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June 30, 2021 - Brief Issue 222

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

In U.S., Contact Tracers Try to Contain Each New Case (Health & Science)

Some U.S. Teens Secretly Getting Vaccinated Against Parents’ Wishes (Health & Science)

Delta Variant May Drive Rethinking Regarding Mask Guidance (Health & Science)

Belgium Pulls Ahead in EU Vaccination Race (Around the World)

Europe Could Fall Into Travel Chaos (Around the World)

Delta Variant Triggers Lockdowns in Asia and Pacific Countries (Around the World)

Federal Employees Give High Marks for Agencies’ Handling of Workforce Issues During the Pandemic (U.S. Government & Politics)

United Makes Record Plane Order, Suggesting it Projects a Sustained Travel Rebound (U.S. Economy)

Health & Science

There have been 33,651,924 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 604,467 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 325,152,847 vaccine doses, with 54.2% of Americans having received their first vaccine dose and 46.4% fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). Worldwide, there have been 181,824,475 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 3,938,068 deaths.

In U.S., Contact Tracers Try to Contain Each New Case

At the peak of the pandemic in the U.S., contact tracers were completely overwhelmed by the number of new cases reported daily and had no hope of reaching each individual and their contacts to discuss self-isolating and quarantining. But now, with fewer cases being reported, local health departments are aiming to stop the virus in its tracks by calling every case and their close contacts and explaining recommended procedures for self-isolation (WSJ). “It’s huge, honestly, that we’re able to sometimes have multiple phone calls in a week with one person,” Andrea Valencia, a contact tracer in Richmond, VA, told the Wall Street Journal. “We’re able to walk through it with them.”Contact tracing’s goal is to stop new outbreaks by alerting everyone a positive case interacted with so that they can also isolate, preventing people from unknowingly spreading the virus. “We want to contain it completely,” said Michael Mendoza, commissioner of the Monroe County Health Department in Rochester, N.Y. Another change is in the way the contact tracers operate. Fewer people are needed to trace outbreaks since numbers have dropped significantly, so health departments are cutting back on staff. Some public health offices are retaining a core team for contact tracing but training them to build relationships with the community by going into schools, businesses, and other settings where outbreaks could occur. 

Some U.S. Teens Secretly Getting Vaccinated Against Parents’ Wishes

Vaccinating young people is crucial to achieving broad immunity to the coronavirus and some Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized for children as young as 12, but many parents are worried about the side effects and have balked at having their children vaccinated. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only three in 10 parents of children between the ages of 12 through 17 intended to allow them to be vaccinated immediately. Many say they will wait for long-term safety data or a school mandate. But many teenagers are seeking to get the shots without their parents knowledge or consent, creating a tricky dynamic for officials who must also balance laws about parental consent for medical procedures of minors with public health and safety. According to the New York Times, “Forty states require parental consent for vaccination of minors under 18, and Nebraska sets the age at 19. (Some states carve out exemptions for teenagers who are homeless or emancipated.) Now, because of the Covid crisis, some states and cities are seeking to relax medical consent rules, emulating statutes that permit minors to obtain the HPV vaccine, which prevents some cancers caused by a sexually transmitted virus.” Bonus Read: “When Parents Forbid the COVID Vaccine,” (New Yorker).

Delta Variant May Drive Rethinking Regarding Mask Guidance

As the Delta variant spreads in the U.S. with the CDC director saying it will likely become the dominant strain in the United States, some localities are considering revising their guidance regarding the importance of mask wearing (CNN). Los Angeles County recently reinstituted voluntary guidance encouraging mask wearing in public, indoor spaces,  citing the variant’s spread. Most states, however, have not reinstituted mask mandates as they look to the coming school year.

Around the World

Belgium Pulls Ahead in EU Vaccination Race

Around three-quarters of Belgians over 18 have gotten at least one shot, with 42% fully vaccinated, putting Belgium close to the front of EU countries in the race to vaccinate entire populations (Politico). So far, only Malta has vaccinated more people. Belgium struggled to control the virus at the beginning of the pandemic and experienced a devastating second wave last fall. The vaccination campaign also had some hiccups in the beginning due to a delay in vaccine deliveries. But the country was able to quickly turn things around, thanks to a strong handle on the logistics of the vaccination drive and an openness about vaccinations among the public. Belgium's success is also tied to the country's decision to take a straightforward approach that made "vaccination as easy as possible," said Wouter Beke, health minister for the Flemish region. "Instead of an open invitation, citizens get a time and a date," he said. "We set up a whole range of new vaccination centers so that everyone could get a jab within a radius of 10 kilometers. And we got doctors, pharmacists and civil society involved to convince those who had initial doubts." 

Europe Could Fall Into Travel Chaos

Airports across Europe could face “chaos” this summer without a coordinated approach to a Covid-19 digital certificate, industry representatives warned European Union leaders this week (Reuters). Groups representing Europe’s largest airlines and airports wrote in a statement that a "worrying patchwork of approaches" across the continent could lead to long lines and delays. The European Union’s system of digital Covid-19 travel certificates is due to come into force on Thursday and are designed to show via QR codes whether a traveler is fully vaccinated, has immunity due to recent recovery from the virus, or has tested negative. In theory, the certificates will be able to be used for travel throughout the EU starting July 1, but they require extra checks by airline staff and the right equipment to read the codes. The groups urged EU governments to find a way to process the certificates remotely before a passenger arrives at the airport (WaPo). The amount of time navigating airports during a journey has doubled to 3 hours from 1-1/2 hours before the pandemic, said IATA's European Vice President Rafael Schvartzman.  

Delta Variant Triggers Lockdowns in Asia and Pacific Countries

Countries across the Asia-Pacific region are reimposing restrictions and stay-at-home orders in an attempt to curb the spread of the Delta variant (NYT). As we covered in a previous brief, outbreaks in Australia have forced four major cities -- Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Darwin -- into lockdowns. On Monday, the Malaysian government announced that the current nationwide stay-at-home order would be extended indefinitely. In Bangladesh, where the Delta variant is responsible for 60% of new cases, soldiers are patrolling the streets to enforce stay-at-home orders. The lockdowns and restrictions have been met with weariness and frustration by the public, who see other parts of the world progress towards normalcy. But it’s also a reminder for other countries that the pandemic isn’t over and that new strains of the virus could cause a regression.

U.S. Government & Politics

Federal Employees Give High Marks for Agencies’ Handling of Workforce Issues During the Pandemic

A report from the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and the management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group finds that federal employees gave their government agencies good marks for how they handled the pandemic’s impact on their workforce (Politico). Politico writes that the annual Best Places to Work report found “Federal agencies scored 86.1 out of 100 in the federal government category that examined workers’ views on how employers supported them during the pandemic, as well as their agency’s ability to deliver on its mission.” The report drew upon a range of data on a number of questions and also compares government employment to the private sector. Politico reports, “Most of the data was collected from the Office of Personnel Management’s annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which was administered from Sept. 14 to Nov. 5, 2020, to executive branch employees. Other survey data was collected from 12 agencies, as well as responses from employees at U.S. intelligence agencies. This is the 15th annual report, but due to changes to the 2020 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and the organization’s methodology, the 2020 data isn't totally comparable to previous years.”

Bonus Read: “America’s Workers are Exhausted and Burned Out — and Some Employers are Taking Notice,” (WaPo).

U.S. Economy

United Makes Record Plane Order, Suggesting it Projects a Sustained Travel Rebound

On Tuesday, United Airlines announced that it would buy 200 Boeing 737 MAX jets and 70 Airbus A321 Neos (WSJ). The order represents a record purchase in recent years and suggests United is projecting a strong rebound for travel. The Wall Street Journal writes, “The order—the largest by a U.S. airline since American Airlines Group Inc. ordered 460 new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus in 2011—is the latest sign of U.S. airlines’ growing confidence that travel is on course to snap back after being decimated by the coronavirus pandemic last year.” United is also expected to increase its workforce by adding 25,000 workers by 2026. The moves come following a poor year for airlines due to the pandemic.

Fed Chair Powell: U.S. Economy Showing “Sustained Progress”

On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. economy “has shown sustained improvement” (WSJ). The comment appears in testimony prepared to be given before Congress on Tuesday when Powell will testify before the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. During his testimony on Tuesday, Powell also downplayed the risk of inflation” (WSJ). He stated, “If you look behind the headline and look at the categories where these prices are really going up, you’ll see that it tends to be areas that are directly affected by the reopening,” adding,  “That’s something that we’ll go through over a period. It will then be over. And it should not leave much of a mark on the ongoing inflation process.”

Home Price Growth Hit Record High in April

Home price growth as measured by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index hit a record high in April (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal writes that the index “which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas across the nation” found that prices “rose 14.6% in the year that ended in April, up from an 13.3% annual rate the prior month. April marked the highest annual rate of price growth since the index began in 1987.” Low interest rates, high demand, and low supply have all helped drive up prices during the pandemic.

Bonus Read: “Car Dealers Are Selling More Vehicles Above the Sticker Price,” (WSJ).

Analysis & Arguments

Zoya Qureshi writes on how the pandemic has affected medical school and training (Nation).

Michael Brendan Dougherty argues that the essential/inessential workers division generated a “cruel class system” (National Review).

Ellen McCarthy examines the challenges facing mothers as some look to return to the workforce as the pandemic wanes (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.

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