Different Takes: Lessons On How Covid Got Out Of Control; Pros, Cons Of Vaccine Rollouts

Stat: Asymptomatic Infection Blunder Let Covid-19 Spin Out Of Control 
Jan. 24 marks the one-year anniversary of a momentous but largely unnoticed event in the history of the Covid-19 pandemic: the first published report of an individual infected with the novel coronavirus who never developed symptoms. (Daniel P. Oran and Eric J. Topol, 1/23)

The Wall Street Journal: State Lessons In Vaccine Rollouts
President Biden is vowing to meet a goal of 100 million Covid-19 vaccines in 100 days, and if anything that is too modest given the pace of production. One way to do better is to heed lessons in flexibility from the states with the most successful vaccine rollouts. Some six weeks after the first shipments, the U.S. has administered some 53% of distributed vaccines. The gap continues to grow between states that are getting shots into arms, and those arguing over who gets what and when. North Dakota had administered some 84% of its supply as of Jan. 23, and West Virginia about 83%—far better than states like California (45%) or Alabama (47%). Federalism is showing what works—and what doesn’t. (1/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Send Out The Search Party For New Covid Strains 
Many are expecting vaccinations, rising levels of immunity and warmer weather to help control the Covid-19 pandemic and make spring and summer more bearable. But new viral variants threaten these prospects. The U.S. is struggling to estimate how prevalent these strains are and how fast they’re spreading. The infrastructure for dealing with a pandemic is still incomplete a year into the crisis. At issue are mutated strains: one identified in the U.K., another first spotted in South Africa, and a third strain in Brazil that is similar to the South African one. The mutations speckling these new strains appear to make the virus spread more easily. New waves have swamped places where these variants have become prevalent across Europe, Africa and Latin America. (Scott Gottlieb and Caitlin Rivers, 1/24)

CNN: A Year Into The Pandemic, Health Care Workers Have A New Source Of Hope 
Last week, a Covid-19 patient of mine told me he is finally going home after four months in the hospital. His tracheostomy tube has been taken out and he's breathing on his own. He's finally able to walk again, with some help. It's a new beginning for him and as he wished me a happy New Year, I felt hopeful for the first time in a long time. (Susannah Hills, 1/23)

The New York Times: Has China Done Too Well Against Covid-19?
Some will doubt the reliability of China’s official statistics, especially given the authorities’ initial efforts to suppress essential facts about the virus’s appearance in Wuhan last year. But even if these figures are somewhat exaggerated or somehow skewed, and even considering the worrisome spate of new outbreaks in China recently, there is ample reason to believe that China really has done much better at containing the spread of the virus than other major economies. For example, papers published in Nature Medicine and JAMA Network Open, based on widespread antibody tests between March and May, confirmed low levels of infections in Wuhan and other Chinese cities at the time. (Yanzhong Huang, 1/24)

The New York Times: How Covid-19 Threatens Native Languages
CANNONBALL, N.D. — Over four centuries, nine out of 10 Native Americans perished from war or disease. Now our people are dying from Covid-19 at extraordinarily high rates across the country. North and South Dakota, home to the Lakota reservations, lead the United States for coronavirus rates per capita. We are losing more than friends and family members; we are losing the language spoken by our elders, the lifeblood of our people and the very essence of who we are. (Jodi Archambault, 1/24)

Los Angeles Times: My Dad Died During COVID. A Zoom Grief Group Helped Me Heal
It started like any pandemic-era Zoom meeting. I awkwardly angled my screen toward my bedroom wall to hide the clothes littering my floor. I changed into one of my button-up Zoom shirts. I joined others on screen. A gray cat slinked across someone’s keyboard. One participant struggled to turn on her video. Then, suddenly, it felt very different. The moderator asked everyone to say the name of their loved one who had died. “My mom, Dana.” “My dad, Hal.” “My friend, Laura.” “My husband, Robert.” (Rose Carmen Goldberg, 1/24)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Biden, State Must Immediately Get To The Bottom Of The Vaccine Distribution Holdups
The development of two coronavirus vaccines in less than a year qualifies as a true medical miracle, and the Trump administration deserves much of the credit. But that administration also shoulders much of the blame for the disastrous rollout of those vaccines. Some 3.2 million Missourians are currently eligible for the shots, for example, but the state has received fewer than half a million doses. And federal statistics compiled by Fortune show that Missouri’s vaccination rate ranks eighth-worst in the country. In St. Louis County, more than 172,000 people have registered to receive the vaccine, but fewer than 1,000 had actually gotten it as of Monday. The story is repeated around the country. (1/23)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Why COVID Vaccinations Must Be Prioritized For Black And Brown People
Dec. 21 is the day I received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and with it, a mixed bag of emotions. From talking to patients, my family and my friends, we know COVID has affected Black and brown communities harder than others. This vaccine has been the first ray of hope in a 10-month ordeal that has brought the world to a halt. We need this vaccine to protect us, to prevent the infection from being more serious. According to the PEW Research Center only 42% of Black people say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine once it is available, compared to 61% of whites. The amount of confidence in scientific research is similarly divided, as Black (33%) or Hispanic (30%) Americans are much less likely to say they have a great deal of confidence in medical scientists than white Americans (43%). (Lewis Hargett, Monalisa Tailor and Mark Burns, 1/24)

Detroit News: COVID-19 Vaccine Is A Game-Changer That Can Stop The Pandemic
As COVID-19 case counts continue to rise across the United States, getting everyone possible vaccinated as soon as enough doses are available is vital to stopping this pandemic, reviving our national economy and getting children and college students back to in-person school. The alternative is what we have now: high caseloads that are overwhelming our hospitals and health care workers, and millions of students able to attend classes only online. Our economy will continue to falter and layoffs will increase as the coronavirus makes it unsafe to shop and dine as we normally do. Family gatherings and large meetings will remain off limits or, if held, become potential superspreader events. (Samuel L. Stanley Jr., Mark S. Schlissel and M. Roy Wilson, 1/24)