Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Pandemic's Impact Shifts, Experts Warn About Breakthrough Cases
The Wall Street Journal: Rising Covid-19 Breakthrough Cases Hinder Efforts To Control Virus
Breakthrough infections are expected to become more common as more people get vaccinated: if 100% of the population were vaccinated, every infection would be a breakthrough infection. However, U.K. data also suggest that among vaccinated people, the chances of getting a breakthrough infection are rising. The rise in breakthroughs in the U.K. is being driven in part by children, still largely unvaccinated in the U.K., passing on the virus to their vaccinated parents. A detailed study on household transmission in the U.K. suggests that a vaccinated person who shares a home with somebody with symptomatic Covid-19 has a 25% chance of catching the virus. (Roland, 11/6)
Stat: Not All Covid Waves Look The Same: A Snapshot Of The Delta Surge
At first, Joyce Dombrouski thought it might just be some kind of blip. Maybe it was Montana’s summer tourists. But then, at one point this August, St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula had 30-plus Covid inpatients — “and we thought 30, a year ago, was a horrific number,” said Dombrouski, the chief executive of Providence Montana. It just kept growing. ... The Delta-caused wave that now seems to be sloping downward has different demographics than previous waves, and provides a snapshot of the current state of the pandemic in the United States. .... divides in who’s getting seriously ill — rooted in geography, in vaccination status — seem to have grown, and epidemiologists don’t think those two trends are unrelated. (Boodman, 11/8)
Axios: Gottlieb: "We're Close To The End Of The Pandemic"
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS Sunday he believes the end of the pandemic phase of COVID-19 is in sight. "We're going to enter a more endemic phase and as things improve, cases may pick up. ... But that doesn't mean that we're entering into another wave of infection," Gottlieb said during his interview on CBS' "Face the Nation." (11/7)
On the impact of sports —
CIDRAP: College Football Didn't Fuel COVID-19 Spread Among Players, Study Suggests
COVID-19 didn't appear to spread efficiently within and among teams competing in the fall 2020 Southeastern Conference (SEC) college football season, finds an observational study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. The study, led by a Texas A&M University researcher, analyzed close contacts (within 6 feet) among opposing players during official games and COVID-19 athlete testing data from Sep 26 to Dec 19, 2020. (Van Beusekom, 11/3)
