The Morning Meeting with Al Tompkins is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas worth considering and other timely context for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins.
Over the weekend we got word that the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who is “up-to-date” on her covid-19 vaccinations and boosters, tested positive for COVID-19. The CDC said she has “mild symptoms.”
And while vaccine deniers will smirk at her being infected, they miss the point that her symptoms are mild. That is what the vaccine is supposed to do in 2022. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of America’s pandemic response, and U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra both tested positive in June.
Last month, CVS Health released a photo of Walensky, who had just received the latest bivalent booster shot. She said, “The updated COVID-19 boosters are formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating COVID-19 variant. They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants.”
(Twitter)
Early on, there was some promise that the vaccine would prevent infections. But the virus found enough unvaccinated people to infect that it found ways to keep changing. So, today, the vaccine might fail to prevent an infection, but it at least minimizes the chances of serious illness and death.
The State of Washington’s Department of Health just published new data comparing infection, hospitalization and death rates for unvaccinated and vaccinated adults.
The charts show unvaccinated adults are about twice as likely to be infected and almost three times more likely to be hospitalized. And seniors are four and a half times more likely to die from a COVID-19 infection.
(Washington State Department of Health)
(Washington State Department of Health)
(Washington State Department of Health)
What journalists need to know about RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, that is emptying classrooms and filling hospitals
It’s been a rough weekend for hospitals that are treating a rush of sick children suffering from RSV infections, or respiratory syncytial virus. ABC News says, “Over 70% of (40,000) pediatric hospital beds in the US full amid a surge of respiratory illnesses.”
Look at the federal government’s data on the extraordinary numbers of cases this year, compared, for example to 2020.
(CDC)
The summer of 2021 also saw an unusual number of summertime RSV cases. But even then, the cases peaked at half the rate of new cases right now.
In May of this year, the number of cases per week shot up to 1,000. By September, it was 2,000 per week and the number has been growing ever since.
(CDC)
(CDC)
You can click on this map and pull up the most recent RSV testing trends in each state. You will find that in some states, the positive test rate is higher than 25%.
The Washington Post reported:
Rhode Island, the District of Columbia and Delaware report more than 94 percent of pediatric beds occupied. Maine, Arizona, Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Missouri reported between 85 and 90 percent of beds occupied. The data is limited to facilities that report the information.Several children’s hospitals in the D.C. area have been at capacity for weeks; 18 children were waiting for a room in the ICU on Tuesday at Children’s National in the District.
This is not a mystery illness. The CDC says RSV infections are the most common cause of bronchitis and pneumonia in kids under the age of 1 in the United States. But the infections usually come later in the winter.
The runny nose, coughing, sneezing, fever and wheezing last a week or two, but in infants it can be a serious illness that results in bronchiolitis or pneumonia. The symptoms are a lot like the flu or even colds and there is no rapid test that you can use the way we all use COVID-19 tests now. There is no RSV vaccine.
The CDC says RSV spreads when:
- An infected person coughs or sneezes.
- You get virus droplets from a cough or sneeze in your eyes, nose, or mouth.
- You touch a surface that has the virus on it, like a doorknob, and then touch your face before washing your hands.
- You have direct contact with the virus, like kissing the face of a child with RSV.
People infected with RSV are usually contagious for 3 to 8 days. However, some infants, and people with weakened immune systems, can continue to spread the virus even after they stop showing symptoms, for as long as 4 weeks. Children are often exposed to and infected with RSV outside the home, such as in school or child-care centers. They can then transmit the virus to other members of the family.
Experts say that it is possible to get the RSV several times in a lifetime, but generally, once a child recovers from it they will have a resistance to the virus for a year or more.
Seniors can be susceptible to the RSV virus too. A briefing for investors last week by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer reported, “RSV is responsible for 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths annually in the United States alone. And just to put this in perspective, the estimated annual cost of hospitalizations for adults with RSV in the U.S. is about $1.2 billion.” Pfizer is working on an RSV vaccine for adults.
How much will COVID-19 shots cost when you have to pay for them next year?
Sometime early next year, when the U.S. government stops providing COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer says the vaccines will sell for about $110 to $130 per dose. CNN Health reports:
This is the “commercial list price,” but the company says it does not anticipate that most people will have to pay out of pocket. It also pointed to its patient assistance program, which helps people without insurance get vaccines.
For now, Covid-19 vaccines are still available for free. Pfizer says it anticipates that the Covid-19 vaccine pricing could come into play when the distribution and reimbursement of vaccines transition from government contracts to the traditional health-care system, as early as the first quarter of 2023.
An analysis published by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week said that without additional funding or protections, the commercialization of Covid-19 preventative and countermeasures would create access barriers for vaccines, tests and therapeutics – especially for the uninsured and underinsured.
The CDC, last week, made sure that even when the federal government no longer pays for vaccines, uninsured children will still have access to COVID-19 vaccines through a program called Vaccines for Children.
The decision to include Covid shots in the free vaccine program will prove crucial to maintaining access for many children. As many as 5.3 million kids are expected to lose health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program whenever the Biden administration decides to end the Covid public health emergency, according to the Health and Human Services Department.
This week, a federal court may decide whether to allow federal student debt relief
We should know this week whether the student loan forgiveness program can restart or it will be on hold for an unknown time.
The Biden administration planned to begin processing college loan forgiveness applications yesterday, but a federal appeals court hit the brakes on those plans Friday night.
Still, the loan forgiveness website is still open today and the administration says people should still apply while the courts sort out the legality of the president’s plan. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement about the court order:
The order does not reverse the trial court’s dismissal of the case or suggest that the case has merit. It merely prevents debt from being discharged until the court makes a decision.
Twenty-two million people have applied for loan forgiveness already and almost that many more are eligible.
The lawsuit that is blocking the debit relief was filed by attorneys general from Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina, who claim the federal action would harm state-based loan companies. Last week, a district court judge dismissed the state’s claims, but the appeals court issued a stay until it had time to review the claims before the first relief claims are processed. The lower court did not rule on details of the state’s claims but instead said it did not have proper jurisdiction to hear the case.
