This will be the last Update for the year, unless an Omicron Delta Platinum Premium+ variant appears.
My mom is visiting along with her dog Toby, an impossibly cute and very small Cavalier King Charles who has become best friends with Teddy. The only issue is that Teddy occasionally uses his mouth to pick up Toby and carry him around the house. Toby doesn't seem to mind it at all (he may even appreciate the ride) but it's been hysterical to see Teddy turning the corner proudly carrying his friend by the vest.
Before we sign off, I can’t help but reflect on the last year that was filled with false peaks and uncertainty, but also moments of hope and resilience. I know for many what is traditionally a season of joy feels a bit more heavy and exhausting this year. And looking ahead, we face the immense challenge of making sense of confusing and often conflicting information in our effort to be safe in the moment, plan for the future, and better understand our rapidly changing world. I hope you're able to take time away to recharge and reconnect with friends and family.
May your holiday be filled with the simple gifts that matter most and a new year blessed with hope, health, and happiness.
--John
Top Three
FDA Authorizes Pfizer’s Covid Pill Paxlovid: FDA statement. More via Stat.
The authorization"permits doctors to prescribe the medicine to high-risk patients age 12 and older early in the course of disease, shortly after they develop symptoms.”
Pfizer said it aims to make 120 million treatment courses next year, up from its previous projection of 80 million.
AFT Backs Student Vaccine Mandates: Randi Weingarten on Yahoo News this morning (at the 3:00 mark).
Early Assessment of the Severity of Omicron:
New study from South Africa with some preliminary findings that are positive: "Among patients who had a known hospital outcome, 32% of COVID19 admissions during the early fourth wave were severe compared to 65% during the early third wave."
Additional real-world data from U.K. suggests Omicron is less severe: Via Washington Post.
"The early research from Scotland was led by the scientists at the University of Edinburgh, in a well-vaccinated population not too different from the United States. The power of the study lay in the wealth of data kept by the National Health Service in Scotland — records of vaccination status, age, gender, underlying health conditions and coronavirus infection for nearly 98% of the Scottish population."
"The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, found that people infected with the omicron variant were almost 60% less likely to enter the hospital than those infected with delta, the globally dominant variant is being eclipsed rapidly."
"The evidence that omicron was causing less severe illness in England came out of Imperial College London. That group, led by Neil Ferguson, reported that those infected by omicron were 15 to 20% less likely to go to an emergency room with severe symptoms and 40% less likely to be hospitalized overnight, when compared with those infected by delta."
Omicron
Omicron and Schools: Resources to Manage the Next COVID Wave: Via EdWeek
Biden's COVID Culpability: Via Axios, "The U.S. faces an overwhelming surge of cases driven by the Omicron variant less than six months after President Biden celebrated "Independence from COVID-19," and experts say the administration could have done more to better prepare the country."
Why Biden’s Omicron Speech Won’t Break Through: Joanne Kenen in Politico."
"And exhausted after nearly two years of pandemic with more hardship coming, people want certainty. But in the midst of a fast-moving and ever-changing pandemic of an ever-mutating virus, neither Biden nor Anthony Fauci nor any other fact-based health or science spokesperson can give them that — even if virus-skeptic, anti-vax podcasters and YouTubers and outside-the-mainstream doctors on right-wing TV promise otherwise."
"Public health officials have to plan for the worst; it’s their job. But when the worst doesn’t happen, instead of thanking our collective lucky stars, too many people just decide that public health experts are fools or liars."
"For people who can understand that science evolves and changes over time, that’s one thing. For those who translate uncertainty into mistrust, it makes for a confusing and difficult environment,” said Mollyann Brodie, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation who oversees polling on the pandemic and vaccination."
"Clarity around boosters is essential and overdue, given that the earlier White House muddled messaging on third shots was widely panned by public health experts as one of the administration’s worst moments. The White House seemed to get ahead of its science agencies, the FDA and the CDC, on boosters. Who should get what kind of booster and how fast was not explained well."
Omicron Is the Beginning of the End: Yascha Mounk in The Atlantic.
"From the first days of the pandemic, both experts and laypeople have disagreed about the extent to which we should engage in social distancing or government-imposed shutdowns. At every stage, some people wanted to take radical steps while others were more worried about the costs and drawbacks of such interventions. And that still holds true today. But the continuous fights over masks and vaccine mandates obscure the extent to which the field of battle has shifted in recent months."
"Despite skyrocketing caseloads, few pundits or politicians are proposing strict measures to slow the virus’s spread. The appetite for shutdowns or other large-scale social interventions simply isn’t there. This means that we have effectively given up on “slowing the spread” or “flattening the curve.” To a much greater degree than during previous waves, we have quietly decided to throw up our hands."
"Scientists have their own way of deciding that a pandemic is over. But one useful social-scientific marker is when people have gotten used to living with the ongoing presence of a particular pathogen. By that definition, the massive surge of Omicron infections that is currently coursing through scores of developed countries without eliciting more than a half-hearted response marks the end of the pandemic."
"Clearly, the severity of future strains is of huge moral significance. And equally clearly, what we should do in response to future waves of the virus depends, at least in part, on the nature of the threat we will face. (A model response would also take into account the aftereffects of COVID, which seem to last a long time in many patients, including some who initially had mild symptoms.) And yet, my guess as to what we will do no longer turns on these matters. The United States now seems poised to respond to future waves with a collective sigh and a shrug."
Federal
White House: The Biden administration announced that it will extend its moratorium on student loan payments until May 1, Axios reports.
COVID-19 Research
US Army Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants: Via DefenseOne
"The next step is seeing how the new pan-coronavirus vaccine interacts with people who were previously vaccinated or previously sick. Walter Reed is working with a yet-to-be-named industry partner for that wider rollout."
“We need to evaluate it in the real-world setting and try to understand how does the vaccine perform in much larger numbers of individuals who have already been vaccinated with something else initially…or already been sick,” Modjarrad said."'
"He said nearly all of Walter Reed’s 2,500 staff have had some role in the vaccine’s nearly-two-year development."
“We decided to take a look at the long game rather than just only focusing on the original emergence of SARS, and instead understand that viruses mutate, there will be variants that emerge, future viruses that may emerge in terms of new species. Our platform and approach will equip people to be prepared for that.”
Get Boosted So Your Immune System Isn't "Home Alone": This Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health tweet is much better than what the Joanas Brothers put out this week.
Rethinking the COVID Isolation Period: Via Axios
WHO: "Blanket booster programs are likely to prolong the pandemic, not to end it," said WHO Director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "In 2021, 3.5 million lives have been lost to Covid — more than to HIV, TB and malaria combined. It is claiming 50,000 lives per week at this point." More via CNBC.
MIS-C Study: A study of 107 French teens hospitalized with the COVID-19–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) shows that none had been fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and only 7 had received one dose.
Life Expectancy Fell: "COVID-19 helped erase 1.8 years from the average American’s life expectancy in 2020, according to the latest federal mortality data released Wednesday, marking the greatest change in the American lifespan since World War II." More via Axios.
This Scientist Created a Rapid Test Just Weeks Into the Pandemic. Here’s Why You Still Can’t Get It: New ProPublica piece.
State
Illinois: Chicago Mayor Lightfoot announces that beginning Jan. 3, individuals must show proof vaccination to enter bars, restaurants, fitness centers, and entertainment/recreational venues where food/drink are served.
The Mayor tweets, "To put it simply, if you have been living vaccine-free, your time is up. If you wish to live life as w/the ease to do the things you love, you must be vax'd. This health order may pose an inconvenience to the unvaccinated, and in fact it is inconvenient by design."
New York:
"New York smashed its single-day COVID case record for the fifth time in a week Wednesday, an astounding 28,924 new infections that mark a more than 20% jump from the record set earlier this week, as new state data shows the stark rate of vaccine efficacy decline when it comes to new infections for certain age groups."
The Mount Vernon City School District says remote schooling will begin Wednesday, Dec. 22, until at least Jan. 18, 2022.
Resources
Demos Not Memos in 2021: A look back over the amazing work USDR has done over the past year.
Failing on Purpose Survey: YouGov and American Compass survey, "Education reformers have lost sight of what most Americans believe public education is for."
Some Good News
9-month-old Everett hearing for his first time during this Christmas
Dogs Trust Ireland holds a Santa Paws Day when all the dogs in their shelter get to pick their Christmas toy.
School bus drivers deliver gifts after school closes.
Holiday artichoke dip goes terribly wrong on-air.
GoPro: Best of 2021.
The St. Louis Blues did lookalikes of holiday characters on the jumbotron.
A man strung Christmas lights from his home to his neighbor’s to support her. The whole community followed.
And Finally…
As we close out 2021, let us look forward to Better Days:
"Deep breath, stay calm; If you just press on, press on, press on," via Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons
"And you asked me what I want this year; And I try to make this kind and clear; Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days," via the Goo Goo Dolls.
"Bring your compassion, Your understanding, Lord how we need it, On this New York City Christmas," via Rob Thomas.
Andrea and Matteo Bocelli perform 'Cantique du Noel' (Oh Holy Night) from The White House for the music special: Spirit of the Season.
"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice," writes T.S. Eliot