Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Omicron Requires New Response; Media Should Stop Showing Covid Injections
Bloomberg: Time For New Covid Omicron Rules, Not Self-Isolating, WFH Mandates, Mass Testing
The balance of power between human and virus is shifting. Better armed against a lesser enemy, our species no longer needs to hide in a bunker waiting for a viral wave to pass. That means it’s time for our Covid response to change. As we enter the “endemic” stage of the virus, however, there is confusion about what an updated approach should look like. (Therese Raphael and Sam Fazeli, 1/12)
The Washington Post: Showing Covid Vaccinations And Needles Up Close On TV Scares A Lot Of People
Ouch — there we go again. Another needle into another arm, for all to see on millions of TV screens coast to coast. Over the past year, and despite the sheer victory that scene represents — the triumph of those vaccines, developed in record time, distributed free of charge and remarkably effective — it has gradually dawned on me, as I avert my eyes from the television, that even reputable broadcast media shares an inadvertent culpability in vaccine avoidance. (Michael Benson, 1/11)
CNN: I Was Relieved When My Sons Got Mild Covid-19. Then I Thought About This
Covid-19 continues its rampage across the US with the Omicron coronavirus variant spreading here, then there, then everywhere. Two months ago, the US had less than 100,000 new cases diagnosed each day; now the number is over 600,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with no signs of slowing down. Despite the dizzying number of new cases, Omicron appears, at least in the early reports, to cause much milder symptoms than previous variants, especially among the vaccinated and boosted. These two novel aspects of Omicron -- high transmissibility and mildness of symptoms -- played out recently for me when my two adult sons contracted Covid-19 soon after attending a large raucous wedding. (Kent Sepkowitz, 1/11)
The Atlantic: Two Years Of COVID Crisis Is Long Enough
Avoiding the virus is no longer an option; Omicron has seen to that. Almost everyone is likely to catch the variant eventually. Over Christmas, one in 10 of my fellow Londoners—one in 10!—had COVID. Thanks to Britain’s solid vaccination rates, particularly among vulnerable groups, this tsunami of infections has so far led to a daily death toll less than a fifth the size of the one we had last winter. In the United States, the picture looks bleaker, with overwhelmed hospitals and 1,500 deaths a day. Because the vaccinated can still spread the disease, Americans should probably lie low for a few more weeks, until this wave subsides. Personally, I don’t need an immediate license to party like it’s February 2020, but I want some indication from lawmakers and medical experts that restrictions won’t last forever. For any country without the discipline, collectivism, and surveillance technology of China, the zero-COVID dream is over. Two years is long enough to put our lives on hold. (Helen Lewis, 1/11)
Scientific American: Nurses Struggle Through A New COVID Wave With Rage And Compassion
To health care workers in the COVID era, holidays mean death, and we knew Omicron was coming before it had a name. The wave caused by this variant has barely begun, rapidly gathering steam, and we are exhausted, attempting to pull from reserves badly drained by earlier surges. (Kathryn Ivey, 1/11)
The New York Times: What Does Living With Omicron, And The Next Covid Variants, Truly Mean?
More than two years after the coronavirus emerged, and more than a year after the first vaccines for it arrived, suffice it to say that the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel appears dimmer than one might have hoped. As the stunningly infectious Omicron variant sweeps the country, case rates have blasted past all previous peaks; hospitalizations, too, have now broken last winter’s record. The surge has threatened another round of school closures and stifled the economy as working parents struggle to care for their children, who themselves are finding their lives upended once again. (Spencer Bokat-Lindell, 1/12)
Kansas City Star: KCK’s Back-Alley COVID Tests Out Of A Minivan In Parking Lot
A Kansas City, Kansas, teacher felt sick, and looked all over for a rapid COVID-19 test so she could return to work without worrying that she could be spreading the virus. But when she found no such tests in the usual places — retailers can’t keep them on shelves and official testing sites keep running out and closing — she resorted to meeting a stranger she found online. (1/12)
Newsweek: Emerging From Quarantine With Thoughts Of Our COVID Future
Nothing crystallizes one's opinions on this winter of Omicron like getting a breakthrough case during the holidays. In between Netflix offerings during quarantine, I had plenty of time to consider our two-year COVID nightmare, and what 2022 holds for folks like me who now have antibodies, and those who don't—and for folks like me who are vaccinated and boosted, and those who aren't. (Mark Davis, 1/12)
