Virus Link: February 2022

Monday, February 28, 2022

Pfizer Covid vaccine was just 12% effective against omicron in kids 5 to 11, study finds - CNBC

Nora Gossett, 7, reacts as she receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from Sophia Jan, MD, while her father Jeff Gossett, MD, holds her hand at Cohen Children's Medical Center as vaccines were approved for children aged 5-11, amid the coronavirus disease pandemic, in New Hyde Park, New York, November 4, 2021.

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Pfizer and BioNTech's two-dose Covid vaccine provided very little protection for children aged 5 to 11 during the wave of omicron infection in New York, according to a study published Monday.

The New York State Department of Health found that the effectiveness of Pfizer's vaccine against Covid infection plummeted from 68% to 12% for kids in that age group during the omicron surge from Dec. 13 through Jan 24. Protection against hospitalization dropped from 100% to 48% during the same period.

The study has not yet undergone peer review, the academic gold standard. Due to the public health urgency of the pandemic, scientists have been publishing the results of their studies before such review.

The team of public health officials who conducted the study said the dramatic drop in vaccine effectiveness among children 5 to 11 years old was likely due to the lower dosage they received. Kids in this age group are given two 10-microgram shots, while children aged 12 to 17 receive 30-microgram shots.

The researchers also compared 11 and 12 year olds during the weekend ended Jan. 30. They found the vaccine effectiveness plunged to 11% for the low-dosage group but offered 67% protection to the group that received the higher dose.

"Given rapid loss of protection against infections, these results highlight the continued importance of layered protections, including mask wearing, for children to prevent infection and transmission," the public health officials wrote in the study.

For children aged 12 to 17 years old, vaccine effectiveness against infection dropped from 66% to 51% from December through the end of January. Protection against hospitalization dropped from 85% to 73% for teenagers during the same period.

The data comes as New York City plans to end its school mask mandate by March 7, with California doing the same four days later. State governments are easing mandates and restrictions as Covid infections decline dramatically after the omicron variant swept the nation in December and January

Covid infections are down 91% from a pandemic high in January. The U.S. reported a daily average of nearly 66,000 new infections on Sunday, compared to the more than 802,000 on Jan. 15, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. suffered a spike in hospitalizations of children with Covid during the omicron wave. The Food and Drug Administration sought to fast track Pfizer's vaccine for kids aged six months through 4 years old this month in response to the number of children hospitalized with Covid.

However, the FDA and Pfizer decided to put those plans on hold after data on the first two doses did not meet expectations. The FDA is now waiting to see clinical trial data on a third dose for the youngest kids, which is expected in April.

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Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show - The New York Times

While protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination.

The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to a large new set of data collected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents.

The Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest.

The sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said.

The findings, which were posted online on Monday, come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose.

Experts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either.

“It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant,” said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. “It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but it’s again all against Omicron.”

Still, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set.

“We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole,” said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University.

In their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge.

The vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error.

The numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent.

The numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children.

“The difference between the two age groups is striking,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine — the same dose given to adults — children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted.

“This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that it’s the dose that makes the difference,” he added. “The question is how to fix that.”

There have been at least 851 deaths involving Covid-19 in children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic.

The findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said.

Dr. Rosenberg’s research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new recommendations that would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools.

The new data also raises important questions about the Biden administration’s strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received two doses of the vaccine. (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.)

The vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus.

Dr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said.

Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The data is generally consistent with a report from Britain showing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans.

Israeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccine’s performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November.

“We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine,” Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data.

Dr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results.

“It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose,” he said.

It is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children.

There are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona.

Pfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses.

Dr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week encouraged some people older than 12, especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot.

Another option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines.

The next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. “Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think that’s really still the key conversation going forward here,” Dr. Bhattacharya said.

Newer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon.

Many parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccine’s low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns.

Still, the vaccines “provide more protection than we think,” said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

“They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isn’t shedding virus as much as they would be if they weren’t vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time,” she said.

The virus is here to stay, and children’s risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A.

“The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up,” he said. “They’re going to need to be protected against this virus for years.”

Sharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.

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Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show - The New York Times
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Gov. Inslee will lift Washington’s COVID-19 mask requirements on March 12 after change to federal guidelines - The Seattle Times

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Gov. Inslee will lift Washington’s COVID-19 mask requirements on March 12 after change to federal guidelines The Seattle TimesView Full Coverage on Google News

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Pfizer Covid vaccine is less effective in kids 5 to 11, study finds - STAT

Newly emerging data suggest the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine works substantially less well at preventing infection and hospitalizations in children aged 5 to 11 than it does in those aged 12 to 17 — a finding that is raising questions about whether the companies chose the wrong dose for the younger children.

The data, from New York state, show a rapid and substantial decline in protection after vaccination in children in the younger age group, with efficacy against infections dropping off more quickly and dramatically than the declines seen in children aged 12 to 17. The study also found a significant, but less steep, decline in protection against hospitalizations.

The findings, compiled by researchers working for the New York State Department of Health, were posted Monday on a preprint server; the study has not yet undergone peer review.

The New York findings, along with data from several other databases, were recently presented to the Covid vaccine work group of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, independent vaccine experts who advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sources told STAT.

The data come on the heels of disappointing results from Pfizer trials of an even lower vaccine dose in children under the age of 5. And they will raise questions about whether, in trying to find doses that were both protective and tolerable in children, the companies failed to hit the mark for both age groups.

Pfizer would not say if it is exploring the possibility that the dose used in children might be too low, but said it is “confident in the protection and safety” of its Covid-19 vaccine.

“Our updates earlier this year on pursuing a 3-dose schedule for the pediatric population were informed by the effectiveness data for three doses of the vaccine for people 16 years and older, and the early laboratory data observed with Delta and other variants of concern, including Omicron, which suggest that people vaccinated with three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine may have a higher degree of protection,” it said in an emailed statement.

But John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medical College, said given the findings of this study, it’s hard to see how the lower efficacy in children aged 5 to 11 could be due to anything but the lower dose they received. In the study, children aged 12 had the highest vaccine efficacy of all age groups in both cohorts.“The striking difference between 11- and 12-year-olds can only be explained by the three-fold dosing reduction in the younger children. The one-year age difference is highly unlikely to make any other factor relevant,” Moore said by email. “The 11-year-olds got the 3-fold reduced dose, the 12-year-olds the standard dose.”

The New York study analyzed health records for Covid cases in children and teens from Dec. 13, 2021 to Jan. 30, 2022, a period during which the Omicron variant was fast replacing all other forms of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the country. Covid vaccines are not as protective against Omicron as they were against earlier versions of the virus, especially without a booster shot.

The state recorded more than 850,000 Covid cases in adolescents aged 12 to 17 during that time, and about 365,000 in children aged 5 to 11.

Over that period, two-dose vaccine protection against infection for kids aged 5 to 11 declined from 68% to 12%; the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing hospitalization declined from 100% to 48%.

But two-dose protection against infection for children aged 12 to 17 only dropped from 66% to 51%, and protection against hospitalization from 85% to 73%.

“Our data support vaccine protection against severe disease among children 5-11 years, but suggest rapid loss of protection against infection, in the Omicron variant era,” the researchers wrote. “Should such findings be replicated in other settings, review of the dosing schedule for children 5-11 years appears prudent.”

The adult Pfizer regimen — used in anyone aged 12 and older — is two doses of 30 micrograms apiece, given 21 days apart. Children 5 to 11 years old receive a dose that is one-third that size, two doses of 10 micrograms apiece. And in studies of children under 5, the dose is further reduced, with the children aged 6 months to 4 years getting two 3-microgram doses. The vaccine is not yet authorized for use in children under 5.

In December, Pfizer announced that two doses of the vaccine in children under 5 had not generated the same level of antibodies as was seen after two doses in people 16 to 25, which was being used as a proxy for protection. It said it would give the children under 5 a third dose to see if that achieved the required level of protection.

But then as Omicron cases spiked across the country, the Food and Drug Administration revealed it was considering a rolling authorization for the vaccine for children under age 5, allowing parents to start vaccinating their children while waiting for the third dose. The rationale was that the risk-benefit equation had shifted with Omicron.

A meeting of the FDA’s vaccine advisers, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, was scheduled for mid-February. But before the group could meet the FDA and Pfizer announced the plan was on hold. The plan is now to wait for the third-dose results before considering authorization in this age group.

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Pfizer Covid vaccine is less effective in kids 5 to 11, study finds - STAT
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Pfizer Covid vaccine is less effective in kids 5 to 11, study finds - STAT

The findings, compiled by researchers working for the New York State Department of Health, were posted Monday on a preprint server; the study has not yet undergone peer review.

Pfizer would not say if it is exploring the possibility that the dose used in children might be too low, but said it is “confident in the protection and safety” of its Covid-19 vaccine.

The state recorded more than 850,000 Covid cases in adolescents aged 12 to 17 during that time, and about 365,000 in children aged 5 to 11.

Over that period, two-dose vaccine protection against infection for kids aged 5 to 11 declined from 68% to 12%; the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing hospitalization declined from 100% to 48%.

But two-dose protection against infection for children aged 12 to 17 only dropped from 66% to 51%, and protection against hospitalization from 85% to 73%.

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Michigan reports 1,860 new COVID cases, 26 deaths -- average of 620 cases per day - WDIV ClickOnDetroit

DETROIT – Michigan reported 1,860 new cases of COVID-19 and 26 virus-related deaths Monday -- an average of 620 cases over the past three days.

This is the lowest average daily case count in Michigan since July.

Monday’s update brings the total number of confirmed COVID cases in Michigan to 2,056,751, including 31,817 deaths. These numbers are up from 2,054,891 cases and 31,791 deaths, as of Friday.

The deaths announced Monday didn’t include any identified during a Vital Records review.

Testing has increased to around 50,000 to 60,000 diagnostic tests reported per day on average, with the 7-day positive rate at 8.13% as of Feb. 25. Hospitalizations have decreased over the last few weeks.

The state’s 7-day moving average for daily cases was 1,293 on Friday, Feb. 25, lower than the previous week. The 7-day death average was 58 on Feb. 25. The state’s fatality rate is 1.5%.

Michigan has reported more than 11.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered as of Feb. 24, with 70.2% of 16+ residents having received at least one dose, while 64.4% of 16+ residents are considered fully vaccinated.

Across Michigan’s entire population, 66% have received at least one COVID vaccine dose.

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 78 million cases have been reported in the U.S., with more than 947,600 deaths reported from the virus. Globally, more than 10.4 billion vaccine doses have been administered, including more than 550 million doses in the U.S. alone.

Worldwide, more than 433 million people have been confirmed infected and more than 5.9 million have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different ways nations count the dead and deliberate under-reporting by some governments.

New daily Michigan COVID-19 totals since Feb. 7:

Feb. 7 -- 9,898 new cases (case count for three days)
Feb. 9 -- 7,527 new cases (case count for two days)
Feb. 11 -- 5,716 new cases (case count for two days)
Feb. 14 -- 5,380 new cases (case count for three days)
Feb. 16 -- 4,271 new cases (case count for two days)
Feb. 18 -- 3,827 new cases (case count for two days)
Feb. 23 -- 5,931 new cases (case count for five days)
Feb. 25 -- 3,120 new cases (case count for two days)
Feb. 28 -- 1,860 new cases (case count for three days)

Latest COVID-19 data in Michigan:

COVID-19 Discussion Forum:

Join our dedicated space to discuss the pandemic. You’re invited to share questions, experiences, insights and opinions.

Join the conversation here.

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Sunday, February 27, 2022

'People's Convoy' Protesting COVID-19 Mandates Passes Through Oklahoma - News On 6

Hundreds of truckers are making their way through Oklahoma on their journey across the country to try and put the brakes on COVID-19 mandates here in the US.

News On 6's Ashlyn Brothers was in Vinita where the truckers are taking an overnight pit stop on The People's Convoy.

People from all walks of life have rolled into town… miles upon miles of trucks, bumper to bumper, now taking up many parking lots in Vinita.

When they arrived, the crowd erupted.

Supporters can be seen pulling over on the side of the highway, lining the streets, gathering shoulder to shoulder on bridges and overpasses waving American flags as The People's Convoy travels through Green Country.

“We’re supporting the truckers,” said Ciairra Hattaway.

“We don’t realize how much they do for our country,” said Karsyn.

“You do what you love, you never work a day in your life. Trucking’s my life,” said Brandon Six, OK truck driver.

Truckers can be heard honking and crowds seen holding signs saying, 'let freedom roll' and ‘keep truckin’ on.’

“Truckers have a huge impact. We move the world. Truckers what moves the world, baby. Everything you have on and everything you’re using is all come by a trucker. Everything. If it wasn’t for truckers, nothing would go down,” said Six.

“This is why. This is why. Because we’re fighting for everyone,” said Kim West.

Kim West and her husband drove 33 hours to California from Idaho for the launch.

“He’s actually on the security team so we stay behind till they’re all gone and then we fly past everybody and then we get here before they do,” said West.

The miles-long line of trucks is traveling across the country with the message they’re tired of restrictions brought on by the pandemic.

“This is the heart of America right here. This is the heart,” said West.

Truckers and supporters are calling for government accountability through transparent congressional hearings, an end to the national emergency declaration, and the ‘restoration of the US constitution.’

“This constitution is getting stomped on,” said West. “They work for us, and they forgot. They work for us.”

Supporters are specifically protesting a mandate from the US Department of Homeland Security requiring truck drivers to be fully vaccinated if they need to cross land borders, like from Canada and Mexico.

50,000 Canadian truck drivers led the way, forming a similar convoy a few weeks ago.

The People's Convoy is staying in Vinita tonight on their way to Washington DC.

“America’s waking up,” said West. “God bless America.”

Organizers said they plan to leave for Missouri tomorrow morning and aim to arrive in DC on Saturday.

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Detroit Zoo moves birds inside due to Avian Influenza concerns - CNN

(CNN)The Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) says it is being proactive and moving birds at the Detroit Zoo inside due to concerns about avian influenza, which is highly contagious and deadly, according to the zoo.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed Thursday avian influenza virus was identified in a backyard flock of non-poultry birds in Kalamazoo County, which is about 140 miles west of Detroit. Similar infections have been reported across the United States in recent weeks.

"This is an important preventative measure," said Dr. Ann Duncan, director of animal health for the DZS. "By bringing these animals indoors, we can more closely monitor them and prevent contact with wild birds who may be carriers" of the virus.

The virus can infect several species of birds, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (OiE), including poultry. New cases of bird flu have appeared in more than 40 countries over the last six months, according to OiE.

In the past few weeks, the USDA has identified the bird flu in Delaware, Maine, New York, Virginia and Kentucky.

People in close contact with infected birds can contract the virus, but no human cases of the bird flu have been detected in the United States, according to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

CNN's Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.

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Another trucker protest convoy falters as numbers thin: Live COVID updates - USA TODAY

Covid-19, Mask Guidelines and Testing News: Live Updates - The New York Times

State Representative Cathy Kipp, a Democrat in Colorado, performed a Covid-19 test in January before entering the State Capitol in Denver. — David Zalubowski/Associated Press

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted its guidelines on Friday to say that fewer communities were in need of coronavirus restrictions such as masks and social distancing, a change that coincided with moves by several states to drop such protections.

But the rush to return to normality in light of an improving national outlook for coronavirus cases has many public health experts concerned that the end of the Omicron surge is incorrectly being conflated with the end of the pandemic.

“Things are improving, but we still aren’t at a point where we’re getting out in front of this,” said Dr. Lynn R. Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

Dr. Goldman said the new C.D.C. guidance was comparable to an “off ramp” from the pandemic, even though new variants could still emerge and the country’s health system, and public, is not equipped for another surge in cases.

The daily average number of coronavirus cases has dropped 63 percent and the average number of hospitalizations has dropped 44 percent in the United States over the past 14 days, according to a New York Times database, continuing a steady trend of declining coronavirus numbers nationally. The daily average number of deaths is still roughly 1,900 — a 23 percent drop over the past two weeks — but that is expected to fall further soon because of the lag between hospitalization and death rates.

The new C.D.C. guidelines encourage counties to not just use case rates to calculate the risk for communities, but also include hospitalization figures. This change suggests that 70 percent of Americans could now stop wearing masks, and stop social distancing or avoiding crowded indoor spaces.

Several experts said that the new C.D.C. guidelines were appropriate, but many have expressed concern that the recommendations do not account for the unknowns of the pandemic.

Dr. Gerald E. Harmon, the president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement in response to the new recommendations that he would continue to wear a mask “in most indoor public settings,” and he urged all Americans to do the same. “We must remain adaptable and vigilant in confronting this unpredictable virus,” Dr. Harmon said.

The C.D.C. guidance came after several states, including Illinois, Connecticut and New York, made moves to end or phase out mask mandates.

In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis said on Friday that the state would end its coronavirus emergency response and that residents had “earned the right to move beyond the pandemic in your lives.”

“There is no claiming victory with regards to the virus,” Mr. Polis said. “The virus is here and will likely be here for the rest of our lives. But it is time to acknowledge that we have reached a point in Colorado where Coloradans who are fully vaccinated can freely live without undue fear.”

Also on Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California lifted 19 executive actions related to the pandemic and said another 18 would be lifted on March 31, although its emergency declaration remains in place.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C.’s director, was asked in a call with reporters on Friday about the timing of the new guidance and how it related to decisions by states to drop restrictions.

She said that the agency had been planning to shift the metric to hospitalizations for some time and that many state policies “will coincide with exactly what we are recommending.”

Dr. Esther Choo, an emergency medicine physician at the Oregon Health and Science University, said on Twitter that making hospitalizations the sole metric “means allowing a high burden of disease & having a delayed response that is slow to have impact on hospitalizations and death.”

Dr. Goldman, of the Milken Institute, shared the same concern and said that the current lull in infections should be used as an opportunity to prepare, including by ensuring that people have access to surgical masks instead of the less effective cloth masks and by improving testing resources in communities.

“The desire to walk away from this cannot just be that we are going to forget about it and fail to prepare for the next one,” Dr. Goldman said.

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Billionaire Accused of Anti-Vax Misinfo Now Reportedly Has COVID - The Daily Beast

He was an unvaxxed billionaire accused of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation. Now he reportedly has COVID.

Clive Palmer, the 67-year-old Australian mining magnate and political provocateur, is battling both the coronavirus and pneumonia, according to unnamed sources cited by The Australian. The outlet reported that the billionaire “remains very sick.”

Earlier this week, Palmer was transported to the hospital in an ambulance after experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19. He was pictured leaving the hospital wearing a face mask that did not cover his nose.

“I’m not vaccinated and I don’t intend to be vaccinated,” the billionaire proudly declared at a rally last year.

A spokesperson for Palmer could not immediately be reached for comment or to confirm the news.

In recent months the tycoon has made headlines for his political aspirations, as he leverages both a Trumpian playbook and enormous sums of cash to advance his United Australia Party.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reported this week, he has dropped more than $20 million on attack ads since the summer, “100 times more than [the] major parties.”

“Think about in the United States one of the Koch brothers running for president or something and outspending the Democrats and the Republicans,” University of Sydney senior lecturer Peter Chen told The Daily Beast earlier this month, of Palmer’s political spending. “It’s that sort of crazy money.”

Despite his ad blitzes, the billionaire remains hugely unpopular. As of December, polling showed that just 8 percent of the country had a positive view of him, compared to 59 percent with a negative opinion, making him Australia’s “least likable politician.”

There are mixed opinions about whether Palmer has sincere political ambitions or whether he is simply trolling. Others believe he is just trying to intimidate his way into favorable mining policies.

“One of the most dangerous places to be in Australia is between Clive Palmer and his business interests. He is obsessed with money and obsessed with talking about his wealth,” Member of Parliament Patrick Gorman told The Daily Beast last month.

As Australia readies for elections this spring, time will tell whether Palmer can bounce back quickly to exert his influence in the final stretch.

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Saturday, February 26, 2022

Studies reveal new 'stealth' omicron variant is 30% more transmissible. Should California be worried? - San Francisco Chronicle

New studies of the BA.2 sub-variant of the omicron strain of COVID — known as “stealth” omicron — show that the lineage is more transmissible than the original omicron, but may not be more severe. And so far, it doesn’t seem to be provoking another surge in cases.

While experts are keeping a close eye on BA.2 as it circulates around the world — it is already in all 50 U.S. states — many aren’t worried that it will upend recent progress in winding down the pandemic.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is BA.2?

BA.2 is a sub-variant of the omicron variant of COVID-19. It’s known as “stealth” omicron not because it’s harder to detect on coronavirus tests, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, but because it is not always recognized as omicron.

BA.2 lacks the specific genetic feature that allows scientists to quickly identify a COVID-19 strain as omicron when sequencing, which means BA.2 can look like delta in initial screening.

The test will show “positive” for COVID, Chin-Hong explained, but not that it’s omicron.

Because BA.2 is a subvariant of omicron, the California Public Health Dept. does not track it separately, the agency said.

Is BA.2 more infectious than omicron?

Studies estimate that BA.2 is about 30% more transmissible than the original BA.1 omicron version, though that difference in contagiousness isn’t as large as the leap between delta and omicron, the WHO said. On Thursday, South Africa’s top public health body said that while its data show BA.2 does appear to be more infectious than BA.1, it does not cause more severe disease, Reuters reported.

Will BA.2 cause another surge in cases?

While the growth of BA.2 is now outpacing that of BA.1, the World Health Organization nevertheless notes that “the global circulation of all variants is reportedly declining,” meaning that BA.2 does not appear to be spurring renewed outbreaks.

Chin-Hong said that, while it is important to keep an eye on the strain’s spread, highly vaccinated places that have already seen large omicron surges, like the Bay Area, are likely not going to see huge spikes fueled by BA.2.

Still, he said, the omicron sub-variant is very likely to infect people who are not vaccinated and have not had omicron, he said, which could “slow the sense of normalcy” for some.

He also noted that because BA.2 is arising just when many places are dropping mask mandates and other restrictions, it’s hard to know whether increased cases are because of the sublineage or just a natural consequence of the lowered restrictions.

“It’s hard to see what effect there is because of BA.2 specifically,” he said.

Coronavirus Pandemic

Is it BA.2 more severe?

While there are some mixed results in studies, real world data so far show that BA.2 is not causing more severe disease than the original omicron.

A Japanese study on lab mice has found that the sub-variant could potentially cause more severe disease than its parent omicron — but that phenomenon has not played out in humans. The study’s results “look scary,” Chin-Hong said, but doesn’t necessarily translate to humans in large part because “it doesn’t account for previous immunity.”

Chin-Hong added that he is not expecting more people to be hospitalized with BA.2 than with BA.1, especially since vaccines continue to effectively protect against severe disease, hospitalization and death.

However, he also noted that even though omicron and BA.2 are mild for many, UCSF hospital has continued to treat patients with serious illness, most of them unvaccinated.

“The vaccine is still the best protection,” he said.

Can BA.2 reinfect people who’ve already had COVID-19?

Like the original strain of omicron, BA.2 can reinfect people who’ve had COVID before, but it doesn’t appear to be able to reinfect people who’ve already had omicron, especially those who are vaccinated, Chin-Hong said.

A study out of Denmark found that, while BA.2 was able to reinfect a small number of people who already had the original omicron, those were “young unvaccinated individuals with mild disease not resulting in hospitalization or death.”

Chin-Hong added that people who are unvaccinated and had a mild case of omicron may not have produced a robust enough immune response to fight off another infection from BA.2, since mild infections don’t “wake up” as many T cells and B cells — “yet another reason to get vaccinated,” he said.

WHO also said that initial data from real-world infections “suggest that infection with BA.1 provides strong protection against reinfection with BA.2, at least for the limited period for which data are available.”

What does BA.2 mean for the future of the pandemic?

BA.2 is another twist from an unpredictable virus, and researchers and scientists are staying vigilant.

Chin-Hong said that while he isn’t terribly worried about BA.2 itself, people who are unvaccinated and haven’t gotten omicron are very likely to get BA.2 he said, and that opportunity for increased transmission worries him.

“Every time you have a transmission, you can have a mutation,” he said. “The spawn of BA.2 will be something different, but we don’t know what. And there’s no guarantee that it will still be mild.”

“At this point the most worrisome thing about BA.2 is that it demonstrates that it’s possible for a variant to be more infectious than Omicron,” Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of medicine at UCSF, wrote on Twitter. “There’s no guarantee that a future variant won’t be more immune-evasive and/or severe. But luckily, not this one.”

Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev

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What the new CDC covid guidance means for travel - The Washington Post

Where should people wear a mask when traveling throughout the country? Under new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the answer is: in far fewer places.

On Friday, the CDC eased mask recommendations for much of the country under a new framework to monitor coronavirus that immediately affects about 70 percent of Americans. The new recommendations factor in case numbers as always, but also consider hospitalizations and hospital capacity.

Officials emphasized that people with symptoms, people who have tested positive for coronavirus or those who have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus should always wear a mask. They said anyone can choose to wear a face covering, even if it’s not recommended.

“If you feel more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a news briefing Friday.

Some rules remain the same, such as masking in airport and on public transportation and testing before international travel into the United States. Federal officials have not said whether the transportation mask mandate, which is set to expire March 18, will be extended.

Here’s what you need to know about the CDC’s new guidance when traveling.

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Cases of highly pathogenic bird flu detected in Delaware and Michigan - CBS News

Delaware and Michigan are the latest states to report cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed. The virus, also known as the bird flu, does not pose an immediate threat to the public, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cases were confirmed in a commercial poultry flock in New Castle County, Delaware, and in a non-commercial backyard flock in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Officials in both states have quarantined the affected premises. The birds will be "depopulated" in order to prevent the disease from spreading, and they will not enter the food system, the USDA said.

The department's inspection service is working with Delaware and Michigan animal health officials.

According to the CDC, birds can catch the flu when they come into contact with the "saliva, nasal secretions or feces" of an infected bird. The flu is considered to be "very contagious among birds" and has the potential to kill certain domesticated species like chickens and turkeys.

Although human cases of avian viruses are rare, some have been reported, the CDC said. Humans can become infected when enough of the virus gets into their eyes, nose or mouth. Humans cannot get the disease from poultry or eggs that are properly handled and cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, the USDA said. Once a person is infected, symptoms range from conjunctivitis, fever, diarrhea and vomiting to severe respiratory illness and neurological changes, the CDC said.

Over the past decade, the bird flu has become more common and spread to more places across the world, the CDC said. Since the start of 2022, multiple states, including Maine, New York, Virginia and South Carolina, have detected the virus. In Indiana, more than 150,000 birds have been affected by the virus, according to the Indiana Board of Animal Health.

Prior to the 2022 outbreak, the last time a case was reported in the U.S. was in 2016, according to the CDC.

Despite the national outbreak, the CDC said it is still safe to eat "properly handled and cooked poultry." No human cases have been detected in the U.S.

Tori B. Powell

Tori B. Powell is a breaking news reporter at CBS News. Reach her at tori.powell@viacomcbs.com

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Friday, February 25, 2022

CDC Says Waiting Longer Between COVID Vaccine Doses Could Reduce Myocarditis - NBC News

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CDC Media Telebriefing: Update on COVID-19 | CDC Online Newsroom - COVID-19

What

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will provide an update to media on new COVID-19 Community Levels, a new tool to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data. Attached is a power point that includes:

What People Can Do to Protect Themselves
County-level COVID-19 Community Levels, February 24, 2022

Who

Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Greta Massetti, PhD, MPH, COVID-19 Response Incident Management Team

When
Friday, February 25, 2022 at 3:00 PM ET

Dial-In

Media: 800-369-1177
International: 1-773-756-4809
PASSCODE: 8355907

Public: 888-381-5770
International: 1-517-308-9447
PASSCODE: 8494852

Important Instructions
Please plan to dial in to the telebriefing 15 minutes before the start time.

Media: If you would like to ask a question during the call, press *1 on your touchtone phone. Press *2 to withdraw your question. You may queue up at any time. You will hear a tone to indicate your question is pending.

Transcript
A transcript will be available following the briefing at CDC’s web site www.cdc.gov/media.

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Thursday, February 24, 2022

Queen Elizabeth Cancels Virtual Events for 2nd Time Since Covid Test - The New York Times

Queen Elizabeth II postponed her daily virtual engagements on Thursday, Buckingham Palace said, the second time she has taken such a step since she tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday.

Several people at Windsor Castle, where the 95-year-old queen has spent most of her time in virtual quarantine during the pandemic, were infected this week, according to a palace official. It is not known who exposed her to the virus.

The queen tested positive on Sunday, after meeting at Windsor Castle with her son and heir Prince Charles earlier this month. Charles, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time and went into isolation.

On Thursday, the palace did not specify why the queen’s meetings were called off, so it was unclear whether the move reflected lingering Covid symptoms. On Tuesday, the palace said she had canceled virtual events because she was “still experiencing mild coldlike symptoms.”

The palace said the queen would be “continuing with light duties,” and that she had no other engagements scheduled this week. It did not say when Thursday’s virtual engagements would be rescheduled.

But the queen did have her regularly scheduled call with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday, the palace said. Between her coronavirus recovery and the crisis unfolding in Ukraine there had been some doubt about whether their phone meeting would go ahead.

The news of her illness came as Mr. Johnson made moves to lift England’s remaining coronavirus restrictions this week.

Elizabeth received her first shot of coronavirus vaccine in January 2021 at Windsor Castle with her late husband, Prince Philip. The palace has not publicly confirmed any additional vaccine doses.

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New COVID variant is still one of concern, WHO says - Deseret News

The BA.2 COVID-19 variant — a sublineage of the omicron coronavirus variant — is still considered a variant of concern, according to the World Health Organization.

The news: The WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) ruled Tuesday that the BA.2 variant of the omicron variant should still be called a variant of concern, according to the United Nations News.

“They stressed that public health authorities should continue to monitor BA.2 as a distinct sublineage of Omicron, currently the dominant variant circulating globally,” United Nations News said.
“The experts explained that BA.2 differs from BA.1 in its genetic sequence, and that it has a growth advantage over this sublineage,” the report added.

Why it matters: The BA.2 variant of the omicron variant is continuing to spread even as COVID-19 case numbers are dropping significantly.

Per Insider, COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have dropped more than 90% since January, when the United States hit a pandemic peak.
“The fear is that spread may be on track to rapidly accelerate in the near future,” according to NPR.

The bigger picture: “The UN agency urged countries to remain vigilant, to monitor and report sequences, and to conduct independent and comparative analyses of the different Omicron sublineages,” according to the United Nations News.

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New studies bring BA.2 variant into sharper focus - CNN

(CNN)On the heels of concerning new lab and animal experiments suggesting that BA.2 may be capable of causing more severe disease than the original Omicron strain, two new studies are helping to show how well human immunity is defending against this strain in the real world.

BA.2 is about 30% more transmissible than the original Omicron variant, BA.1, according to early studies from the UK and Denmark, and it is now causing about 1 in 5 Covid-19 cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Even as Covid-19 cases have been dropping around the world, the relative proportion of cases caused by BA.2 has been increasing. It is outcompeting the original Omicron strain in at least 43 countries, prompting fears of another devastating pandemic wave.

"As of now, I don't think that we need to sound a global alarm. But I do think that we need to pay attention to BA.2 because it does appear to have a growth advantage over BA.1," says Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Like the BA.1 strain, BA.2 also has features that help it escape some immunity from vaccines and from most monoclonal antibody treatments, though recent boosters improve personal protection and antiviral pills are still expected to work against this subvariant.

Now new studies are providing some reassurance that while BA.2 may overtake its genetically distant cousin, it won't likely lead to greater numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.

"The situation that we're seeing on the ground, and I get this from talking to a number of my colleagues who actually do the genomic surveillance, is BA.2 is kind of creeping up in terms of numbers, but it's not the meteoric rise that we saw with BA.1," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

That's because in many countries like the US, UK, and Denmark, BA.2 has hit speed bumps left in its wake by BA.1, which was already very contagious.

"It's so soon after that initial BA.1 peak that you have a lot of people who were either vaccinated or boosted ... [or] got Omicron, and so right now all of those people will have relatively high titers of antibodies, neutralizing antibodies that will protect against infection," Rasmussen says.

The new studies are preprints, which means they were posted to an online library of medical research before being reviewed by outside experts and published in medical journals.

No increase in hospitalizations

The first new study comes from South Africa, where BA.2 grew rapidly, rising from 27% to 86% of new Covid-19 infections over the course of a single week in February. Researchers looked at cases tied to more than 95,000 positive Covid-19 tests. Among these, roughly equal proportions of people were hospitalized for their infections -- roughly 3.6% of people who had presumed BA.2 infections compared to 3.4% of those with signs infections caused by BA.1.

After researchers accounted for things that might influence a person's risk of severe disease, such as older age, they found no difference in the risk for hospitalization between people infected by BA.1 and those infected by BA.2. Roughly one-quarter of people hospitalized with both BA.1 and BA.2 infections were fully vaccinated.

Those findings echo hospitalization studies from Denmark, where BA.2 is also the predominant cause of Covid-19 infections.

The lead researcher on the South African study, Dr. Nicole Wolter, says that while it's difficult to say how the South African experience with this variant may translate to other countries, what they're seeing from BA.2 after their fourth wave isn't a second peak, but a longer tail.

"We have seen an extended wave which has currently plateaued at a higher level than we have seen in previous inter-wave periods," Wolter wrote in an email to CNN. "This may however also be influenced by schools opening following the December holiday period and a general relaxing of restrictions," wrote Wolter, who is a principal medical scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg.

Though cases have stayed at a high level, and most are now caused by BA.2, hospitalizations have continued to decline.

What about reinfection risk?

The second new study, from Denmark's Statens Serum Institut -- the country's equivalent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- looked at the risk of reinfection with BA.2 after recovery from a Covid-19 infection caused by other recent variants, including Delta and BA.1.

The study found that people who've recently had a Covid-19 infection caused by Omicron or Delta can be reinfected by the emerging BA.2 subvariant, but such cases appear to be uncommon, afflict mostly those who are unvaccinated and result in mostly mild infections.

BA.2 is currently the dominant cause of Covid-19 in Denmark. It overtook BA.1 during the second week of January there.

To look at reinfection risk, researchers combed through more than 140,000 viral genomes that were sequenced from infections during the period when Omicron became dominant (late November to mid-February 2022) to find people who had a new positive test 20 to 60 days after a previous one.

They found a total of 263 reinfections, with 190 of those caused by the BA.2 variant. In 140 cases, the person was reinfected by BA.2 after an infection caused by the Delta variant. There were 47 cases where people were first infected by BA.1 (the original Omicron variant) followed by the BA.2 subvariant.

Researchers then did a more in-depth analysis of those 47 reinfections where BA.2 followed BA.1. Most of the individuals who were reinfected were young -- 30 were under age 20. None of the reinfected individuals was over age 40 and nearly all -- 42 of the 47 individuals -- were unvaccinated.

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For the most part, reinfections were mild; 28 people had no symptoms or mild symptoms. Five people experienced symptoms that were characterized as moderate, akin to flu-like symptoms. There were no hospitalizations or deaths reported among reinfected individuals.

The study shows that "reinfection can happen with people who recently recovered from BA;1, but it's pretty rare. And in all those cases, it wasn't severe," says Rasmussen, who reviewed the study but was not involved in the research.

What that means she says is that while BA.2 reinfection is a risk, it is a small risk relative to the entire population, and "that recent immune boost caused by either boosters, or recent Omicron infection is largely going to protect most of the population against it," she said.

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Monday, February 28, 2022

Pfizer Covid vaccine was just 12% effective against omicron in kids 5 to 11, study finds - CNBC

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Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show - The New York Times

The Coronavirus Pandemic: Key Things to Know

Gov. Inslee will lift Washington’s COVID-19 mask requirements on March 12 after change to federal guidelines - The Seattle Times

Pfizer Covid vaccine is less effective in kids 5 to 11, study finds - STAT

Pfizer Covid vaccine is less effective in kids 5 to 11, study finds - STAT

Michigan reports 1,860 new COVID cases, 26 deaths -- average of 620 cases per day - WDIV ClickOnDetroit

New daily Michigan COVID-19 totals since Feb. 7:

Latest COVID-19 data in Michigan:

COVID-19 Discussion Forum:

Sunday, February 27, 2022

'People's Convoy' Protesting COVID-19 Mandates Passes Through Oklahoma - News On 6

Long COVID - Symptoms and Therapies | COVID-19 Special - DW News

Detroit Zoo moves birds inside due to Avian Influenza concerns - CNN

Another trucker protest convoy falters as numbers thin: Live COVID updates - USA TODAY

Covid-19, Mask Guidelines and Testing News: Live Updates - The New York Times

Billionaire Accused of Anti-Vax Misinfo Now Reportedly Has COVID - The Daily Beast

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Studies reveal new 'stealth' omicron variant is 30% more transmissible. Should California be worried? - San Francisco Chronicle

What the new CDC covid guidance means for travel - The Washington Post

Cases of highly pathogenic bird flu detected in Delaware and Michigan - CBS News

Friday, February 25, 2022

CDC Says Waiting Longer Between COVID Vaccine Doses Could Reduce Myocarditis - NBC News

CDC Media Telebriefing: Update on COVID-19 | CDC Online Newsroom - COVID-19

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Queen Elizabeth Cancels Virtual Events for 2nd Time Since Covid Test - The New York Times

New COVID variant is still one of concern, WHO says - Deseret News

New studies bring BA.2 variant into sharper focus - CNN

No increase in hospitalizations

What about reinfection risk?

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