Greene County Democrat

Tag: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

  • Newswire : New highly infectious COVID-19 variant detected in the U.S.

    Patient getting a vaccination for COVID-19

    By Headline Smart

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed the presence of a new, highly infectious COVID-19 variant in the United States, including New York City. The variant, known as NB.1.81, was initially detected in the U.S. in late March and early April among international travelers arriving at airports in California, Washington State, Virginia, and New York City. Additional cases have since been reported in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.
    The CDC has stated that the number of cases in the U.S. is currently too small to be accurately tracked in the agency’s variant estimates. However, experts are raising concerns due to the variant’s rapid spread in China, where it has become the dominant strain. The variant has led to a significant increase in COVID-19 cases across Asia, with China experiencing a surge in hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
    Hong Kong authorities have reported a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, reaching the highest levels in at least a year. This surge has been attributed to the NB.1.81 variant, which has resulted in 81 severe cases in the past month, including 30 deaths. Most of these cases have been among adults aged 65 and older.
    In mainland China, the percentage of patients visiting the ER due to COVID-19 has more than doubled in the past month, from 7.5% to over 16%, according to public health authorities. The percentage of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in China has also doubled, reaching over 6%.
    Despite these statistics, the Beijing-controlled government in Hong Kong has downplayed the severity of the variant, stating that it does not appear to be more dangerous than previous variants. However, experts warn that the variant’s rapid spread in China, Hong Kong, and other areas indicates an increase in hospitalizations.
    The CDC’s airport tests have revealed the extent of the variant’s spread, with infected travelers having passed through China, Japan, South Korea, France, Thailand, the Netherlands, Spain, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Like other forms of COVID-19, the variant can cause symptoms such as coughing, a sore throat, fever, and fatigue.
    Experts have noted that the new variant appears to spread more easily, although it does not seem to be more severe. However, Dr. Edwin Tsui, the head of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, has warned that the variant should not be taken lightly, as evidence suggests it may have evolved to further evade the protections of COVID vaccines.
    The CDC has recently announced that it will no longer recommend that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This decision comes as the Trump administration plans to limit annual booster vaccines to seniors and other high-risk groups.
    The shift in the federal response to stopping covid vaccines for certain segments of society and the increase in cases of measles and the uptick in COVID and flu at the beginning of the year has Americans pondering what we know or don’t know. Medical professionals are concerned there is something else on the horizon. Bird flu is a concern. Dr. Jehan El-bayoumi, a practicing physician and instructor at Georgetown University Medical Center spoke with Black Press USA on the rise in these illnesses and concerns the medical profession has.

  • ‘Tragic and completely avoidable’: US hits 700,000 Covid-19 deaths

    From The Guardian Newspaper

    The Covid-19 death toll in the US has now surpassed 700,000, despite the Covid-19 vaccines’ wide availability, in what one expert called a “tragic and completely avoidable milestone”.
    Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the US went just past 700,000 deaths on Friday; the US had previously reached 600,000 deaths in June. The country has had a total of 43.6m confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins.
    In Alabama, there have been 801,428 cases and 14,471 deaths as of Monday.
    Over the last few months, the overwhelming majority of people who died from Covid were unvaccinated. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published last month found that after the Delta variant became the most common variant in the US over the summer, unvaccinated Americans were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and die because of the virus compared with vaccinated Americans.
    In a statement on Saturday, Joe Biden said: “To heal we must remember, and as our nation mourns the painful milestone of 700,000 American deaths … we must not become numb to the sorrow. On this day, and every day, we remember all those we have lost to this pandemic and we pray for their loved ones left behind who are missing a piece of their soul.
    “As we do, the astonishing death toll is yet another reminder of just how important it is to get vaccinated.”
    Recent deaths have primarily been in southern states that have lagging vaccine rates, including Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Nationally, about 65% of people 12 and older who are eligible to receive the vaccine have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
    With a slight majority of the population fully vaccinated, the Covid death rate has significantly decreased compared with the death rate during previous surges of the virus, when the vaccine was unavailable. Following the surge in cases seen last winter, 100,000 people died in a 34-day period between January and February. Comparatively, it took over three months for the US to see another 100,000 deaths this summer.
    Public health experts attribute the slowed death rate to the effectiveness of the vaccine but say that the milestone could have been avoided altogether with a higher vaccination rate.
    “Reaching 700,000 deaths is a tragic and completely avoidable milestone. We had the knowledge and the tools to prevent this from happening, and unfortunately politics, lack of urgency and mistrust in science got us here,” John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston children’s hospital, told ABC News.
    Experts are hoping that hospitalizations and deaths will decrease as the surge in cases due to the Delta variant seems to be decreasing and vaccine mandates are starting to roll out.
    Without a winter surge, which experts say is still possible, statistical modeling has shown that the Covid-19 cases can continue to decline into 2022, providing some much-needed relief to hospital systems across the country that have been overwhelmed by Covid-19 cases.
    In an effort to get more people inoculated, vaccine mandates have been rolling out across the country, to some success.
    Major health systems in California, where healthcare workers have been required to get vaccinated, have reported an uptick in vaccination rates among staff members. New York, which has a similar mandate, has seen similar results with thousands of healthcare workers getting vaccinated before the state’s vaccination deadline.
    United Airlines had said it would fire the nearly 600 employees out of its workforce of about 67,000 employees who refused to be vaccinated. On Thursday, the company said that nearly 250 of those employees ultimately decided to get vaccinated.
    “Our vaccine policy continues to prove requirements work – in less than 48 hours, the number of unvaccinated employees who began the process of being separated from the company has been cut almost in half, dropping from 592 to 320,” the company said in a statement.