The opening of a Project Wingman lounge for healthcare workers at Flushing Hospital in Queens
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,160th day of the pandemic.
We begin with a note from our editor:
With the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control is modifying and rethinking what data it will release in the future and ending some datasets. We are putting on hold some of our data updates while we assess the impact of these changes. –Basilio Alferow
OP-ED ON MONDAY
The public health emergency may well be over, but it’s worth to stop for a moment an reflect on what we lost over the past three and a half years.
From tens of cases in China that we reported on in early January 2020 to tens of thousands of cases as the year continued, SARS-CoV-2 killed 1.16 million people across the United States, at least 6.9 million globally, and over 80,000 in New York City, the first epicenter in the country.
Declaring the public health emergency is over doesn’t really do much, however. The first three years of pandemic were somewhat akin to a massive train wreck where the debris remains.
In this case, the remnants are the millions of Long Covid patients who either suffer lingering SARS-CoV-2 symptoms or developed new symptoms, weeks after the initial infection, such as organ damage, severe chronic fatigue, blurry vision, brain fog, and a loss of concentration, among others.
Then there are the many who were unable to see a physician during the various lockdowns and now have a debilitating health condition that could have been caught much earlier.
So, while the public health emergency in the United States is, in fact, over, please don’t confuse that with the phrase, “The pandemic is over.” You can’t declare a pandemic “over” to begin with. There’s no switch you flick. We’ll know when it’s over in hindsight, and that will come in time.
In other news we cover today, there is a new report on the economic toll that the pandemic took, 30% of people in low-income countries have now had at least one dose of vaccine, and several hospitals in New York City are facing a physicians’ strike.
UNITED STATES
A new study from the University of Southern California shows that the impact of the pandemic to the U.S. economy was $14 trillion through 2023.
The study used data from the first 30 months of the pandemic to forecast the cost to the economy over the four-year period. The researchers used economic modeling to approximate the revenue lost because of mandatory business shutdowns at the start of the pandemic. They also used modeling to assess the economic consequences of the many changes in personal behavior that have continued long after the end of lockdowns. This includes the tendency to voluntarily avoid restaurants, theaters, and other crowded places, for example.
After that, the team looked at the cost of employee absences and lost sales, the latter due to shuttered shops and restaurants, reduced travel, and limits on public gatherings.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
In New York City, doctors at two major city hospitals are planning to walk off the job today. Physicians at Jamaica Hospital and Flushing Hospital in the Borough of Queens say that MediSys Health Network, which operates the two facilities, has been bargaining in bad faith for weeks.
This will be the first time in 30 years that doctors in the Big Apple have walked the picket line.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Monday, May 15.
As of Monday morning, the world has recorded 688.3 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of less than 0.1 million from the previous day, and 6.87 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 660.8 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of just under 0.1 million from the previous day.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Monday at press time is 20,690,044, a decrease of 35,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,651,058, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 38,986, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.
The United States reported 77,263 new cases in the period April 27 through May 3, a figure that is down 22% over the same period one week earlier, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death toll for the same period is 1,109, a figure that is down 11%. The average daily number of hospital admissions from Covid was 4,275 on May 12, a figure that is down 2% over the preceding 14 days. Finally, the test positivity rate is 5.3%, up 3% over the 14 days preceding May 7.
Starting on March 25, 2023, the Morning News Brief began to update case data as well as death tolls on a weekly basis. Starting on May 15, the Morning News Brief has pressed pause on certain data sets as we assess the update of changes in reporting by U.S. health authorities at the CDC.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Monday, recorded 106.8 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.16 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, just under 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,778.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, 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 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.4 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 702,116, has recorded 37.5 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are Japan, with 33.8 million cases, South Korea, with 31.4 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 25.8 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with over 24.5 million, and Russia, with 22.9 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, 270.1 million people in the United States – or 81.4% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.5%, or 230.6 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 676.7 million. Breaking this down further, 92.23% of the population over the age of 18 – or 238.2 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 79.1% of the same group – or 204.3 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 20.5% of the same population, or just under 53 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 23.9 million people over the age of 65, or 43.3% of that population have also received the bivalent booster.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 70% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Monday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.38 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 118,909 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 29.9% 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 start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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