A queue at a COVID-19 testing site in Times Square, New York City, December 13, 2021 (Seth Wenig/AP)
UPDATE, DEC. 22:
President Joe Biden pledges more than 250,000 treatment courses of Pfizer’s antiviral pill, available from January after it was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration:
With today’s action, we add the first-ever oral treatment to our nation’s medicine cabinet and take a significant step forward in our path out of the pandemic. As soon as emerging science showed the promise of this antiviral, we acted quickly and aggressively to pre-purchase 10 million treatment courses — more than any other country in the world.
Paxlovid is the first antiviral Coronavirus pill authorized for use at home. The FDA said it “should be initiated as soon as possible after diagnosis of Covid-19 and within five days of symptom onset”.
EA on Monocle 24: What Biden Has — and Has Not — Done Over Omicron
Pfizer’s data indicates Paxlovid cuts the risk of hospitalization or death by 88% if taken by high-risk adults within five days of first symptoms.
UPDATE, DEC 22:
President Joe Biden announces additional containment measures as the Omicron variant of Coronavirus spreads through the US.
Biden said the Government will buy and distribute 500 million free rapid tests, establish new vaccination and testing sites, and deploy 1,000 military medical professionals to assist hospitals. He said:
We should all be concerned about Omicron, but not panicked….
I know you’re tired, really, and I know you’re frustrated….We all want this to be over, but we’re still in it.
Biden explained that troops arrive in Wisconsin and Indiana, and that the first of the new testing sites will open in New York within days. He also promised to use the Defense Production Act to help manufacturers meet the demand for testing.
The President repeated his appeal to all US residents to get vaccinated, “I honest to God believe it’s your patriotic duty”, and said some requirements are in place “not to control your life, but to save your life and the lives of others”.
Public health experts cautioned that it will take weeks to distribute tests and set up vaccination centers, as infections and hospitalizations rise. Some called for more vigorous measures.
But Biden ruled out steps similar to those taken in some European countries, limiting contact and closing public spaces: “That’s what I keep getting asked. The answer is absolutely no. No.”
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Joe Biden warns of “a winter of severe illness and death” for the unvaccinated, amid the Delta variant of Coronavirus, the prospect of an Omicron surge, and a toll passing 800,000 fatalities.
Biden issued his statement as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of an Omicron peak in January, with the prospect of overstretched hospitals.
The US death toll is now 803,652 with 50,513,424 confirmed cases. One in 100 Americans over 65 has been killed by the virus
There were 1,288 deaths on Thursday, a rise of 23% in 14 days, and 124,413 cases, a jump of 31%. About 68,000 Coronavirus patients are hospitalized across the US, a 21% increase from two weeks ago.
The Omicron variant now accounts for almost 3% of Covid cases in the US as of Saturday, up from 0.4% last week. Infections are rising in schools, and hospitals are close to capacity in several states.
The virus is spreading most rapidly in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes. Connecticut is recording more than 2,600 new daily infections, compared to about 330 at the start of November. Rhode Island has the highest rate of additional cases, and Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have the highest rates of hospitalizations.
About 68,000 Coronavirus patients are hospitalized across the US, a 21% increase from two weeks ago.
Administration Asks Supreme Court to Back Vaccine Requirements
The Biden Administration filed two emergency applications in the Supreme Court on Thursday, seeking revival of a requirement that health care workers at hospitals are vaccinated.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told justices that the regulation, for any medical facility receiving federal funds, “will save hundreds or even thousands of lives each month”. She said the assessment is backed by “both science and common sense.”
Federal judges in Missouri and Louisiana have blocked the requirement.
New COVID Cases in Israel Triple Within Days, Infection Rate Hits Six-month High : https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/new-covid-cases-in-israel-triple-within-days-infection-rate-hits-six-month-high-1.10507300
In Ireland, Covid cases are currently over 20,000: https://www.thejournal.ie/covid-latest-figures-ireland-6-5644018-Jan2022/
Both Ireland and Israel have very high vaccination rates.
Covid cases and deaths soar in Italy: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/italy-reports-202-covid-19-deaths-tuesday-78313-new-cases-2404841
Italy has one of the highest vaccination rates (75%) in the world.
Meanwhile, in Iran, Covid cases are the lowest they have been in 20 months: https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2021/12/27/2633437/iran-registers-lowest-daily-covid-death-toll-in-20-months
Statistics on breakthrough cases in the state of Massachussetts: https://media.nbcboston.com/2021/12/covid-breakthrough-case-severe-illness-massachusetts.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&w=1024
96.7% of about 90,000 breakthrough cases among the vaccinated did not result in hospitalization or death. 0.72% of breakthrough cases resulted in death.
https://fullfact.org/health/health-guardian-podcast-vaccinated-deaths/
“We have been asked by readers on WhatsApp about a claim in the 1 November episode of The Guardian’s podcast Today in Focus which states that in the UK, like in America, the “vast majority” of those now dying from Covid-19 are unvaccinated. The subheading of the podcast webpage also says “The majority of those dying of Covid-19 in the UK and the US have not been vaccinated”.
“The most recent report from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was published week commencing 25 October. Looking at Covid-19 deaths, it shows that currently more vaccinated than unvaccinated people are dying with the disease in England. “
Putting this link in context with a section omitted by Varharan:
“As we have written about many times before, this does not mean that the vaccines aren’t working.
In the same document UKHSA [UK Health Security Agency] says: ‘In the context of very high vaccine coverage in the population, even with a highly effective vaccine, it is expected that a large proportion of cases, hospitalisations and deaths would occur in vaccinated individuals, simply because a larger proportion of the population are vaccinated than unvaccinated and no vaccine is 100% effective.’
It adds: ‘This is especially true because vaccination has been prioritised in individuals who are more susceptible or more at risk of severe disease.'”
Covid cases soar in Israel: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/covid-in-israel-infections-at-two-month-high-as-serious-cases-remain-stable-1.10482754
[Link removed as possible misinformation/disinformation]
The International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research is not a reputable journal — it’s an outlet for anti-vaccination advocates such as “Children’s Health Defense” and neither of the authors is a specialist in epidemiology or virology. So the link is not being posted.
S.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356756711_Latest_statistics_on_England_mortality_data_suggest_systematic_mis-categorisation_of_vaccine_status_and_uncertain_effectiveness_of_Covid-19_vaccination
“Whatever the explanations for the observed data, it is clear that it is both unreliable and misleading. We considered the socio-demographic and behavioural differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated that have been proposed as possible explanations for the data anomalies, but found no evidence supports any of these explanations. By Occam’s razor we believe the most likely explanations are:
• Systematic miscategorisation of deaths between the different groups of unvaccinated and vaccinated.
• Delayed or non-reporting of vaccinations.
• Systematic underestimation of the proportion of unvaccinated.
• Incorrect population selection for Covid deaths.
With these considerations in mind we applied adjustments to the ONS data and showed that they lead to the conclusion that the vaccines do not reduce all-cause mortality, but rather produce genuine spikes in all-cause mortality shortly after vaccination.”
Ah, yes, a paper from Norman Fenton — who has no experience in epidemiology or public health, who has been removed from some social media for “medical misinformation”, but who is a favorite of the anti-vaxxers….
In any event, you ignored the next paragraphs in the conclusion — I’ll be very surprised if this paper ever passes peer review in a reputable journal:
“There are, of course, some caveats to our analysis. While we have completely ignored the 10-59 age group because it is far too coarse for age confounding not to potentially overwhelm any conclusions, the age groups 60-69, 70-79, 80+ are still quite coarse, and there may be some age confounding within these age groups. For example, the average age of the vaccinated 60-69 age group may be higher than that of the unvaccinated 60-69 group and hence the number of deaths would naturally be slightly higher.
We have deliberately chosen not to subject the data to a degree of sophisticated statistical or probabilistic modelling but can readily imagine what might be done. We have carried out some basic computations of confidence intervals to address the fact that at various points the population sizes differ dramatically and from this the patterns reported remain visible, significant and our analysis credible.
Ultimately, our analysis is hypothetical insofar as it presents two processes, one based on time vaccine-infection interaction and one based on categorisation, that might better explain the patterns in the data.”
Striking Antibody Evasion Manifested by the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.14.472719v1.full.pdf
“The Omicron variant presents a serious threat to many existing COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, compelling the development of new interventions that42
anticipate the evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2.”
Which is why boosters are being recommended, as the study notes regarding “new interventions”….