Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 24: Twice As Many Adults in U.S. Have Received Flu Shot Versus Covid Jab, Pfizer and Moderna Battle Over Vaccine IP

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month
Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,505th day, plus a reminder that the month of April in the United States is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and it’s important to focus solely on driving when behind the wheel regardless of what month it is or what country you are in.
In news we cover today, the world’s two largest developers of coronavirus vaccines are battling over intellectual property in a London court, the uptake rate for such vaccines in the United States is half that compared to flu shots, and over 50% of nursing home residents there are behind in their Covid jabs as well.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On April 24, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned people not to take hydroxchloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that President Trump repeatedly touted as a cure for the coronavirus, outside of a hospital-type setting.
In addition, then President Trump signed the country’s second-largest pandemic aid bill, the  $484 billion Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which Congress passed several days earlier.
The Czech government announced the lifting of many restrictions including lifting a travel ban and allowing people to move freely outside their homes, provided they don’t congregate in groups of more than ten.
The Muslim holiday of Ramadan began on this day in 2020 with numerous countries under lockdown. Mosques remained shuttered, and worshipers told to stay at home and not partake in the large communal meals associated with breaking the fast each evening.
In France, the Versailles Court of Appeals ruled against Amazon, supporting a lower court order for the company to stop selling non-essential items in the country.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 2.76 million, of which 763,272 had recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 193,653. In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases was 890,198, while the death toll stood at 50,825.
UNITED STATES
As of April 19, more than twice the number of adults in the country have received a flu shot – 48.5% – than received the latest coronavirus vaccine, a figure that stands at only 22.8%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A new study from the CDC focusing on vaccination coverage and rates of SARS – CoV-2 infection in nursing homes found that fewer than half of all nursing home residents – 40.5% to be exact – were up to date with the coronavirus vaccine shots.
The study covered the period from October 2023 through February 2024.
GLOBAL NEWS
A battle over intellectual property between Pfizer, its partner in vaccines  BioNTech, and rival vaccine developer Moderna began in the United Kingdom
In the latest leg of a legal battle that began in 2022, Pfizer and BioNTech asked a London court to revoke Moderna’s patents over technology key to the development of coronavirus vaccines.
In 2022, Pfizer and BioNTech sued Moderna at London’s High Court seeking to revoke patents held by Moderna, which several days later hit back alleging its patents had been infringed.
A new study found that children are less likely than adults to develop severe cases of Covid. This is because the cells in their noses are better at fighting off the virus, the study, entitled “Age-Specific Nasal Epithelial Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection” which was published in the journal Nature on April 15 of this year, suggests.
The study, led by researchers at University College in London, showed that aging adult nose cells contain 100 times more virus in the first few days after an infection. The researchers’ discovery could serve to explain why older adults suffer far worse from Covid while children are very rarely very ill.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it had detected viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza in milk purchased at grocery stores, but the agency says it still believes that the milk is safe to drink.
The agency further stated that it believes the viral particles were detected by highly sensitive lab tests and are likely to have been remnants of viruses killed during the pasteurization process. It said that it does not think it is likely that the particles would be able to infect people but it is conducting additional tests to be completely sure.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending April 13, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.4%, 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 0.4%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -19.9%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 6,604, a figure that is down 13.8 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.0%, a figure that is down 9.1% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 7,589 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.7% 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, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number
Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.
Where Has All the Data Gone?
We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.
We are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same.
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Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
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