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Greetings!
From The New York Times' the state of the virus for August 19, 2021:
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A summer that began with Covid seeming to fade into the national background has been upended by the coronavirus’s relentless spread. The Delta variant continues to drive up new case totals across the United States.
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More than 90,000 coronavirus patients were in hospitals nationwide, more than in any previous surge except last winter’s. The country is averaging more than 800 newly reported deaths a day, about twice as many as in early August.
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Much of the South is contending with its most serious outbreak of the pandemic, including Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. Hospitals have struggled to treat the influx of patients.
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Some Western states with relatively high vaccination rates also have struggled with Delta. Washington’s governor ordered educators to get vaccinated and Hawaii imposed limits on gatherings.
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Vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalizations and deaths. The pace of vaccination has increased lately, but only 51 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated so far.
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New case reports are not increasing as quickly as they had been. In some hard-hit areas, case curves are leveling off or declining. Louisiana, Missouri and Arkansas, among the first places with summer surges, appear to be stabilizing.
On Aug. 24, 2021 in the U.S., the seven-day daily average number of new cases was 151,441; the 14-day change in cases was an increase of 28 percent with a total of 38,193,758 total cases. On Aug. 24 in the U.S., the seven-day daily average number of new deaths was 1,116 (double what was reported in last week’s issue), the 14-day change in new deaths was an increase of 84 percent, and the U.S. death total has reached 631,041. We once again ask you to use the link to The New York Times Covid Map to view the hardest hit states
In Canada (where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has bet on recent vaccine success and called a “snap election”) on Aug. 24, 2021 a seven-day daily average number of new cases was 2,597, the 14-day change in cases was an increase of 86 percent with a total of 1,483,660 cases. On Aug. 24 in Canada, the seven-day average of new deaths was 17, the 14-day change in new deaths was an increase of 82 percent, and the Canadian death total has reached 26,798. Sixty six percent of Canadians are fully vaccinated, 74 percent have had one jab.
This week's issue offers comparative data for the U.K., France, Italy, and Spain. Like the U.S. and Canada, virtually all of these countries’ new cases and deaths are unvaccinated people. All of the countries other than the U.K. are having decreases in their 14- day change in cases, with France and and Spain seeing the greatest decreases. Go to The New York Times International Covid Map for country data.
In the United Kingdom on Aug. 24, 2021, the seven-day daily average of number of new cases was 33,280, the 14-day change in cases was an increase of 20 percent with a total of 6,555,200 cases. On Aug. 24 in the U.K., the seven day average of new deaths was 101, the 14-day change in new deaths was an increase of 13 percent, and the U.K. death total has reached 131,854.
In France, the seven-day daily average number of new cases was 21,809, the 14-day change in cases was a decrease of 7 percent with a total of 6,734,077 cases. On Aug. 24 in France the seven-day average of new deaths was 130, the 14-day change in new deaths was an increase of 133 percent, and the French death total has reached 114,025.
In Spain, the seven-day daily average number of new cases was 10,117, the 14-day change in cases was a decrease of 41 percent with a total of 4,804,424 cases.The seven-day average of new deaths was 113, the 14-day change in new deaths was an increase of 113 percent, and the Spanish death total has reached 83,257.
We lead with The New York Times The Daily podcast to answer your questions on kids and Covid and finish with our great explainer of the week from Hell & High Water with John Heilemann. We believe all of you should please link to listen or read a transcript of Children and Covid: Your Questions, Answered. The Daily very much delivers on it promise of “As schools reopen, we respond to queries from parents about how the coronavirus will affect the return to classrooms.”
The day after the last issue posted, our home town of Culver City was very much in the news; NPR covered the story and we reprint the tale of our local school board: "California School District mandates vaccines for eligible students." Staying on the kids-are-back-in-school, yet what-is-the-school-year-going-to-be-like-for-their-parents-and-them is a great article from The Atlantic: "This school year is going to be a mess—again." The Atlantic reports “We have the tools to keep Delta in check, but schools have to actually use them.”
"What full FDA approval for Covid-19 vaccines really means" is the article from Vox who offers a look at the topic with loads of supporting materials.
"The cost of vaccine denial and how it is affecting caregivers and all of us with the jab" from the The Atlantic, who offers "Vaccine refusers risk compassion fatigue." We offer the drag-you-into-the-article-even-though-you-have-had-enough quote: “After the horrors that health-care workers have endured during the pandemic, many are struggling to sympathize with people who won’t protect themselves.” Cited in this article and linked by us is a study from the Kaiser Family Fund, "Unvaccinated Covid-19 hospitalizations cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars."
From Skilled Nursing News is "Nursing home resident Covid-19 cases picking up, particularly in Texas and Florida" on the need for skilled nursing home workers to be vaccinated and "Biden nursing home vaccine mandate expected to devastate CNA recruitment, retainment," which reports on the challenges that their employers will face in keeping workers employed.
We close with the big explainer podcast, which this week is Hell & High Water with John Heilemann. This week, Heilemann talks with renowned epidemiologist Dr Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a former member of Joe Biden's Covid-19 presidential transition advisory board. "Heilemann and Osterholm discuss the past, present, and future of the pandemic as the Delta variant lays waste to the sense, just weeks ago, that America had gained the upper hand against Covid; the ways politicians have misjudged the virus and mismanaged our response to it; the Biden administration's scramble to employ tougher tactics to incentivize vaccination and quash the anti-mask crusade; the dangers posed by alarmingly low rates of vaccination in many countries around the world; and the likelihood of a new variant emerging that is even worse than Delta.”
Curating from Culver City, our home town that now has print and TV reporters and all their trucks in front of our school board, this is Revitalize for August 26, 2021:
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Revitalize: The week in health-care news you need
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Children and Covid: Your questions, answered. As schools reopen, we respond to queries from parents about how the coronavirus will affect the return to classrooms.
A California School District mandates vaccines for eligible students.
This school year is going to be a mess—again. We have the tools to keep Delta in check, but schools have to actually use them.
What full FDA approval for Covid-19 vaccines really means. The Pfizer/BioNTech shot got the green light from regulators — which could encourage some holdouts to get vaccinated.
Vaccine refusers risk compassion fatigue. After the horrors that health-care workers have endured during the pandemic, many are struggling to sympathize with people who won’t protect themselves.
Unvaccinated COVID-19 hospitalizations cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars. Covid-19 vaccines have been free and broadly available to adults in all states and District of Columbia since mid-April 2021, meaning adults in the U.S. have generally been able to be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 since late May 2021 if receiving a two-dose vaccine.
Nursing home resident Covid-19 cases picking up, particularly in Texas and Florida. Just under 5 percent of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) confirmed new COVID-19 cases among their residents in the first week of August, analysis from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing Care (NIC) shows.
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Biden nursing home vaccine mandate expected to devastate CNA recruitment, retainment. The Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on nursing home staff has some operators preparing for a staff exit of up to 30 percent, the bulk of which is expected to be positions like certified nursing assistants or CNAs. For an industry already in the midst of an unprecedented staffing shortage, fanning the flames for CNAs to seek.
In which John Heilemann talks with renowned epidemiologist Dr Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a former member of Joe Biden's Covid-19 presidential transition advisory board. Heilemann and Osterholm discuss the past, present, and future of the pandemic as the Delta variant lays waste to the sense, just weeks ago, that America had gained the upper hand against Covid; the ways politicians have misjudged the virus and mismanaged our response to it; the Biden administration's scramble to employ tougher tactics to incentivize vaccination and quash the anti-mask crusade; the dangers posed by alarmingly low rates of vaccination in many countries around the world; and the likelihood of a new variant emerging that is even worse than Delta. Osterholm also reflects on his reputation in some quarters as Dr. Doom, and suggests one reason for continued optimism about the future no matter how grim the news on the Covid front may be: dogs. (Duh.)
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Jerry Seelig, CEO
Fax: 310-841-2842
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