No images? Click here Click here to subscribe to the daily brief. March 30, 2021 - Brief Issue 176 The Coronavirus Daily Brief is a daily news and analysis roundup edited by New America’s International Security Program and Arizona State University. Listen and subscribe to our weekly audio brief here. Please consider making a donation to support our ongoing analysis of the most important news and headlines surrounding Covid-19. Top Headlines WHO Report Offers Little New Information On Origins of Covid-19 Pandemic (Health & Science) Biden Announces Expansion of Retail Pharmacy Vaccination Program (Health & Science) As Vaccine Eligibility Expands, U.S. On Track to Beat Biden’s Deadline (Health & Science) U.S. Report: Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines Effective in Real-World Conditions (Health & Science) WHO, Leaders of 23 Nations Back Idea for Pandemic Treaty (Around the World) Canada Suspends Use of AstraZeneca for Under 55 (Around the World) Cuba Looks to Become Vaccine Leader (Around the World) CDC Extends Eviction Ban to June 30 (U.S. Government & Politics) Bankruptcies Fall Despite Pandemic (U.S. Economy) Health & Science There have been 30,331,794 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 550,036 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has conducted 388,603,313 tests and distributed 180,646,565 vaccine doses, with 145,812,835 doses administered (U.S. CDC). Worldwide, there have been 127,654,979 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 2,792,044 deaths. At least 72,405,321 people have recovered from the virus. WHO Report Offers Little New Information On Origins of Covid-19 Pandemic A 124-page report from a joint investigation by the World Health Organization and China echoed the widely accepted theory that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, jumped from bats to humans via another animal (AP, NYT, Reuters). The report, leaked to the press Monday but officially scheduled for release Tuesday, also said it’s highly unlikely that the virus came from a lab leak, a theory perpetuated by Donald Trump and his associates. It remains unclear how large a role the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan – a spot linked to many early Covid-19 cases – played in the pandemic. The authors of the report called for more research into specific animal to human transmission pathways, and interviews of people potentially involved in early transmission. Experts worry that the report doesn’t paint a complete picture, because China has been reticent when it comes to revealing information about the origins of the pandemic. Chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said he wants to see the raw data gathered for the report by W.H.O. researchers. “I’d also would like to inquire as to the extent in which the people who were on that group had access directly to the data that they would need to make a determination,” he said. “I want to read the report first and then get a feel for what they really had access to -- or did not have access to.” Biden Announces Expansion of Retail Pharmacy Vaccination Program On Monday, President Biden said he would be more than doubling the amount of pharmacies included in the federal vaccine distribution program, raising that number from 17,000 to nearly 40,000 (WSJ). He also announced a plan to open more Federal Emergency Management Agency-run mass vaccination sites. The Biden administration is re-evaluating its approach to vaccine distribution, after FEMA data showed that retail pharmacies have been administering far more coronavirus vaccines than costly mass vaccination hubs (Politico). Over the past two weeks, mass vaccination sites doled out over 67,000 shots a day, about 2.5% of the total doses administered in that time period; pharmacies, on the other hand, reported administering over 5 million doses over a four-day stretch in mid-March. “It’s clear that Americans feel comfortable relying on their local pharmacies for the vaccine,” a Biden health official said. “The retail pharmacy program will keep growing and I think you will begin to see more people going down the block to CVS to get the shot than driving maybe an hour to the federal sites to get it.” However, many officials argue that the mass vaccination sites are still a critical part of the Biden administration’s pandemic response. Not only do these sites improve vaccine access for underserved populations, but because the U.S. is hemorrhaging money from the pandemic, another senior official said, mass vaccination sites aren’t a waste of funds. As Vaccine Eligibility Expands, U.S. On Track to Beat Biden’s Deadline Six new states – Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, and Ohio – expanded their coronavirus vaccine eligibility to all adults on Monday, with more states to follow in coming days (NYT). New York announced that all adults will be eligible by April 6 (NYT). These steps reflect the Biden’s administration push to have all American adults eligible for the shot by May 1; Biden declared Monday that the country is on track to exceed this goal (Kiro7). “I’m pleased to announce that at least 90% of all adults in this country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April the 19th, just three weeks from now, because we have the vaccines,” Biden said. So far, over 15% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. News). U.S. Report: Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines Effective in Real-World Conditions According to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which use mRNA technology, are effective at preventing Covid-19 under real-world conditions (NYT). Researchers analyzed weekly Covid-19 test results from 3,950 healthcare, frontline, or otherwise essential workers, none of whom had been previously infected with the virus, for thirteen weeks. During this time, 62.8% of the participants received both doses of their vaccine, and 12.1% received one dose. The effectiveness of full immunization, measured at least two weeks after the second shot, was found to be 90%. This figure fell at 80% for partial immunization. The CDC’s report echoes results from clinical trials. U.S. CDC Director Says She Fears “Impending Doom” With the seven-day average for new coronavirus cases up more than 16% from two weeks ago, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday that she has a sense of “impending doom” (NYT, WSJ, Politico). “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope, so right now I’m scared,” Walensky said, citing increasing travel as one reason for climbing case numbers. President Biden asked governors to keep mask mandates in place and to put a pause on reopening their economies. “People are letting up on precautions, which is a very bad thing,” he said. “We are giving up hard-fought, hard-won gains.” U.S. Studies Suggest Senior Care Facilities’ Problems Run Deeper Than the Pandemic The Covid-19 pandemic has directed public awareness toward nursing homes, which house less than 1% of the U.S. population but account for about a third of Covid-19 deaths (WGBH). Two new studies elucidate some of the issues present in nursing homes. A paper published in Health Affairs, co-authored by David Grabowski of Harvard Medical School, found that nursing homes have extremely high staff turnover rates, some as high as 300%, suggesting a triennial staff turnover. Grabowski said “this is a horrible way to provide good quality nursing home care.” Another study headed by Atul Gupta of the University of Pennsylvania looked at the increasingly common phenomenon of private equity firms taking over nursing homes. Gupta’s team found that when this happens, deaths in nursing homes go up on average by 10%, as less money is spent on patient needs – though some experts say private equity is not the root of the problem. The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living said these studies reflect widespread underfunding of nursing homes in the U.S. Bonus Read: “How Long Will the Coronavirus Vaccines Protect You? Experts Weigh In,” (WaPo). Around the World WHO, Leaders of 23 Nations Back Idea for Pandemic Treaty On Tuesday leaders of 23 countries and the World Health Organization backed an idea to create an international treaty that would help deal with future health emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic (Reuters). The treaty would ensure universal and equitable access to vaccines, medicines and diagnostics for pandemics, got backing from Fiji, Portugal, Romania, Britain, Rwanda, Kenya, France, Germany, Greece, Korea, Chile, Costa Rica, Albania, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Senegal, Spain, Norway, Serbia, Indonesia, Ukraine and the WHO. “There will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies. No single government or multilateral agency can address this threat alone,” the leaders wrote in a joint opinion article in major newspapers. “We believe that nations should work together towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response,” they said (Guardian). The article will appear today in the Telegraph in the UK, Le Monde in France, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany, among other leading news outlets around the world. Canada Suspends Use of AstraZeneca for Under 55 On Monday Canada suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for people under the age of 55 amid concerns it could be linked to rare blood clots. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended the pause. “There is substantial uncertainty about the benefit of providing AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to adults under 55 given the potential risks,” said Dr. Shelley Deeks, vice chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (AP). Deeks said the updated recommendations come amid new data from Europe that suggests the risk of blood clots is now potentially as high as one in 100,000, much higher than the one in one million risk believed before. She said most of the patients in Europe who developed a rare blood clot after vaccination with AstraZeneca were women under the age of 55, and the fatality rate among those who develop clots is as high as 40%. The AstraZeneca shot has been authorized in more than 70 countries; several European countries had suspended its use over similar concerns about blood clots but have resumed administering it after the EU’s drug regulator said it was safe. Brazil’s Bolsonaro Shuffles Cabinet Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made six Cabinet changes on Monday, the biggest shuffle since he took office, as pressure builds over his handling of the pandemic that has killed over 300,000 people in the country. Three ministers left the government, including Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, who failed to guarantee additional Covid-19 vaccine supplies from Beijing and Washington (Reuters). He had been facing criticism for weeks over his attacks on China and the left. Bolsonaro put his chief of staff in charge of the Defense Ministry and placed a federal police officer that was in favor with his family at the head of the Justice Ministry. “Bolsonaro is under enormous pressure and reacted to regain the political narrative,” said Creomar de Souza, founder of Dharma Political Risk and Strategy in Brasilia. “The change at the Ministry of Defense was completely unexpected, and created a lot of confusion.” There is growing discontent in Brazil over Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic; the country has the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the world, behind only the United States. Cuba Looks to Become Vaccine Leader Cuba could become the world’s smallest country to develop not just one, but multiple coronavirus vaccines. Currently, five vaccine candidates are in development, two of which are in late-stage trials with the goal of a broader rollout by May. Officials say the vaccines are cheap and will be easy to store -- able to stay at room temperature for weeks and be stored long-term in temperatures up to 46 degrees, making them ideal for low-income, tropical countries. Iran and Venezuela have entered into vaccine deals with Havana. “We have great confidence in Cuban medical science and biotechnology,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told The Washington Post this week. “It will not only be fundamental for Venezuela, but for the Americas. It will be the true solution for our people.” If the late-stage trials are positive, Cuban authorities said this week they would move to an “intervention study” that would include inoculating almost all the residents of Havana, about 1.7 million people, by May. They would then aim to reach about 60% of the national population by August and the remaining population by the end of 2021. If Cuba manages to meet those targets, it would be one of the first nations in the world to reach herd immunity. Tokyo Olympic Hosts in Standoff with Ticket Sellers Over Refunds Olympic Organizers are at odds with ticket resellers over who should be responsible for the costs of the 20% service charge that consumers paid on tickets to the Olympic games after foreign spectators were banned at the event due to the coronavirus (WSJ). Millions of dollars in administrative costs are at the center of the argument. Neither the hosts nor the ticket-selling middlemen are accepting responsibility, meaning that the would-be spectators could be disappointed twice: once for missing out on the games, and again for missing out on a full refund. Additional fights over hotel payments are brewing, too, and both will affect some 68,000 U.S. citizens who had hoped to attend the games. U.S. Government & Politics CDC Extends Eviction Ban to June 30 On Monday, the CDC announced that it is extending the federal ban on evictions until June 30 (Politico). In addition, the Bureau of Consumer and Financial Protection and the Federal Trade Commission announced that they would investigate eviction practices for compliance with the law while noting racial disparities in evictions.CDC Director Rochelle Walensky stated, “Keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings — like homeless shelters — by preventing evictions is a key step in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19.” Trump Retaliates to Pandemic Response Criticism From Former Officials After CNN aired interviews Sunday night in which Trump officials criticized the former president’s pandemic response, Trump pushed back, calling Dr. Debrorah Birx – his coronavirus response coordinator, who blamed Trump for hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths – and Dr. Anthony Fauci “two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned” (WaPo). He said Birx and Fauci moved too slowly in responding to the Covid-19 crisis, and “if it were up to them we’d currently be locked in our basements as our country suffered through a financial depression.” Birx was among several Trump health officials – former C.D.C. director Dr. Robert Redfield also spoke up – who accused the Trump administration of missteps such as valuing optics over public health, making misleading claims, and pressuring administrators to revise scientific reports (NYT). U.S. Economy Bankruptcies Fall Despite Pandemic Despite rising unemployment and the economic impact of the Covid pandemic, the number of people filing for bankruptcy has fallen, the Wall Street Journal reports (WSJ). The Journal writes, “Bankruptcy filings by consumers under chapter 7 were down 22% last year compared with 2019, while individual filings under chapter 13 fell 46%, according to Epiq data. After holding above 50,000 filings a month in 2019 and in the first quarter of 2020, bankruptcy filings have remained below 40,000 a month since last March when the pandemic hit.” However, commercial bankruptcies are on the rise, increasing 29% last year. The government’s efforts have helped keep personal bankruptcies down. The Journal writes, “Economists and bankruptcy lawyers say federal suspensions of evictions, home foreclosures and student-loan obligations have helped limit bankruptcies—though they worry bankruptcy rates could go up after aid ends. Household spending also dropped as people stayed home, canceled travel and socially distanced to avoid the coronavirus. Several rounds of government aid padded incomes with direct payments to households and enhanced unemployment benefits. The personal saving rate rose.” Analysis & Arguments Robin Marantz Henig writes on life after vaccination (Atlantic). Jeremy Samuel Faust and Angela Rasmussen argue that vaccinating children is essential to ending the pandemic (NYT). Jerome Groopman explores the politics of preventing epidemics (New Yorker). The Washington Post reports on how people have turned to pet chickens to deal with pandemic anxiety, and the problems they are having with predators (WaPo). Readers can send in tips, critiques, questions, and suggestions to coronavirusbrief@newamerica.org. The Brief is edited by David Sterman and Emily Schneider with Senior Editor Peter Bergen. Read previous briefs here and stream and subscribe to our weekly podcast here. About New America New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals. Read the rest of our story, or see what we've been doing recently in our latest Annual Report. Help us to continue advancing policy solutions and journalism by making a donation to New America. |