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June 9, 2021 - Brief Issue 210

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

Vaccines Should Be Available for Younger Kids This Fall, U.S. Drugmakers Say (Health & Science)

Fauci Warns U.S. About Fast-Spreading Delta Variant (Health & Science)

U.S. Struggles to Use Millions of J&J Doses Expiring This Month (Health & Science)

According to CDC Study, Coronavirus Vaccines Prevent Severe, Long-Lasting Illness in Rare Breakthrough Infections (Health & Science)

India’s New Daily Coronavirus Cases Below 100,000 for First Time in Two Months (Around the World)

Canada Considering Loosening Land Border Restrictions (Around the World)

Sinovac: China Approved Vaccine for Children (Around the World)

Biden Faces Vaccine Diplomacy Pressure Ahead of G-7 Conference (U.S. Government & Politics)

Job Openings Reached Record High in April (U.S. Economy)

Houston Hospital Suspends 178 Workers Over Vaccine Refusals (U.S. Society)

Health & Science

There have been 33,393,238 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 598,326 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 372,100,285 vaccine doses, with 51.7% of Americans having received their first vaccine dose and 42.3% fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). Worldwide, there have been 174,029,957 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 3,748,630 deaths.

Vaccines Should Be Available for Younger Kids This Fall, U.S. Drugmakers Say

According to coronavirus vaccine producers Moderna and Pfizer, shots may be available to children in the U.S. as soon as the fall (NYT). Pfizer, whose vaccine is already authorized for emergency use in teens, has launched a clinical trial including up to 4,500 children, with plans to apply for emergency use authorization of its shot for 5- to 12-year-olds by September and for younger kids soon after. In its study, Pfizer will test smaller doses, giving two doses of 10 micrograms – a third of the adult dose – to kids 5 to 11 years old, and two 3-microgram doses to children aged 6 months to 5 years (CNN). Moderna, which recently applied for emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its shot in 12- to 17-year olds, expects results from a trial in younger kids by late summer and authorization for kids by early fall. Meanwhile, Chinese vaccine producer Sinovac said regulators had approved its shot for use in children as young as 3 (NYT). 

Fauci Warns U.S. About Fast-Spreading Delta Variant

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said the U.S. needs to boost its vaccine coverage to keep the Delta coronavirus variant, also known as B.1.617.2, from becoming the dominant strain, as it has already done in the U.K. (CNN). According to Fauci, the Delta variant is highly contagious and may be associated with increased risk of hospitalization. Though research has indicated that the two-dose Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine regimens can neutralize Delta, just one dose shows decreased efficacy against the variant. Fauci urged Americans with one vaccine dose to follow up with the second and encouraged unvaccinated people to get the shot. Delta now accounts for 6% of sequenced Covid-19 cases in the U.S., similar to the point at which it overtook other variants in the U.K. 

Bonus Read: “Biden Will Probably Fall Short of July 4 Vaccination Goal Because of States That Didn’t Vote For Him,” (WaPo). 

U.S. Struggles to Use Millions of J&J Doses Expiring This Month

Across the U.S., health departments and hospitals are struggling to redistribute millions of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine doses that are set to expire by the end of June (WSJ, NYT). The J&J shot can be refrigerated for up to three months, though the company is studying whether that time can be extended. The Pfizer and Moderna shots, by contrast, have lifespans of approximately six months. Stockpiles in the U.S. mainly include J&J vaccines because use of the shot was temporarily paused in April due to concerns over rare blood clots. Many appointments weren’t rescheduled after the pause was lifted, or they were filled with vaccines from different manufacturers; plus, the pause damaged public trust in the J&J shot, reducing demand. Efforts to redistribute expiring doses have been hampered by slowing vaccination rates across the U.S. Some states are pushing for their expiring doses to be shipped to developing nations, though whether other countries want or can use these expiring shots remains uncertain. 

White House Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said Tuesday that the government is pushing “aggressively” for as few doses as possible to go to waste (CNN). “Look, it's not realistic to expect that not a single dose will go to waste,” Slavitt said. “I will tell you that a very, very small fraction of the doses that have been sent to states, that are in the hundreds of millions, will end up not being used. Remember those doses were ordered by states, delivered by states and should end up in people's arms.” He added that expiring doses would “not have any significant bearing on our ability to commit to distribute vaccines globally.” 

According to CDC Study, Coronavirus Vaccines Prevent Severe, Long-Lasting Illness in Rare Breakthrough Infections

Preliminary results from a study led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that when rare breakthrough Covid-19 infections occur in fully vaccinated individuals, symptoms are significantly milder than they would be without the vaccine (CNN). The long-term, real-world study included over 3,900 frontline essential workers, who were tested weekly for Covid-19 starting in December 2020. Fully vaccinated people were found to be 90% protected against contracting the virus, and even those partially vaccinated were 81% less likely to get Covid-19 than unvaccinated individuals. Among vaccinated people who did experience breakthrough infections, viral load was 40% lower than in unvaccinated people, and they were 58% less likely to have a fever. Overall, the researchers found that vaccinated people had shorter, milder bouts of Covid-19 and were less likely to spread the virus.

Researchers Link Cellular Senescence, Characteristic of Old Age, to Worse Outcomes Following Infection With a SARS-CoV-2-Related Virus

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic’s large impact on elderly and chronically ill populations, researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota investigated the effect of cellular senescence – the halting of normal cell division, typically driven by disease or old age – on the body’s response to viral infection. According to the team’s study, published in Science, senescent cells are prone to extreme inflammation, leading to more severe symptoms and a higher risk of death. Researchers infected elderly mice with a coronavirus related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19; almost all the mice experienced a hyper-inflammatory response and died. Yet the use of senolytic drugs, which target senescent cells, significantly reduced inflammation, senescence, and death among these old mice. The researchers concluded that senolytic drugs could help improve outcomes following viral infection, including infection with SARS-CoV-2, in older or sick individuals. 

CDC Changes Severity-Ranking Criteria, Loosening Travel Recommendations for 100-Plus Places

Due to changes in how the CDC classifies the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic in other countries and territories, travel recommendations have been eased for over 100 destinations (NYT). The CDC raised the case count threshold for its “very high” coronavirus risk classification, bumping countries such as Japan, France, Germany, Greece, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Spain, and Italy from Level 4 to Level 3, which indicates a “high” level of Covid-19. This change is meant to “better differentiate countries with severe outbreak situations from countries with sustained, but controlled, Covid-19 spread,” the CDC said. The agency discourages travel to the 61 remaining Level 4 countries, which include India, Nepal, and Brazil; unvaccinated Americans are encouraged to avoid travel in general, but especially to countries in Levels 2 and above.

Bonus Read: “A Pandemic Upside: The Flu Virus Became Less Diverse, Simplifying the Task of Making Flu Shots,” (STAT).

Around the World

India’s New Daily Coronavirus Cases Below 100,000 for First Time in Two Months

On Tuesday India recorded fewer than 100,000 new daily coronavirus cases for the first time in two months, signaling that the worst of the country’s outbreak could finally be waning (WaPo). The Health Ministry reported 86,498 new infections over the past 24 hours and 2,123 deaths. Last month, when the outbreak was at what many health experts believe to be the peak, infections were over 400,000 per day with over 4,000 deaths. The outbreak was due to a more contagious variant that tore through the population and overwhelmed hospitals with critically ill patients. India has fully vaccinated about 4% of its population of 1.3 billion people.

Canada Considering Loosening Land Border Restrictions

Mayors of Canadian border cities said  that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government told them it could start easing restrictions currently in place at the U.S.-Canadian border border as early as June 22, reports Politico. The land border between the two countries has been closed to nonessential travel since March 2020 in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But vaccination rates in both the U.S. and Canada have increased and the governments are under increasing pressure to reopen the border to aid the tourism industry and reunite families that have been separated. Trudeau has said that at least 75% of Canada’s population should have their first Covid-19 vaccine before the government eases public health restrictions; as of the end of May more than 68% of Canadian adults had received at least one dose. 

Sinovac: China Approved Vaccine for Children 

The chairman of the Chinese drugmaker Sinovac said that Chinese regulators have approved the company’s Covid-19 vaccine for children as young as 3. It is the first country in the world to approve a shot for such young children. In an interview with the state broadcaster China Central Television, Sinovac’s chairman, Yin Weidong, said the company’s clinical trials involving “hundreds” of people had found that its vaccine was just as safe and effective in people ages 3 to 17 as it was in adults (NYT). Regulators have not officially announced the approval.

U.S. Government & Politics

Biden Faces Vaccine Diplomacy Pressure Ahead of G-7 Conference

The Washington Post reported that as President Joe Biden prepares to travel to the U.K. this weekend for the annual G-7 Leaders’ Summit, he faces critics both at home and abroad over U.S. vaccine strategy. Amid the balancing act of sufficiently vaccinating his own country while supporting global immunization efforts abroad, Biden is contending with fellow Democrats warning that the U.S. must do more to keep up with Chinese and Russian vaccine diplomacy. 

While Biden received praise for his announcement this month that the U.S. would share 80 million doses with the rest of the world, four Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would commit to vaccinating 60% of the world’s population covered by the Covax program. “So long as Covid-19 continues to thrive anywhere, it’s a threat to everyone everywhere,” said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, who introduced the bill in the House with Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington. The bill’s Senate sponsors are Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. 

Simultaneously, Biden is facing criticism from the E.U. over his proposal to temporarily suspend patent protections for vaccines in order to increase manufacturing capacity in developing countries. The E.U., which has argued that the plan would not result in an increased vaccine supply for months or even years, offered a counterproposal last week that would largely preserve the intellectual property rights of the drug companies. Complicating matters is that Biden will also be eager to use the summit, which will be his first overseas trip as president, to recalibrate relations with Europe and Japan in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s often combative approach to allies. 

Amid the uncertainty, pressure will be on the world’s seven largest advanced economies to deliver results at the summit. “It’s time to make a big decision,” Former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the Washington Post. “It would be a catastrophic, unforgivable moral failure if we did not have a plan to vaccinate the world this weekend” (WaPo).

White House Working Groups To Explore Border Reopening

The White House Covid Response Team and the National Security Council will lead “expert” working groups to help determine when and how to lift travel bans, a White House official told Reuters on Tuesday. The groups will be composed of representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the departments of State, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Transportation. They will also feature counterparts from Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.

"While we are not reopening travel today, we hope that these expert working groups will help us use our collective expertise to chart a path forward, with a goal of reopening international travel with our key partners when it is determined that it is safe to do so," the White House official said, adding "any decisions will be fully guided by the objective analysis and recommendations by public health and medical experts.”

The CDC announced on Tuesday that it was easing travel advisory for 110 countries and territories while stopping short of lifting any entry restrictions. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told Reuters that the restrictions are subject to an “interagency conversation, and we are looking at the data in real time as to how we should move forward with that.”

The airline industry has been lobbying for relaxed travel restrictions in a bid to restart more regularly scheduled international flights. Airlines for America, which represents American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, said in response to Tuesday’s news: "These working groups should act quickly to endorse a policy backed by science that will allow travelers who are fully vaccinated to travel to the U.S. Quickly is the key – we believe the science is there (Reuters).”

U.S., Allies Still On Track To Produce 1 Billion Doses For Southeast Asia

The U.S. and its regional allies still plan to provide one billion vaccine doses to Southeast Asian countries, the top White House Asia advisor saidTuesday. “Our discussions with both our partners in the private sector, and also in government, suggest that we are — knock on wood — still on track for 2022,” Kurt Campbell, the chief Asia official on the National Security Council, said at a Center for a New American Security event.

With help from Quad partners Japan, Australia and India, the U.S. is supposed to assist an Indian drug manufacturer produce doses of the Johnson & Johnson and Novavax vaccines for use in Southeast Asia and possibly elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific. The plan has been widely perceived as a challenge to Chinese vaccine diplomacy. Doubts have lingered, however, of the program’s future owing to India’s suspension of vaccine exports amid its ongoing outbreak (WaPo).

U.S. Economy

Job Openings Reached Record High in April

Total job openings hit a 21st Century record high of 9.3 million on the last business day of April, up by 998,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday. The greatest rise was in the food service sector, which added 349,000 jobs, followed by “other services” at 115,000 and durable goods manufacturing at 78,000. 

In contrast, hiring increased just 100,000 to 6.1 million that same month. The largest increase was in accommodation and food services at 232,000 new jobs, followed by the federal government at 10,000.

The total number of voluntary separations in April also reached a record high, with four million workers quitting their jobs. “The quits rate can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs,” stated the report. 

The sector that experienced the most quits was retail trade, which saw 116,000 workers leave their jobs, followed by transportation, warehousing, and utilities at 60,000. Meanwhile, the layoff and discharge rate saw a record low, with 1.4 million workers fired. The decrease was led by finance and insurance, which saw 24,000 fewer workers let go (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

U.S. Society

Houston Hospital Suspends 178 Workers Over Vaccine Refusals

The Houston Methodist hospital system suspended 178 workers without pay for two weeks after a deadline passed for all employees to receive vaccinations. As we noted yesterday, dozens of staff and allies at the Houston Methodist protested Monday evening ahead of the midnight deadline. Signs at the protest included slogans such as “Vaxx is Venom” and “Don’t Lose Sight of Our Rights.” A pending lawsuit filed on behalf of 117 Houston Methodist employees accused the hospital of “forcing its employees to be human ‘guinea pigs’ as a condition for continued employment.”

Houston Methodist CEO Marc Boom addressed the situation in an internal memo seen by the Washington Post. “Of these employees, 27 have received one dose of vaccine, so I am hopeful they will get their second doses soon,” wrote Boom. 

“I know that today may be difficult for some who are sad about losing a colleague who’s decided to not get vaccinated,” he added. “We only wish them well and thank them for their past service to our community, and we must respect the decision they made.”

Another 285 employees received a medical or religious exemption for the vaccine, while 332 others were allowed to defer shots due to pregnancies or other accepted reasons, according to the memo.

“As the first hospital system to mandate covid-19 vaccines we were prepared for this,” Boom added. “The criticism is sometimes the price we pay for leading medicine” (WaPo).

Counterfeit Vaccination Cards Proliferate Online

As fake vaccination cards continue to be sold online, authorities and vendors ponder steps to combat the fraudulent use of counterfeit certificates, NPR reported on Tuesday. "We do not allow the products in question in our store. We have proactive measures in place to prevent prohibited products from being listed and we continuously monitor our store," an Amazon spokesperson said in an email to NPR upon being queried about a pack of blank immunization cards being sold on the site for $12.99 this week. “In this case, we have removed the items and taken action on the bad actors involved in bypassing our controls,” the statement added. According to the FBI, the unauthorized use of an official government agency’s seal can bring punishments of fines or up to five years in prison.

"By misrepresenting yourself as vaccinated when entering schools, mass transit, workplaces, gyms, or places of worship, you put yourself and others around you at risk of contracting Covid-19,” the FBI warned earlier this year in a statement.

States have been attempting to crack down as well on unauthorized sales of the cards. The National Association of Attorneys General sent a letter in April to the CEOs of Twitter, Shopify and eBay calling for action against fraudsters using the sites to sell the blank records. 

"The false and deceptive marketing and sales of fake COVID vaccine cards threatens the health of our communities, slows progress in getting our residents protected from the virus, and are a violation of the laws of many states,” stated the letter, which was signed by 47 members of the organization.

Separately, 42 attorneys general sent a similar letter in April to the online mobile marketplace OfferUp after the cards were found being sold on the platform. 

Individual sellers have also been caught, with California bar owner Todd Anderson arrested in May for allegedly selling the fakes in what was likely the first incident of a merchant landing in legal trouble. He is being charged with forging government documents and falsifying medical records, along with identity theft and a gun violation.

A Long Island CVS employee was fired last month after getting caught with dozens of the cards with intent to distribute them to family and friends, although he is facing no criminal prosecution. Last week, the New York Senate passed Bill S4516C specifically outlawing coronavirus vaccination record forgery.

New York State Senator and bill sponsor Anna Kaplan said in a statement: "We're already seeing anti-vaxxers spread tips online for how to create fake cards in order to get around vaccination mandates, and we need to put a stop to this effort to defraud the public so that our recovery from the pandemic can keep moving forward” (NPR).

Analysis & Arguments

Kevin Roose argues that the pandemic ended the ‘Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy’ as tech companies finally seek profits after years of intentional losses (NYT).

 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.

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