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Greetings!
- Case numbers in the United States remain encouraging, though holiday reporting lags have depressed current averages somewhat. Before Memorial Day weekend, new cases dropped below 22,000 per day for the first time since June of 2020.
- New England has fared particularly well in recent weeks. Six states in the region have seen cases fall by 60 percent or more since mid-May.
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Half of all people in the United States have started the vaccination process, and 41 percent are fully vaccinated. But the number of doses administered each day has fallen by more than half from its April peak.
For more in-depth reporting, please use this link to look at the Times' presentation of current data, trends, and the impact on your community and where you work.
On June 8 in the U.S., there were 13,547 new cases (571 more cases than reported last week) with a total of 34,242,866 cases; on June 8 there were 401 new deaths (114 more new deaths than data reported last week) and the U.S. death total has reached 613,052.
Comparative Covid-19 data for June 8, 2021, showed that France, Germany, and Italy, showed significant decline in new cases with decreased death tolls as illustrated in their daily and 14-day average case and death rates. Canada showed a 25 percent decrease in new cases with a minor increase in new deaths.
The UK is, sadly, another story as we see in our link to Axios' Fauci sounds alarm over highly transmissible COVID-19 variant surging in the UK, which informs us that the “United Kingdom has seen an explosion in new cases as a result of the variant, which is now the dominant strain and may be associated with increased disease severity. The UK reported 7,540 new cases on Wednesday, a surge that has largely been driven by virus spread among unvaccinated young people.” Our comparative data tracking shows that the United Kingdom had on Tuesday 6,049 new cases (2,884 more new cases than reported last week) and 4,528,442 total cases. There were 13 new deaths (13 more new deaths than last week’s issue), increasing the UK’s Covid death total to 127,854.
In Italy on June 8, there were 1,896 new cases and on that day Italy had 102 new deaths (this was 587 fewer new cases and nine more deaths than data reported in the last issue); there are to date in Italy 4,235,592 total cases and 126,690 total Covid-19 deaths.
In France, fourth in number of cases, on June 8, there were 6,018 new cases, (3,830 fewer cases than what was reported 7 days ago) with a total of 5,719,937 cases. There were 73 new deaths (56 fewer new deaths than reported in last week’s issue) with a total of 110,137 Covid-19 deaths in France.
In Germany (mistakenly omitted last week) on June 8, there were 2,254 new cases; there have been 3,712,595 total cases. There were 119 new deaths (90,094 total Covid-19 deaths in Germany). In comparison, 7 days ago, Germany had 786 fewer new cases and 49 fewer new deaths.
On June 8, Canada had 1,264 new cases (369 fewer new cases than reported 7 days ago); 1,395,410 total cases. Canada had 30 new deaths, 11 more new deaths than 7 days ago’s reporting for a total of 25,791 deaths.
India on May 18, had 91,227 new cases; 29,088,176 total cases. India had 2,213 new deaths, for a total of 353,557 deaths. We link below two articles citing public health experts, journalists, and others who reiterate that the Indian data is not reliable.
We return to the U.S for a look at success, lingering problems, disparity in care (today and in the past), and a vacation community in Northwest Michigan torn asunder by masks. Firstly, success and lingering problems are documented by CNN in "Some U.S. hospitals mark first time being Covid-free. Others still see surge of patients."
StatNews examines racial and rural disparities in care and access in "Shuttered hospitals, soaring Covid-19 deaths: Rural Black communities lose a lifeline in the century’s worst health crisis." As to racial disparities The New Yorker tells us in "The peril of not vaccinating the world" that "According to a recent analysis of CDC data by Kaiser Health News, only 22 percent of Black Americans have been vaccinated, and Black vaccination rates are significantly lower than those of whites in almost every state. Much of what has been called vaccine hesitancy is actually a problem of vaccine access.”
As to poorer nations’ access to vaccines, Axios offers story of great news and good acts of our nation in "The U.S. to buy 500 million Pfizer doses to share with the world."
Now we return to the three key weapons in the Covid war: Vaccinations, masks, and testing. Firstly, there are some at Houston Methodist Hospital who are both sueing and redoing their resumes. Please see from Medscape "Houston Methodist Hospital suspends workers over vaccine compliance," that tells us of the 200 workers (one percent of the workforce) who were suspended for resisting a mandate to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
In one rural Michigan county, where you have your morning coffee with donuts and buy your produce and stone fruit is now shaped by a 15-month-long mask battle. Please see The New York Times’ "Sweet cherries, bitter politics: Two farm stands and the nation’s divides" To wrap up our jab-mask-test trilogy we offer not controversy, but rather a scientific update from The Atlantic, which tells us, “Our tests will need frequent touch-ups to make sure that no mutations get past them.”
We close as we often do with an article on the next phase in the skilled nursing industry, focusing on the historically underpaid and overworked staff. In "New CNA, LPN contracts raise nursing home wages across United States." Skilled Nursing News tells us that “Nursing home operators across multiple states have raised wages for certified nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses, thanks to a combination of union actions, post-pandemic market dynamics, and public policy shifts. But with operators still facing acute financial pressures, raising wages is not a simple matter. Larger structural changes are needed to support higher wages.”
From Houston, TX, Elk Rapids, MI, the UK (where citizens are worried and President Biden is about to ask other nations to join us in sending vaccines to those without) and our offices in Culver City (where 82 percent of our citizens have at least one jab and the eldest daughter of our editor graduated from Middle School and got her second jab yesterday), this is Revitalize for June 10, 2021:
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Revitalize: The week in health-care news you need
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Fauci sounds alarm over highly transmissible COVID-19 variant surging in the U.K.
Just how big could India’s true Covid toll be?
What to know about India’s Coronavirus crisis. What is behind the explosion of new coronavirus cases that is overwhelming the South Asian country?
Some U.S. hospitals mark first time being Covid-free. Others still see surge of patients.
Shuttered hospitals, soaring Covid-19 deaths: Rural Black communities lose a lifeline in the century's worst health crisis. The abrupt withdrawal of care that affected this rural corner of Georgia has played out across the United States. A record 19 rural hospitals closed in 2020.
The peril of not vaccinating the world: When Gregg Gonsalves was a young AIDS activist and researcher, in the 1990s, he was struck by a pattern that kept showing up in the data: the distribution of antiviral medications fell neatly along socioeconomic and racial lines: wealthy people got them, and poor people, many of them Black or Hispanic, did not. Later, as an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, Gonsalves illustrated the persistence of these kinds of health disparities to his students by overlaying a map of pre-Civil War slave-holdings on a contemporary map of life expectancies, which, not surprisingly, showed that life expectancy was lowest in those regions. “We’re just remaining true to form.” According to CDC data analyzed by Kaiser Health News, only 22 percent of Black Americans have been vaccinated, and Black vaccination rates are significantly lower than those of whites in almost every state.
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U.S. to buy 500 million Pfizer doses to share with the world.
Houston Methodist Hospital suspends workers over vaccine compliance. Houston Methodist Hospital has suspended almost 200 of its workers who are resisting a mandate to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The hospital announced on Tuesday that 24,947 workers — more than 99 percent of its employees — were fully vaccinated against Covid, following the hospital's pathbreaking policy to require vaccination for people who work there.
Sweet cherries, bitter politics: Two farm stands and the nation’s divides. Opposing views of mask requirements have rippled across a Michigan county, even influencing where people buy their fruit.
Coronavirus variants have nowhere to hide. Our tests will need frequent touch-ups to make sure that no mutations get past them.
New CNA, LPN contracts raise nursing home wages across United States. Nursing home operators across multiple states have raised wages for certified nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses, thanks to a combination of union actions, post-pandemic market dynamics and public policy shifts. But with operators still facing acute financial pressures, raising wages is not a simple matter. Larger structural changes are needed to support higher wages.
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Jerry Seelig, CEO
Fax: 310-841-2842
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