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September 27, 2021 - Brief Issue 241
The Coronavirus Daily Brief is a daily news and analysis roundup edited by New America’s International Security Program and Arizona State University.
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Top Headlines
Morgues and Funeral Homes in Idaho Run Out of Space (Health & Science)
World Health Organization to Revive Inquiry into Covid Origins (Health & Science)
Pfizer CEO: We Can Distribute Boosters and Primary Shots at the Same Time (Health & Science)
Cuba Starts Exporting Vaccines, First Shipment to Vietnam (Around the World)
South Korea to Start Giving Boosters as Cases Surge (Around the World)
Vietnam Eases Coronavirus Restrictions (Around the World)
Norway Lifts Coronavirus Restrictions (Around the World)
Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Lifts New York City Schools Vaccine Mandate (U.S. Government & Politics)
Universities Seeking Vaccine Mandates Run into Republican Resistance (U.S. Government & Politics)
Treasury Department Faces Pandemic-Related Challenges in Determining Timing of Deficit Ceiling Crisis (U.S. Economy)
Cargo Piles Up at California Ports Amid Continued Supply Chain Disruptions (U.S. Economy)
Health & Science
There have been 42,932,211 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 688,041 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 390,114,328 vaccine doses, with 64.3% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 55.3% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 77% have received at least one dose, and 66.3% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). Worldwide, there have been 231,907,590 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 4,749,827 deaths.
Bonus Read: “Changing recommendations for boosters lead to confusion for the vaccinated and their doctors,” (WaPo).
Morgues and Funeral Homes in Idaho Run Out of Space
As Idaho faces its worst surge in severe Covid cases of the pandemic, morgues and funeral homes in the state are reaching capacity (Idaho Statesman, WaPo). The Idaho Statesman reports, “More than 2,600 Idahoans have died in connection with COVID-19 so far — including a record 25 on Sept. 11. The state also continues to break records for its number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, intensive care unit patients and patients on ventilators.” According to the Statesman, “As a result, morticians are forced to find new ways to store bodies in — and sometimes outside — their facilities. At Bell Tower, owner Lance Cox said they’ve converted a train car into an external refrigeration unit. The train car, which smells of diesel fuel and produces a large noise constantly, can hold up to 56 bodies.” The Statesman also reports that “Ada County Coroner Dotti Owens said multiple funeral homes are no longer taking bodies from her office. She’s relying on a mobile refrigeration unit, which can hold up to 70 bodies, to store COVID-19 victims.” The news is a grim sign of the pandemic’s continued death toll. As the Washington Post writes, “Images of refrigerated trailers parked outside hospitals and funeral homes were seared into the nation’s memory last spring when New York City, then America’s disease epicenter, deployed them by the dozens to help make room for the victims. Nearly 18 months later, in Idaho, the containers are again becoming a visible sign of the mounting death toll as the state battles one of the country’s worst outbreaks from the hyper-transmissible delta.”
World Health Organization to Revive Inquiry into Covid Origins
The World Health Organization is reviving its stalled investigation into the origins of Covid and bringing on a new team of scientists to conduct it (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal reports, “A new team of about 20 scientists—including specialists in laboratory safety and biosecurity and geneticists and animal-disease experts versed in how viruses spill over from nature—is being assembled with a mandate to hunt for new evidence in China and elsewhere.” The new Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens will also be permanent and assist in investigation of future diseases. The prior team was disbanded. A WHO spokesman said that the “priority needs to be data and access in the country where the first reports were identified.” China has not said whether it will allow the new team into the country to investigate.
Pfizer CEO: We Can Distribute Boosters and Primary Shots at the Same Time
On Sunday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that the company is able to distribute primary shots of the vaccine and booster shots at the same time (Politico). On ABC’s “This Week” he stated, “I think it is also not the right thing to try to resolve it with an 'or' when you can resolve it with an 'and,’” adding, “It's not, 'Shall we give boosters or give primary doses to other people?' I think the answer should be, 'Let's give both boosters and doses for other people’” The comment comes as the World Health Organization has expressed concern about the impact on global vaccination efforts of prioritizing booster shots in wealthy countries.
Around the World
Cuba Starts Exporting Vaccines, First Shipment to Vietnam
On Saturday Cuba announced that it had exported its three-shot coronavirus vaccine called Abdala for the first time with a shipment to Vietnam (Reuters). Cuban scientists have developed three different vaccines against Covid-19, all of which are waiting to be approved by the World Health Organization. The state-run pharmaceutical company BioCubaFarma announced the export to Vietnam; earlier this week it announced that it had produced enough doses to immunize more than 90% of the local population by mid-November. According to BioCubaFarma, they can produce 100 million doses of the Abdala, Soberana 2 and Soberana Plus vaccines and after domestic supply goals have been met, Cuba would start supplying vaccines to other countries, including Iran and Venezuela. Vietnam, Argentina, and Mexico have all said that they hope to produce the Cuban vaccines soon, as well.
South Korea to Start Giving Boosters as Cases Surge
On Sunday the prime minister of South Korea, Kim Boo-kyum said that the country would begin administering booster shots to medical workers and people in their 60s and older (NYT). South Korea has had a rise in infections following Chuseok, a three-day holiday celebrating the fall harvest. More than 85% of new cases in recent weeks were people who had not been fully vaccinated. Prime Minister Kim said the vaccination campaign would speed up and that details of a new plan would be announced on Monday. “We feel the sharp repercussions from the mass migration during the Chuseok holiday,” Kim said. “We had anticipated this to a degree, but we face a serious situation, given the scale and speed of the increase in new cases.” He also said that teenagers and pregnant women would be eligible for vaccinations now. So far, about 45% of the total population is fully vaccinated and 74% is partially vaccinated.
Vietnam Eases Coronavirus Restrictions
To restart its economy, Vietnam announced it will ease coronavirus restrictions starting Sept. 30 (Reuters). Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said on Saturday that “safe localities can ease Covid restrictions and revive business and social activities.” The current restrictions have severely hampered the economy, which relies heavily on manufacturing, because factories have been forced to close. Vietnam is now seeking to co-exist with the virus instead of aiming to be completely free of cases, but the country has had one of the best containment records until the spring of 2021.
Norway Lifts Coronavirus Restrictions
On Saturday, Norway lifted its social distancing and pandemic-related restrictions (NYT). Erna Solberg, the country’s prime minister, stated “It is 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime,” adding, “Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life.” The decision comes as the country has seen its daily new cases drop by 50 percent in the past two weeks. The Times writes, “Sixty-seven percent of the population are fully vaccinated and another 10 percent have had a first dose, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.” However, restrictions on entering the country will remain in place.
Bonus Read: “Covid’s Hidden Toll: One Million Children Who Lost Parents,” (WSJ).
U.S. Government & Politics
Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Lifts New York City Schools Vaccine Mandate
On Friday, a federal appeals court judge temporarily blocked New York City from enforcing its vaccine mandate for teachers in the city’s schools (WaPo, Politico). The mandate would have gone into effect today, but was blocked by a temporary injunction while the case is sent to a three judge panel for expedited review. Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Education stated, “We’re confident our vaccine mandate will continue to be upheld once all the facts have been presented, because that is the level of protection our students and staff deserve.” According to Filson, 82% of the department’s employees are vaccinated, as are 88% of teachers and 95% of principals. The challenge to the mandate was filed by four educators who contended that the punishments the mandate carried for those who refused were “draconian.”
Universities Seeking Vaccine Mandates Run into Republican Resistance
Politico reports that universities in Republican controlled states are seeking to enact vaccine mandates for their campuses, but are running into opposition from Republican lawmakers (Politico). Anita Barkin, co-chair of the American College Health Association’s Covid-19 task force, told Politico, “They are handcuffing these institutions in their ability to mitigate Covid ... It's just bad health policy.” Politico notes that “In Tennessee, which is leading the nation in new Covid-19 cases per capita, the University of Memphis requested Republican Gov. Bill Lee use a workaround to the standing vaccine mandate ban: add the vaccine to the list of other required vaccines for state university students.” However, Governor Lee has not responded to the request. Meanwhile Arizona’s Republican Governor Doug Ducey is sticking to his anti-mandate stance despite some colleges requesting the ability to mandate vaccinations. The University of Arizona, for example, has declared that it would institute a mandate if it were allowed.
U.S. Economy
Treasury Department Faces Pandemic-Related Challenges in Determining Timing of Deficit Ceiling Crisis
With Congress engaged in brinkmanship over the debt ceiling, the Washington Post reports that the Treasury Department is facing difficulties, as a result of the pandemic, in determining when the government will default on its debt (WaPo). The Post reports, “Traditionally, Treasury staff rely on historical trends of government spending and economic activity to estimate the cash balance of the federal government. But that task is significantly more complicated this year. The United States and world economies remain in an unusual state of flux because of the pandemic, leading to unpredictable fluctuations in monthly tax receipts. And the U.S. is currently administering dozens of new covid-related economic programs that have no precedent, making the amount of cash they will spend hard to model.” The added uncertainty complicates the effort to determine the exact date when the government will default on its debt if Congress does not pass a bill to fund the government. A senior treasury official told the Post, “It’s always very hard to predict the cash flow of the government, but it’s important to understand that it is particularly hard to do projections now.” Some Congressional figures, however, including Senator Patrick J. Toomey (R-PA) have accused the department of bluffing.
Cargo Piles Up at California Ports Amid Continued Supply Chain Disruptions
Pandemic-related supply chain disruptions continue to plague global trade, and now cargo is piling up at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in part due to difficulties in clearing the backlog resulting from how the ports schedule work (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal reports, “Nike Inc. doesn’t have enough sneakers to sell for the holidays. Costco Wholesale Corp. is reimposing limits on paper towel purchases. Prices for artificial Christmas trees have jumped 25% this season. Despite mounting shipping delays and cargo backlogs, the busiest U.S. port complex shuts its gates for hours on most days and remains closed on Sundays. Meanwhile, major ports in Asia and Europe have operated round-the-clock for years.” Uffe Ostergaard, president of the North America region for German boxship operator Hapag-Lloyd AG commented, “With the current work schedule you have two big ports operating at 60%-70% of their capacity.” The issue comes as supply disruptions continue along the entire supply chain with various parts pointing the finger of blame at each other, and all of them struggling to find enough workers. Moreover, moving to 24/7 operations could pose its own difficulties. Even so, the current disruptions are motivating at least some changes. The Journal notes, “Long Beach officials said last week they would try operating 24 hours a day from Monday to Thursday. Gene Seroka, executive director of the larger Port of Los Angeles, said his port will step more cautiously, keeping existing hours while waiting for truckers and warehouse operators to extend their hours.”
Analysis & Arguments
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