Congress to authorize a fresh round of funding for the government’s Covid-19 response. Weeks of effort have fallen flat, leaving the administration to begin to claw back shipments and warn they may soon end.
The funding is needed for new orders of treatments, to ensure fourth doses of vaccines are available for all Americans if needed and to continue to test and treat people at home and abroad, officials said on a briefing call Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Dr. Eric Fiegl-Ding expands my knowledge of what is at stake with this twitter thread.
While Dr. Michael Mina sums up my position in a single tweet. Fund the damn measure!
Please contact your Congress critters today, and give them a piece of your mind on why this bill has not progressed. This is an issue too important to play partisan patty-cake with!
Long COVID Really Sucks
So if you have Long COVID you may have trouble breathing for the rest of your life. This lines up with my personal experiences as a sufferer of Long COVID. Lei Lei Wu in MedPage Today writes about the persistent lung problems Long COVID sufferers face. Finally, medical research is backing up anecdotal long hauler claims.
Small Airway Disease Persists in Long COVID Patients
Even after a mild case of COVID-19, some people suffer breathing problems that last for months. Now, a new study suggests many of them may have abnormalities in the small airways of their lungs.
Researchers found that of 100 patients with "long COVID" symptoms, more than half had signs of small-airway disease on CT scans. And people who'd been mildly ill at home were just as affected as those who'd been hospitalized.
"Independent of COVID severity, their airways continued to be affected months afterward," said senior researcher Dr. Alejandro Comellas, of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
Specifically, the patients showed signs of "air trapping" in the lungs -- where a person is able to take a full breath in with no problem, but the air is abnormally retained on the exhalation.
Oh, and your brain has a 1 in 4 chance of suffering an injury due to Long COVID. Grey matter declines may be the root cause of the nebulous “brain fog” that comes after an infection and often rears its ugly head. However, William Haseltine at Forbes writes that Long COVID in the brain can portend as something much more sinister.
Long COVID May Present with a Long Term Brain Injury
SARS-CoV-2 infection can damage many organs other than the lungs. The most troubling is damage to the brain. A series of recent studies document long term brain-damage in as many as one quarter of all those infected regardless of the severity of the initial disease. Those numbers are daunting considering that an estimated 140 million Americans have been infected by SARS-CoV-2. Symptoms, such as brain fog, fatigue, depression and a host of other maladies, may be mild or incapacitating. Several studies warn that treatment of those with long term brain injury will strain the healthcare care system for years to come. Understanding the origin and treatment of Covid-19 related brain injury is a high priority for medical science.
A recent study by Frontera et al. of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine evaluated the cognitive function of Covid-19 patients six months after they were hospitalized for Covid-19. To their surprise, over 90% of their total cohort reported at least one neurological symptom. Among those that had not experienced neurological complications while hospitalized, 88% reported new cognitive symptoms.
Even mild cases can cause these very damaging reactions to the virus. It’s why just letting COVID spread unchecked is robbing Peter to pay Paul. We are assuring short term convenience in exchange for greater long term health problems if we develop Long COVID. Mariana Lenharo at Scientific American writes about the fact that COVID can trigger heart disease and a host of other heart problems.
Even Mild COVID Can Increase the Risk of Heart Problems
Scientists have long been aware that respiratory infections—such as influenza or certain types of coronaviruses—can trigger heart disease. This happens because they cause inflammation, which plays a major role in cardiovascular problems.
Even before the first case of COVID-19 had been confirmed in the U.S., interventional cardiologist Mohammad Madjid began looking into the potential effects of coronaviruses on the cardiovascular system. Madjid, an associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, expected to see a similar increase in heart complications associated with COVID. “I knew that was going to happen because I’d seen this during influenza epidemics,” he says. As far back as 2004, during the avian flu outbreaks in Asia, he urged public health organizations to consider cardiovascular issues in pandemic preparation plans.
Children Can Get COVID, Too!
A myth that was established early on in the pandemic that refuses to die is that children cannot get COVID-19, or if they do, they are asymptomatic at best. This myth has turned out to be hogwash several times over, and yet in certain circles it persists. While numbers of children getting symptoms are indeed low, the effects of the disease can leave a lifetime of devastation. Nancy Lapid for Reuters writes about a study done on children and Long COVID, and the results are sobering to say the least.
A Quarter of Symptomatic Kids Develop Long COVID, Study Shows
The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.
One in four kids with COVID develop lingering problems
One in four children with COVID-19 symptoms develop "long COVID," according to data pooled from 21 earlier studies conducted in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America
All age groups are being targeted by the virus, even children. BA.2 doesn’t seem to be ignoring children, and may even initially prefer them, as they have the least resistance via vaccines. This is an entirely different profile from even the previous Omicron BA.1 wave.
There is a FIVE FOLD difference in the hospitalization rates of children too young to be vaccinated as compared between the Delta and Omicron variants. This alone should bring a return to masking and other school wide mitigation measures, but I am not holding my breath.
If your baby has croup, it might be a COVID infection, according to a new study released yesterday.
Finally! Thank you for supporting more COVID information diaries, and I hope you can contribute important articles that I have missed or add onto these 8 worthy subjects! See you in the comments, and expect another Digest tomorrow!
Thursday, Mar 17, 2022 · 5:08:44 PM +00:00
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bilboteach
In terms of why the Pandemic Prevention Funds have not progressed, I think I found this op-ed that may explain what is going on.
Basically, the GOP wanted to claw back unused money allocated for state pandemic response measures, and Pelosi was reluctantly on board. Unnamed elements in the Democratic party refused to do so (I suspect the Squad now) and thus Pelosi does not have the votes because all the GOP and enough Democrats are opposed and there is no wiggle room.
We still have Manchinema and at least 10 Senate GOP members that will exact their pounds of flesh too.