To Mask or Not to Mask? CDC's Mixed Messages During the PandemiC

The three years of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the United States’ scant public health infrastructure. The federal system’s flaws have been on display, with inconsistent guidelines and lawsuits between federal, state and local governments, all aided by a media environment that is deeply divided by tribalism. The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently put forward a report titled Building the CDC the Country Needs with recommendations for modernizing the agency, but the report is hardly the final word.

On Wednesday's podcast, GovExec Daily’s Adam Butler and Ross Gianfortune discussed what the CDC pandemic response has been and how it could have been executed more effectively.

More at source: Government Executive

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‘People aren’t taking this seriously’: experts say US Covid surge is big risk

New Covid hospital admissions are now at the fourth-highest rate of the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Covid hospitalizations declined somewhat after the summer wave, but never dropped to the low levels seen after previous spikes, persisting through the fall and rising again with the winter holidays.

“Hospitals are at maximum capacity,” said Brendan Williams, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, of his region’s current rates. “I’m not sure what the trajectory of this thing’s going to be, but I am worried.”

The majority of Covid hospitalizations are among those 65 and older, although the share for children under four roughly doubled in 2022.

In the past week, Covid deaths rose by 44%, from 2,705 in the week ending 4 January to 3,907 in the week ending 11 January.

This is one of the greatest surges of Covid cases in the entire pandemic, according to wastewater analyses of the virus. It’s much lower than the peak in January 2022, but similar to the summer 2022 surge, which was the second biggest.

More at source: The Guardian

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China’s COVID-19 Mass Death Toll Isn’t Public. Satellite Images Seem to Show a Lot of People Are Dying

Recent satellite images taken of funeral homes and crematoriums in several Chinese cities show a marked increase in activity, as COVID-19 cases surge throughout the country and as reliable numbers on the death toll have become hard to find.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Beijing has been accused of hiding its actual COVID-19 figures, especially as neighboring Hong Kong, which also pursued zero-COVID policies, recorded some 1.5% of adults over 80 are dying from the disease by the end of its fifth wave of infection. Hong Kong and mainland China similarly struggled in vaccinating its elderly population, and Hong Kong’s infections spiked in early 2022 after an outbreak of the Omicron variant.

More at source: Time Magazine

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Rare COVID-19 Vaccine Complication Linked to Circulating Spike Protein in Blood

Young adults and adolescents that suffered from rare cases of myocarditis following vaccination with a mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine had increased levels of the viral protein spike in their bloodstream, found a recent study carried out by a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. However, it also concluded that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination still greatly outweigh the risks.

Myocarditis occurs when heart muscle tissue becomes inflamed, often resulting in chest pain and fatigue. It is observed in a number of conditions including viral infections and inflammatory diseases. In extremely rare cases—roughly one or two people per 100,000— myocarditis can result from vaccination by an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine such as those developed by Pfizer and Moderna.

More at source: Inside Medicine

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Elon Musk Fires Twitter Janitors, Reportedly Forcing Staff To Bring Own Toilet Paper

Twitter CEO Elon Musk is cutting costs at his struggling company right to the bone, even firing janitors, which is reportedly forcing some staffers to bring in their own toilet paper.

Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters — and the company’s Seattle office — are getting smelly and gross after Musk boasted that he’s “cutting costs like crazy.”

Compounding the issue are moldy takeout meals and workers now jammed onto two floors at Twitter headquarters after four other floors were shut down.

“The smell of leftover takeout food and body odor has lingered on the floors ... bathrooms have grown dirty,” The New York Times reported Thursday, citing accounts from employees. With janitors gone, some “workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.”

More at source: Yahoo News

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COVID-19 Virus Found in the Brain: Autopsies Reveal Startling New Information

An analysis of tissue samples from the autopsies of 44 people who died with COVID-19 shows that SAR-CoV-2 virus spread throughout the body—including into the brain—and that it lingered for almost 8 months. The study was published on December 14 in the journal Nature.

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) tested samples from autopsies that were performed from April 2020 to March 2021. They conducted extensive sampling of the nervous system, including the brain, in 11 of the patients.

More at source: Science Tech Daily

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Report: 250 million Chinese infected with COVID in first 20 days of December

Some 250 million people in China may have been infected with COVID-19 in the first 20 days of December, according to leaked figures from Beijing’s senior health officials reported by US media.

According to the information published by Bloomberg and the Financial Times, 37 million people were estimated to have caught the virus on Tuesday alone, in contrast to official data counting 3,049 cases on that day, and 62,592 symptomatic infections during the first 20 days of this month.

Citing two sources involved in the matter, the Financial Times reported that Sun Yang, a deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, presented the shocking figures to a meeting of China’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Wednesday.

More at source: The Times Of Israel 

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China’s new covid nightmare could become a global catastrophe

China has troubled days ahead. Among those 60 years and older, only about 69 percent have received booster shots, and the uptake is even less among those over 80 years old. They are extremely vulnerable to omicron, and reports from China have indicated that a surge of deaths has already started, with crematoriums working around the clock.

Mathematical models predict 1 million or more deaths early next year. China’s government has announced a plan to accelerate vaccination campaigns for the elderly, who have been hesitant to get the shots. For a long while, China has grossly underreported deaths due to covid and probably will continue to do so.

More at source: Washington Post

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Ohio sees 3-week streak above 15,000 new COVID-19 cases

The heightened case rate carrying through the middle of December is still a smaller case rate than the last two years' holiday seasons. ODH's latest coronavirus report was a bump up from the past two, more consistent weeks. Ohio saw 16,061 new cases in the week prior, compared to the similar 16,091 cases in the week before that.

ODH began reporting COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccinations weekly instead of daily in mid-March after new infections slowed to a low level after the omicron wave. Over the past seven days, the state averaged around 2,338 new coronavirus cases per day. Ohio also saw a slight increase in hospitalizations, compared to two weeks prior staying essentially flat. The 636 hospitalizations reported by ODH in the past seven days -- about 91 per day -- was up just 31 from 605 last week and 607 the week prior.

More at source: Fox News

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