Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Sept. 16: SARS-CoV-2 Symptoms Are Shifting, Pharmacy Chains Roll Out Updated Covid Vaccines
A Rosh Hashanah card in German celebrating the “head” of the year.
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,284th day of the pandemic and the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, celebrating the start of the year 5784.
In news we report today, SARS-CoV-2 symptoms appear to be shifting aware from what was seen in earlier waves, an FDA advisory panel said that phenylephrine, a key ingredient in the most popular form of Sudafed and other over-the-counter decongestants, is useless, and pharmacy chains are rolling out the new Covid vaccine in the United States.
UNITED STATES
SARS-CoV-2 symptoms are shifting once again. While earlier waves of Covid had hallmark symptoms such as a dry cough or the loss of taste or smell, the current wave of patients is presenting with milder symptoms that are mostly concentrated in the upper respiratory tract.
A sore throat is quite common, followed by severe congestion. Sneezing is also a frequently-cited symptom.
If you are suffering from a stuffy nose, you may want to reach for something other than Sudafed. Earlier in the week, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration reported that phenylephrine, an ingredient in Sudafed and other common decongestants, is not effective at in relieving nasal congestion and the recommendation could cause the FDA to yank the products from the market.
“Modern studies, when well conducted, are not showing any improvement in congestion with phenylephrine” said Dr. Mark Dykewicz, an allergy specialist at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Drugmakers began using phenylephrine after a 2006 law mandated that decongestants containing pseudoephedrine be kept in a secured manner and that customers must ask a sales clerk for the product.
Large pharmacy chain stores including CVS and Walgreens began accepting appointments for obtaining a dose of the new 2023 coronavirus vaccine. A check by the Morning News Brief in one dozen jurisdictions across the country showed excellent availability, generally starting on Tuesday of the coming week.
The estimated 25-to-30 million people who do not have health insurance in the country will nonetheless have access to the new coronavirus vaccine at no charge. The inoculations will be paid for by the government’s Bridge Access Program, a CDC initiative to provide the jab via local healthcare providers, local healthcare centers, and select pharmacies.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic’s two chairman told CIA director William Burns that it had heard “new testimony from a highly credible whistleblower” who alleged that the agency “rewarded six analysts with significant financial incentives to change their Covid-19 origins conclusion from a lab-leak to zoonosis.”
The CIA confirmed on Saturday that it was “looking into” the accusations.
“At [the] CIA we are committed to the highest standards of analytic rigor, integrity and objectivity,” said agency spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp in a statement. “We do not pay analysts to reach specific conclusions.”
Kupperman Thorpe added that “[W]e take these allegations extremely seriously and are looking into them. We will keep our Congressional oversight committees appropriately informed.”
GLOBAL
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency in the United Kingdom said on Saturday it has approved an updated coronavirus vaccine by Moderna. The move makes the Moderna vaccine the second shot to be used authorized for use in the country’s vaccination campaign this autumn.
The highly mutated omicron subvariant BA.2.86 was detected in Germany for the first time, the Robert Koch Institut in Germany reported on Saturday. The subvariant has recently been detected in multiple countries including Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The World Health Organization has labeled it a “variant under monitoring.”
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
Health authorities in southern India are rushing to stem the spread of the deadly Nipah virus. The virus is less transmissible than SARS-CoV-2 but it exhibits a much higher fatality rate. There have been two deaths in Kerela, a state in that part of the country. Contacts of the handful of people who have tested positive with the virus are being identified and isolated. People who contract the Nipah virus will typically experience early symptoms such as a headache and or drowsiness, followed by seizures or, in severe cases, a comatose state.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Saturday, September 16.
As of Saturday morning, the world has recorded just over 695.36 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.07 million from the previous day, and 6.92 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 667.39 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.09 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 Saturday at press time is 21,029,801, a decrease of 42,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,991,856, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 37,945, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.
The test positivity rate for Covid in the United States for the week ending September 9 was 23.05% down from 23.13% 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 1.27%, up from 1.05%, and, for RSV, that figure was 1.25%, up from 0.88%.
The percentage of deaths due to Covid was 2.3% in the week ending September 9, 2023, a figure that is up 4.5% over the previous week.
Finally, the number of hospital admissions from Covid for seven days ending September 2 was 18,871, a figure that is up 8.7% over the preceding week.
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 Saturday, recorded 108.42 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.18 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,930.
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 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.43 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 705,313, has recorded 37.79 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 25.98 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.69 million, and Russia, with 23 million, as nine and ten respectively.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of August 5, the total number of updated bivalent doses given in the United States was 153.57 million, an increase of 1.06 million doses over the past month.
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 70.5% 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, 13.46 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 21,556 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.6% 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 in any significant number.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
