Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Covid Death Rate Too High For Pandemic To Be Over, Fauci Suggests
Politico: Fauci: “We Are Not Where We Need To Be If We Are Going To Quote ‘Live With The Virus’”
It is unlikely the U.S. will eradicate the coronavirus and a “suspicious” new variant, BA 2.75.2, is on the horizon, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said Monday during a fireside chat with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We are not where we need to be if we are going to quote ‘live with the virus’ because we know we are not going to eradicate it,” Fauci said. “The next question we ask: ‘Are we going to be able to eliminate it from our country or from most of the world?’ and the answer is unlikely, because it is highly transmissible and the immunity that’s induced by vaccine or infection is also transient.” (Garrity, 9/19)
Politico: Biden Declared The Pandemic 'Over.' His Covid Team Says It's More Complicated.
White House officials spent the better part of this year plotting a delicate, step-by-step process they hoped would guide the U.S. out of its pandemic era. One element that was not part of that plan: President Joe Biden just coming out and saying it. ... When the White House reviewed a transcript of his comments after the interview, which was taped earlier in the week, it did not alert its Covid team — leaving the administration without a coordinated response for the immediate aftermath. (Cancryn and Mahr, 9/19)
Hundreds are still dying each day —
The New York Times: Biden Says The Pandemic Is Over. But At Least 400 People Are Dying Daily
With 400 to 500 Americans still dying every day of Covid-19, President Biden has declared that “the pandemic is over.” But don’t tell that to people like Debra McCoskey-Reisert, whose mother died in early August. Or Ben HsuBorger, who has chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition often brought on by viruses, including the coronavirus. Or Peter W. Goodman, whose wife died on Aug. 17. “It’s not over for me,” said a tearful Mr. Goodman, 76, who is retired after working as a journalism professor at Hofstra University on Long Island. Both he and his wife, Debbie, 70, became sick with Covid-19 last month. He recovered. She did not. (Stolberg, 9/19)
NBC News: Covid Will Be A Leading Cause Of Death Indefinitely In The U.S.
"It’s likely, when we think of the causes of death in our society, that Covid’s on the list probably forever,” said Dr. Bob Wachter, the chair of the University of California, San Francisco’s department of medicine. "Whether we call it a pandemic or not, it’s still an important threat to people," he added. (Bendix and Pettypiece, 9/20)
The New York Times: Lack Of Data Still Blunts US Response To Outbreaks
Decades of underinvestment in public health information systems has crippled efforts to understand the pandemic, stranding crucial data in incompatible data systems so outmoded that information often must be repeatedly typed in by hand. The data failure, a salient lesson of a pandemic that has killed more than one million Americans, will be expensive and time-consuming to fix. The precise cost in needless illness and death cannot be quantified. The nation’s comparatively low vaccination rate is clearly a major factor in why the United States has recorded the highest Covid death rate among large, wealthy nations. But federal experts are certain that the lack of comprehensive, timely data has also exacted a heavy toll. (LaFraniere, 9/20)
Also —
Stat: Is The Covid-19 Pandemic Over? The Answer Is More Art Than Science
Is the Covid-19 pandemic over? President Biden told Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” it was. The Sunday night interview aired just days after the director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the end may be in sight — though Tedros clearly didn’t mean it was days away when he predicted it. (Branswell, 9/19)
The Wall Street Journal: When Is The Pandemic Over?
A disease is endemic when it exists at a baseline, predictable level, and is a constant presence in a population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Covid-19 pandemic likely will end up falling into a predictable, more stable pattern and become endemic over time, most infectious disease epidemiologists agree. Determining when exactly a pandemic hits its end often happens in hindsight, public health experts said. (Whyte and Abbott, 9/19)
Fortune: The Pandemic Is Over? Biden's COVID Word Salad Sums Up How Life Will Never Go Back To Before Times
He’s right, Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Fortune. Because President Biden was speaking of an oft-ignored middle ground called endemicity—and it won’t look anything like pre-pandemic life. Those who are “up in arms” about Biden’s statement are “creating a false alternative,” Adalja said. And they’re afflicted with a “magical thinking that the only way the pandemic is over is if we reset to what it was like in 2019,” he added. But, “it’s going to take a toll.” (Prater, 9/20)
