In the early months of the vaccine rollout, breakthrough infections were so rare that individual cases sometimes made the news. Clearly, that era is over. I’ve lost count of how many fully vaccinated people in my life have tested positive over the last week, as Omicron tears through the U.S.
Unfortunately, that’s something we all need to get used to, experts told me.
Avoiding COVID-19 forever is an increasingly untenable strategy. As highly contagious variants like Omicron move through our reopened world, breakthrough infections are becoming much more common. On an individual level, that’s not a reason to panic. Fully vaccinated people still have strong protection against severe disease and death, and boosted people seem to be even better protected. A breakthrough infection might make you feel lousy for a few days, but it’s unlikely to land you in the hospital or threaten your life. Someday, we might be as blasé about a COVID-19 breakthrough case as we would be about the flu or a bad cold: no fun, but not the end of the world.
But someday is not today. Personal risks to vaccinated people might be low, but our societal situation is bad. Hospitals are overwhelmed and understaffed, to the point that a group of Ohio medical centers this week took out a newspaper ad that simply says “Help.” Any spike in COVID-19 cases will make that situation worse, to the detriment of anyone who needs emergency medical care for any reason.
A huge chunk of the population is still vulnerable to the virus, too. About 40% of Americans aren’t fully vaccinated—including all children under 5, for whom there is not yet an authorized shot. To open the floodgates and let COVID-19 run wild is to put all of these lives at risk.
Several experts told me we’re at a transitional stage. We’re close to the point of treating breakthrough infections as routine, but not there yet. Our systems are too weak, and too much of the population is at high risk. For now, our priority has to be flattening the curve and getting through the Omicron surge with as few deaths as possible. But once the emergency passes, and our nation’s testing and treatment capabilities hopefully greatly increase, it may be time to accept that COVID-19 is here to stay.
More than 276.2 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and nearly 5.4 million people have died. On Dec. 21, there were 775,774 new cases and 7,829 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 51.2 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 810,000 people have died. On Dec. 21, there were 172,072 new cases and 2,093 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. 22, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The world is watching South Africa, one of the first countries to weather an Omicron surge, for clues about what may be to come. There’s some good news on that front: Early indications suggest South Africa’s Omicron spike may have already peaked. Daily case counts are way down from last week—about 15,400 were reported yesterday, compared to almost 27,000 last Thursday. That could turn out to be a blip in the data, but it provides some cautious optimism that Omicron may burn hot but extinguish fast.
The Food and Drug Administration today authorized the U.S.’ first antiviral treatment for COVID-19, Pfizer’s Paxlovid. The oral treatment has been shown to reduce the chances of hospitalization or death by almost 90% when given to high-risk people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. It will be available by prescription to people 12 and older who have a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and are at high risk of developing serious disease.
In less promising news, two COVID-19 treatments—the monoclonal antibody therapies made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron—appear not to work as well against Omicron as previous strains, according to the New York Times. Some hospitals in New York, where Omicron is surging, have already stopped using these therapies, and federal health officials are reportedly weighing whether to stop providing them to hospitals in states where Omicron is the dominant variant. Federal officials are also reportedly working with pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline to improve access to its monoclonal antibody drug, which does appear to be effective against Omicron.
Countries around the world are taking precautions to prevent the worst of Omicron’s spread. The Netherlands has reimposed lockdown measures, and health authorities in the U.K. declined to rule out the possibility of doing the same. Italian officials may soon require negative tests on top of proof of vaccination in some indoor venues, and German authorities teased the possibility of national mandatory vaccination, Reuters reports. And in a world first, Israel is set to offer fourth vaccine doses to health care workers, elderly adults and other high-risk individuals, the Times of Israel reports. That plan must still be approved by the director-general of Israel's health ministry, but an expert advisory group yesterday recommended that it go forward.
In the U.S., Chicago joined the ranks of cities that will require proof of vaccination at restaurants, bars, gyms, sports arenas and other indoor spaces. On the West Coast, California will require booster shots for health care workers to minimize disruption to the medical system, Governor Gavin Newsom announced yesterday.
Finally, new federal data show that U.S. life expectancy fell by almost two years in 2020 compared to 2019, from 78.8 to 77 years. COVID-19 is largely to blame for that drop, as the virus accounted for more than 10% of all deaths recorded in the U.S. last year, behind only heart disease and cancer.
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.
If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Jamie Ducharme and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
沒有留言:
張貼留言