Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Nov. 24: Say Ciao to Cryptic Side-Effects Voiceovers in Drug Ads, Mystery Virus Causing Overflows in China’s Hospitals

A holiday window at Saks Fifth Avenue’s main store in New York City several years ago.
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,353rd day of the pandemic and the unofficial holiday of Black Friday, considered the start of the holiday shopping season – immediately follows Thanksgiving in the United States.
In news we report today , unintelligible narration of side-effects in drug commercials will soon be a thing of the past and it feels awfully like January 2020 in terms of dispatches from China on hospitals overflowing with sick children due to respiratory viruses
UNITED STATES
In rather blunt language, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made it clear that not enough people are getting inoculated against Covid.
“Here’s the bottom line: Covid-19 vaccine uptake is lower than we’d like to see, and most people will be without the added protection that can reduce the severity of Covid-19,” the agency wrote in an update on its website Friday.
“Covid-19 is still an important cause of hospitalization and death, especially for older adults and people with certain underlying medical conditions,” the CDC added.
GLOBAL
While the CMNB warned on Tuesday that Omicron could still surprise us, citing the 2021 Post-Thanksgiving Massacre, it’s not even officially Thanksgiving yet and the world is witnessing the World Health Organization request detailed information from China on an increase in respiratory illnesses and pneumonia among the country’s children, using language similar to a missive written on January 5, 2020 regarding the pathogen that we have come to know as Covid-19.
In November, China’s National Health Commission reported an increase in respiratory illness and, on Tuesday, additional reports of pneumonia of an unknown cause in children in northern China were received by the international health organization.
A bulletin issued on Tuesday by the International Society for Infectious Diseases reported that children’s hospitals in Beijing, Liaoning, and elsewhere in the country are “overwhelmed with sick children.”  Meanwhile, schools are “on the verge of suspension.”
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
While most of us wish they would simply disappear entirely, drug commercials on television in the United States are set to become more intelligible.  Earlier in the week, the Food and Drug Administration updated its regulations for prescription drug ads. The changes mandate that that a drug’s side effects and other potential dangers “must be presented in a clear, conspicuous, and neutral manner.”
Here’s a reason to avoid products stamped “Made in India.” Barefoot workers and bacterial were found at a factory that makes eye drops sold under CVS, Target, Rite Aid, and Walmart brands. The Indian factory was making these drops was found to regularly perform their roles barefoot and failed to document bacterial contamination incidents.
All of the products are made by Kilitch Healthcare India Limited in Mumbai.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Friday, November 24.
As of Friday morning, the world has recorded 698.22 million Covid-19 cases, a decrease of .09 million from Wednesday, and 6.94 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, just over 669.63 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.03 million.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls as well as the occasional downward or upward adjustment as corrections to case figures warrant.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Friday at press time is 21,640,830, an increase of 52,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 21,605,474, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,356, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 13 months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Friday, recorded 109.5 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.18 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45 million, and a reported death toll of 533,297.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July 2022, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States.  Rosstat last reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July 2022, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.63 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 707,286, has recorded 38.02 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 26.32 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.81 million, and Russia, with 23.26 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending November 11, 2023, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on November 16 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 8.4%, and the trend in test positivity is +0.1% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1.4%, and the trend in emergency department visits is +7.1%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 16,239, a figure that is up 8.6% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2.4%, a figure that is up 9.1% over the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Friday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.53 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 12,322 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.8% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)