Coronavirus Morning News Brief – June 4: Study Shows Cases in N.Y.C. Are Up, CDC Warns of ‘Relatively Little Protection’ as Adults Decline Boosters
The U.S. Life Expectancy Problem is Far Greater Than the Pandemic-Induced Decline
Halsey the Cat, who serves as the therapy cat to Snickers the Wonderdog
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,180th day of the pandemic as well as National Animal Rights Day.
National Animal Rights Day was established in 2011 by the non-profit Our Planet to help give voice to animals and raise awareness of animal rights. The day, among other things, is a celebration for the animals in our lives.
OP-ED ON SUNDAY
The U.S. Life Expectancy Problem is Far Greater Than the Pandemic-Induced Decline
A new study, Falling Behind: The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy Between the United States and Other Countries, 1933–2021, shows that life expectancy in the United States continues to plummet and a small number of states are responsible. In all, 50 countries have surpassed the United States in this area since the 1930s.
The study, which was published on Thursday in the American Journal in Public Health, offers a new and somewhat surprising perspective on life expectancy figures for the United States and gives possible pathways to a reversal.
The United States gained an advantage in life expectancy starting at the dawn of the twentieth century thanks to vaccines and sanitation. Muckrakers such as Jacob Riis, a Danish-American writer and photographer, exposed, using his photographs, the horrendous conditions the poor and impoverished immigrants were living in, without sunlight or access to clean water, to the middle and upper classes, which resulted in unprecedented reforms.
The report notes that life expectancy in the United States began to grow at a different pace in different parts of the country. Northeastern and western states saw the fastest growth while south, central, and midwestern states saw the slowest. It was the latter states that play a significant role in the country’s poor ranking. The report demonstrates that states including New York and Hawaii enjoy the same life expectancy as some of the healthiest countries in the world.
While U.S. life expectancy fell, in 2021, for the first time for two years in a row in over 100 years, this was only part of the overall trend. In 2019, someone born in the United States had a life expectancy of 79 years. In 2020, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, it fell to 77 years, and in 2021, life expectancy fell again, to 76.1 years.
In other news we cover today, the CDC is warning that adults are ending up with “relatively little protection” as more decline booster shots, the British PM is under fire over his disastrous 2021 “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, and cases are rising in the New York City area.
UNITED STATES
More adults are declining their next coronavirus vaccine booster and may have “relatively little remaining protection,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning. The study looked at some 85,000 hospitalizations of people with “Covid-like illness” in multiple states.
Meanwhile, New York City may be on the brink of a rebound of SARS-CoV-2 cases based on wastewater surveillance data. All 14 wastewater treatment plants in the Big Apple are currently reporting high concentrations of the virus, according to the NYS Wastewater Surveillance Network’s dashboard. A “high” ranking translates to 50 or more Covid cases per 100,000 people.
The current increase started at the end of April but has experienced a significant uptick over the past two weeks.
GLOBAL
U.K. Prime Minister is under fire for his “spectacularly stupid” “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme in 2021, which is believed to have caused a sudden rise in cases of the coronavirus. A study found that the virus spread more rapidly in areas where there were many participating restaurants, and infections in those areas slowed after the program came to an end.
Professor Martin McKee, the president of the British Medical Association, also criticized the “dysfunctional” way in which the U.K. government, including the Treasury under Sunak, who was chancellor of the exchequer, overlooked scientific advice throughout the pandemic.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, June 4.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded just under 689.9 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of less than 0.1 million from the previous day, and over 6.88 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, just under 662.2 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of less than 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 Sunday at press time is 20,741,636, a decrease of 18,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,703,713, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 37,923, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.
The United States reported 72,136 new cases in the period May 4 through May 10, a figure that is down 26% over the same period one week earlier, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The test positivity rate for the week ending May 27 was 6.79%, down from 7.96% in the prior week, according to data from the CDC Respiratory Virus Laboratory Emergency Department Network Surveillance, or RESP-LENS. By comparison, the test positive rate for influenza was 1.77% and, for RSV, that figure was 0.48%.
The death toll from Covid is down 1.3% in week ending May 20, 2023, and the trend in Covid-19 deaths is down 13.3% over the same period.
Finally, the number of hospital admissions from Covid for the week ending May 23 was 8,256, a figure that is down 11% over the preceding 7-day period.
Starting on March 25, 2023, the Morning News Brief began to update case data as well as death tolls on a weekly basis. In addition, starting on May 15, 2023, 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.
Since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded over 107.1 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of over 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 531,880.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July 2022, 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 40.1 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, 702,907, has recorded 37.6 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 31.8 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with just under 25.9 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.6 million, and Russia, with 22.9 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of May 11, over 270.2 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 over 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 53 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 23.7 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. Starting on May 11, 2023, the CDC pressed pause on reporting new vaccine data, a hiatus it said would end on June 15 of this year.
Some 70% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.41 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 208,323 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 30.1% 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)
