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July 7, 2021 - Brief Issue 224
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
Delta Variant Spreading in U.S., Threatening Unvaccinated Populations (Health & Science)
Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Protects Against Delta, Says Company, Booster Not Necessary at This Point (Health & Science)
Pfizer Less Effective Against Delta in Early Data from Israel (Health & Science)
Sydney Locked Down for Another Week (Around the World)
Britain Could Reach 100,000 Infections a Day, Says Health Secretary (Around the World)
Fiji Battling Biggest Surge Yet (Around the World)
Israel Will Swap Vaccine Doses with South Korea (Around the World)
Biden Describes Strategies to Increase Vaccination After U.S. Misses July 4th Vaccination Goal (U.S. Government & Politics)
For Many Workers, Pandemic Brought Little Wage Change and for Some a Pay Increase (U.S. Economy)
Supermarkets Stockpiling Food, Projecting Continued Rising Costs (U.S. Economy)
How ICU Nurses in Appalachia are Dealing with Their Neighbors’ Covid Denial (U.S. Society)
Health & Science
There have been 33,748,698 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 605,932 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 331,214,347 vaccine doses, with 55% of Americans having received their first vaccine dose and 47.5% fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). Worldwide, there have been 184,710,938 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 3,995,565 deaths.
Delta Variant Spreading in U.S., Threatening Unvaccinated Populations
The more contagious strain of the coronavirus known as the Delta variant is beginning to take hold in places in the U.S. where vaccination rates are low. Infections from the Delta strain contributed to a 10% increase in daily Covid-19 cases to around 12,600 in late June, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (WSJ). While that is still a 95% drop from peak levels seen in January, experts worry that the Delta variant will create pockets of infection in areas where vaccine uptake has been slow. In Arkansas, for example, 34.5% of the population is fully vaccinated, which is 13 percentage points below the national average, according to the CDC. The weekly rate of 110 new cases per 100,000 Arkansas residents reported in CDC data is the highest in the country.
The vaccines available in the U.S. do protect against the Delta variant according to studies done so far, and cases of breakthrough infections, where fully vaccinated people are reinfected, rarely result in severe illness. But the Delta variant does pose an elevated threat to unvaccinated individuals; scientists know it is some 50% more transmissible and they believe it is associated with more severe disease. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on Thursday that preliminary data collected from a set of U.S. states over the past six months showed that 99.5% of people who died of Covid-19 were unvaccinated. “It is clear that communities where people remain unvaccinated are communities that remain vulnerable,” she said.
Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Protects Against Delta, Says Company, Booster Not Necessary at This Point
The Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine is effective against the more contagious Delta variant the company reported last Thursday. According to the J&J news release, the shot had a small drop in potency against the variant compared to its effectiveness against the original strain, but it was still more effective against the Delta variant than the Beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa. That pattern is similar to those seen with mRNA vaccines. The results announced by J&J were taken from two studies by researchers, both of which have been submitted for online publication in scientific journals. While the studies are both small, the researchers wanted to share the results because of the intense interest from the public. “The coverage of the variants is going to be better than what people anticipated,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston (NYT). “There was a lot of misinformation that was spreading, so we decided that we needed to get this into the public domain right away.” Eleven million Americans have received the J&J shot so far.
The studies also addressed questions about whether or not a booster shot would be needed for additional protection (WaPo). Booster shots could be necessary if any of the three currently-authorized vaccines turn out to be not as effective against the circulating variant, or if protection in fully vaccinated individuals wanes after a certain amount of time. The New York Times writes, “The researchers tracked immune responses in volunteers 29 and 239 days after the first inoculation. Ten of the study participants received only one dose of the J.&J. vaccine, while 10 others got a second dose of the J.&J. shot or an mRNA vaccine. While blood antibody levels produced after immunization with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna drop after an initial surge, antibodies — and immune cells — stimulated by the J.&J. vaccine persisted at high levels, the researchers found. (Other studies, however, have shown that immune responses produced by mRNA vaccines are also likely to last for years.)” The results suggest that people who received the J&J vaccine do not need a booster shot, at least for now.
Pfizer Less Effective Against Delta in Early Data from Israel
The BioNTech/ Pfizer vaccine appears less effective at preventing Covid-19 infection from the Delta variant but is still effective at preventing hospitalization, according to early data from Israel (Politico). According to the Israeli health ministry, the vaccine demonstrated 64% efficacy in preventing cases of infection and 94% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations between June 6 and July 2 (Ynet news). Previously, data collected between May 2 and June 5 showed the vaccine was 94% effective at preventing infections and 98% effective at preventing hospitalizations. But in between collection of the two datasets, the country lifted lockdown restrictions and other measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus.
Around the World
Sydney Locked Down for Another Week
Australia’s New South Wales state extended Sydney’s Covid-19 lockdown for another week, saying that new cases are expected to rise as the city deals with the highly infectious Delta variant. "This Delta strain is a game-changer, it is extremely transmissible and more contagious than any other form of the virus that we've seen," NSW state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney (Reuters). Sydney entered its most recent lockdown on June 26 and was due to end on Friday but the orders will now be in place until July 16 (AP). The city of 25 million people is fighting its worst outbreak of the year so far, with infections topping 350 in just three weeks since the outbreak began. Less than 10% of Australians are fully vaccinated against the virus and restrictions have been put in place in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth in addition to Sydney.
Britain Could Reach 100,000 Infections a Day, Says Health Secretary
Britain’s daily total of coronavirus cases could reach 100,000 this summer as the government begins to end nearly all Covid-related restrictions later this month, Sajid Javid, the country’s health secretary, told BBC radio. “As we ease and go into the summer, we expect them to rise significantly, and they could go as high as 100,000 case numbers,” Javid said. Even at its worst peak in January, Britain’s daily cases never surpassed 60,000 a day. But Javid said that the more important numbers were those of hospitalizations and deaths caused by the virus, both of which have been lowered thanks to a successful vaccination campaign. “What matters more than anything is hospitalization and death numbers, and that is where the link has been severely weakened,” Javid said. “Just to put a number on that, if I may — at the moment, we are seeing around 25,000 new cases a day," he said. "The last time we saw numbers like that … we sadly had deaths of around 500 a day. And now we are at about one-thirtieth of that.” On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that almost all government-mandated restrictions to curb the spread of the virus would end in England on July 19 (WaPo). Some health experts have expressed concern at the decision, saying it is too early to lift the restrictions.
Fiji Battling Biggest Surge Yet
Fiji got through the first year of the pandemic almost untouched but is now battling one of the fastest growing outbreaks of Covid-19 in the world (NYT). On Wednesday, 636 new cases were reported -- a record high. The island nation of 900,000 people has averaged 383 new cases a day in the past month after never going over single digits before late May. Fiji’s largest hospital is now exclusively treating Covid-19 patients and its mortuary is at capacity. The government announced that it will turn a sports arena outside of the capital, Suva, into a makeshift clinic. About 31% of Fijians have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, but fewer than 5% are fully vaccinated. Officials believe the latest outbreak is being driven by the highly contagious Delta variant that made its way into the community due to repeated breaches of local health restrictions.
Israel Will Swap Vaccine Doses with South Korea
Israel is sending 700,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to South Korea in exchange for a future shipment of vaccines from South Korea to Israel (AP). Israel will send Pfizer vaccines later this month while South Korea will send the same number to Israel in early September. “This is a win-win deal,” Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in his statement. The agreement will “reduce the holes” in the vaccine’s availability. Jung Eun-kyeong, South Korea’s top infectious disease expert, confirmed the deal and said the Seoul government will continue to pursue swap deals with other countries. “We are expecting to have a sufficient number of vaccines during the fourth quarter while we proceed with our vaccination campaign,” said Jung, director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Both Israel and South Korea are experiencing a surge in new infections. South Korea has given just 30% of its population at least one dose of the vaccine; Israel has fully vaccinated nearly 5.3 million people of its 9.3 million population.
U.S. Government & Politics
Biden Describes Strategies to Increase Vaccination After U.S. Misses July 4th Vaccination Goal
On Tuesday, President Biden spoke at the White House regarding his administration’s strategy for increasing the number of vaccinated people (WaPo). The remarks followed the country’s failure to meet the administration’s stated goal of having 70% of the adult population vaccinated by July 4. Biden stated, “It’s a year of hard-fought … progress. We can’t get complacent. Now, the best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family and the people you care about the most is get vaccinated.” Among the strategies Biden discussed to increase vaccination were door-to-door efforts and outreach to primary care doctors and pediatricians, who the administration hopes can encourage youth, a demographic that as we have covered in prior briefs has lagged in terms of vaccination, to get vaccinated during regular checkups and checkups surrounding the return to school and return of sports.
U.S. Economy
For Many Workers, Pandemic Brought Little Wage Change and for Some a Pay Increase
The Wall Street Journal reports that amid the economic disruption of the pandemic, many workers saw little change in pay or actually found themselves making more than they did before (WSJ). The Journal reports, “While the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted millions of jobs and most businesses, many workers kept their jobs and their salaries—and some saw pay rise. Median pay changed by 5% or less either way at about a third of S&P 500 companies. It rose by more than 5% at 184 companies, and fell by more than 5% at 125. Those are among the revelations from a Wall Street Journal analysis of annual disclosures by 492 companies using data provided by MyLogIQ.” Low wage, frontline workers, in particular, often saw rising wages during the pandemic. However, some businesses saw their median pay drop. For example, the Journal notes, “United Parcel Service Inc. —which hired more staff to handle a surge in packages as Americans were stuck at home and ordering goods online—was among the companies with the biggest drops in median pay: to $44,254 from $74,395.” Another company that saw a large decline was Ford Motor Company, where last year, the median employee “made $61,778, down from $110,706 for 2019’s median worker” per the Journal. However, the Journal writes, “The difference: Last year’s employee doesn’t participate in the company’s defined-benefit pension program, which was closed to new hires in 2004 but still counts in calculating total pay for the regulatory disclosure, a Ford spokesman said. The 2019 median worker did participate in the plan.” The Journal provides a sortable table of companies with the change from 2019 to 2020.
Supermarkets Stockpiling Food, Projecting Continued Rising Costs
The Wall Street Journal reports that supermarkets are stockpiling a range of food items, projecting that the cost of purchasing such items will continue to increase (WSJ). The Journal reports, “Supermarkets are stocking up on everything from sugar to frozen meat before they get more pricey, girding for what some executives anticipate will be some of the highest price increases in recent memory. Some supermarkets said they are buying and storing supplies to keep their shelves full amid stronger demand. Grocery sales in the U.S. for the week ended June 19 rose about 15% from two years earlier and increased 0.5% from a year earlier, according to Jefferies and NielsenIQ data.”
U.S. Society
Bonus Read: “It’s Time to Relearn How to Have Work Drinks,” (WSJ).
How ICU Nurses in Appalachia are Dealing with Their Neighbors’ Covid Denial
The Washington Post profiles the experience of ICU nurses in Appalachia, who were on the frontline of the fight against Covid and are now dealing with denial from their neighbors (WaPo). The Post spoke with Emily Boucher, a nurse at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Tennessee, who was the first to receive the vaccine in the 21 counties served by the hospital. The Post writes, “Boucher and her colleagues were pained by those attacks — and infuriated by them. Unlike their exhaustion, that anger rarely showed on their faces, but it was often there: as they scrolled Facebook to see local ministers saying God was greater than any virus, or stood in line with unmasked grocery shoppers who joked loudly about the covid hoax.” Boucher commented, “You’re living this reality that people don’t understand, and there’s nothing you can say that will convince them,” adding, “They just say you’re lying.” Jamie Swift, another nurse who oversaw infection control at the hospital, told the Post, “You work all day, and you see people who are struggling to breathe, and you see the horrible side of what covid can do. And then you go home and you see restaurants that are packed and grocery stores where person after person is going in without a mask,” adding, “There have been times when I broke down and cried. It was just devastating, because you leave the hospital and you come out into a community that doesn’t believe that it’s real and in what it can do.”
Analysis & Arguments
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