Keeping up with the names of all the new COVID-19 subvariants is tough, no matter how much attention you’re paying to the pandemic. While the major variants—Alpha, Delta, Omicron—have all been named after Greek letters, Omicron’s many subvariants have names like BQ.1 (which now makes up 16.5% of cases in the U.S.), BQ.1.1 (nearly 19%), and BA.4.6 (9.5%). As my colleague Jamie Ducharme writes, there’s a reason for this: these viruses all descended from Omicron and haven’t been different enough for the World Health Organization (WHO) to grant them a new Greek-letter name.
However, some experts believe that these names are getting too confusing, Jamie writes. Endless strings of letters and numbers make it difficult for the public to keep paying attention. "Going into year three of the pandemic, COVID fatigue is at an all-time high,” Jamie told me. “That's true for many reasons—but the fact that it's increasingly hard to understand, differentiate, and talk about new viral variants seems to play a part."
Another concern is that the public won’t realize that the updated boosters may continue to protect them from variants that sound brand new. As Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, explained, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 both descended from BA.5—the variant that the new boosters were designed to work against. That means that the booster likely helps protect against these variants (to some unknown degree).
It may be time for a new system that makes it easier to understand concerning new variants. As SARS-CoV-2 keeps evolving, it’s important to keep the public tuned in.
More than 632 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 9:33 a.m. today, and more than 6.6 million people have died. On Nov. 6, there were 185,964 new cases and 480 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 97.7 million coronavirus cases as of 9:33 a.m. today. More than 1.07 million people have died. On Nov. 6, there were 7,503 new cases reported in the U.S., and 12 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 Nov. 7. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts,click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Veterans Affairs researchers found that the antiviral drug Paxlovid may reduce the risk of Long COVID, according to a pre-print study released Nov. 5. The study looked at records for 56,000 veterans who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, including more than 9,000 who were treated with Paxlovid. They found that people treated with the medication had a 26% lower chance of developing conditions associated with Long COVID, such as heart disease, fatigue, and kidney disease, than people of similar age and health status who hadn’t taken the drug.
Chinese health officials doubled down on a “zero-COVID” policy on Saturday, despite rumors that the country was planning to relax restrictions, CNN reports. The policy, which has led to lockdowns lasting as long as months and other restrictions on movement, has been criticized for disrupting people’s lives, as well as global supply chains. In recent weeks, deaths tied to the lockdown have generated public outcries online, including the death of a woman at a locked-down apartment complex.
Shipments of new iPhones will be delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions in China, as an assembly factory in Zhengzhou must work at “significantly reduced capacity,” Apple said in a Sunday press release. Customers will experience longer than anticipated wait times to receive iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max devices, the company said.
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 twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
沒有留言:
張貼留言