Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Florida Fights Back Against Turning Over Daily Covid Data
News Service of Florida: Florida Files An Appeal Over Turning Down Requests For Daily COVID-19 Data
The Florida Department of Health has gone to an appeals court in a battle about whether it should provide daily COVID-19 data, as it seeks to be shielded from explaining officials’ decision-making about releasing the information. Attorneys for the department filed a petition late Wednesday at the 1st District Court of Appeal as part of a lawsuit filed in August by the Florida Center for Government Accountability and state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, and later joined by several media organizations. The underlying lawsuit alleges the Department of Health violated public records laws by turning down requests for daily COVID-19 data. The data, in part, would have provided county and demographic information about COVID-19 cases. (Saunders, 2/4)
In other news about the spread of covid —
Texas Tribune: Texas COVID-19 Hospitalizations Down As Omicron Wave Appears To Crest
After an anxious January marked by a wave of COVID-19 infections that pushed Texas hospitals and intensive care units to their limits, the number of Texans in the hospital with COVID-19 across the state has been in a steady decline for over a week, according to state health data. The decrease is the latest in a series of hopeful signs that the surge driven by the highly contagious omicron variant may be starting to abate, forecasters and health officials say. If the trend continues, the state would have passed its peak hospitalizations for this wave on Jan. 20, when Texas hospitals reported 13,371 patients with COVID-19 — a number that has decreased daily since then. That falls short of the record 14,218 hospitalizations the state saw a year ago on Jan. 11, 2021. (Brooks Harper, Essig and Luis Martínez, 2/6)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Officials Think COVID Cases Will Keep Falling Despite Subvariant
State health officials are "optimistic" that COVID-19 cases will continue to decline despite the emergence of a subvariant of omicron believed to spread more easily than the original form of omicron. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said during a media briefing Thursday that it is still unclear what the implications of the subvariant, known as BA.2, will be. It was first detected in Wisconsin last month and still represents a tiny fraction of COVID-19 cases in the state. Despite the subvariant being more contagious, he said he is "optimistic" the omicron surge will continue to subside. (Volpenhein, 2/4)
Detroit Free Press: Michigan Surpasses 2 Million COVID-19 Cases
The Michigan health department reported 9,805 new COVID-19 cases over a two-day period Friday, an average of 4,903 per day, bringing Michigan to 2,009,221 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic.Another 209 coronavirus-related deaths were also reported Friday, 155 of which were identified in a regular vital records review. This increases the state's COVID-19 death toll to 30,379. (Marini, 2/4)
Also —
CIDRAP: New Conditions Common 1 To 5 Months After Positive COVID Test
A cohort study of Americans tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection shows that new-onset shortness of breath, heart rhythm abnormalities, and type 2 diabetes were more common 31 to 150 days after testing positive for COVID-19 than among those with negative results. The research was published today in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 2/4)
Albany Times Union: After 130 Days In The Hospital, A New York COVID-19 Patient Finally Gets To Go Home
Tommy Raus arrived home Friday morning. That's a major accomplishment, considering that on Sept. 13, 2021 he began a harrowing COVID-19 journey that saw him face death numerous times during a 130-day stay at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany. The 47-year-old Raus went from being unable to breathe on his own or even move his toes in the hospital as his health collapsed to where he is now moving and talking and settling into completing his recovery at home with visits from nurses and therapists. “I’m on oxygen now. I was in such bad pain,” Raus said in a telephone interview Thursday from Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady where he spent 14 days after leaving St. Peter’s. “It’s just so hard to deal with this." (Crowe II, 2/6)
ABC News: Parents Name Baby Boy After Doctor Who Treated Mom For COVID-19
A couple in Texas have paid the ultimate tribute to a doctor who went above and beyond to help their family last year. Diana Crouch, 28, and Chris Crouch, 37, welcomed a baby boy last November and named him Cameron, after one of Diana’s doctors. The couple credit Dr. Cameron Dezfulian, the medical director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease, ICU unit at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, with helping to save both Diana and Cameron’s lives. (2/7)
The New York Times: 2 Men In Miami Sentenced For Stealing 192 Ventilators Bound For El Salvador
Two men in Miami have each been sentenced to 41 months in prison for stealing medical ventilators bound for a Covid-19 care facility in El Salvador as part of a U.S. aid program, federal authorities in Florida said on Friday. The crime occurred in August 2020, according to a news release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida after the sentencing of the second of the two men. (Medina, 2/5)
