The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 350 (850)

Right after I posted yesterday's abbreviated effort, I got a news bulletin that the FDA had given the Novavax vaccine emergency use authorization to be given to adults. The CDC advisory committee and the CDC itself need to approve its use before it can become available to the general public. The clinical trials on which authorization was based were done before the Delta and Omicron waves. Some experts are hoping that an alternative to an mRNA vaccine may appeal to some of the 22 percent of people in the US who are still totally unvaccinated. Novavax is a protein subunit vaccine. It contains a spike protein and an adjuvant to enhance the immune response. Authorization was as a primary immunization only; no decision was made on using it as a booster.

Shanghai has recorded over 400 new cases so far in July. Twelve of 16 districts have been ordered to do two PCR tests in three days. That means testing every resident twice. Two residential committees have reminded residents to stock up on food and medicine for 14 days just in case their apartment building is locked down. Says a tech worker, "The government has lost the trust of the public. Whatever they will do, I have enough staple food for one month of survival and home anyway." Already, over 300,000 people have been screened or placed in government isolation centers. 

Back in the US, the spread of drug-resistant infections surged during the pandemic. Deaths from such infections rose 15 percent in the first year of the pandemic when compared to 2019. Forty percent of these were in hospitals; the rest were in nursing homes and other healthcare settings. The total could be much higher since labs were swamped with covid testing.

Hawaii will end their public school classroom mask mandate as of August 1, the day the new school year will begin. Masks may still be worn, and a cluster of cases in one classroom might bring back masks temporarily for that classroom. Quarantines resulting from classroom infections will end as well.

Finally, the Government Accounting Office warns that the CDC's reliance on outdated systems to collect and analyze data on international air travelers makes responses to incoming disease threats difficult. Let's hope they get a new or updated system going before the next pandemic arrives.