Category: Corona Virus

NEW DELHI The coronavirus continues to batter Indias damaged economy, putting growing pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to nurture a nascent recovery and get the country back to work.

The coronavirus, which has struck in two waves, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and at times has brought cities to a halt. Infections and deaths have eased, and the country is returning to work. Economists predict that growth could surge in the second half of the year on paper.

Still, the damage could take years to undo. Economic output was 9.2 percent lower for the April-through-June period this year than what it was for the same period in 2019, according to India Ratings, a credit ratings agency.

The coronavirus has essentially robbed India of much of the momentum it needed to provide jobs for its young and fast-growing work force. It has also exacerbated longer-term problems that were already dragging down growth, such as high debt, a lack of competitiveness with other countries and policy missteps.

Economists are particularly concerned about the slow rate of vaccinations and the possibility of a third wave of the coronavirus, which could prove to be disastrous for any economic recovery.

Vaccination progress remains slow, with just 11 percent of the population fully inoculated so far, Priyanka Kishore, the head of India and Southeast Asia at Oxford Economics, said in a research briefing last week. The firm lowered its growth rate for 2021 to 8.8 percent, from 9.1 percent.

Even growth of 8.8 percent would be a strong number in better times. Compared with the prior year, Indias economy grew 20.1 percent April through June, according to estimates released Tuesday evening by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.

But those comparisons benefit from comparison with Indias dismal performance last year. The economy shrank 7.3 percent last year, when the government shut down the economy to stop a first wave of the coronavirus. That led to big job losses, now among the biggest hurdles holding back growth, experts say.

Real household incomes have fallen further this year, said Mahesh Vyas, the chief executive of the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy. Till this is not repaired, he said, the Indian economy cant bounce back.

At least 3.2 million Indians lost stable, well-paying salaried jobs in July alone, Mr. Vyas estimated. Small traders and daily wage laborers suffered bigger job losses during the lockdowns than others, though they were able to go back to work once the restrictions were lifted, Mr. Vyas said in a report this month.

Aug. 31, 2021, 5:22 p.m. ET

Salaried jobs are not similarly elastic, he said. It is difficult to retrieve a lost salaried job.

About 10 million people have lost such jobs since the beginning of the pandemic, Mr. Vyas said.

Mr. Modis government moved this month to rekindle the economy by selling stakes worth close to $81 billion in state-owned assets like airports, railway stations and stadiums. But economists largely see the policy as a move to generate cash in the short term. It remains to be seen if it will lead to more investment, they say.

The whole idea is that the government will borrow this money from the domestic market, said Devendra Kumar Pant, the chief economist at India Ratings. But what happens if this project goes to a domestic player and he is having to borrow in the domestic market? Your credit demand domestically wont change.

Dr. Pant added that questions remained about how willing private players would be to maintain those assets long term and how the monetization policy would ultimately affect prices for consumers.

UnderstandVaccine and Mask Mandates in the U.S.

In India, things will decay for the worse rather than improve, he said, adding that the costs to users of highways and other infrastructure could go up.

During the second wave in May, Mr. Modi resisted calls by many epidemiologists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to reinstitute a nationwide lockdown.

The lockdowns in 2021 were nowhere near as severe as the nationwide curbs last year, which pushed millions of people out of cities and into rural areas, often on foot because rail and other transportation had been suspended.

Throughout the second wave, core infrastructure projects across the country, which employ millions of domestic migrant workers, were exempted from restrictions. More than 15,000 miles of Indian highway projects, along with rail and city metro improvements, continued.

On Tuesday, Dr. Pant said Indias growth estimates of 20.1 percent for the April-through-June period were nothing but an illusion. Growth contracted so sharply around the same period last year, by a record 24 percent, that even double-digit gains this year would leave the economy behind where it was two years ago.

Economists say India needs to spend, even splurge, to unlock the full potential of its huge low-skilled work force. There is a need for very simple primary health facilities, primary services to deliver nutrition to children, Mr. Vyas said. All these are highly labor intensive jobs, and these are government services largely.

One of the reasons Indian governments typically have not spent in those areas, Mr. Vyas said, is that it has been considered not a sexy thing to do. Another is the governments dogmatic fixation with keeping fiscal deficits in control, he said. The government simply cant rely on private sector alone for creating jobs, Mr. Vyas said.

The only solution, he said, is for the government to spend and spur private investment. You have a de-motivated private sector because there isnt enough demand. Thats whats holding India back.

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Indias Economy, Slammed by Covid-19, Needs Its Lost Growth - The New York Times

As a new coronavirus wave accelerated by the Delta variant spreads across the United States, many Republican governors have taken sweeping action to combat what they see as an even more urgent danger posed by the pandemic: the threat to personal freedom.

In Florida, Ron DeSantis has prevented local governments and school districts from enacting mask mandates and battled in court over compliance. In Texas, Greg Abbott has followed a similar playbook, renewing an order last week to ban vaccine mandates.

And in South Dakota, Kristi Noem, who like Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Abbott is a potential 2024 candidate for president, has made her blanket opposition to lockdowns and mandates a key selling point. Arriving by horseback and carrying the American flag, she advertised the states recent Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew half a million people, as a beacon of liberty.

Ms. Noem brushed aside criticism from Democrats and public health experts about the gathering, which was followed by a local Covid spike, saying on Fox News that the left was accusing us of embracing death when were just allowing people to make personal choices.

The actions of Republican governors, some of the leading stewards of the countrys response to the virus, reveal how the politics of the partys base have hardened when it comes to curbing Covid. As some Republican-led states, including Florida, confront their most serious outbreaks yet, even rising death totals are being treated as less politically damaging than imposing coronavirus mandates of almost any stripe.

Freedom is good policy and good politics, Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and ally of Mr. Abbotts who has introduced federal legislation to end mask decrees and to forbid federal vaccine passports, said in an interview.

Mr. DeSantis has become a symbolic face of the battle, as President Biden has urged Republican governors opposed to mandates to at least get out of the way. This week, Mr. DeSantiss education commissioner withheld funds from two school districts that made masks mandatory.

Most top Republicans, including every Republican governor, have been vaccinated and have encouraged others to do so. But most have also stopped short of supporting inoculation requirements and have opposed masking requirements.

In many ways, Republican leaders are simply following Republican voters.

Skepticism about masks, vaccines and the rules governing them is increasingly intertwined with the cultural issues that dominate the modern Republican Party. The fear over losing medical freedom has become part of the broader worry that cancel culture is coming for conservatives way of life.

And while opposing pandemic edicts is a limited-government stance, the forceful approach of governors is at odds with the long-held principle of local control, making it the latest Republican Party orthodoxy to be cast aside since the beginning of the Trump era, along with free trade and limited spending.

The intensifying conservative mistrust of the news media and opposition to the directives of elite institutions and experts Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is now so reviled by some that Mr. DeSantis sold merchandise saying Dont Fauci My Florida have cleaved the country into two factions guided by alternative sets of beliefs.

One outlier among Republican governors is Larry Hogan, a moderate who leads Democratic-dominated Maryland. He recently required that hospital and nursing home employees be vaccinated.

Frankly, its confusing to me as to why some of my colleagues are mandating why you cant wear masks, or mandating that businesses cant make their own decisions about vaccines, or mandating that school systems cant make decisions for themselves, Mr. Hogan said in an interview. And then theyre talking about freedom? It just doesnt make sense to me.

The pandemic, public health officials say, is now largely one of the unvaccinated, and the virus is raging particularly in conservative states with far lower inoculation rates and more relaxed attitudes toward group gatherings. Of the 10 states with the most cases per capita in recent days, nine voted Republican in last years presidential race and nine are led by Republican governors, according to The New York Times coronavirus database.

Republican leaders posture, particularly on keeping schools from requiring masks, does not appear popular across the wider electorate. In Florida, a Quinnipiac poll released last week found that 60 percent of residents supported compulsory masks in schools.

But among Republicans, that figure was inverted: 72 percent of Mr. DeSantiss party said they opposed universal masking requirements in schools. The poll showed that a plurality of Republicans in the state also opposed a mask requirement for health care workers, a measure that is popular among independents.

Many Republicans are out on an island by themselves, said Whit Ayres, a veteran G.O.P. pollster. It may be a safe political place for some primary electorates at the moment. But ultimately you have to win a general election.

Aug. 31, 2021, 5:22 p.m. ET

Governors nationwide almost uniformly reject the idea that political considerations have shaped their Covid policies. Politics have played no role, said Ian Fury, a spokesman for Ms. Noem.

The offices of Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Abbott, Ms. Noem and other Republican governors did not make them available for comment. But advisers to multiple Republican governors said the widespread distribution of vaccines had changed the governing calculus when it came to masks and shutdowns. Both Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Abbott have focused on opening antibody treatment sites for those who contract the virus.

As Florida became the first state to reach a new peak in deaths since vaccines became freely available, Mr. DeSantis has remained steadfast in keeping schools from requiring masks without a parental opt-out.

We say unequivocally no to lockdowns, no to school closures, no to restrictions and no to mandates, Mr. DeSantis said at a conservative conference in July.

These choices by governors carry a range of risks.

One Republican strategist privately lamented, only half-jokingly, that the party was going to kill off part of its own base with its vaccine hesitancy. Former President Donald J. Trump recently told donors at a New York Republican Party fund-raiser that he hoped his supporters would get vaccinated because we need our people, according to two attendees.

Even Mr. Trump is not immune from blowback, however. He received a rare rebuke from his base at an August rally in Alabama after he urged people to get vaccinated. Take the vaccines, he said. I did it. Its good.

Some in the crowd began to jeer; Mr. Trump appeared to soften his stance.

Thats OK, thats all right, he said. You got your freedoms, but I happened to take the vaccine.

Mr. Trumps political operation has clearly assessed where his base stands. FREEDOM PASSPORTS > VACCINE PASSPORTS, read one recent fund-raising text, selling $45 American flag shirts that declare, This is my freedom passport.

UnderstandVaccine and Mask Mandates in the U.S.

In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, saw his partys pushback firsthand on a 16-stop tour to promote vaccination.

Mr. Hutchinson signed a law this spring banning mask mandates, but with cases rising again this month, he said he regretted it. In Siloam Springs, he was pelted with questions from frustrated constituents, including one woman who told him that she had been praying that God himself will step in so that Christians are not forced by their employers and a mandate to get the vaccine.

Yet even if God does not, I will not bow, she said to raucous cheers.

Then there is Ms. Noem, who last month accused other Republican governors of pretending they didnt shut down their states, that they didnt close their regions, that they didnt mandate masks. The remarks were widely interpreted to be aimed at potential 2024 rivals.

Mr. Cruz, who ran for president in 2016 and could again in 2024, predicted a reckoning for politicians, including Republicans, who had embraced pandemic edicts. Theres a range of politicians in terms of how long they shut things down, he said. In my view, the shorter the better. But that will certainly be a legitimate topic for discussion and debate.

Mr. Ayres, the Republican pollster, said that governors trying to control the virus policies of schools, employers and local officials were breaking with years of tradition on free enterprise and local control.

Liberty has never meant the freedom to threaten the health of others, Mr. Ayres said. That is a perversion of the definition of liberty and freedom.

Some governors who imposed mandates and lockdowns last year have even been targeted by state legislators who want to trim their powers.

In Ohio, the G.O.P.-controlled Legislature overrode a veto by Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, of legislation that reined in his administrations emergency powers to manage the pandemic. After requiring masks to be worn last year in schools, he has not renewed the order this fall.

Mr. DeWine, who drew national attention for his fast and forceful response to Covid in early 2020, now faces a 2022 primary challenge from Jim Renacci, a former congressman. Mr. Renacci said the governors handling of the virus was a big part of his bid.

He said Mr. DeWine had now gone quiet on mandates because he realizes what he did the first time did not make Republicans happy.

A spokesman for Mr. DeWine said the need for mandates had changed since vaccines became freely available.

The most severe Covid outbreaks have been most concentrated in the South, and the Republican governors of Alabama and Mississippi have largely embraced the no-mandate ethos even as cases have climbed to new heights.

Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi renewed an emergency declaration in mid-August but set clear boundaries: There will be no lockdowns and there will be no statewide mandates, he said.

The same week, two field hospitals were installed in the parking lots of Mississippi medical centers.

Jennifer Medina contributed reporting.

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GOP Governors Fight Virus Mandates as the Party's Covid-19 Politics Harden - The New York Times

The Illinois Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced the findings of an investigation into an outbreak of COVID-19 cases that occurred following an overnight church camp and a two-day mens conference, both of which were held by the same organization earlier this summer.

According to the findings, a total of 180 cases of coronavirus were ultimately linked to the events, including 122 that occurred among attendees.

On June 30, IDPH says it contacted the CDC concerning the outbreaks, which occurred at two separate events. One of those events was a five-day overnight church camp for individuals between the ages of 14 and 18, and the other was a two-day mens conference.

Neither event required COVID-19 vaccination or negative test results before attendees arrived, and neither event encouraged attendees to wear masks while in indoor spaces, according to the report.

As of Aug. 13, a total of 180 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 were linked to the events, reported either among the attendees or among those who were in close contact with them after they left the events.

A total of 122 attendees were ultimately diagnosed with COVID-19. Of those, 18 cases were reported in individuals who were fully vaccinated against coronavirus, according to officials.

Among all of the cases, five individuals were hospitalized, and no deaths occurred. None of those five individuals were fully vaccinated against the virus, according to officials.

Officials say that 294 campers attended the five-day youth event, and were met by 41 staff members. They were housed in large, congregant boarding facilities, with approximately 100 campers in each unit. Those participants dined in a cafeteria together and participated in indoor and outdoor small group activities.

On the second-to-last day of the camp, one camper departed after coming down with symptoms of COVID-19, and a laboratory test later confirmed the diagnosis. Six camp staff members later tested positive, and had onset of symptoms in the days after the camp ended.

The CDC and IDPH say that the outbreaks are another example of why COVID vaccination is so critical in the fight against the virus. The CDC cites an outbreak in Los Angeles County, where unvaccinated residents were five times more likely to be infected with COVID, and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized from an infection than vaccinated residents were.

The departments also advise that multiple prevention strategies should be implemented, including vaccination and mitigations like masking, social distancing and screening testing.

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CDC: 180 Cases of COVID-19 Linked to Illinois Church Camp, Men's Retreat - NBC Chicago

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Irvin Torres, 12, gets his Covid vaccine from MSgt. Colton Shakespear with the Army National Guard. Torres just turned 12 in July and was receiving his second shot. Vaccine shots are the free Pfizer community vaccine clinic hosted by the Utah National Guard in partnership with the Weber Morgan Health Department at the Weber State University Continuing Education Center in Ogden, Aug. 11, 2021.

| Aug. 31, 2021, 7:44 p.m.

Editors note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.

More than 1,200 more Utahns tested positive for COVID-19 in the past day and the rolling seven-day average for positive tests stands at 1,274 per day. Thats the highest that number has been since Feb. 2.

The Utah Department of Health reported 1,218 new cases on Monday, and 270 of those cases were among kids in grades K-12. There were 102 cases in children ages 5-10; 65 cases in children 11-13; and 103 cases in children 14-18.

Seven more Utahns died of the coronavirus in the past day. Two of them were under the age of 65, and one was under the age of 45.

The case count is down 361 compared to one week ago (1,579, on Aug. 24). It is 1 times what it was a month ago (787, on July 31), and almost 11 times what it was three months ago (113, on May 31). Six months ago, there were 263 new cases (on Feb. 28); and a year ago, there were 289 new cases (Aug. 31, 2020).

In the past four weeks, unvaccinated Utahns were 5.1 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated people, according to a UDOH analysis. The unvaccinated were also six times more likely to be hospitalized, and 5.1 times more likely to test positive for the coronavirus.

An additional 3,570 Utahns were fully vaccinated in the past day, bringing the total to 1,579,076 48.3% of Utahs total population.

Vaccine doses administered in past day/total doses administered 6,579 / 3,256,308.

Utahns fully vaccinated 1,579,076.

Cases reported in past day 1,218.

Deaths reported in past day Seven.

There were three deaths in Salt Lake County: A woman between the ages of 65-84 and two men 85-plus.

Utah County also reported three deaths: A man 25-44 and two men 65-84.

A Weber County woman 45-64 also died.

Tests reported in past day 9,250 people were tested for the first time. A total of 14,409 people were tested.

Hospitalizations reported in the past day 485. Thats 20 more than on Monday. Of those currently hospitalized, 186 are in intensive care, eight more than on Monday.

Percentage of positive tests Under the states original method, the rate is 13.2%. Thats lower than the seven-day average of 14.9%.

The states new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Tuesdays rate was 8.5%, lower than the seven-day average of 10.7%.

[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Heres what that means.]

Totals to date 464,422 cases; 2,634 deaths; 20,203 hospitalizations; 3,139,227 people tested.

According to the UDOH, Utah has seen 10,318 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 people who contracted the virus two weeks or more after being fully vaccinated. Thats 0.65% of people who are fully vaccinated.

Only 567 of those people required hospitalization 0.035% of those fully vaccinated. And there have been 52 deaths 0.0033% of those fully vaccinated.

This story is developing and will be updated.

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The rolling 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases in Utah is the highest in 7 months - Salt Lake Tribune

Over the past few months, experts and officials have tried to prepare the world for a future in which Covid-19 is here to stay. They predict the vaccines will by and large defang the virus. There will still be a few cases of serious illness and death, but the coronavirus will be reduced to the level of a seasonal flu a disease wed be much better off without, but mild enough we wont shut down society to fight it.

But this optimistic vision has always left open a big question: What about long Covid?

Covid-19 is most known for causing acute illness, from a cough and fever to hospitalization and death. But in some cases it seems to cause longer-term complications, including breathing difficulties, fatigue, and brain fog, though the effects vary from person to person. While Covid-19 typically resolves in the span of weeks, long Covid can last at least months after an infection.

Without treatment, weve seen individuals who got sick in February or March of 2020 and are still sick and still extremely debilitated, David Putrino, whos treated long Covid patients at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York, told me.

These long-term complications arent unique to the coronavirus; other viruses, including seasonal flu, cause long-term symptoms too, sometimes similar ones. But as more people have been infected by the coronavirus, and more have subsequently developed long Covid, the long-term problems have received more attention.

So even in the context of a post-vaccine world, does long Covid makes the coronavirus too dangerous to live with? Can the world really treat Covid-19 like a flu-level illness if its causing debilitating long-term problems for many?

The truth is theres still a lot about long Covid we simply dont know. We dont know what causes it, or why some people seem to develop long Covid symptoms while others dont. We dont know with much precision how often long Covid occurs. We dont know how variants of the virus, including delta, have altered the risk. We dont even know if all the cases believed to be long Covid are actually caused by the coronavirus.

Nor do we know much about breakthrough cases among vaccinated people leading to long Covid, though we know there have been some cases. But the vaccines very likely help to prevent long Covid by reducing both the likelihood of infection and severity of illness, both of which are associated with long-term complications. If youre not getting infected with Covid, youre not going to get long Covid, Putrino said.

The uncertainty makes it difficult to make any kind of sweeping declarations about long Covid. Based on my conversations with experts, the best we can say goes something like this: Long Covid is relatively rare, especially among vaccinated people. And it will likely become rarer over time, especially as more people get vaccinated and the population in general develops stronger immune defenses against the coronavirus.

The hope is that over time as more variants emerge, as we keep getting more booster vaccinations, [and] as our body becomes more accustomed to producing antibodies to this virus type, were going to see cases of long Covid reducing to the point where its not really a thing anymore, Putrino said. But he cautioned, This is conjecture. We dont know for sure.

Its helpful, then, to view long Covid through two lenses: what the outlook is right now, in August 2021, and what it might look like in a few months or years. How worried you should be today if youre vaccinated depends, like many things in the pandemic, on your own risk tolerance. But in the long term, there are some hopeful signs.

There are some things about long Covid we do know. Its a real medical problem, although its symptoms, severity, and duration vary from person to person. These symptoms arent permanent in all cases potentially not any of them but they can last for a year or more. And some treatments, part of a nascent and growing field of medicine, can potentially cut down the symptoms severity and duration.

Most cases of Covid-19 dont lead to long Covid. The limited data so far suggests 10 to 25 percent of adults infected with Covid-19 might develop long Covid (although experts advise a lot of caution in interpreting those numbers since the data here isnt of great quality).

While we dont know what causes long Covid, there are some theories all speculative for now. One possibility is that lingering reservoirs of the virus or fragments of it continue to wreak havoc in the body. Another is that long Covid is part of the bodys healing process after fighting off the coronavirus. Yet another is that, because the SARS-CoV-2 virus is novel to humans, it can lead to a long-lasting overreaction by the immune system.

A major unknown is if all the detected long Covid cases are even caused by the coronavirus, given that some of the people who present long-term symptoms test negative for Covid-19 and related antibodies. Experts dont deny that the symptoms are real and should be treated, but its also possible psychosocial circumstances or other pathogens could be behind some cases.

Many viruses, like seasonal flu, can cause long-hauler symptoms. One study in Pathogens suggested some long Covid cases may be due to reactivations of the Epstein-Barr virus that causes mononucleosis. (When I was in high school, I lost months to fatigue due to recurring mono.) So some people showing up at the doctors office with long Covid could have long flu, mono, or another disease entirely. Its hard to say, Putrino acknowledged.

Long Covid remains a unique threat right now for two reasons: Theres still a lot of coronavirus out there, as the country deals with a recent surge driven by the delta variant. And compared to pathogens like the flu, fewer people have immune defenses built up against the virus, likely boosting the chances of developing Covid-19 and then long Covid compared to the risk of suffering long-term complications from the flu.

The good news: These risks can be mitigated with vaccines.

The vaccines cut the chances of getting infected by the coronavirus in the first place. To the extent long Covid cases are caused by the virus, that means fewer cases of long Covid. The delta variant and waning efficacy have complicated this, increasing the risk someone is infected with the virus even after vaccination potentially necessitating booster shots. But the vaccines still offer some protection against the risk of any infection.

The vaccines also offer protection against severe disease. This protection has so far held up against the delta variant and despite concerns about waning efficacy: Multiple studies have found the vaccines are still around 90 percent effective against hospitalization or worse, both during deltas spread and months after the shots are administered. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found unvaccinated people are 29 times as likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 than fully vaccinated people.

Thats important because long Covid also seems much more likely to develop in people who had severe cases of Covid-19. A study analyzing private health care claims, by the nonprofit FAIR Health, found that hospitalized Covid-19 patients were almost twice as likely as patients who werent hospitalized but were symptomatic to develop post-Covid conditions. Patients without symptoms were even less likely to develop longer-term conditions than those with symptoms, although it did happen in some cases.

So to the extent that the vaccines make you less likely to get sick in the first place, and much less likely to get severely ill if you do get sick, they reduce your chance of getting long Covid. If you do get sick, though, theres a lot we dont know.

Some breakthrough infections can lead to long Covid, as one New England Journal of Medicine study tracking Israeli health care workers found. But that study also found the overall prevalence was low: Among nearly 1,500 fully vaccinated health care workers who were exposed to the coronavirus or had related symptoms, just seven, of 39 breakthrough infections, reported persistent symptoms after more than six weeks.

Still, thats one estimate from a small study looking at a somewhat narrow time period. The problem is that we know very little about how frequently breakthrough infections lead to long Covid, Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine, told me.

Perhaps the best that can be said is the vaccines likely help, probably significantly, but its unclear just how much. Given that, and the spread of the delta variant, some experts say it makes sense for those worried about long Covid to remain cautious and mitigate exposure even after getting the vaccine (through, say, masking), at least for now.

Moving forward, there are some reasons to be hopeful about long Covid.

For one, the Covid-19 pandemic will end. Through vaccination, natural infection, or both, the population will continue to build immunity against the coronavirus. Over time, this buildup will turn into a bulwark against SARS-CoV-2 one that may not stop the virus from spreading entirely (experts expect the virus will instead become endemic, meaning it will still circulate as illnesses like colds and the flu do), but will at least reduce the number of infections and especially cut down on the most severe outcomes, like hospitalization and death.

Those population-level defenses will mean fewer infections and less severe illness, both of which will translate to fewer cases of long Covid over time.

Putrino offered an optimistic, albeit speculative, possibility: If long Covid is caused by an overreaction from an undeveloped immune system to a novel coronavirus, then the steady buildup of immunity and continued exposure to the virus over time could help reduce the risk of long Covid. In that case, the remaining incidents of Covid-19 as the virus turns endemic may be less likely to lead to long Covid.

We need to focus on being a little more patient, Putrino argued. A year and a half feels like a long time. But in terms of how long it takes for our bodies to change and adapt to things, its a very short amount of time.

Well also hopefully learn much more about long Covid going forward. That may help with prevention, such as techniques or treatments to stop Covid-19 from leading to long Covid. It could also help with the treatment of long Covid, potentially reducing its severity or duration. (Developing such treatments, though, will require taking long Covid seriously something medical and research communities havent done in the past with long haulers dealing with other diseases.)

Over time, a waning pandemic and the reduced risk of getting Covid-19 could help us live with the virus, including with the possibility of long Covid. Just like people have learned to live with the flu and the severe outcomes it can cause (including long-term health complications and tens of thousands of deaths a year in the US), so too will people learn to live with a Covid-19 thats weakened by the vaccines and natural immunity.

As is true with the flu or anything else in life, different individuals have different risk tolerances. Some people may choose to go out less during periods in which cases rise, continue to wear masks, or seek out booster shots. Others may decide the low chances of complications after they get a vaccine, if they even decide to get the shot, are tolerable enough to continue living as normal, even when cases rise within their community. Many will fall in between.

Some people will do everything possible to prevent their risk, and other people will not worry as much, Cline Gounder, an epidemiologist at New York University, told me. Its going to depend on the person.

So the solution to long Covid may look a lot like the other scary, uncertain things about the pandemic, from variants to breakthrough cases: Theres no perfect option, but the best we can do is get as many people vaccinated as possible to defang the coronavirus and greatly reduce the risk of long Covid even if its never truly eliminated.

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Should vaccinated people worry about the long-term effects of Covid-19? - Vox.com

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week that 12,000 more New Yorkers suffered coronavirus-related deaths than previously reported by Andrew Cuomos administration.

In her first day in office, Hochul continued Cuomos trend of frequent updates tracking the spread of the coronavirus. The statistics she provided last Tuesday indicated that almost 55,400 people have suffered virus-related deaths in the state, an increase of more than 12,000 from Cuomos updated figures from just a day before.

Hochul, who also enforced a mask mandate for public school districts throughout the state last week, said in an NPR interview that her experience as lieutenant governor during the early stages of the pandemic allows her to make decisions that are best for New Yorkers.

I was literally embedded with the local health officials and county executives in upstate New York, so I know how scary this is and what people went through and I have a different approach, Hochul said in the interview. We were successful last year, but also as we see this resurgence Im going to be doing more to empower local government officials who spend all their days training for this, the local health departments, the emergency management individuals who know how to get vaccines out.

Cuomo, along with top aides in his administration, reportedly withheld last year the total number of nursing home patients who died as a result of the coronavirus, according to multiple reports.

Investigative reports from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times cited documents and interviews with six people who had direct knowledge of discussions with Cuomo and state health officials surrounding the numbers.

More than 9,000 nursing home residents in New York had died from coronavirus, according to a draft report last July from the states Department of Health, according to the articles.

But Cuomo and some of his top aides, including Melissa DeRosa, then secretary to the governor, allegedly urged Health Department officials to omit the total figures so that the report would only show residents who physically died in a nursing home, rather than nursing home residents who were transported to a local hospital and died there. According to The Times, the 9,000 figure was dropped.

In January, state Attorney General Letitia James announced that an investigation into the Health Department revealed coronavirus deaths of nursing home residents had been undercounted.

James said in a statement on Jan. 28 that her office had been investigating nursing homes throughout the state based on allegations of patient neglect and other concerning conduct that may have jeopardized the health and safety of residents and employees, received as early as March 2020 and numbering more than 900 since November. More than 20 nursing homes were under investigation as a result, according to James.

Efforts to reach a representative from James office for an update on the nursing home investigations were unavailing.

The initial investigations conducted by James office indicated that a larger number of nursing home residents died from the coronavirus than reported by the states Department of Health. Based on a survey of 62 nursing homes that found the state undercounted the fatalities there by an average of 56 percent, the data could push the departments original count of 8,711 coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes to more than 13,000, according to the report.

Investigations also showed that the lack of compliance in nursing homes with infection control protocols put residents at increased risk of harm, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing rating had higher coronavirus-related fatality rates.

After the investigations preliminary findings were publicized, the state came out with new data that showed an additional 3,800 coronavirus-related deaths of nursing home residents had occurred in hospitals.

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Hochul reports 12,000 additional coronavirus-related deaths in state - Featured - The Island Now

Georgia state health officials reported on Tuesday there have been 86 additional deaths due to the coronavirus since Friday. The current total is 19,680.

There are 6,836 new cases as that total reaches 1,091,007 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

Hospitalizations are at 73,267, which is an increase of 445 from Monday.

Here are the numbers by county:

Catoosa County: 7,004 cases, up 42; 71 deaths, up 1; 282 hospitalizations, up 1

Chattooga County: 2,829 cases, up 38; 68 deaths; 201 hospitalizations

Dade County: 1,554 cases, up 7; 14 deaths; 65 hospitalizations

Walker County: 8,012 cases, up 57; 84 deaths; 315 hospitalizations

Whitfield County: 17,106 cases, up 164; 246 deaths, up 1; 841 hospitalizations, up 2

Link:

Catoosa And Whitfield Counties Have New Coronavirus Deaths; Georgia Adds 86 More To The Death Toll - The Chattanoogan

BOSTON (AP) The number of new cases of COVID-19 increased by more than 1,500 Tuesday while the number of newly confirmed coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts rose by 17.

The new number pushed the states confirmed COVID-19 death toll to 17,874 since the start of the pandemic, while its confirmed caseload rose to more than 709,500.

Nearly 600 people were reported hospitalized Tuesday because of confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 160 in intensive care units.

The average age of those who have died from COVID-19 was 75.

The true number of cases is likely higher because studies suggest some people can be infected and not feel sick.

More than 4.5 million people in Massachusetts have been fully immunized against COVID-19.

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BOSTON SYMPHONY VACCINATION PROTOCOL

The Boston Symphony Orchestra will require all audience members attending performances at Symphony Hall this fall to provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative test result, the orchestra announced Tuesday.

Patrons will also be required to wear a mask during concerts, unless eating or drinking, the organization said in an emailed statement. Physical distancing will not be required.

By requiring vaccinations and masks, we hope that people will feel comfortable at concerts and know that we are doing all we can to create a safe environment to gather for the collective experience of live music, President and CEO Gail Samuel said.

The orchestra went on a live performance hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. When it announced its new season in June, it said proof of vaccination and masks would not be required. That was before a surge in cases caused by the highly contagious delta variant.

Proof of vaccination includes showing a vaccination card, a photo of the card, or a digital vaccine record upon entering Symphony Hall, the BSO said. For children under 12 who are not yet eligible for a coronavirus vaccine, proof of a negative test will be accepted for entry.

Patrons who cannot show proof of vaccination can either show proof of a negative PCR test taken within the previous 72 hours, or an antigen test taken within the previous 24 hours.

The BSO has also been updating its air filtration system and cleaning protocols to ensure patron safety.

The new season starts Sept. 30.

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AMHERST COLLEGE-STUDENT PUSHBACK

Hundreds of students at Amherst College in Massachusetts are pushing back against what they call the schools overly restrictive COVID-19 protocols that include double masking indoors, restrictions on off-campus activities, and no in-person campus dining.

In a letter sent to President Carolyn Biddy Martin a week ago, the students said the guidelines are not based on any given data, have been developed without student input, are significantly stricter than our peer institutions, and are in conflict with (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines.

The restrictions originally announced Aug. 24 and designed in response to the spread of the delta variant apply to the first two weeks of the fall semester, which began Monday.

The prestigious private liberal arts college celebrating its 200th anniversary this year had already mandated vaccinations for students, faculty and staff.

In response to the student pushback, Martin explained the necessity of the rules in another campuswide email on Aug. 27.

We are in the midst of a surge, and you are arriving on campus from all over the country and the world, including from delta hotspots, she said, adding later: Now is not yet the time to relax key restrictions.

She did, however, amend a near-universal outdoor mask mandate, calling it unworkable, and said masks are now only required outdoors at high-density gatherings over a sustained time period.

Students are allowed to leave campus to take care of personal business and to pick up takeout meals, but should not go to indoor restaurants, cafes, or bars, she said.

The school has about 1,850 students.

The reason that the college put these protocols in place for two weeks is that, between testing and possibly isolating/quarantining individuals, we can establish a healthy baseline for our campus, a college spokesperson said Tuesday.

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17 new COVID-19 deaths; BSO to require proof of vaccination - Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) More than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases were announced in Tuesdays update from theSouth Dakota Department of Health.

There were 1,020 new total cases reported on Tuesday. The states total case count is now at 132,259 up from Monday (131,239). A note on the DOH dashboard says Tuesdays update includes data from Saturday and Sunday.

Active cases are now at 5,035, up from Monday (4,326).

The death toll from COVID-19 is now at 2,069, up from Monday (2,067). The deaths were a man and a woman. Due to changes in the DOH age of deaths data, the ages of the most recent deaths can't be determined. The deaths happened in Minnehaha and Haakon Counties.

Current hospitalizations are at 216, up from Monday (168). Total hospitalizations are now at 6,819, up from Monday (6,774).

Total recovered cases are now at 125,155, up from Monday (124,846). The latest seven-day PCR test positivity rate for the state is 15.9% for Aug. 23 through Aug. 29.

The state health department has removed the total persons negative column from its COVID-19 Dashboard Tables tab. DOH spokesman Daniel Bucheli told KELOLAND News the department will providea Total Persons Tested and Total Tests Reported table each month.South Dakota Department of Health to report persons tested, total tests for COVID-19 in monthly report

The DOH currently reports total tests each day. Theres been 1,366,671 total tests reported as of Tuesday, up 8,825 from Monday (1,357,846).

Fifty-seven of South Dakotas 66 counties are listed as having high community spread. High community spread is 100 cases or greater per 100,000 or a 10% or greater PCR test positivity rate.

There were 31 new cases of Delta variant found in South Dakota. The total number of cases of the Delta variant (B.1.617.2, AY.1-AY.3) detected in South Dakota is at 111.

There have been 172 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant), 16 cases of B.1.429 and B.1427 variants (Epsilon variant), three cases of P.1. (Gamma variant) and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta variant).

As of Tuesday, 61.97% of the population 12-year-olds and above has received at least one dose while 56.29% have completed the vaccination series.

There have been 414,720 doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered, 310,353 of the Moderna vaccine and 26,525 doses of the Janssen vaccine.

There have been 149,417 persons who have completed two doses of Moderna and 196,858 who have received two doses of Pfizer.

There were 548 new persons who completed the Pfizer series as of Monday, while 150 persons completed the Moderna series.

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COVID-19 in South Dakota: 1,020 total new cases; Death toll rises to 2,069; Active cases at 5,035 - KELOLAND.com

Fewer American adults than ever say they will not get vaccinated against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and more than ever plan to get children below the age of 12 their shots as soon as the U.S. drug regulator allows it, according to the latest Axios/Ipsos poll.

The poll found the number of people saying theyre not very likely (6%) or not at all likely (14%) to get their shots, shrank to 20%, down from 23% two weeks ago and from 34% in March. Thats the smallest number to oppose vaccines since the start of the pandemic.

The number of parents who said they have already gotten their children vaccinated, or will as soon as its allowed, rose to 68% from 56% two weeks ago and the highest level yet. The number who oppose getting children vaccinated declined to 31%, less than a third, of those polled. There are about 45 million children below the age of 12 in the U.S. who are currently not eligible for vaccination. The FDA is awaiting data from Pfizer PFE on a major trial involving children that will be used to decide on the issue.

See: Fauci: COVID-19 vaccine mandate for schoolchildren is a good idea

Axios said there are many factors playing a role in the change in attitudes, including worry about the highly transmissible delta variant, which accounts for the majority of new cases across the U.S.

But the bigger factor is the growing number of organizations, from schools and universities to local governments and private companies, that are mandating vaccination. One in three unvaccinated Americans polled said FDA approval would push them to get the vaccine, while 43% said an employer requiring it would play a role, up from 33% a month ago, as Axios reported.

Schools, organizations, companies, governments implementing mandates are forcing people to deal with them, said Cliff Young, president of U.S. Public Affairs for Ipsos, according to Axioss report. Thats what going on.

Opinion:Will vaccine skeptics accept the safety of the COVID shot now that the FDA has granted full approval?

See also:With more than 150,000 Americans contracting COVID-19 per day, the price for going unvaccinated is growing

TheCDCs vaccine trackeris showing that 173.8 million Americans are fully vaccinated, equal to 52.4% of the overall population. Some 61.7% of Americans have had at least one dose. Among adults 18 and older, 63.4% are fully inoculated, while 74.1% have had at least one dose.

Read:Gen Z students overwhelmingly support strict COVID-19 policies as they return to school

Public health experts have clamored for more people to get vaccinated as most of the new cases, hospitalizations and fatalities in the past several weeks have been among unvaccinated people.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Bidens chief medical adviser, told CNN at the weekend that up to 100,000 more Americans could die of COVID by December in what he called both entirely predictable [and] entirely preventable deaths.

Read on: WHO warns of possible 236,000 new COVID-19 deaths in Europe by December, and Fauci says U.S. could see another 100,000

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Vaccine hesitancy falls to lowest level since start of coronavirus pandemic in new poll, but more Americans still need to be persuaded - MarketWatch