Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Herd Immunity Now Unachievable; Analyzing The Data On Omicron
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Why COVID-19 Herd Immunity Now Looks Unattainable: Sheldon H. Jacobson
As COVID-19 cases soared during Fall 2020, discussions of herd immunity were ubiquitous. Yet, with effective vaccines available, and nearly 50 million confirmed U.S. cases reported, herd immunity is no longer a viable landing runway for COVID-19. What happened? (Sheldon H. Jacobson, 12/10)
The Atlantic: We Know A Lot More About Omicron Now
The flood of Omicron news can be overwhelming. The endless data, anecdotes, and studies are hard enough to synthesize. But what makes the information even harder to parse is that so much evidence (i.e., what people are seeing) is intertwined with opinion (i.e., what people are hoping and fearing). To round up the week’s Omicron news, I wanted to write something that disentangled evidence and opinion, to help people make decisions right now—about travel, and school, and weddings, and funerals, and holidays—even though we’re dealing with lots of imperfect information. (Derek Thompson, 12/9)
The New York Times: Will Covid Evolve To Be Milder?
As the world braces to deal with yet another SARS-CoV-2 variant, this one called Omicron, there’s speculation on social media and elsewhere that the virus will become milder, as if this is a predetermined outcome. Some believe that logically the inevitable path of any virus is to become more transmissible and less lethal over time, as this is the most effective way to infect the highest number of hosts and continue spreading. (Andrew Pekosz, 12/10)
Bloomberg: Omicron Spread: Even Mild Variant Could Create Chaos In Early 2022
While projections for the spread of the omicron variant of Covid-19 remain tentative, it seems to be much more transmissible (almost certain) and more benign (far less certain). It’s not only that more people are vaccinated or have some form of natural immunity, but also that the variant itself may be somewhat less dangerous, even to those hospitalized by it. With all this in mind, it’s worth thinking about one possible path for the virus over the next few months, to better understand how to cope with it. (Tyler Cowen, 12/9)
CIDRAP: 8 Things US Pandemic Communicators Still Get Wrong
As we approach 2 years of COVID-19, US pandemic messaging has settled into some counterproductive patterns. I want to address eight of these risk communication mistakes that public health officials and experts keep making. Turning them around can rebuild trust and help save lives. (Peter M. Sandman, 12/9)
CNN: The Infectious Disease Expert Who Warned Us 800,000 Americans Would Die Of Covid-19
Michael Osterholm is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and author of The New York Times bestseller, "Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs." He has been publicly warning of the dangers of a global pandemic for more than a decade and half and was a member of Joe Biden's Covid task force during the presidential transition. In April 2020, he told me that he estimated that there could be 800,000 deaths from Covid-19 within 18 months in the US. That prediction has proven eerily prescient; a year and a half after Osterholm made that prediction more than 793,000 Americans have died from the disease. I spoke to Osterholm this week about what he sees ahead for the pandemic. (Peter Bergen, 12/9)
NBC News: Covid And A Blood Cancer Diagnosis Changed What Freedom Looked Like In My Own Home
I first met my partner’s family in a hospital lobby in November of last year — one night, one person at a time, as they left so I could enter. The 2020 late fall Covid-19 surge was accelerating at an alarming rate, and stringent Covid-19 rules permitted only one visitor at a time. And later, that would turn into just one per day. (Brianna Wilson, 12/9)
Stat: In Parents, Vaccine Skepticism Is Healthy. Cynicism Is Not
Misinformation is tightening its stranglehold on the American psyche. My 9-year-old daughter, Sonia, knows no other world than one where truth and fiction are often indistinguishable. That’s the reality for a generation well-versed with social media and the internet. This stranglehold is not a looming threat — it’s affecting children right now. Most parents, including many who accepted other childhood vaccines, are hesitant or outright opposed to vaccinating their children against Covid-19. This is despite sound evidence that vaccines are safe and effective and recent endorsements from the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Geeta Nayyar, 12/10)
