Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Florida May Have Hurt Covid Response By Undercounting Cases, Deaths: Audit
Tampa Bay Times: Florida’s Health Department Undercounted COVID Cases And Deaths, State Audit Says
Florida’s COVID-19 data was so inaccurate, incomplete and delayed during the first months of the pandemic that government officials and the public may not have had necessary information to determine the effectiveness of the state’s COVID-19 precautions and the best plan to fight the virus, according to a state report released Monday. Covering the state’s pandemic response from March to October 2020, the year-long analysis by the State Auditor General found missing case and death data, unreported demographic details, and incomplete contact tracing as the virus spread across the state. In addition, the report concluded that state health officials did not perform routine checks on the data to ensure accuracy and did not follow up on discrepancies. (Hodgson, 6/6)
In related news —
AP: COVID Cases Rise Again In Idaho, But Undercount Is Likely
Coronavirus cases are again on the rise in Idaho, according to data from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, but the numbers are likely an undercount. The statewide positivity rate was 9% on June 5, Boise television station KTVB reported. That’s above the state’s goal of 5% and is consistent with community spread of the virus, said Dr. David Pate, former CEO of St. Luke’s Health System. (6/6)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 'We Have To Take Action': St. Louis Health Officials Urge Masking As COVID Cases Resurge
St. Louis and St. Louis County health officials on Monday issued a renewed plea for residents to wear masks in indoor, public spaces, as hospitals reported a growing wave of virus patients. The city and county are once again seeing high levels of virus transmission. And with at-home test kits now widely used, health authorities warn that infections are significantly undercounted. (Merrilees, 6/6)
CIDRAP: Republican US Counties Saw More COVID-19 Deaths
Majority-Republican counties experienced 73 more COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people than their Democratic counterparts, suggests an observational study today in Health Affairs. A team led by University of Maryland researchers analyzed COVID-19 death and vaccination data and 2020 presidential election returns from 3,109 US counties from Jan 1, 2020, to Oct 31, 2021. The researchers hypothesized that partisan differences in attitudes toward the pandemic and compliance with local mask, physical distancing, and vaccine policies would lead to differences in death rates. (Van Beusekom, 6/6)
In other news about the spread of covid —
AP: COVID Hits Buttigieg, Others Who Attended Michigan Event
At least 15 people who attended a public affairs conference last week on Michigan’s Mackinac Island have tested positive for COVID-19, including U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The gathering is put on each year by a business group, the Detroit Regional Chamber, and attracts more than 1,000 public officials, journalists and others who discuss a variety of political and policy issues. Four Republican candidates for governor held a debate. Participants were required to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test. (6/6)
AP: Pennsylvania Governor Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted that he tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. The 73-year-old governor said in the tweet he has mild symptoms. He said he tested positive in the evening. “I’m grateful that I recently got my second vaccine booster,” Wolf said in his tweet. (6/7)
The New York Times: My Family Got Covid. So Why Did We Test Negative?
As a science journalist, I’ve read dozens of research papers about Covid-19, and I’ve interviewed so many virologists, infectious disease physicians and immunologists over the past two years that I’ve lost count. But nothing prepared me for what happened after my 7-year-old daughter tested positive for Covid-19 nearly two weeks ago. It started the way you might expect: On a Sunday evening, my daughter spiked a fever. The next morning, we got an email informing us that she’d been exposed to the coronavirus on Friday at school. I gave her a rapid antigen test, which quickly lit up positive. I resigned myself to the possibility that the whole family was, finally, going to get Covid-19. (Moyer, 6/6)
The Boston Globe: For Many People With Long COVID, A Good Night’s Sleep May Be Hard To Get, Study Says
Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic say they’ve found that a substantial number of people who have long COVID have sleep problems. Researchers looked at a group of 682 patients from the Cleveland Clinic’s Recover clinic, which helps long-COVID patients, and found that 41.3 percent reported at least moderate sleep disturbances, including 8 percent who reported severe sleep disturbances. “The prevalence of moderate to severe sleep disturbances reported by patients presenting for [long COVID] was very high,” the researchers said in an abstract published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep. Researchers were laying out their findings Monday and Tuesday at a meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. (Finucane, 6/6)
The Washington Post: Long Covid Could Change The Way We Think About Disability
Mallory Stanislawczyk was hesitant to make the call. She hadn’t spoken to her friend in years. But the friend, who gets around in a wheelchair, was the only person the 34-year-old nurse practitioner could think of who would understand her questions. About being ready to accept help. About using a wheelchair. And about the new identity her battle with long covid had thrust on her. “I think she is the first person I said to, ‘I’m disabled now,’” Stanislawczyk recalled telling the friend. “‘And I’m working on accepting that.’” (Sellers, 6/6)
Also —
Axios: NIH's Culture Needs A Harder Look, Policy Experts Say
The CDC and FDA have caught plenty of flak for bureaucratic and cultural issues that slowed America's pandemic response, but the National Institutes of Health needs a critical look, too, health policy experts write in The Atlantic. "America's research enterprise has become sclerotic, cautious, focused on doing what it has always done and withdrawing from clinical research," according to the piece co-authored by Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost of the University of Pennsylvania who served on then-President-elect Biden's COVID-19 task force. (Reed, 6/6)
