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June 2, 2022 - Brief Issue 330
The Coronavirus Daily Brief is a daily news and analysis roundup edited by New America’s International Security Program and Arizona State University.
Brief Senior Editor Peter Bergen’s book on the Trump administration, The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World is now out. You can find it at prominent booksellers.
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Top Headlines
Scientists Unsure of Connection between Hepatitis Cases in Children and Covid (Health & Science)
Tourists Still Not Allowed in Japan, But Tom Cruise Is Welcome (Around the World)
Covid Cases, Other Respiratory Viruses on the Rise in the Americas (Around the World)
Treasury Secretary Yellen Says She Was Wrong on Inflation (U.S. Government & Politics)
US Asks Court to Overturn Order Preventing Federal Mask Mandate (U.S. Government & Politics)
Vaccine Injury Compensation Programs Overwhelmed (U.S. Government & Politics)
April Job Openings Remain Near Record High (U.S. Economy)
Lifeguard Shortage Leads to Closed Pools (U.S. Society)
High Gas Prices as Summer Travel Season Begins (U.S. Society)
Health & Science
There have been 84,445,096 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 1,007,704 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 587,821,662 vaccine doses, with 77.9% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 66.7% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 89.3% have received at least one dose, and 76.6% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). 46.8% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a first booster shot. 22.4% of Americans aged 50 or older have received a second booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 530,822,830 cases of coronavirus, with 6,295,015 deaths.
Scientists Unsure of Connection between Hepatitis Cases in Children and Covid
Clusters of a mystery childhood hepatitis have been identified in both the U.S. and U.K. but scientists are unsure of what is causing the infections or if it is linked to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 200 potential hepatitis cases have been reported in children in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NYT). In the United Kingdom, 197 children were diagnosed with hepatitis and 11 needed a liver transplant (Guardian). Doctors in both countries suspected that an adenovirus, a common infection that causes colds, vomiting, and diarrhea, could be involved even though it does not normally cause hepatitis in otherwise healthy children. Tests in the U.K. showed that 68% of children were positive for adenovirus; in the U.S. many of the children with hepatitis also tested positive for adenovirus type 41 but not all of the children showed an adenovirus infection.
Doctors and scientists are trying to understand if there is a link between the coronavirus and the adenovirus and hypothesize that either a prior coronavirus infection is somehow worsening a subsequent adenovirus infection, or that lack of exposure to adenoviruses during the pandemic shutdown left children more vulnerable. Another theory is that the adenovirus had always caused hepatitis in a small subset of children but the connection was never established before. “Is it an increased awareness?” said Dr. William Balistreri, the director emeritus of the Pediatric Liver Care Center at Cincinnati Children’s. “Is it a new virus? Is it a new virus in synergy with an old virus?” He added, “I don’t think we can dismiss any of those theories.”
Bonus Read: “Is the Covid pandemic finally nearing its end?” (Guardian).
Around the World
Bonus Read: “The Extra Time in Europe No Traveler Wants but Everyone Should Prep For,” (WSJ).
Tourists Still Not Allowed in Japan, But Tom Cruise Is Welcome
Japan is still operating under strict border closures but is slowly beginning to reopen to travelers–with some notable discrepancies. The Washington Post reports: “So far, certain business travelers, international students and foreign workers are accepted, but many family members of foreign residents are not. Group tours are resuming this month, but not individual tourism.” Entertainers from the U.S., including Tom Cruise and Kanye West, and South Korea were allowed to enter the country and meet with hundreds of fans to promote their work in May, with little to no oversight. But the same month, Japan allowed 50 tourists to enter on a trial run and monitored their every move. The country’s restrictions on foreigners are out of line with the rest of the Group of Seven major economies and neighboring countries in the region, many of which have fully resumed restriction-free tourism. Corporate and tourism industry executives have begun to complain publicly about the overly cautious and slow reopening.
Covid Cases, Other Respiratory Viruses on the Rise in the Americas
Covid cases in the Americas increased over 10% last week compared to the previous week, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said at a news conference on Wednesday as it warned officials to also monitor a rise in other respiratory viruses in the region (Reuters). Cases in South America rose 43.1%, the biggest jump in the region, and Covid-related deaths rose 21.3% in Central America, according to PAHO. Director Dr. Carissa Etienne warned that other viruses, like influence, Monkeypox, and viral hepatitis are also surging again, warning that "countries should expand surveillance to monitor other respiratory viruses, not just COVID."
U.S. Government & Politics
Treasury Secretary Yellen Says She Was Wrong on Inflation
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that her early predictions about the course of inflation had proven wrong (WSJ). Speaking to CNN, she said, “I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” adding, “There have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn’t, at the time, fully understand.” The Wall Street Journal notes, “Ms. Yellen’s remarks come as the administration is launching a renewed effort to improve Americans’ perceptions of the state of the economy, with inflation trending near a 40-year high. She and President Biden met with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday to discuss steps both the administration and central bank are taking to address high inflation.” Previously, Yellen and other officials assessed that inflation’s impact and duration would be limited. The Journal writes, “Last year, administration officials repeatedly said they expected elevated inflation to be temporary. Ms. Yellen in March 2021 said in an interview with ABC that the U.S. economy faced a 'small risk' of inflation. 'I think it’s manageable,' she said. In May 2021, she similarly told The Wall Street Journal that she didn’t anticipate an inflationary problem. More recently, administration officials have backed off characterizing the increase as temporary.”
US Asks Court to Overturn Order Preventing Federal Mask Mandate
On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to reverse the April order by another judge that ruled the federal mask mandate on public transit to be unlawful, leading to the end of mask mandates in much of the United States (Reuters). Reuters reports, “The Justice Department's appeal came just hours before a appeals court filing deadline.” The Justice Department released a statement reading in part: “None of the district court's quarrels with the CDC order comes close to showing that the CDC has acted outside the 'zone of reasonableness.”
Vaccine Injury Compensation Programs Overwhelmed
Two federal programs that provide compensation to people injured by vaccines or other pandemic response treatment measures have been overwhelmed by high numbers of applications, leading to substantial delays in payments (Politico). Politico writes, “The first program, meant for standard vaccines, such as measles and polio, has too little staff to handle the number of reported injuries, and thousands of patients are waiting years for their cases to be heard. A second program designed for vaccines and other treatments created or used during pandemics has seen unsustainable growth. Between 2010 and 2020, the Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program received 500 complaints. In the two years since Covid-19 appeared, it has received over 8,000 complaints.” Covid-19 is behind the surge in complaints. Politico reports, “More than 5,000 of those are directly related to the Covid-19 vaccines, with injuries ranging from a sore shoulder to death, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.” However, Politico notes, “the pandemic fund has paid zero claims, in part because officials are waiting for people to submit detailed medical records and documentation to back up their allegations.” The situation has raised worries among some that issues with compensation could be interpreted by the public in ways that fuel vaccine hesitancy. Politico emphasizes, “Covid-19 shots have proven to be safe for the overwhelming majority of people, but injuries do occur, as they do for all vaccines. Allergic reactions are possible, and some specific adverse events have been associated with the shots, such as myocarditis and pericarditis after messenger RNA vaccination, and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia after receiving the Johnson & Johnson shot.”
U.S. Economy
April Job Openings Remain Near Record High
On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data showing that job openings remained near record levels in April 2022 (WaPo, WSJ). The data reported 11.4 million job openings and that around 4.4 million people quit their jobs in April. The Washington Post notes, “Layoffs, meanwhile, fell to an all-time low of 1.2 million, as businesses sought to keep the workers they did have.” The Wall Street Journal reports, “Separate private-sector estimates show that employers had 11.4 million job openings through late May, according to jobs site Indeed, a sign hiring demand remained strong last month.” Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed, told the Journal, “We’re still in a very tight labor market, but it’s not as tight as it was at the end of last year or last summer.”
Bonus Read: “Missed Payments, Rising Interest Rates Put ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ to the Test,” (WSJ).
U.S. Society
Lifeguard Shortage Leads to Closed Pools
Across the United States, pools aren’t opening for summer because of a nationwide lifeguard shortage (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal reports, “About one-third of the country’s pools requiring lifeguards aren’t expected to open this summer because of the shortage, said Bernard J. Fisher II, director of health and safety at the American Lifeguard Association. He did not specify how many pools that was. The U.S. has 309,000 public pools, but not all require lifeguards.” For example, the city of Denver will close six of its pools starting June 5 due to the shortage. John Martinez, the city’s deputy executive director of recreation commented, “I’ve been in this department for over two decades, and I’ve never seen anything like it.” Fisher likewise said, “I’ve never seen it this bad.” Among the shortage’s causes is the expiration of many lifeguards’ certifications over the pandemic, and the pandemic-related tight labor market generally.
High Gas Prices as Summer Travel Season Begins
Memorial Day marked the start of the summer travel season with millions traveling by car, but it came as gas prices remain at record highs (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal writes, “The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas hit $4.62 as of Monday, according to AAA, $1.58 higher than a year earlier and about 12% above the pre-2022 high of $4.11 set in 2008. Prices have risen about 11% over the past month, the organization’s figures indicated, and gas was recently above $4 in all 50 states.” The high price is related to pandemic-related inflation, increased demand for travel as pandemic restrictions relax, and the pandemic’s impact on refining among other factors. The Journal notes that even so, “Analysts said gasoline prices so far haven’t changed many motorists’ summer travel plans, in part because of pent-up demand for travel after Covid 19-related restrictions.” However, it cautions, “Still, some motorists say they are reconsidering summer road trips. A survey by AAA in March found that two-thirds of Americans felt gas was too expensive when it was at $3.53 a gallon; if it were to reach $5—which has happened on the West Coast—three-quarters of drivers said they would need to adjust.” Bonus Read: “Pump shock: Why gas prices are so high,” (WaPo).
Bonus Read: “Housing, Child Care, Utilities—Nashville Faces Exceptional Inflation Hit From All Sides,” (WSJ).
Analysis & Arguments
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