(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Wednesday released a sweeping new 96-page plan on COVID, marking a new era in the pandemic in which the virus is still circulating but can hopefully be managed so that Americans can return to daily life without disruption.
The strategy, that President Joe Biden previewed Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, calls for making available more free rapid tests online starting next week, as well as setting up pharmacy clinics later this month that will hand out free antiviral pills to people who test positive.
The plan also promises the ability to mass produce 1 billion doses of vaccine each year so that a new formula can be delivered within 100 days in the event of an aggressive new variant. The administration also vows to continue its efforts to provide vaccinations globally to help prevent future mutations.
“We are not going to just ‘live with COVID,'” states the new strategy called the “National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan.”
“Because of our work, we are no longer going to let COVID-19 dictate how we live,” it adds.
The White House notes in its plan that these efforts will require more money, in addition to the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package Biden pushed through last year. That money has mostly either been spent or obligated through contracts. Officials have not said yet how much would be needed.
“Without these investments, many of the activities described below cannot be initiated or sustained,” the White House wrote.
ABC News last week first reported efforts by the White House to revise its strategy to signal a new era in the pandemic. The effort has involved private meeting with business leaders, governors and the nation’s top pandemic experts to consider the various paths the virus could take in the coming months.
The updated strategy comes after significant voter pressure to reopen fully the country and curb disruptions. Democratic strategists have warned candidates they would fare better focusing on other issues like controlling inflation.
But federal health officials defend the shift as not merely political. Case numbers and hospitalization levels have plummeted in recent weeks, easing pressure on health care workers.
Officials also note that the vaccine held up throughout the omicron wave. The vast majority of people in hospitals have been unvaccinated, while vaccinated people mostly experienced mild symptoms that did not require medical help.
(LOS ANGELES) — Jeopardy! contestant Christine Whelchel has been competing on the popular TV game show since last week but it wasn’t just her winning performances that have been capturing viewers’ attention.
The piano teacher and church organist from Spring Hill, Tennessee, appeared without a light brown wig during Monday’s episode and explained why she wanted to do so during a Q-and-A with host Ken Jennings.
“After the winnings, I decided that I didn’t need to hide behind a wig anymore and I wanted to normalize what cancer recovery looks like,” Whelchel said.
Whelchel is a four-day Jeopardy! champion, having already won $73,602.
The game show shared a video clip of Whelchel discussing her decision on Twitter and in a caption added, “A strong Jeopardy! player and an even stronger person. ❤️”
The tweet has already garnered over 90,000 views and more than 5,000 likes, with many commenting and sharing their own cancer recovery photos.
“Go go go, Christine! 🙌🏼 This was me with my husband, 3 months after my last chemo session,” wrote one commenter.
Another shared a smiling selfie and commented, “Go Christine! from a fellow warrior.”
Whelchel explained in an earlier Q-and-A last week that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago. Shortly after learning about her diagnosis, she said she decided to try her luck and take the Jeopardy! test, the first step in getting on to the game show. Whelchel also said she is currently cancer-free.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hair loss or alopecia is a common side effect of some cancer treatments like chemotherapy. After Whelchel was featured as the Play of the Day on Good Morning America Tuesday, co-anchor Robin Roberts mentioned that cancer patients who wear wigs don’t always do so for themselves.
“Sometimes we wear the wig to put others at ease,” she pointed out.
“[Whelchel] showed a lot of strength, a lot of courage. And I’m telling you, people were watching. It makes such a big, big difference,” Roberts, a cancer survivor herself, added.
(NEW YORK) — The number of births declined in the U.S. in 2021 and the COVID-19 pandemic played a role, according to a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.
Researchers from the National Center for Health Statistics — a branch of the CDC — compared provisional data from the first half of 2021 to final data from the first half of 2020.
They found there were 1.74 million births between January and June of last year, a 2% decline from the 1.78 million births that occurred over the same period in 2020.
The drop was largely driven by the decline in births for the month of January, with 304,000 babies born in January 2020 compared to nearly 277,000 in January 2021 — a 9% decrease.
“The last two or so years have kind of been unparalleled” when it comes to declines in births, Dr. Brady Hamilton, a statistician at the NCHS and co-author of the report, told ABC News. “Certainly the thing that caught our eye — and we already saw a hint when we looked at the data for 2020 compared to 2019 — there was an extremely sharp decline in the number of births in January of 2021 compared to January of 2020.”
However, after that sharp drop, the number of births increased in March and April of last year compared to 2020, before dropping again in May and then rising in June by 3%.
The authors noted this is an improvement from the first year of the pandemic, during which the number of births declined for each month of the first half of 2020 compared to 2019.
The report also found that the number of births declined for all races and ethnicities in the first half of 2021.
White women saw the smallest drop — of less than 1%, from about 916,000 births to 914,000 — and Asian women saw the biggest drop — of 8%, from approximately 110,000 births to 102,000.
Additionally, white, Black, Asian and Hispanic women had the largest declines in January, while American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women saw their biggest drops in May and February, respectively.
The report also looked at the number of births by state and found 19 states and Washington, D.C., reported fewer births during the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2020. Seventeen additional states reported declines, but they were not statistically significant.
The biggest drops were seen in New Mexico and Washington, D.C., with a 5% and 9% decrease, respectively.
Meanwhile, four states — Connecticut, Idaho, New Hampshire and Tennessee — saw a jump in the number of births.
Hamilton and his team said it’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic did play a role in the decline of births, but it’s unclear if it was the sole reason and what pandemic-specific factors led to the decline, such as economic uncertainty and lack of job security.
“While our data comes from the birth certificate and it’s an amazing data set … unfortunately it has limitations and one of those limitations is factors that people consider in terms of having a child, starting a family,” he said. “That’s important because when you look at the impact of the pandemic, what are the mechanisms and how exactly does it happen?”
He continued: “So we see these associations but in terms of teasing out particulars, we sort of have to wait to see until we get survey data which asks those particular questions about the decisions people were making.”
Hamilton did acknowledge that the large decline in January 2021 compared to January 2020 means that women were not getting pregnant around March and April 2020, when the first COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders occurred.
“When it comes to looking at these numbers, there is a nine-month lag, so the number of births you see occurring a month reflects what people’s actions were nine months before,” he said. “So that [drop] is very interesting and something we will look at in more detail.”
(NEW YORK) — A Georgia mom is on a mission to spread joy and raise awareness after her 1-year-old son was diagnosed with uncombable hair syndrome, a hair disorder she’d never heard of until last year.
The boy’s mother, Katelyn Samples, told Good Morning America that a stranger messaged her last summer on Instagram after seeing a photo of her youngest son, Locklan Samples, and asked if he had been diagnosed with uncombable hair syndrome.
“At first, you see ‘syndrome’ and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ like is something wrong with my baby? Is he in pain or something?” Samples recalled.
She added, “I just went in a tailspin and did a Google deep dive, called his pediatrician and the pediatrician even was like, ‘Hang on, let us look into this.’ They hadn’t even heard of it. So they sent us to a specialist, a pediatric dermatologist at Emory in Atlanta and that’s where we were able to get the diagnosis.”
What is uncombable hair syndrome?
Uncombable hair syndrome is a rare hair disorder and a genetic condition that usually affects children between the ages of three months to three years, although there have been reports of cases in kids up to age 12. According to the NIH, only about 100 cases have been reported in medical studies but experts say there could be more unreported cases.
“People might just be like, ‘Oh, my child has unruly hair or hair that’s difficult to tame, but they might not have sought a medical professional, like a pediatrician or dermatologist to formally diagnose the condition,” Dr. Carol Cheng, a pediatric dermatologist at UCLA Health told GMA.
According to Dr. Cheng, children with uncombable hair syndrome, also called spun glass hair, can have hair that grows in all directions and their hair can be straw-colored, have a dull texture, or be hard to manage.
A specialist can diagnose uncombable hair syndrome through a genetic test and an examination of a hair clipping through electron microscopy, a process that uses a special type of microscope.
“When you look under that microscope, you can see that instead of having hairs that are cylinder shape … the shaft of the hair is actually more in a triangular shape,” Dr. Cheng explained. “Within the triangle, there (are) these little grooves that go up and down the long axis of the hair shaft so that’s why it makes it really uncombable.”
“To diagnose the condition, at least 50% of the hairs would have this abnormality, but not all the hairs have to be abnormal,” Dr. Cheng added.
For the genetic test, doctors would look for three specific genes that have been associated with the syndrome, she said.
“The three genes that were found are what we call an autosomal recessive condition, meaning that both the mom and the dad have to have one of these genes and pass it on to the child who’s affected,” Dr. Cheng said. “It can also be inherited in what we call an autosomal dominant condition where only one of the parents has to have this genetic trait to pass on to their child.”
Living with uncombable hair syndrome
Despite the syndrome’s name, Samples said she can still comb Locklan’s hair for now but she doesn’t need to do so often, and overall, it’s relatively low maintenance.
“It can get matted easily. It is very fragile. … It can get tangled and I do have to be careful,” she said. “That would be an example of a time I actually would wash it because I very rarely wash his hair. Just doesn’t need to be, it doesn’t really get greasy.”
The mother of two said other people have been very curious about Locklan’s hair both in public and online. “We get a lot of comments about him looking like a dandelion and that’s actually a very accurate description of appearance and how it feels,” Samples said. “His hair is extremely soft, like a little baby chick. People will ask to touch it, which is fine with us, as long as people ask.”
Samples has been sharing Locklan’s story and photos on Instagram since his diagnosis, In a post from October, she wrote that she wanted to do so in part “to spread some joy on the internet!”
“Our biggest message is to celebrate what makes you stand out and what makes you different and hopefully bring awareness to this uncombable hair syndrome and hopefully, we can get more information,” Samples said. “If you think your kid might have it, go inquire and ask questions and be your child’s advocate.”
There are no formal treatments for uncombable hair syndrome and the hair abnormalities tend to resolve themselves as time goes on.
“Interestingly, this condition does get better with age. So after puberty or into adulthood, typically the hair condition does get better,” Dr. Cheng noted. “It doesn’t stay with them for their entire life.”
(NEW YORK) — With more scientists predicting COVID-19 boosters will be needed each year, some are now working on combining those with the annual flu vaccine. The idea, experts say, is a single injection given each fall that protects against seasonal flu and COVID-19.
Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Novavax have already announced plans to work on a combo shot, but don’t expect them to be available this upcoming flu season. Instead, Moderna’s CEO saying a combo shot could be ready by 2023.
Although studies indicate COVID-19 vaccine efficacy fades over time, experts say it’s not a foregone conclusion that every American will need an annual COVID-19 booster. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this week that as of right now, most Americans don’t need a fourth dose (beyond the existing booster shot), but scientists are constantly evaluating the situation.
“I think we first have to assess the long-term need for annual COVID vaccines,” says Dr. Anna Durbin, director of Center for Immunization Research at Johns Hopkins University.
However, “if there is a continued need for COVID vaccines, then combining that with influenza would make sense,” Durbin said.
There are a few technical challenges to creating a combination vaccine. One is that different scientific approaches have been used for the two types of vaccines.
“Right now, the influenza vaccine is a different platform,” said Durbin. The most widely used flu vaccines in the US contain ‘inactivated’ (killed) or attenuated (weakened) virus to trigger an immune response in the body. This differs from mRNA (or messenger RNA) vaccines which teach the body’s cells how to make proteins that trigger immune responses. The result is that they currently have to be given in separate shots.
While two of the three authorized COVID vaccines are based on mRNA technology, previous influenza vaccines have not utilized this technology. But now, Moderna and Pfizer are working on an mRNA flu vaccine.
In addition to differences in technology, an extra challenge is that the most common influenza vaccine in the U.S. is quadrivalent, meaning it is designed to protect against four different flu viruses.
“This means the combined influenza/COVID vaccine would also likely need to be quadrivalent or at least trivalent. That makes the vaccine more complicated,” says Durbin.
Similarly, the rise of new COVID variants may introduce challenges to vaccine development.
This past September, Novavax enrolled people in a Phase 1/2 study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immune response of a combination vaccine using Novavax’ seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccines. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines which use mRNA, these vaccines use protein subunit technology, which introduces a fragment of the virus into the body that is recognized by the immune system and triggers a response. These have each previously demonstrated strong results as standalone vaccines in Phase 3 clinical trials.
Moderna has also announced that it is developing a single dose vaccine that combines a booster against COVID-19 and a booster against flu, called mRNA-1073. In preclinical studies, Moderna has observed that its seasonal flu and COVID-19 booster vaccines can be combined into one dose that produces an immune response to both viruses.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel predicted this combo shot could be available in 2023 — not in time for this upcoming flu season, but potentially the following year.
“I think it makes a lot of sense to try to develop these vaccines, but it may take a bit of time,” Durbin said.
Aiya Aboubakr is an internal medicine resident at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — More than 70% of Americans should be able to remove their masks indoors, including inside schools, under new metrics outlined Friday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that represent a seismic shift in how the public health agency plans to measure COVID risk.
Under the new metrics, more than half of U.S. counties, which make up about three-fourths of where Americans live, are now considered to be at “low” or “medium” risk because of a reduced number of new COVID hospitalizations and adequate hospital space. Accordingly, the CDC would no longer recommend that these communities insist on indoor masking.
In a press call with reporters, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cautioned that COVID was unpredictable and that these conditions could change that put hospitals at risk of once again being overloaded.
“None of us know what the future holds for us and for this virus,” Walensky said. “And we need to be prepared and we need to be ready for whatever comes next. We want to give people a break from things like mask wearing when our levels are low, and then have the ability to reach for them again if things get worse in the future.”
While the updated guidance drops the recommendation of universal masking in schools, the CDC said it is still reviewing a federal requirement that individuals wear masks on public transportation, including on airplanes. Walensky said that a review of that requirement is ongoing and a decision will be made in the weeks ahead.
The new recommendations are a major change in how the federal government is approaching pandemic guidance. Under previous rules, the CDC primarily considered COVID case counts to determine risk. And because case counts remained high, the public health agency had stuck to its recommendation of indoor masking, including inside schools.
But that approach didn’t take into account that vaccinations are now widely available to people over age 5 and that most vaccinated people who tested positive during the omicron and delta waves experienced mostly mild symptoms that did not require hospitalization.
Accordingly, the CDC now says individuals at high-risk of COVID complications should consider taking precautions, such as avoiding crowds and wearing a high-quality mask. But for local health officials and school boards, the CDC suggests a community consider three factors: new COVID hospitalizations; hospital capacity; and new COVID cases. Taken together, an area to be “high,” “medium” or “low” risk.
Based on that risk level, which could fluctuate, a community could opt to remove mask recommendations indoors or pull back on other mitigation measures, such as surveillance testing. If those risk factors climbed, putting a community at “high” risk, the CDC recommends that a community urges its residents to return to masks and step up other precautions.
The CDC guidance is an acknowledgement that hospitalization rates in recent weeks have fallen dramatically and that highly vaccinated communities would be able to withstand an uptick in cases without overwhelming their local hospital systems.
When asked why it dropped its universal masking recommendation for schools, CDC said the lower risk of serious COVID illness with kids was a factor.
“We know that also because children are relatively at lower risk from severe illness that schools can be safe places for children. And so for that reason, we’re recommending that schools use the same guidance that we are recommending in general community settings, which is that we’re recommending people where a mask in high levels of COVID-19” risk, said Dr. Greta Massetti, a senior CDC official.
The new guidance recommends that people who are at high-risk of COVID complications should talk to their doctor about how to stay safe in a community that might have moderate risk levels. CDC has previously recommended wearing a high-quality mask, such as a tight-fitting N95 version and avoiding areas with low vaccination levels.
The updated guidance comes after weeks of pressure from governors and state officials who asked for a clear roadmap at the national level.
A majority of states have already announced plans to drop mask mandates. Still, the new benchmarks could be used by local leaders, school boards and public health officials who are facing vastly different versions of the pandemic even within the same state.
The guidance also is intended to give local officials a roadmap to re-imposing restrictions if another variant pops up, which health experts warn is a possibility.
(NEW YORK) — Some 70% of Americans will be able to remove their masks indoors, including inside schools, under new guidance to be released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday, two sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.
Under the new metrics in the updated guidance, more than half of U.S. counties, which make up 70% of where Americans live, will be in areas of low or medium risk and no longer recommended to wear masks, said two sources briefed on the plans but not authorized to discuss them ahead of the official announcement.
A CDC requirement that people continue to wear masks on public transportation, however, will remain in force for now, according to one official.
The official said the new guidance will consider three factors: new COVID hospitalizations, current beds occupied by COVID patients and hospital capacity, and new COVID cases.
It will mark a shift from focusing on daily spread to looking at the overall burden of COVID, with an emphasis on its most severe impacts.
Taken together, the new CDC metrics will consider an area to be “high, medium or low risk.”
Based on that risk level, which could fluctuate, a community could opt to remove mask recommendations indoors.
Schools will not be treated differently under the new guidance as other indoor spaces, according to two officials.
The updated guidance comes after weeks of pressure from governors and state officials who asked for a clear roadmap at the national level.
Though a majority of states went ahead and announced that they will drop mask mandates before the CDC’s guidance was ready, the new information could still aid local leaders and public health officials who are facing vastly different versions of the pandemic even within the same state.
And it will also give states and counties a guide to re-implement guidelines if a new variant pops up, which experts warn is a possibility.
(NEW YORK) — Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has closely followed what the United Kingdom had done to combat the virus from its early response to its vaccination rollout.
Outbreaks in Great Britain have been harbingers of what’s to come in the U.S., and its policies have often helped shape America’s COVID response.
Over the past several weeks, the U.K. has been lifting COVID restrictions and, on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he was dropping the remaining rules in England including the requirement to self-isolate after testing positive, contact tracing and free administration of rapid tests.
In a speech to the House of Commons, Johnson said the country had to pivot away from preventing COVID-19 and “learn to live with this virus and continue protecting ourselves and others without restricting our freedoms.”
Seeing America’s closest ally drop its restrictions have led some to wonder if the U.S. should follow suit.
Currently, the U.K. is recording a daily average of 39,000 cases, down from a peak of 183,000 on Jan. 2 and an average of 126 deaths from a peak of 257 on Feb. 5, according to government data. Meanwhile, the U.S. is recording an average of 75,000 cases, down from a peak of 807,000 in mid-January and approximately 1,600 deaths a day compared to the peak of 2,600 on Feb. 2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Public health experts are split with some saying it’s time for the U.S. to do similarly and treat COVID-19 as an endemic disease while others say lifting rules may not work for the U.S. right now because of a lower vaccination rate and a less robust surveillance system.
COVID spread in England will be ‘minimal’ due to high rate of vaccination
The largest change to the rules in England is that people who test positive for COVID-19 will no longer be legally required to self-isolate, or avoid contact with other people for a period of time to reduce the risk of transmission.
Once approved by Parliament, the requirement ended Feb. 24, although the government will continue to recommend that COVID-positive patients self-isolate but are not required to do so.
Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, called the move a step in the right direction towards the “concept of living with COVID” and a shift from a mandate to personal responsibility.
“It’s a state where we expect people to essentially take responsibility and be accountable to doing the right thing,” she told ABC News. “This means someone who tests positive is aware of what they need to do to protect others during the period of time when they are infectious.”
She added that the U.K. government needs to communicate that “this doesn’t mean do whatever you want to do if you know you have COVID-19. It means that now we have shifted the responsibility and are giving you the tools to guide you in how we should behave.”
But other public health experts don’t think that this system can be implemented in the U.S. because it has a lower vaccination rate than England.
In England, 84.9% of those aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 65.7% have received a booster shot as of Thursday, according to the UK government.
By comparison, 73.3% of Americans aged 12 and up are fully vaccinated and 44.9% are boosted, according to data from the CDC.
The experts say this means, even if infected people don’t self-isolate, the virus wouldn’t have a major impact on the healthcare system in England as it would in the U.S.
“What they are doing is going to lead to more infections, but the consequences of increased transmission in the U.K. will be minimized by their very good rates of vaccination,” Dr. Bill Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told ABC News. “That population-level immunity is going to be maintained, so even though the virus is circulating, it doesn’t cause disproportionate damage to healthcare.”
He continued, “There are lots of places in the U.S. that are not able to do that without risking much more severe consequences” in reference to several areas in the U.S. with low vaccination rates.
Genomic surveillance is better in the U.K.
Experts said one of the reasons the U.K. may be able to drop its COVID-19 restrictions is its strong genomic surveillance system, better than that of the U.S.
Genomic surveillance allows scientists to track new mutations and variants of COVID-19 and how quickly they are spreading.
About 60,000 samples are sequenced in the U.K. each week, according to the non-profit Wellcome Sanger Institute, which is contracted by the UK Health Security Agency to sequence COVID samples.
Meanwhile, more than 48,000 samples are sequenced each week in the U.S currently, according to the CDC, despite having nearly five times the population of the U.K.
What’s more, between Feb. 14 and Feb. 20, the U.S. submitted about 1,000 samples that underwent genomic sequencing to the global database GISAID while the U.K. submitted more than 15,000 samples.
This means the U.K. would be able to detect new variants much more quickly.
“The U.K. demonstrated a really phenomenal level of surveillance for this virus,” Dr. Stuart Ray, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told ABC News. “They were the ones that helped us recognize the alpha variant and they had a higher level of genomic surveillance for this virus than the U.S. did at many junctures.”
“I think that they have demonstrated the utility of situational awareness of monitoring and testing to try to manage this pandemic. That’s a lesson I hope we took to heart. I’m not sure if relaxing rules while case rates are high is a lesson to learn or not, but we’ll see.”
Almost all adults in England are estimated to have COVID antibodies
As of the week beginning Jan. 31, more than 98% of the adult population in England are estimated to have detectable COVID-19 antibodies either from previous infection or from vaccination, according to the UK government, which some have pointed to as a reason for why restrictions should be dropped.
But the U.S. is not very far behind, with a nationwide seroprevalence survey of blood donors conducted by the CDC estimating 94% of those aged 16 and older have antibodies to the virus from vaccination or infection.
Of those, 28% in the U.S. are believed to be from infection. It’s unclear what the U.K. level from infection is.
Ray pointed out that it’s not clear from antibody tests whether people are immune to infection, severe complication and so on and that a high percentage of people with antibodies does not equate to high levels of immunity from high vaccination levels.
“I think if we had a very high vaccination rate, a very high level of immunity in the U.S., that relaxing some restrictions would make a lot of sense, and we would just need to articulate guidance for people for voluntary protections for themselves and the people around them,” he said.
Other infectious diseases experts say even though the U.S. vaccine rate is not as high as in the U.K, there is enough immunity in the nation.
Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, told ABC News the omicron wave infected as many as 60% of all Americans, giving them some form of immunity.
“We do not have as high a vaccination rate as the U.K., but we have the combination of vaccination and infection,” Mokdad, who helps lead a model that projects COVID-19 cases around the country, said. “In our estimate at IHME, 75% of Americans have immunity against omicron so we are basically very close to the U.K. in that regard.”
Studies have indicated infection with omicron, which is the current dominant variant, among vaccinated individuals can boost previously acquired vaccine immunity against other variants.
“Even if they had higher vaccination, we had higher infections, so you add the two together and we’re in the same boat as they are. So, whatever they did, we should do here in the U.S. In my opinion we should also stop these mandates in the U.S.,” Mokdad said.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and mink breeder Peter Hindbo visit the closed and empty farm near Kolding, Denmark. – MADS NISSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A year ago, Denmark culled thousands of minks in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in mink farms and curb any potential threat of transmission back to humans.
And just a few months ago, thousands of small animals, including hamsters in Hong Kong were culled after scientists and public health officials became concerned over cases of humans becoming infected with COVID-19 from their pets.
Pets, in particular, are problematic because there are no disease surveillance programs for them or zoo animals, said Dr. Tracey McNamara, professor of pathology at Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine.
While minks and hamsters have been the only animals believed to have transmitted the virus back to humans in some cases, scientists are increasingly concerned that the next coronavirus variant might emerge not from people, but animals, as COVID-19 likely did.
Scientists are monitoring animals both to try to identify any new pandemic-causing viruses, and to try to identify the next COVID-19 variant. If a new variant emerges that is significantly different from any of the variants we’ve seen previously, and if nobody has immunity — that’s effectively a brand-new pandemic.
“There are hundreds, thousands of coronavirus in many animal species,” said Dr. Jeff Taubenberger, deputy chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). “We don’t really know where they all are, we don’t know the full extent of the reservoir. We don’t know what the risks are.”
Bolstering animal surveillance
Now, scientists are hoping to shore up defenses against COVID-19 by monitoring the way the virus circulates in animals.
“Tufts University recently received $100 million for pandemic prevention work globally,” said McNamara. “There is a lot of money going into finding potential pandemic threats in animals before they spread to people internationally, but not enough domestically.”
According to McNamara, the new Tufts funding will fund teams of scientists to bolster surveillance in the Africa and Asia — testing wild animals for any virus that might cause a future pandemic, to better understand how those viruses are circulating in nature.
In North America, scientists have found more and more cases of the COVID-19 virus being transmitted among wild white tail deer. Each case of transmission increases the chances of a new variant developing.
“If the virus is able to infect other species, it will evolve differently,” said Taubenberger. “It could give us a variant that is very different from what we’ve been exposed to, and wouldn’t be covered by our current vaccines.”
Universal vaccine and new pandemic plans
This concern for new variants arising, especially from animal populations, has scientists calling for the development of a universal coronavirus vaccine, which would address a number of coronaviruses, including COVID-19, but likely not all.
“A universal coronavirus vaccine is one that would work against multiple strains or variants,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and a medical contributor for ABC News.
Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have been working on developing such a universal vaccine, which is currently undergoing the first phase of human trials.
This universal vaccine would include multiple coronavirus fragments that could trigger immune responses to different strains of COVID-19, with the hopes of boosting immunity against more variants.
It would also be stable at room temperature, potentially making it more globally accessible.
“With the omicron variant, we saw a huge number of breakthrough cases, though the vaccine was holding up against severe illness from COVID-19. In the future, we would like to be providing core support instead of chasing new variants,” Brownstein said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has launched a new Pandemic Preparedness Plan to better defend against new viruses that might cause the next pandemic.
As part of this plan, the NIAID will focus research efforts on two areas, “prototype pathogens” and “priority pathogens.”
“Prototype pathogens are viruses that could potentially cause human illness,” said Brownstein. “And priority pathogens are viruses that we know already cause human illness and death.”
By expanding knowledge of these viruses, the Pandemic Preparedness Plan hopes to shorten the time it takes to develop medicines or vaccines effective against future variants that may emerge.
Jonathan Chan, M.D., is an emergency medicine resident at St. John’s Riverside Hospital and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — Approximately 5.2 million children have lost a parent or caregiver during the pandemic, according to a new study published in The Lancet medical journal Thursday.
An analysis by the same team of researchers in July 2021 had estimated 1.5 million children were orphaned during the first 14-months of the pandemic, meaning they lost at least one parent. But with new variants and a rising death count, the researchers said they felt compelled to re-evaluate the analysis.
Between May 2021 and October 2021, deaths globally nearly doubled compared to the months prior, a jump attributed predominantly to the delta variant. This new study estimates that approximately 5.2 million children are experiencing COVID-related orphanhood.
“What we found was shocking,” said Dr. Susan Hillis, the study’s lead author and a senior research officer at Oxford University, who completed this work while at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of children who lost at least one parent at the end of the first 20-months of the pandemic was greater than the total number of COVID deaths, and this gap is increasing, according to the study.
Children aged 10 through 17 were more likely to have lost a parent, with 2.1 million children affected. Still, over 490,000 children between ages 0 and 4, and 750,000 children between ages 5 and 10 lost a parent or caregiver.
Among all children, 3 out of every 4 lost a father, which is even more significant in low-income countries where the father is more likely to be the primary earner.
“COVID-related orphanhood does not come in waves,” Hillis said. “It is a steadily rising slope with the summit still out of our sight.” Although many may recover from an infection, losing a parent is not something that can be easily recovered from, she said.
“These are 5 million kids in one generation that will be living the rest of their lives in a very different way, and this affects us all,” said Dr. Natasha Burgert, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Burgert was not involved with the study.
As part of their work, Hillis and her team said they developed a real-time calculator to predict loss of parent or caregiver by current mortality data for every country in the world. By the end of January 2022, the estimate had risen to 6.7 million children worldwide affected by COVID orphanhood, according to the research. In the United States, the researchers estimate over 149,000 children have lost a parent or caregiver.
However, despite these staggering numbers, Hillis say there is hope.
For the last 20 years, the U.S. government has been investing in evidence-based programs to ensure orphaned and highly vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic could be protected and supported to reach their potential, the researchers noted.
“We actually know the models that work,” Hillis says. “We have an opportunity to lead by example.”
Experts say these findings underscore the importance of vaccinating adults across the globe.
“Vaccines are keeping people alive in the face of this terrible virus and keeping families whole,” says Burgert.
While authors continue to call for equitable access to vaccines and treatment globally, the millions of children already orphaned still need support, they said.
“We need to be supporting our childcare centers, local schools and larger university systems with the resources needed to create a cushion of support and a safe place for social-emotional learning,” says Burgert. “Educators, counselors, administrators, physicians and legislators need to be preparing for the upcoming impact, and they will need everyone’s help.”
The CDC, WHO and many top experts around the world have agreed to the importance of adding an additional pillar to the world-wide COVID response: Caring for and protecting these children.
There is currently no governmental funding in the United States aimed at acknowledging and protecting these children in their hidden pandemic, the researchers noted.
“We have an unprecedented opportunity to change the narrative in our country away from divisiveness towards shared hope,” says Hillis. “It is a moral imperative for us to do what we know works to help the ones at home and to encourage every country in the world to do the same.”
Emily Molina, MD, an internal medicine resident physician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
