Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Wuhan Lab Theory Deemed Plausible By Government Lab
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Report Found It Plausible Covid-19 Leaked From Wuhan Lab
A report on the origins of Covid-19 by a U.S. government national laboratory concluded that the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, according to people familiar with the classified document. The study was prepared in May 2020 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and was drawn on by the State Department when it conducted an inquiry into the pandemic’s origins during the final months of the Trump administration. (Gordon and Strobel, 6/8)
In other updates on the spread of the coronavirus —
Los Angeles Times: California COVID Transmission Rate Among Lowest In The U.S.
California continues to record one of the lowest COVID-19 case rates in the nation, underscoring its sustained progress toward extinguishing the pandemic a week ahead of the state’s planned reopening. As of Monday, California’s seven-day case rate per 100,000 people was 11, tied with Nebraska for the third-lowest among all states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California is behind only Vermont, with a 6.9 seven-day case rate, and South Dakota, with 9.2 (Money and Lin II, 6/7)
Miami Herald: COVID Wards Emptying In Florida. Doctors Say It’s Proof Vaccines Work
At the height of Florida’s summer COVID-19 surge, there were more than 2,000 people hospitalized with the novel illness in the epicenter of Miami-Dade County. Now, with 1.2 million people in the county fully vaccinated, that number has dropped to below 300 for the first time since mid-October. The plummet comes as hospital COVID units are emptying out across the state, where fewer than 1,800 people are being treated for the disease statewide, compared to the late July height of about 9,500. (Conarck, 6/7)
CIDRAP: Underlying Illness, Respiratory Infection Raise Risk For Severe COVID In Kids
Of two new studies on severe COVID-19 in children, the first finds that more than one in four had an underlying medical condition, and the second shows that kids diagnosed as having acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) were over twice as likely to require invasive mechanical ventilation. (Van Beusekom, 6/7)
Also —
KHN: Boeing Tested Air Purifiers Like Those Widely Used In Schools. It Decided Not To Use Them In Planes.
Aerospace giant Boeing tested two kinds of ionization technologies — like those widely adopted in schools hoping to combat covid — to determine how well each killed germs on surfaces and decided that neither was effective enough to install on its commercial planes. Boeing noted in its conclusion that “air ionization has not shown significant disinfection effectiveness.” Companies that make the air purifiers say they emit charged ions, or “activated oxygen,” that are said to inactivate bacteria and viruses in the air. Boeing did not test the technology’s effectiveness in the air, only on surfaces. It also used a “surrogate” for the virus that causes covid-19. (Jewett and Weber, 6/8)
