U.S. Defense Secretary Austin has been diagnosed with COVID-19
The beginning of 2022, as some American netizens said, is 2020, too.
The Aumecreon strain, discovered in South Africa three months ago, is spreading at an alarming rate than Delta, and outbreaks have broken out in many countries around the world. According to the French Health Service, on December 30, 2021 alone, the number of new cases in the country exceeded 206,000, and this number has been going on for many days. On the same day in the United States, the local CDC also reported a staggering figure of 585,000, followed by another 446,000 confirmed cases in the cross-Chinese New Year's Eve.
It is worth noting that in the confirmed list, there are not only industry stars such as Messi, C Luo, and members of the Bulletproof Youth League, but also many big names in the military and political circles.
Ronaldo was diagnosed with COVID-19
Messi was diagnosed with COVID-19
On January 2, 2022, the official website of the US Department of Defense released a statement saying that Defense Secretary Austin III tested positive for the new crown and asked for testing after developing symptoms during his vacation. Austin said he was "mild and is self-isolating following doctor's instructions and CDC guidelines."
Austin also said he last met with President Joe Biden on December 21, 2021, more than a week before he began to develop symptoms. "I tested negative that morning," the statement said. I haven't been to the Pentagon since Thursday (December 23), where I had a brief — and only — meeting with several of my staff. We wore masks and practiced social distancing throughout the process. Austin also stressed that he had been "fully vaccinated" and "received a booster injection (of the new coronavirus vaccine) in early October last year."
"It's completely different from anything we've seen. Even during the previous peak of the CORONAVIRUS surge, this has not been the case. James Phillips, director of disaster medicine at George Washington University Hospital, also told the media, "What we can foresee now is an overcrowded emergency room inside Washington, D.C. ”
Diagnosis of vertical rise
On December 14, 2021, senior federal health officials detailed two cases of the spread of the Omiljun strain across the United States during a briefing that morning. The worst-case scenario has taken senior health officials by fear of a new "triple strike" on top of delta variants and flu cases that could overwhelm health systems and have devastating effects on some communities, especially those with low vaccination rates.
Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and District Health Officials, who attended the conference call, said, "I'm more alert, I'm concerned about the status quo." The CDC, which has always been carefully worded, also told public health officials this time, "We have to get people ready."
However, Omicron did not give the Americans a chance to prepare and breathe. After it was monitored in the United States on December 1 last year, it swept the country at an alarming rate. Anthony Fauci, a top U.S. epidemiologist, said on television that "we are in the midst of a very severe surge and rise in cases," that confirmed covid-19 cases in the U.S. are "increasing almost vertically" and that the spike in infection rates is "really unprecedented."
After the Omiljun strain was detected in the United States, the number of new confirmed cases in the United States surged
In Georgia, where COVID-19 hospitalizations across six major health systems are soaring at a rate of 100 to 200 percent, these hospitals have had to band together and publicly urge people to go elsewhere to get tested for COVID-19 so that their emergency rooms can help those in urgent need.
New York State has once again become the "epicenter" of the epidemic in the United States. On the last day of 2021, New York State saw more than 85,000 new cases, the state's highest single-day total since the outbreak began. Test-positive cases are reported to account for about 22 percent of the state's total tests, which also means that at least two out of every ten people are positive, in the words of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, "we're already surrounded by positive cases."
In Louisiana, the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 has also tripled in the past two weeks, setting new case records. Chief medical officer Catherine O'Neill said, "We're seeing staggering numbers of hospitalizations," most of whom are unvaccinated, often with more severe pneumonia, requiring intubation or needing high-flow oxygen. O'Neill added that other patients who were not vaccinated or who were only partially vaccinated had flu-like illnesses and were "very vulnerable."
Katie Lucey conducted a nucleic acid test for her son Maguire in New York on Dec. 16
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 78 percent of ICU beds are in use nationwide, and 22 percent of them are being used by COVID-19 patients. More worryingly, pediatric hospitalizations in the United States have also peaked since the outbreak began. According to data recently released by the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, an average of 378 children were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 infections every day in the week ending December 28, 2021, which is much higher than the average recorded in late August and early September.
The data also show that the number of lives taken by the virus increased by about 18% this week, with an average of 1546 deaths per day. According to the overall forecast released by the CDC on December 29 last year, more than 44,000 more people may die of COVID-19 in the next four weeks.
There is also a shortage of reagents
At the same time as the new cases are fierce, the most critical COVID-19 kit has dropped the chain. This scene is familiar with the outbreak of the epidemic in the United States in 2020.
According to the Wall Street Journal reported on January 3, the long queue of people waiting for testing in the United States and the shortage of kits have led to a continued slowdown in the speed of testing, and this testing pressure may take weeks to ease. In West Palm Beach, Florida, where people sometimes wait in their cars for 4 hours when they go to test, police urge motorists to fill up their tanks, go to the toilet, and prepare drinking water and snacks before waiting in line.
Cars waiting for nucleic acid tests at Miami's Tropical Park lined up
In a recent interview with ABC at a testing site near Los Angeles International Airport, inspectors said they would probably run out of reagents on Jan. 1, but that the site's dealers might not be able to replenish them until Jan. 12. Some COVID-19 testing sites in Southern California are also on the verge of running out of reagents.
U.S. public health officials say the limited supply of test kits has annoyed those waiting for testing and complicated efforts to curb the spread of the virus at critical moments. In the case of rapid infection in Omicron, they said, a lack of testing could lead to a rapid increase in cases, overwhelming the strained health system.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said the number of covid-19 infections rose about 60 percent this week, most of which was due to infection with the Omiljunn variant. The number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the past week was 710 million, compared to 688 million in the week ended December 9.
The United States will expand nucleic acid testing
Faced with the embarrassing situation of being in the midst of an epidemic but with nowhere to measure, Biden himself frankly admits that his current efforts are "clearly not enough", especially in expanding the scope of testing, and his efforts have not reached the goal. Speaking in an online meeting with the governors, Biden said, "We have to do more. We have to do better, and we'll do it. Other senior health officials, including the president's senior medical adviser, Fauci, similarly acknowledged the undertesting in interviews.
Officials explained that some companies are no longer producing kits as demand for testing weakens in the summer and fall of 2021, which also exacerbates current shortages as the U.S. supply chain crisis remains unresolved. Many of the Tethered Express sites that opened early in Biden's tenure were also closed, with Abbott, which produces home-based testing, discarding materials needed for millions of tests and laying off workers.
Although the White House has since taken steps to increase production, including the launch of the Defense Production Act, it has not been able to solve the shortage problem.
"I can't believe it's what we're in after almost two years of experiencing the pandemic. Everyone is seeing the next wave coming, and we all know we need more tests. I think the government has given up on that. "The government is very focused on vaccines, which is good because vaccines are a very, very important part, but they don't pay enough attention to COVID-19 testing." ”
Doctors treating Omiljung in South Africa say the vaccine in the United States still has an anti-epidemic effect on the new strain
"I hope we turn that around in January and February, but we're going to have to make a real effort to make sure there are plenty of, cheap, ubiquitous tests across the country." Jia said, "This is the scenario we should see in this outbreak now."
Vaccines remain effective
But as Assish Ja says, the Biden administration's emphasis on vaccines is reassuring. According to cdc, about 62 percent of the total U.S. population was vaccinated, and 33 percent of them were given boosters. Although this is still some way from the 77.6% vaccination rate required for herd immunity, it can play a role in the storm of the outbreak in Omikron.
According to a study published by the UK Health Service on 31 December last year, people infected with the Delta variant were less likely to require hospitalization than those infected with the Delta strain. The study, which analysed more than 528,000 Cases and 573,000 Delta cases that occurred in England from November 22 to December 26 last year, found that people infected with Omiqueron had about a one-third risk of hospitalization for the Delta variant.
People line up in Chicago for coronavirus testing on Dec. 30, 2021
Still, Britain's chief medical adviser, Susan Hopkins, warned that it was too early to draw definitive conclusions about the severity of the illness caused by Omikeron. Referring to the UK's National Health Service (NHS), Hopkins said: "The increased contagiousness of Aumicron and the increasing number of cases in England's population over the age of 60 mean that the NHS is likely to be under enormous pressure in the coming weeks. ”
The World Health Organization also warns that it is too early to conclude that Omi kerong is milder than other variants. Abdi Mahmoud, an epidemiologist at WHO, believes that so far, Omi kerong has mainly infected young people, who are usually less ill. "We all want the disease to be milder, but because it affects younger populations, we don't yet know how it performs on the elderly population and vulnerable populations," he said at a news conference in Geneva. ”
The new study in the UK also found that one dose of the vaccine was 52 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations for infection with the Omikejung variant, and 72 percent effective against two doses. However, after 25 weeks, the "combat effectiveness" of both doses against the virus has weakened, dropping to 52%. The study added that the booster dose significantly improved the protective effect and was 88 percent effective at preventing hospitalizations two weeks after vaccination.
On December 30, 2021, a medical technician performed a nasal swab on a motorist at a nucleic acid testing site in Denver. With the rapid spread of the Omiljun strain, test sites have struggled to meet the needs of the whole country
However, the news is not optimistic, the agency found that compared with the Delta variant, some vaccines currently on the market are less effective at preventing symptomatic infections in Ami kerong. For example, the AstraZeneca vaccine failed to prevent symptomatic infections caused by Americlon for 20 weeks after completing the second vaccination.
Pfizer and Modena were only about 10 percent effective in preventing symptomatic infections caused by Ami kerong within 20 weeks of receiving their second dose. "While booster doses increase protection and are up to 75 percent effective at preventing infection within two to four weeks of receiving a third injection, enhancers also begin to diminish efficacy after about 10 weeks, providing 40 to 50 percent protection against symptomatic infections."
Author | Zhao Yunying
Edit | Reimer
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