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June 13, 2022 - Brief Issue 335
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
New Study Documents Cat-to-Human Coronavirus Transmission (Health & Science)
WHO Report Says More Data Needed on Virus' Origins (Health & Science)
“Explosive” Outbreak in Beijing and Mass Testing in Shanghai (Around the World)
India’s Opposition Leader Hospitalized with ‘Covid-Related Issues’ (Around the World)
WTO Ministers Gather in Geneva to Discuss Impact of Pandemic and War (Around the World)
U.S. Lifts Testing Requirement for Entry (U.S. Government & Politics)
Inflation Increased 8.6% in May (U.S. Economy)
Health & Science
There have been 85,515,980 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 1,011,277 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 590,999,136 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. 24.7% of Americans aged 50 or older have received a second booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 535,319,747 cases of coronavirus, with 6,309,616 deaths.
New Study Documents Cat-to-Human Coronavirus Transmission
The first documented case of suspected cat-to-human transmission of the coronavirus has been reported in a new study by scientists at Thailand’s Prince of Songkla University. The cat’s two owners had Covid-19 and probably passed the virus to the cat, who then sneezed in its veterinarian’s face and passed the virus on to the veterinarian. Scientists confirmed the transmission using genomic sequencing that showed the cat and all three people were infected with an identical version of the virus (NYT). Scientists say that the risk of cat-to-human transmission is low and that cats are far more likely to catch the virus from people than to pass it on to them.
WHO Report Says More Data Needed on Virus' Origins
A team of international experts assembled by the World Health Organization to advise on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic released its first report on Thursday and said that bats likely carried an ancestor of the virus that could have spilled into mammals sold at a wildlife market. But the team said more data from China was needed to understand how the virus spread to people (NYT). According to the Times, “Chinese scientists had shared information with [the team], including from unpublished studies, on two occasions. But gaps in Chinese reports made it difficult to determine when and where the outbreak emerged.”
China has stalled the publication of most information that would suggest the virus emerged within its borders. Lawrence Gostin, who directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said ““The lack of political cooperation from China continues to stifle any meaningful progress,” but noted that the report can still be a road map for investigating future pandemics in other countries.
Bonus Read: “How Long Does Covid Immunity Last? Will a Second Illness Be Worse? How Can I Prepare?” (NYT).
Around the World
“Explosive” Outbreak in Beijing and Mass Testing in Shanghai
China’s capital Beijing is experiencing an “explosive” outbreak of coronavirus cases connected to a bar, a government spokesman said on Saturday. "The recent outbreak ... is strongly explosive in nature and widespread in scope," Xu Hejian, spokesperson of the Beijing municipal government, told a news briefing. Authorities in Beijing said that they had discovered 61 new cases of Covid-19 in the city on Friday and all had either visited the Heaven Supermarket Bar or had links to it (Reuters).
In Shanghai, mass testing began over the weekend after a number of cases were tied to a hair salon. Nearly all of the city’s 25 million residents began a new round of Covid tests as authorities ordered PCR testing for residents in 15 of the city’s 16 districts over the weekend. Officials said there were three new confirmed local cases and one asymptomatic case as of Saturday.
India’s Opposition Leader Hospitalized with ‘Covid-Related Issues’
Sonia Gandhi, the president of the opposition Indian National Congress party, has been hospitalized in Delhi with “covid-related issues,” the party announced on Sunday. Gandhi is in stable condition. She tested positive for the coronavirus on June 2. The New York Times writes that “She was thrust into politics following the assassinations of both her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, and her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, and in the 2010s was frequently ranked one of the most powerful women in the world.”
WTO Ministers Gather in Geneva to Discuss Impact of Pandemic and War
Trade ministers with the World Trade Organization are meeting in Geneva this week to discuss the continued economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. It will be the first meeting of top officials from WTO member countries since 2017. In addition to discussions regarding food security, responding to the pandemic, and the depletion of global fishing stocks, many countries are eager to discuss an overhaul of the organization itself (WSJ). The organization has been caught up in policy feuds between nations and torn apart amidst a U.S.-China rivalry and has not delivered a new agreement since 2013. Founded in 1995 to promote free trade, the WTO has a staff of 600 and had an annual budget of roughly $200 million in 2021. But recently, “major economies like the U.S. and the European Union have shifted their focus away from globalization to so-called reshoring and friend-shoring—putting an emphasis on domestic production and trade with like-minded nations, to minimize supply-chain disruptions triggered by the pandemic and war,” notes the Wall Street Journal. “These developments have led many to conclude that global trade and multilateralism—two pillars of the WTO—are more threat than opportunity,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in an April speech at the National Foreign Trade Council Foundation.
U.S. Government & Politics
U.S. Lifts Testing Requirement for Entry
On Friday, U.S. health officials announced that the United States would no longer require a negative Covid test for people to fly to the United States - the change took effect on Sunday (WaPo, NYT, CNN). A CDC order stated, “CDC has determined that travelers have access to tools (e.g., vaccines, therapeutics, and recommended prevention measures) and guidance that allow travelers to make informed choices about the use of pre-departure testing and other prevention measures.” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra stated, “The CDC continues to recommend COVID-19 testing prior to air travel of any kind and will not hesitate to reinstate a pre-departure testing requirement, if needed later.”
U.S. Economy
Bonus Read: “Chris Smalls’s Amazon uprising and the fight for a second warehouse,” (WaPo).
Inflation Increased 8.6% in May
Inflation increased 8.6% in May, according to data released by the Labor Department on Friday (WSJ). The number represents a four decade high. The Wall Street Journal writes, “The Labor Department on Friday said that the consumer-price index increased 8.6% in May from the same month a year ago, marking its fastest pace since December 1981. That was also up from April’s CPI reading, which was slightly below the previous 40-year high reached in March. The CPI measures what consumers pay for goods and services.” As we have covered in numerous briefs, the high-level of inflation, related in part to the pandemic, has had a range of economic impacts and has also become a major political issue.
Bonus Read: “Cruise-Line Pricing Is Lost at Sea,” (WSJ).
Analysis & Arguments
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