Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Oct. 15: 30% of Americans With Covid Experience Long Covid, Infection-Blocking Gene May Block Virus

A dose of flu vaccine at a doctors office in New York CIty

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 919th day of the pandemic.

If you’ve never had Covid – and asymptomatic cases don’t count – you might have the HLA-DQB1*06 infection-blocking gene.  Researchers at the University of Oxford report that people with that gene have a larger antibody response after getting a dose of coronavirus vaccine compared to other people.

The Oxford scientists studied blood samples from people in five different trials, a total of 1,600 adults who received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as their initial shot.

Those individuals with the gene had more antibodies in their blood compared to those without it.

The scientists, however, cautioned that this did not mean that individuals with the gene could leap tall buildings in a single bound or perform other superhuman feats.

In other news we cover today, experts call for indoor masking in Germany and United Kingdom, the flu season is off to an early and strong start, and one-third of Americans who contracted Covid experienced or is experiencing some form of Long Covid.

UNITED STATES

The flu season is off to an early start as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns of a potentially severe season.  Influenza and other respiratory viruses are rising in the Southeast and central parts of the country.

In San Francisco, four municipal workers who lost their jobs after filing a religious exemption to the city’s mandatory vaccination policy and having it denied.   The Golden City was the first in the country to require city workers to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.  In the suit, the workers said that the city should have granted their requests.

Following a scandal over the past week in which the president of the Los Angeles City Council was forced to resign after making blatantly racist comments in the course of a council conference call, the body is now being forced to hold its meetings virtually next week, its acting president, Mitch O’Farrell, said.  O’Farrell cited Covid exposure amongst council members as the grounds for the move.

GLOBAL

The head of the Deutsche Krankenhausgesellschaft is calling for a reinstatement of an indoor mask mandate.  Hospitals are currently “with their backs to the wall” as coronavirus cases rapidly rise.

In the United Kingdom, where cases are also sharply rising, a leading scientist said that face masks should be donned at indoor events.  The number of new daily infections there jumped 31% over the past week.  Denis Kinane, a Scottish immunologist, termed the recommendation “a reasonable precaution” if the country is to avoid an even bigger surge in infections.

LONG COVID

Almost one third of Americans who have had Covid reported they have experienced or are currently experiencing Long Covid symptoms, according to new CDC data.  West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Wyoming have the highest rate of patients reporting Long Covid symptoms, with 49.4%, 40.3%, and 40.3% respectively.  They are followed by Idaho, Alabama, New Mexico, and Indiana, with 39%, 35.4%, 35.2%, and 35.1%, respectively.  The U.S. average was 30% and Vermont and Connecticut had the lowest rates, namely 21.5% and 22.9% respectively.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Saturday, October 15.

As of Saturday morning, the world has recorded 629.6 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.5 million cases, and 6.6 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 608.5 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.3 million.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Saturday is 14,435,775, an increase of 77,000. Out of that figure, 99.7%, or 14,394,090, are considered mild, and 0.3%, or 41,685, are listed as critical.  The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.

The United States reported 29,069 new coronavirus infections on Saturday for the previous day, compared to 75,172  on Friday, 74,018 on Thursday, 50,629 on Wednesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The 7-day incidence rate is now 37,083.  Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.

The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 38,100, a 19% decrease, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources.  The average daily death toll over the same period is 377, a decrease of 7% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 26,670, a 6% decrease.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Saturday, recorded over 98.8 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.09 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.6 million, and a reported death toll of 528,874.

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 reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July, 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 36.2 million, although Brazil has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 687,120, and has recorded 34.8 million cases, placing it in the number four slot.

Germany is in the number five slot with 34.6 million cases.

The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 25.1 million cases, the United Kingdom, with 23.8 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 23 million, as number eight, as well as Japan, with 21.7 million, and Russia, with 21.3 million.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Thursday, over 265.1 million people in the United States – or 79.9% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 68.1%, or 226.2 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 627.8 million. Breaking this down further, 90.8% of the population over the age of 18 – or 234.5 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77.9% of the same group – or 201.1 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 52.1% of that population, or 104.8 million people, has already received a first booster dose of vaccine.

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 68.3% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Saturday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 12.83 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2.8 million doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 23.3% 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.

Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)