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April 5, 2022 - Brief Issue 312

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 not publish on Wednesday, April 6. We will return on Thursday.

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Top Headlines

Australia Offers Second Booster (Health & Science)

D.C. Residents Over 50 Eligible for Second Booster (Health & Science)

Hong Kong Chief Executive Won’t Seek Second Term (Around the World)

Shanghai Extends Lockdown (Around the World)

Lawmakers Strike Deal on Covid Funds; Exclude Global Funding (U.S. Government & Politics)

Inflation Hits 40 Year Peak (U.S. Economy)

With Increased Child Vaccination, Some Divorced Parents Argue Over Plans (U.S. Economy)

Health & Science

There have been 81,495,644 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 997,127 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 562,435,301 vaccine doses, with 77% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 65.6% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 88.4% have received at least one dose, and 75.5% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). 45% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 493,680,960 cases of coronavirus, with 6,170,133 deaths.

Australia Offers Second Booster

On Monday Australia began providing a second booster vaccination to vulnerable people. The fourth dose will be available to people over the age of 65 who had their first booster more than four months ago, Indigenous Australians over 50, residents in disability care, and people who are immunocompromised (NYT). Officials said there are no plans to introduce a fourth vaccine dose for other segments of the population. Over four million people will be eligible for the fourth dose. 

D.C. Residents Over 50 Eligible for Second Booster 

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that residents over the age of 50 and people who are immunocompromised can now receive a second booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine (WUSA9). According to a  statement from the mayor's office, any eligible individual who received their first booster shot on or before Nov. 30 are eligible to receive a booster shot. The mayor’s office said that people who got the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine before Nov. 30 should receive a second dose of either of these vaccines, while an adult who "received a primary vaccine and booster dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine on or before" Nov. 30 should get a second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. 

Around the World

Hong Kong Chief Executive Won’t Seek Second Term

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced on Monday that she would not be seeking a second term in office. Lam’s term expires June 30. At a news conference, she said her decision not to run was based on family considerations. She said she had informed China’s central government of her decision and that she had faced great pressure by the interference of “foreign forces” in Hong Kong’s affairs as well as the onslaught of Covid-19, but praised Beijing for its “staunch support” (WSJ). Lam’s five-year tenure was marked by political upheaval and a return of the once-autonomous territory to Beijing’s political umbrella (WaPo). Recently, Lam’s government has struggled to contain its biggest wave of Covid-19 to date and has imposed restrictions on gatherings and closing some businesses. The strict border controls that have been in place for most of the pandemic have also hampered the city’s economy and hurt its reputation as a global finance hub as many foreign corporate workers left (NYT). 

Shanghai Extends Lockdown

Shanghai extended its lockdown measures on Monday, which was meant to be the last day of the lockdown, as authorities carried out mass testing of all 25 million residents. The municipal government said the lockdown would continue until authorities could fully evaluate the situation and review the results of the mass-testing effort (WSJ). Initially, the lockdown was to happen in two phases in which half the city’s residents would be confined to their homes at a time depending on which side of the Huangpu River they lived. But now, residents on both sides of the river must remain at home until further notice. Thousands of military and healthcare workers were sent to Shanghai to carry out the mass testing and state media showed workers arriving by train, bus, and airplane (Reuters, NYT).  Shanghai reported a record 9,006 Covid cases Monday out of 13,137 new domestic infections nationwide. 

Taiwan Relaxes Quarantine Rules

On Sunday, Taiwan announced that asymptomatic newly infected people no longer have to be quarantined for ten days after being tested (NYT). The New York Times writes, “Chen Shih-chung, Taiwan’s health minister, said in a press briefing on Sunday that the island’s health experts had examined the 1,530 locally transmitted cases confirmed from Jan. 1 through Saturday and found that 99.8 percent were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.” According to Taiwanese officials about 78% of the population is fully vaccinated.

German Man Gets 90 Covid Shots in Covid Pass Fraud Attempt

A 60-year-old man, whose name has not been released, reportedly received as many as 90 Covid vaccination shots, a feat he accomplished as part of an alleged plan to obtain and sell fraudulent Covid vaccination cards (AP). The AP reports that the man is  “said to have received up to 90 shots against COVID-19 at vaccination centers in the eastern state of Saxony for months until criminal police caught him this month, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday. The suspect was not detained but is under investigation for unauthorized issuance of vaccination cards and document forgery, dpa reported.” He was arrested when he showed up at a vaccination site in Eilenburg in Saxony, having already gone there the day before. The AP notes, “It was not immediately clear what impact the approximately 90 shots of COVID-19 vaccines, which were from different brands, had on the man’s personal health.”

U.S. Government & Politics

Lawmakers Strike Deal on Covid Funds; Exclude Global Funding

On Monday Senators announced a deal on a $10 billion coronavirus aid package that will include additional aid for domestic testing, vaccination, and treatment but did not include the billions of dollars for the global vaccination effort that earlier versions had (NYT). Under the agreement, $5 billion will be put towards therapeutics and $750 million will go to research and clinical trials to prepare for future variants. The rest of the funds will be used for vaccines and testing efforts. 

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah announced the deal. In a statement, Schumer said that President Biden supported the agreement, even though it was less than half of the White House’s original $22.5 billion request. “This $10 billion Covid package will give the federal government — and our citizens — the tools we need to continue our economic recovery, keep schools open and keep American families safe,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “While this emergency injection of additional funding is absolutely necessary, it is well short of what is truly needed to keep us safe from the Covid-19 virus over the long-term.”

States Ready to Live with Covid, But Their Plans Require Funding

Politico reports that many states are increasingly adopting strategies that seek to live with the coronavirus while minimizing restrictions, but to implement such strategies they will require federal funding that has been stalled (Politico). Politico writes, “A POLITICO review of more than a half dozen preparedness plans reveals how reliant states remain on the federal government to fund vaccination, testing and treatments for the uninsured and to support manufacturing those key Covid-fighting tools.” Arkansas Secretary of Health José Romero told Politico, “They’re cutting the legs out from under a solid Covid response in the future” while Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, stated, “We are well positioned, but not if somehow we can’t get our act together and come to a consensus on a way to continue to have some funding for this.”

U.S. Economy

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Big Risks for U.S. Economy

On Monday, in his annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned of significant risks to the U.S. economy citing in particular the potential combination of pandemic-driven inflation with the impact of the war in Ukraine (WSJ). Referring to these factors, Dimon wrote, “They present completely different circumstances than what we’ve experienced in the past—and their confluence may dramatically increase the risks ahead.” He added, “While it is possible, and hopeful, that all of these events will have peaceful resolutions, we should prepare for the potential negative outcomes.”

Inflation Hits 40 Year Peak

On Thursday, the Department of Commerce released new data showing that inflation had reached its highest point in four decades, according to the measure preferred by the Federal Reserve (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal writes, “personal-consumption-expenditures price index climbed 6.4% in February from a year ago, faster than the 6% increase for the year that ended in January. The February rise was the fastest since 1982,” adding, “The so-called core PCE price index, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, rose 5.4% in February from a year before, compared with the 5.2% increase for the year through January. That marks the sharpest 12-month rise since 1983.” 

Bonus Read: “COVID weighing less and less on the U.S. job market,” (Reuters).

U.S. Society

With Increased Child Vaccination, Some Divorced Parents Argue Over Plans

The New York Times reports that as children are increasingly vaccinated, some families with divorced parents are arguing over their vaccination status and plans (NYT). The Times reports on some cases of such disputes. In one case, the Times writes, “In late 2021, Adele Grote, a divorced mother of two in Minneapolis, took her children to a vaccination clinic at the Mall of America. But when her 13-year-old daughter called her father to let him know they were getting the shot, Ms. Grote knew they would have to leave without it.” The Times adds, “Ms. Grote, who wants to vaccinate her children, while her ex-spouse does not, has been divorced since 2019. She and her ex share custody of their daughter and 11-year-old son. As a nurse in an intensive care unit, Ms. Grote has cared for many critically ill Covid-19 patients, but her children remain unvaccinated, a status, she said, that is a result of how her custody proceedings continue to unfold in family court.” The Times writes that in most cases divorced parents agree about vaccination, but adds, “But when they do not, the battle is part of a new pandemic front in divorce custody battles, one that is poised to expand with the imminent approval of vaccines for children under 5.” The Times notes, “The American Academy of Pediatrics does not have an official stance on vaccinating children in situations of custodial disputes, said Dr. Tiffany Kimbrough, an A.A.P. member and medical director of the mother-infant unit of the medical center at Virginia Commonwealth University. (They do, however, state, ‘It is prudent for the physician to inquire about marital status and custody issues when relevant’ in this 2017 report.)”

Analysis & Arguments

Elisabeth Rosenthal writes on the harm via lost insurance that could come with ending the Covid emergency (NYT).

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The Brief is edited by David Sterman and Emily Schneider with Senior Editor Peter Bergen.

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