Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Fauci Raises Alarm Over Spread Of Delta Covid Variant
Bloomberg: Fauci Warns U.S. Of Threat From New Covid Variant
U.S. health officials warned that a more harmful Covid-19 variant known as Delta has surged in the U.K. (a country with high vaccination levels) in a grim warning to America as demand for inoculations in some states fades (only 42% of the U.S. is fully vaccinated). White House adviser Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday that the variant first reported in India dominates new infections in Britain. “It’s essentially taking over,” he said. “We cannot let that happen in the U.S.” Delta has been reported in 60 countries including America, which is still the world’s worst hit by number of coronavirus infections and deaths, the latter totaling almost 600,000. That’s about one-sixth of all confirmed virus fatalities worldwide. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. (Rovella, 6/8)
CNBC: Fauci: U.S. Must Vaccinate More People Before Delta Becomes Dominant Covid Variant
U.S. health officials are scrambling to get more Americans vaccinated to keep the Delta variant, first identified in India, from proliferating across the United States. The variant has become the dominant strain in the U.K., accounting for an estimated 60% of new cases. It’s now more prevalent than the Alpha strain, formerly called the B.1.1.7 strain, which was first identified in the U.K., and transmission is peaking in people between the ages of 12 and 20, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a press briefing Tuesday. (Mendez, 6/8)
The Washington Post: Delta Variant Accounts For 6 Percent Of New U.S. Coronavirus Infections
A highly transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in India accounts for 6 percent of new infections in the United States, the Biden administration said Tuesday. Yet vaccines appear to be highly effective against this version of the virus that has quickly spread into Great Britain and elsewhere. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, revealed the extent of the variant’s push into the United States, but said it appears to be slowed by vaccines. (Bernstein, 6/8)
In other updates on the spread of the coronavirus —
CNN: America Reports Lowest Average Of Daily Covid-19 Infections And Deaths Since March 2020. But Experts Warn Millions Are Still Vulnerable
The US is making significant strides in curbing the coronavirus pandemic just in time for the summer, with reported infections reaching a new low over the last year. The country averaged less than 14,400 daily reported infections and 427 deaths over the past seven days, according to Johns Hopkins University data. It's the lowest the US has seen since late March 2020, just weeks after the pandemic was first declared. The good news comes as about 42% of Americans are fully vaccinated, while nearly 52% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Elamroussi, 6/9)
PBS NewsHour: This Chart Shows How COVID Cases Have Plummeted As More People Get Vaccinated
Less than six months ago, the coronavirus crisis was at its most deadly point. Now, with more than half the country at least partially vaccinated, Americans are seeing what life looks like at the other side of the curve. New daily COVID-19 infections have declined dramatically in the United States, recently hitting their lowest numbers since March of 2020. (Isaac-Thomas, 6/8)
Also —
New York Post: These Treatments Can Help COVID-19-Related Hair Loss, Doctors Say
There’s a big fallout from the pandemic.Hair loss brought on by the COVID-induced stress and anxiety of the past 18 months is plaguing women, but they’re finding help with a range of innovative — though often costly — treatments. "About 30 percent of my patients were e-mailing about hair loss," said Michele Green, a dermatologist at Lenox Hill. "It was frightening. Some had sheets of hair falling out." (Lewak and Fleming, 6/8)
CNBC: Aspirin Does Not Improve Survival For Covid Patients: UK Study
The cheap and widely-available drug aspirin does not improve survival for patients hospitalized with Covid-19, a U.K. study has found. Oxford University researchers had hoped to find that the blood-thinning medicine could help hospitalized Covid-19 patients who are at an increased risk of clots forming in their blood vessels, particularly in the lungs, but found aspirin didn’t help to prevent deaths. (Ellyatt, 6/9)
CIDRAP: Ghosts In The Machine: Malicious Bots Spread COVID Untruths
Malicious bots, or automated software that simulates human activity on social media platforms, are the primary drivers of COVID-19 misinformation, spreading myths and seeding public health distrust exponentially faster than human users could, suggests a study published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Led by University of California at San Diego (UCSD) researchers, a team analyzed a sample of roughly 300,000 posts on heavily bot-influenced public Facebook groups to measure how quickly the posts' links were shared. (Van Beusekom, 6/8)
