Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Covid Again Shows Its Domino Effect As Cases Soar, Deaths Rise, Economy Hit
Reuters: Rising Coronavirus Cases Fuel Resurgence Fears As Biden Ramps Up Vaccination Push
Swiftly rising coronavirus cases across the United States and abroad fueled fears of a pandemic resurgence on Monday and sent shockwaves through stock markets as the highly contagious Delta variant appeared to be taking hold. Many of the new outbreaks were in parts of the country where COVID-19 vaccinations have lagged, prompting political leaders to ramp up pressure on reluctant Americans to get the inoculations. (Caspani and Whitcomb, 7/19)
CNN: US Coronavirus: Don't Be Fooled Into Letting Your Guard Down Against Covid, US Surgeon General Says
Although vaccinations have offered many in the US hope of curbing the Covid-19 pandemic, officials are struggling to get rates where they need to be. And having been tricked by the virus before, the US Surgeon General says now is the time to be cautious. "There have been multiple times when we have been fooled by Covid-19, when cases went down and we thought we were in the clear and then cases went up again," Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "It means we shouldn't let down our guard until cases not only come down but stay down, and right now cases are actually going up. Cases are going up, hospitalizations are going up, death rates are ticking up." (Holcombe, 7/20)
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NPR: Outbreak Expert Points To Huanan Market Origin For Pandemic, Citing New Data
Back in May, a group of scientists — many at the top of the virology field — shifted the debate about the origins of COVID-19. They published a letter in the journal Science saying the lab-leak theory needs to be taken more seriously by the scientific community. Given the current evidence available, the scientists wrote, the outbreak is just as likely to have originated from a laboratory — specifically the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which studies coronaviruses — as from an infected animal. "We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data," they concluded. (Doucleff, 7/19)
Stat: Covid-19 Restrictions On Family Hospital Visits Persist, Despite Concern
On an early summer morning in North Philadelphia, Marsha El sits on a bench outside Temple University Hospital, scrolling on her phone. Inside, doctors perform a heart procedure on her husband, Timothy. Barred from being by his side due to Covid-19 visitor restrictions, Marsha, a retired insurance company branch manager, anxiously waits for a phone call with any update on his condition. “I’m just praying that when they take him upstairs, I’m able to go up here and visit him for a while,” she says. (Lloreda, 7/20)
Fox News: Common Cholesterol Drug May Reduce COVID-19 Severity, Study Finds
Coronavirus patients taking statins prior to hospitalization substantially reduced their odds of in-hospital death and severe COVID-19, researchers found, confirming earlier findings. Statin drugs are frequently used to lower blood cholesterol levels and prevent cardiovascular disease. A team of scientists from University of California San Diego School of Medicine published findings in PLOS ONE last week, analyzing anonymized records on over 10,500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients admitted across 104 U.S. hospitals between January-September 2020 and enrolled in the American Heart Association’s COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Registry. (Rivas, 7/19)
Fox News: Coronavirus Antibodies Persist At Least Nine Months After Infection: Study
A study in northern Italy found coronavirus antibodies persisted in detectable levels for at least nine months after infection, regardless of a symptomatic or asymptomatic course of illness, though results differed depending on test used. Researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Padova published findings in Nature Communications on Monday, stemming from an analysis in Vo’, Italy, where a mass testing campaign saw 86% (2,602 people) of the community tested in February/March and May 2020, about 6% of whom tested positive and were tested again in November. (Rivas, 7/19)
