Coronavirus Morning News Brief – July 17: Aspartame May Cause Cancer, Says WHO; North Carolina Governor Tests Positive
On board the Celebrity Summit
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,223rd day of the pandemic.
In news we cover today, the governor of North Carolina tested positive, the norovirus is appearing more on cruise ships this year than in prior years, and concerns over the WHO’s pronouncement over aspartame are raising questions over its future.
UNITED STATES
In New York, many state agencies apparently had less turnover during the pandemic than before it. A Times Union analysis suggests that retirements hit each state agency differently but most departments experienced lower attrition in the period 2020 to 2022 than in prior years.
Meanwhile, senior citizens are using health care services more often, a major insurer said.
United Healthcare Group said that rising demand for behavioral care and Medicare outpatient procedures are putting the squeeze on profits in some of its business units.
Finally, in North Carolina, Governor Roy Cooper said that he had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The governor reported in social media posts that he feels “fine” and that he will be working from home for the remainder of the week.
TRAVEL
Cruise lines are in the news again but this time not due to outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2. The cruise lines are battling outbreaks of norovirus and 13 such outbreaks were reported on cruise ships through June, the most in any year.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
The World Health Organization said that aspartame, a popular artificial sweetener used in diet sodas and chewing gums, may possibly cause cancer. This appears to be very low for occasional consumers of these products, however.
Aspartame was first discovered in 1965, and it exploded in popularity in the United States in the 1980s, after its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Ironically, while aspartame is hardly the first popular artificial sweetener, the two most popular artificial sweeteners to have preceded it – cyclamate and saccharin – were both eventually banned over concerns that they might cause cancer in humans.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Monday, July 17.
As of Monday morning, the world has recorded 691.68 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0. 2 million from the previous day, and 6.89 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 664.09 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.06 million from the prior 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 20,692,984, an increase of 150,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,655,795, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 37,189, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.
The United States no longer reports daily or weekly new Covid cases. It last 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 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The test positivity rate for Covid for the week ending July 1 was 9.82, up from 9.28% 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 2.14%, up from 1.98% and, for RSV, that figure was 0.55%, up from 0.46%.
The death toll from Covid was 1% in the week ending July 8, 2023, a figure that is down 9.1% over the past week.
Finally, the number of hospital admissions from Covid for seven days ending June 24 was 6,220, a figure that is down 8% over the preceding 7-day period.
As of March 25, 2023, the Morning News Brief began to update case data as well as death tolls on a weekly basis. In addition, as of 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. Where appropriate, the Morning News Brief has reintroduced data sets are they have become available.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Monday, recorded 107.37 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.17 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,914.
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, 704,320, has recorded 37.7 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 32.4 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 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 June 15, the total number of updated bivalent doses given in the United States was just over 139.9 million.
Older – and no longer updated – data from the CDC shows that over 270.2 million people in the United States – or 81.4% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of May 11, 2023. 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.
Some 70.3% 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, 13.48 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 158,616 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.2% 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, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
