1/9 COVID This Week: Decreasing Cases, Increasing Danger
Covid is decreasing from very high to high levels in much of US. Schools resuming; outbreaks inevitable.
Human immunity against the virus appears possible; FDA and CDC immunity from political interference, much less so.
Covid is decreasing from very high to high levels in much of US. Schools resuming; outbreaks inevitable.
Human immunity against the virus appears possible; FDA and CDC immunity from political interference, much less so.
2/9 First, the trends. Northeast remains relatively low, now joined by MI, WV, NM, MT, WY, AK. Number of tests decreased in some states, including Florida. Good national positivity decrease: 6.2 to 5.7%. Antigen testing will make this number harder to track; need 100% reporting. 
3/9 More than 500,000 hospitalizations, 6 million diagnosed cases, 180,000 reported deaths, plus at least another 50,000 excess deaths above baseline from undiagnosed Covid and Covid-disrupted care. The US Covid death rate last week was more than 3x rate in S Korea since January.
4/9 The Latinx population in US and many countries of Latin America very hard hit. Essential workers with insufficient protection, crowding, lack of access to care, underlying illness. Peru now has the highest cumulative death rate in the world, and also many unreported deaths.
5/9 High hospitalization rates in Native American, Latinx, and Black people in the U.S., gradually declining. We can only reopen more by staying safer, masking up, finding and stopping spread, and supporting families and communities in need. bit.ly/32B5g3p
6/9 Masks matter. We released a toolkit this week and I summarize: wapo.st/3b6w5jL. One of the lowest-cost, most effective ways to get more of our economy, education, and health care back. Mask up to keep deaths down. Kudos to Philadelphia for measuring and improving use.
7/9 Indefensible framing by FDA of EUA for convalescent plasma. 100-year old treatment may work, a bit, for some patients. There’s still so much we don’t know. What antibodies? Which patients? When in the course of illness? What dose? How long? Need more science, less politics.
8/9 Indefensible recommendation by CDC, dictated by White House/HHS. We must test asymptomatic contacts. If positive, their contacts can be identified, warned, and quarantined. Not testing asymptomatic contacts allows Covid to spread. Let’s hope the CDC website gets corrected.
9/9 There have been far too many preventable casualties from the failed US response to the pandemic already: lives, jobs, education, and more. We cannot let the FDA and CDC become the next casualties. Base decisions on science. Insist on complete transparency of data and process.
