No images? Click here
Click here to subscribe to the daily brief.
November 8, 2021 - Brief Issue 259
The Coronavirus Daily Brief is a daily news and analysis roundup edited by New America’s International Security Program and Arizona State University.
Please consider making a donation to support our ongoing analysis of the most important news and headlines surrounding Covid-19.
Top Headlines
Britain Becomes First Country to Authorize Pill to Treat Covid (Health & Science)
New Coronavirus from Dogs Infects People Around the World (Health & Science)
Global Cases Hit 250 Million, Europe Reemerges as Epicenter (Around the World)
Britain's Health Secretary Pushes Boosters (Around the World)
Indonesia Starts Boosters with Only 50% Fully Vaccinated (Around the World)
Japan Logs Zero Covid-19 Deaths for First Time in 15 Months (Around the World)
With Border Opening Today, Separated Families Prepare to Travel (U.S. Government & Politics)
Surgeon General Defends Vaccine Mandate, As Court Temporarily Blocks the Policy (U.S. Government & Politics)
U.S. Added 531,000 Jobs in October (U.S. Economy)
Evictions Rising (U.S. Economy)
Big Businesses Box Out Small Businesses Amid Supply Chain Crisis (U.S. Economy)
Some Workplaces Relax Masking Rules (U.S. Society)
Health & Science
There have been 46,488,417 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 754,431 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 430,927,624 vaccine doses, with 67.4% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 58.4% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 80.6% have received at least one dose, and 70.1% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). 12.4% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 250,005,427 cases of coronavirus, with 5,051,520 deaths.
Britain Becomes First Country to Authorize Pill to Treat Covid
Britain became the first country to authorize the use of an antiviral pill to treat Covid-19 last week when it approved pharmaceutical company Merck’s drug molnupiravir. The pill, which is an easy-to-use at-home treatment, was shown in a clinical trial to reduce the risk of hospitalizations and death in high-risk Covid patients by half (NYT). Compared to the treatments currently in use, like monoclonal antibodies, which are typically administered intravenously at a hospital, Merck’s pill would be able to reach many more patients. Britain’s health regulator said the pill should be prescribed immediately after a positive Covid test in vulnerable populations and within five days of the onset of symptoms. A full course of treatment is 40 pills over five days. Britain has ordered enough doses of the drug for 480,000 people.
Also last week, Merck said it had made deals with the U.S., Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Serbia, and Singapore. The drug could be made available in the U.S. as soon as December if the panel of experts currently scheduled to meet at the end of November recommend its authorization to the FDA. The U.S. ordered enough doses to treat 1.7 million patients at a cost of about $700 per person. Bonus Read: “Opinion: The promise of a pill: New vistas appear in the fight against covid-19,” (WaPo).
New Coronavirus from Dogs Infects People Around the World
In a study published in early November in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Dr. John Lednicky and his colleagues report finding a canine coronavirus that is infecting people in Haiti to be 99.4% identical to a virus found in Malaysia. The virus was previously reported by scientists at Duke University in May 2021 when they published a study about finding the virus in children at a Malaysian hospital (NPR). The researchers from Duke found the virus, which likely originated in dogs based on its genetic sequence, was present in the upper respiratory tract of 3% of over 300 patients they tested in 2017 and 2018. Dr. Lednicky and his colleagues detected the virus in urine samples collected from healthcare workers that had returned from volunteering at a clinic in Haiti in 2017. At the time the samples were collected, officials believed the healthcare workers could be suffering from Zika, which was circulating in the country. Fast forward to this year, when Lednicky and his team identified the virus that was in the 2017 urine samples as the same virus that had been circulating among children in Malaysia at the same time. Scientists were puzzled: how did a seemingly isolated incident of a virus that jumped from dogs to humans happen again halfway around the world at the same time? "There's a temporal sequence here. These two viruses — which are very, very similar — have been detected in a similar time frame but in widely separated regions of the world," said Linda Saif, a virologist at Ohio State who was not involved in either study (NPR). She hypothesizes that the virus is circulating at low levels in people in many parts of the world but has so far gone undetected. If that’s true, it would make this canine coronavirus the eighth coronavirus known to spread among humans.
Bonus Read: “The vaccine countdown In Washington state, a mandate, an approaching deadline, and a hospital staff deeply divided over whether to comply,” (WaPo).
Around the World
Global Cases Hit 250 Million, Europe Reemerges as Epicenter
On Monday global Covid-19 cases surpassed 250 million since the beginning of the pandemic, even as the daily average number of cases has fallen by 36% over the past three months (Reuters). The virus, particularly the Delta variant, is infecting 50 million people every 90 days; by contrast, it took nearly a year to record the first 50 million Covid-19 cases.
In 55 out of 240 countries, infections are still rising. More than half of all new infections reported worldwide were from countries in Europe. Last week, the World Health Organization said Europe was again the epicenter of the pandemic, with the region reporting an average of more than 30 new cases a day per 100,000 people -- a rate that has almost doubled since September (NYT). Hans Kluge, the W.H.O.’s director for the 53 countries in its European region, told reporters, “We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence,” adding, “Europe is back at the epicenter of the pandemic — where we were one year ago.” Covid-related deaths are also increasing. “If we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million Covid-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year,” Dr. Kluge said
Last week, cases in Germany reached a record high of 33,949 new infections in a day. About 67% of Germany’s residents are fully vaccinated. Russia, Ukraine, and Greece are at or near record levels of reported cases. Eastern Europe has the lowest vaccination rate in the region.
Still, experts are optimistic that the worst of the pandemic is over. "We think between now and the end of 2022, this is the point where we get control over this virus ... where we can significantly reduce severe disease and death," Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist leading the World Health Organization, told Reuters.
Britain's Health Secretary Pushes Boosters
On Sunday, Sajid Javid, Britain's health secretary, urged eligible residents to get booster shots of the coronavirus vaccine in hopes of reducing pressure on the country’s healthcare system during the winter. Around ten million people have received booster shots so far and millions more will be invited to book appointments in the next few weeks. “If we all come together and play our part, we can get through this challenging winter, avoid a return to restrictions and enjoy Christmas,” said Javid.
Indonesia Starts Boosters with Only 50% Fully Vaccinated
Indonesia is planning to administer booster shots to the general public after half of its population has been fully vaccinated, the health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced on Monday (Reuters). As of this week, Indonesia -- the world’s fourth most populous country -- has vaccinated 29% of its 270 million people. Budi said the government will prioritize the elderly and the poor who are insured by the government. The rest of the population may have to pay for the shots.
Japan Logs Zero Covid-19 Deaths for First Time in 15 Months
On Sunday Japan recorded no daily deaths from Covid-19. It is the first time in more than a year that the country has not had any Covid-19-related deaths. On Saturday there were three deaths. Vaccinations in the country have risen to include over 70% of the population and, as a result, case numbers and deaths have fallen dramatically. The government is planning to begin administering booster shots in December (Reuters).
U.S. Government & Politics
With Border Opening Today, Separated Families Prepare to Travel
The U.S. will lift its pandemic-related travel ban on 33 countries today, Monday, and families who have been separated by the restrictions are preparing to travel (WaPo, NYT). The Washington Post spoke to one such family, the Wests. The Post explains, “Chris West and his wife, Alex, are British citizens with American work visas. If they left the United States under the current travel restrictions, they couldn’t easily reenter.” As a result their now-three-year-old child Lyla West has not seen her British grandparents since she was only one, a fact that will change on the 14th thanks to the relaxed restrictions. The New York Times spoke to others who have been similarly separated by the travel restrictions.
Surgeon General Defends Vaccine Mandate, As Court Temporarily Blocks the Policy
On Sunday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy defended the Biden administration’s federal vaccine mandate, following a court ruling temporarily blocking the policy (Politico, NYT). Murthy told ABC’s “This Week,” that “The president and the administration wouldn't have put these requirements in place if they didn't think they were appropriate and necessary,” adding, “the administration is certainly prepared to defend them.” Politico explains the current challenge to the mandate, writing, “The OSHA mandate, which would compel businesses with at least 100 employees to require the Covid vaccine for those workers or test those employees on a weekly basis, has drawn legal challenges from more than half the states. The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday temporarily blocked the mandate, saying: ‘The petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate.’ The court gave the U.S. government until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to the plaintiffs' request for a permanent injunction.”
Bonus Read: “Nearing Monday coronavirus vaccine deadline, thousands of federal workers seek religious exemptions to avoid shots,” (WaPo).
U.S. Economy
Bonus Read: “The Economic Rebound From Covid-19 Was Easy. Now Comes the Hard Part,” (WSJ).
U.S. Added 531,000 Jobs in October
On Friday, the Department of Labor released data showing that U.S. employment is rebounding strongly from the impact of the pandemic, adding 531,000 jobs in October (WSJ). The gain is the largest in three months. The Wall Street Journal writes, “The unemployment rate fell to 4.6% in October from 4.8% a month earlier, and is down by more than half a percentage point in just two months.” The increase in employment also saw a “modest” increase in the number of women hired. The Journal writes, “About 180,000 female workers aged 16 and older joined the labor force in October, as Covid-19 cases declined and schools reopened. Economists say women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic because many work in fields that involve human interaction, such as teaching.” However, the job market overall has still not recovered from the pandemic’s impact, and is 4 million jobs short of where it was in February 2020.
Evictions Rising
After the Supreme Court ruled the Biden administration’s extension of the federal eviction ban unconstitutional in August, many feared a sudden spike in evictions, which did not show up in data in the first months after the ruling. However, the New York Times reports that evictions are now increasing across the country in a “more gradual eviction crisis that is increasingly hitting communities across the country, especially those where the distribution of federal rental assistance has been slow, and where tenants have few protections” (NYT). The Times writes, “While the number of eviction filings remained at nearly half of prepandemic averages during the first two weeks of October, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, in the 31 cities and six states it tracks, the filings are also increasing. In the first two weeks of September, just after the moratorium ended, eviction filings increased by 10 percent from the first two weeks of August. In the first two weeks of October, evictions increased by nearly 14 percent from the first two weeks of the previous month.” Peter Hepburn, a researcher at the Eviction Lab, told the Times, “In places that don’t have protections, these numbers are increasing pretty quickly.” Meanwhile, Lee Camp, an attorney representing people facing eviction in St. Louis, told the Times, “For months we all used these terms like eviction ‘tsunami’ and ‘falling off the cliff,” cautioning that language may not have captured the real crisis, adding , “It was not going to happen overnight. Certainly it would take weeks and months to play out.”
Big Businesses Box Out Small Businesses Amid Supply Chain Crisis
The Washington Post reports that big businesses are further expanding their dominance over small businesses amid supply chain disruptions partially tied to the pandemic (WaPo). The Post writes, “Small retailers and manufacturers, already crushed by large national brands during the pandemic, are being disproportionately walloped by delays, shortages and other supply chain disruptions ahead of the holidays. In many cases, they’re losing out to giants like Walmart and Amazon, which are spending millions to charter their own ships and planes to move merchandise. Independent shop owners, who have no such recourse, say they’re often the last in line for products because manufacturers prioritize larger, more lucrative contracts.” The Post notes that many small businesses had already been forced to close by the pandemic even as big chains like Walmart, Target, Costco and Amazon saw record profits.
Bonus Read: “Stockouts Are Piling Up. Retailers Push Substitutes to Avoid Empty Holiday Carts,” (WSJ).
U.S. Society
Some Workplaces Relax Masking Rules
The Wall Street Journal reports that as Covid cases fall and vaccination rates increase, some workplaces are relaxing their mask mandates (WSJ). The workplaces include major companies. The Journal writes, “With Apple announcing plans Friday to drop masking requirements at many U.S. stores and major employers like Amazon.com Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. recently relaxing certain employee mask guidelines, some workers are questioning the need for a pandemic measure long framed as a necessary inconvenience.”
Bonus Read: “Many women have left the workforce. When will they return?” (AP).
Analysis & Arguments
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.
Read previous briefs here and stream and subscribe to our weekly podcast here.
About New America
New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals. Read the rest of our story, or see what we've been doing recently in our latest Annual Report.
Help us to continue advancing policy solutions and journalism by making a donation to New America.