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March 14, 2022 - Brief Issue 299
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
FDA Extends Shelf Life of J&J’s Vaccine (Health & Science)
Deltacron Variant Discovered (Health & Science)
Pfizer CEO: Fourth Dose Will be ‘Necessary’ (Health & Science)
Antibody Treatment Can Cause Drug-Resistant Mutation, Says Study (Health & Science)
Russian Invasion of Ukraine Could Fuel Covid Surge (Around the World)
Chinese Cities Restrict Movement Amidst Surge (Around the World)
300,000 People Isolating in Hong Kong (Around the World)
South Korea Hits Record Cases After Presidential Election (Around the World)
UK Scraps Covid Surveillance Programs (Around the World)
Oregon, Washington Drop Mask Mandates; TSA Extends Mask Mandate on Planes (U.S. Government & Politics)
White House Warns Stalled Covid Funding Could Harm Covid Response (U.S. Government & Politics)
United Airlines to Allow Unvaccinated Workers with Exemptions to Return to Work (U.S. Economy)
Semiconductor Chip Makers Prepared for Supply Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine (U.S. Economy)
Inflation Accelerated in February (U.S. Economy)
Opioid Overdose Death Rate Higher for Blacks than Whites Amid Pandemic (U.S. Society)
Calls for Rent Control Measures Proliferate as Rents Surge (U.S. Society)
Health & Science
There have been 79,517,492 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 967,552 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 556,980,091 vaccine doses, with 76.7% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 65.3% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 88.1% have received at least one dose, and 75.2% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). 44.3% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 456,908,767 cases of coronavirus, with 6,041,077 deaths.
FDA Extends Shelf Life of J&J’s Vaccine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration extended the shelf life of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine to nine months, up from six months. The vaccine can easily be stored and retains its potency when refrigerated at temperatures of 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, a big plus compared to vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both of which must be kept in an ultracold refrigerator. In a news release on Friday the FDA said the extension was granted after “a thorough review of data.” The one-dose vaccine was hailed as a breakthrough in terms of its convenience and logistical ease but it has largely fallen out of favor in the U.S. as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommend that adults try to use the mRNA shots due to increasing evidence that the J&J shot could trigger a rare blood clotting disorder (NYT). The CDC also recommends that people who received a dose of the J&J vaccine receive a booster shot of an mRNA vaccine.
Deltacron Variant Discovered
Another new coronavirus variant has been identified and it contains elements of both the Delta and Omicron variants, making it what is known as a recombinant virus. Gisaid, a global community of scientists, announced this week that the Pasteur Institute in France had shared the first solid evidence of the variant (Guardian). “These recombinants arise when more than one variant infects and replicates in the same person, in the same cells,” says Prof Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick. “Deltacron is a product of both the Delta and Omicron variants circulating in the same population.” Recombinant variants are not uncommon and scientists have stressed that this will not be the last one for the coronavirus. Only a small number of cases of Deltacron have been identified so far and there is not enough data to assess the severity of the variant or how well vaccines protect against it (NYT).
Pfizer CEO: Fourth Dose Will be ‘Necessary’
A fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine will be “necessary,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. Bourla said that it’s possible that Covid boosters could become a yearly occurrence, similar to the flu shot. "So what we are trying to do, and we're working very diligently right now, it is to make not only a vaccine that will protect against all variants, including Omicron, but also something that can protect for at least a year." Top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said last month that the possibility of an additional round of booster shots was being “very carefully monitored” (Axios).
Antibody Treatment Can Cause Drug-Resistant Mutation, Says Study
Australian researchers published findings from a study in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday that found a drug-resistant mutation in the Covid-19 virus has been associated with the drug sotrovimab. Sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody treatment that is available in many countries and is used to treat vulnerable patients who test positive for Covid-19. The new study analyzed the first 100 patients in western Sydney during the Delta outbreak in 2021 who were given sotrovimab. The lead author of the study, Dr Rebecca Rockett, said four of the patients developed resistance to sotrovimab six to 13 days after treatment (Guardian). “We’re not sure if sotrovimab helps neutralise the virus early on in the infection before it develops resistance. But often drugs are given to treat Covid-19 patients and there’s not really any follow-up done. We realise that you can’t follow every patient with PCR testing or genomic surveillance, but we are trying to advocate for patients that progress to severe disease despite the treatment that we investigate using genomics to see whether they’ve acquired any resistance mutations.” Rockett and her team said that the mutated virus poses a risk of being passed back to the community, which would potentially mean a lot of people could not be treated with the drug.
Around the World
Russian Invasion of Ukraine Could Fuel Covid Surge
Millions of people are fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and officials said that the pandemic is no longer top priority. It’s now impossible to gauge how the coronavirus is spreading since testing has been suspended since Feb. 24 and some cities are under siege with little or no access to medical services. “People are not frightened about Covid anymore,” said Dr. Marta Saiko, head of the therapy department at the Clinical Municipal Emergency Hospital in Lviv, in western Ukraine. “People are frightened of the war” (NYT). But with people fleeing on crowded trains and cramming into temporary housing and underground shelters centers, sometimes in unsanitary conditions, a new surge of infections is predicted. Ukraine saw cases climb earlier this year, a pattern shared across much of Europe, and was averaging more than 35,000 cases per day in early February.
Chinese Cities Restrict Movement Amidst Surge
Shenzhen and Shanghai, two of China’s largest cities, imposed restrictions on Sunday on the movements of residents as the coronavirus outbreak continued to overtake much of mainland China. China’s National Health Commission reported 3,122 new cases on Sunday (NYT). While the case count is still much lower than in other countries, it’s the worst outbreak in two years. China’s pursuit of “zero Covid” has resulted in quick and aggressive action to try to stamp out any outbreaks and Shenzhen and Shanghai both barred residents from leaving either city and Shanghai halted its bus service but has stopped short of ordering a citywide lockdown. Both cities are also going to mass test residents (Al Jazeera).
300,000 People Isolating in Hong Kong
Hong Kong officials are rushing to build quarantine centers as Omicron and Delta variants spread across the city but in the meantime as many as 300,000 Hong Kong residents are isolating at home as of Sunday (NYT). Hong Kong was sending close contacts of confirmed cases to government-run quarantine centers, but now those centers and hospitals are straining to accommodate the number of cases and the government has adjusted its policies. Now, people who are considered a close contact can quarantine at home. Over the weekend, the government announced a new phone hotline to help with the daily needs of those isolating at home who cannot arrange for deliveries of food or basic necessities themselves. Hong Kong is now averaging 24,242 new cases per day, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
South Korea Hits Record Cases After Presidential Election
On Saturday South Korea reported another record for daily coronavirus cases, with 383,665 known cases. Public health experts say that the current surge has not yet peaked and that cases could reach 350,000 per day by the end of March (NYT). The New York Times reports that the number of cases increased 104% over the past two weeks. By comparison, the U.S. reported an average of 34,000 new cases a day as of Saturday. South Korea held its presidential election last Wednesday and tens of thousands of people gathered at rallies and over 34 million people stood in line at the polls to cast votes.
UK Scraps Covid Surveillance Programs
UK ministers are being criticized by scientists and health experts after announcing that a nationwide Covid surveillance program, called the React study, would be canceled and funding from other programs withdrawn. The React study randomly tests about 150,000 people across England every month to see how many are infected with coronavirus but it will be scrapped at the end of March and no further data will be available (Guardian). The Zoe Covid symptom study, the Siren and Vivaldi studies, which monitor infections in health workers and in care homes, and the CoMix social contacts survey, will all have their funding withdrawn. Mass free testing is also due to end on April 1. Virologists and other scientists across the country are calling the decision “shortsighted.” Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds, said, “This is about as far from ‘following the science’ as you can get,” and noted that “losing these programmes will almost certainly end up costing more in terms of disruption than saved. It is a false economy, and yet another example of short-term thinking.”
U.S. Government & Politics
Oregon, Washington Drop Mask Mandates; TSA Extends Mask Mandate on Planes
On Saturday, Oregon and Washington dropped their mask mandates, part of a nationwide trend towards relaxed pandemic restrictions (NYT). The New York Times notes, “Masks are still required in some locations in both states, including in nursing homes, hospitals, taxis and on public buses. And both states are leaving local school districts to decide whether to impose their own mandates.” Last week, Hawaii became the final state to announce a plan to end its mask mandate (NYT).
Meanwhile the Transportation Security Administration extended its mask mandate for airplanes and other public transit on Thursday (NYT). The New York Times writes, “The requirement will extend at least through April 18 at C.D.C.’s recommendations, and will apply to public transportation and transportation hubs. Under the T.S.A.’s rule, passengers on airplanes, buses and trains and at airports and transit stations must wear masks.” The extension will last until mid-April. The Times notes, “The T.S.A. said in a statement Wednesday that it was preparing for a busy spring break travel surge, anticipating that average daily passenger traffic will pass 90 percent of prepandemic levels for the rest of the month.”
White House Warns Stalled Covid Funding Could Harm Covid Response
With funding for Covid response having run out, the White House is warning that stalled efforts to provide further funding could harm the response to the pandemic (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal writes, “As of mid-February, no money was left in the Department of Health and Human Services’ public-health and social-services emergency fund for healthcare providers, according to documents that the department shared with Congress and were viewed by The Wall Street Journal.” White House spokesman Kevin Munoz stated, “As we have said, failing to take action and secure urgent Covid-response funding now will have near-term consequences for the American people and leave us more vulnerable to a new variant.” According to the administration, funding is urgently needed to, as the Journal writes, “lock in orders for treatments and vaccines.” The administration has pointed in particular to international competition for antiviral stocks, and warned that without more funding domestic laboratory capacity could fall by half. Despite such warnings, Republicans remain skeptical of the need for further funding. The Journal writes, “Republicans aren’t convinced, saying the administration shouldn’t ask Congress to approve more money while states are sitting on unspent federal Covid-19 relief funds. As of the end of January, the Treasury had about $105 billion in unobligated state and local funds and $10 billion in an unobligated coronavirus capital-projects fund.” As we covered last week, an initial plan to tap into and reassign funding for states and localities ran into opposition from some Democrats and the National Governors Association.
Bonus Read: “How far-right militia groups found a foothold in deep-blue California,” (WaPo).
U.S. Economy
United Airlines to Allow Unvaccinated Workers with Exemptions to Return to Work
On Thursday, United Airlines let employees know that it would allow unvaccinated workers with exemptions to return to their regular jobs (NYT). In an email to employees, Kirk Limacher, United’s vice president for human resources, wrote, “We expect Covid case counts, hospitalizations and deaths to continue to decline nationally over the next few weeks, and, accordingly, we plan to welcome back those employees.” Around 2,200 United employees with exemptions were placed on unpaid leave or given jobs with no customer contact in 2021 when United imposed its vaccine mandate. The New York Times writes, “Those employees will be able to return to their normal positions on March 28.”
Semiconductor Chip Makers Prepared for Supply Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
The Wall Street Journal reports that the semiconductor chip industry is prepared for the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on supplies because chip makers stockpiled materials ahead of time (WSJ). The Journal reports that the war sparked concern, noting, “Production of vital raw materials for chip making is concentrated in Russia and Ukraine. The countries are a major source of both neon gas, needed to feed lasers that print minute circuitry onto silicon, and the metal palladium used in later manufacturing stages. About a quarter to a half of the world’s semiconductor-grade neon comes from Russia and Ukraine, while roughly a third of the world’s palladium comes from Russia, analysts and industry consultants estimate.” However, it adds that despite such worries, the industry is well prepared in part because “industry has reset how it operates after being whipsawed by pandemic-era demand and repeated shocks. Those have included fires at chip plants, a freeze in Texas, drought in Taiwan, other setbacks and global supply-chain disruptions.” Companies have thus diversified supply lines and collected stockpiles.
Inflation Accelerated in February
On Thursday, the Department of Labor released data showing that inflation accelerated 7.9% in February (WSJ). Much of the acceleration was the result of rising energy prices. The Journal writes, “Gasoline rose 6.6% on the month and by itself contributed about a third of the overall monthly increase in consumer prices, the department said.” However, the Journal notes that inflation appeared in a broad range of products, writing, “energy wasn’t the whole story. Other items such as groceries, plane tickets, rents and household appliances saw big price increases as well, in part driven by continued supply-chain difficulties, rising wages and, in the case of airline fares, higher fuel prices.” On the other hand inflation in the price of used and new vehicles appeared to stabilize.
U.S. Society
Opioid Overdose Death Rate Higher for Blacks than Whites Amid Pandemic
The Wall Street Journal reports that the overdose death rate for Black Americans surpassed that for white Americans in the first year of the pandemic, as overdose deaths hit record highs (WSJ). The Journal writes, “The most recent full-year of federal data, through 2020, shows the rate of drug deaths among Black people eclipsed the rate in the white population for the first time since 1999, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles recently demonstrated.” The racial disparity between white and Black Americans had been narrowing for years. The Journal writes, “There were more than 15,200 overdoses among Black people in 2020, more than double the number from four years earlier, according to data the UCLA researchers published in March in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry. The toll represents nearly 37 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 Black people that year, the UCLA researchers found, trailing only the death rate in the significantly smaller American Indian or Alaska Native population.” Helena Hansen, who co-authored the study, told the Journal that during the pandemic, “The Black death rate rose much faster than the white death rate.”
Calls for Rent Control Measures Proliferate as Rents Surge
Calls for rent control measures are proliferating across the United States, as rents surge (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal reports, “These proposals, which would generally allow landlords to boost monthly rents by no more than 2% to 10%, are on the legislative agenda in more than a dozen states. Rental prices are up about 18% on average over the past two years, according to real-estate broker Redfin Corp. , hitting record levels across the U.S.” The Journal notes that rising rents have contributed to inflation, writing, “Rising rents are a big contributor to the recent surge in inflation that is starting to weigh on the U.S. economy.” As we have covered in prior briefs, rising rents have also created problems for tenants struggling to pay increasingly unaffordable rates.
Analysis & Arguments
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