Earlier this year, the Biden Administration warned that a winter COVID-19 wave could potentially lead to 100 million new infections; in other words, nearly one-third of the population could be hit. And as the world heads into its third pandemic winter, experts say we should know the drill by now for how to avoid such a surge: improved public messaging on safety measures; better ventilation in schools, workplaces, and other public spaces; more easily accessible masks, tests, and treatments. But it doesn’t seem the U.S. is as prepared as it should be.
“Winter is coming,” and the Biden Administration needs to improve how it’s handling the pandemic, write Martha Lincoln, assistant professor of medical and cultural anthropology at San Francisco State University, and Nate Holdren, associate professor for law, politics and society at Drake University. It feels as though many political leaders have “capitulated to their sense that the pandemic is a lost cause,” Lincoln and Holdren write for TIME—a sentiment they say ignores the “enormous national death toll and high rates of reported Long COVID.”
While the current administration has been relying heavily on vaccines as the primary strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19, a remarkably low share of the public have gotten the new bivalent boosters. In fact, booster uptake has been on the decline since last winter’s Omicron wave, according to the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research foundation. So far, around 4% of eligible people in the U.S. have received the updated booster, and just 35.5% have ever been boosted at all. This is despite multiplestudies showing how effective boosters are in avoiding hospitalization and death.
On top of this, cuts to federal pandemic funding mean once-free resources like N95 masks and rapid tests are no longer as accessible to everyone, explain Lincoln and Holdren, and labs responsible for testing and vaccines are also reducing their capacity due to the funding cuts. The opposite should be happening, Lincoln and Holdren argue: the administration should push harder for Congress to approve more funding to expand all pandemic protective measures. “As the end of the year approaches,” they write, “it is highly likely that Americans are about to be blindsided by another wave. Without renewed funding to cover these basic necessities, the U.S. could be facing another very dark pandemic winter.”
More than 626 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 9:40 am. E.T. today, and more than 6.57 million people have died. On Oct. 19, there were 511,750 new cases and 2,151 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
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 10 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 97 million coronavirus cases as of 9:40 am. E.T. today. More than 1.06 million people have died. On Oct. 19, there were 50,137 new cases reported in the U.S., and 746 deaths were confirmed.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
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 Oct. 20. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
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WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The World Health Organization said yesterday that it continues to classify the COVID-19 pandemic as a global public health emergency. In making this announcement, the WHO’s Emergency Committee on COVID-19 “emphasized the need to strengthen surveillance and expand access to tests, treatments and vaccines for those most at risk," Dr. Tedros Adhanom, director-general of WHO said in a briefing, according to CBS News. "And for all countries to update their national preparedness and response plans."
At the same time, CNBC reports that the Biden Administration is “telling health care providers to begin preparing for an end to the public health emergency” which it declared almost three years ago. Once the U.S. public health emergency ends, though, millions could be at risk of losing their health insurance. The emergency declaration currently lasts until January 11.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken steps to ensure all uninsured children are able to continue receiving free COVID-19 vaccines even after the federal government’s immunization program shifts to the commercial market, reports CNBC. This comes as a CDC panel voted unanimously yesterday to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the recommended childhood schedule.
Meanwhile, the CDC has had to scramble to correct false claims that it was about to mandate COVID-19 vaccines in schools made on Twitter by Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday morning. While the CDC confirmed on Wednesday it cannot mandate vaccines for schoolchildren—that’s up to states and jurisdictions—the rapid spread of misinformation is making health experts’ jobs even tougher. “It just isn’t enough for us to be in the business of putting out good information. We have to now also be in the business of countering misinformation and deliberate disinformation,” Drew Altman, head of the nonpartisan think tank Kaiser Family Foundation, told the Washington Post.
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 Kyla Mandel and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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