Rich Americans Are Skipping Their Pandemic Appointments—But the Poor Can't Afford to Miss Them
Last week, I reported on our new TIME/Harris Poll survey showing that the bad health news of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely stay bad even after the virus is tamped down, given that more and more Americans are letting other aspects of their health care lapse. We found, for example, that 78% of respondents reported putting off at least some medical services during the past three months of pandemic. Some of the findings seemed counterintuitive, with higher income and better educated people—who generally have access to better health care—doing worse at tending to their overall health than other folks.
There were intriguing political findings too. Throughout the pandemic, blue-staters and Democrats have generally been more compliant with mask-wearing and social-distancing, while red America has pushed back, as one University of Chicago study found. But when it comes to health checkups, self-identified liberals were likelier to report letting things slide, with 32% saying they've skipped annual exams, compared to 27% of moderates and 24% of conservatives.
Dr. David Buchholz, medical director of primary care at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, thinks at least some of this may have to do with the higher likelihood that red-staters believe the pandemic is either a hoax or exaggerated. If they're going to bars and restaurants and parties, there's no reason they wouldn't go in for physicals too. Liberals, by contrast, who tend to fear the pandemic more, might see doctors' offices as dangerous congregate settings and avoid them.
Then there's the income piece. Just 21% of people in households with less than $50,000 annual income are missing routine physicals, compared to 35% of those in households earning more than $100,000 annually.
But those numbers may be less surprising than they seem. Lower-income and less-educated people tend to be more likely to have chronic health problems, and are thus less able to skip their physicals. "Conditions like diabetes and hypertension are more common among people with lower income. They might feel like they just know they can't miss a check-up, so they make it more of a priority," says Dr. Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Especially troubling are the 15% of people who said they were missing appointments with specialists, including orthopedists, dermatologists and, most worrisome, cardiologists. If even a fraction of heart-disease patients are missing their regular cardiology visits during the pandemic, there could be a bump in related deaths down the line.
82.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this morning, of which 65 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. Some 13.3% of the overall U.S. population has received at least one dose, and about 5.9% of Americans have gotten both doses.
The great fear about new coronavirus variants is that even as we're finally getting more vaccines into arms, the emergence of potentially vaccine-resistant strains will push us back to square one in developing new formulations to battle them. But as The New York Timesreports today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that new versions of already-authorized vaccines modified to deal with emerging variants can be approved after smaller, simpler and likely faster trials compared to their first go-round. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna predict that their vaccines can be retooled for new virus variants in as little as six weeks, though manufacturing them would remain a challenge.
As more and more people are vaccinated in the U.S., more and more of them are asking how much they can now let their guard down. Clearly, mask wearing is still a must. Similarly, hand-washing is still essential business. But appearing on CNN today, Dr. Anthony Fauci called on the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to issue clear guidelines that answer a whole raft of other questions, including how long vaccinated people should expect their immunity to last and how stringent they have to be about quarantining after being exposed to someone with the virus.
Vaccine manufacturers faced a tough grilling on Capitol Hill today, the Associated Press reports, as the House Energy and Commerce Committee questioned representatives from Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax about production delays hampering the U.S. vaccine rollout. Lawmakers also explored the possibility of more aggressive use of the Defense Production Act to speed vaccine output. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson touted the likely imminent approval of its one-dose shot, which could receive emergency use authorization as early as this weekend. One other bit of good news the pharma reps were able to cite: The government forecasts up to 700 million doses of vaccines will be available by July, enough to vaccinate every American.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 111.7 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and nearly 2.5 million people have died. On Feb. 22, there were 287,199 new cases and 6,973 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here is every country with over 2 million confirmed cases:
Bad news out of Germany this morning: Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that the country is now in its third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports, as the country grapples with a slow vaccination rollout and the presence of more transmissible variants. While German leaders planned to lift some restrictions on March 7, Merkel now says that will have to be done gradually—or perhaps not at all. In the meantime, all non-essential businesses in Germany are still closed, while the country's borders with Austria and the Czech Republic, where new variants are spreading, remain tightly controlled.
One grim result of the pandemic in Japan: an alarming rise in suicides among women, the New York Times reports. Last year, 6,976 Japanese women died by suicide—a 15% increase from 2019. Among the pandemic-related causes: the higher rate of job loss among women compared to men; disparities in housework during lockdown; and increases in domestic abuse. In Tokyo, one in five women live alone, exacerbating loneliness and depression during quarantine. (If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.)
Mexico accepted delivery of 200,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine today, according to Voice of America—just the first part of a deal to purchase 24 million doses, or enough to vaccinate 12 million Mexicans. Mexico is not relying on Russia alone to inoculate its population; the country is also taking deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. recorded nearly 28.2 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 500,000 people have died. On Feb. 22, there were 54,456 new cases and 1,347 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
Testifying before a Senate health committee today, Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, said that defeating the coronavirus pandemic will be his first priority if confirmed. Becerra's plans include vaccinating more Americans, ramping up genetic surveillance for viral variants, reopening schools and increasing access to testing. Becerra also offered a glimpse into his post-pandemic ambitions, pledging to expand access to the Affordable Care Act, curb prescription drug costs and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in medical care.
COVID-19 scams are proliferating almost as fast as the virus itself, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Department of Homeland Security has seized $33 million in illicit proceeds and investigated nearly 80,000 COVID-19 websites that seek to defraud consumers into disclosing personal information or spending money for sham vaccine appointments. It's not just the U.S. where the scammers are proliferating, as Interpol is investigating similar crimes throughout Europe.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Feb. 23, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The World’s Coolest Vaccine Sites
From stadiums to cathedrals to gymnasiums to ice palaces, venues all over the world are being converted to vaccine hubs. Read (and see) more here.
Detente Among Drugmakers
Rival pharma companies are pulling together in a time of crisis, with many agreeing to help produce their competitors' COVID-19 vaccines, The Wall Street Journal reports. For example, after a lab error forced Sanofi to add five months to the timeline for its experimental vaccine, the company stepped up to help produce the tried-and-tested Pfizer-BioNTech formulation. Read more here.
Tragedy in the OR
After a woman who received a double lung transplant at a Michigan hospital last fall died of COVID-19 two months later, investigators set off to find out whether her operation had anything to do with her infection. Their conclusion: routine tests missed signs of the coronavirus in her donor's pulmonary system, the Washington Post reports. Read more here.
World Bank Smacks Down Lebanon
The World Bank has pledged $34 million to Lebanon to help pay for the vaccination of over 2 million people. But it's now threatening to turn off the money spigot after members of the Lebanese parliament leapt the line to be vaccinated out of turn, the AP reports. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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