Coronavirus Daily Brief - February 25, 2021, Brief Issue 158

Click here to subscribe to the daily brief.

February 25, 2021 - Brief Issue 158

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.

Donate to Support the Coronavirus Daily Brief

Top Headlines

Latin America Turns to Russia, China for Vaccine Help (Around the World)

EU Leaders Meet Today to Discuss Vaccine Rollout, Borders (Around the World)

Merkel Says Variants Risk Third Wave; Germany Approves At-Home Covid Tests (Around the World)

Hungary is First in Europe to Use Sinopharm Vaccine (Around the World)

Biden Administration Plans to Send Free Masks to Low Income Communities (U.S. Government & Politics)

Biden Orders Review of Supply Chains (U.S. Government & Politics)

Lumber Prices Soar, but Timber Growers Struggle to Benefit (U.S. Economy)

Grocery Stores Confront Pressure to Provide Pandemic Hazard Pay (U.S. Society)

New Report: Domestic Violence Up Amid Pandemic (U.S. Society)

Health & Science

There have been 28,336,091 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 505,890 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has conducted 344,152,556 tests and distributed 88,669,035 vaccine doses, with 66,464,947 doses administered (U.S. CDC). Worldwide, there have been 112,600,845 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 2,498,600 deaths. At least 63,546,987 people have recovered from the virus.

U.S. FDA Says Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 Vaccine Meets EUA Requirements; White House Says 3-4 Million Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Doses Will Be Available Next Week Should the FDA Approve EUA; Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Doses to Likely Be Stored in Normal Freezers; Novavax to Apply for EUA in 2021 Second Quarter; China’s Second Sinopharm Vaccine Shows to Be over 72% Effective in Phase 3 Trials

On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the Johnson & Johnson single dose Covid-19 vaccine has met the requirements needed for emergency use authorization, making it the latest company to nearly receive EUA approval (CNN). In a report provided to the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, “The efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against moderate to severe/critical Covid-19 across all geographic areas was 66.9% at least 14 days after the single dose vaccination and 66.1% at least 28 days after vaccination,” reports CNN. The FDA said that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was “consistent with the recommendations set forth in FDA’s guidance Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccines to Prevent COVID-19.” The committee that will approve the EUA option will meet this Friday. Some of the major differences with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine include its single dose, compared to Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and AstraZeneca’s two-dose vaccines, and it does not need to be kept in subzero freezers while being transported (STAT).

In anticipation of the EUA approval by the FDA, the White House said on Wednesday that it will release between 3-4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients said during a briefing on Wednesday, “While we await the FDA decision, we want the American people to know that we’re doing the work so that if the EUA is issued, we will waste no time getting this lifesaving vaccine into the arms of Americans,” adding, “If authorized, we are ready to roll out this vaccine without delay” (CNN).

On Wednesday, Pfizer/BioNTech were notified by U.S. federal regulators that it is very likely their vaccine will be permitted to be stored in normal freezers. This is possibly a huge win for the partnership because this allows them to distribute their vaccine to a wider network (those who do not have sub-zero freezers with the capacity to store the vaccines in temperatures between -112 to -76 degrees Fahrenheit) (NYT, NYT). New data was provided to the FDA by Pfizer/BioNTech, making the argument that the vaccine doses could be safely stored in temperatures of -13 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 14 days, reports the Times.

Novavax, another Covid-19 vaccine producer, anticipates that it will be able to apply for FDA emergency use authorization of its vaccine by the second quarter of 2021. Currently, the Novavax vaccine is in a Phase 3 trial, which has 30,000 individuals in 118 locations across the United States and Mexico (CNN). And, Sinopharm, a Chinese pharmaceutical company that has developed two Covid vaccines, stated on Wednesday that data from its Phase 3 trials shows its second of two vaccines is 72.5 percent effective against the coronavirus (WaPo).

Doctors Want Children’s Access to a Covid-19 Vaccine to Be as Widespread as That of Adults’; New Report Finds Emergency Room “Mental Health–Related Visits for Children Aged 5–11 and 12–17 Years Increased Approximately 24% and 31%, Respectively” During Pandemic

Doctors want children to have access to the Covid-19 vaccine soon, even though they are less likely to suffer from severe symptoms, reports Science. It’s not just for their protection, but it also protects those they come into contact with. Currently, there are small studies being conducted that focus on children, relating to immune system responses and safety of the vaccine. Both Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine and Moderna’s vaccine are each in clinical trials for children. Pfizer/BioNTech already have “completed enrollment of more than 2200 volunteers ages 12 to 15, and Moderna is wrapping up recruitment of a planned 3000 volunteers with the same minimum age,” reports Science. Earlier in February, AstraZeneca and Oxford said they are about to begin clinical trials of their vaccine on 300 children between the ages of 6 and 17-years-old in the United Kingdom, and Sinovac Biotech also has clinical trials of its vaccine in process in China for children between the ages of 3 and 17-years-old. According to Children’s Healthcare pediatric infectious disease specialist Evan Anderson in Atlanta, “I don’t think anybody wants to keep kids wearing masks for the rest of their childhood.”

This plea comes as a new analysis of surveys surfaces from the journal Pediatrics, that “Rates of suicidal thinking and behavior are up 25 percent or more from similar periods in 2019” (NYT). According to Baylor College of Medicine associate professor of pediatrics Adiaha I. A. Spinks-Franklin, the pandemic has exacerbated any mental health issues that existed before 2020. “What parents and children are consistently reporting is an increase in all symptoms — a child who was a little anxious before the pandemic became very anxious over this past year,” said Spinks-Franklin. Teens are ending up in the emergency room because they, as well as their families, don’t know what to do when mental health challenges arise. And, this can burden an emergency medicine team not necessarily equipped to handle mental health specific emergencies. A report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in November found: “Compared with 2019, the proportion of mental health–related visits for children aged 5–11 and 12–17 years increased approximately 24% and 31%, respectively.” According to developmental pediatrician Rebecca Baum, “Kids are having to board in the E.R. for days on end, because there are no psychiatric beds available in their entire state, never mind the hospital. And of course, the child or adolescent is lying there and doesn’t understand what’s happening in the E.R., why they’re having to wait there or where they’re going” (NYT). Bonus Read: “The Pandemic Put a Light on Mental Health Issues for Young Athletes — and Started a Dialogue,” (WaPo).

NIH Announces It Will Study Long-Haulers; Fauci Says Long Covid Symptoms Can Last Nine Months

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins announced on Tuesday that the NIH will study the effects of “long Covid” as part of a new initiative (NIH). According to the letter, published on the NIH website, “Large numbers of patients who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 continue to experience a constellation of symptoms long past the time that they’ve recovered from the initial stages of COVID-19 illness.” Some of the symptoms many “long-haulers” have go on for months at a time, even after they have theoretically recovered from Covid-19. Symptoms include “fatigue, shortness of breath, ‘brain fog’, sleep disorders, fevers, gastrointestinal symptoms, anxiety, and depression.” Further, the letter reads, Congress approved $1.15 billion over the course of the next four years for the NIH to study long Covid and its symptoms.

This announcement is timely, as White House Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday during a White House press briefing that long-haulers can suffer post-Covid-19 symptoms “for up to nine months after their initial infection” (CNBC). Fauci noted research from the University of Washington that found that “30% of patients reported symptoms for as long as nine months,” reported CNBC. Long Covid is now being referred to as Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19, or PASC, and can occur in people who had mild symptoms during the onset of initial infection, as well as those who were hospitalized with severe symptoms.

New Study Finds Those with COVID-19 Antibodies Less Likely to Be Re-Infected with Coronavirus

A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Wednesday confirmed that individuals who had previously tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies had a “significantly lower risk of becoming infected again in the future” (CNN). The observational study looked at 3,257,478 people in the United States who took a Covid-19 antibody test between January and August 2020. Fifty-six percent were female and the median age of individuals studied was 48-years-old. Researchers found that 11.6 percent of those who took the test had antibodies, and 88.3 percent did not. Then, the researchers analyzed follow-up data after 90 days of the first tests and found that just 0.3 percent of those who tested positive for antibodies again tested positive for the coronavirus, and 3 percent of those who tested negative during the first test became infected with the coronavirus within that same window of time. The study determined that “seropositivity is associated with protection from infection. The duration of protection is unknown, and protection may wane over time” (JAMA). Researchers note that the study had limitations, highlighting that it is possible that individual behavior may have altered after taking the initial antibody test.

New Global Open Access Database Is Launched and Includes Data from 24 Million Coronavirus Cases Across at Least 150 Countries

A new global coronavirus database was launched on Wednesday, called Global.health, which has over 160 million pieces of data for epidemiologists and researchers alike to study. According to Nature, “For each individual, the database includes up to 40 associated variables, such as the date when they first had COVID-19 symptoms, the date they received a positive test and their travel history.” This is different from other open access databases because it pulls much more granular detail about individual Covid-19 cases. This continuously updated database will hopefully contain valuable information about variants of the virus as it mutates, allowing for vaccines to be retooled to fight strains that may evade current vaccine offerings. Twenty-one researchers across seven institutions in both Europe and the United States helped to create Global.health. The site is funded and supported by Google and the Rockefeller Foundation, and there are 24 million coronavirus cases from at least 150 countries, notes Nature. Currently, one-half of the 24 million cases have data for at least 12 of the 40 variables, says Northeastern University epidemiologist Sam Scarpino. Bonus Read: “California Coronavirus Strain May Be More Infectious—and Lethal,” (Science).

Bonus Read: “China Did 'Little' to Hunt for Covid Origins in Early Months, Says WHO Document,” (Guardian).

Around the World

Americas

Latin America Turns to Russia, China for Vaccine Help

Latin America has been hit hard by the pandemic and government officials who are desperate for coronavirus vaccines are now looking to China and Russia for help. As the Wall Street Journal writes: “In Argentina and Bolivia, authorities have begun vaccinating with Russia’s Sputnik V, which will soon arrive in Mexico. Chile began inoculating this month with 4 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine, which President Sebastián Piñera said gave Chileans hope they would emerge from the pandemic. Peruvians celebrated as television stations broadcast this month’s arrival of a commercial flight carrying China’s Sinopharm vaccine.” Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro agreed to use millions of doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine after it became clear it was the best option for the country. The rollout of vaccine campaigns in Latin America will give China and Russia a foothold in the region where both countries have geopolitical interests. Russia has long supported the politics of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and others while Beijing has eyed the oil, copper, and soybean crops in the area. “It places them in a position to go head-to-head and challenge the dominance of Europe and the U.S. in many of those countries because vaccines are it,” said Monica de Bolle, a Brazilian who is a senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics. “You can’t have functioning economies without vaccines.”

Europe

EU Leaders Meet Today to Discuss Vaccine Rollout, Borders

The European Union leaders are meeting today via video conference to discuss ways to improve the bloc’s vaccine rollout and the ongoing response to the pandemic (AP). There is mounting public pressure to ease lockdown measures and growing dissatisfaction over the lagging vaccine campaigns. “The epidemiological situation remains serious, and the new variants pose additional challenges. We must therefore uphold tight restrictions while stepping up efforts to accelerate the provision of vaccines,” the leaders will say, according to a draft summit statement seen by The Associated Press. The summit will also focus on border controls and travel restrictions, as we covered in an earlier brief this week. Leaders are considering the possibility of a vaccination certificate that would allow people to travel more conveniently. Southern EU nations that are heavily dependent on tourism have pushed hard for such a certificate in hopes of salvaging the summer holiday season.

Merkel Says Variants Risk Third Wave; Germany Approves At-Home Covid Tests

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the new variants of Covid-19 put the country at risk of a third wave and said that the country must tread carefully in order to avoid additional national lockdown measures. Over the past week the number of new daily infections has hovered around 60 cases per 100,000; on Wednesday Germany reported 8,007 new infections and 422 deaths (Reuters). Merkel and the state premiers agreed to extend current restrictions until March 7 with the goal of reopening the rest of the economy when the infection rate is below 35 new cases per 100,000 for one week. Merkel said that vaccines and more comprehensive testing could allow for “a more regionally differentiated approach.” In that vein, Germany’s pharmaceutical regulator on Wednesday approved antigen tests from three developers to be used by people at home (WaPo). Easily accessible and affordable at-home tests will continue to be key to curbing the spread of the virus since Germany’s vaccination campaign is still lagging due to Europe-wide supply shortages and public skepticism of the vaccines. The health ministry’s vaccination dashboard Thursday said that just over 2 percent of Germans were fully vaccinated and a little more than 4 percent had received one dose of the vaccine.

Hungary is First in Europe to Use Sinopharm Vaccine

On Wednesday doctors in Hungary began administering the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned Sinopharm, becoming the first country in Europe to use the Chinese vaccine (AP). Hungary is now using five vaccines, including the Russian-developed Sputnik V, more than any other country in Europe. Hungary’s government has criticized the slow speed of the EU’s vaccine rollout and purchased doses from China and Russia. But the government still needs to convince the public to accept those vaccines. The AP writes: “A survey of 1,000 people in the capital of Budapest by pollster Median and the 21 Research Center showed that among those willing to be vaccinated, only 27% would take a Chinese vaccine and 43% a Russian vaccine, compared to 84% who would take a jab developed in Western countries. The poll, which was conducted at the end of January, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.”

Athens Will Remain in Lockdown

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that lockdown restrictions for the wider Athens area will stay in place following a sharp increase in coronavirus infections (Reuters). The Athens metropolitan area has been under strict lockdown measures that were set to expire at the end of the month. “There has been a steep rise in infections yesterday, particularly in Athens, which pushes back our plan...for a gradual reopening on March 1,” Mitsotakis told a cabinet meeting. Around 1,913 new cases were recorded on Wednesday, up from 1,000-1,500 in recent days. Authorities also extended restrictions to two more areas on Wednesday, Arcadia and Nafplion in Peloponnese.

U.S. Government & Politics

Biden Administration Plans to Send Free Masks to Low Income Communities

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it plans to send free masks to community organizations in an attempt to reach low income communities (Politico, Forbes). Politico writes, “The federal government will soon begin sending more than 25 million masks to community health centers, food pantries and soup kitchens, the administration said on Wednesday, with the goal of reaching as many as 15 million people with low incomes beginning in March and continuing through May.” White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said that the plan “allows people who are not able to in some situations find or afford a mask, to get a mask, and is part of our equity strategy.” About a year ago, the Trump administration considered sending masks to every American, but rejected the idea. Public health experts have been pushing for mask distribution since. However, the Biden proposal falls short of the larger distribution plan that was considered and rejected.

Biden Orders Review of Supply Chains

On Wednesday, President Biden signed an executive order for a 100 day review of supply chains that provide critical equipment including medical equipment (Politico, WaPo). Politico writes, “Biden’s order will institute 100-day reviews of the global producers and shippers for: computer chips used in consumer products; large-capacity batteries for electric vehicles; pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients; and critical minerals used in electronics.” The Washington Post notes, “The directive comes as U.S. automakers are grappling with a severe shortage of semiconductors, essential ingredients in the high-tech entertainment and navigation systems that fill modern passenger vehicles,” an issue related in part to the pandemic that we have covered in prior briefs. An administration official told reporters, “We’re going to get out of the business of reacting to supply chain crises as they arise.” During the campaign, Biden promised such a review and an effort to reduce reliance on other countries.

U.S. Economy

Lumber Prices Soar, but Timber Growers Struggle to Benefit

Amid a pandemic-driven boom in construction, lumber prices have soared, but many timber growers are struggling to benefit from the higher prices (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal reports that while lumber prices plunged at the start of the pandemic amid disruptions to the industry, a later construction boom turned things around, writing, “Lumber futures, a benchmark for an array of regional and species-specific prices, rose to a record in early August and kept climbing. Futures contracts traded up to $1,000 per thousand board feet, more than 50% above the previous high, set during the 2018 building season.” Yet the Journal reports, “Timber growers across the U.S. South, where much of the nation’s logs are harvested, have gained nothing from the run-up in prices for finished lumber. It is the region’s saw mills, including many that have been bought up by Canadian firms, that are harvesting the profits,” adding, “The problem for timber growers is that so many trees have been planted between the Carolinas and Texas that mills are paying the lowest prices in decades for logs.” One timber grower, Joe Hopkins, told the Journal, “I’m not making anything.”

U.S. Society

Bonus Read: “A ‘Chef Farmer’ Pivots to Survive the Pandemic and Heartbreaking Loss,” (WaPo).

Grocery Stores Confront Pressure to Provide Pandemic Hazard Pay

Pressure is growing on grocery stores to provide hazard pay for their workers during the pandemic, and some stores are pushing back against the pressure, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday (WSJ). The Journal reports, “Seattle, Long Beach, Calif., and other cities have passed new rules requiring supermarkets to provide employees temporary bonus pay. Others, including Los Angeles, are considering similar mandates designed to help employees who have to show up for work in public-facing jobs like cashiers or baggers and risk exposure to the coronavirus.” But grocery stores are pushing back and arguing that the costs will be passed on to consumers. The Journal writes, “Grocery executives say rules to raise wages—in some cases by as much as $5 an hour—will increase expenses by about 30% in stores and squeeze already thin profit margins. Some chains including Kroger Co. say they will close some stores in areas with new wage mandates, while others say they are boosting food prices or may cut back on services like checkout.” Rob McDougall, chief executive officer of California chain Gelson’s Markets stated, “We’re not in a nonprofit organization” as the company raised prices amid mandates for bonus payments. Gary Anderson, principal deputy city attorney of Long Beach, for his part argued, “The grocery industry as a whole has been making billions of dollars.”

New Report: Domestic Violence Up Amid Pandemic

On Wednesday, University of Miami sociology professor, Alex R. Piquero, and the National Commission on Covid-19 and Criminal Justice released a report showing that domestic violence reports have increased amid the pandemic and stay-at-home orders (NYT). The report conducted a meta-analysis of 18 studies on the issue both in the U.S. and abroad, and found that reports had increased by about eight percent. Mr. Piquero told the Times, “We were able to quantify, in large and small U.S. cities and some worldwide, a broad view of the impact that the pandemic has had on domestic violence.” As the Times writes, the study “affirmed what social workers, educators and law enforcement officials have warned about for months: Stay-at-home orders exacerbated domestic violence.”

Bonus Read: “Covid-19 Upended Schools. How Much Has Education Suffered?,” (WSJ).

Analysis & Arguments

Jack Shafer writes on why a Covid memorial may be unlikely (Politico).

The New York Times profiles efforts to honor one among the more than 500,000 deaths due to Covid (NYT).

STAT’s Katie Palmer speaks with Samuel Scarpino about open access Covid data site Global.health and what it means for pandemic research today, compared to when it started.

Alexander Stockton and Lucy King present a video on viewing death through a nurse’s eyes (NYT).

Heidi Ledford discusses why it’s difficult to compare Covid vaccines at this early stage (Nature).

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.

Unsubscribe