New Wave of Covid Cases Hits U.S. Officials, Rattles Washington

"Two top Biden Cabinet members — Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo — tested positive for Covid after attending the Gridiron Club Dinner over the weekend. Other attendees of the exclusive, white-tie event also tested positive, including Reps. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; Jamal Simmons, a top aide to Vice President Kamala Harris; and Valerie Biden Owens, the president's sister."

"On Thursday evening, just hours after voting to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced she had tested positive and was experiencing "mild symptoms." Collins also had attended the Gridiron dinner. Some other lawmakers and reporters who were at the dinner have also tested positive.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also tested positive for COVID Thursday."

"First lady Jill Biden’s press Secretary, Michael LaRosa, told NBC News Thursday night that he also has tested positive, while adding that the first lady is not considered a close contact. All of the above have been vaccinated and boosted. The spate of high-profile cases comes as masks have come off in the Capitol complex and around Washington and big, crowded indoor events like the Gridiron dinner and other Washington traditions have returned after a two-year absence.
See: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/fresh-wave-covid-cases-hits-us-federal-officials-rattles-washington/3636768/
(nbcnews.com)

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COVID-19 is back on Broadway
knocking Matthew Broderick & Sarag Jessica Parker off stage. The twin cases at “Plaza Suite” comes at a time when coronavirus cases are rising in the city and on Broadway again.

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American White life Expectancy Continued Decline in 2021

“Life expectancy went down in 2020 for Hispanics, Whites and Blacks because of the coronavirus pandemic. Black life expectancy went up and Hispanic life expectancy was up slightly in 2021. White life expectancy continued to decline.”

“Historically, life expectancy rises. The gains have come as infant mortality became less common and modern medicine treated infectious diseases, cancer and other common causes of premature death. But in recent years the United States has seen life expectancy flatten or even go in a dire direction. Social factors are probably drivers in both the long-term erosion of life expectancy in the United States compared with peer countries and the decline in the pandemic years. “

“Most of this catastrophic swing in life expectancy has to do either with people dying from the virus itself or secondary consequences produced by the pandemic. What’s significant was that the decline continued even though vaccine was available starting in late 2020. The role of vaccine hesitancy may play a role in the decline of White life expectancy. The life expectancy gap between the United States and its peer income countries is now over five years, which is an incredible gap. Death and life expectancy? That’s the ultimate marker of what it means to live in a country.”

“Public health policies in the USA are largely in the hands of state and local governments. As a result, there have been many different responses to the pandemic.

"The disparity between the United States and the peer countries suggests that the bad numbers from 2021 were not simply due to the delta and omicron variants sweeping through the country and driving up the death toll from covid-19. Those same variants swept through the other comparison countries, but none of them experienced the same loss of life we saw in the United States.”

“The surges of COVID in the USA were most deadly in areas with low levels of vaccination.” The Washington Post

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For every 100 infections currently in the USA (that are able to pass on the COVID virus to the more vunerable), only seven are recorded in official tallies. Testing and reporting is now passe for most Americans.

Meanwhile, "We need to remember that living with the virus does not mean forgetting about the virus. It’s still out there, it’s still causing people to get sick and some people to die,” Michaud (associate director of global health policy) said. “If we’re not prepared, we could be in a bad situation quickly again.”


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Mayo Clinic Predicting Another COVID Surge

“We are pretending, nationally right now, as if the pandemic is over and it is certainly not over,” said Dr. Gregory Poland, a vaccinologist with Mayo Clinic. He predicts the surges seen in other regions and countries will arrive here, as they have time after time, with the virus showing no signs of slowing its rampant mutations. “There's great concern that we are going to have another surge on the medical system and all the complications and deaths attendant with that,” said Poland. “Right behind BA.2 is XE, XD, and XF, and don't discount those. XE is already causing chains of transmission in the U.K., and nothing that has happened in the U.K. vis-à-vis COVID has failed to be reflected eventually in the U.S.," he said.

Last month, the FDA approved a second Pfizer or Moderna booster for adults over 50 and immunocompromised people 12 and up. That was based on a new large Israeli study that showed a second booster reduced death risk in older people from .1 percent to .03 percent.