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April 12, 2022 - Brief Issue 315

The Coronavirus Daily Brief is a daily news and analysis roundup edited by New America’s International Security Program and Arizona State University.

The Coronavirus Daily Brief will be on hiatus Wednesday, April 13 through Tuesday April 19.

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Top Headlines

U.S. Cases Rise, Fauci Says Not Yet Cause for Alarm (Health & Science)

The Next Covid Vaccine Could be a Nasal Spray (Health & Science)

China’s Lockdown Threatens Economic Growth (Around the World)

South Korea Will Ease Social Distancing Rules (Around the World)

Queen Exhausted After Bout with Covid (Around the World)

Philadelphia to Reinstate Mask Mandate, First Major City in the U.S. to Do So (U.S. Government & Politics)

Military Covid Response Wraps Up, as Pentagon Shifts to Preparing for Next Pandemic (U.S. Government & Politics)

Facing Tough Polling, Democrats Seek a Midterms Strategy (U.S. Government & Politics)

Pelosi Tests Negative, Will Exit Isolation (U.S. Government & Politics)

Home Builders Bypass Individual Buyers in Favor of Investors (U.S. Economy)

Retirees Return to Work Amid Inflation (U.S. Society)

Health & Science

There have been 80,449,398 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 985,826 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 565,945,931 vaccine doses, with 77.2% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 65.8% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 88.6% have received at least one dose, and 75.7% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). 45.2% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 499,748,065 cases of coronavirus, with 6,181,560 deaths.

U.S. Cases Rise, Fauci Says Not Yet Cause for Alarm

Across the United States, an average of more than 31,000 new cases are being reported each day—a 3% increase from two weeks ago (NYT). Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said the uptick in cases was not yet cause for alarm but officials were watching it “very, very carefully.” The highly transmissible Omicron subvariant, known as BA.2, is behind the rise in cases, along with the easing of public health measures like mask mandates, Fauci told ABC’s “This Week.” Fauci noted that most areas of the country have low community levels of Covid-19, according to calculations performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that are designed to assess the number of new cases in a community and the strain on its hospitals. “If we do start seeing an uptick [in hospitalizations or deaths], particularly of hospitalizations, we may need to revert back to being more careful and having more utilizations of masks indoors,” he said.

The Next Covid Vaccine Could be a Nasal Spray

Scientists are rethinking the current vaccination strategy against the coronavirus in an effort to address future variants and offer a higher level of protection and some believe that a nasal spray could be the answer. The thinking is that a “switch in the vaccine delivery route from a shot to a sniff could muster a wall of immunity right where viruses find their foothold and block the spread of the virus, preventing even mild infections,” writes the Washington Post. A nasal spray would produce droplets in people’s nostrils that would provoke “mucosal” immunity that could limit the transmissibility of the virus. But a shift in the strategy is still far away as scientists debate whether the goal of blocking transmission altogether (as opposed to simply preventing severe illness and death) is realistic. “We could Operation Warp Speed the next-generation mucosal vaccines, but we don’t have funding to do it,” said Karin Bok, director of Pandemic Preparedness and Emergency Response at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “We’re doing everything we can to get ready … just to get ready in case we have resources available.” 

Bonus Read: “The ‘successful failures’ of Apollo 13 and Covid-19 vaccination,” (STAT). 

Around the World

China’s Lockdown Threatens Economic Growth

China’s strict Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai and other industrial cities is weighing on its economy: car sales in China dropped 10.5% year-over-year in March to 1.58 million vehicles and inflation rose by an annual 1.5% in March (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal notes that the “latest data underscore how China’s use of stringent movement limits to snuff out the coronavirus could dent its economic growth. Economists have cut growth forecasts for the world’s second biggest economy as pandemic restrictions spread and have cast doubt on whether the government can meet its goal of around 5.5% economic growth this year.” The jump in inflation is the biggest annual jump in three months (WSJ). Bonus Read: “Tesla, NIO hit by COVID restrictions in China,” (Yahoo).

South Korea Will Ease Social Distancing Rules

South Korea saw a 29% decrease in new daily cases over the past week and is now set to relax social distancing rules this week. The 90,928 new cases reported on Monday is the lowest level reached in nearly two months (NYT). Businesses will be allowed to stay open until midnight and social gatherings will be capped at 10 people, up from eight. “We will see by how much we can adjust social distancing regulations,” a senior health official, Son Young-rae, said at a briefing on Friday. 

Queen Exhausted After Bout with Covid

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II said she was “very tired and exhausted” after her recent Covid-19 infection. The monarch, who is 95 years old, tested positive for coronavirus in February. She was discussing her experience during a video call with staff at an east London hospital on Wednesday. Speaking with former Covid patient Asef Hussain, the Queen said of the virus: "I'm glad that you're getting better...It does leave one very tired and exhausted, doesn't it? This horrible pandemic. It's not a nice result" (CNN).  

U.S. Government & Politics

Philadelphia to Reinstate Mask Mandate, First Major City in the U.S. to Do So

On Monday, Philadelphia announced that it would reinstate its indoor mask mandate, about a month after having eliminated it, making it the first major U.S. city to reinstate a mask mandate (NYT). The change came as cases in the city surged though they remained relatively low. Philadelphia’s health commissioner, Cheryl Bettigole, stated, “This is our chance to get ahead of the pandemic.” The New York Times writes, “She acknowledged that the average number of daily new cases, currently at 142, is still nowhere near what it was at the beginning of the year, when the Omicron variant was pushing the seven-day average to nearly 4,000. But she said that if the city failed to require masks now, ‘knowing that every previous wave of infections has been followed by a wave of hospitalizations, and then a wave of deaths, then it will be too late for many of our residents.’” This past week Philadelphia passed 5,000 total deaths from Covid.

Military Covid Response Wraps Up, as Pentagon Shifts to Preparing for Next Pandemic

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. military’s response to the Covid pandemic is wrapping up and the Pentagon is now assessing lessons from the effort and preparing for future pandemics (AP). The AP writes, “last week the last military medical team that had been deployed for the pandemic finished its stint at the University of Utah Hospital and headed home,” adding, “Overall, about 24,000 U.S. troops were deployed for the pandemic, including nearly 6,000 medical personnel to hospitals and 5,000 to help administer vaccines. Many did multiple tours. That mission is over, at least for now.” General Glen VanHerck, United States Northern Command commander, stated that the military response “morphed over time.” The AP notes that at first the military role was focused on medical ships, but many of the ships’ beds ended up going unused. The AP reports, “A more agile approach emerged: having military medical personnel step in for exhausted hospital staff members or work alongside them or in additional treatment areas in unused spaces.”

Facing Tough Polling, Democrats Seek a Midterms Strategy

The Wall Street Journal reports that amid tough polling numbers for President Biden, Democrats are seeking to determine a messaging strategy for the upcoming midterm elections this November (WSJ). Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) stated, “We’ve done so much,” adding, “But the Covid hangover and inflation make it harder to talk about those really big things.” The Journal notes, “A recent ad from the House Majority PAC, a political-action committee that supports Democrats, outlined the message the party wants to hit, stressing economic gains with jobs and wages and efforts to bring down the cost of gasoline and prescription drugs. ‘Democrats are getting things done to create jobs and lower costs,’ a narrator says.” As we have covered in prior briefs, the emerging Republican strategy has identified inflation as a major pressure point for the administration and Congressional Democrats.

Pelosi Tests Negative, Will Exit Isolation

On Monday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced via Twitter that she had received a negative test for Covid and will be exiting isolation, having tested positive last week (Hill). She wrote, “Today, happily I tested negative for COVID. Tomorrow, I will be exiting isolation at the direction of the Capitol’s Attending Physician and consistent with CDC guidelines for asymptomatic individuals. Many thanks to everyone for their good wishes, chocolates and chicken soup.” As we covered in yesterday’s brief, Pelosi was among those who tested positive after attending the Gridiron Dinner, an event which appears to have fueled a wave of cases among D.C.’s elite.

Bonus Read: “Andrew Giuliani is test-driving his father’s legacy in New York,” (WaPo).

U.S. Economy

Home Builders Bypass Individual Buyers in Favor of Investors

The Wall Street Journal reports that while individual buyers remain the majority of buyers of new homes, home builders are increasingly selling homes to investors amid pandemic-era price increases (WSJ). The Journal writes, “More than one in every four houses purchased by a professional rental investor in the fourth quarter last year was a new-construction house, according to a report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting LLC and the National Rental Home Council, a landlord trade group. Brand new homes were just 3% of what these investors bought during the third quarter in 2019.” For builders, selling to investors in bulk tends to be preferable to selling to individuals.

U.S. Society

Bonus Read: “Student-Loan Pause: How to Take Advantage of Extra Four Months,” (WSJ).

Retirees Return to Work Amid Inflation

The Wall Street Journal reports that rising inflation is pushing some retirees back into the workforce (WSJ). Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US LLP told the Journal, “We’re beginning to see the migration of the older cohort who expected to live on fixed income in a low interest-rate and low inflation environment,” adding, “Really what you’re dealing with is an inflationary shock that has elicited a change in behavior.” Labor Department data showed that “the share of people age over 55 either working or looking for a job—their labor-force participation rate—rose to 38.9% in March from 38.4% in October.”

Bonus Read: “DC man steals over $2 million in COVID-19 funding,” (WTOP).

Analysis & Arguments

Paul Krugman argues that people are too pessimistic on the economy (NYT).

Ruth Milkman writes on the Amazon unionization vote as a historic breakthrough (Dissent). Ashlynn Chand writes, based on undercover reporting, of the challenges that faced another Amazon warehouse unionization push (Jacobin).

Peter Spiliakos assesses Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign potential via comparisons and contrasts with Scott Walker’s run (National Review).

The Washington Post profiles White House Coronavirus Czar Ashish Jha (WaPo).

Leana Wen writes the Gridiron Dinner was a super-spreader event, but that it may also be the kind of event that should be expected with a living with the virus approach (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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