Nearly 50 House and Senate Democrats are calling on the Biden administration to substantially increase the nation’s supply of rapid COVID-19 tests.
In a letter led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lawmakers acknowledged efforts already underway, like acquiring 500 million additional tests and setting up federal testing sites, but said the administration needs to do more to boost supplies.
“But as the Omicron variant spreads and we enter an ominous and unprecedented next phase of this pandemic, it is critical that we ensure these efforts meet the severity of the moment,” the lawmakers wrote.
The availability of low-cost rapid tests has been a major point of criticism for President Biden. As the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country and infections spike, tests have become a difficult commodity for many Americans to find online or in retail stores. When they are available, the costs for multiple test kits can be too much for some families….
Even the same morning as that news was reported, Walensky appeared on ABC News and caused a stir by saying it was “really encouraging news” that 75 percent of people who were dying from the coronavirus had four or more comorbidities. This led to criticisms that she was trivializing the tens of millions of Americans who have such comorbidities. She tried to clean up that mess Sundayby tweeting that she “went into medicine … and public health to protect our most at-risk.”
Just a few hours earlier, though, Walensky had slipped up again — and on much the same topic….
But despite surging case numbers, deaths and severe hospitalizations rates have not followed that rise quite as intensely. Health-care workers are cautiously waiting to see if the United States’ omicron wave will follow that of South Africa and London, where the variant passed its peak while causing relatively few deaths and hospitalizations.
So far, omicron seems much more contagious, resulting in many more cases. However, while the variant is more transmissible, it seems less likely to result in death or severe hospitalizations.
Cases are higher, but deaths and hospitalizations are
fewer compared to their previous peaks
Lines show case, death and hospitalization 7-day averages as a percentage of their respective
Jan. 2021 peaks, with the peaks being 100 percent. Comparatively, cases are 235 percent that of their peak, but current deaths are only about 38 percent.
Unlike previous waves, deaths and hospitalizations drastically separate from cases, indicating a decoupling of cases and severe disease….
Most at-home COVID tests in Massachusetts cannot be formally reported to public health authorities, sparking questions about whether virus cases are being undercounted in the Commonwealth and beyond.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health told the Globe in an e-mail that there is no avenue for residents to alert the state of positive results from antigen tests.
The majority of at-home tests “are not reportable,” the spokesperson wrote….
A new AP-NORC poll finds just 37% of Americans name the coronavirus as one of their top five priorities for the government to work on in 2022, compared with 53% who said it was a leading priority at the same time a year ago.
The economy outpaced the pandemic in the open-ended question, with 68% of respondents mentioning it in some way as a top 2022 concern…
…
Tuesday: Top Biden health officials will testify before the Senate HELP Committee about the administration’s plans for handling Omicron and any other Covid-19 variants that might emerge in the future. Aside from the now-routine sparring between the NIH’s Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the hearing is expected to include tough questions for CDC Director Rochelle Walensky about her agency’s shifting guidance on quarantine and isolation.
Walensky has also come under fire in recent days from disability rights advocates for saying she finds it “encouraging” that deaths from Omicron have largely happened among people with multiple comorbidities.
Walensky attempted a clean-up Sunday night, posting on Twitter that “CDC is taking steps to protect those at highest risk, incl. those w/ chronic health conditions, disabilities & older adults.”
Thursday: President Joe Biden will make a speech on his administration’s “whole-of-government COVID-19 surge response.”
With arguably his strongest Covid control measure — twin vaccine mandates for health care workers and large businesses — in the hands of a highly skeptical Supreme Court, the president will have to convince a fatigued and frustrated public to take the steps needed to bring the ever-evolving pandemic back under control….
First evidence of Omicron peaking?
New York’s Covid-19 infections may have reached a peak, about a month after the city’s first case of the omicron variant was identified.
The seven-day average of people visiting New York emergency departments with Covid-like illness has dipped significantly in all five boroughs since the end of December, according to data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Bronx saw the biggest drop, with the 7-day average retreating 35% in the week through Friday.
Citywide, the rate of positive tests also appears to be declining, with the 7-day average down to 31% on Thursday, from a peak of 34% on Jan. 2.
New York officials warned the recent data are subject to revisions and are affected to a degree by the holiday effect, which can artificially depress trend lines due to delays or underreporting. Gatherings during the New Year’s Eve holiday could also prolong the Covid spike….
More…
Home Tests to Be Covered by Insurance
“Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans,” the AP reports.
“The Biden administration announced the change Monday as it looks to lower costs and make testing for the virus more convenient amid rising frustrations.”
Political Wire
James still doesn’t understand that the economy is now directly tied to the pandemic.
That’s why he likes quoting these polls that simply ask an open ended question without any qualifiers , continuing in his now humorous efforts to downplay this pandemic as he has since its inception.
Wait Jack?
I thought the ‘Economy’ was doing fine?
It’s just inflation?
145,000 people were hospitalized from Covid-19 yesterday – a pandemic record high.
Hulk Hogan points that the 99 year old Betty White and the 94 year old Sidney Poitier were vaccinated and are now dead.
He said they are “dropping like flies.”
Hogan is a idiot……
Too much time on the canvas by his head
… and the man could have been President ??
Jesse Ventura may have been eccentric but (like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood) he had clearly paid attention to public affairs and thought through much of his idiosyncratic approach.
Jesse Ventura is a complete conspiracy theorist today, from 9/11 to the virus.
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
Why are Democratic politicians acting like school closures are a huge political liability?
Well, because they are. Shifting schools to remote learning is opposed 30-66 in the latest Suffolk/USA Today poll. Even a majority of Democrats (52%) oppose.
Dumb Dead Republican of the Day
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/arlington-republican-activist-vaccine-skeptic-dies-of-covid-19-complications/2856327/
Covid spread Update…
New research found that after COVID-19 becomes airborne, the virus loses infectivity by 50 to 60 percent within seconds.
By the first two minutes, the infectivity rate of COVID-19 dropped further by 90 percent.
The new research was published out of the U.K. and has yet to be peer-reviewed.
New research from the U.K. is challenging perceptions of how the coronavirus travels and infects people, with researchers saying COVID-19’s infectivity rate begins dropping minutes after virus is released into the air….
More…
He, he, he…..
Bloomberg
@business
Cannabis compounds prevent the virus that causes Covid-19 from penetrating healthy human cells, according to a lab study