Daily Archives: May 1, 2022

Sixty percent of Americans, including 75 percent of children, had been infected with the coronavirus by February, federal health officials reported on Tuesday another remarkable milestone in a pandemic that continues to confound expectations.

The highly contagious Omicron variant was responsible for much of the toll. In December 2021, as the variant began spreading, only half as many people had antibodies indicating prior infection, according to new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the numbers came as a shock to many Americans, some scientists said they had expected the figures to be even higher, given the contagious variants that have marched through the nation over the past two years.

There may be good news in the data, some experts said. A gain in population-wide immunity may offer at least a partial bulwark against future waves. And the trend may explain why the surge that is now roaring through China and many countries in Europe has been muted in the United States.

A high percentage of previous infections may also mean that there are now fewer cases of life-threatening illness or death relative to infections. We will see less and less severe disease, and more and more a shift toward clinically mild disease, said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

It will be more and more difficult for the virus to do serious damage, he added.

Administration officials, too, believe that the data augur a new phase of the pandemic in which infections may be common at times but cause less harm.

At a news briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White Houses new Covid coordinator, said that stopping infections was not even a policy goal. The goal of our policy should be: obviously, minimize infections whenever possible, but to make sure people dont get seriously ill.

The average number of confirmed new cases a day in the United States more than 49,000 as of Monday, according to a New York Times database is comparable to levels last seen in late July, even as cases have risen by over 50 percent over the past two weeks, a trend infectious disease experts have attributed to new Omicron subvariants.

Dr. Jha and other officials warned against complacency, and urged Americans to continue receiving vaccinations and booster shots, saying that antibodies from prior infections did not guarantee protection from the virus.

During the Omicron surge, infections rose most sharply among children and adolescents, according to the new research. Prior infections increased least among adults aged 65 and older, who have the highest rates of vaccination and may be most likely to take precautions.

Evidence of previous Covid-19 infections substantially increased among every age group, Dr. Kristie Clarke, the agency researcher who led the new study, said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

Widespread infection raises a troubling prospect: a potential increase in cases of long Covid, a poorly understood constellation of lingering symptoms.

Up to 30 percent of people infected with the coronavirus may have persistent symptoms, including worrisome changes to the brain and heart. Vaccination is thought to lower the odds of long Covid, although it is unclear by how much.

The long-term impacts on health care are not clear but certainly worth taking very seriously, as a fraction of people will be struggling for a long time with the consequences, said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Even a very small percentage of infected or vaccinated people who develop long Covid would translate to millions nationwide.

While the focus is often on preventing the health care system from buckling under a surge, we should also be concerned that our health care system will be overwhelmed by the ongoing health care needs of a population with long Covid, said Zo McLaren, a health policy expert at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

There are still tens of millions of Americans with no immunity to the virus, and they remain vulnerable to both the short- and long-term consequences of infection, said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Betting that you are in the 60 percent is a big gamble, he said. For anyone whos not been vaccinated and boosted, I would take this new data as a direct message to get that done or expect that the virus is likely to catch up to you if it hasnt already.

Although cases are once again on the upswing, particularly in the Northeast, the rise in hospitalizations has been minimal, and deaths are still dropping. According to the agencys most recent criteria, more than 98 percent of Americans live in communities with a low or medium level of risk.

Even among those who are hospitalized, were seeing less oxygen use, less I.C.U. stays and we havent, fortunately, seen any increase in deaths associated with them, said the C.D.C.s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. We are hopeful that positive trends will continue.

The country has recorded about a five-fold drop in P.C.R. testing for the virus since the Omicron peak, and so tracking new cases has become difficult. But the reported count is far less, about 70-fold lower, said Dr. Walensky, reflecting a true and reliable drop in our overall cases.

New subvariants of Omicron, called BA.2 and BA.2.12.1, have supplanted the previous iteration, BA.1, which began circulating in the country in late November and sent cases soaring to record highs in a matter of weeks.

Of course, even more have been infected now, because BA.2 will have infected some who avoided it thus far, Dr. Hanage said.

By February, three of four children and adolescents in the country had already been infected with the virus, compared with one-third of older adults, according to the new study.

That so many children are carrying antibodies may offer comfort to parents of those aged 5 and under, who do not qualify for vaccination, since many may have acquired at least some immunity through infection.

But Dr. Clarke urged parents to immunize children who qualify as soon as regulators approve a vaccine for them, regardless of their prior infection. Among children who are hospitalized with the virus, up to 30 percent may need intensive care, she noted.

Although many of those children also have other medical conditions, about 70 percent of cases of multisystem inflammatory disease, a rare consequence of Covid-19 infection, occur in otherwise healthy children.

As a pediatrician and a parent, I would absolutely endorse the children get vaccinated, even if they have been infected, Dr. Clarke said.

Some experts said they were concerned about long-term consequences, even in children who have mild symptoms.

Given the very high proportion of infection in kids and adults that happened earlier this year, I worry about the rise in long Covid cases as a result, said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University who is studying the condition.

To measure the percentage of the population infected with the virus, the study relied on the presence of antibodies produced in response to an infection.

C.D.C. researchers began assessing antibody levels in people at 10 sites early in the pandemic, and have since expanded that effort to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The investigators used a test sensitive enough to identify previously infected people for at least one to two years after exposure.

The researchers analyzed blood samples collected from September 2021 to February 2022 for antibodies to the virus, and then parsed the data by age, sex and geographical location. The investigators looked specifically for a type of antibody produced after infection but not after vaccination.

Between September and December 2021, the prevalence of antibodies in the samples steadily increased by one to two percentage points every four weeks. But it jumped sharply after December, increasing by nearly 25 points by February 2022.

The percentage of samples with antibodies rose from about 45 percent among children aged 11 years and younger, and among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, to about 75 percent in both age groups.

By February 2022, roughly 64 percent of adults aged 18 to 49 years, about 50 percent of those aged 50 to 64 years and about 33 percent of older adults had been infected, according to the study.

Despite the record high cases during the Omicron surge, the reported statistics may not have captured all infections, because some people have few to no symptoms, may not have opted for testing or may have tested themselves at home.

According to one upcoming C.D.C. study, there may be more than three infections for each reported case, Dr. Clarke said.

Noah Weiland contributed reporting from Washington.

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The Coronavirus Has Infected More Than Half of Americans, the C.D.C. Reports - The New York Times

After being at low levels for months, coronavirus prevalence doubled at both Portland Water District wastewater treatment plant locations this week.

The levels, measured in copies of coronavirus per liter of wastewater, were at about 1 million at the East End plant as of Friday, and 1.3 million at the Westbrook plant. Thats far below levels seen in late January and early February, when virus prevalence was about 2 million or higher, or at the peak of more than 5 million in late December and early January.

But even compared with a week to 10 days ago, levels have doubled at the Portland Water District plants. Wastewater testing is considered a leading indicator of the presence in communities of the coronavirus, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Results were mixed at other sewage plants where wastewater testing is occurring. Brunswick and Presque Isle have experienced sharp decreases this week, while Bangor also declined slightly after seeing its numbers vary significantly over the past week. Lewiston-Auburn recorded a steep increase this week, while York showed a slight increase.

Dr. Yolanda Brooks, an assistant professor of biology at St. Josephs College in Standish who did the coronavirus testing for Yarmouths wastewater program, said the increases in Portland have persisted over at least three testing periods, which is a little concerning even though levels are still far below what was seen in January.

Brooks said its hard to know what is driving the increases, as there could be other reasons besides more people contracting the virus. For instance, Portland is a hub for workers, and with more employees returning to the office, that could be impacting the volume of people using Portlands wastewater system.

Its also the beginning of tourist season, and more visitors could be using the system, she said. The recent K-12 spring break also could have affected the numbers.

Brooks said another dynamic is that in smaller systems, the numbers bounce around more. Even though Portland is Maines largest city, the wastewater system is still small compared to those in major urban centers such as Boston and New York.

Theres more variability in smaller systems, Brooks said. Fewer people getting infected and shedding the virus can affect the measurements in smaller systems.

Despite the increases in Portland, Brooks said that with high vaccination rates and Maine having recently gone through the omicron wave, she doesnt anticipate a return to the states winter virus surge.

Maine reported 470 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, along with one additional death.Since the pandemic began, Maine has recorded 244,062 cases of COVID-19 and 2,283 deaths.

Hospitalizations increased to 143 on Friday from 132 on Thursday. There were 34 patients in critical care Friday and five on ventilators.

Maines COVID-19 hospitalizations had remained nearly flat since mid-March, hovering between 90 and 100 patients before rising sharply this week. The current total is still down dramatically from this years peak of 436 hospitalizations on Jan. 13.

Unvaccinated people represented roughly two-thirds of the COVID-19 patients treated in Maine hospitals from when vaccines became readily available through April 15, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.

MODERNA SEEKS VACCINE AUTHORIZATION

Meanwhile, Moderna announced Thursday that it is seeking emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months through 5 years old. No COVID-19 vaccine for toddlers and infants has been approved despite adults having access to vaccines for about a year. A vaccine developed by Pfizer was approved for children ages 5 to 11 in the fall.

On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it plans to convene a panel of vaccine experts in June to review applications from both Moderna and Pfizer for child vaccines, The Associated Press reported. The dates are not final, and the FDA said it will provide additional details as each company completes its application.

The Moderna vaccine proved effective in a two-dose regimen given 28 days apart, according to a Moderna study of 6,700 children.

We are proud to share that we have submitted for authorization for our COVID-19 vaccine for young children, Moderna CEO Stphane Bancel said in a statement. We believe (the vaccine) will be able to safely protect these children against SARS-CoV-2, which is so important in our continued fight against COVID-19, and will be especially welcomed by parents and caregivers.

The vaccines effectiveness is 51 percent for children ages 6 months to under 2 years, and 37 percent for ages 2 to 6, according to a company statement.

That means that youre going to reduce your chances of getting disease by about a half, Dr. Paul Burton, Modernas chief medical officer, told NPR in an interview. Thats very important for these kids.

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Portland wastewater testing shows sharp increase in coronavirus - Press Herald

Its horrible, he said.

Dr. Philip Elizondo, his orthopedic colleague, said the hospital had to cancel minor surgeries for health problems that subsequently ballooned. One uninsured woman he treated had torn her meniscus, lost her job and lost her house. Dr. Elizondo said he could have performed a 20-minute surgery if the patient had been able to seek care immediately, but instead her injury went untreated and got worse.

Dr. Richard Fremont, a pulmonologist, said that he had treated dozens of Covid patients over the past two years, but that patients with other health conditions, such as chronic asthma, had more often needed oxygen. Because uninsured patients cannot get short-term home oxygen therapy, he sometimes keeps those who need it in the hospital for days or weeks.

The crisis of the uninsured is especially acute in Tennessee, which has one of the highest rates of hospital closures in the country and is among a dozen states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid to cover more low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. Roughly 300,000 people in the state fall in the so-called coverage gap, meaning they are ineligible for either Medicaid or discounted health insurance under the Affordable Care Act despite having little to no income.

John Graves, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the influx of relief funds during the pandemic had allowed something akin to a universal coverage system within a system, granting coverage to everyone who got Covid. Now, he said, hospitals and patients are back to facing prepandemic pressures and will face even more once the federal government ends the public health emergency, which has temporarily increased Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.

The federal Provider Relief Fund offered hospitals an early lifeline in the pandemic by providing tens of billions in direct funding, although the money was steered inequitably, said Jason Buxbaum, a Harvard doctoral student who has written about the program.

Separately, the Covid-19 Uninsured Program provided more than $20 billion in reimbursements to roughly 50,000 hospitals, clinics and other providers for testing, vaccinating and treating the uninsured, including nearly $8 million to Nashville General. A pandemic relief package that has stalled in the Senate will most likely not replenish the fund, leaving providers on the hook and making reimbursements during future Covid waves unlikely.

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Loss of Pandemic Aid Stresses Hospitals That Treat the Uninsured - The New York Times

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) More Kansans tested positive for the coronavirus this week compared to last week. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) shows that 2,017 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the past seven days. That number is 443 higher than the previous seven days.

The KDHE said the seven-day average of cases is 259 which is 63 more than last week. The state did not release any new information about COVID-19 variant numbers.

COVID-19 hospitalizations did not fluctuate much. There are 81 people hospitalized with the virus this week, four more than last week. Of those, 75 are adults and six are children. Thirteen of the adults are in intensive care.

The Kansas COVID-19 death toll increased by 38, bringing it to 8,635. Only two of the deaths happened in the past week. When the death toll increases, it is sometimes because officials have finalized death certificates from older cases. The seven-day rolling average of daily new deaths decreased to zero.

The KDHE data shows more than 23,000 Kansans got COVID-19 vaccinations in the past week:

Of Kansans who are eligible to get vaccinated, 66.98% have received at least one dose, while 58.4% have completed a vaccine series.

The KDHE releases its coronavirus updates each Friday afternoon.

CDC Mask Guidelines based on community-level transmission:Low (green):No mask needed indoors (get tested if you have symptoms)Medium (yellow):Mask recommended for high-risk patients (discuss with your healthcare provider)High (orange):Should wear mask indoors in publicKansas coronavirus cases updated Apr. 29, 2022CDC Community transmission rates updated Apr. 29, 2022Sources:Kansas Department of Health and EnvironmentCenters for Disease Control

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Kansas coronavirus cases increase by more than 2,000 - KSN-TV

CAMDEN, N.J. No one thought Frank Talarico Jr. was going to live. Not his doctors, his nurses or his wife, a physician assistant who works part time at the Camden, N.J., hospital where he spent 49 days fighting to survive Covid-19.

A 47-year-old police sergeant, he was not vaccinated against the coronavirus. Unconvinced of the vaccines merits, he figured he was young and fit enough to handle whatever illness the virus might cause.

He was wrong.

If its an eye opener for somebody so be it, Sergeant Talarico said recently at his home in Pennsauken, N.J., about five miles northeast of Camden. He plans to get the vaccine as soon as the doctors he credits with saving his life at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital give him final medical clearance.

If I was vaccinated, he said, I have to think I wouldnt have gotten as sick as I did.

Though police work inherently carries with it the possibility of violent or lethal encounters, for the last two years Covid-19 has been the leading cause of death for law enforcement officers in the United States.

When Covid vaccines were first offered in December 2020, law enforcement officers frontline workers who, like doctors and nurses, are required to interact closely with people in crisis were prioritized for shots that have since been proven to significantly lower the risk of serious illness and death.

But over the next year, as some police unions tried to block vaccine mandates, at least 301 police, sheriff and correction officers died of complications from Covid-19, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, a nonprofit that tracks line-of-duty fatalities. Since January, Covid has continued to outpace other top causes of line-of-duty deaths.

Its not just a little bit above firearm fatalities and traffic fatalities, said Troy Anderson, a retired Connecticut State Police sergeant who is now director of safety and wellness for the memorial. Its heads and shoulders above.

Its unthinkable that were still in this place, he added.

Sergeant Talaricos ordeal began Christmas Eve, as Omicron infections were soaring across the country, inundating hospitals and stretching staffing levels nearly past breaking points.

Before it was over, the patrol officer who was less than a year away from retirement after 24 years on the job was hospitalized twice.

After being rushed to the hospital the second time, he had a foot-long blood clot removed from his lung, a procedure that prevented certain death but caused his heart to nearly stop beating. He was placed on advanced life-support while still on the operating table. For two days a machine did the work of his heart and lungs.

It wasnt long before his kidneys began to fail, requiring dialysis.

One of the many hard moments was the day his daughter, a 19-year-old college freshman, visited him for what they both feared could be a final goodbye. Conscious but hooked to a ventilator, Sergeant Talarico was unable to speak.

He would try and mouth words around the breathing tube, said Jackie Whitby, a cardiac care nurse who was also in the room. He had tears in his eyes. She had tears in her eyes.

Retelling the story more than two months later, Sergeant Talarico started to cry again.

About half of the 14 officers in his police department, in Merchantville, N.J., have been vaccinated, he said. The departments chief of police did not return calls.

Sergeant Talarico said he had tried to persuade reluctant colleagues to get vaccinated.

I say, Just look at me and look what I went through, he said.

Many of the nations largest police departments, including Los Angeles, New York and Newark, have required employees to be vaccinated. Correction officers in New Jersey also have been ordered to get shots or risk being fired.

In Newark, New Jerseys largest city, nine police employees have died of Covid-19. But there have been no Covid fatalities since the citys vaccination mandate was implemented in September after an unsuccessful legal challenge by the police and fire unions.

Roughly 96 percent of Newarks public safety officers have now had at least two shots of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or one shot of Johnson & Johnsons, said Brian OHara, Newarks public safety director.

The last member of Newarks Department of Public Safety to die from Covid was Richard T. McKnight, a 20-year employee who processed detainees. He was not vaccinated, said Mr. OHara, who spoke at the funeral.

Days after Mr. McKnights death in August, his wife, who was sick with Covid, also died, Mr. OHara said.

Their 9-year-old daughter is left with no parents, he said.

A 340-bed hospital, Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes was treating 26 patients for Covid the day Sergeant Talarico was first admitted. Within two weeks, 81 patients were hospitalized with the virus.

January was the worst month of my career, said Dr. Vivek Sailam, a cardiologist who has worked at Our Lady of Lourdes for 14 years.

As Sergeant Talarico began to slowly recover, against the odds, staff members started to rally around him, referring to him as their miracle patient.

You get better, Im taking you to dinner, Dr. Sailam told Sergeant Talarico when he came off a ventilator for the second time.

A nurse, Shawn McCullough, devised a system using a letter board that enabled Sergeant Talarico to communicate while intubated. A physical therapist, Wendy Hardesty, insisted that he be strong enough to climb the three steps into his home before he was discharged for the second time on Feb. 18.

The mental trauma thats been on these nurses and what theyve witnessed the amount of death and agony. This is what everybody needed, Dr. Sailam said. Everybody needed this victory.

After being hospitalized with pneumonia for three weeks at Christmastime, Sergeant Talarico was discharged, but was so weak that his wife, Christine Lynch, set up folding chairs throughout their house so he could make it from a chair in the living room and rest before he went to the bathroom.

At 5 one morning, as he struggled to breathe, Ms. Lynch called the ambulance again.

Sergeant Talarico was readmitted with the foot-long blood clot in his lungs. Known as a pulmonary embolism, it has become a common side effect of Covid-19 for hospitalized patients.

The device used to remove it has only been available since 2018, said Dr. Joseph Broudy, who said the new technology enabled him to extract the embolism largely intact.

Had that not been possible, Dr. Broudy said, he probably would not have survived.

Sergeant Talarico and Ms. Lynch, his second wife, had been married for less than a year when he was told in late December that he had been exposed to the virus by a colleague. Soon, the newlyweds were both sick.

Ms. Lynch, a physician assistant who was vaccinated, said she initially shared her husbands reluctance to take the shot. Sergeant Talarico said he believed that the vaccine approval had been rushed, and he questioned its safety.

Looking back, he said he wished Ms. Lynch, 33, had kicked his butt to get vaccinated. Had he been older, with health risk factors other than high blood pressure, she said she would have.

Before getting sick, Sergeant Talarico said he worked out regularly, and for three years had participated in the Police Unity Tour, a three-day bicycle ride to Washington held each May to honor fallen officers as their names are added to a memorial in the capital.

Ive been healthy all my life, he said. I guess I just did have the mentality that if I do get it, Ill be one of the ones to have it mild. And that sure wasnt the case.

Tom Buckley, a senior vice president at the hospital, estimated that the billable cost of treating someone as sick as Sergeant Talarico would be roughly $400,000 to $500,000; Sergeant Talarico said he had not gotten the final bill from his insurance company for the cost of his care.

About three weeks after being released from the hospital for good, Sergeant Talarico returned with bagels, pizza and a promise for the staff members who fought to keep him alive. He told us he would get vaccinated, said Correinne Newman, a nursing director.

The gesture brought Ms. Whitby, who had the day off but was contacted through FaceTime, to tears.

Him being a cop and me being a nurse we essentially put our lives on the line and put other people first, she said.

Having him say, You know what? Im going to get the vaccine as soon as I possibly can.

I feel like thats him supporting us.

More here:

What an Unvaccinated Sergeant Who Nearly Died of Covid-19 Wants You to Know - The New York Times

To date, a total of 2,528 cases with SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified and investigated in residents of Dallas County, including 288 cases of B.1.1.7 (Alpha); 4 cases of B.1.351 (Beta); 1,825 cases of B.1.617.2 (Delta); 30 cases of B.1.427 (Epsilon); 28 cases of P.1 (Gamma); 14 cases of B.1.526 (Iota); 5 cases of C.37 (Lambda); 4 cases of B.1.621 (Mu); 326 cases of B.1.1.529 (Omicron); and 3 cases of P.2 (Zeta). Four hundred and thirty-seven cases have been hospitalized and 57 have died. Forty-eight COVID-19 variant cases were reinfections. Seven hundred and nine people were considered fully vaccinated before infection with a COVID-19 variant.

As of 4/22/2022, a total of 473 confirmed and probable cases were reported in CDC week 15 (week ending 4/16/22), which is a weekly rate of 17.9 new cases per 100,000 residents.

As of the week ending 4/16/2022, about 81% of Dallas County residents age 12 years and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 98% of residents age 65 years and older; 86% of residents between 40-64 years of age; 78% of residents 25-39 years of age; 68% of residents 18-24 years of age; and 62% of residents 12-17 years of age. In the cities of Addison, Coppell, Highland Park, Irving, and Sunnyvale, greater than 94% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the cities of Cedar Hill, Desoto, Farmers Branch, Garland, Lancaster, and University Park, greater than 81% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

About 45.7% of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Week 15 were Dallas County residents who were not fully vaccinated. In Dallas County, 55,219 cases of COVID-19 breakthrough COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated individuals have been confirmed to date, of which 3,980 (7.2%) were hospitalized and 691 have died due to COVID-19.

Of all Dallas County residents tested for COVID-19 by PCR during the week ending 4/16/2022 (CDC week 15), 4.7% of respiratory specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. For week 15, area hospital labs have continued to report elevated numbers and proportions of respiratory specimens that are positive for other respiratory viruses by molecular tests: parainfluenza (4.78%), rhinovirus/enterovirus (34.01%), and RSV (3.02%).

There are currently 10 active long-term care facility outbreaks. A cumulative total of 6,455 residents and 4,363 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 1,337 have been hospitalized and 911 have died. About 16% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities.

There has been 1 outbreak of COVID-19 in a congregate-living facility (e.g. homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) reported within the past 30 days. A cumulative total of 1,135 residents and staff members (840 residents and 295 staff) in congregate-living facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with more detailed data dashboards and summary reports updated on Friday evenings, available at: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/2019-novel-coronavirus/daily-updates.php.

Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators as part of determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. The most recent COVID-19 hospitalization data for Dallas County, as reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council, can be found at http://www.dallascounty.org/covid-19 under Monitoring Data, and is updated regularly. This data includes information on the total available ICU beds, suspected and confirmed COVID-19 ER visits in the last 24 hours, confirmed COVID-19 inpatients, and COVID-19 deaths by actual date of death. The most recent forecasting from UTSW can be found here.The most recent COVID-19 Data Summaries for Dallas County, TX can be found at the bottom of this page.

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Dallas County Reports a Total of 430 New Positive 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases and 7 Deaths, Including 176 Probable Cases and 83 New Cases...

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, Bill Gates has warned, saying there could still be a variant which is "even more transmissive and even more fatal".

"We haven't even seen the worst of it," he said in an interview.

While not wanting to be a "voice of doom and gloom", the risk of a more virulent variant emerging is "way above 5%", the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist told the Financial Times.

"We're still at risk of this pandemic generating a variant that would be even more transmissive and even more fatal," he said, adding that longer-lasting vaccines which block infection are urgently required.

Gates, one of the world's wealthiest people, has written a book called How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.

He is urging the creation of a team of international experts - ranging from epidemiologists to computer modellers - to identify threats and improve international coordination.

He is also calling for a global epidemic response team, managed by the World Health Organisation, and says extra investment is vital.

"It seems wild to me that we could fail to look at this tragedy and not, on behalf of the citizens of the world, make these investments," he said.

While acknowledging that the war in Ukraine is dominating the international agenda at present, he added: "The amount of money involved is very small compared to the benefit and it will be a test: can global institutions take on new responsibilities in an excellent way?"

A pandemic is something Gates has been warning about for years, having given a TED Talk in 2015 about the threat of a super-virus.

"If the pandemic hadn't come along it would have been a fairly obscure TED Talk," Gates told The Times.

"Now it's been watched 43 million times."

Modern life is not helping either, he added. "Everyone who works in infectious diseases just has this fear of human transmissible respiratory viruses. The more people travel and the stronger the interaction between wild species and humans, the more risk of zoonotic cross-species-type diseases."

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COVID-19: Bill Gates warns of an 'even more transmissive and more fatal' coronavirus variant - Sky News

WASHINGTON Vice President Kamala Harriss coronavirus infection is raising questions that some in the nations capital wish would remain unspoken: Is it safe for President Biden to attend the so-called nerd prom, otherwise known as the White House Correspondents Dinner? Should the dinner even be held?

The flashy event, where journalists, politicians and policy wonks mingle with celebrities, is returning in person on Saturday after a two-year absence because of the pandemic. It will be the first time a president has attended since 2016. Expected attendance: 2,600.

As the nation lurches out of the acute phase of the pandemic and into what some are calling the new normal, the dinner like so much of American life is prompting a good deal of risk-benefit calculation. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Mr. Bidens top medical adviser for the coronavirus, said on Tuesday that he had decided not to attend because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.

But Mr. Biden, who at 79 is two years younger than Dr. Fauci, will be there, as will his wife, Jill Biden. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters on Tuesday that Ms. Harriss diagnosis had not changed the presidents thinking about the dinner, which she described as an opportunity to talk about the importance of journalism in the world.

Just like many Americans, he makes risk assessments, Ms. Psaki said, adding, Thats an event hes attended many times in the past, and he made a decision through consultations that it was an event he could attend and wanted to attend again.

On Wednesday, after this article was published online, the White House made a slight shift in course; Ms. Psaki told reporters that the president might wear a mask at the dinner when he was not speaking, and would not attend the eating portion so he could attend in a safe way.

In interviews, public health experts were largely, though not entirely, supportive of Mr. Bidens choice. The organizers of the dinner are taking precautions, including requiring all attendees to be vaccinated and to provide proof of a negative Covid test taken that day. With vaccines and antiviral drugs available, some experts said, the time for shunning large gatherings is in the past, at least for most healthy people.

The dinner, in a cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton, is not the only large-scale event the president was scheduled to attend this week. On Wednesday, he delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Madeleine K. Albright, the former secretary of state an event that drew an estimated 1,400 mourners, most of them masked. On Sunday, Mr. Biden will travel to Minnesota to speak at a memorial service for former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Many public health experts are making calculations of their own. Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, said he had just returned from Lisbon, where he was among 8,000 attendees of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. It was a risk that, with precautions, he was willing to take.

Everybody was vaccinated, everybody was masked except when speaking, he said. But we also went to restaurants and did other things, and I didnt get infected, so I feel very good about that.

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist who is leading a new program on pandemic preparedness at Brown Universitys School of Public Health, said she recently attended a large indoor conference and was one of the few wearing masks. She has not gotten Covid-19 and does not want to, but, she said, I am also not completely rearranging my life trying to dodge it.

Everyone has a different risk tolerance, and experts say it is important not to judge other peoples choices. But the president, being the president, has an obligation to the public to not get sick, said Dr. Arthur L. Caplan, the director of N.Y.U. Langones division of medical ethics. He said Mr. Biden should not attend the dinner, ticking off the reasons in an email.

He is high-risk and occupies a very high office at a time of war, Dr. Caplan wrote, adding: He must be hypersafe. The correspondents dinner is highly optional. With the V.P. sick, he really needs to protect himself. His office imposes a duty of precaution.

Ms. Psaki conceded that Mr. Biden could contract Covid, adding that if he did, the White House would be very transparent about it. She said the White House took numerous precautions beyond those of most workplaces to protect Mr. Biden, including social distancing, regular testing and wearing masks during meetings.

Yet she also noted that the president was traveling more lately, having concluded that getting out into the country was vitally important to him, to his presidency, to the American people.

Still, there is an uneasy feeling here and a worry that maybe a gathering of 2,600 people, including journalists and politicians who have spent more than two years warning about the dangers of the pandemic, may not be the best look.

Well, there is a question of whether its EVER appropriate to engage in an exercise in gaudy, celebrity-drenched self-adulation, David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote in an email, but thats a separate question.

However, Mr. Axelrod added, The country plainly is eager to move on, and people are regularly gathering in public places stadiums, theaters, restaurants and, as a political matter, Im sure the president is eager to embrace the sense that the siege is largely behind us.

Yet there is no shortage of reminders that the siege may not, in fact, be largely behind us.

The Gridiron Dinner, another gathering of A-listers in the capital, turned into a superspreader event this month. More than 70 attendees later tested positive for the coronavirus, including three members of Mr. Bidens cabinet Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as well as Mayor Eric Adams of New York.

The Gridiron freaked everybody out, Sally Quinn, the Washington journalist, socialite and widow of Ben Bradlee, the former executive editor of The Washington Post, told Axios. I know a number of people who are not going because they are not wanting to chance it, she added, referring to the correspondents dinner.

The annual gala, hosted by the White House Correspondents Association, has been a fixture of Washington political life for decades.

Accompanied by a long weekend of spinoff parties, the event raises money for scholarships and honors journalists for distinguished White House coverage. It typically features celebrity entertainment this years featured guest is Trevor Noah and a roast of the president. But the gala has drawn criticism for coming across as an unseemly bacchanal in which journalists cozy up to the people they cover. The New York Times has not allowed its reporters to attend since 2007.

President Donald J. Trump shunned the dinner during his four years in office. The pandemic kept Mr. Biden away last year.

The correspondents association is clearly aware of the sensitivities. Youve had lots of questions, its president, Steven Portnoy of CBS News, wrote to members in an email this month. So heres an update from me on our Covid-19 mitigation strategy.

Citing advice from Dr. Fauci, who suggested same-day testing in addition to a vaccination requirement when asked if large-scale events should proceed, Mr. Portnoy said guests would be required to provide proof of vaccination and a same-day negative antigen test via Bindle, a verification app.

He also added some advice of his own, telling members that if they were eligible for a fourth dose of vaccine, they should consider getting one.

As for Mr. Biden, Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore city health commissioner who has been a vocal proponent of returning to pre-Covid routines, said the president must ask what is important to him. The mitigation measures at the dinner mean Mr. Biden is likely to avoid severe disease if he gets infected, she said. If he wants to avoid infection entirely, she added, he should not go.

However, that is not what living with Covid looks like, and I think that it is very important for him to model that ultimately what Americans should care about is avoiding severe disease, Dr. Wen said, adding, Especially if there are precautions such as testing and vaccination, he needs to show that we can resume our prepandemic lives.

Dr. Wen said she would not be attending the dinner for a different reason: I was not invited.

Read more:

Fauci clarifies that the pandemic isnt over, after saying the U.S. is out of the pandemic phase. - The New York Times

Racial disparities in Connecticuts COVID-19 deaths gaping in the early days of the pandemic narrowed over time as the crisis spread outward from urban to rural areas, a new Yale School of Public Health study has found.

Though Black and Hispanic people in Connecticut have remained more likely to die from COVID-19 than white residents, the narrowing of those disparities may suggest the success of campaigns to boost testing and vaccination among those communities, researcher Margaret Lind said.

In general we saw that, over the course of the pandemic in Connecticut, there has been a decline in the disparity of COVID-19 related mortality, said Lind, who led the study. We are moving in the right direction, and [equity] is something that could be achieved if we keep moving forward.

According to the study, Black and Hispanic people in Connecticut were more than four times as likely as non-Hispanic white people to die from COVID-19 between March 1 and Aug. 25, 2020, when the disease hit poor, under-resourced, urban communities hardest.

But over time, the study found, the COVID-19 mortality rate decreased only slightly among white Connecticut residents while falling much more sharply among Black and Hispanic residents. From July 13 to Dec. 13, 2021, the most recent period the study analyzed, Hispanic people were still about twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as white people, but the gap between Black and white residents had nearly disappeared.

This trend appears to mirror a national pattern in which the burden of COVID-19 gradually shifted over time from urban centers to whiter, more rural areas, which often had lower rates of vaccination and fewer control measures.

Racial disparities in Connecticut's COVID-19 deaths have diminished over the course of the pandemic, a new Yale study has found.

Despite the narrowing of disparities in Connecticut, the pandemic has remained, on balance, more significant for some groups than for others. Dating back to March 2020, state data shows, Black and Hispanic people have been substantially more likely to catch COVID-19 and about twice as likely to die from the disease, after adjusting for age.

We did see this attenuation overall, but there is still room to get better, Lind said. We can reduce these inequities, but we are not there yet.

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Disparities in COVID-19s impact in Connecticut were apparent from the earliest days of the pandemic, as state data almost immediately showed Black and Latino people catching and dying from the disease at higher rates than white people.

Experts say some groups were hit harder than others for several reasons. For one thing, Black and Latino people in Connecticut are more likely to live in densely populated areas and work front-line jobs that put them in direct contact with coworkers and customers. For another, decades of discrimination mean they are more likely to have underlying conditions like asthma and diabetes, which exacerbate the effects of COVID-19.

Though Linds team did not specifically study why these disparities shrunk over time, she guesses it was a result of state and federal programs aimed at distributing resources more evenly, combined with evolving attitudes toward COVID-19 among different groups. Throughout much of the pandemic, survey data has shown that people of color in Connecticut were more likely than white people to, for example, wear masks in public.

Whereas Black and Latino people in Connecticut were initially far less likely than white people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, those gaps have narrowed over time, state numbers show, which each racial and ethnic group now showing relatively high levels of vaccination.

Lind says her findings underscore the importance of measures aimed at reducing health inequities a lesson she says could be useful ahead of the next health crisis.

These measures such as trying to get testing equitably distributed, trying to get prevention measures ... widely utilized [helped], she said. The utility of education around that is something we should really think about and continue to move forward with, recognizing that this will not be our last global pandemic.

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Racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths decreased in Connecticut over time as pandemic shifted from urban to rural, Yale study finds - Hartford Courant