Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC Warns Of 'Pivotal Moment' As Delta's Rise Threatens More Deaths
The Washington Post: CDC Warns This Is ‘Pivotal Moment’ In Fight Against Delta Variant
Top Biden administration officials on Thursday said that a hyper-transmissible variant of the coronavirus is posing new challenges for the nation’s health system, urging millions of unvaccinated Americans to get shots to protect themselves and their communities. The delta variant, first detected in India, now represents more than 83 percent of cases circulating in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People infected with the variant appear to carry a viral load that is more than 1,000 times that of those infected with earlier forms of the virus, allowing the virus to spread rapidly among unvaccinated people, scientists have found. (Diamond, 7/22)
NPR: Delta Variant Will Drive A Steep Rise In U.S. COVID Deaths, Model Shows
The current COVID-19 surge in the U.S. — fueled by the highly contagious delta variant — will steadily accelerate through the summer and fall, peaking in mid-October, with daily deaths more than triple what they are now. That's according to new projections released Wednesday from the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, a consortium of researchers working in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help the agency track the course of the pandemic. (Stein and Simmons-Duffin, 7/22)
Fox News: Delta Variant One Of The Most Infectious Respiratory Viruses I’ve Seen: Walensky
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Thursday that the COVID-19 Delta variant is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses that she has seen in her 20-year career. She called the variant more "aggressive" and transmissible than earlier strains of the virus. The Biden administration has used the threat of the variant to underscore the importance of Americans getting vaccinated. (DeMarche, 7/23)
Stat: Burning Questions About Delta And The Next Phase Of The Covid Pandemic
The rise of the Delta variant has driven new Covid-19 outbreaks, rattled markets, and reminded us that — for all the progress made in the fight against the pandemic — vulnerabilities persist. In the United States, where the variant is estimated to be causing more than 4 out of 5 new infections, largely among the unvaccinated, the outbreaks in places like Arkansas and Missouri have once again placed health systems under stress. They’ve also led to more questions about whether Delta even poses a threat to people who are vaccinated and complicated the discussion about what precautions schools need to reopen fully in the fall. (Joseph, 7/23)
KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Delta Changes The Covid Conversation
The resurgence of covid cases in the U.S. — largely attributable to the much more contagious delta variant — has given policymakers the jitters. The Biden administration is redoubling efforts to get people vaccinated, and even some Republicans who had been silent or skeptical of the vaccines are encouraging the unvaccinated to change their status. Meanwhile, it’s not just covid that’s shortening U.S. life expectancy. Nearly 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This week a multibillion-dollar settlement among states, drugmakers and distributors could funnel funding to fight the opioid scourge. (7/22)
And in more coverage of the covid surge —
CNN: Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients Are Asking For The Vaccine -- When It's Too Late, Two Health Care Workers Say
As the Delta variant helps fuel a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations in the US, unvaccinated patients are regretting their inoculation status, two health care workers say. "When they come into the (hospital) system, they say, 'Can I get vaccinated?' And at that point, you can't," Alix Zacharski, an intensive care clinical nurse manager at Miami's Jackson Health System, told CNN's "Newsroom" Thursday. "We have to let the virus run its course, and then hopefully" the vaccine can be given, she said. Not all of these patients live to get the chance, an Alabama doctor says. (Hanna, 7/22)
Health News Florida: AdventHealth Moves Mid-Florida Hospitals To 'Yellow' COVID Status
AdventHealth Central Florida has transitioned into "yellow status" as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the greater Orlando region with the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. Under this status, elective surgeries requiring inpatient says will be deferred and each campus’s chief medical officer will review all cases that require a stay in intensive care. Previously schedule surgeries, pediatric surgeries and procedures at outpatient surgery centers are not affected. (Mayer, 7/22)
The New York Times: 31 Children Test Positive For Coronavirus At Summer Camp In NY
The outbreak at Camp Pontiac, a sleep-away camp in upstate New York, started in the girls’ dormitories. Nurses, worried that young campers were showing symptoms of Covid-19, began administering tests. Last Saturday, one came back positive. More would quickly follow: As of Thursday morning, 31 of the camp’s 550 campers had tested positive for the coronavirus, said Jack Mabb, the health director of Columbia County, where the camp is located. (Gold, 7/22)
CNBC: Nightclubs Are The New Covid Battleground
Nightclubs and bars are fast becoming the new battleground in the fight against Covid-19 as the nocturnal economy re-opens in some countries and coronavirus cases soar, particularly among the young. Covid is seeing a resurgence in Europe as the highly infectious delta variant spreads among the unvaccinated and partially-immunized population, which is predominantly young as they were the last in line to receive a vaccine. At the same time, a number of European countries decided to revive their night time economies, allowing bars and clubs to reopen to the public again, some after 16 months of closure which put many out of business. (Ellyatt, 7/23)
CNBC: Quest Diagnostics Is Seeing A Rise In Covid Tests As Delta Variant Spreads, CEO Says
Quest Diagnostics CEO Steve Rusckowski told CNBC on Thursday the company is seeing an increase in Covid-19 tests as the more contagious delta variant spreads across the country. “We said our Covid-19 testing business would go down as we saw the recovery, if you will, from the pandemic and it has gone down throughout the first half,” Rusckowski said on “Closing Bell.” “In the last couple of weeks, and we think it’s related to the delta variant, we started to see a slight increase actually in that Covid testing volume as well.” (Singh, 7/22)
