Pfizer seeks authorization of a coronavirus shot for children under 5 https://t.co/g3t7hMbISe
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 1, 2022
Part of the problem, I suspect, is that so many parents aren’t vaxxing their older children. Per the Washington Post:
Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, on Wednesday finished submitting an application for regulatory authorization of a coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5.
The development marked another important step toward providing vaccination for the last segment of the U.S. population that does not have access to shots.
The news comes a week after Pfizer-BioNTech announced that three shots of its low-dose pediatric vaccine triggered a robust immune response in young children and was safe. The partners began sending data to the Food and Drug Administration in February…
FDA advisers are scheduled to meet June 15 to discuss the three-shot Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine and a two-shot regimen from the biotechnology company Moderna. The agency is expected to act quickly, meaning young children could get their first shots this month.
Data on both vaccines has been available only in news releases so far. The FDA review of the details and the all-day session on June 15 with outside experts digging into the data will be critical in showing what is known about how well the vaccines work and any differences between the two regimens…
If the FDA deems both vaccines safe and effective, it is expected to act quickly. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would then debate how the vaccines should be used, and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky would make a recommendation.
About two-thirds of children between 5 and 11 are not vaccinated, according to the CDC. While a vocal segment of parents has been demanding that the FDA move faster to get shots to the youngest children, other parents are expected to move more slowly to get their children vaccinated, or to refuse shots altogether.
U.S. COVID update:
– New cases: 263,603
– Average: 103,307 (+8,746)
– States reporting: 45/50
– In hospital: 27,562 (+1,247)
– In ICU: 2,951 (+18)
– New deaths: 665
– Average: 309 (+5)More data: https://t.co/ohnVKtNdM3 pic.twitter.com/8BJ2w66JzW
— BNN|Medriva Newsroom (@medrivaUS) June 2, 2022
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… A network of tens of thousands of lab testing booths are being set up across the country’s largest and most economically vital cities, with the goal of having residents always just a 15 minute walk away from a swabbing point. The infrastructure will allow cities like Beijing, Shanghai, tech hub Shenzhen and e-commerce heartland Hangzhou to require tests as often as every 48 hours, with negative results needed to get on the subway or even enter a store.
Researchers at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University designed robots to automate the swabbing process. Companies are dangling monthly salaries exceeding 10,000 yuan ($1,487) to recruit staff for the white, modular buildings that feature either sliding windows reminiscent of an amusement park entry point or two circular holes, chest-high, that allow workers to slip out gloved hands for swabbing purposes.
The investment underscores China’s commitment to Covid Zero, an approach that’s made it the only country in the world to contain the highly transmissible omicron variant that emerged last year. It required unrelenting effort, including business restrictions and personal sacrifices from millions of people. Other countries subsequently abandoned the policy that is becoming more entrenched in China, even as it upends the economy.
The testing plan shows the extent of China’s divergence from the world where Covid infections, while potentially deadly, are now commonplace. The next iteration relies on taking faster action based on test results to prevent the virus from seeding within a community, as it did in Shanghai…
The booths, solid though quickly made, will be ubiquitous in urban centers with at least 10 million residents, part of a seamless process designed to feed test results into popular smartphone apps such as Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat or Alipay, the payment app from Ant Group Co, in just a few hours. Some 420 million people live in cities and towns that have committed to routine Covid tests, according to data compiled by Soochow Securities Co.
The intent is to root out silent chains of transmission before the virus has a chance to spread widely in the community. But it will also make testing an inescapable part of everyday life for hundreds of millions of Chinese city dwellers…
China’s top health official, Ma Xiaowei, urged authorities in provincial capitals and large cities in mid-May to set up regular testing sites to detect the spread of omicron. The country will also establish “permanent” Covid hospitals, Ma said in an article published in the Communist Party’s Qiushi magazine…
The hope is that China will recoup the money by discovering infections earlier and avoiding economically devastating lockdowns like the one Shanghai is now inching out of. Analysts at Soochow Securities said the current restrictions could knock 1.1 percentage points off China’s domestic growth for the year. Routine testing could cut the financial impact in half by averting the need for some lockdowns…
The mystery of North Korea's Covid outbreak https://t.co/4L0KJm7fjz
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 2, 2022
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A new real-world effectiveness report of Paxlovid during the Omicron wave: in people age 65+ an 81% reduction in death and 67% reduction in hospitalizationshttps://t.co/ZNohKWmTK6@ArbelRonen @ClalitHealth and colleagues pic.twitter.com/MbakbgkbAJ
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) June 1, 2022
New Deal democrat
With the holiday weekend over, reported cases increased slightly to 102,800 vs. 110,400 one week ago. I’d still like to see one more day of data before declaring that the BA.2.12.1 wave has peaked. Hospital admissions increased to 28,600, which is still below the entire period from last August through this February. Deaths decreased to 284, the lowest since last July.
Regionally the pattern remains flat to declining cases in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, upper Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest, plus Puerto Rico; while cases are rising from a belt from North Carolina south along the Atlantic Coast, across the southern tier of States to Arizona, and extending north through the Rockies and High Plains.
JPL
In my son’s covid household, everyone is on the mend. DIL and ten-month-old had slight fevers and the baby was fussy for a day. The three-year-old and son, both had runny noses and they were sneezing. My son mentioned that at least for the adults, thank god for the vaccine. Yesterday I went for my booster.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 1,809 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, for a cumulative reported total of 4,508,319 cases. It also reported two deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 35,678 deaths – 0.79% of the cumulative reported total, 0.80% of resolved cases.
There were 23,048 active cases yesterday, 104 fewer than the day before. 945 were in hospital. 26 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, 16 confirmed cases cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 1,911 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,449,593 patients recovered – 98.7% of the cumulative reported total.
1,804 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. Five new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 4,666 doses of vaccine on 1st June: 563 first doses, 2,557 second doses, and 1,546 booster doses. The cumulative total is 70,947,904 doses administered: 27,991,608 first doses, 27,070,260 second doses, and 16,100,274 booster doses. 85.7% of the population have received their first dose, 82.9% their second dose, and 49.3% their booster dose.
NotMax
Locally,
This latest weekly report represents roughly ten times the number of cases in a week from two months ago.
Dorothy A. Winsor
My kindergarten teacher DIL told me that few of her students were vaccinated, which surprised me. Parents believe that if their child gets covid, it will be mild. They think the vaccine might be riskier.
It creates an unhealthy work environment for the teachers and other adult school workers. There are always kids out with covid.
Jack Canuck
It’s finally arrived chez Canuck – my wife tested positive today. She feels like crap, really achy all over, but not much fever or sore throat or coughing. My son and I are both fine so far, but given that it’s a small house and isolation isn’t really possible, I’m not optimistic. At least we’re all vaccinated (triple for the adults, double for the child). I let myself get talked into agreeing to go to a gathering a friend of ours was having – and now we’re paying the price. Three weeks left in the school term (I’m a teacher), and we’re just going into production week for the middle school play that I’ve been (co-)directing for the last two months or more. If I dodge it, I’ll be able to finish the process and see the show; if I get it, then I’m out for a week and will miss finishing it off. First world problems I suppose, but still … just about the worst time in this term for this to happen for me!
Old School
We’ve been dealing with COVID in our household after Middle School came down with it the end of last week. It was presumably caught at school, but who knows? It then proceeded to pick us off one by one with Mrs. School and my youngest Elementary School having the worst symptoms.
Thankfully everyone seems to be on the mend.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Jeez. COVID can mess with their hearts. I hope they all end up okay.
raven
@JPL: I’m at 10 days now so we’re going to resume activities. We delayed our anniversary so we’ll figure our some outdoor dining options.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
229 new cases reported on 6/1. It looks like that 80-some cases the day before was just the usual holiday under-reporting.
JPL
@raven: Sounds like fun. The pharmacist at Walgreens said it’s all over and since most symptoms are mild, most people don’t know it.
YY_Sima Qian
On 6/1 Mainland China reported 18 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic), 43 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 new domestic suspect cases, & 0 new deaths.
At Guangdong Province 1 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed & 9 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 9 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Dongxing & Fangchenggang. There currently are 17 active domestic asymptomatic (13 at Fangchenggang, 3 at Baise, & 1 at Chongzuo) cases remaining.
Tianjin Municipality reported 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. The city is no longer reporting recoveries, so I cannot track the count of active cases.
Shandong Province reported 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed cases & 20 active asymptomatic cases in the province. As not all of the administrative divisions in the province provide data on recoveries, I cannot track the count of active cases in all of the administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 4 active confirmed cases remaining.
Hebei Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 2 at Yongqing County in Langfang & 1 act Tangshan. The cases at Langfang are persons under centralized quarantine, & the case at Tangshan is a person from elsewhere passing through & testing positive at a service station. 2 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 64 active asymptomatic case in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks. 1 industrial park at Langfang is currently at Medium Risk.
Liaoning Province reported 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Dandong. 3 asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 86 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Jilin Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 8 domestic confirmed & 11 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. As the province does not consistently break down recoveries by confirmed & asymptomatic cases or by jurisdictions, I can no longer track the count of active case counts in the different jurisdictions.
At Heihe in Heilongjiang Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining.
Beijing Municipality reported 11 new domestic confirmed (9 mild & 2 moderate) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 12 of the new positive cases are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 2 via community screening. The community cases were found at Changping District. As the city does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there. 2 sites are currently at High Risk. 11 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Shanghai Municipality reported 5 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 8 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all of the new positive cases were already under quarantine. There were 0 new deaths. 128 domestic confirmed & 791 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 1,090 active domestic confirmed (80 serious & 27 critical) in the city. The city is no longer publishing the number of active asymptomatic cases. 5 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
At Hubei Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (mild, at Wuhan) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic (1 at Jingmen & 2 at Ezhou) cases remaining.
At Jiangsu Province 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 11 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in each administrative division, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Anhui Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases (1 each at Haozhou & Xuancheng) remaining.
Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported versus domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Fujian Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Jiangxi Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 22 active domestic asymptomatic cases (19 at Yichun, 2 at Shangrao & 1 at Jiujiang) remaining.
Henan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic (all at Xuchang) cases. 15 domestic confirmed & 58 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 60 active domestic confirmed & 236 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic, at Bazhong) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic (2 at Guangyuan & 1 at Chengdu) cases, all of the new positive cases came from elsewhere & under centralized quarantine since arrival. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Qinghai Province there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region did not report any new domestic positive cases. 8 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 28 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Kunming, a person coming from Shanghai on 5/29 & under centralized quarantine since. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Imported Cases
On 6/1, Mainland China reported 19 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 49 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 286 confirmed cases recovered (18 imported), 1,090 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (49 imported) & 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 16,252 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 2,047 active confirmed cases in the country (227 imported), 116 in serious/critical condition (all domestic), 9,635 active asymptomatic cases (449 imported), 0 suspect cases. 158,130 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 6/1, 3,382.178M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 864K doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 6/2 Hong Kong reported 489 new positive cases, 65 imported & 424 domestic (104 via RT-PCR & 319 from rapid antigen tests), 1 death (fully vaccinated, unboosted).
On 6/2, Taiwan reported 76,986 new positive cases, 19 imported & 76,967 domestic (including 291 moderate & 122 serious). There were 144 new deaths (ages ranging from < 10 y.o. to 90+ y.o., actual dates of death between 5/16 – 5/30, 135 having a range of underlying conditions, 84 partially/fully vaccinated).
Matt McIrvin
@JPL:
It just occurred to me that this is one of those statements that can mean two opposite things.
YY_Sima Qian
What is concerning about the apparent plan by Beijing to extend “Dynamic Zero COVID” for possibly years into the future is not the frequent mass testing, which is probably the least expensive & disruptive measure (certainly relative to wide area lockdowns), but that China will have to maintain strong restrictions on cross border movement. Goods & merchandise trade continue apace, as long as there are no lockdowns of major transportation hubs, but the collapse of cross border people movement have significantly impacted people-to-people ties w/ all regions & across all spheres. I have a personal stake here, as I would like to get my parents back to China ASAP. They have not seen their granddaughter for 2+ years.
I also find comments by Michael Mina in the Bloomberg article curious. So China is placing itself in jeopardy by avoiding multiple COVID waves washing over its population, & all of the associated deaths & socio-economic disruptions & Long COVIDs?! The comments also implies that the Chinese vaccines are not doing anything, when all of the data points to them being effective against deaths & hospitalizations, especially after boosting.
Good news on the effectiveness of the Walvax mRNA vaccines as a booster, but sounds like Stage II type of data. Still no information from the Stage III trials that have been conducted around the world since Q3 2021.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Even many parents who eagerly got vaccinated themselves were never convinced of the risk calculation when it came to their kids. The math is, I guess, just a little subtle and abstract, and it seems like there’s a degree of fear about actively doing something that hurts your child that isn’t there when it comes to the child getting sick “naturally”, even if the latter is the far greater danger. Antivaxxers have been playing on that since long before COVID.
Matt McIrvin
The drop-off of cases and wastewater counts from the BA.2 wave in New England has been slow and ragged–it’s not like the initial Omicron surge where there was a huge wave of cases followed by a rapid drop-off; it’s more like a gently sloping plateau. To be fair the infection rates are much lower this time around, and based on wastewater I don’t think that’s just an illusion caused by lower testing. It seems more like BA.2 is gradually seeking out all the remaining people who are susceptible.
People are generally not fussed about it where I am, basically acting like the pandemic is over and que sera sera. I am among the minority of people who still mask up in public at all. But my daughter’s school did put its mask mandate back in place for its last couple of weeks, a bit late.
Given my seasonal allergy symptoms it’s not at all implausible that I’ve already gotten breakthrough COVID in this wave and not noticed it.
YY_Sima Qian
Frequent mass screenings being “least” expensive is of course relative. It is common knowledge that Wuhan’s municipal public medical & social insurance funds are under severe stress. I hear people claiming the root cause to be the testing mandates the city has implemented since Apr., but IMHO more likely to the economically damaging lockdown of Spring 2020. My FIL just had an operation to install a pacemaker. The doctors advised by in-laws that the public medical insurance will only cover the cheapest product, due to shortage in the funds. The more expensive options (w/ longer life) will need to be paid out of pocket. At least the public medical insurance covered 95% of the cost of the device & operation.
As more cities & regions have to lockdown (varying in duration & extent) to snuff outbreaks, some will face similar challenges. The central government will have to substantially subside the local governments on these expenses. The economic downturn in China means the central government does not have an overflow of funds, either, & Beijing is loath to repeat the debt-field binge that China went on to counteract the Global Financial Crisis, w/ its long term problems. The hope is that frequent mass screenings will prevent the need to lockdown in most instances. Omicron BA.x really is a different pandemic, & it seems government at all levels in China are still endeavoring to strike the right balance. Locking down entire cities over a single community case, as some low Tier cities in China are doing, is clearly overkill. Shanghai is the example to avoid in the other extreme.
Another Scott
Thanks AL and everyone for these updates.
I continue to be amazed by the breathless reporting about re-infection and breakthrough infection and so forth – as if it’s totally unexpected and surprising. SARS-CoV-2 is a human coronavirus. We know quite a bit about them.
MedRxiv (from May 2020):
AFAIK, there’s no evidence that vaccines behave substantially differently when it comes to immunity.
Without some sort of breakthrough that we do not seem to be anywhere close to achieving, it seems likely that we will need vaccines/boosters every 6 months for the foreseeable future.
And masks.
Stay safe, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
StringOnAStick
Over half of the employees in the dental office I used to work in tested positive, so the entire office is closed this week, maybe longer. This is in Denver, where cases have been headed up. Fortunately everyone is vaccinated and boosted so it is just a bad cold for the most symptomatic. This is the second time this has happened, and sure makes me glad I retired; I worry about them and how they are doing.
RaflW
FWIW my second booster (PPMM – with seven months between primary and 1st boost, and almost 7 mo. to this boost) kicked my ass.
Having gone through about 30 hrs of headache, chills, significant exhaustion, I wouldn’t change a thing. Whatever minor inconvenience I felt for about a day seems small potatoes compared to a potentially very serious illness. And at 48h I feel completely fine.
But if anyone is getting ready for a shot, maybe plan on a Friday afternoon if one works a traditional schedule (or plan a PTO day!). Of course, some have far less trouble – my partner did PPMP and just had minor lethargy, that was it.
Another Scott
@RaflW: It was 5.5 months for me between my 2 Pfizer boosters. I had had no problems with any of the previous 3 Pfizer shots, but the day after my 2nd booster I had a slight fever, felt poorly, and had to take a 3 hour nap under 2 blankets. I was fine afterwards.
It’s a good idea to plan for the potential for the 2nd booster to be a bit more of a wallop than the previous ones.
Cheers,
Scott.
dnfree
We had PPPM on the usual schedule; the second booster was about 7 months after the first booster. We were surprised to have almost no reaction at all to the Moderna other than a sore arm at the injection site for a few days.