My earliest solid memory of the pandemic came just less than two years ago, when my friend and colleague Michael Zennie, who had recently moved from New York to Hong Kong, said during a morning editors' meeting that we should all be stocking up on toilet paper. It landed in the room as a joke—it seemed unfathomable that anything could disrupt the Great American Supply Chain so much that we'd be scrounging for rolls of Scott—but just a month or so later, I was cursing myself for not taking him seriously as I fruitlessly wandered the paper goods aisle.
Zennie's warning came just a few weeks after the first unlucky souls developed symptoms of COVID-19, which, per the World Health Organization, happened on Dec. 8, 2019 in Wuhan, China—two years ago to the day. The virus that causes COVID-19 quickly spread throughout China, Asia and the rest of the world, reaching every corner of the globe by way of unwitting travelers before air travel ground to a halt in an effort to stop transmission. The New York City metro area, where I lived at the time, was the pandemic's epicenter for months in spring 2020; there were stretches when the wailing of ambulance sirens seemed to never end.
Those first few months were characterized most prominently by a crippling sense of uncertainty. We didn't understand the virus itself, or why some who were infected barely got a sniffle, while others were left fighting for their lives. We didn't know how many people might get sick and die; projections in the U.S. ranged from a few hundred thousand deaths to millions. We didn't know when it would be safe to see loved ones again, as we were encouraged to stay distant to stop the spread. We didn't know if grocery stores shelves would be stocked; hoarding was widespread, and for a moment food shortages seemed entirely possible. Worst of all, we didn't know which of our loved ones might succumb to this modern-day plague.
Two years later, much of that uncertainty is gone. Better scientific and medical understanding of the virus and disease has given us vaccines and treatments that are remarkably effective in preventing severe illness. The supply chain is still in a bad way, but nobody's worried about whether grocery stores are going to run out of food. Schools and businesses have generally found ways to safely reopen or keep people working remotely. We have mostly shifted from sheer panic into a steady unease—human beings, after all, can only stay on red alert for so long before our brains get fried.
Yet that acceptance may have lulled us into a dangerous sense of security as we stare into the maw of yet another pandemic winter. Cases in the U.S. have begun to rise dramatically, and the Omicron variant, which has not yet taken widespread hold here, could make matters worse. Millions of Americans remain unvaccinated, leaving them vulnerable and contributing to regional outbreaks that are once again straining local health care systems. Vaccine doses also remain inexcusably hard to come by in much of the world, leaving millions to needlessly suffer. The U.S. booster campaign has been anemic at best (though there are signs that Omicron fears are driving people to get their third dose). And there is little talk of pared-down gatherings this year, suggesting that gifts won't be the only thing shared among friends and family this holiday season. As we enter the second year of the pandemic, one thing is especially certain: despite glimmers of hope over the summer, this wretched pandemic won't be over any time soon.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
More than 582 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which more than 473.2 million doses have been administered, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 60% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 267.1 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 5.2 million people have died. On Dec. 7, there were 693,559 new cases and 8,190 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's every country that has reported over 5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 49.3 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 791,500 people have died. On Dec. 7, there were 108,930 new cases and 1,609 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country 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:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Dec. 8, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
A booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine leads to similar levels of antibody production against the Omicron variant as a two-dose regimen generated against the original strain of the virus, according to new laboratory data from the companies out today. The companies also noted that the two-dose regimen was much less effective against Omicron than adding a booster, so the results may accelerate booster adoption around the world. "With the data now coming on the Omicron variant, it is very clear that our vaccine for the Omicron variant should be a three-dose vaccine,” said BioNTech CEO and co-founder Uger Sahin said during a briefing discussing the results.
Six U.S. states—Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and Illinois—account for the lion's share of the country's recent COVID-19 hospitalizations, per an NBC News analysis. Together, these states made up more than half of hospitalizations between Nov. 10 and Dec. 5, NBC found. Nearly 60,000 Americans are currently being hospitalized with the virus daily, up from a low of about 17,000 in late June.
A number of major global cities are scaling back their planned Christmas and New Year's celebrations as the Omicron variant spreads around the world, the New York Times reports. Germany's famed holiday markets are once again closed for the season, Rio de Janeiro's fireworks show is off, and Baltimore has canceled its festivities. New York's Times Square ball drop is still on for now, though attendees must show proof of vaccination to enter the area.
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 Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
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