A dose of the original Moderna vaccine
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 941st day of the pandemic.
It may seem rather obvious, but despite the promising data that Pfizer and its partner BioNTech reported Friday, namely that the bivalent coronavirus booster shot
The new booster demonstrates “substantially higher immune response in adults Compared to the Original Covid-19 vaccine,” the two said in a statement.
In adults 55 years and older, the bivalent booster is four times more effective against the BA.5 sublineage of omicron than the original Covid vaccine.
But, in order for it to work, you have to get jabbed.
Currently, the number of adults who are rolling up their sleeves is shockingly low: Just 10% of the U.S. population has gotten the new booster.
A Pfizer-BioNTech study looked at antibody levels in adults older than 55 who received a fourth dose of either the new bivalent vaccine (36 of study participants) or the original booster (40 participants). The group two groups had similar stratified blends of people who had evidence of a prior Covid infection and those who had not.
Researchers compared antibody levels one month before the booster and one month afterwards. At the outset, the two groups had similar antibody levels, but one month after receiving the booster dose, that changes. Those who received the bivalent booster saw their levels of neutralizing antibodies against the BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages rise 13.4-fold, while whose who received the original booster only saw a 2.9-fold rise in such antibodies.
While this data is impressive, you have to get the bivalent booster in order for this to work, so run, don’t walk, to your nearest pharmacy to get yours.
In other news we cover today, the United Kingdom is working to fight a possible zoonotic transmission of avian bird flu, a Connecticut woman was sentenced after falsifying vaccination papers, and the U.S. will likely face a difficult winter with the flu, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2.
UNITED STATES
A Connecticut woman was sentenced to three years of probation after falsifying coronavirus vaccination records for 14 people, the Department of Justice announced Friday. Zaya Powell, 25, produced the fraudulent documents indicating each of the 14 had each received a one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine when they in fact had not. Federal prosecutors said Powell abused her position as a data entry specialist for Griffin Health Services to produce the documents.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to warn of an unusually high and early uptick in influenza and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus infections, that could further strain the country’s healthcare system as it tries to recover from the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic.
GLOBAL
Health officials in the United Kingdom are carrying out emergency drills for the possibility that bird flu could jump to humans, according to Whitehall officials. Highly pathogenic Avian H5N1 outbreaks – the term “highly pathogenic” refers only to the potential for these viruses to kill birds, not other species – have resulted in the culling of 3.8 million birds, nearly one-third of the bird population, in the country this year alone. Chief veterinary officer Dr. Christine Middlemiss said that frequent exercises with the UK Health Security Agency are taking place to stop the disease spreading.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, November 6.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 637.7 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.2 million cases, and 6.6 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 617.2 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.3 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday at press time is 13,874,450, a decrease of 12,000. Out of that figure, 99.7%, or 13,838,466, are considered mild, and 0.3%, or 35,094, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.
The United States reported 3,729 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 49,323 on Saturday 78,006 on Friday, and 76,034 on Thursday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 40,862. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 40,122, an increase of 6%, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 320, a decrease of 11% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 27,395, an increase of 2%.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded over 99.6 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of just under 1.1 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, almost 44.7 million, and a reported death toll of 530,500.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with over 36.9 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 35.8 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 688,419, has recorded just under 34.9 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 25.8 million cases, the United Kingdom, with 23.9 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 23.6 million, as number eight, as well as Japan, with over 22.6 million, and Russia, with over 21.5 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, 266.4 million people in the United States – or 80.2% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 68.4%, or 226.9 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 636.9 million. Breaking this down further, 91.2% of the population over the age of 18 – or 235.5 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 78.3% of the same group – or 202.1 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 9.9% of the U.S. population of the same population, or 25.5 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursday by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 68.2% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.92 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2.85 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 23.4% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
