Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
BA.5 Covid Subvariant Four Times More Resistant To Vaccines
NPR: The Omicron Subvariant Dominating U.S. COVID-19 Cases Is More Vaccine-Resistant
The BA.5 omicron subvariant, which is now the most prevalent coronavirus strain in the United States, is four times more resistant to COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study. The strain, which is considered "hypercontagious," according to the Mayo Clinic, is more defiant against messenger RNA vaccines, which include Pfizer and Moderna. (Archie, 7/15)
On masking and ventilation —
CBS News: More Than 1 In 2 Americans Now Live In An Area Where CDC Urges Indoor Masking To Curb COVID-19 Surges
Fifty-five percent of the country's population now live in areas of "high" COVID-19 Community Levels, up from 32% last week, according to the CDC's weekly update. Another 30% are living in counties deemed to be "medium" risk. (Tin, 7/14)
Los Angeles Times: L.A. County On Verge Of New Indoor COVID Mask Mandate
Sustained jumps in cases and hospitalizations fueled by the hyper-infectious BA.5 subvariant pushed Los Angeles County into the high COVID-19 community level Thursday, a shift that could trigger a new public indoor mask mandate by the end of this month unless conditions improve. (Money and Lin II, 7/14)
San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Variants Mean Ventilation Is More Important Than Ever. So What Does ‘Good’ Air Flow Look Like?
As coronavirus variants like BA.5 and BA.2.75 become more prevalent and more transmissible, experts are repeatedly pointing to a transmission reduction strategy that’s worked since the beginning of the pandemic — air ventilation, especially indoors. “We don’t know what variants we’re dealing with in the future,” said Stanford University infectious disease specialist Dr. Abraar Karan, “but transmission is always the same.” (Echeverria, 7/14)
More on the spread of covid —
Axios: U.S. COVID Hospitalizations Have Begun To Rise Again
New hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 are on the rise in the U.S., topping 31,000 over a seven-day average ending July 11, CDC data shows. (Reed, 7/14)
San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Wastewater Surveys Suggest COVID Surge Could Be Biggest Yet
Surveys of coronavirus levels in Bay Area wastewater suggest that the region’s relentless spring COVID surge probably rivals the winter omicron wave in terms of the number of people currently infected — in fact, this surge may be the largest yet in some places. But capturing the scale of disease, and conveying to the public the relative risk of getting sick, is becoming increasingly tricky, health experts say. (Allday, 7/14)
The Atlantic: The BA.5 Wave Is What COVID Normal Looks Like
Coronavirus test-positivity trends, for instance, look quite bad. A rate below 5 percent might have once indicated a not-too-bad level of infection, but “I wake up every morning and look … and it’s 20 percent again,” says Pavitra Roychoudhury, a viral genomicist at the University of Washington who’s tracking SARS-CoV-2 cases in her community. “The last time we were below 10 percent was the first week of April.” It’s not clear, Roychoudhury told me, when the next downturn might be. (Wu, 7/14)
Bangor Daily News: COVID Is Now The 3rd Leading Cause Of Death In Maine
Cancer and heart disease continue to be the leading causes of death in Maine, according to a new state report on community health. But COVID-19 is now the third leading cause, edging above unintentional injuries and chronic lower respiratory disease. (Wight, 7/13)
