I'm not sure what sort of illness got into me yesterday, but I'm feeling better today. I still feel a bit weak, but then a day of eating next to nothing will do that to you. So, on with the blog...
In the early days of the pandemic, per capita death rates for Black Americans were almost twice the white rate and over twice the rate for Asians. The rate for Latinos was in between but still above average. The racial gaps have narrowed as whites decline to be vaccinated. Over the last year, the death rate for whites is 14 percent higher than Blacks and 72 percent higher than Latinos. One obvious factor in this difference is that vaccination rates for both Blacks and Latinos are slightly higher than for white Americans according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, The share of white Americans who have been vaccinated has barely changed in the last year. Why? Politics! Only 60 percent of Republicans are vaccinated compared with 75 percent of Independents and 90 percent of Democrats.
Ethnicity aside, the US continues not to do well with covid vaccinations. According to the CDC, 48.7 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated and gotten at least one booster. Canada's analogous percent would be 55.5. In 27 countries of the EU, 62.6 percent of people are fully vaccinated and at least partially boosted. In the UK, that would be 69.6 percent. The FDA has given emergency authorization to the Novavax vaccine. This would be the second non-mRNA vaccine. Approval must still be given to the manufacturing process which has had past difficulties.
Moderna released results on their vaccine targeting Omicron. Combining the new vaccine with the original Moderna vaccine produced 1.75 times the level of antibodies as the original vaccine alone. Moderna is gathering data on the updated vaccine's effectiveness against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron. Those two now represent 13 percent of the new covid cases in the US compared with 7.5 percent a week ago.
The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation report that patients with long covid have an added risk for cardiovascular complications including pulmonary embolism, arterial and venous thromboses, myocardial infarction, and stroke. These may arise weeks or months following infection with symptoms ranging from "mild to incapacitating." Five to 29 percent of covid survivors complain of chest pain, shortness of breath, or palpitations months after recovering from acute infection. In the future, covid infection may be held to be a cardiac risk factor similar to smoking.
The White House is expected to announce a rollout plan for covid vaccination of children under the age of five. Vaccinations could start as early as June 21 if the FDA, as expected, gives authorization to both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. It should be noted, though, that only 18 percent of parents say that they will get their younger children vaccinated "right away," while 38 percent say that they will "wait and see." Factoring into this may be that covid infections tend to be less serious in children than they are in adults.
Experts are now saying that the monkeypox virus can be airborne, but that is only a small factor in its overall spread, There is no firm estimate of how much airborne transmission contributes overall. One worry is that the virus could become endemic in some animals here in the US, opening the door for more frequent outbreaks.
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