Coronavirus Daily News Brief – June 7: Paxlovid Does Not Improve Long Covid Symptoms, All Signs Point to a Summer Covid Wave

Sunrise at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport
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 1,549th day.
In news we cover today , five men involved in a small halal restaurant and market in Minnesota stole $40 million in funds intended to feed poor children, a new study found that Paxlovid does not improve Long Covid symptoms, and all signs point towards a summer wave of new SARS-CoV-2 cases.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On June 7, 2020, reopening was in the air.
New York City would soon begin its reopening, 100 days after the first reported case of the novel coronavirus in the city.  Officials expected over 400,000 people to return to their place of business, although far fewer turned up.
With no active coronavirus cases, New Zealand said it would lift almost all of the coronavirus-related restrictions it had put into place during the course of the outbreak.
Florida, however,  was experiencing a significant spike in coronavirus cases since the state began to reopen, and India reported nearly 10,000 new coronavirus cases in the preceding 24 hours, the largest single-day spike the country had experienced since the outbreak began.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases on a  global basis stood at 6.9 million cases, according to data from the Coronavirus Morning News Brief, an increase of over 200,000, and the death toll crossed over the 400,000 mark.
LONG COVID
The antiviral Paxlovid does not appear to improve Long Covid symptoms in a meaningful way, according to a new study. The results are another bubble  that has burst for the millions of people with the devastating condition, which has no approved treatments or cures.
The study, entitled “Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir and Symptoms in Adults With Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection” which was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Friday, was based on a hypothesis shared by many researchers that viral SARS-CoV-2 material lingers in the body, potentially causing the symptoms associated with Long Covid. Because antivirals such as Paxlovid stop the virus from multiplying, some thought the antiviral held out promise as a treatment.
When all was said and done, however, the study found that the improvement in symptoms for those taking Paxlovid was no better than for those patients taking a placebo.
People do not need to have tested positive for the coronavirus to be considered for a diagnosis of Long COVID. This was an additional outcome from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine study that we reported on in Wednesday’s Brief. The panel of experts assembled by the National Academies prepared the report at the behest of the U.S. Social Security Administration.
UNITED STATES
Key Covid indicators released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rose significantly in the past week. The test positivity rate was, based on data released on June 7 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 4.45%, up from 4.2% the previous week, and the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.5%, an increase of just under 20% from the prior week.
Five people were convicted by a Minnesota jury and two others were acquitted for their part in a scheme to steal $40 million that was supposed to be used to purchase food for poor children during the pandemic.
“They lied and they fraudulently claimed to be feeding millions of meals to children in Minnesota during the [first years of the] pandemic,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said in a statement, who added that the conduct of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jamah Ismail, Abdiajid Mohamed Nur, Muktur Mohamed Sharif, and Hayat Mohamed Nur, was depraved and brazen.
The case recently received a lot of attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag containing $120,000 in cash.
The counts these men were convicted of included money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy, and federal programs bribery.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
New York State will soon restrict social-media automated fees and late-night notifications to minors in an effort to address both sleep and mental health issues that young people face thanks to the never-ending onslaught of information available through channels such as Instagram and Facebook. Parental consent would be required in order to bypass the restriction on algorithms that serve automated feeds.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending June 1, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on June 7 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 4.45%, and the trend in test positivity is +0.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.5%, and the trend in emergency department visits is +16.2%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 was no longer being reported as of the end of May. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.6%, a figure that remains unchanged over the past three weeks.
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, 13.58 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 81 (sic) 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, 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
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE.  The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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