Newspaper & online reporters and analysts explore the cultural and news stories of the week, with photos frequently added by Esco20, and reveal their significance (with a slant towards Esco 20's opinions)
New York’s omicron surge points to a tidal wave of mild cases, with hospitals warning that staff are exhausted and short-staffed because of sickness, hampering the isolation and care of Covid-19 patients,
Omicron has pushed the MTA's absentee rate among subway operators up to 21 percent. This week, the MTA is reporting that 1,300 train operators and conductors are out because they've tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to someone who has. While no subway stations have been shut down, service has slowed on many lines and been completely suspended on the B, W, and Z lines.As a state-run agency, the MTA does not yet have a vaccine mandate for its workforce.(The New York Times)
President Biden and his administration are preparing Americans to accept Covid-19 as a part of daily life, in a break from a year ago when he took office pledging to rein in the pandemic and months later said the nation was “closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus,”
The shift comes as the country braces for another round of disruptions wrought by a surge in cases, leaving many Americans confused by evolving state and local requirements for masks and for schools. The White House has dismissed the need for lockdowns and urged schools to remain open.
Some families say they are spending hundreds of dollars on Covid-19 testing during the surge in cases across the country, as efforts by the Biden administration and local officials to distribute free tests lag behind Omicron’s rapid spread,
Facing hourslong lines at free testing sites, some people have turned to companies that sell more-convenient lab tests, in some cases at prices of more than $200. Until free tests are more widely available, some people say they will continue to pay for over-the-counter, at-home tests.
Skipping tests leaves many people unable to determine whether they are infected and potentially exposing others. Those who do manage to get at-home tests rarely report the results.
A health care worker administers a COVID-19 PCR test at a free test site in Farragut Square on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, the CDC revised data reflecting the prevalence of the omicron variant in new COVID-19 cases.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Alarms that the hyper-contagious omicron variant accounted for the vast majority of new COVID-19 infections over the past couple of weeks were significantly overestimated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New data released on Tuesday shows that while omicron remains the dominant variant, delta — which is the more severe strain — is still a worrisome driving force behind the current surge.
The CDC had previously reported that as of Dec. 18, 73% of new cases were linked to omicron. But on Tuesday, the agency revised those figures, slashing that estimate to 23% — a 50-point drop, suggesting that while the new variant was on the rise, it was not infecting people at the rate the CDC had projected.
"There's no way around it, it is a huge swing that makes it seem like something went really wrong," Dr. Shruti Gohil, associate medical director for epidemiology and infection prevention at UC Irvine's School of Medicine, told NPR. "But there is always a delay in the testing information that comes in, and that's what the public should take away."
Omicron struck just as public health experts were getting their bearings on testing for the delta strain, Gohil said.
"The way in which we test and the way in which we have certitude about the numbers was all in flux right at that moment. Then along comes this new variant and now here you are trying to project something when you don't have all of the mechanisms in place," Gohil said.
The CDC's latest report adjusts the numbers and better reflects what was happening around the country at the time, she added.
The most recent report shows that as of Dec. 25, 59% of all U.S. infections were caused by omicron. Meanwhile, delta accounted for 41% of cases during the same period. And the number of those infections could be even higher, given the agency's margin of error on the collected data. The true figure could be as high as 58%.
Given the CDC's updated information, Gohil said, "The implication is that we have a lot of delta going on and that requires a lot more attention."
That is especially true for people who are becoming more lax in their preventive habits due to reports that omicron is the milder variant of the virus and carries a lower likelihood of being hospitalized than from delta.
"People are thinking, 'Oh, well, omicron's not that bad,'" she said. "But it's actually still too early to really know even that. Besides, delta is the beast that you should be worried about."
Until omicron came along, delta was the most contagious variant of the virus, and CDC studies suggested that it may be more likely to result in hospitalization in the unvaccinated than other strains.
The country faces other challenges with omicron in terms of its medicine cabinet. Two of the three existing intravenous treatments called monoclonal antibodies - those from Regeneron and Eli Lilly - do not work against the variant. Some Republican governors had touted the ability of those with covid-19 to receive monoclonal antibodies, spurring some Americans to see those treatments as an alternative to getting vaccinated.
The only monoclonal antibody that does work, sotrovimab from Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline, is in short supply and will not be available to many of those who become infected. The Food and Drug Administration authorized two easy-to-take antiviral pills last week and one has high efficacy against omicron, but it will be in initial short supply. Distribution of the pills is expected to begin shortly.
Gohil adds that the CDC's new findings are also forcing hospitals to recalibrate because treating delta or omicron requires different antibodies and medications.
"The bottom line is, don't take your masks off just yet and get vaccinated, vaccinated, vaccinated, vaccinated — and boosted," Gohil said.
The U.S. record for daily cases is broken as an Omicron ‘tidal wave’ grows.
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0:32Americans Rush to Get Tested as Omicron Cases Surge
Across the United States, drivers waited in long lines for Covid-19 testing.CreditCredit...John Moore/Getty Images
By Ron DePasquale
The U.S. record for daily coronavirus cases has been broken, as two highly contagious variants — Delta and Omicron — have converged to disrupt holiday travel and gatherings, deplete hospital staffs and plunge the United States into another long winter.
President Bidenhas repeatedly said that the era of lockdowns is over and promised to increasetesting, double down onvaccination campaignsand prop up hospitals. Butpublic health expertshave warned that the measures will not be sufficient to prevent soaring infections and hospitalizations over the next few weeks. And demand for tests has exploded while manufacturers are scramblingto increase production and distribution.
The country faces other challenges with omicron in terms of its medicine cabinet. Two of the three existing intravenous treatments called monoclonal antibodies - those from Regeneron and Eli Lilly - do not work against the variant. Some Republican governors had touted the ability of those with covid-19 to receive monoclonal antibodies, spurring some Americans to see those treatments as an alternative to getting vaccinated.
The only monoclonal antibody that does work, sotrovimab from Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline, is in short supply and will not be available to many of those who become infected. The Food and Drug Administration authorized two easy-to-take antiviral pills last week and one has high efficacy against omicron, but it will be in initial short supply. Distribution of the pills is expected to begin shortly.
People waited for two hours on Wednesday for test kits and masks that were being handed out at a park in Brooklyn.Credit...Sarah Blesener for The New York Times
One New York City subway line was suspended on Wednesday and five others were running with delays because so many workers were out sick.
Twenty City MD locations, where thousands of New Yorkers go to get tested for the coronavirus, were closed because of staffing shortages caused by the virus.
The Police Department has canceled days off for any officer healthy enough to work. Nearly one in three paramedics are out sick, and the Fire Department begged New Yorkers not to call 911 unless they were truly experiencing an emergency, after a spate of calls from people who were just looking for an ambulance ride to a hospital to get a coronavirus test.
Broadway shows are closing even as others reopen. Libraries are shuttering left and right.
Some hospitals in the city are under stress: Mount Sinai Health System said Wednesday it was deferring elective surgeries where possible.
But as Year Two of the pandemic limps offstage to make way for Year Three, New York remains open, with piecemeal slowdowns and closings.
Omicron, Mayor Bill de Blasio told New Yorkers shortly before Christmas, would provide the city with a “challenging few weeks,” banking on the uncertain proposition that the variant would follow the trend set in South Africa, one of the first countries to identify it. But because Omicron appears to cause milder disease than earlier iterations of the virus, because more than 80 percent of New Yorkers are fully vaccinated, and because he has ordered a vaccine mandate for all private-sector employers, he said he did not see a need for a 2020-style lockdown.
Testing is central to New York City’s plan to keep the largest U.S. school district open in the new year. The city announced on Tuesday that it would eliminate its policy of quarantining entire classrooms exposed to the coronavirus, and would instead use a ramped-up testing program to allow students who test negative and do not have symptoms to remain in school.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams one-upped Mr. de Blasio, announcing on Wednesday that he would take the oath of office in Times Square shortly after the midnight ball drop.
Gov. Kathy C. Hochul announced a new statewide record of 67,000 daily cases on Wednesday — nearly 20,000 more than the previous record set Dec. 24 — and said that Covid-related hospital admissions jumped 10 percent in a single day and that deaths neared 100 for the first time in months.
New York City also set a record, with 39,591 new cases announced Wednesday by the governor’s office, nearly 30 percent more than the old record of 31,024, also set Dec. 24. And the city’s Covid hospitalizations are up to more than 2,700 — but the number of Covid patients in intensive care was 350 earlier this week, less than half the number during last winter’s surge.
Children are also filling up hospital beds in many parts of the country, especially in New York. State officials issued a warning on Christmas Eve after a fourfold increase in hospitalizations in children under 18 in New York City between Dec. 5 and last week. About half of the admissions were children under 5, who are not eligible for vaccination, according to the New York Department of Health.
The virus’s pressure was evident in many different arenas in the city. In the high-profile sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate, the judge ordered the jury on Tuesday to deliberate through the New Year’s weekend if necessary, because it was only a matter of time before jurors or others involved might have to quarantine, risking a mistrial.
Signs of a half-shut city were everywhere. The W subway line was suspended early Wednesday morning. Clicking the status button for the A, D, E, N and R trains brought up a message: “You may wait longer” for a train, it said. “We’re running as much service as we can with the train crews we have available.”
In Downtown Brooklyn, Wanda Ortiz, who has had a fever, body aches and a scratchy throat since Christmas, summoned the strength to head over to the CityMD on Atlantic Avenue Wednesday morning to get tested. The clinic was dark.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ms. Ortiz, 68, said as she read the note on the door. She wandered off to find another testing site, hoping she would not have to stand in line too long in the cold.
