Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Police Officers' No. 1 Job Risk: Covid
The Boston Globe: Coronavirus Was The Top Cause Of Law Enforcement Deaths In The First Six Months Of 2021, Report Says
COVID-19 was the leading cause of law enforcement deaths in the first six months of 2021, higher than the next two top causes combined, according to a report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. The report states that 71 officers died nationwide in the first six months of the year as a result of contracting the coronavirus while executing official duties. That marks a 7 percent decrease compared to 2020, when 76 officers died of COVID-related causes during the first half of the year and no vaccines were available. “However, this would still make COVID-19 related fatalities the single highest cause of law enforcement deaths occurring in the first six months of 2021,” the report released this summer states. (Sweeney, 9/20)
In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —
The New York Times: Average Daily Deaths In The United States Surpass 2,000.
The average U.S. daily death toll from Covid-19 over the last seven days surpassed 2,000 this weekend, the first time since March 1 that deaths have been so high, according to a New York Times database. Texas and Florida, two of the hardest-hit states in the country, account for more than 30 percent of those deaths: Florida, where 56 percent of the population is vaccinated, averages about 353 deaths a day, and Texas, where 50 percent of the population is vaccinated, averages about 286 deaths a day. In the United States as a whole, 54 percent of all people are vaccinated. (9/20)
The New York Times: Memorial Along National Mall Honors Pandemic Victims
Peering at a sea of white flags blanketing the National Mall, Dr. Laura A. Valleni recalled the scores of pregnant women who had contracted the coronavirus at her hospital in South Carolina. Babies have been born prematurely, mothers have died and a surge of children has overwhelmed the pediatric unit for the past two months, she said. “I’ve been grappling with when it became OK for even one person to die of preventable illness,” said Dr. Valleni, a neonatal physician at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital–Midlands in Columbia, S.C. “There’s such tremendous grief.” (Cameron, 9/17)
Daily Yonder: Rural COVID-Death Rate Twice As High As Urban One
Rural residents are currently dying from Covid-19 at twice the rate of metropolitan residents, according to a Daily Yonder analysis. And the rate of new infections in rural counties is 50 percent higher than the metropolitan rate. This stark divergence between rural and urban areas comes as the summer surge appears to be abating. (9/18)
Bangor Daily News: Maine Isn’t Changing COVID-19 Strategy Despite Surge Hitting Unvaccinated People Hard
Maine is sticking with its COVID-19 strategy as the virus rages through Maine’s unvaccinated population in a first major peak of cases since shots began and restrictions went away. While Maine has maintained the third-lowest case rate among states during the pandemic, it is being hammered on what looks like the back end of a summer wave of cases in the U.S. driven by the contagious delta variant, seeing the highest two-week growth rate in transmission of any state as of Thursday and setting a new record for critical COVID-19 patients on Friday. (Andrews, 9/20)
Also —
CIDRAP: Long COVID Linked To Age, Comorbidities, Women
Long COVID-19 was more likely to occur in those 40 and older, women, and those with at least one underlying health condition, according to an MMWR study today. The researchers looked at a random selection of 366 adults in Long Beach, California, who had COVID-19 from Apr 1 to Dec 10, 2020. Two months later, 35.0% said they still experienced an average of 1.30 symptoms. Then at a median of 202 days after the initial diagnosis, 31.4% still had symptoms, with the most common being fatigue (13.7% of total cohort), shortness of breath (10.4%), and a distorted sense of smell (9.6%). (9/17)
Stat: Winter Is Coming, Again: What To Expect From Covid-19 In The New Season
Winter is coming, again. A year ago, experts warned that the United States faced a grim winter if Americans didn’t mask up and social distance to slow transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus before “indoor weather” — aka winter — settled in for its long stay. We all know how well that warning was heeded. In January, cases topped 300,000 a day; Covid ended the lives of about 95,000 Americans before the month was out. Now indoor weather again looms in many parts of this country, and daily case counts are rising well into the six figures. (Branswell, 9/20)
The Wall Street Journal: The Real Reason You And Your Neighbor Make Different Covid-19 Risk Decisions
People’s assessment of what is safe has varied wildly during the Covid-19 pandemic—often leaving us baffled about why our risk decisions differ so sharply from those of our neighbors, friends and family members. Now, scientists are starting to better understand why. Recent research shows that, while politics and geography play a role, other factors are often more important in determining how we make decisions about Covid-19 risks. Personality traits that are shaped by genetics and early life experiences strongly influence our Covid-19-related decisions, studies from the U.S. and Japan have found. (Petersen, 9/19)
CNN: Chris Rock Says He Has Covid. 'Trust Me You Don't Want This,' Comedian Tweets
Comedian and actor Chris Rock revealed Sunday that he has tested positive for Covid-19, and he is using the opportunity to urge others to get vaccinated against the virus. On his verified Twitter account, Rock posted, "Hey guys I just found out I have COVID, trust me you don't want this. Get vaccinated." The former "Saturday Night Live" cast member didn't comment on his condition, and his representatives did not immediately return a request from CNN for further comment. (Hackney, 9/19)
KHN: I Got A ‘Mild’ Breakthrough Case. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known.
The test results that hot day in early August shouldn’t have surprised me — all the symptoms were there. A few days earlier, fatigue had enveloped me like a weighted blanket. I chalked it up to my weekend of travel. Next, a headache clamped down on the back of my skull. Then my eyeballs started to ache. And soon enough, everything tasted like nothing. As a reporter who’s covered the coronavirus since the first confirmed U.S. case landed in Seattle, where I live, I should have known what was coming, but there was some part of me that couldn’t quite believe it. I had a breakthrough case of covid-19 — despite my two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the second one in April. (Stone, 9/20)
