Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Feb. 14: Lunatics Take Over Kansas Legislature, California Hits 12 Million Cases

Sunset in San Francisco

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,040th day of the pandemic and also Valentine’s Day.

The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

That phrase, believed to have originated in a 1919 remark by studio executive Richard A. Rowland about the founding of United Artists may have been an allusion to the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether.

In this case, it’s happening in the legislature in the state of Kansas, where lawmakers are attempting to limit the power of state, county, and local health officials in adopting rules and regulations that would attempt to prevent the spread and reporting of contagious or infectious diseases.

Last week, the Kansas Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare considered a bill that would limit the state secretary of health and environment to only recommending but not adopting rules and regulations that could prevent the spread of a disease.

If approved and signed into law, the bill would also remove teachers and school administrators from a list of mandated individuals who must report infectious or contagious diseases.  It would also prevent local or county boards of health from prohibiting public gatherings in order to control the spread of a disease and it would eliminate the authority of law enforcement to assist in the execution of isolation or quarantine orders.

I hear the virus lobby cheering in the bleachers.

But wait a cotton picking minute.  There is no virus lobby.  These Kansan lawmakers must have, however, lost their cotton picking minds.

In other news we cover today, California reached the 12 million mark in Covid cases, more young people died from heart attacks during the pandemic than any other age group, and a man with a brain-eating amoeba infection was cured using a 50-year-old antibiotic.

UNITED STATES

The California Department of Public Health tallied its 12th millionth case of SARS-CoV-2 in recent days as the XBB 1.5 omicron sublineage continues to dominate.

Meanwhile, modeling from the California Department of Public Health indicates that the spread of COVID-19 is increasing statewide after falling steadily over the past two months. The state’s effective reproductive number – referred to as R nought – which estimates the average number of people each infected person passes the virus to, is currently 1.1, after dipping below 1.0 from December 18 through February 5. The number is seeing a sharp rise in parts of the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma and Solano counties.

Separately, a study from California’s Cedars Sinai Hospital showed that the number of deaths from heart attacks during the first two years of the pandemic was 30% higher than had been expected.   The national study found that deaths related to heart attacks increased across every age group in spring 2020, but the group that saw the biggest jump was in the age bracket 25 to 44.

Finally, in Congress, the House Oversight Committee began an investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and issued a series of letters to current and former Biden administration officials for documents and testimony.  Representative James Comer, the committee’s chairman, said that it will “follow the facts” and “hold U.S. government officials that took part in any sort of cover-up accountable.”

TRAVEL

Taiwan will reopen is borders to visitors from Hong Kong and Macau starting next week. The Mainland Affairs Council said Monday that residents of the two cities will be able to make individual sightseeing visits at that point.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

A man with a brain-eating infection caused by an amoeba was cured by Nitroxolin, an antibiotic that has been in use in Europe for about fifty years, and one that has proven itself to be very effective at combating biofilm infections.  The patient’s infection, although very rare, is almost always fatal.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study that showed that teenage girls in the United States are experiencing record levels of violence, sadness, and suicide risk.  The report found that nearly 60% of teenage girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, the highest level reported over the past ten years.  The percentage of teenage boys with similar feelings was only 29%.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, February 14.

As of Tuesday morning, the world has recorded 677.8 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.1 million cases, and 6.78 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 650.4 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.2 million.

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 Tuesday at press time is 20,667,903, a decrease of 14,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,626,665, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 41,238, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past three months.

The United States reported 24,468 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday for the previous day, compared to 3,127 on Monday, 1,902 on Sunday, 14,142 on Saturday, 68,999 on Friday, and 112,192 on Thursday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 36,661.  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 38,926, a figure down 15% over the past 14 days, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources.  The average daily death toll over the same period is 452, a decrease of 15% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 28,716, a decrease of 12%. In addition, the number of patients in ICUs was 3,555, a decrease of 14% and the test positivity rate is now 10%, a figure that has remained flat for the past 24 hours.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Tuesday, recorded just under 104.8 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.14 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.7 million, and a reported death toll of 530,753.

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 39.6 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 37.9 million total cases.

Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 697,762, has recorded 36.9 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 just under 33 million cases, South Korea, with 30.4 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 25.5 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.3 million, and Russia, with 22.1 million.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, 269.2 million people in the United States – or 81.1% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.2%, or 229.8 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 668.8 million. Breaking this down further, 92% of the population over the age of 18 – or 237.6 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 78.9% of the same group – or 203.8 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 19.2% of the same population, or over 49.5 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent 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 69.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Tuesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.27 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 854,826 doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 26.4% 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)