Variants Could Fuel Reinfections, Affect Vaccines

Fox News: Coronavirus Variants Pose Reinfection Risk, Scientists Say
Those who recover from coronavirus infection have immunity for at least five to six months, per several early studies, and while re-infections to prior strains were rare, new mutated strains pose a risk of contracting the novel virus again, scientists say. One researcher has even pinned a recent case surge in Manaus, Brazil, a northwestern city in the Amazon, to re-infections fueled by a variant strain called P.1, per NPR. While research suggests the city already reached the herd immunity threshold, with over 70% of the population infected by last fall, the area’s health system is now collapsing amid an increase in infections and dwindling oxygen supplies. (Rivas, 1/21)

NBC News: A Covid-19 Peak? Variants Muddy Forecasts For Coming Months
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States are falling after having hit record levels this month — a welcome sign that the winter surge may finally be leveling off. But as new, potentially more contagious variants of the virus circulate, coronavirus modelers warn that the U.S. is by no means out of the woods yet. (Chow, 1/22)

In news from California, North Carolina and Oklahoma —

Bay Area News Group: COVID-19 Cases, New Syndrome On The Rise Among California Children, Especially Latino Children
At least seven California children have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, more than 350,000 kids have tested positive for the virus and the number of youngsters diagnosed with a new, rare inflammatory syndrome continues to spread. All of these stats are on the rise just as a new highly contagious strain of the virus is worrying parents and experts alike and as the state tries to move toward reopening schools next month. “We are at a critical time because the overall number of cases of COVID are increasing so much,” said Dr. Jackie Szmuszkovicz, pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “We are seeing more children with MIS-C the last few weeks following that big increase (of cases) in the community.” (Aguilera, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: Chance Of COVID Death In The Hospital Doubles Amid L.A. Surge
The chances that a person hospitalized for COVID-19 will die in Los Angeles County have doubled in recent months. That’s according to an analysis released Wednesday by the county’s Department of Health Services, which found that the probability someone will die of the disease while hospitalized increased from about 1 in 8 in September and October to roughly 1 in 4 since early November. Those increased odds coincide with a devastating spike in L.A. County’s death toll. In early November, when the current coronavirus surge began, there were fewer than 20 COVID-19 deaths per day, on average. But over the weeklong period that ended Wednesday, there were roughly 206 deaths reported each day, according to data compiled by The Times. (Lin II and Money, 1/21)

Capital & Main: As Los Angeles COVID Vaccines Roll Out, Black And Latino Cases Surge
To no one’s surprise, California’s patchwork approach to distributing and administering COVID-19 vaccines has been chaotic. Statements from the governor’s office are countered by local health officials, sometimes almost immediately. Clinics and providers scramble to learn how many doses they’ll be allocated and when those will arrive, and patients may wait on hold for hours to schedule an appointment. The Trump administration’s abdication of federal responsibility has exacted a heavy toll, while the state’s inability to contain the virus suggests that even a smooth vaccination process would cover only so much of the damage. Through it all, though, some truths have remained maddeningly consistent. And as the latest information out of virus-ravaged Los Angeles County makes clear, those truths aren’t going to change – so vaccine policy will need to. (Kreidler, 1/21)

North Carolina Health News: COVID Cases In NC Assisted Living Facilities Cause Concern 
It’s a statistic that could easily fly by at a time when the number of statewide COVID-related deaths have passed 8,300. But there are good reasons to take a deeper look at the 200 North Carolina residential-care residents who have been listed as COVID-related deaths each week beginning with Dec. 22 as recorded in state Department of Health and Human services data. Each week’s total amounts to about one in four of the total 817 deaths tied to COVID among assisted living residents since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. (Goldsmith, 1/22)

Oklahoman: 'The Data Is Accurate': Oklahoma Health Commissioner Confirms Downward Trend In COVID-19 Cases
Oklahoma's commissioner of Health on Thursday confirmed a downward trend in new daily COVID-19 infections. A day after publicly second-guessing a recent drop in new COVID-19 cases reported by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said the trend is accurate. "The COVID-19 case numbers have been significantly lower this week, which prompted us to investigate their validity as well as our reporting systems out of an abundance of caution," he said in a statement. "After checking with staff and comparing different sources of information, we can report the data is accurate and our case count has been significantly down this week." (Forman, 1/22)

In news about the flu —

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Has Nearly Wiped Out The Flu—How Do We Keep It From Coming Back? 
Influenza, usually raging throughout the Northern Hemisphere this time of year, has become virtually invisible. It is a small bright spot amid Covid-19, although the number of people saved from a flu death pales next to the number dying from the new pandemic. It also presents questions that doctors around the globe will likely be wrestling with for years: If flu can be nearly wiped out this season, why not every season? Which steps help the most to stop the flu from spreading? (Inada, 1/21)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Flu And Other Infections Are Down, Likely Due To COVID-19 Social Distancing
The usual broken bones and other trauma are being treated this winter at the emergency department of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. But one category of medical complaints has all but disappeared: infectious disease. Take influenza, for example. Typically between December and April, nurses and doctors at the North Philadelphia hospital see hundreds of children with the flu. So far this winter, the number is zero. Flu numbers for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the United States as a whole also are well below normal across all ages, though far from zero. Likewise the country has seen few cases of acute flaccid myelitis, a form of childhood paralysis that is thought to be caused by viral infection. The rate of that illness typically spikes in the fall of even-number years, with 238 confirmed cases in 2018, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet in 2020 there were just 29. (Avril, 1/21)