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June 15, 2022 - Brief Issue 337
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
Familiar Viruses Acting in Unfamiliar Ways During Pandemic (Health & Science)
FDA Advisors Recommend Authorizing Moderna Shot for Children 6 to 17, Voting Today on Vaccines for Youngest (Health & Science)
EU Pressures Pfizer to Cut Vaccine Supplies (Around the World)
China Uses Mass Testing to Continue Zero-Covid (Around the World)
Fed Likely to Consider a .75 Point Rate Increase (U.S. Economy)
Supplier Price Index Shows Accelerated Growth in May (U.S. Economy)
After Plunge, Stocks Stabilize in Bear Market Territory, But People Await Fed Decision (U.S. Economy)
Pandemic Brings “Never-Ending” Guilt and Efforts to Manage It (U.S. Society)
Health & Science
There have been 85,762,772 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 1,011,925 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 591,406,403 vaccine doses, with 78% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 66.8% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 89.4% have received at least one dose, and 76.7% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). 47.1% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a first booster shot. 25% of Americans aged 50 or older have received a second booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 536,723,042 cases of coronavirus, with 6,312,601 deaths.
Familiar Viruses Acting in Unfamiliar Ways During Pandemic
Viruses that usually cause seasonal illness, like the flu, seem to be knocked off balance by the coronavirus pandemic. RSV, for example, is a common virus that affects children, hospitalizing about 60,000 children under 5 each year. It can be deadly for premature and other high-risk infants (WaPo). But it is usually seasonal, with more cases occurring during the fall and winter months, so doctors developed a shot of monoclonal antibody to administer to high-risk children from around November through February. But last summer and this summer, RSV suddenly surged, worrying doctors that the decades-long rhythm of infection had been disrupted.
These out-of-season surges are being seen in other viruses, too, like influenza and rhinovirus, otherwise known as the common cold. The flu surged in December 2021 after being largely dormant in the winter of 2020, but it’s back now without one of its most common lineages, known as Yamagata. That line hasn’t been identified since early 2020; experts aren’t sure if it has gone extinct or is simply waiting to attack weakened immune systems. Some believe that the coronavirus pushed it out of play. Public health experts believe that the extraordinary measures taken to limit exposure to the coronavirus also limited exposure to other viruses, weakening immune systems and preventing the normal exchange of viruses during the normal seasons. Now, with many people putting their masks aside and resuming normal activities, the viruses are back.
FDA Advisors Recommend Authorizing Moderna Shot for Children 6 to 17, Voting Today on Vaccines for Youngest
On Tuesday an expert committee advising the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for use in children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 (NYT). The FDA is expected to follow the panel’s advice and grant emergency authorization. Today, Wednesday, the committee is scheduled to vote on whether to recommend Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to children under 5.
Around the World
EU Pressures Pfizer to Cut Vaccine Supplies
EU member states are hoping to renegotiate their contracts with Pfizer and other Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers. With the pandemic having largely faded from the public consciousness and demand for vaccines waning, many EU member states are looking to re-negotiate costly vaccine contracts amid worries that much of the vaccine supply will remain unused. The push for renegotiating contracts is largely coming from Eastern member states, particularly Poland. The bloc’s Eastern member states have for the most part seen a lower uptake in Covid-19 vaccines than their Western and Northern counterparts (Reuters).
China Uses Mass Testing to Continue Zero-Covid
China hopes mass testing and requiring negative PCR tests to access public infrastructure will help clamp down on covid cases in the country. It is a resource-intensive strategy and there are questions as to its sustainability. Many local governments are struggling with the associated costs and the mass quarantining of neighborhoods on the basis of a single positive test, is fueling public frustration (NYT).
Bonus Read: “‘Zero covid’ has many in China dreaming of leaving,” (WaPo).
U.S. Economy
Fed Likely to Consider a .75 Point Rate Increase
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Federal Reserve is likely to consider a .75 percentage point increase in interest rates at its meeting this week, as it struggles to get inflation under control (WSJ). The Journal writes, “A string of troubling inflation reports in recent days is likely to lead Federal Reserve officials to consider surprising markets with a larger-than-expected 0.75-percentage-point interest-rate increase at their meeting this week. Before officials began their premeeting quiet period on June 4, they had signaled they were prepared to raise interest rates by a half percentage point this week and again at their meeting in July. But they also had said their outlook depended on the economy evolving as they expected. Last week’s inflation report from the Labor Department showed a bigger jump in prices in May than officials had anticipated.” The Journal writes, “A handful of Wall Street forecasters, including at investment banks Barclays and Jefferies, said Friday, after the inflation data were released, that they expected the Fed to raise rates by 0.75 percentage point this week.” Prior to the latest data, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed would avoid surprise increases, but the Journal notes that he “acknowledged the possibility of ‘further surprises’ in the inflation data. ‘We therefore will need to be nimble in responding to incoming data and the evolving outlook,’ he said.”
Supplier Price Index Shows Accelerated Growth in May
The growth of the price suppliers are charging accelerated in May, according to data released by the Department of Labor on Tuesday (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal writes, “The producer-price index, which measures what suppliers are charging businesses and other customers, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in May from the prior month, up from a 0.4% monthly gain in April, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Producer prices had moderated somewhat in April, after the March gain had been the highest since records began in 2010, pushed up by surging energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine.” The Journal also notes, “The so-called core price index—which excludes the often-volatile categories of food, energy and supplier margins—rose 0.5% after a 0.4% gain the prior month.”
After Plunge, Stocks Stabilize in Bear Market Territory, But People Await Fed Decision
The stock market somewhat stabilized on Tuesday, after plunging on Monday amid investor concerns over inflation (NYT, WSJ). The New York Times writes, “Stocks on Wall Street began trading on Tuesday with a modest gain, a day after a rush of selling pushed the S&P 500 into a bear market, leaving the index more than 20 percent below its recent peak. The index rose 0.3 percent in early trading, even as European markets reversed their own gains and sunk deeper into the red. Markets in the Asia-Pacific region had recovered from the worst of their declines Tuesday, but still ended lower.” The Wall Street Journal notes that early gains were short-lived. Colin Graham, head of multiasset strategy at Robeco, told the Journal, “I wouldn’t necessarily read a lot into a sort of mini reversal. Things got really oversold and now people are just going to wait for the Fed.”
U.S. Society
Pandemic Brings “Never-Ending” Guilt and Efforts to Manage It
The New York Times reports that the pandemic has brought struggles with what some people experience as “never-ending” pandemic related guilt (NYT). The Times points to one study that asserted, “The highly distressing, morally difficult, and cumulative nature of Covid-19 related stressors may be a perfect storm to result in a guilt and shame response (although the actual prevalence will not be known for some time).” The Times writes, “Feelings of guilt may be particularly prevalent among health care workers. An October survey of 14,000 health staff in the United Kingdom, including nurses and assistants, found that 51 percent had sought mental health support during the pandemic.” One nurse described their experience: “It was a nightmare — I felt guilty and helpless about not being able to do more. I couldn’t sleep and was very anxious.” The Times spoke to a range of experts about how people can manage such guilt and anxiety. Experts emphasized noting the difference between guilt and shame with the Times writing, “Experts draw a distinction between guilt and shame. Shame is the more insidious feeling of being defective and internalizing negative beliefs about yourself, whereas guilt stems from something we’ve done or failed to do, or from the act of comparing ourselves with others.” Sherry Cormier, a psychologist and bereavement trauma specialist, also told the Times, “The best way to get out of the guilt spiral is to do something concretely,” adding, “Because as long as we continue to think about the event or the situation that’s making us feel guilty, and we just brood about it, we’re going to keep living in guilt.”
Analysis & Arguments
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