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January 27, 2022 - Brief Issue 281

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

Omicron, Global Vaccination Gap Could Lead to Another Variant (Health & Science)

A New Version of Omicron (Health & Science)

Biological Factors Could Increase Chances of Long Covid (Health & Science)

Europe is a Mix When it Comes to Restrictions (Around the World)

South Korea Shifts its Testing Strategy (Around the World)

Iran Sees Jump in Cases (Around the World)

Survey: Fewer Than 50% of Americans Confident in Biden Pandemic Response (U.S. Government & Politics)

Rapid Test Demand Boosts Manufacturer Abbott’s Sales (U.S. Economy)

NYC Schools Shorten Isolation Period to Five Days (U.S. Society)

Health & Science

There have been 72,910,879 coronavirus cases in the United States, and 876,066 people have died (Johns Hopkins). The United States has administered 537,171,553 vaccine doses, with 75.8% of all Americans having received at least one vaccine dose and 63.5% fully vaccinated. Among adults aged 18 or older 87.6% have received at least one dose, and 73.9% are fully vaccinated (U.S. CDC). 40.4% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster shot. Worldwide, there have been 362,861,458 cases of coronavirus, with 5,628,146 deaths.

Omicron, Global Vaccination Gap Could Lead to Another Variant

The coronavirus wave driven by the Omicron variant could be nearing the peak in North America and Europe but less-vaccinated regions are still seeing cases rising. The World Health Organization warns that the global surge combined with the vaccination gap could leave the door open for another dangerous variant (NYT). “The fact remains that more than three billion people haven’t received their first dose yet, so we have a long way to go,” said Dr. Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said in a livestream hosted on Tuesday, noting that about 21 million cases were reported to the agency last week. “There are many countries still in the middle of this Omicron wave.” The New York Times writes: “New daily cases remain at record highs globally, averaging about 3.3 million — an increase of more than 25 percent over two weeks and a staggering rise compared with a rate of about 600,000 a day in early December, according to according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Cases have continued to rise in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.”

A New Version of Omicron

A new version of the highly contagious omicron variant, known as BA.2,  is now spreading in parts of Asia and Europe. The new version is a descendant of the Omicron variant and officials are beginning to investigate its characteristics. “The BA. 2 descendant lineage, which differs from BA. 1 in some of the mutations, including in the spike protein, is increasing in many countries,” the WHO wrote on its website. “Investigations into the characteristics of BA. 2, including immune escape properties and virulence, should be prioritized independently (and comparatively) to BA. 1.” So far, there is no evidence that BA. 2 is more virulent or more transmissible or escapes immunity better than BA. 1. BA. 2 has been detected in India, Denmark, Britain, and at least three cases have been identified in the United States.

Biological Factors Could Increase Chances of Long Covid 

A team of researchers have followed 200 patients for two to three months after their positive diagnoses and have identified biological factors that could predict whether a person will develop long Covid (NYT). The study, which was published on Tuesday by the journal Cell, found four factors that could be identified in the person’s coronavirus infection that seemed to correlate with an increased risk of lasting symptoms weeks later. Those factors, writes the Times, are: “the level of coronavirus RNA in the blood early in the infection; the presence of certain antibodies that mistakenly attack tissues in the body; the reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus; and Type 2 diabetes.” The research shows “the importance of doing measurements early in the disease course to figure out how to treat patients, even if we don’t really know how we’re going to use all that information yet,” said Jim Heath, the principal investigator of the study and president of the Institute for Systems Biology, a nonprofit biomedical research organization in Seattle.

Around the World

Europe is a Mix When it Comes to Restrictions

When it comes to coronavirus-related restrictions, Europe is a mixed bag. Some governments are easing restrictions even as cases rise while others are clamping down in another attempt to control the spread of the virus.Austria is ending its restrictions for unvaccinated people; England is abandoning its “war footing” approach; the Netherlands is relaxing its restrictions after introducing some of the strictest ones on the continent in December (NYT). Denmark and France have also announced this week that restrictions will begin easing next month. German lawmakers are discussing a proposal for a Covid vaccine mandate in Parliament. Poland has increased testing and schools have switched to remote learning until the end of February for older students. 

South Korea Shifts its Testing Strategy

Health officials in Korea announced on Wednesday that a new testing strategy would be implemented that targets high-risk groups for early detection and treatment (NYT). Rapid antigen tests will be administered to low-risk groups while PCR, polymerase chain reaction, tests would be given to high=risk groups, including those over 60 years old and people with underlying health problems. Until now, PCR tests were available to everyone. The change is a response to the Omicron variant and rising case numbers. On Wednesday, the country recorded its highest number of daily cases with 13,012, up from 8,571 cases on Tuesday. 

Iran Sees Jump in Cases

Iran is experiencing an alarming rise in covid-19 infections again as the Omicron variant sweeps across the country. The country classified the central province of Yazd as red on Wednesday, which is the highest level of alarm (Al Jazeera). As of Monday, officials said there were 3,466 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant and there is concern that the 10-day celebrations over the anniversary of the 1970 Islamic revolution, which starts Feb. 1, will contribute to the spread of the variant. Officials are urging people to get vaccinated as soon as possible. “It’s our emphatic suggestion that in the short weeks-long time left to the next coronavirus peak, people complete their vaccination so they will face limited threats,” Hamidreza Jamaati, head of the scientific committee of the national anti-coronavirus task force, told semi-official ISNA news website this week.

U.S. Government & Politics

Survey: Fewer Than 50% of Americans Confident in Biden Pandemic Response

According to a national survey by the Pew Research Center found that fewer than half of Americans are very or somewhat confident in President Biden’s handling of the pandemic response (WaPo). The survey was conducted from January 10 to January 17. The Post writes that the survey found “44 percent of Americans said they were very or somewhat confident in the president’s ability to handle the public health impact of the pandemic, a drop of 21 percentage points since March 2021.” Biden’s overall approval rating also fell 14 points. The Post notes, “Poll respondents were nearly evenly split on whether they thought the worst of the pandemic was over, with 49 percent responding in the affirmative and 50 percent saying “the worst is still to come.”

DeSantis, Other Conservatives Criticize FDA Decision on Monoclonal Antibodies

On Monday, Florida’s Republican Governor and rumored potential contender for the 2024 Republican nomination Ron DeSantis criticized the FDA’s decision to end Emergency Use Authorizations for monoclonal antibody treatments made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly (WaPo). As we covered in yesterday’s brief, the FDA decided on Monday to revoke the authorization because of data showing the treatments were not effective against the Omicron variant and that the Omicron variant is the overwhelmingly dominant variant behind cases in the United States at the moment. DeSantis contended that the decision “forced medical pros to choose treating their patients or breaking the law.” He added, “Without a shred of clinical data to support its decision, the Biden Administration has revoked the emergency use authorization for lifesaving monoclonal antibody treatments.” The Washington Post writes, “DeSantis’s criticism has been cheered and echoed by many on the right, including Fox News’s Sean Hannity.” The Post also notes that a DeSantis spokeswoman made even stronger claims, embracing conspiracies around the decision, writing, “DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw on Monday night even promoted a claim by a conservative conspiracy theorist that ‘FDA is trying to make it so that people in Florida die of Covid. They’ll kill people to harm Republicans.’ By Tuesday morning, she promoted another baseless claim that the decision was made ‘so Fauci-Pfizer can get a few extra points in the stock market.’”

Judge Grants Stay, Allowing New York Mask Mandate to Continue

On Tuesday, an appeals court judge issued a stay, temporarily blocking a lower court’s ruling that New York state’s mask mandate violated the state constitution by exceeding the executive’s authority to impose a mandate without the legislature (NYT). The stay will allow the mandate to remain in effect as the New York Attorney General’s office appeals the original decision, blocking the mandate’s implementation, which we covered in yesterday’s brief. The Times reports, “The ruling on Monday had injected a jolt of uncertainty across the state at a time when New York is grappling with the tail end of a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. It left parents and teachers scrambling on Tuesday to decipher whether children would be required to wear masks in schools, and it revived political flash points over mask wearing.

While officials said the ruling affected only the state mask rule and did not supersede any local or federal rules around masking, state officials had scrambled on Monday night to let hundreds of school districts know that they should continue to follow the mask rule while the legal issues were ironed out.”

Tenant Advocates Dub New York Governor “Evictor in Chief”

Tenant advocates in New York have upped the pressure on New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, dubbing her the “Evictor in Chief” and “Governor of Evictions” at recent rallies in Manhattan (Politico). Politico writes, “one of her main primary opponents, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, joined the tenant groups to slam Hochul’s handling of the issue, while pledging his support for the activist-backed legislation, known as “good cause” eviction. The measure would prevent certain evictions and effectively limit rent increases across the state — and it’s been seized on by tenant groups as one way to blunt the consequences of the moratorium lifting.” At a recent rally, Williams stated, “We have a governor who either doesn’t understand the magnitude of the housing crisis in the state or does not have the capability or courage to address it.” He added, “You cannot allow a moratorium to lapse in the middle of winter, during a Covid surge, and not even pass ‘good cause.’” Politico notes that these issues may pose a challenge for Hochul who will have to defend her stances against left wing criticism in the primary and then from Republicans were she to win. Hochul has not yet taken a position on the issue, and in November stated, “I’m not going to be telegraphing my positions early on, because otherwise, it’s not a collaborative process.”

U.S. Economy

Bonus Read: “Fed Expected to Signal Interest-Rate Increases to Start in March,” (WSJ).

Rapid Test Demand Boosts Manufacturer Abbott’s Sales

Abbott Laboratories, one of the leading manufacturers of rapid Covid tests stated that sales of the tests have helped boost its sales (WSJ). The Wall Street Journal reports, “Rapid-test sales from Abbott’s BinaxNow, Panbio and ID NOW brands grew to $2.1 billion, from $1.9 billion in 2020’s fourth quarter, as the comparable stretch of 2021 included a surge in world-wide cases from the Omicron variant.” The company’s Covid test sales accounted for 18% of its total revenue in 2021. The Journal writes, “Abbott delivered about one billion Covid-19 tests during 2021, including 300 million in the fourth quarter alone, fueled partly by the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.” In a call with analysts, CEO Robert Ford stated, “We see very strong demand for testing to start the year,” but cautioned that “Forecasting testing demand for more than a few months at a time has been challenging.”

Amid Pandemic Dynamics, Banks Increasingly Rely on Auto Loans

The Wall Street Journal reports that banks are increasingly focusing on providing auto loans in part due to the effect the pandemic has had on Americans’ financial situations (WSJ). The Journal reports, “Big banks are pushing deeper into auto lending. Bank of America Corp. said last year was a record for auto-loan originations. Wells Fargo & Co. posted three straight quarters of records and said the fourth quarter was up 77% from a year earlier. Ally Financial Inc. said 2021 was its biggest year for auto lending since 2004.” Though often a major part of banks’ lending practices, the pandemic has had a particular impact. The Journal explains that “Generous government stimulus packages and a hot job market have helped put many consumers on stable financial footing and limited their demand for bank loans,” but notes that supply disruptions have increased car prices, helping maintain and increase demand for auto loans in spite of the broader trends. The Journal reports, “The average new-car loan in the third quarter was $37,280, up 8.5% from a year earlier, and the average used-car loan was $25,909, up some 20%, according to the credit-reporting firm Experian PLC.”

U.S. Society

NYC Schools Shorten Isolation Period to Five Days

Beginning on January 31, New York City schools will shorten the required period that students who test positive for Covid have to isolate before returning to class to only five days (NYT). The decision halves the current ten day requirement. The New York Times writes, “Students can return on Day 6 as long as they have not had a fever for at least 24 hours and are wearing a ‘well-fitting’ mask, though all students and staff members are still required to wear a mask at all times.” The Times adds, “The policy changes, which were first reported by NY1 on Tuesday, are in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Nathaniel Styer, a spokesman for the education department. They also bring the city in line with state guidance for schools issued on Jan. 14.” Preschool students who test positive will still have to isolate for the entire ten days, but those with a close contact but a negative PCR test on the fifth day or two negative at home tests on the fourth and fifth day will be allowed to return to classes. The Times notes, “Children younger than 2 will be allowed to return after seven days, as long as they have no symptoms and have received a negative result from a P.C.R. test taken on Day 5 or later.”

University of Florida Halts Its Reporting of Covid Cases

The University of Florida has halted its reporting of Covid cases on campus (Inside Higher Ed). Beginning January 1st, the university stopped updating its dashboard—a website any member of society could visit to get an accurate count of Covid cases within the institution. The reason behind this decision mainly lies within the accuracy of the data. Inside Higher Ed writes, “Michael Lauzardo, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases and global medicine at UF, said he proposed eliminating the dashboard because of concerns about the quality of the data. He said some students are taking at-home tests and not necessarily reporting the results. Some students with potential COVID symptoms are forgoing testing altogether so as not to be barred from campus facilities.” Inside Higher Ed continues to explain: “Lauzardo said the proportion of students who voluntarily test after their building is flagged in the university’s COVID sewage-monitoring program fell over the course of the pandemic from about 50 percent to 1 to 2 percent by the middle of last fall.” There is also pushback regarding this decision by professors who see the dashboard site as critical for local information. 

Bonus Read: “Trucks Are Clogging America’s Roads, Delivering Goods and Tearing up Yards,” (WSJ).

Analysis & Arguments

Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin defends his education and pandemic policy (WaPo).

Thomas B. Edsall explores why Covid and other crises no longer unite Americans (NYT).

Kathleen Parker questions if Fauci is still an effective voice (WaPo).

Ross Douthat writes on a year of disappointments in America (NYT).

 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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