Coronavirus Daily News Brief – June 17: Los Angeles County Covid Cases Rise, Kansas AG Sues Pfizer Over ‘Misleading’ Vaccine Marketing

A 1970 Cadillac DeVille convertible in Los Angeles traffic
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 1,559th day.
In news we cover today , new Covid cases and hospitalizations are rising in Los Angeles County, Kansas is suing Pfizer over “misleading” vaccine marketing statements, and the U.S. surgeon general proposed warning labels on social media.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On June 17, 2020, as the United Kingdom’s 14-day self-quarantine for arriving air travelers went into effect, those filling out the web-based arrivals quarantine form found that it listed now defunct countries including East Germany, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Zaire, Southern Rhodesia, and the USSR. The Home Office did not respond to a request for a comment from the Coronavirus Morning News Brief as to whether it were catering to time travelers as well.
As the number of cases in Texas and Arizona increased, local officials moved to mandate that people don face masks in public.  The mayors of Phoenix and Tucson took that tack  and Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, mandated that businesses require employees and customers wear face masks in cases where when they would beunable to observe social distancing.
A study found that the inexpensive steroid dexamethasone was responsible for the survival of one in eight patients on ventilators as a result of having contracted SARS-CoV-2.  The results came from investigators in the Recovery trial, the largest randomized, controlled study of coronavirus treatments in the world.
Google added new information in its Google Maps product including advice on whether a public transit system might require masks and it began to provide alerts about how crowded a particular train station might be at a given time.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 8.3 million, an increase of over 53,829 people in the past 24 hoursm, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll was 447,086.
In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases stood at 2.21 million, an increase of 23,705, while the death toll was 119,175.
UNITED STATES
The slow but steady uptick in new cases and hospitalizations continues in Los Angeles County. For the seven-day period that ended Sunday, there was an average of 121 new cases per day, up from 106 a day the prior week, according to data provided by the county’s health department.
In addition, there was an average of 126 Covid patients in hospital each day for the week that ended June 8, up from 102 the week before.
The attorney general in Kansas is suing Pfizer, claiming that the   drugmaker misled the public about coronavirus vaccines. In a court filing made public Monday, the state said the New York-based company’s alleged false statements violated the state’s Consumer Protection Act. Kanas is seeking unspecified money damages.
The suit contends that the company marketed the jab as “safe” even though it “knew” the vaccine was connected to “serious adverse events.”
GLOBAL NEWS
Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac hit back following reports of a U.S. disinformation campaign designed to discredit the country’s Covid-19 vaccine.
The company said that the Pentagon’s social-media attack termed it “a wrong attack that will lead to enormous disaster”
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
The surgeon general of the United States called for placing cigarette-style warnings on social media platforms to alert users that the platforms can harm young people’s mental health.
Writing in a New York Times opinion piece, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy = urged Congress to enact legislation that would  require that social media platforms include a surgeon general’s warning to “regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.”
The essay, entitled “Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms,” said that “[T]he mental health crisis among young people is an emergency” and that, in an emergency, “[Y]ou assess the available facts, you use your best judgment, and you act quickly.”
Murthy has often pointed out that adolescents who spend several hours a day or more on these platforms are at greater risk of experiencing anxiety and depression. In addition, studies have found that many young people say the platforms have worsened their body image. The surgeon general today emphasized that warning labels, such as those on tobacco and alcohol products, have been demonstrated to change people’s behaviors.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending June 8, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on June 14 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 5.4%, and the trend in test positivity is +0.8% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.6%, and the trend in emergency department visits is +12.6%.
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 four 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 3,680 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.
=======================================
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.
☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268) 
(Photo: Accura Media Group)